2 moms, 9 kids, 342 pounds of apples and 120 quarts of apple sauce

And an all day into-the-night experience. When I told my kids "just keep picking" until all the 5 gallon buckets, laundry baskets, boxes and bags in the Expedition were full, I proved just how truly terrible my spacial reasoning /eye balling measurement skills are. I was just hoping that I had enough to make the applesauce experience worthwhile like it was last year - how could I be expected to remember what the 215 pounds of apples we had last year looked like? Well, I can tell you that it couldn't have looked anything like that pile of apples I hauled in, because we had 342 pounds....hello!! We pulled in the Rickel's driveway at 10 am and left at 2am; 120 quarts of applesauce later.

The kids pared apples for 8 hours!!


NO wonder they look psychopathic here.


At 6pm, when it looked like this, I knew it was trouble - we had two ovens and 2 roasters baking apples so that we could run them through the mill; 2 large pots of cooking applesauce on the stove; 2 cannisters of canned applesauce processing (with 7 quarts in each); and all those apples UNcooked on the counter - still needing to be cooked in the roasters/oven. It was bad - very bad. About that time, I started apologizing for my over-zealous, apple picking episode.

The really crazy thing is - I don't even like applesauce, in fact, it grosses me out. BUT 4 people in my family do LOVE it and that makes up for it, I guess. And that's just the kind of self-sacrificing mother that I am. It had nothing to do with the fact that I am just a little bit social and spending all day with some of my favorite people sounded like a party to me, and I can't stand to miss a party - no, it had nothing to do with that - it was all a sacrificial, giving kind of thing on my part.
I don't think anyone will let me pick the apples next year (or any year after) without some very strict guidelines and supervision.

socialization and patience - the two biggies

This post appeared on Pioneer Woman this week from a contributor. I love her explanation of the questions that all we homeschoolers get asked on a regular basis - I think that her answers are the best I have heard. The one that really gets me is the patience one. I am certain that when my kids are supposed to be doing math and I enter the room and they are ALL doing anything BUT math and my head spins around and sub-human noises spew from my mouth, that no one in the world would confuse that with patience. We are not born with it, nor do any of us just have it - well, Jessica Mallery I think might and Rebekah Tolopilo, but the rest of us got stuck with a little more of that sin nature than they did. I do believe that, although tough days make us wonder, that we learn patience through homeschooling - we just don't have any other choice. Anyone considering homeschooling their children should not determine they ought to do so based on their level of patience....it is a much larger decision than that. As the above blogger so wisely mentions, it is a family conviction put into action - don't let the reason you don't homeschool be your lack of patience. And forgive that previous double negative, grammar no-no!

Hobo Point

Our friends, the Meulis, have a great 40 acres on the shore of Lake Mary Ronan - a perfect, lovely place where there are not many boats and almost NO people around. They affectionately call it Hobo Point. Every year (well, this was the second, but it has been tagged a yearly event now) we all get together (the Millers, Meulis, Rickels, Sibelruds and Dunhams) and camp for three days on the water. We waterski, tube, swim, canoe, float, eat, play airsoft, and get really dirty. We decided to start taking a group photo each year so that we can see everyone growing up as the summers go by - but maybe next year we ought to do it at the beginning instead at the height of our grubby-ness.