Mom's Taxi

I can’t wait till Becca gets her car back from the shop. I found out yesterday that the insurance company was thinking of totaling it, but it has such low mileage that they decided to go ahead and fix it. I’m so glad, because we have taken meticulous care of it and even though it is 10 years old, I know it will run another 5-10 years easily. It only had 57,000 miles on it when she started to drive it a couple years ago. I’m getting tired of chauffeuring her to work and back every day. Its 100 miles a day there and back twice! I try to do things in town while I’m there to make it more worth spending the gas on. I really hate being a taxi.

I told the kids to ride the bus home today. Josh really doesn’t want to ride it….and wouldn’t you know, they missed the bus. Maybe I should start charing a per mile fare :) He blamed it on the gal at the office who talked too much when he went to find out his student ID number after school. Um…ya…It’s always good to blame things on people who aren’t around to defend themselves. Yesterday he missed the bus from shop class….aaargh! Aparently the school district we live in drives kids 25 miles to a centralized class but then leaves them to fend for themselves with no way back to the main campus. At least that's Josh's view of it. I’m thinking a pair of running shoes are in his near future.

While in town, I stopped at the local grocery and picked up the produce they were tossing. There were a ton of raspberries, so I made a quart of raspberry jam tonight. There was also a half dozen lemons and some pears, plums, carrots, strawberries, kale, celery, broccoli, cucumbers and the usual tons of lettuce. I gave the chickens their share and washed up the rest and put it in the fridge.

I plan to pick apples tomorrow; there is a nice tree full of them just down the road from us near the river. I’m planning to make a bunch of applesauce and some pies as well. I also spied a wild plum thicket along the road, the plums are almost ripe. I haven’t had wild plum jam since I was a kid. Hopefully I’ll have time to make that this year. And lastly, I saw some elderberries along a phone pole in town. I still have quite a bit of jam and syrup from a couple years ago when I made a huge batch, but I’m tempted to go and ask the homeowner if I could cut those as well and make some more syrup. I’m thinking a personal chef is in my near future, lol.

I’m getting tired just thinking of it, I feel like I'm nesting or something. Then there are the peaches my sister and I will be canning this weekend. We are buying 50 lbs and spending the day together canning them. It should be a fun time. Rachael will be along, so it should make for some interesting conversation. Maybe I’ll hit her up to help with the pies and applesauce. I'm glad to have some things put up for the winter. I love having an abundance of fruits and veggies in the winter, it seems to bring a touch of summer to the table.