Tomato sauce for hearty winter meals

My boys helped pick tomatoes from the garden, our best harvest since starting to garden two years ago. I take a moment to feel the sun on my face and listen to my boys laugh and joke as they work. This is my reason, the whole meaning behind choosing this life of slower pace, dirty hands and sweat on my brow. Against the grain and everything I have even known. We haul bucket after bucket of bright red deliciousness. My boys fight over who will get to crank the handle and who gets to throw tomatoes into the hopper. I smile thinking of a time when they rolled their eyes and groan when I first made changes from city life to country living. We have all come so far since those days. Everyone takes turns until all that's left are two giant pots bubbling away on the stove. That amazing smell fills our home for the next handful of hours. As I prepare the canner and ladle the sauce into jars my mind wanders to a not so distant memory. My first time canning tomatoes, unknowing, unsure and praying to hear that pop of sealing lids. I smile and thank God for the confidence he has instilled in me. I cant put into words the feeling I get providing real food for my family that I have grown with my own hands.