It feels like the playful temperatures of Indian summer have indeed left us for the fierceness of winter. Still, the dreary, chilled days make it feel cozy inside with warmth of heat and the ambiance of candles. I’ve started burning my favorite Welsh Mountain Candles.  I love their clean wax and essential oil scents.

My stomach ulcer has been flared up considerably the last 2 months. Anytime I have too much going on, it gets worse. My brain tells my body I can’t handle much stress. We have intentionally needed to cancel some events and plans to lighten things up for me. It feels rather intimidating when others can be busy and going full throttle, yet they don’t seem worse for the wear. But then I have to watch my thoughts, or I’ll be slipping down the well-worn tracks of despondency at an alarming speed, for this treads closely to comparison. And, comparison is the thief of joy. But more than that, the Bible admonishes us that we are not to compare ourselves among ourselves. (1 Corinthians 10:12) Nobody is superwoman anyone, right?! Even when it may look like it from a distance.

And so it is, I’ve been puttering around home  trying to rest both mind and body. There’s still the daily care of my family and house work, but prioritizing naps and saying “no” to big projects has felt amazing. I’ve definitely not been doing  major things like fall house cleaning or sewing or decluttering or the like. I did very little canning this fall too. And this restful mode has felt so so good!  I get a sort of panicky feeling when my week fills up with lots of outside obligations. Anyone else know what I mean, or am I the only weirdo?

So here’s a glimpse into what I have been doing. If you get bored, you’ve got full permission to read other people’s posts with more flare.

With the fall season, there seemed to be a need for pumpkin pies. Two weeks ago, I made two pies and took one to carry in dinner at church.  It felt like minimal work since I had crusts in the freezer. Plus, I also baked 2 dishes with only filling because we don’t eat much gluten around here. I don’t know how to adequately describe the lusciousness of my mom’s pumpkin pie recipe, but I’ll have to say it’s the best there is! Rich, creamy, and comforting goodness! Mom always made large batches of this pie when I was growing up. Large as in a dozen pies! It’s like, if you’re going to the bother of making pie, make it worth your time and make a bunch! (I still like big batch cooking for efficiency.) She frequently made pumpkin pie for company, plus, I had 5 big brothers who ate a lot of food! The boys loved when the basement refrigerator was stocked with extra pies because this is one kind of pie you can sneak and eat on your way out to do chores! To this day, it is a favorite for me and all my siblings. 

We don’t have the brilliant display of leaves in this area like the trees up north. Ours are more dull colors of rust, gold and pale yellow. This has its own kind of beauty, but I miss the mountains with their dazzling splendor of maples in autumn garb.

I was hankering for fall colors inside my house the other week, So one afternoon, I decided to bring fall foliage inside to spruce things up. I parked the Yukon and climbed up the bank beside our road and feverishly cut weeds with a scissors that was much too small. It was windy and cloudy with a chill and beginning to rain. I fervently hoped no one would come along and ask if I needed help because I didn’t.  It just looked like I did. Of course, someone had to stop just as I was  getting back into my vehicle. I quickly informed them of my mission but figured they probably questioned my words. I mean, who would be out picking crusty bouquets in this weather?!

One day the other week, I met a friend at a cute coffee shop to chat about life.  It was such a refreshing time. I came away grateful and thanking God for the privilege of friendship!

I felt very accomplished to be able to defrost both my freezers in the last weeks. That and the pumpkin canning I’ll tell you about later,  are the biggest jobs I’ve done the last month.  Defrosting freezers is a job I hate. But find it’s best to do it twice a year to simplify the process. What really irritated me was that the very week I cleaned my chest freezer, was the week we put in our jugs of apple cider. About half of the jugs spilled out their stickiness and made a brown river down the center of the freezer! It was like the rest of the freezer items whispered cold secrets to the cider that they were in a freshly cleaned space. And the cider decides it should do its share of “mess- making” in an effort to give the housewife job security. I’ll admit I re-cleaned the freezer with plenty of groaning and moaning as I saw the entirety of the mess and all the food that was required to move to clean underneath! At last, my freezer and I can both rest in peace!

Here’s a few tips for freezer cleaning:

* Unplug the freezer.  (In case your blonde and might forget this step)

* Use ice chests or coolers to stack in the majority of the food. 

* Set up a table to pile other things on that don’t matter to set out for a few hours.

* When it’s totally empty, get a rag and a bucket of hot water and a scraper of some sort. Soak the frosty spots with hot water and scrape off chunks the best you can. 

* When all the sides are cleaned of frost, get a dust pan and scoop up the water and pour into your bucket.  This is a quick way to rid all that water and ice chunks. 

* When it’s mostly emptied of liquid, get rags to wipe out remaining moisture.  Lastly, get dry rags to wipe down the whole freezer.

* Now you get to organize and stack your foods back in. I love the dividers and baskets that came with this freezer.  But in our upright freezer, I find it very beneficial to use baskets to keep the variety of meats and things separated. Adding labels is always a good idea.

* Plug in the freezer and enjoy your chill food space!

I was also pleased to restock my freezer with Sunday dinner mashed potatoes last week.  I made a tremendous batch that should last until the end of the year.  This includes a Sunday or two of being gone plus carry in at church 2 Sundays. And oh, yes! I must tell you I changed up my recipe again🤭 We had red garden potatoes that needed to be used up, so I cooked up a batch of mashed potatoes without peeling! Still added the cream cheese and sourcream, etc. They freeze fine, and we don’t mind the peelings and little chunks of potatoes in it. We all love these potatoes just as much or better than the instant ones. After eating these a couple of Sundays, I got kinda convicted about eating instant potatoes on a regular basis. Not peeling them is key to speed, which is why I decided I could go this route. You won’t catch me peeling 10 lbs of potatoes on a regular basis. 

One evening when Jerald was gone, I mixed up a batch of Caramel popcorn. The children enjoy making popcorn, but the Caramel makes it extra yummy. It’s a special treat now and then, and the reason it’s special to me is that it does not have corn syrup in it! The children sat coloring at the bar while the popcorn toasted in the oven. Along with stories, the evening passed rapidly. With the ages of my children, I enjoy doing these sort of things with them. They both get so excited about being all coo-zzy inside on a cold or rainy day/evening. Playing games, reading stories and drinking hot chocolate rate high on their list of all things cozy! It’s these kind of moments we all want our children to remember in years to come, isn’t it? And so much of it is up to us moms to make those moments happen.

With the recent freezing temperatures, I brought in our butternut squash and pumpkins that we had for fall displays. I bit off more work than I expected when I started this project. The squash was minimal effort- the pumpkins a different story. I baked the squash and scooped out the meat. Reece and I have been eating it for lunch topped with butter, salt, and nutritional yeast. We deem it tasty and nutritious!

I wanted to be this frugal, virtuous, homesteading sort of wife. So I thought I ought to save those pumpkins to can. After all, we had paid good money for them at the Pumpkin stand. (Honestly, if I was truly homesteadish and frugal, the pumpkins would have been homegrown.) But if I could can them, it would help combat the cost.  I had two hefty ones that I cut in halves and baked. Three of the pumpkins were the kind without much flesh; I was awfully grateful I didn’t need to process all 5!

I placed pumpkin halves on cookie sheets and added water, not realizing how much liquid they make as they bake.  And did I have a mess! Two of the cookie sheets were just at the brim of overflowing when I caught it. So imagine trying to dip out or dump water off a cookie sheet with hot temperatures all around, without creating a flood in the bottom of the oven or scalding my hands in the process! I had both ovens going and had the privilege of cleaning them both too! Scooping out the flesh was easy. But then I had to put it all through the blender and fill jars.  Out of those two pumpkins, I got only 14 pints.

But the labor was not over. The dishes kept cropping up as if thrilled to be adding to the workload. The pumpkin skins had to be taken out to the pigs and chickens to keep up with this homesteading life. My son and I traipsed down together laden with slop. Ah, but the animals were so grateful! And I was glad to contribute to their joy, for it could not be anything but dismal to be an animal out in an old cold barn. At least we got fresh air and a bit of exercise to benefit us.  But now on to the next step.

I rinsed the seeds to save for roasting. I read how they must be thoroughly dry or they won’t crisp up well.  So I spread them on a towel and ran a fan over them for an hour or two. Finally, I divided them in bowls and made 3 different flavors. They crisped up pretty well and they look great stored in glass jars on the counter. But. I’m sorry to say, they have more to their looks than their taste. Actually, two of the flavors are pretty good. Perhaps it’s more the way they gum up in your mouth. We find ourselves chewing them, and depending who the chewer is, we have the need to spit them back out, which is not frugal at all!

And would you like to know how beat out I was, when my husband comes along and asks me what the price is of a can of store bought pumpkin?!! He quickly did the math and obviously, my ambitions completely missed it when it came to being frugal! A dollar and twenty-two cents for a 15 oz. generic brand of pumpkin is not unreasonable. My precious, home canned pints of pumpkin came to about 3 or 4 dollars a jar! And to think of all the time and energy I put into my attempts at being frugal! There may be more reasons I don’t can all kinds of food. But I’m hoping my hard, honest toil would allow me to be ranked among the virtuous.

If you’re interested in the canning process, here it is:  Simply fill your pints, wipe the rim, and add lids and rings. Place jars on bread/cookie racks on top of your oven rack. (This adds stability to the jars) Turn oven to 250*. Bake for 4 hours.  Turn oven off and let set until cooled- at least 10-11 hours. I got mine started around 4:30 pm and turned it off at 8:30. The next morning, I got them out around 7.

My pressure canner sits neglected on the shelf since I’ve learned the ease of oven canning.