Down Mulberry Lane

Today's busyness...

Yesterday we went to the Mall of America to drop off a friend of my daughter's who had come to visit for a few days.  It was nice to see her and we are glad they had the opportunity to get together.  The Mall was the meeting place for the drop-off.  I met her mother for the first time and we enjoyed shopping together for a couple hours.  We didn't buy anything but some food to eat for our grumbly tummies.  We had fun.

Today, we awoke and needed to get back on track.  After breakfast, my youngest informs me that we need to clean the house, stating it isn't very clean.  Then she shows me a picture of a clean living room that was on a label of a blanket that I hadn't opened yet and she tells me..."this is a clean living room,  Ours is not clean".  LOL.  She was right, so we cleaned up the living room before we started our day. 

Today was also the first day that we used our wood heater for the season.  I awoke to a house temperature of 58 degrees.  With 3 of us having the beginning stages of a cold... likely from all the running and odd schedules the past few days... I needed to warm it up.  I looked at the outside temperature of 38 degrees and realized the outside temp wasn't going to warm us up... but more than than... it was cool enough to burn some wood without a back draft into the house!  I ran out to get some wood from Dh's shop (he has a pile of scrap wood out there) and I started the fire and OH, was that so nice.  The past two weeks it has been so chilly in the morning in the house... around 62 to about 65 degrees, but the outside temperature is too warm to start a fire... so I could either wait for the sunshine to warm it up or run the LP heater.  I ran the LP heater on a couple of cloudy days, but for the most part have waited for the sunshine.  It appears, I can start fires with the cooler morning temperatures to at least take the chill off our feet.  We all enjoyed the comfort of the warm stove! 

Since we've had some light morning frost, I figured it high time to clean out the last of the garden.  I got two more baskets of tomatoes.  I got two baskets of green tomatoes as well.  The rest, I had to leave, due to frost damage... which was ALOT of tomatoes.  Probably as much ripened in the last week as had most the entire tomato season.  But I got more than enough canned for this year, so it wasn't a horrible loss.  The chickens can eat the spoils in the garden.  We also picked the last of the pumpkins and peppers and broccoli.  So, that's it... no more garden for this year.  Tomorrow, I plan to pick the last of the apples on the apple trees. 

Much of our day was spent updating school.  I was checking progress with what we had logged in and what it would take to finish our year.  With Chelsea, we also checked what progress she has made with her high school credits.  Today's check made it about half way through what we have done this year.  I have monthly visits with a supervising teacher and each month I try to do this to just summarize what we have done and know where we are headed when I am ready for our talk.  My next visit is Monday.

We also started a new dishwashing schedule.  It is far different from other schedules I've made, so we will see how it works.  I've always assigned dishes as a group chore, so no one felt left alone to do it, but no matter how much anyone says dishes bring families together... it doesn't in our home.  I think there is something to the proverb that says a brother is born for adversity.  Because dishes was the place to "work it all out"  And quite frankly the daily arguments were getting old.  Now, they will do dishes separately.  Each having two days per week to be accountable to.  No yelling for a sister to rinse or dry or put away... (because they felt it a foolish waste of their time to sit and wait for the dish rack to fill up before they did their part of the job).  The other two sisters who are not washing will clean off the table and counters and wash them all down and sweep the floors if needed.  So, we will watch and wait... will it work?  Hope so! 

Warmly, ~Melissa