Zorak took all the kids to work on the barn and lower meadow Saturday, leaving me in relative peace and quiet (so there were no witnesses, should the whole experiment go horribly awry) to put up four jars of persimmon jelly and eleven jars of pear jelly. They haven't set yet, and that's okay. The pathetic level of enthusiasm I garnered just hearing the little "pop" of the jars as they sealed, one by one... that was worth it, right there. (I was somewhat certain the whole canning thing may be the homemaker's parallel to snipe hunting.)
Me-Wa is back! He'd been gone the last four months. Long months, for the kids. (Probably a lot longer for Me-Tae!) And today we were able to head up that way to visit. It was good to see him, great to visit. We got to meet the newest member of their clan, little Katie (a golden lab - oh, so cute!) The older dogs are not so fond of her, but she's sweet enough that I'm sure she'll grow on them.
There's a little boy who lives just up the road from them who comes over to visit - he's a sweetie. They play outside, go in to play pool, and migrate to the computer after a while. He hit me today with a doozie out of nowhere, though, and I had to laugh at how it all turned out.
He left it at that, and we moved on to an in-depth discussion of Dodgeball. I'm not entirely sure what the converation meant from his perspective, but it made me chuckle.Boy: You still homeschoolin' them?
Me: Yes, we are.
Boy: What's wrong with y-- uh, I mean, why don't you just send 'em to school?
Me: *aherm* WELL, we like the education we can give them at home.
Boy: Hmpf. Well, they're lucky, then.
There's an awful lot going on right now, not the least of which is that I can't seem to carve out time during the week to be left alone for fifteen minutes or so. Long enough to compose my thoughts, find something humorous in it, and write it up. I've been able to compose my thoughts, but I could sure use a few more minutes to find the humor before having to move on to the next thing. Hopefully, a little more rest, and a better schedule will help. I'm going to give that a shot this week and see how it goes. The kids deserve a Mom who can find humor in the daily things. I'm sure Zorak prefers that, too, over the rather irritable alternative he's been presented with lately. So. Yeah, gotta work on that.
And in that vein, I think I'm going to sweep up a bit, lay out tomorrow's plan, and try to hit the hay before eleven! (Livin' large, no?)
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
4 comments:
It's been in the forties here at night, and the boys and have been sleeping with their window open a bit. The south side of the house heats up so much in the afternoon with the full sun shining on it, that it gives off heat all through the night. I am hoping that we won't need to turn on the heater until late december.
I'm loving the weather!
mere
We've had the heat on intermittently at night for the past week. Mornings are cold, and I may have to give up doing my morning chores in my pajamas. Right now a sweatshirt and quilted flannel shirt are almost enough with my legs still being quite chilly. About 15 minutes into feeding the horses and I've peeled off the quilted flannel, another 10-15 minutes and the sweatshirt is off. Even though it starts out cold, it is still warming up pretty quickly as the sun peeks over the trees. I love fall!
Jelly? I'm impressed. I've only managed to can applesauce, spaghetti sauce and the Y2K turkey. Oh was I scared to eat that turkey when I realized it would not be necessary for survival, but it wasn't bad, and no one got food poisoning. Still, I don't think I'll do that again. I'd love to do jelly and maybe apple butter, but I do find the whole canning thing overwhelming and intimidating.
In response to your recent comment, one out of four ain't bad;o) Na is the only one of my kids who has ever made her bed consistently and without reminding. On good days she lets me have my morning quiet time, but it's hard for her since she is by far the chattiest of my four. Identifying and dealing with snakes is definitely something which requires learning and lots of practice before you can be calm about it.
Hmmm. Flannel sheets is a great idea - I should try that!
Good luck with that pear jelly... it hasn't got a whole lot of pectin & when we accidentally got some in our grape jelly (thank you Juicy-Juice) it didn't set up. How'd yours turn out?
ritsumei - well, neither the pear nor the persimmon has set up as of this evening. The pectin instructions said it could take as long as two weeks. I guess if it hasn't set by then, I'll give it another try.
Jenni - How'd you can the turkey? Zorak wants to learn how to can meat. His uncles do it, and he said it looks awful, but tastes like the shredded beef you can get in some Mexican restaurants. Mmm. I love shredded beef in my enchiladas! So I'm game for that.
Mere - I know. Each year, I try to put off turning on the a/c and the heat.
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