Even with the bad gardening season (especially for us since we didn’t even get one in this year), I’ve been extremely busy canning & dehydrating these last few weeks, as well as getting ready to begin an important year in the life of our homeschooling.  Melia, our oldest, is a Senior this year & Katie, our middle child, is a Freshman!  I still have one that has 1 foot in elementary school and is trying to stick the other foot into middle school, but I thankfully have 1 more year before that happens!

As I mentioned before, I’m in love with my new Excalibur Dehydrator!

I have been keeping it busy, let me tell  you!  With my last Azure order, I purchased 60 more ounces of Crimini mushrooms & 40 lbs of onions.  Out of the 40 lbs of onions, I dried 42 & still have about 12 left over.  Those 42 onions, filled 4 quarts!! I rough chopped them before drying them so that I will again have the option of either having dried minced onions, or placing a few in my grinder for onion powder as needed.  I love having this flexibility.  While I can say that I dried them in the house & the odor was strong for a short time, it really wasn’t as bad as people say.  Although, I family did avoid my pantry area for the first couple of hours.   Of course, I also dehydrated my mushrooms.  I’m so thankful that I went ahead and purchased another flat of these delicious mushrooms because the price went up shortly from $18.00/60 oz to $26.00/60 oz after placing my order.  No more of these delicious mushrooms for me till the price comes back down!  I’ve also dehydrated some celery (since I somehow wound up with way more than we would get eaten before it went bad) and a few more carrots. 

I do have a few more head of garlic sitting in my kitchen that I’ll probably be dehydrating as well since there is no way we will get it all eaten before it starts to go bad.  Even though it’s fresher coming fro Azure, the outer cloves still have a tendency to want to spoil fairly quickly, which I’m assuming is from the drastic temperature changes that it goes through from being placed on the truck, shipment, & then being removed from the truck once it arrives. No biggie since I know this can happen & I will deal with it accordingly. 

After really losing my desire to want to can for a few years, I’m so very thankful that I did find my love for it once more.  While it is a lot of hard, tiring, & sometimes back-breaking work, I do love seeing all those beautiful jars of fresh foods lined up on the shelves just waiting for my family to consume them in the coming months. I know that my family will be eating healthier because of it because a lot of the food that I’m putting away will be BPA (no store cans) & preservative-free, & some will have been naturally/organically grown, which is even better.  I’m working on a tally of what I’ve canned so far this year.  As soon as I have that post ready, I’ll come back here & add a link. 

Now, as for homeschooling, it’s going to be an exciting year for us!  It’s hard to believe that my “baby” girl is a Senior this year & will be graduating from high school. She is so excited.  And, while mom & dad are excited, every parent out there knows that it’s also bittersweet.  Not only does it signify a new chapter in her life, but also a new chapter in our lives, as well.  We are so proud of the young lady that she as become & know that God has something special in store for her.  We are excited to see where He leads her in the coming months/years.  And then we also have another child entering high school.  I can’t say that she’s overly thrilled at the amount of work that she has to do, but she’s pretty excited about this new chapter in her life.  Mom & dad, however, are really beginning to realize that their babies are growing up way too fast & that there’s not a lot of time left that we will all still be together as a family unit before they start really spreading their wings & flying.  While we know that this is what we are raising them to do, it’s still hard to believe that it has already been long enough for these events to be right on our doorstep.  God has truly blessed us with 3 wonderful children.  We pray daily that He will watch over them & guide them in these crucial moments of life where they are just beginning to have to make tough decisions, & that He will help guide us as they look to us for wisdom & guidance to help them make the best decisions for their lives.