Our Week in Review–Cruises, Apple Butter, and Birthdays

We had an interesting beginning of the week last week!
On Sunday we watched a video on YouTube of a short film called Pilot’s Plight that my husband acted in!  It was written and filmed by a 14-year-old aspiring film-maker in our church.  Here’s the link.  (It’s PG or PG-13; watch it without the kids first.)

Then on Tuesday my brother-in-law emailed us and said he heard our names on the radio.  We had entered a contest for the Love Like You Mean It marriage cruise being put on by Family Life Ministries and sponsored by Moody Radio.  I had encouraged my husband to write out the story of how he proposed to me.  I then had to edit it down to 500 words.  And we were one of the finalists!  Unfortunately, we didn’t win the cruise.  I hope we can go on one someday, though.  Today is our 13th anniversary and starting tomorrow I’ll share our proposal story!

My blog was chosen as one of the Top 25 Big Family Blogs on the Circle of Moms website.  They will be featuring I Choose Joy! in the next month.  Thank you so much to all of you who voted!

Back on the homestead, we had a productive week of school.  The kids did a fun project after studying about the Israelite slaves in Egypt who had to make bricks and collect their own straw.  I cooked up some play-dough on the stove.  Then the kids (except for the 10 yo 🙂  ) formed them into bricks and put grass in them!  They let them dry and then used them to build a building and tower.

This play-dough recipe worked great:  2 c. flour, 2 c. warm water, 1 c. salt, 2 T. vegetable oil, 1 T. cream of Tartar.  Stir in in a pot over medium to medium high heat until it no longer sticks to the pan.

After our apple-picking adventure last week, I made some apple butter.  Core and cut the apples–about 15 per crock pot.  (I don’t peel them.)  Add 2 cups of apple cider and cook on low overnight in the crock-pot for 10 hours.  In the morning, puree in a blender (don’t liquify!) and put back in the crock-pot.  Add 3 cups of sugar, 2 t. of cinnamon, and 1/2 t. ground cloves.  Cook on low for 1 more hour.  Then put in fridge, freeze, or process for 10 minutes.

Finally, we had a family birthday party for my new five-year-old!