Timing is everything

I’m taking a little break from standing at the stove and the dryer, alternately, to much some ice (bad habit) and rest a bit. Today is laundry day, of course, but we are also making prickly pear jelly. That’s a first! On our way home from Odessa, we stopped by a LOADED cactus and picked pears. Thankfully, Craig had two pairs of channel-lock pliers in the truck, so we didn’t get too many thorns – just a few, and only one that required minor surgery. We probably picked 100 or so of those little fruits, so jelly made the PODA today. (If you aren’t familiar with the Fly Lady, the home management guru, PODA is an acronym for ‘parade of daily activities,’ aka, to-do-list.) I’ve gotten about a third of the way through the process, but I’m not going to detail it until I’m done. I took pictures, so we can have a little ‘jelly tutorial!’ I’m sure that’s what the world waits for… exciting stuff!

The rest of our trip to Odessa went very well. We got to spend some fun time with the family, and eat some good barbecue. We don’t all get together like that very much anymore, so it was a real treat. When I was a kid, we were together a lot… all my rotten uncles who never missed a chance to tickle me until I wet my pants. They really are good memories! Now they all have their own kids, with no rotten uncles to torture them. They’ve all gotten old and mellow, and don’t get their thrills dunking little kids under water (in the nasty tank that I wouldn’t DARE swim in now!) anymore. Oh well, it’s a different time now!

I looked online for a recipe for the cake we had for Papaw’s birthday and found one that sounded about right. I changed it up a bit and baked it, then layered it with orange whipped cream and it was pretty delicious. The flavors were all right, and I think I have all the ingredients right, but the texture wasn’t quite there. It was frosted and ready to eat right about lunch time, so we just had it for lunch! I mean, it has heavy cream, eggs, flour, almonds for protein, and not too much sugar. If you rearrange all those things, you could have an omelet! Or pancakes! So, it can certainly qualify for lunch. The boys were ecstatic, as you can imagine, but neither Luke nor Levi finished it all. Luke asked me if he could have something else after the cake because his body was telling him to “eat something healthy.” I think he’s getting the hang of it! I can’t wait to have another piece for dessert… I hope Craig doesn’t read this before he leaves work… I said it’s LOW in sugar, you hear!!

Speaking of the master of the house… today I’m on a timer. A real timer. We had a ‘discussion’ last night about how much time I spend on the computer, and he thought it would be a good idea to time it, and write down exactly what I’m doing… just so we can see. I argued that paying bills, making worksheets, planning school, etc, is not my ‘computer time,’ and that I really don’t spend much time on my own ‘social networking.’ (That means Facebook and Scrabble!) So, here I sit with my list. So far, I’ve spent only 15 minutes on Facebook, 20 minutes chatting with Kari, 45 minutes on school stuff, 90 minutes looking up recipes for jelly and cake, 30 minutes on household (balancing the checkbook, etc), and 45 minutes uploading pictures and blogging. The total of about 4 hours seems like a lot, but look at the range! I mean, I HAD to find the recipes! And my social time has been very little. As for the blog… it’s a memoir for myself and others. It’s keeping a record of our lives, in a few minutes every few days, that we will treasure for many years. And it also entertains our friends and relatives. Now, that’s worth the hour, right? (You’d better plead my case!) And on that note, I’ll finish with the pictures and say goodbye! Dinner is calling, there’s laundry to put away, and I have to be off this machine by 5:30!