Busy Monday, October 27

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Get kids to bus 6:40 & 7:15
• Make menu / Grocery List
• Write Blog
• Get Groceries
• Laundry
• Finish Laundry Soap - Nope never finished this. I got it all made up... the easy part and then it hit the bucket and I never got around to remixing and bottling it so I need to do that today I've been making it through with the little bit of store bought I had tucked away for occasions like this. 
• Lunch with Peter
• Catch up hand wash dishes (griddle and things I don't want Katherine to wash since dishes is her chore normally)
• Mow the lawns
• Pull out Halloween Decorations -- Well I got the inside ones done. I just need to get out and mow the lawn again before I can get some of the outside ones taken care of.
• Parent/Teacher Conference late this evening

Menu

Found on healthfulpursuit.com

• Breaded Pork, Mashed Potatoes, Peas
• Crock Pot - Beef Stew (going to try one of those premade meals again)
• Crock Pot - Pulled Pork
• Spaghetti w/Meatballs - I saw this picture floating around Facebook for the stuffed bell peppers and I decided this was a must for this year!  
• Chili Dinner - This is Halloween and we will be trick-or-treating at a friend's house and she always makes a big chili dinner. I'm sure I'm going to pick up something later in the week to bring too since there will be a whole bunch of her family there and then our family too.
• Beef Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Corn (held over from last week) 
• Pizza - I may change this depending how I feel later in the week but it seemed like a simple meal after a busy week and let us wind down before the next week. 

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Work -Tu-Fri 
•  Clean up around the house - This is a permanent main stay. 
• Tuesday Morning I have to be fasting and get to work very early for yearly medical check up (blood drawn and handed a little cup for the bathroom).
• Tuesday - Project Club. The girls are going to learn how to cross stitch. 
• Wednesday the kids both have their yearly dental check ups. 
• Thursday - Katherine has her After School Halloween Party
• Friday - Halloween, enough said.
• Saturday - Peter's work has rented out one of the farms for a family fall festival so we will be there during the day. During the night Peter and I will be going to an adult halloween party for a little while. 
• Sunday - Rest? Peter may go visit a friend this day but otherwise it'll be time to rest and catch up on whatever we have fallen behind on around the house. 

Last Week

You do know I generally have to go to my own Facebook page and read my statuses. On my 'actual' Facebook page I post obsessively but it does help me keep track of what I'm doing. 

So yeah the picture to the left is really fuzzy I see. 

Remember when I said last week we were going to have chicken and rice? Well I forgot to buy stirfry veggies so instead we had "Throw it in the Pot" curry. I cooked some chicken separate for Peter and Katherine. So basically I went through my fridge I found potatoes, carrots, onions and mushrooms and I had some curry sauce so I got it all chopped up and threw it in the pot with some chicken and made a side of rice. 

Curry always looks awkward. I'm not sure if I actually 'like' curry. It is one of those things that it tastes so odd so I just keep eating it because I really can't make my mind up about it. 

Curry also makes a LOT of food! I just realized that due to this last week I think I still have some in the back of the fridge that sadly I will have to toss out now.
(Which writing that meant I had to take a break because I realized the trash didn't even go out to the curb. I probably looked a little odd walking over and checking my neighbors garbage can but I wanted to see if trash had came yet. Thankfully it hadn't so the little bit of left over curry and whatever else trash wise went out and trash is on the curb. Horray.)

Friday the girls and I stayed up very late (We stayed up until 1:30 for myself and Brielle though Katherine passed out earlier than that.) making chocolate covered oreo cookies. The cats and eyeballs were normal and the brains and pumpkins were gluten free for our friends that can't tolerate gluten. 

There's some left over cookies as you can see too that I need to start handing out to the kids after dinner so they stop tempting me. 

Saturday, Peter and the girls went to a game shop called Big Bang for comic books and the costume & coloring contests. The girls won prizes and had a good time down there. 

I did cheat and go down and buy Katherine a hat instead of sewing her one. By time I got to that point I was just so tired of sewing and I really need to get my machine down to the shop now I already called them up and found out how much it will cost me to have it serviced. 

(I shared out some pictures on my facebook page for Burnt-Out-Mom because I couldn't figure out how to link them up over here. I think I haven't had enough coffee! Though if you feel so inclined you can click them and go to the game website and vote. The kid with the most votes by Halloween gets a $50 gift card to the store!)

My Pumpkin

While the kids were out at the game shop with Peter I was home feeling ill and trying to work on things for the kids Halloween Party. I had set in my head I was doing a puking pumpkin chip tray. I actually did do it but I never got a picture of the tray after it was put together. In fact there are no pictures of this event at all because Peter said afterwards, "You never told me to take any pictures." I'm not sure he quite grasps how much this disappointed me.

Saturday night we got Katherine's friend Sarah and we went over to the Kids Halloween Party. The kids had a blast and the adults talked. It was a pretty good evening. After the party we had Sarah stay the night and then on Sunday we started a new adventure with Sarah in tow....

We went apple picking....

We all headed down to the orchard and picked apples. It really didn't take very long at all and I was surprised. We picked 20 lbs of apples and paid $15 for it. 

Afterwards we went out for lunch at the chinese buffet (an expense I hadn't counted on but that's okay) and then we took Sarah home and the kids played some more and we left them some apples. 

Sunday night we tried to take it kind of easy. We switched up dinner plans to chicken nuggets and french fries that I already had in the freezer because all of us were still pretty full from lunch. 

We watched shows and the kid folded clothes. 

I took it upon myself to try and make applesauce. Katherine doesn't like spiced applesauce at all so I just made it plain apples with nothing added (other than a bit of lemon juice and water).

1-1/2 cups sauce from 4 apples

I've got a lot more apples to do up and there has been a request for apple pie too. 

I've got all these apples now I need to make sure I do something with them because I think they will go bad before I can get through the 'apple a day' routine. 

I want to can up applesauce for use in other things. I also wouldn't mind canning up some apple pie filling. I want to make apple butter too but that can only be froze they don't suggest canning it any more. The commercial stuff they sell has to go through apparently higher temps than most home canners can reach from what I was reading.
(*Update: I'm not seeing the article on why not to can apple butter instead I'm seeing many things now about canning it. I'm going to do further research but as of now I may can some. Oddly enough I'm seeing lots of water bath canning also which temperatures aren't as high in water bath canning meaning it does not penetrate through thick items such as fruit butters and purees as well. That is what the danger is. It is also why it is not suggested to make your own pumpkin puree but instead can pumpkin and other squash in chunks and puree it when it is time to use it. There is so much conflicting information out there that sometimes it can be hard to figure it out and it is best to just make a judgement call for what you feel safe with.)

I think that was pretty much it in a nutshell. I do need to make up some more recipe pages with directions on how to do things like the applesauce. I'm going to try and put that onto my to-do list.

If there is anything in particular you'd like me to blog about let me know and I'll sure try!