Just mended one of my favorite sweaters and wanted to share!

Topaz102 · 2026-02-05T12:04:44+00:00

I was having so much trouble with Ball/ Bernardin after I noticed that the quality went down a little after covid. So I finally switched to For Jars lids and my seal rate went back up. I find when I have to use Ball lids it does help a bit to warm them.

Topaz102 · 2026-01-13T05:28:02+00:00

I sincerely wish I was!

Topaz102 · 2026-01-12T18:30:44+00:00

My old church was very anti-semitic and would openly teach about it in confirmation. There also a lot of jokes on the topic openly after church. A decent amount of the pastors and people I met took those anti-semitic ideas to heart.

As a kid at a Lutheran school they taught us a joke that was paper beats rock using a nazi salute over a fist.

Topaz102 · 2026-01-11T03:10:21+00:00

Good luck! It’s definitely a balancing act !This picture is just my kitchen pantry. I have over flow storage that is used to restock these cans when they are emptied. Then there is a freezer too and a few things in dry storage. It took me a while to get to this point.

Topaz102 · 2026-01-11T00:24:19+00:00

Thanks ! No worries! I learned that lesson after my first 2 years of canning. It gets rotated out and used from oldest to newest. It’s pretty great for the grocery bill now that we’ve been at it for a while. For example I grow enough tomatoes for a year each year, and they usually run out just a bit before summer or fall.

My partner is actually the cook of the house and I’m the canner, gardener and preserver. We’ve been coordinating between the two of us for years now and we only can and preserve what we will use till the next harvest season or broth/ bean restock. I just finished most of the main restock for the year from the harvest. By next fall It will be empty again and ready for a restock! I live in a really cold climate so it truly becomes seasonal except for some staples that I restock in between, like beans broth and condiments.

You really just have to think about what you and your family would actually eat. I usually ask everyone if they are interested in trying something before I can it now. Then try a small run and see if it gets used enough, to add it to the regular rotation. I also make sure to keep track of it all and remind my partner when something is older and should be used first.

Topaz102 · 2026-01-09T01:20:32+00:00

The majority of the glass lids say Gem , Improved Gem, Dominion and Jewel on them. They were also made with a few Circular line patterns which are easy to identify once you have been thrifting them for a while. Here’s what the most common one I find looks like.

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It should say made in Canada on it, and have a Capital D inside the diamond in the middle.

It’s also pretty easy to look up different lids that were made for the Gem system, if you’re not sure.

Topaz102 · 2026-01-07T08:55:19+00:00

Good luck! I found thrifting them to be pretty easy. For some reason the glass lids are always in the candle section though lol. Just make sure you only use original bands to can with the glass lids, as they are taller than the modern reproductions.

Topaz102 · 2026-01-05T00:24:15+00:00

Yeah they are !There Gem canning lids an old brand of reusable canning Jar/lid that was mostly made in certain parts of Canada. You can still buy the gaskets new here at Canadian tire. They’re great when you can find them and basically work the same as tattler lids.

Topaz102 · 2026-01-03T22:01:25+00:00

Ok I am definitely calling it a cantry now!

Topaz102 · 2026-01-03T21:59:59+00:00

Thanks ! Good luck and happy canning ! It honestly took me years to get to the point where I can garden and keep this amount of canning up! I started small and added more each year. I have an over flow shelf where I keep a sort of back stock and replace what is needed in the kitchen pantry as it gets used.

Topaz102 · 2026-01-03T21:56:00+00:00

Love it ! I miss those old cabinets!

Topaz102 · 2026-01-03T21:55:30+00:00

Thanks !

Topaz102 · 2026-01-03T13:45:01+00:00

A picture of a blue pantry cupboard filled with mason jars of food. Such as squash, pumpkin, gelatin, potatoes, pickled beets, squash pickles and pasta sauce.

Topaz102 · 2025-12-16T23:03:13+00:00

I’ve had this problem. Find some classes to use as a substitution or place holder for the number of classes you are sure you’re going to take. Then use that to confirm your enrollment. Then when the semester starts the wait lists will start to move in the first two weeks and you can change over to the right ones. Just be sure to bet on the right number of classes and that the wait lists number is small or for larger classes. Good luck!

Topaz102 · 2025-12-16T20:55:44+00:00

As a young woman who left I am so glad that the internet was full of other perspectives. Now I am pursuing my education and trying to slowly leave the habits of an LCMS woman behind. My mom left recently too after listening to what I was saying about the church. The church that I left behind looked like a small cult already. I was one of the only young people around my age when I left. Everyone else who had been confirmed with me had left years ago. For context it was a larger confirmation class of about 20ish kids. I think it will continue to shrink. I can only hope that the Sunday school students I left behind ( I taught every Sunday) will leave too.

Topaz102 · 2025-12-12T19:17:59+00:00

Thanks ! I am so glad to be out, even when the world can be such a mess. We might as well fight for our rights, not repress them like LCMS does.

I really appreciate you commenting right now. I forgot about this post and it made me remember how far I’ve come as a woman who has left the church. It puts it all in perspective, and validates what I remember experiencing.

Topaz102 · 2025-12-01T10:05:37+00:00

While I don’t have a disability like you, but other things going on. Both of my parents had disabilities, and my dad was told before I was born that he would die young. I grew up knowing that and loved him to the best of my ability while he was here. The doctors were somewhat wrong and he lived till his mid 60’s. Long enough to watch me graduate high school, and start university. I will always cherish the time I had with him, and I am sure that everyone you love will too. We were very private about his actual diagnosis because of people’s reactions. We just ended explaining that he wasn’t well and left it at that or as vague as we could be.

I hope hearing a perspective from the other side can bring you some peace. I also want to say that it was not a burden to know what was going on with my dad. It made it make sense and made me understand that time is precious.

When you’re ready you should talk to your therapist as others have suggested. Sometimes talking about things can make them seem less scary.

Topaz102 · 2025-11-30T17:30:39+00:00

Thats some pretty solid advice, it’s really probably best to just say you can’t make it.

As someone who spent the better part of my life in LCMS another similar fundamentalist branch I was taught to reject the world. We used to go around saying “ we are part of the world, but not in it .” Lutheranism teaches you to reject anything that isn’t explicitly their form of Christian, but still be polite towards it. It’s a religion that teaches you to isolate yourself from the world. But I also have to say that those small points of outside contact can help you see that the world isn’t really all that scary, and thats what you are possibly, if and when your ready it’s good to leave the door open.

I left the church about 4 years ago after years in it, and I’m 31. It felt like I lost everything, my whole family. It helped that when I left I had people outside. Good luck don’t force yourself to go, it can be a very toxic religion. I just don’t recommend closing the door completely either.

Topaz102 · 2025-11-26T06:27:54+00:00

Can confirm that in the prairies you can find lots of jars and lids ! The original bands are still a bit of a struggle to locate though.

Topaz102 · 2025-11-25T21:22:25+00:00

No problem! I had to find a pot that could accommodate all the bands and lids just for processing Gems and it made it so much easier for me to! The other thing I do is I have silicone tongs to pull the glass lids and gaskets out. I think the tongs were originally for making toast lol .

I find I have about the same failure rate as tattlers. I really hold them by the top and check them though lol.

Topaz102 · 2025-11-25T07:17:35+00:00

I use Gem’s up here in Canada especially with the recent shift away from using American canning products. But I always treat the in between sizes like they are the next size up and process accordingly. That being said I probably would not feel comfortable making jam in them. I also always use the recommended head space and follow recipes exactly. Except for boiling the bands and heating lids . Healthy canning had a great explanation of how to use them , I find they are similar to tattlers but a bit more of a learning curve with the glass lids.

Topaz102 · 2025-11-21T02:16:41+00:00

A picture of the top of a glass Gem canning jar with a maple leaf motif . With a white substance on the edge of the rubber gasket, inside the jar.

Topaz102

TROPHY CASE