This thing called beauty

Can I tell you a secret? (no, Mom, I'm not pregnant so don't get all excited) And then maybe we can discuss this topic? I have had several thoughts running through my head tonight as I have been working a bit on a project.

I have needed a few pics of me for my photography blog/website so after church today I had hubby snap a few of me and got to editing them tonight.

Now, I am not a heavy photoshop-er. My skills in photoshop are MINIMAL. I have taken 1 photoshop class that was a 2 part class. That's IT. So as I got editing these pictures tonight and looking at the difference of the before and after I just thought it was amazing, even with my sorry amount of "skills" how much better I looked in my "after" picture than the before.

And then I got thinking about all these women we see in/on magazines and things and how we set standards for others and ourselves to look like them, when they have PROFESSIONAL photoshoppers doing all sorts of tweaks and who-knows-what to their pics. No wonder their skin looks all glowing and AMAZING. It takes 2 seconds to fix that.

So then i was thinking that I'm going to stop comparing myself to that perception of beautiful because it isn't reality. And I'm going to concentrate on simply doing my best with what I have and appreciate the beauty I've been given- wrinkles, moles, freckles and all.

So I'm going to show you the before and after of my pics now. And I have to admit it's a challenge because the after is MUCH more flattering and I don't necessarily want to admit that the first is what I really look like. But I wanted to prove my point that we can never trust what we see.

And that's the end of my schpeal.

(oh, and pa-lease don't think I'm feeling bad about myself in any way bc I'm totally not. On the contrary, I am feeling rather self-assured these days!)

If you are wondering, I lightened the entire picture, lightened the shadows on my face, lightened the circles under/around my eyes, softened my eye wrinkles, took out a few moles, brightened/sharpened my eyes, slimmed my right shoulder and added some hair, saturated my lips/cheek, smoothed freckles on my nose, darkened my brows, then cropped. And it took 5 minutes.

Cute boys, funny faces and canning.

What do they have in common? Nothing. I just couldn't come up with a clever post title.

Wow! I'm post-happy lately, can you tell? This one I was going to split up, it's my blog, and I'm going to do what I want and I don't want to compose three different posts. SO, here we go....

Item A

We are having the most fantastic weather. Last week it was so hot I thought my face would melt off if I went outside for more than 5 minutes. It was aweful. Even at night it was only in the upper 70s. The only cool thing is we had a couple of mid-afternoon monsoons sweep through (and we really don't get much rain here in...the desert) and the kids had a blast playing in the water.

(Did you ever build tents in the rain growing up and pretend you were homeless?.....well I did)

(this is Nolan's Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen face)


I love the pure joy on Nolan's face here. I'm not sure he's ever seen rain before...jk

Item B

I went to Yoga on Saturday morning and returned to find Spencer taking a break from yard work and entertaining the boys, with none other that....the leaf-blower.

It was hilarious. Seriously, this looks like absolute torture. I can assure you that they were having a great time with this and that no harm was caused to our children in this little game.

Maybe it was one of those "you had to be there" moments, but we sure got our enjoyment out of it. Plus looking at these pictures tonight gave me and Spence the chance to relive it. Anyway, it was hilarious.

And finally, Item 3. Or "C". Whatever.
Have you canned yet? Can i convince you to can? It really isn't as hard as you think! I had some ladies over to learn how to can tomatoes a few weeks ago and you know what they said? They said, "Oh, that was easy!" It's not difficult. It is a little time-consuming, but not difficult. The EASIEST thing I can is apple sauce. And its fantastic. Not like the nasty flavorless, filled with high-fructose corn syrup crapola you get in the store. It's sweet and tart and cinnamon-y. And it makes your house smell utterly mouth-watering. SO, without anymore said about how easy it is or how awesome this recipe is, here are your instructions....
FIRST- Buy jars, lids, and rings, granny smith apples, an apple peeler/corer/slicer (say that 10x fast!) and get ahold of a steam canner (the back to basics one is good!)
Okay, step one done.

Step 2
Take off the stickers.
(Hint- enlist the help of a child who loves to pick at everything. For instance, like he or she takes the little rubber stoppers off your cupboards so they don't slam, picks their scabs/boogers, and can't leave a band-aid on for 10 minutes. This will be right up their ally. In our house I could have used EITHER or BOTH children but the other was doing "homework")


Step 3
Use your apple peeler/corer/slicer to peel/core/slice your apples.


Let your kids eat all the parts where the skin didn't come off so well.

Step 4
Play with the apple rings


Step 5
Chop the apples and STUFF them in a large crock-pot. I got 25 apples in mine. Stuff it as much as you can because you end up with about 1/2 of what you start with. Also, don't worry about the apples browning because you put a bunch of cinnamon in anyways.

Step 6
Add a 1/2 cup of water and as much cinnamon as desired. For mine I added a Tbsp and a 1/2. Then I sprinkled a bit of allspice and nutmeg for funsies. Also, you can add sugar if you like- 1/2 to 3/4 cupish. (btw I didn't) THAT'S IT! Well, for a little while. Let this cook on high or low 8-10 hours or until it looks like applesauce and smells like you are dreaming.


Step 7
Wash you jars with hot soapy water and then sanitize them by putting them in hot water (I use a shallow pot on the stove and put them upside down until they are really hot.



Step 8
Fill the jars with hot applesauce (the jar should be pretty warm) leaving about a 1/2 inch at the top (called "headspace)


Step 9
Run a plastic or wooden spoon around the sides of the jars to release any air bubbles. DO NOT use metal. DO NOT ask questions. JUST DON'T DO IT. (aka, I don't know why not. just don't)
Wipe the tops of the jars with a wet rag before putting a hot lid and ring on the top (Tip- use your same water you sanitized in to heat your lids. Just put them in there for a couple minutes. The rings don't have to be hot) Screw the lids on reasonable tight. No bionic-woman tightening here, alright? Just nice and secured.

Step 10
Put the jars on the canner.


Step 11 (Almost done!!)
Put the lid on and process pints for 20 minutes. Processing time is 20 minutes for pints/25 for quarts. Processing time starts when there's a steady 8-inch stream of steam coming out of that little hole.



Step 12
Turn off the burner. Let the canner cool for a couple minutes. Slowly lift the lid. Hold your breath. You're almost done. Say a prayer that your bottles won't unexpectedly crack. They may or ma not "ping" at this moment. Mine did. Usually they will ping upon cooling. ("ping" is when they seal and the lids cave in)

Step 13
Revel in the fact that you canned applesauce. Then wonder why you did it because it's so easy to go buy it. But then remember that you are learning to be self-sufficient. And then think, but why spend the time on it when i can go buy it? And debate on whether it was really worth it. And then finally decide, yeah, it was worth it. Even for 5 measly little pints (and a 1/2 of leftovers).



Final Step, I swear!
Step 14
Let them cool 24 hours and then put them on your shelf and admire them for a while because you learned how to preserve delicious applesauce and can enjoy it even in 5 years. Sweet. You are now a domestic goddess.
Good luck and comment/email me if you have questions!

Utah Trip

I love Utah. I take that back. I love the scenery in Utah in the summer. I find it fascinating that those rivers can run like they do ALL summer just from the snow pack. Isn't that crazy? I love the GREEN. (I'm noticing a trend here with my posts tonight. I must love lots of things...)
One of my favorite things to do in Utah is to drive up "the canyon" (meaning, whichever is closest) and have a cook-out. We've been doing this since I was a kid and come summertime in California, I yearn to be in Utah, in the cool canyons, BBQing with my family.


We had fresh salsa (from my garden!) and watermelon


We had BBQ chicken and grilled corn on the cob


Carter got to discover playing in the creek with his shoes off for the first time. He was excited. And flailed his arms awkwardly.



They got filthy and sticky with watermelon juice


And LOVED the corn


My Mom was there.


My Dad was there.


We roasted mallows.


The little guys discovered campfire smoke.


And what it feels like when you get it in your eyes.


It was a GREAT trip. Lots of family. Lots of fun. Lots of driving. Lots of pretty scenery. And mostly, not Hemet.

Food

I. Love. Food.
I used to be the PICKIEST eater. ALL growing up, my mom and dad did their best to try and get me to eat anything other than mac&cheese and Top Ramen. Most everything with vegetables made me gag. The smell of steamed cabbage- uggghhh...made my stomach turn. It was bad.
Then I got married and something happened. Spencer introduced me to a WHOLE new world of veges. It all started with that "California mix" of frozen veges from Sam's club. I realized that broccoli was actually GOOD when it wasn't steamed to death and all limp and nasty.
Anyway, fast forward to today. I could be a vegetarian. In fact, in the summer, I mostly am. I LOVE my garden. We are blessed to live on a big lot and we get a LOT of vegetables. We also have a plum tree (see previous posts) and for a while, we had a LOT of plums. Probably over 400. That's a lot of plums. So we did a lot with plums. Here are a few of the things we did with them...
Canned plums (16 quarts!)
Plum juice (canned it as well)
Plum fruit leather
Frozen plums (2-1 gallon bags for winter crisps!)
Grilled plums
Plum/blueberry upside-down cake (was FANTASTIC)
Plum crumble
Blueberry/plum syrup
Levels it. And we ate a whole bunch.

We were very regular, to say the very least.

Plum crumble a la mode


Upside-down cake


Syrup


Grilled plums with sour cream/honey in the middle (I was the only one who ate these)

Anyway, I've taken a few more pics of the things I have made lately. I have officially not turned my oven on since June. It heats up my entire house. My grill is on almost every night. Grilled squash, grilled corn, grilled chicken, fish, onion...whatever can go on the grill. Which brings me to my next topic- do you love sweet potatoes? (Yams?) Yes, I am a dork and have looked up the actual difference between the two. What it comes down to is that it doesn't matter. Eat the orange ones. They are awesome for you and the taste RULES! I was addicted to them in the winter- loved to put them in the oven. Since I don't turn the oven on, I tried them this way.

They are FANTASTIC. Peel 'em, cut 'em in chunks, toss 'em in olive oil, wrap in foil (looks like a tinfoil dinner) and put it on a medium-hot grill for 7-8 minutes/side. That's it! My first time they burned a bit but we didn't mind. They were awesome.

Also, I made some fab taco/fajita things with rotisserie chicken one night. Added sauteed veges, cheese, dab of sour cream, LOTS of cilantro (how did I only discover cilantro like 3 years ago?? Where WAS it?) It was a super-fast dinner. Also, a trick I learned from Spencer...He does this, I don't bc I usually don't add a lot of cheese- but it's super good...Heat a pan, add jack/cheddar cheese blend, melt, and then put a tortilla on top and let the cheese stick to it. It's done when it comes clean off the pan. MMMmmmmm...

It was a little hard...

Harder than I expected, really. I thought I wasn't going to be one of those moms who bawls on the walk back to the car...and on the ride home...and while making breakfast...and for a little bit after. I just want him to stay little an always think I'm awesome. Is that too much to ask?

The Hike- Part 2

Here's me going, "Holy crud this backpack is heavy" after which I turned around and abruptly deposited my pillow, a jug of water, and Spencer's sleeping bag in the back of the car. That night, I really really missed my pillow.

At this point we're at the top of the tram that leaves from Palm Springs. It was the best $17/person I have spent in a loooonnng time.

Oops, this is out of order...this is going up the tram. Seriously, the best way to hike :)

We went with our friends who for the sake of privacy I will henceforth refer to as "Poncho" and "Betty".

After a 3 mile hike with our packs, I was drenched with sweat and it was cold! COLD in August! I'm enjoying a delicious packaged tuna dinner, complete with crackers and fruit leather and finally topped off with some dark chocolate and nut trail mix while Poncho and Betty set up their tents.

I attempted to sleep that night but mostly just laid there listening to Spencer sleeping soundly next to me. He took his pillow. I attempted to use this sweatshirt all balled up and it wadn't cuttin' it. Kept coming all unwadded and was rock hard and my ear hurt when I laid on my side. But about 2 in the morning I wanted to smother him so badly just because I couldn't fall asleep. We woke up at 4:30 (FOUR THIRTY) in the morning (after I fell asleep for about 1.5hrs) to hike to the peak and get there for sunrise. We missed it by about 15 minutes but it was so pretty on the way up!

Finally at the peak. The pics don't do it justice. It was amazing!

Here's me and Poncho. But I didn't post this pic because either of us look very good, but because it was so awesome how you could see the shadow of the mountain over the valley. See the peak??

Self-explanatory (except I'm not going to try and explain Spencer's look here)

And here's a picture of all of us at the peak. Can you see us? If you do you get a virtual high-five from me.

Shortly after this picture is where I completely bit the dust trying to unstick a band-aid from itself so I could put it on a blister. I tripped and rolled like a rag doll down a couple rocks and stopped completely upside down and hoping no on had seen me, only to be disappointed a few minutes later that no one had, in fact, seen me. Because it would have been hilarious.
The End.