First Day of the Juggle

The adventure (towards insanity?) of School Year 2013-14 begins today. Yes, we unofficially “started” our homeschool year gently, a month ago. But it isn’t reallly real until we start adding in all the other commitments and my job.

I have a workshop this morning from 8-11. I’m going to leave the kids with some schoolwork and housework to do and then let them watch tv/play on the ipad. I’m only 5 minutes away, and I’ll keep my cellphone with me, so don’t judge. 😉 It makes life so much easier on all of us now that they’re old enough & mature enough to have it go this way instead of trying to figure out someplace of them to go or someone to watch them or how to bring them with me. That said, 3 hours is my upper limit, and it’s okay because I’m so close and have the phone. I couldn’t do it otherwise & feel good about it.

Then I’ll check their work and we’ll have lunch and do a bit more, and they have violin lessons this afternoon.

Usually I start the school year with my house all clean and organized. Hahah. It was always a non-negotiable goal. This year I didn’t even try. What I worked on was getting their school year organized and planned out, and the garden. There’s crumbs in the bottom drawer of my oven, drips in the bottom of my frig, and all the closets are messy. Oh well – can’t have it all. Maybe I can tackle one small project at a time, and get things improved. The thing with that though is, at that pace, by the time I’m done it will be time to start over again. That’s why I like a big push toward organization/major housecleaning – at least I can enjoy it all done for a little while.

It’s finally raining – just a little. I hope it rains all day. It’s been something like 2 weeks with no rain. I’ve watered twice, first time of the growing season. It’s a busy harvest time – the green beans are on their second wave and still flowering, so I’m picking a lot again. Some tomatoes, mostly cherry and plum – tons of green ones. Four or five pumpkins ripening, and I’m hoping for that many butternut squash, too. They didn’t produce that much fruit this year for some reason. That’s okay, I have a pretty good source for those.

We got our NJ peaches – 2 bushels worth over the past few weeks. I’ve made peach jam (plain, with vanilla bean, and with vanilla & bourbon); peach bbq sauce, and peach salsa, and quartered peaches. I’m going to make a few more jars of quartered peaches with the last bit, and we’ll eat the rest fresh or in pie, etc. So that’s a huge canning fruit checked off.

After curing the garlic in the shed for a few weeks, I just clipped all the leaves away and put them in paper bags to store in the basement. I think we got something like 60 bulbs. They’re on the small/mediumish size, but still – I’m pleased. I’ll get some more locally too. And then some to plant. Next year I WILL fertilize them.

What’s left:

** picking apples and making applesauce, etc

** making spicy plum sauce (I have the plums ripening)

** get canning tomatoes & make roasted tomatoes (freeze) & sauce (can?)

** get corn and take it off the cob & blanche to freeze – can corn salsa?

** more beans for the freezer

** make “sun-dried” tomatoes from plum/cherry tomatoes in the oven & freeze

I think that’s about all. Better go get dressed & give the kids’ their list. Don’t want to be late…

Those of you having “first days” soon – best wishes & good luck!