Monday Meaderings

What a busy weekend. It would have been a whole lot busier if the kids hadn't got sick. Sometimes I think sickness is the only way God can bring sanity back into our schedule. While I was at a MOPS leadership meeting Friday night, Michael took Josiah and Hailey to a Hallelujah Party at a local church. We went last year and really liked it. They do praise and worship and lots of fun games and prizes, without all the scary stuff. I was really proud of Michael for dressing up and taking them by himself. I'm usually the one who does that. 

Hailey was Rapunzel.

Josiah is still hooked on his kilt.

On Saturday, the kids and I were feeling a bit under the weather, so we stayed home from the homeschool picnic we were going to go to, and processed lots and lots of apples. The kids were a big help this year!

After making apple juice, using my steamer/juicer, I broke out the Squeezo steamed apples through it. This is like a kid's dream kitchen tool. It is really safe for them to use, too.

This is seriously, the coolest device ever - "The Squeezo". You feed the stuff through the hopper, turn the crank and it goes through a screen and "poops" out the peel, seeds and core material. It has different sized screens, so you can do tomatoes or even something as small as raspberries. It poops the seeds right out. Awesome!

The pulp goes into a bowl. We freeze the apple sauce (I use it for cooking only since it is a little dry and thick because I take a lot of the juice out first). We also used the apple/corer/slicer to prepare apples for drying. It was a long day, but we got it all done. Was bummed to miss the homeschool picnic, but glad the kids were inside and not getting any sicker.

On Sunday, the kids were still not up to par with their colds, so Michael stayed home from church with them. Instead of going to our church's harvest party, we decided to stay home with the kids and invite a couple of friends over. It turned into a fun kilt party. Our friend just got a kilt and was looking for his first opportunity to wear it. Of course, we were more than happy to comply! Have I mentioned that our family loves to dress up? We love it when we can find friends to dress up with, too!

His son was wearing his kilt with the addition of a new belt and rabbit fur sporran. Does it get any cuter than that? 

So even though our original plans changed, we still had a lot of fun. God is so good! Since it is Halloween tonight, we are simply going to turn it into a family night. I see pajamas, popcorn and some "Smash Lab" in our near future :o)

God Bless and Happy Harvest!

Jackie