Friday Food: Workin' 9 to 5, What a Way To Make a Livin'

Okay, so I actually work from 7:15 to 4:15. And only two days a week, so I'm definitely not making much of a living at it, but I couldn't resist the song.

Anyway. Food.

Friday

Short version: Found food

Long version: This was the night of the school play, so Cubby and Charlie were at school for dinner before the play started. The remaining four of us were due at Jack's classroom for a pre-play reading of the play's story ("The Emperor's New Clothes," minus the nudity) and a dinner that consisted of hot dogs and chips.

So I didn't actually cook, although I did make several dozen cookies for the bake sale auction fundraiser that runs concurrently with the play.

Cubby helped me make the chocolate chip cookies. Jack helped me make the chocolate peanut butter chip cookies. And there were no raisins to be seen this time. Sorry, raisin people.

A. and I elected to eat before we went to the hot dog supper. A. had leftover taco meat with leftover rice and cheese and I had leftover taco meat with tomatoes and avocado. Then when we got home at 8 p.m., the children claimed they were starving and all had bowls of the rest of the taco meat with rice and cheese.

Good thing there was so much taco meat left over, because it was all eaten.

And here we have Cubby the Money Councilor:

I will not post photo of Charlie the (Very Reluctant) Silkworm, because I couldn't figure out how to crop out all the other kids in the photo. I'm sure you can live without seeing him, although it was pretty funny. He told me before the play, with a very expressive scowl on his face, "I despise being a silk worm." To which I replied, "Okay, just suck it up and do it anyway." He did, albeit without enthusiasm.

Saturday

Short version: Scrambled eggs with green chile and cheese, fried potatoes, sauteed calabacitas, leftover steamed broccoli

Long version: A. used the outdoor grill to char the rest of the big bag of chiles my dad brought me from Hatch. I froze most of them, and then used some in the eggs. Every once in awhile I would get a bite that had a really spicy piece of chile in it, but generally it just made for some really good scrambled eggs.

I'm sure you all remember Rafael's calabacitas from last year, officially known as cucurbita argyrosperma. These are actually the first ones we've gotten from him this year. I need to get some seeds from him and grow some of our own next year. They're better than the average zucchini.

Sunday

Short version: Meatloaf, baked potatoes, roasted green beans, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted summer squash, peach/pear/blueberry betty with vanilla ice cream

Long version: We had so many roasted things because it was only in the high seventies outside, so I cranked up the oven and crammed everything in all together. I love it when I can do this, even if I do have to get creative with my oven space and the single oven shelf.

I made the fruit dessert because I had a convergence of fruits that needed to be used. First I got a final bag of peaches from Nick the Peach-Giver. I canned them in halves, but the bottom came out of one of the jars while it was in the water bath. This is frustrating, but salvageable, as the bottom comes off cleanly and doesn't leave any glass splinters.

So I had a quart of peaches all peeled and everything. To those I added a few peaches we got from the orphan tree by the post office that had a lot of hail damage, but were otherwise fine. Also some pears from the tree in front of the village offices that has a TON of pears this year that no one seems to be using. We just picked up the windfalls and ended up with about ten pounds of small pears. They look like the Seckel pears I'm so familiar with from Blackrock, which means they're small and annoying to peel, but are very tasty.

Last I had some blueberries my parents left with us that were on their way out, so I threw those in there, too.

A betty is a fruit dessert like a crisp, but the topping is made with bread crumbs. I used some of the sourdough bread crumbs I always have in the freezer, plus brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter for the topping. The fruit had brown and white sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon. It turned out really well.

I looked quickly for recipes online before just winging it--my standard operating procedure--and did not see a single betty recipe that combined peaches, pears, and blueberries. So consider this my contribution to the vast online recipe file: Peaches, pears, and blueberries make a delicious betty.

Monday

Short version: Extemporaneous skillet food, cucumbers

Long version: Now that I'm coming in the door on Mondays and Wednesdays at 4:15 p.m. with all four children by myself (A. drops us off before continuing in the bus to bring home the rest of the kids that live farther away) after working all day and then need to make dinner, I'm trying to think ahead a little more. I already had ground beef thawed, and my plan was to use the juices left over from making the pot roast the week before to make a sauce, and then serve it with rice, which cooks in only about half an hour.

However, when I opened the container with the pot roast liquid, it was definitely too old.

Okay! Plan B! Which I did not actually have a plan for, but whatever.

Same ground beef, plus an onion, some roasted green chiles I had frozen in small quantities, cumin, and the juice from a can of tomatoes. The rice was cooking while I was browning the meat. I added some cooked rice to the meat in the skillet, then some grated cheese. And that was dinner.

Are you seeing a theme of meat+rice+cheese in my kitchen? Yeah. Maybe I should write a cookbook about it. Or maybe I've already said all I need to say about that. Not that that stops people from writing the books.

Anyway. Here's Poppy:

Ready for action in a patriotic romper and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles helmet.

Tuesday


Short version: Roasted chicken pieces (thighs and drumsticks), mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes/bell pepper/onion, sauteed summer squash and mushrooms, tomato and cucumber salad

Long version: You can tell from the relative complexity of this meal that I do not work on Tuesdays.

It's been awhile since I've had to separate chicken legs into thighs and drumsticks. I did not miss it. Gross.

Wednesday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, bread and butter, leftover mashed potatoes and rice, sauteed mushrooms and onions, frozen green beans

Long version: Another work day, another meal featuring ground beef. And frozen green beans that I did not even bother to heat up, because the children prefer them that way and A. and I were eating leftover vegetables.

Thursday

Short version: Beef rib tacos with homemade tortillas, pickled carrot and cucumber ribbons

Long version: Yet more of the never-ending and somewhat unappealing beef ribs. Part of the problem with them is that they're so damn long, I have limited receptacles in which to cook them. This time I just chunked them totally frozen into my big roasting pan and put them in the oven until they were thawed enough to cut up a bit. Then I covered the pan and cooked them until I could pull the meat away from all the nasty bits. Of which there are many on ribs.

The meat I fried in some of the fat from cooking the ribs in the oven, plus salt, cumin, garlic, and some of those very handy frozen roasted green chiles.

I only used two cups of masa to make the tortillas, and someone needs to remind me next time to use at least three cups. We never have enough tortillas, which results in much competition for the last one.

And hey! I made a double batch of zucchini bread this day and remembered to put in the butter. Yes, yes. Applause. Thank you.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

Friday Food: Beef and Tomatoes, and Repeat

Friday

Short version: Pizza, green salad

Long version: This was the last night my parents were with us for dinner, and I always make pizza when we have guests, so I made pizza. One cheese, one half pepperoni and half vegetable, and both a little bit charred on the bottom thanks to the fact that I still only have one shelf in my oven and had to rotate the pans with one on the single shelf and one directly on the floor of the oven.

I know. We've lived here for almost a year. I'll get to another shelf this year, I promise. Maybe.

The salad did not include lettuce from my garden--the fall planting of lettuce has not been impressive--but it did at least include tomatoes from my garden. I started with two dozen seedlings, which then became a dozen actual plants in the garden, which have now become three plants in the garden with tomatoes on them, two of which are a small cherry variety called Sweet Millions. From which I have harvested approximately twenty tiny tomatoes.

Underwhelming.

Saturday

Short version: Skillet of leftovers, cucumbers

Long version: I had exactly one cup of leftover pork taco meat and one cup of chicken taco meat, both of which were combined with leftover rice and grated cheese to make dinner.

Foodies 'R' Us.

Sunday

Short version: Bunless hamburgers, pasta with leftover pizza sauce, not-quite-Caprese salad with cucumbers, sauteed mushrooms, peaches and cream

Long version: I was very excited for this not-quite-Caprese salad. First I bought some fancy fresh mozzarella balls at the store on Thursday when we were in a larger town to get the puppies' vaccinations done. I bought the mozzarella because I was afraid I wouldn't have enough asadero for the pizzas. But then I did, so I had fresh mozzarella on hand.

And then, when we stopped at the teeny tiny general store in the village after church*, there were half a dozen Roma tomatoes near the cash register, picked only a few minutes before by the owner from his garden. So of course I got those.

I didn't really have enough tomatoes for a true Caprese salad, which is why I added one of Rafael's cucumbers. I also added a thinly sliced shallot, because I like shallot. Despite the deviations from the traditional, it was still so good.

I didn't plate it like a traditional Caprese salad, either, so maybe I should just call it something else entirely.

I bought the peaches from a roadside stand in the same town where I got the mozzarella. I figured it was my last chance for peaches this summer.

Then Nick the Peach-Giver gave us two bags full of his white peaches that very afternoon.

Luckily, I know just what to do with a surfeit of peaches. With Nick's, I made peach jam, once again using the laborious recipe I used last summer. It has about half the sugar of a regular peach jam recipe, and Nick's extra-sweet, low-acid peaches do not need that much sugar. So I went through the silliness of a cheesecloth bag full of apple cores and straining juice and so on.

The peaches I bought were the ones I used for the peaches and cream. They weren't as good as Nick's, but certainly enjoyable with sugar and cream.

Monday

Short version: Pork roast, baked potatoes, carrots cooked in with the roast, raw tomatoes

Long version: It's been awhile since I've made an actual roast. This one--with just a thyme and oregano spice rub and red wine--turned out really well.

The tomatoes came from the few surviving plants in the garden. If I'm lucky, I'll get maybe five dozen before the killing frosts. Better than nothing, I guess.

Tuesday

Short version: Lazy beef chuck roasts, garlic bread, baked sweet potato, roasted green beans and tomatoes

Long version: Lazy because I didn't even brown the roasts. Mostly because they were still frozen. I just put two of them in a big covered roasting pan with some tomato juice, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and bay leaf, and cooked them until they were done.

They weren't great, but they were fine. And they provided the leftovers I wanted for the next meal. Which was . . .

Wednesday

Short version: Leftover fried chuck roast, rice, steamed broccoli, cucumbers

Long version: This was my first day of work, so I was anticipating being tired (I was) and wanting something easy. So I just chunked up the leftover roast and fried it in tallow with a lot of garlic. It was better than the original iteration of it.

I sure did miss this crazy girl all day.

She didn't particularly miss me, however. Why should she, when she had her own personal servant and playmate in the person of Daddy all to herself?

Thursday

Short version: Beef tacos with roasted green chilis, cucumbers

Long version: While I was making quesdillas for Jack and Poppy's lunch, I charred about a dozen of the green chilis my dad brought me from Hatch.

If it looks just slightly diseased, it's not charred enough.

Better, but it needs still more charring.

I did eventually get them charred and skinned, then I put a bunch in the freezer and used the rest in the ground beef for the tacos.

Only five dozen or so chilis left to char! I keep thinking we'll do it on the outdoor grill, but the wind has been so bad lately, I haven't wanted to have a fire out there.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

* I didn't actually need anything this Sunday, but I bought a gallon of milk anyway, because the guy who owns it makes a point of being there by 9 a.m. on Sunday pretty much for us, so I feel an obligation to be there, too. And it's not like the milk will go bad or anything in this house.

In Which the Ladies Start Pulling Their Weight

The hens--all two of them--finally started laying on Sunday.

The home eggs next to the inferior store eggs are small, but mighty.

I feel slightly less resentful now about having to trudge out to the chicken coop in the dark every morning to bring them their container of scraps and cup of purchased food.

On the same day, Jack decided to let the chickens out of their yard, which allowed us the opportunity to teach the puppies not to chase the chickens, no matter how fun it might be.

They were not convinced. They weren't sorry, either.

And in related news, the other lady in the house--by which I mean me--will be starting to earn her keep tomorrow. At least partially.

I'm going back to work.

It has been eight years since I did freelance copy editing for pay, and thirteen years since I left my house to go to a job.

I wasn't looking for a job, but I figured one would find me eventually. That's the way it goes in a small community. With a limited workforce, it's inevitable that every able adult will be expected to contribute in some way. 

In this case, it was the school that asked for help. They had a huge increase in enrollment this year*, which is great, but the teachers are over-extended. The superintendent asked if I could help a couple of days a week as an "Educational Assistant." I think this is probably what we used to call a teacher's aide.

Anyway. I don't know exactly what I'm going to be doing, other than serving as another adult to supervise children, but I'll be working at the school on Mondays and Wednesdays when all three boys are at school. A. will be watching Poppy on those days.

A. just finished up his training to become the school bus driver, as well, so starting next week he'll be driving the school bus. Which means that on Mondays and Wednesdays, the entire family, including Poppy in her car seat, will be riding on the school bus. A. will bring Poppy home with him on the bus on the days I'm working, and then back to the school in the afternoon to drive us all home and drop us off before he continues on to drop off the rest of the kids.

Lots of adjustments to be made, and new routines to figure out. Wish us luck.

* Which means they went from 28 K-12 students to almost forty, plus thirty online students. So we're still not talking your average public school, but it's a lot for teachers that were accustomed to classes of three or four students.

Friday Food: Pumpkins, Chilis, and Other Fun Things

Friday

Short version: Pork tacos, pinto beans, pickled carrot ribbons

Long version: I never make tacos from pork, but I had the awkward bone-in part of the sirloin roast left from when I cut some off to make stir-fry, and there's really no way to get the meat off that sort of bone cleanly except by cooking it long enough that the meat pulls off. So I did that with some tomato juice and taco spices.

I made the pinto beans because I am currently experiencing a glut of dried pinto beans. It not being long-cooking bean weather, I haven't been making them much. I still have a couple of pounds from the bulk bin that I bought several months ago. Then A. came home with a 25-pound bag of them when he was at the store a month or so ago. And THEN, our neighbor came by selling pinto beans and chilis as a fundraiser for the high school, and of course we bought some. Beans, I mean, not chilis, because I cannot handle New Mexican chilis.

Anyway, the point is that I have a ton of dried pinto beans on hand that I need to start working on, so I cooked some. I used Miss Amelia's trick of cooking a Russet potato with the beans to make them extra-creamy and they were very good.

The carrot ribbons were just, uh, carrot ribbons--made with my vegetable peeler--that I pickled for a few hours in salt and vinegar. I like to have something crunchy to top tacos with, and I didn't have any lettuce or cabbage on hand. The slight sweetness of the carrots was particularly good with the pork.

Saturday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, biscuits, hardtack, frozen peas

Long version: Cubby informed me early this day that he knew how to make biscuits and told me that all I needed was flour and water.

Oh, really? Are we talking about edible biscuits here?

Turns out he had been reading a book about the Revolutionary War * that gave instructions for making hardtack. The book says right off that "They have nothing to recommend them other than a long self life," but Cubby really wanted to try it.

So he made hardtack--with my help--by mixing together flour and water and kneading it for ten minutes until it was stretchy, then poking holes in the top with a fork and baking it. That's it. Not even salt. I baked them about ten minutes longer than recommended, and they still weren't as hard as they should have been, but everyone was hungry and I didn't want to wait longer for them.

All the boys ate a hardtack biscuit, Cubby remarking that he could eat a few of them, but I noticed that after that one, he stuck to the baking powder biscuits that I had made. With salt, butter, and milk in them.

Charlie, however, ate another hardtack biscuit. I think he mostly liked dunking it in his milk. They had asked me how the soldiers ate them if they were supposed to be as hard as a rock, and I said they usually soaked them in water or coffee first. So then, of course, everyone was dropping hardtack in their cups of milk. Whatever.

Sunday

Short version: Beef pot roast, baked potatoes, roasted pumpkin and apples, cucumbers with salt and vinegar, peanut butter cookies

Long version: A couple of hours before dinner, I was (silently) lamenting the fact that I had nothing for a vegetable except more frozen peas. So I decided the time had come to start harvesting the pumpkin patch.

The pumpkin patch consists of the entirely too exuberant volunteer squash plants that have taken over the backyard under my clothesline. There are several different kinds of squash out there, though we have no idea what any of them are. Some look like small pumpkins, some look like orange spaghetti squash, some look . . . weird.

Anyway. The small pumpkins started growing first and have fairly hard skins already, so I harvested one and cooked it. Half of it I cut into cubes to roast with some of the tart green apples from the tree at our new (abandoned) house next door. The other half I just put cut-side down in a casserole dish and cooked it in the oven until it was soft.

I had no idea if the pumpkin would be at all tasty, but it wasn't bad. Kind of bland. I particularly liked it with the apples, actually, so I'll have to do that again.

The cucumbers came from Rafael, who stopped by about an hour before dinner with a bag of cucumbers and summer squash for us. Better than a CSA.

The peanut butter cookies were from Cubby's cookbook, and are useful because they contain no flour. They are nothing more than sugar, peanut butter, eggs, and M&Ms. Cubby mostly made them.

And looks rather surprised to be doing so.

Monday

Short version: Pork ribs, rice, mashed pumpkin

Long version: These country-style pork ribs were really hard to cook because they were so varied in size. A couple of them were at least two inches thick, some of the others were barely half an inch. I got them all done in the end, even if it was kind of in stages.

The children were not pleased when they sat down to a tablespoon of mashed pumpkin each. Even with plenty of butter and maple syrup mashed in, Charlie treated us to a masterful dramatic performance of Death By Pumpkin and finally managed to eat the whole two bites. As he was clearing his plate, he scowled at me and said, "Don't ever serve me squash again, or it will kill me."

Right.

Tuesday

Short version: Meatballs with marinara sauce, pasta, roasted summer squash/bell pepper/onion, frozen peas

Long version: This would have been a wonderful meal to welcome my parents when they arrived for their short visit, if I had had enough tomatoes. I started making everything in the morning and found I only had one can of tomatoes left. So I mostly used that to bake the meatballs, and the pasta had only a token amount of sauce in it. There was plenty of butter and Parmesan cheese, though, so it was all good, if a bit dry.

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken tacos with roasted green chilis, homemade corn tortillas, pinto beans, Mexican slaw, blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream

Long version: It's chili season in New Mexico! My dad took advantage of this fact to buy me some green chilis when they drove through Hatch, New Mexico on their way to our house. Hatch is famous for its chilis. They even have a chili festival every September.

So my dad asked if I wanted some chilis, and I was all, "Hell yes! Maybe ten pounds?"

Do you know how many chilis are in a ten-pound bag? A shitload of chilis. Dozens and dozens. My dad hauled in this huge bag, and I was all, "THERE IS NO WAY THAT IS TEN POUNDS OF CHILIS."

It was actually twelve pounds, but still.

So my dad and I charred a few over the burners of my propane stove, then pulled off the charred skins. I removed most of the seeds to make them milder. He left his in, to make them hotter, and they were very good.

I think he's going to be taking some chilis home with him, though, because seriously. That is a LOT of chilis.

It's been awhile since I've made tortillas, mostly because of the heat. But I had to do it this day, because when my parents came, my dad brought the tortilla press he made for me.

Load it up with a ball of masa, aaand . . .

Press!

It was fun. And efficient. I made enough tortillas for the eight of us that I even had one left over, for the first time ever. So of course, I ate it as I was cleaning up the kitchen. I mean, wouldn't you?

When my parents are visiting, we can have dessert on a day other than Sunday. The pie was another of the Village Pie Maker pies provided at the place my parents stay when they visit us. Those really are good pies.

Thursday

Short version: Restaurant food

Long version: My parents wanted to buy us dinner at the (only) restaurant in the village, so we mostly all had hamburgers, corn dogs, and french fries. And we took it to go to eat at the place my parents stay in the village, because dining in house with my four children is not my idea of a good time. Much better to go eat outside on a patio where they can spill milk and drip ketchup without raising my blood pressure.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

Bad News for Our Cream Consumption

As everyone knows, having one's coffee the correct way is a very serious matter. A. and I both put cream in our coffee. Given the amount of coffee we drink--which is a lot, thanks to the two puppies + four children situation we are currently in--that means we use a lot of cream.

Luckily for us, the tiny grocery store ten miles away carries cream.

Unluckily for us, I just found out that the tiny grocery store ten miles away will be closing at the end of December. This means we will be sixty miles away from cream, produce, and, well, pretty much everything else.*

Serious, serious bummer.

* Barring a last-minute sale to a new owner, that is. However, considering that the business has been for sale for over a year with no buyers, I'm not counting on that.

Friday Food: Beef, Beef, Pork

Friday

Short version: Italian sliders, pasta with pesto, sauteed summer squash, green beans

Long version: "Italian sliders" is what I call tiny hamburgers that are seasoned like meatballs (garlic, oregano, basil), but don't have any eggs or breadcrumbs in them.

I stole some of the pesto and grated Parmesan for the squash, and it was pretty much just as good as the pasta. The children do not agree.

Saturday

Short version: Customized food.

Long version: A., Charlie, and I ate the leftover sliders; Jack and Poppy ate the rest of the hotdogs; Cubby ate the last two spicy chicken fillets we got from Ray. All the children ate the leftover pasta. A. ate the rest of the leftover rice. A. and I both ate some roasted peppers and onions I made when I was baking bread earlier in the day.

Just as complicated as it sounds, yes.

Sunday

Short version: Brisket, bread and butter, sauteed green beans, sauteed cabbage/carrots/onions, vanilla ice cream with a choice of chocolate shell or baked apples

Long version: The brisket went in before we went to church--with only salt, pepper, chopped onion, apple cider vinegar, and water--and cooked from 7 a.m. to noon. I sliced it and warmed it with barbecue sauce at dinnertime.

At the same time I was cooking the brisket, I baked some sweet potatoes and a loaf of zucchini bread, with a few extra zucchini muffins. Except I forgot to put in the butter I had melted in the microwave.

Yes. I forgot to put in the butter. Such a classic "Kristin following a recipe" moment. (This recipe, to be specific.)

I was going to give the loaf of zucchini bread to Rafael, because he supplied the zucchini I used to make it and he always drops pretty obvious hints about zucchini bread whenever he gives us zucchini. I tasted one of the muffins, and they were amazingly good considering that a major ingredient was left out, but they definitely didn't have that nice zucchini bread texture. So I decided to keep this butter-less loaf and make another one for Rafael that has fat in it.

I'm nice like that.

It's nice to know that you can actually make zucchini bread completely fat-free should you run out of oil or something. Not that I'm ever without some source of fat, but anything's possible.

Monday

Short version: Lamb ribs, fried plantain, rice, cucumber slices

Long version: This is the very last of the lamb we butchered in April. A. was in the charge of the ribs, as always. And as always, he marinated them in vinegar and a ton of garlic, then grilled them.

The plantain was a new one for us. A. had it with a breakfast meal he got at a restaurant a couple of months ago and really liked it, so when we saw them in the city a couple of weeks ago, I bought one. I looked up various recipes for fried plantain, and then just kind of . . . fried it.

It looked like a slightly more yellow banana, and tasted pretty much like that, too.

I used a cast-iron skillet, as I always do, and coconut oil. Nothing else but salt. Some recipes actually tell you to coat the slices in sugar, but mine was so ripe that it already tasted almost like a banana, so I didn't use any sugar.

They browned well, and were nice and crispy, but only A. and Poppy liked it. Oh well. It was fun to try something different.

Tuesday

Short version: Ribeye steaks, fried bread, sauteed mushrooms and green beans

Long version: This must not have been a very satisfying dinner, because everyone came back to the kitchen about thirty minutes later for thick slices of bread with butter and jelly.

Or maybe they just really like bread with jelly. Can't really blame them for that one.

Wednesday

Short version: Stir-fry with peanut butter sauce, rice, Otter Pops

Long version: This was Jack's first day of school--the preschool starts almost a month later than the other students--so I made his favorite dinner, using chunks I cut off a big pork sirloin roast, plus onion, carrots, bell pepper, mushrooms, and green beans.

The Otter Pops came from Miss Amelia. Apparently people just keep Otter Pops on hand around here on the off chance a kid might come along and require some luridly colored frozen sugar. I know this because this is the third time my children have been handed these unexpectedly. They don't mind.

Thursday

Short version: Barbecue meatballs, garlic bread, frozen peas

Long version: It seems stupid to be serving frozen peas when we have all these green beans coming out of the garden, but Charlie requested them, so I did.

It was really too hot to be broiling and baking meatballs and bread, but I did it anyway. And I have no regrets.

Neither did Super Poppy.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

A Day of Labor

Big day around the ole New Mexico homestead yesterday, where we celebrated the triumphs of the labor force by . . . laboring.

A. worked on the stone wall that he'll be building for the next, oh, decade.

He asks us to imagine the whole property surrounded by a white stone wall in the Mediterranean style. It's a nice vision.

I spent some time in the morning peeling and slicing apples to dry out in the sun--specifically, on the hood of the Honda, which is where I put the trays--and Cubby decided he wanted to lay in his own personal stash for winter.

I tried to tell him that HE didn't have to be up on the hood for the car to do his prep, but I guess he favors economy of motion.

Charlie "found" (drew) a treasure map and dug for buried treasure.

Alas, either the map was a dud or someone got to the treasure before he did.

Jack dug the Erie Canal in the sand filling A.'s trailer.

And Poppy got in his way. We all have our roles to play, and that is the role of the little sister.

In addition to my usual work:

Which almost always includes laundry in varying amounts.

I sanded and painted a dresser.

This dresser came from the house we bought next door. It's an old, cheap dresser, but free, and I thought it would be nice to replace the small, also cheap pseudo-dresser I got on Amazon for Charlie and Jack's room that doesn't actually have enough room in it for all their clothes.

The "new" dresser had some kind of incredibly ugly pale yellow varnish on it that I could not look at every day for the next twenty years, so I decided to paint it. First I sanded it, though, because the varnish was extremely slick and I didn't think the paint would adhere well.

I used A.'s power sander. First time I'd done that. Did not like. I am not a fan of power tools. Too loud and they vibrate so much.

Anyway. I sanded, then I painted.

Drawers in progress.

I painted it the same pale blue color that the outside of our house is painted, because Dale left behind almost a full gallon of the paint, and the curtains in that bedroom are blue, too. Yes, I used exterior paint for a piece of furniture, which I'm sure is not recommended, but hey, it's what I had. And maybe it will hold up better to the abuse that will no doubt occur in a room full of boys.

I even unscrewed the nasty-looking pulls from the drawers and painted them with some gold spray paint I already had on hand.

I was pretty proud of the egg-carton stabilizer idea.

And then one of the puppies--Jasper, and I suspect it's always going to be Jasper--apparently decided to inspect my work. I know this because I came outside about half an hour later and found that he had blue paint on one ear, one leg (the opposite side from the ear, even!), and his tail.

Despite the puppy interference, I'm pleased with how it came out.

Fancy (fake) gold pulls and all.

It wasn't a restful holiday, but it was very productive.