Staying busy

Another busy week--only a few more days until we're off for Thanksgiving, and then one more week of classes and we're done for the semester! Can you tell we're looking forward to it?

To be perfectly honest, I can't remember very many individual details from the week. We had some gorgeous weather mid-week, so I took the kids outside and we raked leaves. (Last time, if you'll remember, we had just raked leaves when the big tree next door apparently dropped all its leaves overnight).

By the end of the week, the weather was decidedly colder. When Saturday dawned cloudy and blustery, we realized this might be our last chance to get those piles of leaves off the lawn before rain/snow came. When we started out, it was a family effort, but it didn't take Evelyn and Andrew very long to decide that putting the leaves in garbage sacks wasn't much fun if they weren't allowed to jump in them, so they abandoned us for the swing set. Some 17 or so bags later, we finally finished. (I don't remember there being nearly so many leaves last fall--we must have kept on top of them better than we did this year.)

Inspired by that burst of productivity, I decided to try re-canning the pomegranate jelly from two weeks ago, which still hadn't set. This time, I followed the directions faithfully (did you know that there are actually directions on how to reprocess jellies if they don't set up properly?). This took us a couple of hours--and I'm not sure that it worked this time either. Sigh.

I took the kids to a birthday party that afternoon--them brought them home worn out and they both (!) took naps. (This meant that Andrew got to go to the basketball game that night, much to his delight).

While they napped, I started on yet another canning project (my mother-in-law loaned me her big canning pot, so I thought I better make use of it): this time, we made pear jelly. And this time, I followed the instructions scrupulously--the pear jelly has already set beautifully. (Sidenote: I don't think I ever realized how much sugar goes into jam and jelly!)

Needless to say, when evening finally fell, we were all pretty exhausted.

Our sole picture from the week was of Evelyn--I went up to check on her one day during naptime. Apparently, she didn't go to sleep right away, but sat up playing. (There were books in her bed and she was wearing different leggings from what she wore going to bed). This is what I saw when I peeked in: a sleeping baby in the corner right behind the door (at first, I couldn't figure out why the door seemed stuck). Funny girl. I put her back to bed--but only after taking a picture, of course!

Oh, and I should probably explain one of Andrew's cryptic messages in the previous post. A new Jo-Ann's store opened in town last month (to much rejoicing, since our small town has limited crafting resources). I've been meaning to go, but didn't get around to it. This weekend, I had a coupon for 50% off and so I wanted to go check it out. What I'd failed to process in the mailer, however, was that this was their official opening weekend: which meant that half the female population in town was there.

And, I had both kids with me. I don't know why I thought this would be a good idea--having the kids with me is *never* a good idea when I just want to browse, because I spend most of my time trying to keep them with me, or chasing after them. What sealed the deal, however, was the line stretching from the front of the store all the way to the back of people waiting to make their purchases. We left the store approximately 10 minutes after entering, without (as Andrew says) buying anything.