Book Review #8

I had the pleasure of reviewing this fun adult coloring book for Bloggingforbooks.com recently!  With these coloring books being all the rage these days, I figured I would check it out. This particular book was a story and a coloring book. So throughout the book the story was told while the pictures were ones that you could color.

In my honest opinion, this wasn't my favorite approach to a coloring book. I would rather just have pages to color and the whole page be devoted to the drawing/coloring. Some of the drawings in this book were mystical and a bit strange to my liking but over all its a really unique concept to have a story book that you can color.
I did love how some of the pages were easy to color and others were very intricate. Perfect for a time when you need to relax. :)

Book Review #7

What to Eat When You're Pregnant

(disclaimer: I am NOT pregnant. Got this for a friend who is pregnant so I can pass it along when I've written the review!)

This book was fascinating and full of lots of great information for while you are pregnant.
If you've ever wondered about certain benefits of different foods during your pregnancy, this is definitely the book for you.
The book goes through your pregnancy week by week and gives you lists of foods that are beneficial to you and the baby at this point and pregnancy and even includes some recipes to get the creative ideas flowing! Filled with charts, recipes, helpful tips and just some over all good reading, this book should be a wealth of information for any mom-no matter if this is your first pregnancy or your fourth. It is written in such a easy to read manner and is very encouraging to fuel your body in the right and healthy ways.

New York City!

 Brandon's 28th birthday fell on a Monday and months before hand, he had asked for his birthday off of work. One day we got to talking and just randomly threw out there about visiting his uncle in NY that weekend and I suggested taking off that Tuesday as well so we could have more time, if we actually went.

Our trip slowly became concrete plans and we decided to head up there after a friends wedding that saturday.

The trip from the location of the wedding was about 5.5 hours and the boys did fantastically. James slept most of the way and isaiah either watched a movie or looked at books.

The drive was relatively smooth and we arrived around 10 or 11.

That night we planned out what we would do the following day.

We wanted to see some of the "must sees" and also just wanted to be able to explore. So uncle Stephen gave us some ideas and we all set off. Stephen stayed with us for about half the day and gave us pointers on how to navigate the subway and where to go before leaving us.

Since we started in Brooklyn, we went to Brooklyn park, walked across the Brooklyn bridge and then started to explore Manhattan.

Wall Street.

9/11 memorial.

Grand central station was super beautiful and just a buzz with people.

We didn't get toooo close to the Empire State Building but we saw it :)

Times Square was next.

We took isaiah to the m&m store and the Lego store :)

We wanted to see Central Park before the end of the day so we had an hour or two to spend there :)

Central Park was/is HUGE! We didn't get close to even exploring most of it. But the  boys loved all the boulders that were throughout the park.

It was the perfect place to stretch your legs and just relax.

On our trip we only brought the umbrella stroller so that we could easily navigate the subway and the ergo. The kids did great in both. The baby carrier was a life saver and james was able to take several naps whenever he felt like it through out the day :)

Brandons birthday started out with bagels from a local bagel shop and then a ride on the Staton Island Ferry.

We rather like free things and this was such a fun free ride! We got to see the Statue of Liberty from the ferry and it gave us a great view of the Manhattan skyline.

Every time we went down subway steps isaiah would pretend he was a bird and flap his "wings" :)

We walked the Highline trail that used to be a train trellace that went thru the city.  It gave us some great views and we were able to find a local coffee place to stop and sit for a bit :)

We had a great view of some construction work going on and the boys thought it was the best thing ever!

After walking around for a bit longer, we met up with brandons cousin Sarah and her two girls to go to the Central Park zoo and then we went and got dessert for brandons birthday!

It was a great way to end the day :)

Canning and more canning!!

We have been SO blessed this year with the amount of produce I've been able to buy/been given. I love knowing that this winter we will have plenty of blueberries, strawberries, peaches, peach jam, diced tomatoes and salsa in our freezer and in our basement. 

I went blueberry picking twice and got 4 gallons. The blueberries are all organic and pesticide free and are currently sitting in my freezer just waiting to be used in smoothies, oatmeal, muffins-yu name it! Isaiah eats them frozen like they are candy :)

I was able to buy 50 pounds of peaches that were seconds quality and I made most of them into peach jam and peach syrup. The syrup is to die for and is incredibly delicious over pancakes!!

Before the process began!

Hot water to be able to get the skins off.

Cold water to make it even easier.

These are the two huge bowls that contained the peach purée for the jam.

The stove was quite busy :) tomato sauce simmering, peaches cooking down for the jam and then peach syrup heating up.

For the syrup, I used my blender to make it. It was done in approximately 10 seconds. This blender is a beast.

After a long day, I was finally finished. Definitely worth all of the work!!

Two days later I set to work on a ton of tomatoes my mother in laws neighbor gave us!

Her garden is simply amazing and she uses it to bless others by giving away TONS of the produce!

This is only a fraction of the garden.

Mhmmm! She gave us all of these tomatoes, some bell peppers, and some delicious red potatoes!!! We were and are so grateful.

The tomatoes took a very long time to prep-but thanks to a little boy sleeping in until 10 am, I got everything ready to can.

(While isaiah watched Frozen :) )

The tomatoes were a particularly messy process-and I honk my floor is still somewhat sticky because of them :)

Tomatoes were everywhere :)

I was able to get 24 quarts of diced tomatoes and I have a bag or two of tomato sauce in the freezer. 

I was just given a few more tomatoes and I plan to can some salsa this evening with them.

See? Just a few ;)

Maybe one day I'll have a garden to where we can grow our own winter supply of food. And summer dinners. That would be awesome. For now, I'll just dream about it :)