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Saturday, January 23, 2016

The Homemaking Diva

I told you about my struggles in learning how to manage a household since I quit my job, but it hasn't all been doom and gloom despite my frustrations.  I really have spent time learning new tasks and recipes and they haven't all been failures. So, without further ado, I give you all the things I was doing while I disappeared off the blog for two months.

I cut out three Halloween costumes without a pattern with Kyra's long distance help.


 Grandma and the girls sewed them up, but hey, *I* cut them out!



I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for children to eat for breakfast.





For All Souls Day, I made Soul Cakes. Well, actually, it wasn't All Souls Day. It was later in the week, but it counts.





I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for a church bake sale and learned how to cream butter and sugar when an electric mixer is not to be had. I think Rebecca was the one handing out pointers this time.






 


I made Emily Stimpson's polenta one night. 



 I got very adventurous one night and made paella with Amy's help. This little foray took an absurd amount of time. I think we finally sat down to eat at about 8pm, but everyone loved it and Olivia even requested it for her birthday meal.



We sauteed pumpkin seeds.




 And then I roasted pumkins to make puree to freeze for later.




I cleaned out the closet under the stairs, which took an insane amount of time and ended with Dave and the children eating at Wendy's. I ate supper at some point. They brought me a chicken sandwich.

Crazy befores: 




During:


Mercy.

The moment it can get better:


The glorious afters:






I sorted through the two year old girl clothes. We could clothe triplets if needs be.


But just one is here:



In a fit of I-don't-know-what, I decided to make turkey stock with the Thanksgiving turkey leftovers at my mother's house. I even left it to bubble overnight. That was stressful. I just knew the house was going to burn down or, worse, the stock would be ruined. But all was well. 




And if that wasn't enough, I came home and made ham stock. This only simmered all day because cat. I have heard you are supposed to make some kind of ham and bean soup with this concoction. Someone needs to tell me more about that. 




I finally started on a project that has haunted me since before Marian was born: the horrible corner in my room. The spot where the keyboard is buried.

Awful before:



During:


I finally got Olivia's Kindergarten folder finished. Yes, she is in second grade now.


Here is the after for now. I still have more work to do, but Christmas was coming which pulled me out of this project and I haven't gotten back to it yet. That table actually belongs in the living room, but it had to be moved to make room for the tree.




I made homemade turkey noodle soup from my stock and chopped turkey.



Did you know that the leftovers from homemade soup congeals into not-soup? I certainly did not. So I made a casserole thing with the soup leftovers. What do you do with soup that turns into not-soup?




As Christmas neared, I decided to try my hand at fruitcake. It was a three day process, mostly because I couldn't do it all at once, but I think it turned out okay.



Fruit and liquor. A lot of liquor.



And the finished product:



Tasty. I don't think I've had fruitcake before.


It finally got cold and I made chili. Hurrah.




So there it is. All The Things I've been doing. With my ever-present helper.



2 comments:

Layla said...

If you add a little water and stir your not-soup over medium heat, it should turn back into soup.

Layla said...
This comment has been removed by the author.