Peaches, peaches, and more peaches! Also yogurt and cheese!

Ben's uncle (or great uncle, somehow related!) has a farm. Well every year we usually get some produce from them. Ben's parents went and brought back some peaches for us. So we decided to try out our new dehydrator.
Let me tell you about the deal we got! When I was in SC they had a dehydrator in the marked-down rack at the grocery store. It was on sale for $30 with 14 $1 off coupons. So I thought why not? Even if it is a cheap one, for $16 we can experiment with it. We had been wanting one for a while. Well when I got to the counter it was actually $20, so with the coupons I got it for $6!!
So our first venture with it was the peaches. They turned out real good! I love them. I have taken them to school and left on my desk for when I get the munchies.
All said and done with all the peaches plus some more we got at market, we dehydrated a couple batches, and put up almost 30 jars of organic sugar freezer jam!! Yum yum!!
Well the little cooker I am, I have also been experimenting with making yogurt. It has turned out pretty good and pretty cheap, which is good since we practically drink it! I am still perfecting it. One night I forgot to turn the heat in the crock pot off and the milk sat in the jar in the heat all night. Well needless to say, I killed any cultures so I did not have yogurt. However I did have some curds and whey separation going on. So I thought, hmmm I will try to make cream cheese. So I hung the curds up in a very thin towel to get all the whey out, and after a while and few squeezes, I had my cream cheese! It tastes delicious on my zucchini bread or toast with the peach jam on top!! Peach cheese cake!!

South Carolina

Tim and Matt have been staying at our house all summer. Well it was about time for Matt to return home to finish his last year of high school. So Tim took him home and I went along for the ride to see my family for the weekend. We had a great time and it was nice to see them again.
Friday we left so early in the morning (to miss Atlanta traffic) that we came home and slept for a bit. We went and did a little shopping, or browsing for me at the mall.
Saturday, Pop, Tim, Matt and I went to Table Rock State Park and went canoeing. I wanted to take pics but didn't bring my waterproof sack for my camera in case of an accident. Well no accident but it sure did rain, so we didn't get to canoe as long as we wanted but that's ok, it was still fun. It continued to drizzle so we just took a little walk in the rain and waded in the stream.
That evening we all went mini-golfing in down town Greenville. That was a blast! We took a walk through the park on the way back! A beautiful evening!
Well we were going to leave and come back to AL after church Sunday afternoon. Well Saturday evening as Tim and Matt took their 'last' joy ride in Tim's car, it died on him, in the middle of downtown! Well I think Tim's pride might have been taken down a notch. Here is Tim and Matt pushing the car into a parking spot, that happened to be open, in the middle of busy downtown, where all kinds of people are watching and talking and trying to help, some drunk! He can't start it. So he calls Pop. Oh did I tell you that it was almost midnight and he was only supposed to be getting gas down the street, not joy driving downtown! LOL Well anyways we stayed an extra day till Tim could get the belt replaced! LOL

We had a great trip, just a day later that I planned on finishing up my classroom! Oh well, it got done. Part of the golf course was in a black light room! It was pretty cool!

Umm Tim and Matt.....need I say more!

Hit it Pop!!!

The beautiful bridge at the park

Home Again Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Well I keep saying I am going to update the blog with good intentions and never get to it, but here I am, finally! We do not have internet at our house, so I have to beg borrow or steal internet. Since we have arrived home, we hit the ground running it seems.
A couple days after we arrived home, God opened up doors for me to go back to teaching after a two year break. I am teaching at Bible Methodist Christian School, 1st and 2nd grade, the same place, and grade I taught before. Well needless to say I was excited but also a little nervous! I had about 2 weeks till school started, to get my room set up, lessons together etc.
Ben also felt a pull back into education. He received a part-time position teaching a couple classes in High School.
So the next couple weeks were busy but God helped me to relax and not stress and it all came together! Here are a few pics of my classroom. The color scheme was already in place, but seemed to fit with my frog theme.

The rocker I covered to match the curtians

All the staff eating out during in-service at Jim N Nick's
(thanks to our church!)