Gigi&#039;s Blog &raquo; Tales of the Mortician&#039;s Wife

{Linked up with Strangers & Pilgrims}

September 9, 2016 - 5:03 am

admin – Mrs. B, thank you for your kind words! We love to find vintage dresses, anything that is not too modern, really. We search thrift stores for such dresses which is where we have found them. Yes, they are homemade, but not by me. Shamefully, I am not the best at sewing – I am just learning, really. The best I have done is make a skirt! My daughter loves to sew and we are trying very hard to help her learn to sew an entire dress {We need help on the bodice part} so she can start making her own over time.

September 8, 2016 - 9:52 pm

Mrs. B – Congratulations on your girls’ ribbons and hard work! Where do you find the adorable dresses your girls wear? When my girls were little I made them several dresses like your girls wear, so just out of curiosity I was wondering if you sewed them? 🙂 You have such a beautiful blog, and beautiful family.

The Best Infant Swing

Friday, September 2, 2016

“The BEST infant seat is mother’s arms,
The BEST baby swing is mother’s lap in a rocking chair,
The BEST stroller is mother’s body,
The BEST nursery record is mother’s own heart beat,
The BEST lullaby record is mother’s singing, and of course,
The BEST food, pacifier, electric warmer, and tranquilizer can be found at the mother’s breast.”

~ Above Rubies, Sally Simmons, Nebraska

I read the above quotation in a Bible study book I was studying a few years ago on mothering … it struck a chord with me. I never forgot it.

Maybe because I remember shortly after having our second baby, I was suddenly convinced that our society carries our babies around in “items” far too often. There are swings, baby car seats, bouncy chairs, seats, musical toys, all of these gadgets for babies. I have even seen a stroller and a car seat with a specific holder for an i-pad so the baby can watch a movie while they are driving or strolling.

I suddenly felt, as a new young mom, that we had missed the point. I also recalled seeing beautiful African mothers, during my month stay in Zambia with my husband two years earlier …. they carried their babies everywhere. Tied to their backs, babies on hips, toddlers holding on to their momma’s skirts … the mothers always seemed to know where their little ones were and their babies were always snuggled warmly against their mother’s bodies. It seemed so lovely, so natural.

But not in North America.

For example, does a baby need to be in a car seat beyond the car, I questioned? …. so, I began to carry my two week old infant around, in public areas, in my arms instead of in a car seat or in a stroller. I would just carry her – to church, to the store, to wherever I was going. It was simple, it worked and it was healthy for her, I believe.
I realized how silly it was to walk around with a baby strapped in a plastic bucket car seat when this wee, cozy baby could have been snuggled in my arms while I walked about doing errands. Hadn’t I waited 9 long months to hold my baby in my arms? Why then would I quickly find a store bought object – a swing, a bouncy chair, etc. – to hold my baby when my arms were ready and waiting?

Parked in the doctor’s office parking lot, I unbuckled my little baby from her car seat. I remember leaving the infant carrier in the vehicle and tucking my baby in my arms, wrapped in a pretty pink blanket. I walked in to the the doctor’s office, a little pink bundle in my arms, for her two week checkup, and my toddler holding my other hand. It felt odd to the be the only mother in the waiting room without an infant strapped into a car seat. I do remember some stares and I actually felt like someone would ask me why I was not putting my infant in a carrier.

Fast forward ten years …

The personal idea of avoiding store bought items to help hold my babies continued with each child I birthed. Slowly and eventually, we got rid of the swing, the bouncy chair, the bumbo seat and the likes and replaced all these items with our arms, our laps and our attention. And siblings. 🙂 Siblings definitely help when it comes to playing with the baby and entertaining the littlest one of the family.

Since that day 10 years ago, I have always left the baby car seat in the vehicle {once the vehicle is parked} and carried our babies about – either in a sling or simply in my arms. We actually rarely even use a stroller as it is easier to use a sling or wrap or carry the baby in your arms (in case of long outings, we will indeed bring a stroller to carry all the food and goodies, etc. as a stroller is very handy for such items!). With our seventh baby now in our home, it has meant an intentional slower pace, a longer time rocking him in the evening & singing his favorite lullaby to him as he falls asleep. I can use this time to pray over him, to think about my day, to be quiet, to be un-hurried.

And personally, I wouldn’t trade it for the fanciest baby swing or newest trendiest stroller in all the world.

P.S. A really great article about this is posted here, entitled “In Africa, We Carry our Children so They Feel Loved.” I found it very fascinating.

Babies, Large Family, personal

by Gigi

6 comments

September 9, 2016 - 1:27 am

Liz bronsveld – Love this. I wear the baby(well she isn1 now!) and my almost 3 year old everywhere! I think we’ve used the stroller once while I was in recovery this spring! But ever then, Mike wears Alice as that is her safe place and in such times, she needed that.
I completely believe hold and having contact, breastfeeding until they’re ready to wean(L is still nursing and shows no interest in stopping, so tandem we continue) and all the wondering attachment bonding we can give as mothers. It’s a beautiful roll we are here to fulfill and raise our kids secure and loved

September 6, 2016 - 2:14 pm

Rachel – I don’t understand car carriers for carrying babies. They weigh more than the baby does and seem so cumbersome! Poor baby gets bounced and jolted around in there.

I’m wondering though if you have any good DIY tips and tricks for an inexpensive sling? Something to strap baby close to your body when you need your hands free. I’ve found some online but they are so expensive!! I’m not sure a good piece of fabric and some ingenuity couldn’t make something much better (and prettier). Any ideas?

September 4, 2016 - 4:03 pm

Tawnia – You so often speak what is in my own heart! With our fourth and final baby girl I am finding she is in my arms more than any of the others. She does have a bouncer she adores but most of her day is cuddled against mommy or one of her sisters. It seems like a much more natural place for her to be.

September 3, 2016 - 8:30 pm

admin – No, my arms never really hurt! Isn’t that strange? I think I have just become accustomed to carrying someone a lot.
Yes, I need to go through his photos. I had camera troubles (a corrupt card – boo hoo! Lost a LOT of images) that night and have had to send the card away. Praying it gets fixed.

September 3, 2016 - 3:42 pm

Maike – It is indeed thought provoking and I like your way. I think you are very glad to have all the other little ones to help you out. Doesn’t your shoulder/arm fall asleep and hurt badly after a few minutes? Btw you never showed the other pictures of the little man that you wanted to show ^_^

September 2, 2016 - 11:57 pm

Brenda (Gigi’s Mom) – BEAUTIFUL … and thought provoking! What a great post, Gillian! I love this xoxo

Homemade Hot Sauce {Canned}

Monday, August 29, 2016

The canning pots have not taken a break over the past week or so, nor has the pressure canner …

I had hoped to start school early (as the girls keep requested to crack open our books – Praise the Lord!) but these tomatoes keep ripening 🙂 and they must not go to waste … so, we spend our morning, chopping, dicing and prepping for the next recipe. We are starting to mix school in with our canning – because one can work that way while homeschooling! I either read aloud to them while they cut up the tomatoes or we listen to an audiobook relating to the science topic we are starting to study. Piano is getting practiced, books are being scheduled formally as “reading material” and even the math program had a workout today. I’m call this a soft launch to school. 🙂
Sadly, I fear the rest of my home is feeling neglected – but canning season will only last for so long. I will have all fall to clean up the inside – at least, that is what I keep telling myself…
As requested … I am going to post another recipe I have used this year in canning. We are loaded – and overloaded!- with an abundance of beautiful tomatoes! I have never had quite the bountiful harvest before and while it is daunting, it is also exciting to try out new recipes or ideas to use with tomatoes, instead of just canning diced, whole or sauce.

My husband LOVES hot sauce. I must admit, in the past, I considered it an insult when he would glance around the dinner table, fill his plate with the food I prepared and then pour hot sauce ALL.OVER.IT.

But I have learned a few things …

1) Hot sauce is actually very good for you!

2) It doesn’t really matter. If it makes him happy and helps his meal taste better, I will choose to not take it as an insult.

So this year, I enlisted the girls help and we made daddy his own hot sauce with our abundant tomato crop and our fabulously growing hot peppers.

Abby now has a year’s supply of it, canned away. We will also give a few jars out for Christmas (his dad is also a lover of hot sauce).

It was fairly simply to make – not much more work than creating salsa. Of course, we wore gloves while chopping up the peppers because those little hot peppers are awful if you touch your eyes or mouth by accident!

Hot Sauce Recipe

(adapted from www.pickyourown.org)

8 cups (64 ounces) diced tomatoes (we made the recipe x4)
hot peppers – enough to yield about 1½ cups seeded, chopped (we used banana peppers)
4 cups distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons canning salt
2 tablespoons whole mixed pickling spices

Cheesecloth (6″ by 6″) or a spice bag

Prepare your tomatoes by dicing them and putting them into a pot. No need to skin them -just cut them up and place them in a large pot. Next, prepare your lovely hot peppers. Careful – do wear gloves as they will burn your skin. Take out as many seeds as possible. Chop and place into the same pot as your tomatoes.

Now it is time to mix in your vinegar, canning salt and pickling spices. Scoop out your spices and place them in a cheesecloth bag in the sauce. Mix together and simmer to a boil for 1/2 hour or so. I added some hot pepper flakes to the pickling spices, as well. Simmer long enough to ensure your tomatoes and peppers are soft.

After it has cooked long enough, it is time use your tomato press – or you may possibly use a stick blender or a food mill. I think it would work just the same and be less messy – but I have this lovely tomato press that I used for this recipe.
Ladle your sauce mixture through the press and it will squeeze out all the tomato juice, taking out the seeds and skins. This will also remove the seeds from the peppers, leaving you with a tomato-pepper sauce.

It is a messy job!

Return the strained sauce into the pot to simmer for another 20 minutes or so.

Now it is time to fill your clean mason jars with your hot sauce.

Fill your jars leaving a 1/4″ space from the top. {Do not overfill your jars or they will not seal.}
Wipe rims, place new canning lids on top and place into water bath. Process for 20 minutes.

Remove from water bath and allow to sit on the counter or table untouched overnight. Check the seals in the morning {if you are new to canning, email me and I can explain this more or you can just google this} and store away for future use.

Making your own food at home is so much more resourceful and satisfying than simply purchasing as a store. Not only do you know what is exactly in your product, but you can make your hot sauce as hot or mild as you need it to be.

Who says being a “housewife” is dull? There is so much to do and learn – every day is a new adventure!

Around the Home, Canning, For the Pantry, Homemade is Best, personal, Uncategorized, {DIY}

by Gigi

1 comment

September 1, 2016 - 11:31 am

Brenda (Gig’s Mom) – WOW! Those Gauthier guys will be so blessed! Abby is a lucky man to have such caring women looking after him. Gillian, you are setting a good example of how to love your man!! The hot sauce looks great! Good work, Gauthier Girls!!!
PS: I love the way that Lovelyn has her little toes wrapped about the bench, balancing herself while she uses the press! So cute and adorable.

Homemade Tomato Sauce {the easy way}

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

“Ma and Laura picked the tomatoes…

There were enough ripe tomatoes to make almost a gallon of preserves.”

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder , The Long Winter

I am so grateful – we have an abundance of tomatoes and I do mean an abundance – flowing out of our garden. It is wonderful!

The girls & I have been very busy working with all the lovely red, ripe (and sometimes green) tomatoes that we are picking … I am pretty sure we will not run out of tomato sauce at all until next year’s garden harvest. Nor will we run out of anything tomato related ….

This year, we are working on the following with our bountiful tomato harvest:

diced tomatoes
spaghetti sauce
pizza sauce
tomato soup
tomato salsa
HP sauce
hot sauce with tomatoes and banana peppers
and homemade ketchup

I am so grateful for an outdoor “kitchen” (I say that loosely because it is a patio by our back door – but it has a kitchen table, the bbq, a cooking plate to boil water and run the water bath canner with and a propane boiler for me to work with for large sauce pots, etc.) I cannot imagine how dirty and sticky my real, inside kitchen would be right now. In the future, I’d LOVE to have a wood burning stove outside for all my outdoor canning projects, but I am so grateful for the propane burner and hot plate that allow me to can outside while the girls play, run around and, of course, help their momma out with all the canning projects.

At the end of each canning session, you can simply hose off the patio and give it a good sweep. I leave all my canning ware (jars, salts, water bath pots, etc.) outside on the patio until canning season is over. It is very handy to not have to put the pots away in the basement or pantry each time. I also can hose out and wash and scrub the big sauce pots with the outside backyard hose as that is much easier than trying to fit the big pots into the kitchen sink.

This week, we finished up a huge massive lot of spaghetti sauce and diced tomatoes, along with some pizza sauce. (I will share the pizza sauce recipe I used later this week.)

Here is the recipe for the spaghetti tomato sauce:

roughly 25 lbs of tomatoes (I simply filled my big huge pot with tomatoes that I diced – I am not big into measuring so I just estimated at this part as I was not able to weigh all the tomatoes)

1/2 cup chopped fresh onions

3 Tablespoons of oregano
3 clove of garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
2 Tablespoons dried or fresh basil
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
2 Tablespoons dried pepper flakes
2 teaspoon salt (optional – I don’t usually salt my recipes)
1/4 cup lemon juice

Here’s my secret to making an easy tomato sauce. I do not peel my tomatoes- this saves a lot of work! As the tomatoes cook, the skins break down and I puree the sauce with a stick blender, leaving the sauce nice and thick with no trace of tomato skins. This, in turn, makes the sauce even more healthy as so many nutrients are lost when you peel the tomatoes. So if you can convince yourself to skip the skinning of tomato step, you will not only save yourself labour, but you will also boost the healthiness of your sauce or other canned tomato goods! In fact, eating tomato skins helps decrease the chance of strokes, heart attacks and cancer. That’s one big reason to leave the skins on your tomatoes, ladies.

Mix your diced tomatoes with peppers, onions and garlic in your large pot. Start cooking on a low heat and add your spices, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves and lemon juice. Adjust the spices according to taste. Simmer on low for a few hours until sauce is thickened slightly. The longer you simmer, the thicker your sauce will be.

We simmered the sauce on low all day outside over a propane burner.

The girls helped dice up all the extra ingredients ….

… including fresh basil and oregano from the garden (so lovely!)…

Lots of stirring and simmering …

In the meantime, we diced up more tomatoes and water bathed them for future recipes {soups, sauces, etc.}. We cold packed the diced tomatoes in warm, sterilized canning jars, adding a 1/4 teaspoons of salt to each jar and tablespoon of lemon juice. Just for the sake of writing down some instructions …. (assuming you know a bit about canning already, these instructions are very vague) ….

Wipe rims clean, seal lids and water bath the jars for 35 minutes. Start timing once the water in the water bath pot is actually boiling. After the time is up, remove the jars from the hot water and allow them to cool, leaving them alone for 24 hours. Check seals to ensure the jars are sealed (the jar lid will be suctioned down tight).

By now, the sauce was ready for storing into the jars and lined up ready for the water bath.

Process in the water bath for 35 minutes.

When the day is over and you glance across your counter filled with glorious jars of red, beautiful spaghetti sauce, you will be feel tired and extremely fulfilled. At least, I did. There is truly nothing more satisfying than feeding your family food you’ve grown or canned and prepared with love.

P.S. We are not finished with our tomato crop so this means … pizza sauce, hot sauce … lots of tomato products… I am hoping to post those recipes soon, if that is of interest to you.

linked up with Strangers & Pilgrims on Earth

Around the Home, Canning, Foodies, For the Pantry, Homemade is Best, personal, {DIY}

by Gigi

5 comments

August 29, 2016 - 2:56 am

Rebecca – Yes please post more! I love your canning and herbal posts!

August 27, 2016 - 8:59 am

Brenda (Gigi’s Mom) – Time for you to write the book Gillian – you have surpassed your Momma!! And I am so very proud of you …. Gillian’s Homestead Canning Methods!!

August 26, 2016 - 5:38 am

admin – I have learned from the best! I still think you should have a canning book or blog, mom … in your spare time… 😉

August 25, 2016 - 9:53 pm

Brenda (Gigi’s Mom) – I also do not remove my tomato skins when canning them. 🙂

August 25, 2016 - 9:51 pm

Brenda (Gigi’s Mom) – It’s great to see the girls helping Momma with the preserving!! What a great heritage you are giving them!! A true homesteading family, you are 🙂 Love all the jars of tomato sauce! Good job, Gauthier Girls! xoxo

A bit of Rambling

Friday, August 19, 2016

For the past week or so, things have been so busy. Coming home from our camping trip at the beginning of the month, it feels like the to-do lists have not stopped. It is all work at home type projects so for that, I am grateful. You will not find me out running about off our little property often. I like my home and I enjoy doing work around it with my family and children.

We re-did the school room, which meant massive organizing of books and school related supplies …

I have been canning everything I can get my hands on, which then means the canning room downstairs in our 100 year old basement (not too pretty) needs refreshing and organizing … the meat birds are growing and needing a new pen … we signed up for a bulk ordering program and our first order arrived this week. This, too, means some more organizing and locating of storage bins for food (our first order was fairly small, but still, it needs some organizing).

{breakfast outside on a hot summer morning}

A little thing … I started a sour dough started and am praying I can follow through with it – just need a little determination. 🙂
Our garden is doing great – despite the drought-like conditions this summer in Ontario. We are struggling to keep it watered and I will secretly grateful, in some ways, to finish up the garden. In other ways, I am already excited to plan out next year’s garden as I would like to see MORE produce coming from our little plot of land.

Things we missed out on growing or needed more of:
garlic
we need more onions
more potatoes
corn
more carrots
pumpkins
zuchininni

I’m sure there is more but that is what I can think of right now.

Things we did great with:
despite having the horned tomato caterpillar to contend with ….
tomatoes
(we picked three bushels in one day! We will probably have more today, Lord willing)
Peppers
spinach
beans (next year, I will grow more)
squash (not quite ready but looking good)
potatoes
lettuce
turnip
herbs
cucumbers

We invested in some meat – 50 lbs of pork and 50 lbs of ground beef from a Mennonite farm so that meant the freezer(s) were to be organized, as well. I hope to make sausages this fall!

This weekend, my plans are to organize the canning room and can away all the tomatoes that we have harvested from the garden thus far.
I might just can them as diced tomatoes or I may make up a sauce to can since the kitchen herbs are so lovely to use right now. Salsa is on the agenda for next week.

We have canned/put up the following so far:

strawberry jam and mint jelly
cherries
{We still have a great variety of jams in the canning room so I did make many types of jam this year}
peaches
green beans
sweet corn
(frozen – as pressure canning on my wood cookstove for the required 1.5 hours did not sound appealing in this heat wave we have been experiencing)
tomatoes
dill pickles
bread and butter pickles
relish

{shucking 220 cobs of corn}

I’m tempted to try canning potatoes – is that odd? And maybe some stews and soups for the fall school days.

I am SO looking forward to apple season! It is such a delight to put up apple preserves, apple butter, apple sauce, apple pie filling and more for the winter months. And it makes your house smell so cozy and lovely! Although we do have our own little orchard, we tend to just eat all the apples as they ripen. However, every year, we have a friend who allows us to pick her apples and we had more than enough for last year’s supply. It was such a blessing!

And tonight, we are dedicating our sweet baby boy – it is a pleasant way to get together with loved ones and family to celebrate your baby and promise to raise him according to the Bible. There is no fancy formal dedication – just a grandpa praying over his grandson, but that stirs my heart plenty. I’m grateful for godly grandparents on both sides of our family. What a heritage. God is good – I know both sides of the family have had their struggles in their early years of Christianity and I am so very, very, very grateful that both sets of grandparents have stayed true to the Lord. Praise God!

How is your week going?

P.S. I have some cute pictures of Lazarus in his *adorable* dedication outfit – I shall work on posting that for this weekend … if I can stay up past the girls’ bedtime and not fall asleep myself. 🙂

Around the Home, Canning, children, Families, personal

by Gigi

7 comments