A long, but productive, weekend

On Friday I ran up to the grocery store in Hyrum and just so happened to see that they had a flat of raspberries for $14.99/flat.  Seriously?!  Week's wanted $45/flat this summer and I just couldn't bring myself to pay that price.  Sam LOVES raspberry jam - she ate it by the spoonful when she was B's age.  Since it was a screamin' deal I couldn't pass it up.  I bought me a flat of berries (and later I went back & bought one for my sister).  The berries were HUGE and so, so tasty.

I knew if I didn't get the jam made before the kids got out of school that there wouldn't be any berries left to make jam out of!  The fact that my sister's flat was here Friday, Saturday & part of Sunday and not one berry was eaten out if it speaks volumes of the threat I made to my children!

With one flat I got two batches which resluted in 5 pt jars & 3 3 cup containers.

After jam was made & kids were picked up from school I began the project that is pears.

There has been a LOT of this:

So, so, SOOO glad I have mom's apple corer to use this year.  It has made the process a million times faster & easier.  I MUST buy one of my own for next year.

There have been many of these filled up:

An entire container of this has been used:

I've filled 21 of these:

 I've made a quadruple batch of simple syrup to add to these:

And, in between filling jars and water baths there has way too much of this:

Good thing she's so stinking cute!

 I've done 3 of these:

 I was able to haul all 21 pints downstairs & find a place for them in the storage room.

I've also run 12 trays of pears through the new dehydrator.  I did a batch of cinnamon/sugar, a batch with sea salt & a batch of plain.  I currently have an attempt at fruit leather in there.  Not sure how that's going to turn out - it's not looking too appetizing!  My mom did try one of my cinnamon/sugar pears and said they were awesome though so that's promising.

 The two week old craving for cinnamon rolls won out this weekend too.  We made a double batch actually. Put raisins in one batch just for Travis (frosted them green and the rest white to be sure I didn't get any nasty raisins in one I ate!)

 Brooke adventured out back while I worked and was pretty good to stay right where I could see her.  She has (as I have posted pictures before) discovered the dirt pile behind the fence.  And let me just say, Sister loves that spot just as much as her brothers do!  Worst mistake ever was putting grass in!  If we had just left our lot dirt I'd be able to keep a really good eye on kids!

 Notice how much dirt is on this one? 

 Here's why:

 Yes, he's WILLINGLY letting her do this to him and yes, she does it often!  Unfortunately, they hauled the dirt from behind the fence in the back yard all the way to the road out front and little sister wanted to follow! Note to self - keep the dirt behind the fence!  Sister can roll in it there much easier than by the road!

 And surprisingly, Charlotte has decided that little sister is ok to snuggle with....as long as she's sleeping!

Projects left for the next few days include: finish the dang pears!  (Seriously, I have nightmares about them the last few nights!)  Get cookies made for Travis to take on the hunt (he & Nash leave on Wednesday night).  Once baking is done I have GOT to work on Halloween costumes!  I got them cut out like three weeks ago & haven't touched them again since!

So many things to do & so little time to do it

You know, there just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done that I'd like to get done!  It doesn't matter if I'm completely productive  for an entire day either - I still need about five more hours in a day!

For example; today I dropped kids off at school and daycare and then went to work.  Found out my fourth graders were going on a field trip and I'd have a 2 1/2 hour break between groups.  When I finished with my first group I clocked out and went home.  I got several things done at home and then went back to work.  After work I went back to daycare to get kids and stayed to chat with Laura for awhile because Brookelyn was sleeping.  Then I went and picked kids up from school, went out to Cache Valley Specialty Hospital for allergy shots and ended up waiting to see the ENT as well (The good news is Brookelyn's one functioning tube is still in place.  The bad news, it's blocked.  SERIOUSLY!  I just can't win here.).  After allergy shots we booked it to dance class and dropped off Sam.  After dropping of Sam I took the other three kids to the park to play while we waited for Sam.  We went back and picked up Sam, headed back to Hyrum, dropped off an Usborne catalog, and came home.  I had dinner in the crock pot so I finished getting that read while Brookelyn made a mess out of anything she touched.  Put Brookelyn & Caleb in the tub while me and the other two kids at dinner.  Got the two little kids out of the tub, dressed & medicine-d Brookelyn & sent her off to bed.  Then it was a battle to clean up dinner, get piano done (doesn't help with Sam doesn't tell me she's misplaced her theory book for an entire month & now she's pages and pages behind!), get kids in the shower & off to bed.  While kids were doing piano & getting their showers, I started in on pears.  After I thought I had them all in bed I changed my clothes and before I knew it Caleb was back upstairs procrastinating about going back to bed.  He is the master at this skill.  Then my mom stopped because I asked her to swing by on the way home from work and look at Caleb's latest battle wound.  She was here for about 20 minutes or so.  And now, it's 10:40 and I'm finally catching up the blog.  I still have three Halloween costumes cut out that have yet to get any farther and an obscene amount of pears to deal with.  Good thing I have the next three days off work, right?  Some days I seriously wonder what the heck I was thinking when I decided it was a good idea to take on the day!

See what I mean about Brookelyn making a mess of everything she touches?  Apparently she does like yogurt, she just doesn't like me feeding it to her OR using a spoon! 

See the nice red streak from under the eye to his mouth?  With the awesome help of his big brother his face met the floor at the ENT's office.  Man was that a visit and a half!  The poor PA that we saw!  She's quite pregnant and says to me, "You are one patient woman."  I told her "That or crazy.  I'm leaning a bit toward crazy."  She laughed.  Oh if she only really knew!  She knows our ENT woes, but seriously, if she only knew!

I mentioned pears, right?  We have an OBSCENE amount of pears again this year.  Our tree is amazing!  We've given away 2 five gallon buckets and I've taken a grocery bag full to three of my four schools.  I've got a batch in the dehydrator and this is what I still have to deal with!  I'm planning to try and can tomorrow but I usually only get 10 qts done and then I can't stand the sight of them anymore!  If anyone wants pears, PLEASE take all you want!

The first ever attempt at drying pears in the dehydrator we got for Christmas last year.  I put cinnamon and sugar on them because Travis likes that on the apples.  My sister said her mother in law also puts sea salt on them and leaves some plain and then mixes all three in a bag together.  I need to get some sea salt.

I've got all four trays in the dehydrator filled and going.  I figured I'd get a batch going tonight (why, I have no idea) so that when Travis is getting ready to go hunting he'll have some to take with (he comes home Sunday and leaves to go hunting on Tuesday.  He'll be gone until the weekend and then come home again until Thursday the 4th and then he'll leave again until probably Saturday.  Then he'll come home and get ready to go back to work for two weeks.  Yep, hunting widow.)

Well, since I can't cut any more pears to put on drying racks and no way am I going to start the canning process at 11 pm, I guess I'll go read my book.  I really should sew, but I haven't been to see the chiropractor in way too long and if I sit too long my back and neck start to really  hurt.  Good times!  I will get those costumes done.  I still have almost a month!  Yes, I work better with a deadline, ok!

A rough day for B

Today was a rough day for my poor baby girl.  This morning she woke up crying.  I always let her cry for a few minutes to see if she'll go back to sleep or if she's up for real.  Sometimes she goes back to sleep & other times she doesn't.  After a minute or two the crying became more of an "I'm hurt" cry.  I walk in there to find her on her side with one of her legs stuck through the crib railings up to above her knee.  I tried to pull her leg out and could not for the life of me get it unstuck.  I went in & woke up Travis.  Luckily for B he was able to pull the bars apart just enough that I was able to slide her little leg out.  At this point we both silently agreed the crib would be coming down today.

B was grouchy off and on all day.  She had about a three or four hour nap this afternoon and I thought we'd be good to go.  Nope, sister was a BEAR at the grocery store.  Mostly I think it was that she was hungry & has entered a new found "I DO IT!!" phase.  Great.  She had another short nap after we got home from the grocery store.

When she woke up I decided to put her in the tub.  That always seems to cheer her up.  We stripped her down & put her in the tub and she played to her heart's content.  I finally got her out & wrapped up in a towel & grabbed a few Q-tips to clean out the outer edges of her ears.  When I was done, sister managed to get a Q-tip away from me & ram it into her right ear.  She screamed in serious pain & grabbed her face.  I'm pretty sure she felt it all the way through.  It was at this point that I noticed the blood coming out of her ear.  Hope she didn't just ruin the one functioning tube she had left.  I wrapped her up in her towel & took her outside to Travis and told him what had happened.  He was nice enough to hold sister down while I put some antibiotic ear drops in her ear & stuff a cotton ball in it.

Brookelyn didn't want to eat her dinner in her high chair tonight or sitting in a big girl chair at the table.  Nope, she preferred running through the house with it.  It was when she wanted to take the pudding through the house that mom got mean and told her no.

She was so excited to help her daddy take apart her bed.  She thought that was just the coolest thing ever to watch.  Her brother Nash was kind enough to teach her how to jump on her bed.  Her dad watched for a minute and then ever so kindly tells me, "Yeah, pretty sure she's going to crack her skull open doing this."  Yea, me too.  Thanks for that!  I'm hoping it happens when he's home so I don't have to haul four kids to the dr.'s office to get her head stitched up.  Not too long after her bed was ready we got her a bottle, her blanket and a book.  I laid her in her bed, gave her her blanket, bottle & book, told her night, night and walked out of the room.  I shut the door and wondered how long it would be before she was up pounding on the door.  Not so much as peep.  Either sister was tired or I might have a smidgen of good luck with this bed time thing seeing as how awful Caleb was when we put him in a toddler bed!

Butt shot of Nash teaching sister how to jump on her new big girl bed. 

Getting a closer look at what daddy is doing. 

The big kids put my body pillow under her so that it would be nice and fluffy. 

I love this one.  She was grinning at her daddy.

WHAT?!

I think today is Monday and not in fact Friday.  Took the kids to the dr.'s office today.  That was a mistake.

Nash had to have his wart frozen again.

Brookelyn has an ear infection.  AND the tube in her left ear (the one we put in back in March that has done so well), yea IT'S OUT ALREADY.  There was discussion about putting 2 tubes in each ear.  She goes back in three weeks.

Caleb's nose & ears have not improved despite being vigilant for the last month in doing nose spray & singular tablets.  This means he gets a new set of tubes (his last set was when he was about 10 months old), check to see if his adenoids have regrown and if so take those out again AND there was talk of taking out his tonsils but I'm remembering now that they were taken out last July.  Whew on that one!  The poor kid ALSO has to have the same allergy test his brother and sister have had (that then resulted in them getting their weekly allergy shots).

Seriously?!  I asked the ENT if he was going to name a wing after us in the hospital yet and he said "YES."  Wouldn't that be nice?  Maybe they'd quit sending me a bill in that case?

Nash's new hobby

Travis took Nash to his dentist appointment for me today.  We were having a consultation with the dentist about his cross bite.

The dentist told Travis that the one top tooth just needs to move out in front of the bottom tooth a smidge.  He said that it can be done fairly easily and fairly quickly.  Since those top teeth haven't been in a the way for a super long time, the dentist thinks we can do this the "cheap" way.

The solution and Nash's new hobby: Nash was given a bunch of tongue depressors to put between his top & bottom tooth where the cross bite is happening.  Nash is suppose to put the tongue depressor behind the front tooth and in front of the bottom tooth & then bite down.  Hopefully this will put enough pressure on his top tooth to move it forward just enough to bring it in front of the bottom tooth.  Travis has told Nash that he will give him $50 if he will dedicate himself to this task because it would save him $1,000.  Obviously Travis doesn't know what a retainer, a set of braces, and another retainer is going to cost!  So, Nash is going to give it a go with his tongue depressors until his well check on Nov. 12th.  If the teeth haven't moved enough by then then we will have to figure out which of the three retainers will be the best option to go ahead with.

The moral?: Next time you see Nash ask him where his tongue depressor is and how often he's been chewing on it! :)