Finding joy in everyday living: Learning from mom

I grew up on a farm. My family had rabbits and chickens and a massive garden. I remember as a kid hating to have to go out on my summer vacation and weed. My mom also used to can everything. Peaches, pears, applesauce, beans, apple pie filling, tomato sauce, pickles...you name it? She canned it. Us kids had to help with that too. We also dehydrated a lot of fruit-bananas, pears and peaches for fruit rollups, apples..etc., we helped with that too. And we picked strawberries, blueberries, peaches, apples, beans, peas, cherries, tomatoes, and much more :) As a kid, I absolutely hated doing this. I'd much rather have laid around doing absolutely nothing.

Now that I'm older, I so appreciate everything about food that my mom did. This fall, I've dehydrated some bananas and apples (with cinnamon...mmmmm!); and last month, I finished up washing some peaches, cutting them up, and adding them to my freezer stocked full of strawberries and blueberries. I didn't realize at the time, but not only was my mom teaching us the value of hard work, she was also teaching us how to be frugal and healthy! I can finally appreciate everything she did, and I'm doing it now in my own home. It's hard work!