Busy, busy, and busy!

We've had a great weekend! The temperatures were just fantastic, it got as high as 80 yesterday, so we spent most of the weekend working the wood and raking leaves. We gathered both cured and green logs from our woods and sorted out the green wood for next year; the seasoned wood got split. At least until the log splitter sputtered out. Hubby thinks it needs new spark plugs.

Anyway, we stacked freshly-split wood by the basement, and while it is nowhere near the amount we need to last the winter, it felt good to get something out there! Gotta start somewhere!

While Hubby puttered away on the log-splitter engine, I started raking. And raking. AND raking!! Whew! Being surrounded by trees makes for a lot of leaves to rake! I raked only the back yard where we spend most of our time-- around the swing tree, the chicken coop, the wood pile. Then I raked them onto a tarp and dragged the leaves to the garden area. I made 6 trips and I AM SORE! I got a blister that popped between my finger and thumb, my ribcage aches and my lower back is killing me, then add sore arms and picking up a heavy baby.. oof! But it's a good kind of sore.. the kind where you know you did good, honest work to benefit the garden.

Oooohhh!! I am SO SO SO looking forward to the garden next year! we have big plans and hopes and good intentions. I hope we follow through this time! :o) I don't know about you, but there have been plenty of times where I have said I was going to do something, and then didn't. Hopefully Garden 2010 will be the year for doing what we said we will do!

We went to the memorial service for my husband's cousin today. We took the kids with us. He was cremated, so his ashes were in a nice wooden box, parked on a table next to his picture. The kids did alright, I had the foresight to bring notebooks and colored pencils for the girls to draw, and Baby got a little antsy there, but settled down after a bit. I had planned to sit in the back, but apparently, family gets ushered into the front pews and then on our way up, the Baby's snacks spilled out of it's container onto the floor, so I held up the line a little bit and I got flustered there, but whatcha gonna do? I picked up what I could and hurried on. I didn't expect to sit in the very first pew, and I swear I felt eyes on me when Baby started getting loud, but he's a baby, and I thought he did pretty good.

It was a nice service, what I caught of it. I was the only Deaf person there, so they didn't arrange for interpreters, and I didn't expect them to. I knew I would be kept busy with the kids and I mainly went to support my husband. I didn't know his cousin well, he never came to family gatherings, despite repeated invitations. I think I've only met him maybe 10 times in the nearly 13 years I've been with my husband, and even then, it was a polite 'hi-how-ya-doin' kind of thing. He'll be missed, and I hope he's in a better place now.

My jams have been slowly selling! I'm excited, I just sold another sampler set (it's on its way tomorrow! ) and they make nice Christmas gifts to a foodie. They bake well in desserts, too, so don't forget your Christmas baking!

I'm heading out of town again tomorrow, have to take my Mom to meet Auntie and Uncle so they can take her to her doctor appts this week. I'm hoping this week I can squeeze in some time to post some more things to sell in my etsy shop. I have some vintage Christmas items that I need to part with to make room for others... I'll let you know when I update the shop!

Here's to another busy week!

Costumes and Catch up

Can you believe it's November 5th already?!? Cripes! Seriously, where does time go?

Here's that picture I promised of the girls in their costumes: Oldest as a vampire, dressed in black with crimped hair and pointy teeth; Youngest as a purple witch with black-painted fingernails and pointy hat; Middle as supergirl. I found the groovy blue polyester pant suit at a yard sale a while back and bought it to wear for Halloween one day. I don't know how people did it back then, but polyester is freakin' hot!! I was sweating buckets wearing that and ended up taking the jacket off and just wearing the pants with a t-shirt. So much for dressing up!

We had a great time! (Thanks sweetie, for having us up!) The girls got plenty of candy to last, at least, until Christmas and I got to see the brand-new baby, and catch up on the news with my best friend. We really ought to get up there more often, since we always have such a good time, both kids and adults.

Mom is officially retired now. She met us for Halloween and then rode home with me while Hubby drove her car. No more scheduled work hours, no more pissy supervisors, no more dragging herself to work when she feels like crap. I'm so proud of her and I hope she'll be happy living with us. We love having her here and the girls love their grandma!

We have had some mild days lately, so we are working the firewood. Hubby is frustrated with his chainsaw-- it's over 20 years old and it seems like there is always some reason to take it apart and fiddle with it before it will run, and even then, it struggles with cutting. Hubby hints for a new chainsaw, and I would love to get one for him, but as usual, money doesn't permit that. So he does what he can with what he has, even if he's a little grumpy about it.

It's gotten cold today, and I'm tempted to start up the wood stove, but we'll see. Maybe we can get away with not starting it up for another day. I'll just bundle the kids up in warmer clothes, do some baking to help warm up the house and see how it goes. I won't turn everyone into popsicles just so I can put off another day with starting the wood stove.

I've sort of lost my blogging groove. I need to get back into it. Bear with me... it's been busy here and I sit at the computer thinking I'd rather do something else, so I do.

My husband's cousin died on Monday. He was only 40. I feel bad for his Aunt, she found him, and I'm sure she is devastated. No parent should ever have to bury their own child. Services will be next Monday, so we are making arrangements for going up for the day.

Time to put Baby down for his nap, then go out and help Hubby with the wood. Later, dudes.

Lost...

I've been lost in my little world,

drowning in a sea of apple peels,

and surrounded by little (not so green) men.

Since I last posted, I have made and canned 25 pints of various jams

and made 27 quarts of applesauce.

I also just turned thirty-six.

Mom was here for a few days, she called in sick to play hooky with us.

She puzzled over puzzles with the kids, while I busily worked in the kitchen.

We took her to the halfway point to meet Uncle who then took her back to their house.

We hit the thrift shops and came home,

only to discover that she forgot her car keys and my dear, sweet Husband

drove 2 1/2 hours, one way, at 8 o'clock at night, to drop her keys off at her work

and did not come back home until after 1 am.

Thanks Honey!

My son, my Baby, is making up for being the bestest, sweetest baby ever!

He is getting into EVERYTHING!

Nothing is safe.

He has broken several dishes and glasses;

ripped countless pages of magazines, books and newspapers;

dumped the dogs' water bowl too many times to count;

climbs furniture only to get himself stuck at the top;

wreaks havoc in my pantry if I happen to leave the door open;

and loves splashing in the toilet water.

His redeeming feature?

He's so dang cute while doing it!

It's a good life here, in my little world.
I don't mind getting lost,
as long as I am surrounded by the ones I love.

Busy Sorbet

As busy as our life is, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Things should start slowing down a little bit soon. My mom's stuff is all here now, and her home is in the process of being sold, the settlement is just days away. Once the home is sold, she will be debt-free and will have no more ties to Virginia, except for her job, which she will retire from soon. With the house sold, there will be no more calls for my husband to make or reply to, concerning the reconstruction or the mortgage or the insurance people. That's a chapter we can finally close.

Life with 4 children doesn't really slow down, though. There is always something to do, and at times, I am needed by 4 children at the same time, sometimes the husband needs me, too and I am pulled 5 ways. It felt like that, last weekend, when my family was here for the 4th and I was non-stop go, go, go. I don't think I sat down all day Friday except to eat, and even then I was constantly getting up to fetch something or other. By the time they left on Sunday, it was almost a let-down, I had nothing to do and I was still wired up and ready to go somewhere, anywhere!

I've been busy berry-picking these days. I go out and do the "rounds", picking all the ripe black raspberries and now the blackberries are just beginning to ripen. I still have plenty of blackberry jam from last year and I really don't want to make more, but I can't let the berries go to waste. Besides, I enjoy the picking process, walking from bramble to bramble, stretching to reach that lone berry all the way in the back, hoping I don't fall and get stuck with hundreds of thorns. It's peaceful for me, to walk and hunt for berries, usually when I put the Baby down for his nap and the girls are playing in the yard.

Anyway, no jam making, so what to do with all those berries?? I found a recipe for making fruit sorbet. I tried it first with the cherries and it was oh, so good! Tried it next with the black raspberries and mulberries and wow! So now I am extracting the juice from the berries and freezing it until I need it for a new batch of sorbet. I have a whole shelf full of cherry and berry sorbet and no more room for more, so we're going to have to eat some to make room. Yum! Twist my arm. It's really easy to make and for someone as busy as me, I can appreciate a quick recipe for something so delicious. Here's the recipe if you'd like to try making it yourself::

4 cups soft fruit (cherries, peaches, berries, melons etc..)
2 cups sugar
1 cup orange juice
2 tbsp lemon juice

Puree fruit in food processor or blender. In large saucepan, heat orange juice, sugar and lemon juice just to boiling. Stir to dissolve sugar. When sugar is dissolved, add fruit puree. Stir to combine. Pour into 10x13 cake pan and place in freezer. Freeze for several hours or overnight. When frozen, cut into small pieces and in small batches, puree again in food processor until light and fluffy. Pour into freezer containers and repeat until all gone.

I plan on trying this with peaches next! Let me know if you try this.

Finally, a Normal Day!

Whew! 2009 has been our busiest year yet. When my mom's home caught fire in January, the insurance people hired a fire damage cleaning company that will come in the home, pack everything, clean anything smoke damaged, store your items and clean the home before the contractors come in and rebuild. Mom has a lot of stuff, I think I mentioned she is a pack rat, so there were a lot of boxes packed and stored in their warehouse.

Mom's home is almost completed, and they were about to put all of Mom's things back into the home. Ack! No! No, no, no, we want to sell the home and keep it empty! So Husband has been making calls to find storage space and moving vehicles. We explored several options-- buying an old trailer and using it for storage: kind of pricey but it's a permanent solution; buying and building storage sheds/buildings: pricey, plus we just don't have the time to build them and didn't know where we would put the sheds; renting storage space: none of the local storage places have available space and unlike commercial storage places in the city, these local places don't have a whole lot of choices, plus that's a lot of monthly payments to store those things long-term.

Finally, the Husband and I talked and talked and we agreed to put her stuff in our garage and basement. We have a big enough house that we don't really use the basement for much-- mostly it's a catch-all for things and we already decided that we were going to eliminate the play area for the kids. So we cleaned up a corner and moved all the toys and stuff to the other side of the basement. We cleaned out the garage and moved out the truck and van. Then we made the call and they delivered Mom's stuff for a fee (wayyyy cheaper than renting a truck and they also unloaded it, so we saved our backs!). There were 5 truckloads of my Mom's things. Holy cow, what a lot of stuff.

One truck was mostly furniture. Those went directly into the apartment. 3 trucks were filled with boxes, and those all went into the basement and the garage. Totally filled up the place. A fifth truck was maybe half-full, a mixture of boxes and some odds and ends that didn't fit in the furniture truck. It was nice that we didn't have to rent a truck and do it ourselves, which we were prepared to do, but dreading. We would have also needed to drop the kids off at the grandparent's house and that would have added onto the driving time as well. All in all, it worked out. With Mom's stuff here, I can go through her boxes and get a head start on sorting it for her, and selling some of the extras at yard sales or in my etsy shop.

Today, the Husband is off and it's so nice not to have to go anywhere or do anything except just regular stuff-- I'm working on the cherries we picked and he's doing yard work. The kids are playing outside, begging to use the slip and slide. They're pouting because we said no, the ground is still soggy from all the rain we've had, but we have something up our sleeves for tomorrow. If it's hot tomorrow, and it is supposed to be, we are going to the state park where you can swim in a mountain-fed lake! I'll pack a picnic and everything!

And because I don't like posting without pictures, here's a couple of pics taken recently...

Here chicky, chicky, chicky! Come and hop in my frying pan!

Oldest found a four-leaf clover!! What good luck!

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

Nearly a month ago, my Mom's home caught on fire. She had 2 cats; one was caught by animal control and returned to us; the other, Sunshine, disappeared. We all assumed she ran off, either from fear of the fire, or fear of all the happenings and goings-on of firemen and rescue workers tramping in and out of the house. We have been to the house multiple times since the fire happened, but never saw the cat again.

This past Monday evening, we got a call from the people that are packing up my Mom's things and they "found a black and grey cat in one of the bedrooms and to come and get it". What?! No way! You mean to tell me that Sunshine has been in the home all this time-- no food, no water?!

No.

Freakin'.

Way.

I got in the car and drove the 2 hours to my Mom's home, and since it was after 9 pm, I knocked on the neighbor's door to see if they would keep an eye on me while I was there-- the neighborhood isn't what it used to be, and for safety's sake, being in a dark house, I wanted to let them know I was there. The neighbor came in with me and we searched for the cat.

We found her. I can't believe we found her. She was huddled in among the empty shelves in the living room and looked so frightened. I called for her and picked her up-- nothing but skin and bones. She was so light-- skinny from not eating or drinking for more than 25 days. I'm sure she scrounged around, eating stray bits of cat food she found here and there, and drinking water from the toilets or puddles from when they put the fire out. It barely sustained her, who knows what would have happened if they didn't find her when they did.

I didn't tell my Mom until we had her at home, and then I sent an email telling her we had her cat. Her response made me cry. She was so relieved to have her safe, always wondering what had happened to her and where could she be and that she finally cried over everything: the fire, the loss of her things, the cat. I told her that she would see the cat when she came over on Thursday to stay with us a couple of days.

It was a happy reunion for Mom and Sunshine. She hasn't gained the weight back yet, still too soon after we brought her home, but she is safe now, and has access to plenty of food and water.

Mom is doing much better, she knows there is a large loss of her things, but now that her cats are accounted for, she seems better to deal with thing as they come. Now it's a waiting game: waiting for the people to finish cleaning/fix her home and then waiting for it to sell so she can retire and move in with us. It's a bump in the road, this fire. A big bump, but one that we will cross and we can continue on our way.

Treasure Hunt

We made yet another trip to my Mom's ruined home yesterday. The insurance people are packing everything up and putting it in storage so the builders can come in and fix stuff. We were trying to bring stuff here before they packed it all up, but apparently, the packers work weekends. When we went in on Friday, the basement and top floors were untouched. Going in yesterday (Sunday), we were floored to see everything in boxes.

I must say, my Mom is a pack rat, so very little gets thrown away and there is stuff in there that I haven't seen in over 20 years, because it either never got unpacked, or it got buried under other stuff. So when I say we were shocked to see everything packed, I knew they must have had a large crew working to pack everything since they did it all in one day. I was disappointed that I wasn't able to take more stuff home, because they had all the boxes numbered and we were afraid to take any and get someone in trouble for missing boxes. I was all set to get this and that but we were too late. We did manage to grab some of the "loose" stuff, like the lawn chairs (from over 30 years ago and still in pristine shape!), my Mom's baby rocker and some other stuff.

To look at the bright side of the fire, we are finding things that my Mom thought was lost-- her jewelry box, which we thought was thrown out at my Aunt's house, was in her own home all along! It's like a treasure hunt of sorts and now that I cannot bring any more stuff here, I'll continue to go through what we have here and get everything cleaned and put away.


This lovely washstand was my Grandmother's. My Mom remembers seeing her scrape all the old paint off it and then repainting it this pale yellow color. It's one of the few pieces of furniture that my Mom has from her Mom.

My Mom's lovely black jewelry box. I haven't seen this in over 25 years and I remember going through it as a kid. I'm looking forward to sitting down with my Mom and having her tell me where she got some of the items inside.

We found a chalkboard! I don't know where she got it, but if it's alright with her, I want to use it with my kids when we do home school lessons.

My sister made this in 1977 when she was 7. It's painted on the reverse side of the glass, then framed. The wooden frame was burned and charred, but the glass and the painting seem to be ok (see up in the right top corner where it's a little charred), it got wet and the backing is wrinkled now, but a little ironing should do the trick. I'll look for a replacement frame and we can hang this up in the apartment. I think I'll get my kids to make one like this, too.

Hey! Toilet paper! That's treasure, too, isn't it? Most important paper in the house! :0)