I'm a home canning maniac!

I HAVE EXACTLY *ONE* EMPTY JAR IN THIS WHOLE HOUSE!

This is why:
7 pints relish
3 quarts mustard pickles
6 quarts veggie stock
7 quarts peaches
19 quarts applesauce
12 quarts apple pie filling
10 quarts stewed tomatoes
8 quarts spaghetti sauce
6 pints salsa
21 pints beets
19 quarts pears
69 bottles various sizes/flavors jam (no, I'm not kidding)

In the freezer, we have more beets, 6 bags zucchini, chard, elderberries, more applesauce.

Then, there's the meats, frozen soups, and store-bought goods, too. I LOVE my pantry!

She's awesome

I NEVER have to dust. If you were into it, you could eat off of our kitchen floor. She only occasionally washes my dry-clean-only stuff. She is willing to hang out with my ex. Dinner is frequently waiting when I come home from work. She sits for hours at marathon finish lines (because it takes me hours to get to it).

But, I'll be good and goddamned if I can get her to scrub the bathroom tub.

I can't wait to see this movie!

I have no idea what is in or coming to theaters if it's not animated. I haven't even seen half of the Oscar winners from eight months ago. What I DO know is that I will be seeing this movie:

October's been a bit busy

In addition to the canning (pears, applesauce, etc.), October has been a rather busy month so far! The leaves are changing, and we did our first elderberry picking. We should have done it three days earlier, but oh well. It was a beautiful day in the canyon.

We also attended the yearly open house at the fire station. They put on a good show. The kids get to sit in the fire trucks, go through the "life activity house" where they learn what to do and not to do with grease fires, medication, hot stoves, toaster fires, and curling irons. They get to practice calling 911, and fake smoke comes into the bedroom, and the kids learn how to escape. Treats, videos, and activity books are given out. Best of all, they got to pee in a fireman's potty, and they got to work the fire hose!

One of our favorite books is The Lorax. It is my favorite Dr. Seuss book, by far, and I like to do voices for the characters as I am reading it. Every time we see a tree stump, Meatball jumps on it and yells "Ga-zump! I am the Lorax; I speak for the trees 'cuz the trees have no tongues!" Peanut got in on the action on this day. He was a Lorax, too. I was the Once-ler; I wasn't really very happy about that...

Back in September, the boys were playing at Granny's door. Peanut slammed it and caught Meatball's toe. The nail has been just waiting to fall off since then. It finally did:

Then, the toenail fairy came that night and left him "many coins" and a mini KitKat which he shared with his brother, apparently forgetting exactly who slammed the door on his toe in the first place.

And, seriously, this is good art:

I cut out the shapes, and Meatball put it together. I think that he did a remarkable job! Peanut doesn't share in the desire to do crafty stuff, but he did have a good time cutting up paper and making a mess.

Open house at work

We had an open house at work a few weeks ago. I don't know why Bub insisted on getting the boys all excited about it. I mean the technology and the machines that we use to create awards are great, but none of that stuff would be running for the open house. Even if it had been, that's not what I do. But, we went anyway so that everyone could see my cubicle and hundreds of others just like it. Thrilling.

The boys did have a good time sitting at my desk and pretending to make phone calls. I let them watch a couple of videos on my computer, and now they think that all I do is watch YouTube all day. Yeah, as if that's going to pay the mortgage (but wouldn't it be great if it did?)!

Then, while Peanut was watching yet another Thomas video, Meatball drew on my whiteboard. This is a picture of me. Quite a good resemblance, actually. He started with my lips first and had to maneuver around them for the rest of the picture. Interesting approach. I may never erase my whiteboard again! Such talent!

I feel pretty....

Guess who got into mommy's makeup?

Peanut found it a couple of days later, but Bub had him cleaned up before I could get a picture. A couple of days after that, Meatball got into it again, but this time he got the mascara just right. In fact, he did a better job than I do each morning!

How much fun is soccer?

Well, I'll tell ya: it's not.

Last week as Peanut was sitting in my lap pouting about being at soccer in general, Meatball was moping down the field. He stopped in the middle of the field as all of the other kids were mobbing the net on the south end of the field. He turned to us (and all of the parents from both teams) and shouted "I. HATE. SOCCER!!!!"

It was impossible to not laugh.

goodbye garden

It's so depressing to finally be forced to clean up the garden, but the first snow storm of the season will do that to you. (Seriously, 12" in the Wasatch mountains on October 6?)

So, I stripped all of the oregano off the stems, cut the parsley tops, and plucked tarragon leaves. All of these are drying in the oven right now. I also picked about 12 more peppers, 2 zucchini, 3 small yellow squash, and 30-ish un-ripe tomatoes which are now layered between newspapers in a box in the pantry.

This weekend will be more pears (in some fashion), perhaps some dried tomatoes, something with those peppers (maybe more salsa?), and get busy with apples which should keep me busy for a few weekends.