one busy day

Holy cow, what a day!  Today, I:

• slept (or tried to sleep) one last night in the tent trailer with the babes
• cleaned, snapped and bottled 12 quarts and ten pints of green beans
• did five loads of laundry (oh, shoot!  The last one is in the dryer still!)
• had a fashion show on Skype... the kids showing Liza, Buddy and Doug their school clothes.  (Buddy and Liza critqueing "turn up the color, wear the shirt tucked in...)
• worked on my lesson
• cleaned, cleaned, cleaned
• listened to both the Broadway version and the movie version of Phantom of the Opera (Very loud, according to ZJ)
• watched Doug finish draining the pool
• baked a bundt cake pan, 2 large bread pans and six small bread pans of applesauce zuchinni bread
• delivered a few loaves around the neighborhood
• laughed with the babes, a lot.  (I have silly kids. It was a productive, fun day. 

 A few "moments" of the day:

• Denise's daughter, Ashlee, delivered #3, a beautiful baby boy this morning at 6:30.  She had a rough delivery but both baby K and Ashlee are doing great!
• The bundt cake was beautiful, until I tried to get it out of the pan.  It had a mind of it's own.  It was eaten, every bite.  Every bite.  In pieces.  Not slices.  Pieces.  ZJ said, "It's okay, Mom. It's still delicious!  You're the best cook ever!"
•  Quayd, while trying on his school clothes for the fashion show and putting his backpack on his shoulders: "Does this make my butt look big?"  (What movie did he hear that in!?)  (Hasn't he grown into a handsome young man!?)

• Doug gave each of the kids and myself a "father's blessing" tonight.  This is a tradition in our family since 1984, when Dale started school.  A father's blessing is a special prayer said for each child, specifically, offered by Doug.  (PS.  I realize that he's not my father.)
• Gracie has the most new clothes, but was most excited about the fact that she has shoes with a two inch wedge on them.  She thinks she's all grown up!  By the way, I bought this twelve year old beauty Size 8 shoes!  She got the Bell feet and toes, no question!  Notice, Gracie's hair is in a sock bun, so that it will be curly tomorrow.  I'll give a little demo of this technique if it really works!

• ZJ, always showing her great sense of humor, came upstairs in a costume after several changes.  This time, it was her "Harry Potter Death Eater costume".   She announced, "And this is my special "Death Eater" costume for Halloween.  And if you don't like that, I could do this (covering her face with the fabric) and be a Muslim woman."   She's witty and quick.  I didn't know that she knew what Muslim women wore, but she makes a pretty one, doesn't she?  (Disclaimer:  No disrespect to Muslim women at all.  They are all so very beautiful!)

• Here she is in a real fashion show pose:

 

• Liza and Buddy gave us a Skype tour of their cute new apartment.  I love it!  I also covet their new couch!  It would be perfect in my gallery, if my gallery grew a little and they had an even better one!
• In the middle of the fashion show, Buddy had a silly moment, stood up in front of their monitor, flashed his Mountain Dew t-shirt and said, "Now a word from our sponsor."  He really is a perfect fit in our crazy family.

 

• Mom came over to bring us some watermelon and ended up staying to help snip green beans before canning.  We had one of the best visits we've had in forever.
• Doug was trying to be helpful tonight, during the fashion show.  The timer went off, meaning that the first five quarts of beans were done in the pressure canner.  He, wanting to expedite things for me, lifted the pressure canner to the kitchen sink and ran cold water over the top of it.  What he didn't realize was that lowering the pressure by cooling it so quickly would cause major havoc inside the canner.  Two of the quart jars shattered.  Three others totally boiled out of water, leaving three quarts of beans in no liquid.  He felt terrible after all the work I'd done in prep.  It was all good, he was trying to help.  I felt bad that he felt bad!  But, I didn't feel bad about saying "Get out of the kitchen!" when he kept trying to eat the greenbeans out of the canner.  They had broken glass in them!  Silly man!  I told him, "The greenbeans wasted are nothing compared to a trip to the ER because you ate a piece of glass!  OUT!" 
• Speaking of beans, as I was typing that, I thought about the beans that are in the canner right now.   They've been there a while.  I went to check and "oops!"  You have to turn them on to get them to cook.  I think I'm tired.  One more batch, twenty five minutes at pressure and it's my bedtime!
• The pool is empty and today was the hottest day of summer!  Sadness!  And tomorrow is going to be hotter!  Whodathunkit?
• The babes prayers were tender and sweet tonight.  All three expressed gratitude for a great summer, asked special blessings for their cousin JC, who's on the mend and doing well after his injuries in Afghanistan, they continue to pray for my dad and all asked that they would be blessed to make good choices and be good.  I love to hear their prayers.
• I saw the first Survivor commercial tonight!  Woohooo!
• In the morning, I start my full three mile morning walks again!  Happiness.  These short summer walks in the heat are never enough.  EXCITED! 
• The first school day is here.  WOW.  It was a short but wonderful, lazy summer.
• Isn't this quote fabulous!?


Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little; at least, we didn't get sick and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.

 

Comments

[Nicole]

Love this quote! (and the fashion show pics too).

[Gayle]

Darling big kids. I have been so busy that I had 4 days of Sentiments to read. Bliss, the pressure cooker remind me of a time when Mom's blew up and splattering the whole kitchen, even ceiling.
Nice drive to Ohio and grandkids at the end. I haven't seen this family for 7 weeks!