Domestic Goddess!

NOT!  Anyone who knows me, knows I struggle with most "stay-at-home" mom tasks.  I try to be a good mom, but I'm not super crafty, a good cook, I can't sew...  You name it, I probably suck at it.  But today I'm having what I consider to be a very domestic day.  I was able to catch up WAY more laundry than I should've had.  You know when all the stupid towels and blankets and sheets pile up in addition to your whites, darks, kid clothes and whatever else you might need to wash.  Well, not only did I get all that done, but I caught up with my overflowing harvest vegetables.  I LOVE having tons of vegetables to eat, but I hate having them go to waste.  Last year, I steamed and pureed so much squash that I didn't have to buy any baby food for Preston.  I also bought some green beans and sweet potatoes to puree and freeze so he had a variety of veggies, but I had so much squash that he had squash at least once a day for over six months.  It was awesome and so much cheaper than buying baby food.  Anyway, this year I was trying to decide what to do.  I didn't want the mess of canning because I don't have THAT much extra and I usually use it up within a couple of months.  I decided to go the route of freezing my stuff.  So I've been peeling, steaming, boiling, blanching, blending, packaging and freezing all day.  It feels so good to use what we grow though.  My tomatoes will be great in recipes like chili or spaghetti sauce and are easy to use after freezing.  My squash (I planted quite a few kinds this year) I blended and put in ice cube trays because they're easier to use that way.  After reading all of Tiffany's posts about the cookbook Deceptively Delicious, I broke down and bought it.  Although my kids are pretty good about eating veggies, it's great to have healthier recipes that include extra servings of vegetables.  Three cubes is 1/2 cup, which is the amount usually called for in most of the recipes so all my work with this squash will give us lots of puree to work with when we decide to use a recipe from that cookbook.  It's just nice to have the extra.  

Since I've been so productive today, I think we're going to have FHE be about preparedness.  We have our 72 hour kits in the garage, but they could use some updating.  We can have our lesson and then have the kids help us sort out the old stuff that needs to be eaten and put some new stuff in the backpacks.  And I should probably rotate my water too (and add to it - I know we don't have the 60 gallons we're supposed to have).  Fun!  Maybe I'll actually get a few of these procrastinated projects completed today!  I'll let you know if the motivation really does carry through to the family and FHE.