I miss my husband. Working from home he is a part of our lives to some extent each and every day. Today he was not even available ONLINE, which for those of you who know him, you can truly realize how completely out of the norm that is! No MSN, no gmail, no Google chat… I feel absolutely out of touch with him! And to top it off – no cell of course! Thank goodness he is staying at a mutual friend of ours and SHE got in contact with me this morning to let me know he had AT LEAST made it there safely. MEN!

So our morning started out hectic. It is always more difficult when you are short a set of hands. All 4 kids wanting to be fed at once and Trinity needing help with her meal just adds to the confusion. After everyone was fed and clothed I managed my morning raspberry harvest (I do believe we are coming to the end of the season finally) and I started yet another applesauce batch. The boys are in love with applesauce and though they are NOT eating it as quickly as I am making it they are making a valient attempt. I already have 3 containers in the freezer and a couple in the fridge.

As a super treat I made the boys cupcakes from a cake mix – vanilla fudge swirl. Not overly swirly but absolutely yummy. All I had was my Halloween cupcake papers but the boys don’t mind. 3 eggs later and we had desert. Thankfully it has not hit the hottest part of the week, so I also started my apple leather. My first tray was WAY too thick, I was starting to think I will have to have the oven on OVERNIGHT! So while I cooked the chicken patties for dinner I made a thinner batch to throw in there too. Hopefully something yummy will come from it. The boys have decided I MUST be making candy and therefore they MUST have some as soon as possible. What I have gotten seems to be… leathery…

By the time I managed to sneak in a bath (the boys and Trinity were watching cartoons before lunch) I had already gotten enough done to feel pretty accomplished. I printed off the number pages for 8 and 9 and got the boys to willingly colour 8 (9 will be for tomorrow). Then I went to put on my shirt – STAINED. Just a tiny stain but right on the boob… le sigh. So I had to scrub a shirt I am rather sure will NOT come clean. As if I have the cash to buy myself more clothes. Oh well.

Naptime was another chuckle. As soon as I got the boys settled TRINITY woke up and woke up CRANKY so half way through the afternoon when I had the boys’ pool filled and the 3 of them out playing I put her back to bed for another nap. This time she was kind enough to wait to wake up AFTER I made everyone supper but BEFORE I got to eat mine. Figures!

I let the boys play outside with Trinity this afternoon without standing over them. She had fun, didn’t eat any sand or marbles and they managed to play nice with her AND each other. Definitely a success. I want to try and give her a little more freedom now that she is creeping up on 1 1/2 but at the same time it is hard to let her not be baby any more.

We did work on our last of the requested bugs. Emanuel actually finished his but Zander and Gavin’s are repairing after an ice tea incident. Gavin spilled his at dinner and though the majority of their craft was far enough to the side some pieces are being dried and squashed flat. I really need another table area for the school stuff. I am thinking if we go with small stocking stuff, one toy and then one shared gift for all 3 a table and chair set from Ikea may be the ticket for Christmas. I won’t write out the step by steps on this one since it is a little complicated but here is the link if anyone is interested:

http://www.dltk-kids.com/CRAFTS/INSECTS/mhandprintbutterfly.htm

It was great fun and turned out kinda cute creepy. Emanuel is VERY happy with his. The plan is once all these bugs are done, is to put them all up in the twins’ room. Their room is pink so anything more boy oriented is exciting to them and the scotch tape is forgiving to the paint.

We took our ornaments out of the Borax mixture. The kids are VERY happy with the result though next time Zander wants to use a white pipecleaner so his purple tinted Borax mixture shows up more than it did on the yellow. They are VERY heavy but glitter ever so nicely. I wish I could get the sparkle better in my pictures. The excitement with the boys was plain though.  And already they are making plans as to who will get them next time! This is so exciting for them – the ability to make and give away something precious.

I spent some time last night working on the beads. Definitely NOT something the boys could make, but I am thinking under supervision they could easily use a needle and thread and string them themselves. I am very happy with how they look and am already having fun cutting pages to get the colours I want. I just need to work on a more even winding to get the more traditional bead shape I am trying for. Quite a few of mine ended up with the look of a top. Pretty but not quite what I was shooting for.

I am debating taking a day off from the applesauce, my thumbs are now stained from the apples and I am a little bit tired of pressing out the apples. I figure I have kept up with going through the ones that are falling on the ground to the point where I am picking what I can reach so if I take a day and just be diligent with getting the good ones that fall or I can reach then on Friday I can go nuts. If the apple leather becomes a bit less of a shot in the dark I may use up a ton of my sauce making that. Of course today was already quite warm so it will depend on the weather. I am not sure if I want to get up on a stool and dig out my dehydrator. That may be something Ken and I should do together.

I am really wishing I had had more time to sew today. I am set on tomorrow starting that new stitch for my brother.  I am going to use the silver I had to frog out of my nephew’s I am sure there is enough for this one… at least I am pretty sure. Every time I have set out to dig out my big piece of fabric to cut a piece I have found something ELSE to do. Focus is not exactly high right now on anything not kid or food related for some odd reason! I have some triangles already cut for the beads as well so either I will cut more triangles or make up the prepped paper. AFTER the fabric of course…

Ken and I have a very unique relationship. We seem to fight like cats and dogs the moment one of us is not in the same town. Like if one of us heads off to Minnesota or South Carolina. We work so well together but apart… it is like the countdown has started for our first fight. Online or on the phone we just seem to clash, and we both know it is coming. I am hoping THIS time will be different, but the best I can figure is it is born out of a frustration about being apart. This could be why Ken working from home works so well for us. We like that constant contact (as long as there are times when he is secreted away or I am not here). Our family works best as a complete unit which is a great strength. I can certainly picture myself 50 yrs from now with Ken, heck the rest of my life can’t be long enough! My very own imported American Penny.