Life enrichment=canning (imported from Myspace)

Okay, so there are lots of things I can't do and many of them I really want to be able to do. These include fluently speaking spanish, ballroom dancing (well), singing, styling my hair properly, etc. But I can no longer say that I cannot can food! Woo hoo!
Our friend Pat is one of those women who loves anything homespun, like garden produce, canning, needlework, home remedies, etc. She would rather take a shot of honey, whisky and lemon than use some good old nyquil. (She keeps trying to convert me, but it is NOT working. YUCK.) Anyway, she makes this awesome stuff called pear relish. I'd never heard of it while growing up in Jacksonville, though, as it turns out, there are lots of things I had never heard about until I moved to the sticks, ahem, I mean Alabama.
Anyway, pear relish is simple - made of pears, sweetened with sugar, with bell peppers (various colors), hot peppers, onions and vinegar added in.
We got two five gallon buckets full of pears from Pat's house a week ago. She said to lay them out to ripen for a week, which we did. Then they all have to be peeled, cored and then blended. Lots of work. Andy peeled while I cored and added ingredients. It was a good assembly line. Well, it took us about 4.5 hours, but we finally did get the stuff made! Yay - go us!
In the middle of our project though we realized that our blender only has one working setting - puree. I mean, it has lots of setting, but they all do the same thing - puree. So, instead of coarse grinding the pears, we pureed the pears. And instead of coarse chopping the onions, bell peppers, etc., we pureed the onions, bell pepper, etc. If you want to know what nasty looks like, I would wager that it looks very similar to pureed onion. :)
Turns out that canning isn't so much hard, as it is time consuming. You fill the jars with the substance you prepare, then screw the lids on tight and boil in a large canning pot for twenty minutes. Then you sit the scalding hot jars out on the counter and wait for them to pop! That means that they have sealed.
Well, so far our pear relish has been a hit. We are very proud. When you look at the end result, which for us was 12 pints and five quarts and think "I made that!" you feel a swell of pride! :)

Happiness=school plus part-time work (imported from Myspace)

I am thrilled to report that like the kids in our youth group, I am back to school too!
Been a long time coming, and I am still a little unnerved, but I was always a good student, so I don't anticipate any problems at this juncture. Thankfully, I should be able to finish by early summer, if all goes as planned. (And I do plan exhaustively.)
Spent quite a lot of time today reading over materials and trying to get the classes straight in my brain. Doing online coursework is nice, but it may pose a problem with distinguishing the individual classes. Note to self: buy planner.
Otherwise, all is well. Andy is leading worship at a youth rally in Jax this weekend and lucky me gets to play the piano. It's really not that bad - he got the music to me early and I have been practicing. Been kind of fun.....once we had war over whether I would play keyboard music or chords. I think he understands my limitations a little better now - I did not grow up playing chords and in my entire musical education there was NEVER an emphasis on chord knowledge. This has stunted my ability, I am convinced, but alas, two weeks notice on a playing opportunity is not sufficient to learn what I should have learned ten+ years ago.
I don't think my dogs like me back in school - they are all three holed up in the office with me - and have been for hours! Probably doesn't help their mood that Andy is back in school too, and his Monday schedule is a killer! He's not been home all day either.
Otherwise, things are good on our end. Usual irritations notwithstanding, things seem to be going well. Praise God for that. I am absolutely LOVING my new work schedule. I wish I could have done it years ago. I get off at 2:00 p.m., so when I am at the office I am busy all the time. What a nice change. I can't get everything done (mainly because Pat is in court or not in the office at the right time), but I stay busy and productive. I like that. The day flies by and before I can blink it's 2:00. So then I have this nice, long afternoon to study/relax/veg and I actually have TIME to cook dinner. Woo hoo. (Means I can go back on weight watchers and get this weight off again!) And don't even mention the weekend! Since we've been at the chuch, Sunday is a complete work day. I don't know how/why full-time working people do it frankly - between Bible Study, Worship Services, Choir Practice, Evening Services, special meetings - Sundays become anything BUT a day of rest. If I weren't married to a staff member, there is no way that I would do it. I admire those who do and still enjoy church. Anyway, sorry for the tangent. Back to my point - since we came to Cowarts, Sundays are busy and I feel like I only have one rest day - and even that is oftentimes interrupted by something to do related to the church. Makes you feel like you do nothing but work. (Don't misunderstand me - I love the church!) But now, I am off at 2:00 on Thursday for the weekend! Last weekend I used one day to do nothing but enjoy myself and then used Saturday to catch up the housecleaning, study, etc. It was wonderful. And you know what - when Sunday came, I didn't resent it. I also didn't dread going back to work on Monday. It all felt right. ::sigh:: I am very content.