Just Another Jenny: 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.