The Young and the Restless

Domestic Diva

Okay, so I may not be a diva, but I sure feel domesticated this week! When I was younger I would always dread the late summer and early fall. Not only because it meant that summer was over and school was starting, but because the cool weather signaled the onset of canning season. Our kitchen was transformed into a fruit processing plant and all extra hands were recruited for peeling, slicing, filling and dicing (not only did I dread the work, but I also dreaded the fact that my mom used those quiet moments alone to discuss the birds and the bees. ha, ha, remember mom? I'm sure I'll be taking advantage of that quiet time with my own daughter some day too!)So this week I reached a huge milestone in my life (and a pivotal moment where I officially crossed the line from young to old!). I attempted something I swore I would never do and I was actually even excited about it. Canning. My friend, Mandy was so nice to teach me the ropes and we spent all day Saturday canning peaches and pears. It was a lot of fun and now I've got 26 beautiful jars lining my cupboard. The only problem is that they look so pretty and after all my hard work I don't dare open any of them! We did try some pears last night and they were delish, so I'm excited to have some fresh fruit to help us survive the harsh cold winter :). Thanks so much, Mandy! As if canning fruit wasn't enough to make me feel all Martha Stewartish, I even attempted strawberry freezer jam. Of course I had to make home made bread to go with the jam. It was funny because I was babysitting my next door neighbor's son the day I was doing it, and after watching me work for a while he came up to me and said "you're doing all this for ONE sandwich??" Yes, it would have been easier to pop open a jar of Smuckers and smear it on some sliced bread, but once you taste that warm homemade bread with fresh strawberry jam, there is no denying that it was worth every second! Of course I had to wrap up my domesticated week with some hand sewn (okay, machine sewn) throw pillows for my couches. I'm really digging the fabric that Chelsea helped me pick out (thanks!). So now I've got all that domestication out of my system and now it's back to the not-as-good-but-definately-simpler store bought versions.

Now for some other random bits from this week...

Kylie was using some scissors to open a package of cookies. AFTER she had opened them, Jason turns to me and asks if I ever washed the scissors. What a random question since usually I'm just lucky to get all the dishes washed, so I asked him why they needed to be washed. Apparently while Jason was watching the kids he let them use the scissors to cut up grasshoppers and crickets to keep them occupied while he did the yard work--a week earlier. EWWWW! Information that would have been nice to know BEFORE they were used to open cookies and who knows what else throughout the week.

We were at Jamba Juice and I was holding Jayden at the cash register while a nice African American gentleman with a rather large hair-do was helping us. We were only a couple of feet away from him when Jayden pointed right to him and said rather loudly "Scary!". At that moment I was grateful for his speech problem because it came out as "Cary!", so maybe, just maybe he didn't know what Jayden was talking about. Although the fact that he then buried his face in fear probably didn't help the situation much.

I was playing with Jayden one morning and told him that I needed to go and take a shower. He turned to me and said "yeah, mommy stink!" Thanks dude.

Jason introduced the kids to these cookie things from his mission. They're called Tim Tams and they are these chocolate covered wafer things that you eat by warming up milk and then biting two of the corners off and then sipping the milk through like a straw. It melts the chocolate and you are left with a mouthful of gooey chocolate deliciousness, it is soooo good! The kids had fun learing the art of Tim Tams and we had fun laughing as each person tried to eat it up before it melted and fell all over. It was a fun family bonding moment (although don't ask me why I didn't change the kids church clothes before we attempted the chocolate feat!). My new favorite thing that Jayden says is "I like Kyee, be-fre me". Meaning "I like Kylie, she's my best friend". Sometimes he'll substitute Kylie's name with Daddy or Mommy, it's so sweet.