Thankful for beans!

No matter how we plan our garden, my beans ALWAYS come in during VBS week! :)  Except, of course, for the past two years when we had NO BEANS.  This year we have them in abundance, unless the recent flooding washes the rest away!   On Saturday my daughter and I picked beans for almost 2 hours and ended up with 4 runs (14 quart sand 17 pints)  from one harvesting!  We are so thankful for beans!!   

Someone asked for tips on canning beans, so here is what we do.  This is based on information we read online about safe canning, in my canner manual, and from talking to people I know who have canned for years.

Break beans into bite-sized pieces, throwing out any tough or browned pieces.

Rinse thoroughly until water runs clear. 

Using sterilized cans (I run mine through steam sanitize cycle in my dishwasher, but there are other options available if you research online), firmly pack jars with beans.   I find it easiest/most reliable to do all quarts or all pints in a single "run."   Shake jars gently to settle beans and continue filling to desired headspace.  

Add 1/2 tsp salt to pints and 1 tsp salt to quarts and fill with water to desired headspace (it seems that different canners require different headspace.  Mine requires 1/2 inch).  

Boil jar lids for 30-45 seconds and then place on top of filled jars and tighten rings just to finger-tightness...don't over tighten!).

Add 3 quarts water to a large pressure canner (check your instructions!!), place jars in bottom of canner, seal lid, and process at 11 lbs pressure for 25 minutes.   My canner requires allowing full steam to escape for at least 10 minutes before placing the pressure gauge on the valve.  Yours may differ.   Allow pressure to escape completely before removing lid.   Allow jars to cool and then check for seal. Once the jars have sealed, you can remove the rings to reuse for another batch.   If your jars did not seal you can process again within 24 hours OR refrigerate for use within a week.  

Enjoy!  If you have questions, feel free to ask! 

Joseph VBS

Our VBS theme this week is the life of Joseph, and our elders purchased this material:

http://www.familybiblepublications.com/joseph/

My friends and I teach the kindergarten VBS class (kids who have BEEN to kindergarten but have not yet started 1st grade).  Below are our room decorations.   We suggested to the kids that we were going to pretend to journey across the ocean to the land of Egypt and learn about life as Joseph would have known it.   Lots of other talented teachers have created fun rooms as well, but I haven't had time to take pics of those yet.  I will try to as the week goes on!

The pasture where the flocks would stay.  :) Check out the baby sheep "in the distance." 

We are talking about the "many coats" Joseph wore and the different roles he played (son, brother, servant, prisoner, 2nd in command).  Each night we will add a coat to Joseph that represents that night's story. 

The pit

Mural of Egypt.

Right side of the mural we painted.

Jail where Joseph meets the baker and cupbearer/butler.

Egyptian sarcophagus

Entrance to our pyramid

Front side

Our classroom door.

Each kid's picture will go in one of these.  We ordered them from Oriental Trading.

Big Boy Room Redo!

When my daughter was in kindergarten, we gave her a surprise "big girl" room remodel to redo the nursery layout.   My son starts kindergarten in just a month (WHAT?!), so we wanted to do the same for him.  Like his sister, he had minor input into the theme (sports), but had no idea exactly what it would look like or when it would take place.

For the past few weeks, we have been secretly ordering, making, and collecting things for his new room.   Yesterday, he and his sister went to Nana's to spend the night and hang out with her for a while, thinking it was just a summer sleepover. 

This is how his room started out (minus the changing table which hasn't been there in 4 years...hahaha.  Can't believe I forgot to take a picture of his "big boy bed" with Mickey Comforter). 

And here is the final result!!  I am so excited about how it all turned out!  I told him I may decide to move in there, too.   :) 

I was pretty proud of these!  12 X 12 canvas + mod podge + scrapbook paper and my mother-in-law's cricut!

Hubby played tennis in college, so we had to include it!

My friend found this canvas at Kohl's.  It "made" the room!  We love it!

The baseball wall....SOOOOOOO pleased with how it turned out!   Lots of tutorials online...I will try to find the original link I read and put it on here.    The light switch and outlet are mod-podged, too.

This is a wooden letter from Michael's with scrapbook paper mod-podged onto it.

I am jealous of this fan! :)

Even the hooks are mod-podged.

One picture wasn't enough.  LOVE THIS!

Big boy comforter...bye bye Mickey Mouse!

This one turned out most like what was in my head. :)

12 X 12 "graduation" frame with sports duct tape around the edges.  Scrapbook stickers to spell out quotes, mod-podged over the top with a pic of my boy playing t-ball in the embedded frame.

This was hard.  I had to "hand-tie" the net because I couldn't find one small enough.  THEN, I glued it to a pipe cleaner and put a ribbon around it to make it 3d.  Had to re-do it more than once before it worked...but I love it!