Feeling the itch...

I have been feeling the itch to start canning for the year! I fell in love last year with the process. By the end of summer though, I was done! I knew that it was something I enjoyed though and want to continue to do each year. I am so excited for strawberries to come out. I have so many things I want to try with them including just plain freezing some. I ordered some vanilla beans online and am looking forward to using that in some of my recipes. Wow, vanilla is expensive! Thank the Lord someone gave me a tip to try ebay. I remember who said it but I either heard or read it last summer and fortunately I remembered.

This week I made limoncello. I have been wanting to make it for about two years now and my neighbor loves it. I figured since I am still waiting on strawberries to come in I might as well go ahead and make some. Also as soon as my vanilla gets here I will be making our own vanilla extract. Unfortunately it takes a long time to get ready to use but I will try to be patient. My mom bought some from Mexico years ago and that was the best vanilla I have ever used so I am pretty excited to make it at home.

We have stayed busy here. Randy has cut down some trees in the yard. He is still working on cleaning up that mess but we are going to put some fruit trees in the place of the ones cut. One or two of them were just taking over the yard so nothing else was growing properly so as sad as I am to see the shade go I am looking forward to fresh fruit from the trees and seeing our other trees thrive.

There is still so much needed to be done before my plants arrive and the baby arrives but I am trying to stay calm and if it is done it is done and if not, well, we tried. I just get frustrated because I can't help more but the family is very understanding and I am blessed to have such great people in my life!