A mile long to do list.

   I was awoken this morning at 6:15 by the rumbling of a roofing company's truck making a delivery,not my idea of a pleasant way to wake up on a day "off" but it means I am now able to be here writing.

 I have a to do list that is right around a mile long or only seems a mile long because some of it is time sensitive.Here is my list:

Make Pickles before the pickling cukes are gone for the year. ( My family will revolt if I don't make this deadline happen.) The lids from last years jars are marked 9/10/09 so maybe I have a few more days to get my cuckes.


Make Strawberry Jam- this one has wiggle room,the berries are still in the freezer so time wise I am covered,whew, maybe this can go farther down the list.


Pick some late Peaches for the freezer,if it dose not happen today or tomorrow it won't happen.(Winter Sunday breakfasts just won't be the same without them, better make it happen.)

Call Senior Services to ask for help with/for my Dad,if I am lucky this will only take one call from which I will not be dropped. It's time for extra help in the home for Dad,he as fallen twice within two weeks and is losing things. The sooner he has more help the better, so this is top of the list.


Call Dad's Doctor-see above as to why.

Remember at dark to move the now not so little chicks and their Mama to the big coop. The now Poultes  are out growing the Broody House so into the Big Coop they need to go.Mama still won't willingly roost with the other chickens so I think it is time to force it.


I already ordered 100 pounds of Apples for Apple Sauce and Butter so making those can wait until October when the Apples arrive.Yes, I did write 100 pounds last years 82 pounds was not enough to keep us in Apple Sauce, we ran out by March.When you have two boys who can sit down and lick clean a quart jar of Apple Sauce before you have realized they opened the jar, 100 pounds of Apples is necessary.


Get the boys ready for school to start. Sol needs shoes,can't send the baby to school without them and both boys still need a handful of supplies.School supplies that sounds easy and so do the shoes right? Not when it has to be this certain Binder that zips and is so many inches thick and the right color. That's the boys demands not the schools but they are kind of right since the other Binders just fall apart after week one and I am back at the store shopping Again. Finding the right shoes is a mystery and when I figure it out I'll let you know. I have until Monday evening to get this one done, somehow I must capture the boys and force them to be home long enough for me to stick them in the car and zoom away with them.


Maybe that dose not seem to bad to some of you but I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by it. Somewhere amongst all of the things to do I have gone back to work so my time has been shortened here at home.I am happy to be working again but it hind sight maybe if the universe had sent me my job mid-September things could have been better organized. I feel like I am re-learning how my life works or how to juggle this new era. I read some place that Chance and I are called the Sandwich Generation- still caring for our own kids and taking care of aging parents.Wow, how dose that work? I mean, I know people get there because of timing and all, but how do they do it? I have all of these balls I am juggling around , teen boys, my Mom, my Dad (geez it would have been swell if they were still together,one stop helping.) a job, Chance,the house and oh yeah Homesteading.
  Someplace in that pile of balls is the tricky one,the wild card out of them-the emotional side.That ball has a mind of its own and rares its ugly head as it sees fit.Watching your parent slip into Alzheimer's is scary unknown territory with out a map or a how to guide.Then there are the boys who's needs from us are changing,we are now the parents of young men, not little boys, a thing that pulls at our heart strings.

  This summer has been like Dorthy and Toto swirling in the tornado with all of that stuff whipping by.Chance and I sit in the eye of it looking around thinking "I don't think we are at Hrafinstaad anymore" But it will all clam down and we will land safely back at Hrafinstaad.School will start for which I am more grateful this year than any other-life with the boys will be forced into a slower pace.Senior Services will be called and the Doctor as well.Appointments made, Jars filled and neatly placed in the pantry,Peaches will be frozen,Work days will come and go.It's just getting the hang of it and putting everything down on my mile long to do list.

Rois