So what did I get done?
I had Atticus help me hang a vintage mirror in the living room, as well as a second shelf in my hall closet to hold cleaning supplies.
Atticus is basically an adult now.
Atticus and Finneas worked together to secure the chicken coop a little bit (even though we don't have chickens right now, we had a perfect piece of plywood for it, and I would like to someday have chickens again.)
We took the van to the car wash and vacuumed it out, and the kids went to Dollar Tree to buy birthday presents for Todd.
I swapped out the babies' clothes for their current size (they moved out of 3-6 mo and into 6-12 mo.) We also dropped their morning nap, so it was nice that we had errands to run during the mornings to distract them from how tired they were. (There's always a hard stage kids go through where two naps are too many, but one nap is not enough.) Knox was sick the whole week, with terrible, terrible tummy issues. I'm not sure if he ate something that didn't agree with him, or was exposed to some kind of allergen, or it was just purely because he's teething all his molars right now, but he was producing 8-10 poopy diapers a day for over a week. His bottom was all raw from the constant exposure, and he was in a lot of pain. He didn't sleep well at night or during the day. It was a rough go. I carried him in the Ergo with me for many of the jobs I tackled while he was awake because he just wanted to be held, sweet boy.
What else? We made and canned applesauce, and I chopped fifty pounds of onions for the freezer.
We washed and cut and cooked down and milled and canned eighty pounds of apples.
The kids formed an assembly line to help me get them washed and chopped.
Juni kept me company while I chopped onions.
I cleaned out the food room and the storage room, which was a much larger job than just this one little sentence intimates.
I brought the houseplants inside.
I helped the kids get their Halloween costumes together.
Penelope spent an afternoon putting together flower arrangements for our church's then-upcoming Reformation Day party.
I cleaned off the deck and wiped the back of the house and under the eaves free of cobwebs. I washed the big windows on the back of the house.
I cleaned out the garage, including mopping the floor, and I actually cut the onions out there on our old dining room table and I LOVED having the new prep space. I think I'm going to leave it out there and use it for things like soaking beans, plugging in the roaster for rendering lard or making chicken broth, and other things that take up counter space or smell strongly.
Things have to get worse before they get better. I had to pull all this stuff out before I could find a home for it all.
So anyway. You see why I wasn't around to post much that week! I fell into bed just exhausted most days, but I feel so much better about the state of things now. And hear me out: I really think the housewife is the freest person on the planet. How do I spend my days? However I want. I have goals and priorities that Todd and I obviously share, and I act out of those, but I get to be creative and sovereign over how to make it happen in my own home. My personal interest projects don't have to take a backseat to some corporate agenda, or wait until my "after work" hours. I don't live my family life out of the dregs of my day. I don't work for some faceless customer base or consumer group; I don't spend my days investing in projects that literally have no bearing on my real life. My work directly impacts the people I love most. And the people who benefit or suffer from my work ethic or lack of it are right in front of me - I know that what I do matters. It's a really powerful thing to be sovereign in my sphere, and to answer to the direct recipients of my vision and work. I'm grateful to be living the freest life.
**
That Friday was Todd's birthday, and because we do pizza and ice cream on Fridays, he got his birthday dinner the night before. What did he request? Grilled cheese and Spaghettio's. The kids have never raved over a meal more. I made two full loaves of bread into sandwiches, and four cans of Spaghettio's weren't enough! On Friday after pizza party, Todd opened his gifts from the kids. What can we even say about our favorite person? He is the best person walking the planet and when I open my eyes in the morning and look around, all the good things I see are because of him.
On Saturday we had the Reformation Day party. The kids all got dressed up in their costumes for the costume contest. There were homemade brats and soup for lunch, a pie contest, and bouncy castles for the kids. It started at noon, and was cold and rainy all day, but most of the kids didn't come home until close to 6:00! (I had left around 2:00 to bring the babies home for nap.) Once they got home, I had everyone take turns in the shower to warm up because they were soaked to the skin. Then, because dinner was on schedule to be so late, we just decided to have a popcorn party for dinner while we watched a movie.
L-R: Miss Mr. Peanut, A Bumblebee, Fern Arable, The Waters of the Deep, a Garden Gnome, Sacagawea, A Baby Mouse, Henry from 100 Cupboards, Haydee from the Count of Monte Cristo, and The Count of Monte Cristo Himself.
The judges of the costume contest were very serious and intimidating.
The next morning, Todd gave the exhortation at church, and we heard from C. R. Wiley as the guest preacher. In the evening, we joined Wiley and his wife and a few other families from church for dinner. I came home with the babies around 9:00, but everyone else came home after midnight! I knew at that point that we'd probably be dealing with sick kids through the upcoming week as we jumped back into school.
Our first day back in the books went smoothly, all things considered. Kids were tired, and not loving the transition back into the more structured routine, but other than a couple of meltdowns, they all did pretty well. On Tuesday, Juni was sick. Wednesday, Atticus was sick. Thursday, Finneas was sick. Last night, Penelope said she wasn't feeling well, so we'll see how that goes. It hasn't been too bad, just a lot of tiredness and some congestion (though Atticus had a painful throat. I gave him some fire cider I've had brewing, but apparently it's REALLY potent and the cayenne in it burned his throat, which was decidedly counterproductive. I'll need to dilute it.) All things considered, we got as much schoolwork done as we could, but we didn't finish as strong as I would have liked. We will have some work to catch up on next week.
It was a very full house for Wednesday afternoon Read Alouds.
Just a couple of bros.
Rocco working hard on his math.
Penelope celebrated her half birthday.
A few days this week, I also posted a series of Day in the Life stories on my IG account. I'll save them to a highlight if you're interested. It was surprisingly time consuming and probably not something I'll do again for a while, but it was fun!
Hard at work as a Mom Influencer.
And that brings us to today! I need to go grocery shopping, so I'll do that in the afternoon. Then this evening, the kids will dress up in their costumes again, we'll have the first cheeseboard of the season to celebrate Reformation Day, we'll go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, and then we'll come home to watch Luther and eat a bunch of candy in our costumes. It should be a blast as long as everyone stays healthy. And with that, hat's off (or on) to a great week.
I bought this tiny straw hat at Goodwill this week (oh yeah, I also made a trip to Goodwill this week), and Eulalie has worn it every minute she can. I forgot to tell you that she self-weaned a couple of weeks ago - just decided she wasn't interest anymore - and Knox is now walking exclusively. So I have no more crawlers, and only one nurser, and I think the baby days are coming to an end. Welcome to the Twin Toddler Era.
