PLUM JAM RECIPE

We are making plum jam today.

Well you know its about time I saw the fruits of my fruit! My plum tree has hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of plums on it. Some of the plums are ripe, some not, some past their best.

RECIPEyou need 2kg plums (fruit weight) or 4lbs (mix of ripe and almost ripe is good for pectin)
1 litre of cold water or 32 fl oz
125 ml of lemon juice or 1/2 cup
1.5 kg of caster sugar (warmed in oven speeds up process) or 3lb

Assuming you already know how to make jam and sterilise the jars!

You will need about 6 jars for this recipe if they are large ones or eight small. I always sterilise loads to be on the safe side.

Chop the plums up, and of course discard the stones. My fingers have turned yellow by the way so wear gloves if this worries you. The chopping up took ages so make sure you go for a pee first and do all your other stuff as you are going to be busy for a while.

Place the plums and the water in a nice big heavy pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 50 minutes or until the fruit is soft. This is not an opportunity to go to the local for a pint or anything, just make yourself a cup of coffee and wait ... you probably need it after chopping up the plums.

Add the lemon juice and sugar now, stir them over a low heat for five minutes.

Bring to the boil now for 20 minutes (check for next stage from 15 mins onwards) , keep stirring or better still ask someone else to stir for you as your hands will still be sore from the chopping up.

Remove the scum from the surface and test your jam, it is ready when it falls from a wooden spoon in sheets. Don't do the taste test at this stage otherwise you will burn your mouth!

Test for the setting by placing the jam on a cold plate in the freezer for 30 seconds, if its ready the jam will wrinkle if you push it with your finger. Lick your finger!

Remove any scum from jam and transfer into jars. Put lids tightly on the jars and invert for two minutes, this creates a nice sterile environment in the led and helps create a good seal. You can store this jam for up to 12 months so long as you keep it in your cupboard.

The jars ideally need to cool over night and initially the jam looks runny, don't worry about this it will be set by the time you have your toast made the following morning.


I am also making breadmaker jam - recipe to follow!

WHAT A BALLS UP

WAAAAAA 7:10 this morning my alarm clock went off! Oh no sorry, it wasn't my alarm clock it was Ellis and he was extremely upset.

I got up to investigate, Seb was telling me he had a ball in his ear. A little silver ball from a stupid plastic party bag maze game, how on earth? I asked him if he put the ball there and he swore to me he didn't and it had just rolled in. I couldn't see how that could happen, but duly had a look in his ear in the light. I was unable to see anything, so I reassured him and went back to bed for another hour.

I quizzed him more when I got up, he was adamant that he didn't deliberately put the silver ball in his ear. He demonstrated how he put his head over to one side on his pillow so the ball would roll out. He explained that he was trying to do the maze without looking at it, he wanted to get the ball into the centre, the back came off the game and the ball just rolled into his ear.

At lunch time conversation came back round to this metal ball. I remembered the doctors torch Mag had got from when he was in hospital in January ..... hmm. Well I shone it in his ear and for a very brief moment I 'thought' I saw something and then it was gone. I tried again to see the ball but no luck.

This bugged me, I searched Seb's bed and his room for this little ball, worryingly I couldn't find it anywhere. In the end I made the decision to take him to our minor injuries unit (its sort of like an A&E but for less urgent cases). Still sceptical I got the nurse to have a look in Seb's ear .... well lo and behold there it was! The nurse even let me have a good look in too which was so cool.

A tiny steel balbearing was nestled under seb's grommet (vent) and it wasn't going anywhere. They tried lubricant in there, plus used a rather noisy suction machine too. All of these efforts just made Seb's ear more sore and distressed him further. Further examination revealed that the balbearing had not even budged a millimetre.

So they are arranging for him to see the ENT consultant in the next couple days, I have to ring on Monday morning to find out when. Seb actually has an appointment at the end of August scheduled to get his grommets checked, but they say he cant wait that long as his ear would get infected. So its looking he might need an anaesthetic to get this ball out, I would suspect his grommet will come out too but who knows! I will update on Monday when we get word on what is to happen.

Oh this is not the first time Seb has had a foreign body - here's another time PEGGED.

Another time involved sweetcorn in his nostril which he sniffed up, I had to use a booger sucker to retrieve it.

BIRTHDAY GIRL

Just a few photos of our day. We had our four children, the two children I am looking after plus another. The boy's weren't having their photos taken (rolling eyes) but never mind here's the girls.

My two extras!

SO FAR SO GOOD

My carrots! They have a bit to grow before they win any prizes, but so far so good.

TRIPLETS?

I know I have posted these photos before but I really had to post them after Tiffany's comment.
This is Toni, Seb & Sol as babies. I dont have one of Mag on the computer because in the olden days we used film cameras, digitals were not invented!

Sol's Birthday Present

Sol's Entrance To The World

Its been four years since I had my youngest baby, who could believe time would fly so fast. Her birthday is on Tuesday and we have planned a little 'hot dog' party. I am child minding this coming week so we have ready made guests thrown in too.

More on the party and the birthday as it happens, but I have to share a little story as I haven't shared it on my blog before. (stop reading here if you are squeamish)

I will spare you all the gory details but Sol was an 'accidental' birth, she arrived 5 weeks early and in a hurry too!

I have complications with all my pregnancies. I get a condition called Obstetric Cholestasis which is treated with a drug called Ursodeoxycholic acid. I also have blood clotting issues including Factor V Leiden, Protein C deficiency and Antiphospholipid syndrome. Due to these complications amongst a few other issues my bloods have to be monitored closely and I give myself daily injections of heparin especially while pregnant.
These conditions gave me cause for concern when I got to around 35 weeks with Sol. I had experienced some spurious contractions and during a routine ob appointment my consultant examined me then announced birth was imminent, she scanned me to check Sol was a healthy size.
With a history of rapid childbirth, I felt a strong urge to get myself up to the hospital the following afternoon. On arrival nothing much was happening but they booked me in anyway due to all the blood stuff going on. Within 20 minutes of arriving at hospital I accepted an examination where the announced that I was 3cm dilated but my waters were bulging.

(THIS IS THE SHORT STORY LOL)I felt tearful, sore, and wasn't sure what to do, I knew Sol was on her way. Roy decided at this stage to go to the shop and phone the family to let them all know where we were. While he was gone the midwife broke my waters, and although Sol was weeks early you have to understand the implications of being pregnant have for me. Once a baby is fit enough to be born for me and for her it is safer so please don't judge me for agreeing to have an early birth, I have suffered too many losses and near misses to take any chances at all. Within seconds of my waters being broken I started to be sick in a big way, at this stage Roy arrived back from the shop. He was shocked to see me in this condition considering a few minute previous I was perfectly compos mentos. I got Roy to help me to the bathroom, on the way there the midwife joked with me "now don't you be having the baby in the bathroom" I turned back to her and laughed!
Well you guessed it, I got Roy and I squeezed into a tiny little bathroom while I was chucking up and then I decided to announce that baby was on its way. I am sure I could spare you the further details but lets just say he had to call for help. Once it was all over (with three of us in the little bathroom - standing room only) my midwife had to go change after I was through LOL! Sol made her way into the world in less than two minutes, no one was more shocked than me. It was funny because he rang my mum again saying "baby and mother doing well", my mum had only spoken to him a few minutes previous and could not figure out what was going on.

Sol had apgars of 9 & 9 to start but she did have a few breathing issues afterwards for a little while. Apparently if the fluid does not get squeezed out of a baby's lungs properly this can happen, in the case of a sudden birth like this then it is no surprise. Summer also took a couple of days before she could nurse properly, I fed her with my milk in a little syringe just a few mls at a time until her sucking reflex was nice and strong. These issues are common with babies born early like Sol, although there were issues, we did much better once Sol was born. As much as it would be nice to have a full term baby the risks to my health and babies health are too great. Sol weighed in at 6lbs 11 1/2 ounces and came home after 3 days which isn't bad going.