Busy Days

I have several recipes to add from this past weekend and all kinds of things to share, but it has been so busy around here I really haven’t had much time!  That’s a good thing, I think.  So much happened over the weekend I can’t put it all in here, but I will probably put some short blurbs on things in with the recipes I post tomorrow.  I like to make something that I can make more than one meal out of, so I’ll show you how I made one meal into three in a bit.

But this post isn’t about cooking.  This is my ramblings for how fun and enjoyable our weekend was. . . . for the most part.  Saturday was a typical morning.  Kids woke us up a bit before 6am(my kids believe sleeping in is against the rules I think).  Got up and made some buckwheat pancakes(my kids call these chocolate pancakes though because of how they look) for breakfast.  My husband left to do some jobs and I started on my Saturday cleaning/laundry/major cooking spree!  I started apples for apple butter and put a big Deer Roast with potatoes and carrots in the oven.  Then came the massive amounts of laundry.  I don’t mind washing, drying(love my clothesline), and bringing in the clothes.  I don’t even mind the folding part, but I don’t like putting the clothes away.  All those drawers and getting stuff to fit right(between the 8 kids we have 5 dressers). . . . just to have the kids rummage around and get half of it on the floor the next morning.  My rule is I will fold it and put it away the FIRST time, but after that it’s their responsibility.  The older girls are quickly learning to be more careful picking out their clothes.

Anyway, over the weekend I started in on a different room in the house.  I’m on a cleaning bent these days to declutter and organize our house.  With this many people living in our house we have to keep stuff simple or we get over run.  I’m working on getting rid of things we don’t need or use.  It’s a slow process but I’m making steady progress.  Over the weekend I went through the kids books, kids movies, and grown-up movies.  Today I went through our cd’s.  I WILL finish this goal.  I’m vearing off topic here so more on  my New Year’s Goals later.

Sunday led us to Sunday School and church.  Had a great time fellowshipping.  Our church has reformed their praise band and the kids all love hearing the music played.  Sean is probably going to be joining up with them soon and playing his guitar.  He was asking me if he got someone to help me with the kids if he could.  I just giggled at him and reminded him I take the kids to church by myself when he’s gone, that I thought I could handle them alone for the music service.  I don’t think he saw the humor as much as I did.

Home from church and enjoyed our deer roast stew(made from the leftovers from our lunch the day before).  Love having that ready and waiting when you walk in the door.  The apple butter was still in the crock and almost done so smelled wonderful.  Apple butter brings back wonderful memories for me of my childhood with my grandmum.  Will have a whole post on her when I make her Yorkshire pudding next weekend.

After church the kids went outside to play while I got the babies down for naps.  Then Sean and I went out and planned where my garden is going and where we’ll be planting things this year.  I love gardening and growing things.  I am hoping to have time to order my seeds tomorrow and then I’ll give you a run down of what we’ll be planting.

When the babies woke up we went in to start our Sunday movie.  We were ready to start the beginning of the Kent Hovind Creation Series.  Put the first disk in and were partway through the first session when Colin announced the horses were out!  So, out run Mommy and Daddy to chase horses with Bridgett in charge.  Several miles of running later the horses are all safely put away and our neighbors and even more not happy with us. . . .at least all horses, dogs, and people were unhurt!

By this time it was getting dark and time for supper.  We enjoyed peanut butter, honey, and banana sandwiches, plus left over deviled eggs from Saturday.  The kids were bottomless pits so they also each had an entire large orange as well as two sandwiches. . . .   I’m not looking forward to the teenage years.

Today started off with our alarm not working and us oversleeping.  We were supposed to be up at 5am as normal but woke up at 6 instead.  Rushed to get Sean off to work.  Kids had breakfast, got dressed, started some school.  We’re ahead in our regular books so I’m introducing some unit studies totally made up by myself!  Yeap this is gonna get interesting.  We’re working on the 10 commandments now and will be posting some stuff on that so I can get some feedback and ideas.

Today the hall closet in the living room(wierd place for a hall closet where there is no hall) got cleaned out and the cd’s gone through.  I cleaned off some shelves on our entertainment center to move some stuff around.  Once I get done with my cleaning rearranging I’ll give everyone  a tour of our house!

I currently have some apple pie filling in the crockpot and we had some baked apples with our supper of brown rice pancakes, fried eggs, and sausage patties.  Kids went to bed a bit late and are all finally asleep.  Even the dogs and cat are peaceful.  Dogs are on their beds(aka one on our bed and one on the floor in the hallway where he can protect all) and the cat is laying on the living room floor daring any of the dogs to cross her path.  All is well in the Slocum house tonight.