Prickly Pear Jelly

Since I've started having to ride the afternoon bus with some of the kids in my class, I have noticed a huge prickly pear cactus in front of one of the banks in town. I also noticed that it is covered in ripe fruit. I went into the bank yesterday to ask if I could pick some of the fruit, and the woman said, "Well, for insurance purposes we can't give permission, but after hours if we don't see you take them, how can we know you were here?" So she pretty much said, "No, wink, wink." At 5:30 Ammon and I went back and picked a few pounds of prickly pears so that I could try my hand at making prickly pear jelly, which is very delicious.

Last night I boiled the fruit so that I could mash them to get the juice out and then I made a batch of Prickly Pear Jelly. It is pretty much a bright pink, fuschia color and tastes wonderful! I am thinking I might sell some, so let me know if you might be interested in it. If there is enough interest, I might post some for sale on my craft site.

Winter is Coming

Fall has officially started and the mornings here are starting to get a bit of that crisp feeling or flavor that tells you that winter is on it's way. It still warms up quite a bit during the day, but each morning when I walk out the door to head to work, I just have to smile to myself when I feel that wonderful morning air! I love this time of year, because not only does the weather start to become extremely wonderful, but it signals the start of all of my favorite holidays. Halloween is just the beginning and, I must admit, is not really one of my favorites. Next comes Thanksgiving and then, my all time favorite, Christmas. I hope that all of you enjoy with wonderful time of year as much as I do! Happy fall!

I played a trombone today!

So, I had my first experience of ever playing a musical instrument (minus the piano) today. I don't think I have ever even tried to blow into any instruments, even though Breanne, Janelle and Meghan always had instruments that I could have tried out. I take a few of the kids to band each day mainly so that they can have a little bit of interaction with the regular ed. kids. One of the higher functioning kids I bring was given the opportunity to actually play an instrument, and since the only ones that were left were trombones, that is what he got. After assembling it he couldn't figure out where to put his hands, and since we weren't supposed to be talking the kid next to him wasn't being very successful on showing him how to hold it. By the time I came over to try to help him, he'd already given up and didn't really want anything to do with it. So, I decided to give it a try. The kids weren't really playing today, since it is beginning band and most of them barely know how to put the instrument together let alone play it, so they really just got to blow into the instruments a few times during the class. I was surprised that I was actually able to make any amount of sound come out of it since I never imagined myself as a trombone kind of girl. It was pretty fun, even if the D that I was supposed to be playing sounded more like a sick elephant. Maybe Trent won't want to play in the future and I'll get to have another chance. Why didn't I ever do band?