Have I Forgotten?

You are all such dear family and friends that I knew I could "forget" my blog and you wouldn't mind too much. It has been a long, long couple of months, but I think we have finally gotten past the rough stage. If I can keep my food down all of today and tomorrow it will be one week since my children had to yell "She's gonna blow!" That was my requirement to be back to normal - I had to go a full week without getting sick.

Juliana did a great job of helping us through all of September. I have some pictures to post of our fun times with her. I will get to those, as well as a bunch from around the here from before I was so sick. When Juliana went home, my brother Andrew came out for two weeks. He was also a good help, although he doesn't do bathrooms. I have to say though, he did mow the lawn twice for us and that was a great help. You should have seen his face when he had most of the leaves mowed up and it looked great - pride! Then the next morning we woke up and it appeared as though he hadn't done a thing - defeat! I told him that it was ok...its just fall in the U.P. of Michigan. As I peek out my window I see the lawn is covered again. Now that my helpers are gone I just might get a chance on the lawnmower. I do enjoy those moments with my i-Pod and me, bouncing along, singing a song, not a care in the world.

Darren, Blase, Andrew and one of Darren's friends from work, Joe, are in South Dakota doing some much anticipated pheasant hunting. Darren and Joe were suppose to go last year, but if you recall we had H1N1 that week. They are probably getting geared up and formulating a plan as I type. Blase was excited to go along this year. I am sure he will grow into a fine hunter someday. All our boys are showing signs of following in their Dad's footsteps - wherever they may lead. I am also convinced that over half the reason Andrew came out was so that he could go hunting with Darren too. I am glad. It fills my heart with happiness to see my younger brothers and sisters learning from Darren and being part of his life as well. You see...in our family there is no such thing as in-laws. We are all Mom and Dad's children, whether we were born into the family or married into it. I know that is hard for the "in-laws" to understand, but its true.

School is coming along nicely. We still have to add our Africa study back into the mix. The boys are going to finish some of their classes well before the end of the school year. I am already wondering how I will fill their time. I think it will be a great time to do some hands on learning, but that means more thinking and planning on my part. I honestly don't mind too much, its just that being behind in other areas (like cleaning) makes adding research to my list a very exhausting idea.

Speaking of cleaning - I think I will start some fall cleaning in the next week or two. I have started what Darren calls an "official honey do list" for each room. My goal is to tackle one or two rooms a month this winter. I explained to Darren that we buy a house and live in it the way it is. We don't do too much to make it "our house". I want to paint a few rooms and move a few pictures around as well as the little fixer uppers here and there. The house looks great on the outside, now its time to spruce up the inside.

I have another batch of zucchini jam (cherry this time) to make and apple pie filling and then I'm DONE with canning. Darren and Juliana, with a little help from me, managed to can a lot of things. We did spaghetti sauce, chili sauce, tomatoes, pickled carrots and cauliflower, dilly beans, strawberry zucchini jam, orange zucchini jam, pickles and and and I know I'm missing something. I'd also like to try canning pumpkin pie filling, but I don't have a recipe. SEND ME ONE if you have one that works. THANKS! I got to the point with the garden that I told them to just pull the plants and call it good. I was so sick of them picking vegetables and me not being able to do a thing about it. Darren says we are changing our planting plan next year. We are going to be very picky about what we plant. I like that idea!

I hope you have enjoyed the update from our home. I will try to get to the pictures and other posts in the near future. I still have a few things to do to catch up and as of late my energy level does not cooperate. You'd think I was growing a baby or something. ;) I am on Week 15 now. Next month I will have ultrasound pictures to post. So exciting!!

Now I'm off to clean the basement with the boys so they can exchange their tractors and plastic trucks for the Mr. Potato Head toys and dress up boxes. I see pirates in my future! Arrr yee maties - time to swab the deck!