Category: Life

Mac turned SIX the last week of November. Absolutely insane he can be that old. I cherish every second I’ve been given to get to be his mama.

His auntie gave him a waffle maker for his birthday. They had both used her waffle maker and we didn’t have one, it was a great little gift. But it has been such a blessing, this little waffle maker.

He asked to make us breakfast. It was the sweetest thing. Literally serving us, just the way Jesus asks us to serve others. He made sure everyone had food before himself, he was so mindful of the details- patiently waiting for the light to go off, paying attention to the sound it makes when it stops heating up. He was just so into it and this was all on his own accord. We didn’t guide any of these thoughts he just did it.

When I did step in at the end… I was the one who over flowed the waffle maker because I wasn’t paying attention. Then it hit me…I’m guiding this kid in life yes, but I can learn from him too. That hasn’t happened much these first five years. Don’t get me wrong I’ve learned a ton because of him yes…. but literally learned from him… not a ton. But these next five, I’m getting the feeling this is a part of it. I’ll guide and we’ll both learn.

Those first 5 years I felt pretty comfortable parenting. I love babies and I can function on little sleep and can talk in a silly little voice until a smile breaks across those squishy cheeks and I can pick you up when you fall down….but I have no clue what its like to parent older kids…let alone boys. In these next five years will he out grow me? ( sure possible!) Will he want to keep telling me everything? (I hope so!) Will he pay attention even when I don’t use a silly voice? ( Fingers crossed!) Will he be tearful telling me he doesn’t want to stay in the dorms at college because he’ll want to come home everyday and tell me about what he learned (…I know that’s a no but that is a sweet memory I wish cherish forever!) Man I have no clue what it is going to be like but I’ll try my best and I’ll be here for everyone of those seconds I’m given too!

Who would have ever thought a simple little waffle make would evoke so much?! Not me, but I’m so thankful it did!

Make jelly 😜 or at least that’s what we thought to do! There is a crab apple tree at this new campground that is LOADED with crab apples. The boys were very interested in picking them and after doing so on and off for days Mac wanted to make something out of them and so we have!

I’ve never in my life canned any sort of jelly or butter or anything of the sort. But we’ve given it a whirl around here lately. 

First we tried apple butter. The difference between making the butter and jelly was that I had to core FIVE pounds of teeny tiny crab apples for the butter….and hence the reason we only tried that one time 😉. For the butter we boiled those tiny pieces of crab apple and then blended them up and then cooked it in the crock pot for 8ish hours and then wham bam we had crab apple butter!! Taste test approved by the judges! (But all that cutting made me go looking for something else to do with the other 8 pounds of crab apples they had picked!)

Next we tried jelly and we’ve done it three times as of now! We gave the crab apples a nice washing. Then boiled them like you would potatoes to make mashed potatoes. When the apples got soft and the skin was breaking we mashed them with a potato masher and then let them simmer for another 15 mins. Up until this point in the process I had done things similar to this…when making mashed potatoes, when making the boys baby food, etc….but it was 100% new territory after this!

After the simmering there is a dripping phase…goal being to get all the juice out of the mush. This is done via cheese cloth and gravity. Being a very fancy jelly maker I put my cheese cloth on top of my childhood kool-aid pitchers (borrowed from my mama) and secured it via asparagus rubber bands. (Yes I did just say that and its true….I can never throw away those thick sturdy rubber bands…you know as they say reduce, reuse, recycle!) We ourselves had another pitcher and we had a lot of mash so we had three dripping contraptions. This is where gravity comes into play….these sit like this for at least 3ish hours just slowly dripping all the juice out.

After gravity is done with its job…..I was shocked. There is just clean clear beautiful crab apple juice. Fresh crab apple juice….it is literally a new favorite color. It is beautiful! (They should make nail polish this color!) At this point if one wanted they could stop right here and just drink the juice or add it to teas or other juices and it would be tasty!

To make jelly still a few more steps….you take 4ish cups of juice and add in 2-3ish cups of sugar and you heat this and continually stir it until it reaches 220* F. Pectin, the gelling substance, in most jellies does not need to be added because it naturally occurs in crab apples and is activated at the 220* hence why it needs to reach that temperature. So this jelly literally has two ingredients crab apple juice and sugar. Once it reaches the 220* for 1-2 mins then you can take it off the heat and put it in the jars (that I also got from my mama!).

After 24 hours….the jelly should have a jelly consistency….if it does not….one can simply call that “syrup” and eat in on fresh toast or pancakes etc. Or one can re-boil the syrup to 220* F and try it again. I’ve re-boiled two batches and both have jellied on the second attempt. I have no clue why, I’m still learning😜!

Never knew a jelly making adventure would come out of this new campground gig but its been a fun learning process!

This camper life has truly allowed us to slow down. I’d say the overall word that has guided us this past year has been intentional. Intentionally spending our time. Intentionally spending our money. Being intentional in all areas of life. When your time and life feels like pinball machine going here and bouncing there, not in control of where it rolls but just going going going its hard to feel like many of the decisions are intentional.

This life we have lived the past year has been truly different than what it was before. Because our life is small it is naturally simpler and easier to slow down and creating true space to be intentional. I feel like small changes in each area have all add up to more time, and more time just seems to breathe life into intentionality.

Where do these time chucks come from?? Take laundry…we have one laundry basket and we have to do it once it’s full, there is no room for over flow. One load of laundry is very easily done. And then it has to be put away when done because there is no space for it to sit out. It’s the same with the dishes. There is no build up because there is no space for that. And it’s the same with toys and just about everything.

There are not hours of laundry, it takes 3 mins to vacuum, dishes are from a single meal not days worth, there is no day of the week devoted to chores. It’s a tiny bit of this work done each day. And this creates time, time to slow down and be intentional. When we go for a walk or a hike there is no time frame besides the setting sun 😉 (no one wants to get stuck out there in the dark!) There’s nothing to rush back for. The walk is not squeezed in between x, y, or z. It’s peaceful. So when we see something special it’s sweet to get to stop and watch. To stop and notice this little surprise God has given to us. To be still and know. 

It’s my prayer that the peace this mindset and way of living brings, sticks with us.

We’ve gone gnat-y. What is that you ask?!?  It is when you stomp around (inside) the camper waving and clapping you’re hands over your head chanting “We’ve gone gnaty. We’ve gone gnaty.” The desired 🤞🏼outcome of this belly laughing escapade is to maybe just maybe have killed a gnat or two. 

What brings one to go gnaty is well… gnats…. EVERYWHERE! In the fridge ✅ on your towel after your shower ✅ flying around your face when you try to read a book ✅  I’m sure we’ve all consumed at least one. They are everywhere all the time and that is inside the camper! 

And it’s 💯 worse when you go outside. I remember running in college and coming back from a long run and having I don’t know 10 gnats stuck to me… that is nothing compared to this. You literally can not go outside with out fanning your face or else they are just pelting you. I’ve taken them out of Chase’s eyes. They drive the boys crazy.

We have made traps with soap and apple cider vinegar. We literally have a fly ribbon hanging in our kitchen. We are trying to do all the things to keep them from driving us nuts. But when desperate times call for desperate measures the boys and I go gnaty and Chase just rolls his eyes 🤪 and we all get a good laugh out of a (g)nasty situation! 

(That first picture…all those black dots…dead gnats in our fridge 😖)

**Chase wants you to know we can light a fire and the smoke really clears them up outside… I want you to know that’s the only reason we don’t go gnaty outside bahaha 🤣 

As we settle into our third week in Tennessee I can look back and now tell you we are going to be okay here, at first I didn’t know 😬

For first few weeks have been full have adjustments. 

The outside wilderness aspect of this area is exactly what we thought. Green, lush, beautiful. Rivers and creeks galore. Trees covered with vines. Rocks covered with moss. Sometimes when we are hiking I get the feeling this might be a sliver of what the Amazon is like. I’m just thankful there is pretty much only one predator we have to be alert for…the iconic black bear of the Smokies. Thankfully we’ve only seen one; while we were eating dinner on a cafe porch and were able to hop inside when we wanted! (And we think we’ve had one in the campground but just didn’t see it….although Mac did find its 💩 and it did destroy my bird feeder🙈) With the outside environment being what we thought, that’s pretty much the only thing that’s gone as expected. 

Upon coming to this job we thought my job was recreation/activities with some occasional housekeeping hours. They had asked office or housekeeping, I choose house keeping because it’s something the boys could actually come along side and help with. Well the hour dynamics are reversed….all housekeeping with occasional rec hours thrown in there. I felt jaded and mislead. But a little mental adjusting and I’m alright. House keeping is fine. I work 8-12 ish most mornings and I listen to sermons pretty much the whole time (more Jesus time…can’t be upset about that!). Mac has come to help clean a little bit but they’ve enjoyed hanging with daddy and doing daddy school. Not what we expected but we’ve adjusted. 

Our first site we were given was RIGHT next to the road. It’s the main busy highway leading into Gatlinburg. It didn’t have a picnic table or a fire ring. Never expected this….we tried sleeping with fans, we tried getting used to it but it’s hard to get used to your windows rattling…we asked to move to the back of the campground and now we have a much quieter spot. We moved earlier this week and we are still getting settled in our new spot but we’re adjusting just fine here! (picture below: our first site vs the current one)

With the terrible camp site and the job not being what I expected my first couple of weeks I didn’t know if we’d stay here the whole time or not. But with some mind set adjustments and with some literal campsite adjustments I think we are going to make it. We have 6 weeks left and we’ll make the most of it!