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The almost eight years I’ve been married, I’ve heard many women complain about their mother-in-law. While mine isn’t perfect (whose is?), I’m so thankful for her!
When we put our garden in this year, I told Stephen I was going to need help with all the canning and preserving of the produce. I knew it would be close enough to my due date that I wouldn’t have the energy to do as much as I did last year.
A week or two ago, our beans were finally ripe enough to start picking. We asked about borrowing Mom’s canner (we borrowed her pressure canner last summer) and I forgot about it.
The only thing is, she didn’t send the canner over to our house, she came and got the beans, took them to her house, and canned them for me there. She did all the beans for us. If I remember right, there were 17 quarts of beans. We went and picked them up Monday afternoon to get them out of her kitchen so she wouldn’t have to figure out a place to store them. We left some there at the house for Mom and Dad since she did all the work, but she wanted them out of her way so we went and got them.
I enjoy the process of canning, but it was quite the relief knowing it was one less thing to find energy for. I’m so thankful for a Mother-in-law who doesn’t mind helping me like that!
Now we’re just trying to decide whether to plant more beans or not. The plants we had reached their end sooner than we expected this year. It was strange – they were covered in tiny, spiny-looking yellow bugs (caterpillars, maybe?). We’ve never seen any like them before, but I know one thing about them. They eat bean plants. I’m just happy we got as many as we did before they took over!
Thanks, Valerie!
I just found your site! It’s lovely. You are so blessed to have such a great MIL! Praise the Lord!
Jo – how nice! My grandma was here and helped us plant the garden, and that was really nice. I have no idea HOW many years of garden experience she has, but it’s a lot. It was fun to talk to her about everything!
That’s so nice of your MIL!
I have a nice MIL, too. She’s helped me plant my garden the last 3 years, because she has no space for a garden & misses it. It’s such a blessing! (Also, she has tons of gardening experience & I have, um, 3 years worth now!)
Susan, you must really miss seeing her!
Tammy, I haven’t heard of it. I know Stephen is really picky about anything that remotely resembles a pesticide because of our bees. A lot of the things we’d normally use would harm them, so we don’t use much at all. I’ll look into the Safer Soap though – thanks!
How sweet of your MIL. I have a great MIL too! 🙂
Have you ever tried Safer Soap for your veggie plants? You can get it at most places that sell gardening supplies (even Wal-Mart), and you just spray it on the leaves. It really works for pests! and it is safe to use.
What a sweet thing to do! I have a good mother-in-law too, but most of the time she is in Jamaica, and even when she’s in the US, I’m in Canada. So we don’t get to see each other very often.