Hey, Friends! This is me, Kirsten-the-Slacker, apologizing for being MIA this week. I had every intention of following up the Canning 101 post with a Canning 102 demonstration.
Wanted to.
Meant to.
Woulda-coulda-shoulda.
Except for the part when I kind of took an impromptu vacation. The boys and I spent last week near the Big City at my mom’s house for Camp Nana. Which required me to drive 5 hours each way with 4 kids. Starbuck’s and chocolate factored heavily on the drive down–for me, anyway. I made the boys drink water and munch on carrot sticks. Because I’m the meanest mom ever.
We spent the week touring to museums, science centers, the zoo, and hanging out at the pool. The boys had a ball.
I was in the midst of NanaBread’s 14-day sweet pickle recipe before we left, so I finished them up at my mom’s house. My timing is nothing if not impeccable. I figured it was cool to bring them because my mom loves sweet pickles. However after having two open vats of sweet & vinegary smelling cucumbers on her counter for the better part of a week, I’m pretty sure that she’s not sad that her house doesn’t smell like a pickle factory anymore. Call it a hunch.
Then I drove home. With four boys in the car. For 5 hours. Sadly, I didn’t pass a single Starbucks on the route home. And I was out of chocolate. It was all very tragic, really.
Hubby was happily awaiting our return to our (unusually) quiet home. Then I shopped-did-laundry-baked-cleaned-shuttled-boys-to-appointments-and-passed out.
I’m not to proud to say that we’ve eaten cereal and carryout pizza for the past two nights since we’ve been home.
Maryanne-the-Oldest is on the left. We always dress in proper attire for dinner.
Two weeks ago, at our other cousin’s wedding, my cousin-older-sister-friend Maryanne & I decided to do an end of summer blow-out with our families– When you have a collective 7 kids, that is what spontaneity looks like. Maryanne is the oldest of the cousins. She’s way older than I am 7 months older than me. She’s held that 7 months over my head my entire life.
The Oldest and Wisest of the Cousins
We kind of grew up like sisters. Only she already has 2 sisters. But she always liked me better. So it was like I had 3 sisters, but we didn’t live together so they couldn’t steal borrow my stuff.
So after being home from Camp Nana for all of 36 hours, I remembered that my cousin-older-sister-friend and her family were coming for a visit. Less than 36 hours from the time that I remembered they were coming.
I’m not ashamed to say that I spent those 36 hours hiding crap frantically cleaning bathrooms up until the point where they pulled into our driveway. If you’ve ever lived shared a bathroom in the same house with several *ahem* folks of the male persuasion, you’ll understand why bathroom maintenance requires constant vigilance.
So now our house, and hearts, are full with family. LOVE that!
The Elder Statesmen
The Party Animals a.k.a Fred & Ginger
The Dancing Queen
The Camera Shy One
And, The Baby
We plan to spend the weekend basking in the jubilation that comes with 7 cousins in constant motion, and four very tired parents napping supervising from the couch.
Which is precisely why I haven’t been around much this week.
Welcome to my spontaneous vacation.
If I ever sleep again, I’ll see you guys early next week with more useful information and riveting ramblings. I’ll also be catching up with reading all of my daily blogs–I miss you guys and feel SO out of the loop. I haven’t forgotten about my bloggy-buddies. Thanks for understanding. You ROCK!
Have a great weekend! 🙂
Note: All photos are completely SOOC. I’m too lazy to crop & edit because I’m on vacation, man!
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