Nascar is just not my thing

I can't handle it.

To sit and watch a bunch of cars drive as fast as they can in a circle like, 300 times, over the course of several hours?

Sorry, but.....no thank you. It ranks right up there with watching fishing and C-SPAN in my book as the most boring evah.

But, I'm quite certain that, as my dad is reading this, he is saying, "Erroneous! Erroneous on all counts!!"

{*grin*}

He loves watching 'the race'.

I've heard it many times: "The race is on. Put the race on, would'ja?"

And then it happens. His eyes become glued to the screen for the next four-ish hours. He'll shout a bit, wince here and there, and say things like, "Get up there, get up there!" every little while.

I'm looking....staring....trying to figure it out. But I can't. It's at this point when I question myself, "What is he looking at? Are we even watching the same thing?"

Of course we are. We are watching the same thing, but we aren't seeing the same thing.

It's all because he has a love for the 'sport'. He sees things and appreciates them in a way that many people can not. {Myself, unfortunately, included.}

When I mention to people that I like to can, I often get weird looks like I just sprouted a third eye or have green ears or something.

Hi, my name is Devin; I like to can; and no, I am not from another planet.

It's not just canning that I love. I enjoy everything about being in the kitchen--cooking, baking, even meal-planning. There is only one major exception--dishes.

And all the mommies said, "Amen."

I would say, right from the get go, that if you are a person who can barely drag yourself into the kitchen to throw in a couple of frozen pizzas for supper, then canning may not be up your alley.

It's alright. Don't feel bad about not cooking! We all have our thing.

{Just make sure that you are giving your children and spouse a multi-vitamin each day. Bwahaha.}

The kitchen, to me, is the hub of the home. So much goes on there--meals, learning time or homework time or project time at the table, socializing, family time or devotions or prayer time....I could go on and on. Being in there and being a part of all of that just makes me happy.

{And creating lots of yummy stuff while all of that is going on around me makes my tummy and five other tummies happy, too.}

Contrary to what most people immediately think, I can for several reasons--not just to save money. I love knowing where my food came from; knowing exactly what ingredients are in those jars; and knowing that there were no pesticides on those ingredients or artificial preservatives in them.

I can things I grow in my garden; things I buy at the farmer's market; things I get from the grocery store (like my peaches--killer deal, so I took advantage and bought two cases!); and anything else I can come up with.

And I get it all the time: "Where do you find the time?"

It's an understandable question--with four children six years and under, I obviously do have a lot going on around here! But, truly, the answer to that question is pretty simple.

I find time to can the same way any one finds time to do anything that they love. Whether it be to 'play' on Facebook or Twitter or blogs, to scrapbook, to exercise or play sports, or to watch television--we all have 24 hours in our day, and we choose how we are going to divide up that time and what we are going to do with it!

Now, with that being said, I won't lie to you. 'Cause I love y'all and I'm just not about that.

Canning can be a lot of work. I was up and starting at 5 (yep, a.m.) when it came to those two days doing my peaches, because I knew the work that was cut out for me and I wanted to get an early jump on things without my four littles under my feet begging for who knows what eighteen different times.

But it's my thing.

I was actually *gulp* excited about getting up that day. I couldn't wait to dig in and start. The satisfaction that comes from seeing the end result of something like that is unparalleled in my book.

{my spaghetti sauce from this morning}

I've decided that I want to branch out a bit, and work a bit harder at sharing the 'goings-on' of my kitchen on this blog. Not something I ever originally intended, but I'm excited about it! Things like recipes, how-to's, and other fun stuff. I'm really looking forward to it!

In the next several days (in between pictures of my littles and all of their activities) here are some posts I am planning and am really excited about:

1. My spaghetti sauce recipe (requested by a reader)
2. How-to: canning tomatoes and sauce
3. How-to: canning green beans

Anything else you may want to know about canning? Leave me a comment, and I will do my best to address it in my next post!

p.s. To all NASCAR fans--don't desert me. I still love you, even if I don't love your 'sport'. We'll just agree to disagree--how 'bout it?