Busy, Busy, Busy

This last week has been busy for me as I've been revisiting some of my old hobbies. I think it's kind of funny that I was much more of a 'homemaker' in high school; now that I have kids I sometimes feel too busy to do some of those old-school things. But this week I ended up really busting out the provident living skills. First I canned twelve quarts of peaches. It's still early for Utah peaches, but last weekend Bountiful Baskets was offering boxes of California peaches for only 11 dollars (for 25 pounds). I bought a box and managed to turn them into lovely jars of fruit. I did two batches and the first one was rather stressful since I haven't canned for years. I used to just freeze fruit, but now we have a tiny freezer and a large basement storage room. Thankfully I decided to try a second batch the next day and it was much easier after doing it once. Now I'm looking forward to doing applesauce and possibly some pears. Last year I made a ton of jam and I still have quite a bit left. I am still debating making a batch of peach and possibly some raspberry since we are low on both kinds, but no one in this house seems to be a fan of jam so I may not bother at all.

My second big project this week involved sewing. I used to sew quite a bit, but really haven't done anything at all since coming back from my mission and getting married. Ever since we went to the 'Freedom Village' recreation a few weeks ago S-Boogie has been in love with 'the old days' (we've also been reading the Little House books for the last year). She has spent a lot of time during the last month wearing a sweater tied around her waist to simulate an apron. This morning our ward had a Pioneer Day breakfast and children's parade. I knew that S-Boogie would want to wear her sweater/apron and I just couldn't bear to let her do that. So I borrowed my sister-in-law's machine and made her an apron and bonnet. I used tutorials from this website (apron and bonnet), which was slightly tricky since she assumes that you know a fair amount of sewing. And I usually sew with a pattern. But I'm proud of myself because my knowledge all seemed to come back and I made both things work. If you look closely they certainly aren't perfect, but S-Boogie loves them and I they should still fit next year (assuming they aren't thrashed by heavy use before then). I did stop myself from staying up all night to make a matching bonnet for the baby but I have extra fabric and will do that next year. Now I just have to get my own machine fixed so I can make even more cute things for my kids.

So this week I rediscovered some skills that I thought I'd lost. I also discovered that I can figure out how to do things even if I'm not sure I know what I'm doing. And they don't have to be perfect in order to 'count'. I don't plan to do as many crafty things next week. The kids have been anxious to get out of the house more and I'm realizing that summer is rapidly fading away since school starts a month from tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will cool down a bit so we can dare to venture out of our air-conditioned house.