Reading and Canning

Jonathan has been reading like crazy these past few weeks. He picked up the Harry Potter books and has started reading those. He read the first one in 6 days. He read the second one in 4 days. Now, after having it for the weekend, he is half way done with the third book. He is totally loving them. He has wanted to read them for a long time now, but I wouldn't let him. I still think he should wait longer, but he is very excited about reading them and checks them out from the school library. I am suprised that he has so much time at school to read. From the time he leaves in the morning until he gets home in the afternoon, he has read 50 or more pages in the book. That's a lot of time for reading, especially those books. But, according to the "Teacher's Creed" at the school, "We will use each day to the fullest, finding minutes lost would be tough." So, they are not wasting time in the class room, but somehow he still manages to read 50+ pages of the Harry Potter books each day there. Hmmmm.

This last weekend I did a lot of canning. Saturday, we went with some good friends to pick apples from another friend's house. After we picked the apples, we went and made applesauce and canned it. We got 16 quarts a piece. Then, Sunday I got a bunch of pears from the same friend that let us pick her apples. So, Monday I invited Cheryl over to can pears. We got 9 quarts a piece of those. Also, yesterday I canned a bunch of peppers (so we can enjoy them on sandwiches and salads) and made pickles too. Our tomatoes are starting to ripen, so I will be starting to can tomatoes soon too. I was really bummed that I didn't get any beans this year. I had planted a lot, but then the weeds wouldn't give me a break and they choked out a lot of the beans and then the water wasn't getting to them, and the critters were probably getting at them too. But, I am now hoping the tomatoes continue to look as good as they do now.