- Provided my children with a nutritious, homemade breakfast... check!
- Engaged my children with fun and educational activities... check!
- Cleaned and decluttered my home in preparation for our vacation this week... check!
- Made my bed... check!
- Washed and line dried laundry, then folded and put away... check!
- Assisted older child with her daily chores... check!
- Made delicious chocolate chip cookies from scratch... check!
- Canned strawberry jam... check!
- Went on lovely family outing after dinner... check!
- Didn't allow my children to play naked outside... check!
Provided my children with a nutritious, homemade breakfast: Breakfast was technically homemade, but it was leftover pancakes. I make a triple batch at a time and save the rest in a ziplock bag in the fridge for fast and easy breakfasts during the week.
Engaged my children with fun and educational activities: While there was some TV watching today, we also did some craft projects this afternoon. We also did some singing. I probably could have done more, but I was really busy.
Cleaned and decluttered my home in preparation for our vacation this week: I hate coming home from a trip to a dirty house. I also hate cleaning. But I knew I had to do a bit of it so I could feel sane. Tomorrow is an extremely busy day, so I had to get everything done today. I worked my little tail off this morning and got almost my entire cleaning list done today. Maybe that's not a big accomplishment for many people, but for me, cleaning and decluttering is like pulling out my fingernails with pliers. It's torturous to me. But I did it anyway.
Made my bed: I do this every day. I hate when my sheets get all bunched up at my feet. This is the best way to combat this.
Washed and line dried laundry, then folded and put away: I really must take a picture of my makeshift clothesline. I can't stand wasting all this hot air outside and heating my house at the same time by using my dryer, so the other day I strung out a clothesline I bought over a year ago and just started line drying my laundry. I've decided I will likely use the dryer for towel and underwear day, however. Line-dried towels are just so... crunchy. I like crunchy stuff, but not crunchy towels.
Assisted older child with her daily chores: We printed a new chore chart for Lacy today, with the same four chores I had before, plus a new category: stay in bed. Tonight, other than a one-time deal of getting up to use the bathroom, she did it! She's getting pretty good and doing her chores without a fight.
Made delicious chocolate chip cookies from scratch: Well, we have to have some snacks for our trip, and cookies are just so yummy. I was really busy making a million other things, so I figured, hey, what's one more thing in the kitchen? Tonight after the kids went to bed I boiled a dozen eggs, made rice pudding (our breakfast for tomorrow, made with short grain brown rice and xylitol), made strawberry jam, and of course the cookies. This is why I'm blogging so late at night (rather, early in the morning).
Canned strawberry jam: As I mentioned above, I made some jam tonight. I don't have any proper canning equipment, but I know how to make jam and I had enough stuff that I could rig something up, so that's what I did. I really had to make it tonight otherwise the strawberries would have gone bad. To process the jam once you make it, you have to put it in a boiling water bath for about 10 minutes. The company that makes the canning jars also has some really neat equipment, including a funnel specifically for canning, a basket for inserting and removing from the hot water bath easily, and specially designed tongs for gripping glass jars. I had a stock pot tall enough (water is supposed to come above all the jars by 1-2 inches), but nothing else. So I spooned the jam into the jars and made a nice mess while I was at it, made a makeshift grate for the bottom of the pot of water (the jars aren't supposed to directly touch the bottom of the pan), and I just used regular tongs for lifting the jars, individually, in and out of the water. That was a bit of a task! They are quite awkward to handle, and since you're putting the jars in one at a time, there is a tendency for the first couple to want to tip over. Eventually I finished and now I have 6 little jars of strawberry jam, made from delicious Spooner farm strawberries. Yummy!
My makeshift grate:
The final product:
Went on lovely family outing after dinner: Dave wanted to take the boat on a test run to make sure all was running well. So we took the boat out, slipped on everyone's life vests, and had a nice little time cruising around the lake and trying to catch fish. We were unsuccessful, but at least Rose ate a worm.
Didn't allow my children to play naked outside: At first they were actually naked. I was making dinner and I didn't notice at first. I had to yell at them to come inside and get dressed. It took Rose about 10 minutes until she finally came inside. She ran to the bedroom and grabbed panties. So they played outside in their panties for about a half hour after that. Our yard is very private, otherwise I would have physically gone outside and brought the girls in myself. I'm not too worried about someone seeing them outside, because our entire backyard is fenced, and we have lots of big trees and bushes that help block the view. So I guess I get this one on a technicality, since I wasn't really all that upset about it and I didn't force them to come in right away once I realized they were actually naked.
See? Not naked.
*photo removed*
Playing in the back yard, while not naked
*photo removed*
(the neighbors in the house behind us are never outside, and their blinds were closed. That's the only neighbor that we can see their house from our backyard, without standing up against the fence to look out)
Before going on our little boating trip, a motorcycle skidded into our stopped and waiting neighbor's truck. The motorcyclist was a total idiot. Dave always sees this guy riding around about 60 down the streets of our neighborhood. He doesn't even have a motorcycle endorsement, or insurance. He skidded about 30 feet before bumping against our neighbor's front tire (it was a huge lifted truck). Totaled the motorcycle. It was a pretty nice motorcycle, too. I can't help but feel a little bad for him, but this was definitely karma at work! This is why we are so careful that our kids can't get out of our backyard. The street is awfully dangerous with guys like this in our neighborhood.
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