Well that time has come… Ken has left us… for 3 whole days! The kids are rather unimpressed that Daddy would DARE leave us for that long, so to make up for it tonight or tomorrow I am going to make a cake mix. I am not sure if I will do cupcakes or cake – depends on whether or not I can find my cupcake papers (I think I am down to the ones I bought last year for Halloween). The plan is to take 5.00 and walk to the closest gas station (thankfully there is one that is not across any busy roads and not too too far for little legs) and get something snack like as well. Oh that and crafts.
Speaking of crafts we got to work on our first official Christmas craft today – Borax ornaments. The original instructions call for making snowflakes out of our pipecleaners which I did for the example one. The boys were much more creative. Gavin wanted a square with a line through it, Emanuel a snowman and Zander “the star made out of two triangles for Trinity we went a little abstract and made the pipecleaner all “bendy.” For every cup of boiling water in our jars you add 3 tablespoons of Borax and then suspend the shapes on a pencil that is placed across the jar top. It didn’t take long for the crystals to already start forming. I cannot wait until tomorrow when we take them out. Three of them have colours in the water as well – purple, yellow and blue. If they turn out as well as they look already we will make more over the next week or so to be part of some of the sets we are giving out to our friends and family.
Everything You Need!
Waiting for Tomorrow!
Today was a big day for the boys – the return of the Lego! There was enough of a lack of cleaning for Ken to set down the law and take them away for a whole MONTH! Emanuel is pretty sure we bought new Lego and the twins are super careful so far to clean VERY well. I am hoping the lesson was learned. ( don’t worry I won’t hold my breath!)
Return of the Legos! (Zander red)
So the applesauce marathon has continued, two batches yesterday figuring out how to get the best results and another 2 today. I am using tonight’s batch to try another recipe an egroup friend suggested – apple leather. There are two ways that I have read about – with the dehydrator and the oven. I am going to try the oven version first as it seemed to be the easiest and least attention required. This has, however, led to a new wish list item for me – a food mill! The way we are making the sauce now I am just removing the cores and then once it has gone through the time in the slow cooker pressing it through the strainer. Hard on the arms! But a terrific resulting prodict!
So I made the mistake of watching the new A&E reality show Hoarding. Not that it is a bad show per say but mid way through I got the urge to clean. I have gotten a little behind on my basic cleaning due to the applesauce making so I vacuumed and put away the toys. Thankfully I have managed to do all the deep cleaning. Just the topical stuff seems to get put aside. I REALLY need to get those last two loads of laundry put away, but I figure I should keep with the applesauce as much as possible.
I have to admit I have lost a lot of trust, respect and faith in my government… Money that was supposed to be here LAST Tuesday is still NOT here today. This is money we are depending on to cover some pressing debts. Ken spent an hour on a courtesy phone at our bank hunting down the “why” which there was no answer and got a guarantee on Thursday. Sadly I doubt that either of us are really trusting that guarantee. Sometimes you feel like that puppy being smacked with a newspaper only for something you DIDN’T do! If it DOES come this Thursday that will go some way towards reconciling me with the situation, but it is going to take a bit before I trust doing forms and working with anything government related. (the optimistic feeling takes a definite hit at this moment!)
On a more positive note, there has been some substantial progress done on the stocking I am working on. HOWEVER I noticed one of the balls at the top of the stocking has the year 1991 in it! So I have to rework that to stitch it out. I did get enough done that I can start backstitching as you can see in the below picture. It is amazing how much of a boost actually FINISHING a portion of a larger stitch can revitalize your interest in it. Ken designed the stitch for my brother James last night so I plan on getting to work on that one tomorrow. I will probably post at least a bit of that one as Ken made up a silhouette of one of the Enterprises. I PROMISE to get some of my patterns for these new pieces up on the site this weekend. I am also hoping on getting some videos of the kids on here in the future.
Check Out the Backstitching - Bottom Left
So beyond Ken heading out in a very hurried and delayed fashion, the house is quiet and I am lonely. But I am sure this will help me get MORE done! Now I am off to cut triangles out of the Sears catalogue – the result SHOULD be in tomorrow’s entry! Check back!
Cheese!