It has begun. Pumpkin cooking season has started! And I am DETERMINED to get more in my freezer than I did last year. Buying canned pumpkin is fine. The muffins turn out taller and prettier. But goodness, it is SO expensive, and more painful now that I know how much it actually costs to process a pumpkin.
Yesterday, I cooked up my first pumpkin of the season. It went a bit different from last year. Not in a huge way, but my oven is different! Its not as deep! So if I want to put two pans in, side my side, they need to be little pans. I don’t love this about my oven, but the convection works great so I haven’t really taken issue with it, but that’s irrelevant when your pumpkin is massive. So, I used the little pans, and things just spilled over a little.
I ended up cooking two pumpkins that day, and I removed one of the racks so it wasn’t such a tight squeeze.
It cooked forever because it was just huge, and once it had cooled completely, I scooped out its guts and pureed them in my ninja. This was my first pumpkin!
Two pumpkins later, I had 27 CUPS of pumpkin puree!!! This whole haul cost a whopping $8.
Isn’t that BONKERS?! A can of pumpkin from the grocery store shelves is roughly 3 cups, and cost $6.50.
I’m so grateful that canned pumpkin exists but I will ALWAYS jump at mine first.
Once all the kids were down, I washed up ALL the pumpkin stuff in preparation for day two of pumpkinning.
It is absolutely worth the work. There is no question.
The biggest point of disorganization in my regular daily life is the baby clothes. The three babies have TONS of clothes, but they’ve grown out of so many of them and I haven’t put them away. So the mess is on me. I’ll own it! Lol! But, as the season has started to change I’ve gotten even sloppier with it because I expect to soon switch out tank tops for long sleeves, and cotton jammies for fleece! However, as the babies grow, they need new stuff, and I’m bringing it in as I come across the right things.
Yesterday, while one baby was at a visit, I popped into the Gap outlet. They have these great little onesies that are made out of sweatpants material. So they’re warmer than sleepers but nothing too crazy. I like them for babies in buckets in colder weather. They’re not very easy to find, however, because the outlet has funny things at different times, so its hit and miss. But yesterday, my search was a success, and I bought the next TWO sizes up for the lemon drop! I debated buying all the sizes in all the colors, just to have for future babies, haha! But even at great discounts, they’re still a decent price, so I didn’t feel I could justify it. We’ll have to see. Even just buying all the sizes in grey would be ok….. we’ll see. Anyway. I bought two for the lemon drop, and then I accidentally bought a bunch of jeans for the babies. All they all have right now are shorts and some leggings. So, six pairs of jeans later, plus a pair of leggings and a pair of sweats, I had spent more than enough money there and hauled out.
*after writing this out, I’m KICKING myself for not buying the grey ones also. Ugh.*
I did some more pop-ins while we waited for the Spoonful’s visit to be done. Walmart didn’t provide the shirts I was hoping for, but it did provide some fun Halloween stuff 🙂 Beetlejuice fanta. Peeps. and PUMPKINS!! You know I’m ready and waiting to cook the heck out of as many pumpkins as possible to keep me afloat for the next YEAR 🤣 And baby formula, of course, because that is ALWAYS on the list.
Aaaaand a last stop at Value Village provided me with some cozy things also 💜 Because after fall comes winter. Behold 🙌 this cozy thing…
…that I would not have justified if it wasn’t only $5!!!
And another beautiful hand sewn quilt 😍
This one is at least a double size, and its SO nice and heavy! I LOVE it. Value Village doesn’t recognize the value of these quilts but I certainly do! A few little stained moments can be resolved, and do not take away the quality I so appreciate!
Separate from the shopping yesterday, I also had a small Temu order arrive, as well as a few Christmas presents from Amazon. Whew! Its time to get rid of some things around here, I think. Too. Much. Stuff.
Ok. I have put a cup of coffee into me while typing this out, and I can hear the babies are waking up. Time for the day to begin!! Happy hump day, everyone!
I ended up going for a drive this morning. I have to go out again today, and I planned to errand stack that outing, but it turned out I needed to go out for something a bit more time sensitive. So I did. I ran some errands in some surrounding towns and brought Brady a coffee. It was busy but also it wasn’t.
As I drove home, I was loving the clouds. The sky was SO light and the clouds were gorgeous and aplenty. A quick glance out my side mirror, however, showed a DARK grey sky! I LOVED that contrast. It was unmistakable.
I hope it rains. I HOPE it rains. It is SO gloomy outside. Gloomy in a nice way. We will be going back out this evening, and I really want it to be grey and cozy. It will also be productive, but mostly comfy and grey and rainy. I hope.
Welp. I’m home with the three babies and two other sickies. We left the house on Friday in quite a tizzy, in the midst of sickness, frustration, and a total lack of time. So as it happens, the mess we left was exactly the mess we came home to 😅
We came home late yesterday evening, thanks to the poutine community supper I mentioned in the last blog, so we came home, dumped everything in roughly the room it belonged in at least, and went to bed. So we made the mess worse. As we do.
This morning, I sent the well ones to school and the sickies went downstairs to read in their beds and be all cozy. I’ll admit, while I’m definitely mending, I also still feel pretty gross, and the idea of cleaning up the house felt huge and daunting. Moment of truth, guys.
These pictures leave out the mountain of diapers on the floor, and all the stuff we brought in from camp stacked up on the dining table. It was baaaaad in there.
So I decided to recruit my sickies, just in a small capacity, to help me. I called them up and asked if they would do a super low pressure, slow motion tidy of the main area with me. They made sure to let me know they didn’t feel well 😅 which I acknowledged, and I reassured them I would do the huge haul of dishes. They agreed, and got to it.
And they did even more than I asked 💜 Laela swept the living room and dining room, and Wavy did laps to bring things to the laundry room and the garbage.
While they worked, Cher poked her head in with soup and juice for the sickies, which was SO thoughtful! Lunch will be served up easily, with virtually no work for me! Thank you, dear sister 💜
Now, the girls have settled in upstairs to continue their cuddly hang out. Laela is reading Wavy her library books from school. The morsel is unpacking the bookshelf in solidarity.
And I’m puttering in the kitchen. Dishes are large, but I have no time crunch. Two of the babies are up, and one is still asleep. It works, though, because the sick one is the sleeping one. Win! I have a stack of bottles and syringes soaking in the sink right now. Dishes will be stacked up nicely but not loudly unloaded and loaded while we still have someone sleeping. That baby is high stakes, lol, so we can’t risk it.
But come the afternoon, we have to duck out. The kids are coming along, but they won’t leave the van. I’m quite determined that it will be a good day, regardless of whether its perfect or not. We can’t wait for perfect to be content! We were never promised perfect. Ever. So we’ll just keep on trucking 🙂
Ok. The bottles have soaked long enough. Back to it!
We have aimed for extra ease this summer. Many things have not been easy this summer, both expected and unexpected things, so where we can make things a little easier, we have.
One of those things has meant we have used paper dishes at camp almost exclusively. We still use real cutlery, and sometimes cups. Bottles, of course. Sometimes pots or pans, but those tend to be disposable, too. Its just so much easier.
Another lovely helpful thing that has brought ease to our summer is our dear Dahlsjos taking on our group for supper every single Saturday. If you look at our weekend realistically, we only eat ONE supper at camp on a standard weekend, as we come a little too late on Friday, and leave before supper on Sunday. This has left us with VERY easy eating this summer!! Thank you, dear Dahlsjos, for such a gift.
So. Just a quick breakdown of the highlights of food this weekend!
Saturday supper a la Dahlsjo was breakfast for supper, which we LOVE. Cheesy eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, and bacon. This was also a great meal to feed the babies. Was an easy sell!
Lunch this summer has been sandwiches or snacky things. This particular lunch just looked SO good to me. I can’t pinpoint why, but I can assure you, ’twas delicious.
Aaaaand supper was a community supper of poutine!! I won’t lie. I found most of the topping options a bit weird for my liking, but I’ll never turn down bacon bits!
I did turn down the salad 🤣 I said yes to the ice cream, though, so 🤷🏼♀️ no regrets!
And can we all agree that eating outside just makes everything taste better?? 🥰 I’ll sure miss that when the season ends. Still a couple more weeks to go, we hope 🤞
I can’t pinpoint what brought me here, but its felt like an extra difficult week for me. It has been busy, of course, but I’ve taken appropriate breaks all along, even more than usual. Most evenings this week, I’ve gotten a soak in the tub and Brady has even managed most of the bedtime stuff with the kids on his own. I’ve had it really, really good.
I’ve been sick, which adds, of course. Its been hard to communicate with my children without a voice. It was worse earlier in the week, but I haven’t caught up. There have been multiple things up every single day this week, and Brady has stayed at work late a couple of times, which isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things but felt really extra taxing this week.
Today, the goal has been to pack. It was quite late yesterday when Brady realized he hadn’t packed. I told him I would do it for him the next day. He was SO tired and he’s also caught a cold. So this morning, after sleeping through our usual morning coffee date, we said goodbye for the day and both got to work – him at Zaks and me at home.
Kids got out the door, minus the one who felt too crappy, and the three babies. The sickie hung with the babies while I packed like a maniac. (Yes. We are going to the lake. Even though we’re sick. Don’t come for me, or I’ll cough on you 😏 I tease. I won’t.) It was really handy to have a kid willing to sit with them so I could pack for myself, Brady, and the babes. Thats not a quick job, and it was so much less daunting when the babies were entertained and now wailing at the gate or tearing the house apart.
I gathered up all the clothing for everyone. Shoes, sandals , boots, jackets, meds, bottles, formula, diapers, wipes, towels, tools, and whatever else is all in a pile, waiting to be loaded into the van. The cooler isn’t packed yet, but its too soon for that. And I didn’t get to coop today to grab groceries like I had hoped to, but thats ok. We can get there on our way out. It will all work out.
Aaaaand the blog will be cut short now, as the one baby woke up right after lunch, and the others are now yelling that they, too, are awake. Back to the grind!!
It has been a really lovely work day today. Its grey and raining outside, so the windows and doors are all open, leaving room for the breeze, the fresh smell, and the sound of crickets that I’m gonna have to bust a cap on/in if they come any closer to my house 🤨 They still sound nice for a time. With everything open, I still have the AC clicked on, since our plumber advised me not to do too much back and forth with it. When do people officially turn that stuff off? I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure I’m doing it wrong. And I’m comfortable with that.
It won’t all be open for long, though. I love the sounds and smells but I don’t like being cold. So far, I’m comfy, but it won’t be that way forever. I’m not mad at setting up camp on my recliner under a blanket. But, you may have heard, I have some babies who make that a bit harder to attain most day. But while they nap, here I sit, getting organized on my computer and putting my feet up a little in hopes to let my body recover a bit here and there. I don’t want to be sick anymore! No more colds for me! Or any of us! That’s the last thing Brady needs during a chemo cycle!
Some things are set aside for camping this weekend. The packing list is made. Food is planned. I’m SO looking forward to a weekend that will likely be a little chillier that I can spend mostly next to a fire, under a blanket, with people we love.
The last couple of days have been bigger with Brady working late and early, trying to get a large bid arranged at Zaks. The last couple of days, I also haven’t had much of a voice at all. So its been a fun challenge to communicate with all eight kids at once with no voice on my own without breaks! 😅 I tease. Its just life, but its felt extra wearing these last couple of days. Yesterday evening, I took them all in to bring a baby to a visit. First we hit Nordon Medical, which I cannot say enough nice things about. Seriously. If you need medical supplies, that is the place to go. So I went across the city to Nordon, and then back to the NW end for the visit. And then to Walmart, as you do, when babies need jammies, big kids need shoes, and moms need baking ingredients.
Once Walmart was taken care of, we headed to get supper. It was at that point that we figured Brady wouldn’t come in and join us. He hadn’t left work yet, and if he did, he’d barely make it in time to eat with us and drive home. It didn’t make sense. So he kept at it and I got the kids fed. I ordered at the window instead of on the app, so I forgot to order myself anything 😅 But Dekker is a sweetie, and shared some fries with me. He sits in the front seat now 💜 Because he’s all adult and stuff.
We were mostly done eating but the visit wasn’t quite over, and Rowan was starting to get pretty antsy, so he asked to come snuggle with me while we waited out the end of the visit. That kid is NOT getting smaller, I’ll tell you that!!
The visit ended on time and we retrieved our little sweetie before heading back home.
Thank the Lord for a husband who was home, and feeling accomplished and prepared. He was tired, of course, but not kid tired. You get it, right? He had headspace for them when I was feeling quite worn, so I was greeted by a smiling, willing man who had ran me a bath and promised me supper once the kids were down.
And he provided! I had a nice soak let my voice finally rest for a little. I tucked Rowan in, because he really wanted me to, but Brady did everything else.
Today, I can have at least a little rest time in the day, assuming the babies allow it. I’ve got my peachy jammie pants on, my “indoorsy” sweatshirt, and a blanket with campers to snuggle with. Solly has his first piano lesson today! Rowan has his second parkour class today! And we have a welcome back thing at the high school in the evening. So I’ll have to be a human for that, but not before!
So first. Post this post. Then, get the babies up, because they’re all moving around. Then breakfast and coffee. Hopefully some playtime and relaxing, and naps not too far off. Maybe I’ll crochet at some point. There is still much to accomplish this week but I so badly want to be well for the weekend up at the lake, and I’m determined to let my body rest and recover!!
Todays the day to hopefully put my feet up a little.
What I’m referring to is a cross between a breakfast sandwich and a grilled cheese sandwich, served as a breakfast for supper dish. Its not as complicated as it sounds, I promise.
Yesterday was a bit rough, I won’t lie. I’m catching a cold and as the day wore on, my voice got less and less. Then Brady ended up having to work quite late, so I was on my own wrangling the kids at the most hands-on part of the day. This isn’t foreign to me, but while I’m entirely capable, my energy was dwindling alongside my voice and I just really wanted the backup of my husband. But! Such is life sometimes. My kitchen was a mess and as I brainstormed what to make for supper, I googled a little.
I wanted to do something with eggs. And I came across a different way to make breakfast sandwiches, and thought it would be worth a try. Its a bit of a fussier way than I’ve done in the past, so I knew while I was testing it out, it would be slow going. But!! That way was going to be easier to manage with no voice, because I would just feed whoever floated by. We are big believers in eating all together, but I opted to do it differently, just for a different kind of day, to try something new.
And it was FUN!!! Solly ate one first. Wavy joined for the next one, and the two of them fed breakfast sandwiches to the babies! WIN!! Eventually Laela floated by, and Dekker surfaced. We had to call Rowan to come get some food. Everyone ate at least one sandwich, plus a good handful of fresh garden tomatoes, courtesy of Rae. It was a delicious supper and, in my humble opinion, totally worth the fuss!
I fried a pack of bacon, sliced up some cheese, and got to buttering bread.
They go like this.
Medium heated pan. Maybe a scooch over medium. Add some butter. Enough that the pan is nice and slidey.
Whip up two eggs. (Wow. I just typed aggs. Thats my level of fatigue, lol!) Salt and pepper if you want. Pour them in there.
Add your bread in there when the eggs are still wet and yucky. Two pieces, butter side UP. Lid it so they cook through without overcooking. Its a skinny egg layer.
It is important to actually make sure the eggs are cooked before this next part. Like, maybe overcook your first one, just so you can see. Because you need to flip the whole shebang and its MUCH harder when the eggs are still soft.
Voila.
Now in some of the videos I saw of people making these, they would cut the edges off. Why, you ask? I have no idea. Fold those suckers up onto your bread. Throw some cheese on, and some bacon. Next time, I would crumble the bacon instead of leaving it in strips. Maybe its less aesthetically pleasing, but then the whole thing doesn’t come out at once.
Then lid that pan so your cheese melts good and proper while the toast gets crispy.
Flip that sucker in half, fold the one toast on top of the other, and you’re done!
Wait wait WAIT for it!!!!
👻
A GHOST!!!
Brady confirms they were indeed delicious! 🏆
And I concur, they are. Though they are best served up in bed, while everyone else is on the other side of your door 😌
And that’s it for todays “Tales for Supper.” Hope you tune in next time. I’m sure we’ll eat again…
