Canning & some good news

This last week I was up to my knees in apples. Not literally. But I did have apples that were given to me from my sister. I kept on trying to do things to get rid of them but they were like the loaves and fishes. Instead of my supply shrinking after I used some, they seemed to grow, or at least replenish. I tried drying them, making fresh applesauce, and then after a friend's invitation, I tried canning.

So, anyone out there tried canning before? It is HARD work. I mean, I used to think, pre-canning experience, hey, yah, canning, oh piece of cake. Just give me some bottles, some fruit or whatever, and I'll just wash em up, maybe cut them into smaller pieces, and throw 'em in a bottle, boil them for a while and POOF! you've got yourself some nice canned peaches or tomatoes or what have you. Having always been somewhat of a bystander to the whole canning process, this is what I thought. Well, not quite that easy, I've found. With the help of a friend in my ward, we canned over 30 quarts of apple filling. One day I did 18 jars on my own. Boy was I over my head. I thought, why am I being so masochistic? Why the self-torture. No really, it wasn't THAT bad. But at one moment I was holding Amalia, slung on one hip, with a wooden spoon in the other hand, trying to stir apple pie filling syrup that was boiling over a pot that was too small, Asher wanted a snack and was crying, Hyrum was whining, and my counters were filled with bowls of sliced apples, apple peelings, jars of apples; nearly 20 lbs. of apples in some form filled every space of my kitchen. But, I realized, I'm learning things here. Like the principle of self-reliance? Sure, I can buy this a whole lot cheaper at the store, but why? When I can spend 8 hot & sweaty hours in my kitchen cooking it up learning how to can my own food. And what about work? I mean, I'll never look at a jar of canned goods the same again. All in all, I feel good having had the whole messy and time-consuming experience, because in the middle of winter, I can go into my pantry, look at all of the beautiful jars lined up in a row, pick one off the shelf, hold it my hands, and know that the bounty of last fall was carefully preserved by ME. Is that enough for me to do it again? Perhaps. We'll have to see what the apple pie tastes like.

On another note, Joseph got accepted to be the intern for church's legal counsel in Mexico City this summer. He'll spend 1/2 the summer there and 1/2 the summer in SLC. There is a possability that we will go with him. We're still sketchy on all of the details, but we're really excited because this is an excellent learning opportunity and he can't ask for a better experience for his first summer.