Miser Family update: dOnnOr edition

Late August means tomatoes and peaches are coming in, and it means the start of the school year is just around the corner.  And for these reasons and more, life continues to be rich and full in the Miser Family household.

Last year, what with moving and settling in and all, I skipped canning tomatoes, but then, all winter long, I missed having tomatoes in my basement.  So this year, I resolved not to make the same mistake.   Three bushels of tomatoes later (which translates into 21 quarts of tomatoes and 24 quarts of tomato juice), my basement shelves are full to the point of me wanting make more shelves. 

I said peaches are in, but they're "in" just barely: a spring warm snap followed by hail cut the peach output in our state way back.  So I canned a "mere" 12 quarts of peaches (and 4.5 quarts of juice) this year.  

And with all these jars full, I remove the rings . . . 

 . . . giving me a perfect segue into this week's Family Fun Foto theme:  the dOnnOr!

The dOnnOr began a decade or so ago as an "O" themed dinner.  In 2014, we added a philanthropic component.   I cull all the charity envelopes we've received that year, sort through them, and then my family and I work together to write checks to these places.   This year, we don't have the food, and we don't write checks together, but we got to share images related to some of the places we support.  Behold.

Clockwise:

• My sister-in-law nailed the theme with her hula-hooped photo of tOys-fOr-tOts purchases.
• L2 shared a pic of her  first day volunteering at Gilda's Club, a free cancer community/fellowship center.
• My guy comes full circle: Born Jewish, converting to Christianity in his early 20's, and finding new refuge in the synagogue after the 2016 election and particularly after the Charlottesville 2017 rally horrors, he's happy to be supporting a synagogue again.
• Y says she's "Been regularly "donating" (sharing?) my herbs w/ the housemates and neighborhood thru my local BuyNothing :) https://buynothingproject.org/about/".  The herbs include lavender, Thai basil, Italian basil, "I've got lots of thyme", and OreganO.
• N-son and I haven't gotten to volunteer at our local soup kitchen for a while because [pandemic], but we're sending them money and prayers.
• K-daughter says, "D and I support to his cousins missionary project in England. :) I don't have a picture.... But here's a cute picture of B-child"
• I-daughter says, "There are a bunch of charities close to my heart (too many to choose from, and hard to photograph) so I'm highlighting the two closest to my home".   prOps to the lOcal library and to musicfOreveryOne.Org!
• L2, but of course, supports Lu's Labs, the rescue agency she helps foster dogs for.  

You might notice I very rarely mention J-son these days.  That's partly because I can't figure out how to have GoogleVoice create a text chat with more than 8 people, so I have to leave *someone* from the family out of the chats, and partly because when I do include him as one of the 8, he doesn't exactly . . . respond.  Which is not fair; I'm his mom.  (Or I'm 1/3 of his moms, but still).  

However, he does seem to be happy and healthy, creatively figuring out how to live life on his own as a young (handsome) man.  This past week, my guy drove N-son up to see J-son, and snapped these photos, to prove that both of my sons exist and are still buds.

And that's the news from our family, which continues to be rich enough in our adventures that we have extra to share with others.  May you and yours be similarly prOsperOus.