{Week 41} Bullet Journal, Gardening, Canning, and Q4 goals

Bullet Journal

I set up my October journal pages (late, but at least I did it!), and kept them pretty simple. The first page is going to be filled in with doodles of memories, like framed pictures on a wall. I’ll write in a verse I’m trying to memorize on the bottom of the page. The next page is the menu for the month.

The next spread is October projects for home and the blog. Then a habit tracker. I’m focusing on persistent small habits, and this will really show me how I’m doing (or not doing).

I started adding the Sunday sermon notes in my bullet journal. I was going to keep notes a different way, but it quickly got too complicated so this way seemed to be the most realistic and consistent. The next page will be a weekly page.

I’ve started doing my daily pages in a cheap spiral notebook. I like this because it’s bigger, I can be messy, and I won’t run out of bullet journal before the end of the year. The timeline down the left side is not set in stone, but there so I can plan a bit more realistically.

This week’s special

For this week only, the digital version of Journal and Doodle through Philippians is 25% off, which makes it $5.99 for this week only! Plus, I’m opening up the vault and adding the 4 printables to the Journal and Doodle study that haven’t been available since its launch back in 2018! AND the kids Philippians studies are also all discounted by 25% also! This is the lowest they have ever been! Only until October 22. No code needed, just add to your cart and check out.

Preserving

The garden had such a dismal start this year with our cold, wet spring that I had pretty much given up on it producing much of anything. But with a warm fall so far, it’s making up for it! The tomatoes are coming on like crazy. So far I’ve canned:

4 dozen pints of salsa (this recipe is SO GOOD, I love it just how it is written but if you want more spice, I’ve added 4 more jalapenos, unseeded, to make it medium. Medium hot would probably be 6 unseeded jalapenos. I also use my immersion blender to make it a bit smoother, but still leave chunks.)

A dozen pints and 6 quarts of green beans. I love how the purple beans look when raw, but after cooking they are just green like any other green bean.

2 dozen pints of green tomato salsa verde with this recipe, also immersion blended to make it smoother.

1 dozen pints of peach salsa (but with free plums instead of peaches from my neighbor).

6 half pints of Chinese plum sauce (with more free plums) excellent dip for egg rolls, wraps, etc.

6 pints of canned tomato bruschetta (So curious how this tastes, we haven’t tried it yet but looked and smelled amazing!)

4 pints of corn salsa (I didn’t pick my corn at the right time, and it was overripe, so I looked up what to do with overripe corn, and found this recipe. It is SO INCREDIBLE! So, so good! It also makes a light meal when mixed with a can of black beans and a diced up avocado and served with chips!)

2 dozen pints of pickled beets (I actually like them at this stage in life!)

Plus quarts of apple pie filling (You’re supposed to substitute clear jel for the cornstarch now, but as long as your cornstarch is smooth with no lumps, I’ve never had an issue with it, but can at your own risk.) and applesauce after buying 40 lbs of no-spray apples from a local man on Craigslist for .80 a pound (which always come with some surprises… worms and earwigs, but lots of good apples too.)

And today I’m working on my first ever batch of pizza sauce. About 19 pounds of tomatoes yielded 14 half pints of thick delicious sauce. (My tomatoes are San Marzano and Cherokee Purple)

I’ll probably get enough more red tomatoes to make more salsa (it’s so good and everyone loves it). And I hope to try Green Tomato Piccallili. If I can find a good deal on more apples, I’ll make some apple butter in the crockpot, but we still have some left from 2020, so it’s only if I find a good deal.

Garden

Meanwhile I have my second planting of green beans coming on. (This round was royal burgundy and Cherokee wax and kentucky wonder pole beans.)

I also need to pull my second planting of russet potatoes. I’ve decided to leave them in the ground and cover with leaf mulch like this video. She’s up in Washington State, just a bit north of us, so this should work for us!

And I think it’s maybe time to pull the sweet potatoes? I’ll have to look it up, this was my first year planting them. And the broccoli that I left in the raised bed with the sweet potatoes? It has hardly any insect damage. Maybe they are good companion plants!

My cucumbers didn’t do well at all this year, but I’m letting one get overripe to harvest seeds from and try again next year. I was able to can 2 pints of pickles in my steam canner, but that’s it. I’m hoping the steam canner makes them super crisp and maybe next year will be a better cucumber year. (Wow! When I bought the steam canner in April it was $60. Inflation is terrible!)

Goals for Quarter 4 (already?!)

How in the world are at the final quarter of 2022?! Here are my outstanding goals for the year.

• Continue to memorize 2 Peter (using a mix of reading aloud, using BibleMemory.com, and writing out by hand)
• Continue to write out and notate Proverbs for my youngest son. (Currently on Proverbs 20.)
• Continue to workout with Pahla B and track food on LoseIt.
• Continue my personal education (finish Don Quixote and at least start Herodotus)
• Continue to work on new 1 Peter Bible study
• Continue to work on the photo declutter project, moving to digital photos (sooo dreading this)
• Wipe down, prime, and repaint bathroom.
• Sand and repaint bathroom door and cupboards and linen closet doors.
• Repaint hallway.