Moving into Fall

Last week was a flurry of getting ready for the Ward 1950’s social. I got the skirts made, and at the dress rehearsal on Wed, I fixed all the skirts that needed finishing touches (which was easy for me, and gave poor Becca, who was in charge of a million things one less thing to think about--which is always a noble goal!) SmallDaughter crashed the rehearsal, and wanted to be with her friends (the 8-12 year old “Faith In God Girls), who were—as always-- super sweet and patient with her.

On Thursday, after I brought SmallDaughter home from riding and put her to bed, I harvested all the peppers in my garden, and got them ready, and on Friday afternoon (in the morning I went to our Fiber Arts Group meeting and ran a bazillion errands), I started watching a movie and slicing a billion pounds of peppers. I have canned gallons of jalapenos over the years, and they have never given me a problem (except that time I cut the tip of my finger off with the slicer--(*&$%@#!!!!--but that is a different story!) However, for whatever reason, THIS time, my hands really started burning. It may be because I had several varieties of peppers, or my skin is getting more sensitive with age, I don’t know. Anyway, I stopped and scrubbed them thoroughly, and tried to keep going, but the pain got too bad to continue. It continued to intensify throughout the night--I couldn’t sleep, and with my eyes closed it felt like my hands were blistered with burns, but they weren’t even red! However, they were only bearable if I kept them in cool water--I was melting a bowl of ice in under 10 minutes!

I tried every crazy thing I could find on the internet, including:
washing with:
soap,
laundry soap,
dish soap,
shampoo,
toothpaste (can’t recommend that one!),
bleach,
ammonia (not together!),
rubbing alcohol
soaking in:
milk,
lemon juice
lemon juice followed by baking soda,
ketchup,
mustard,
hemorrhoid cream,
urine (I was desperate by that point--it was about 3 am!),
I don’t remember what else!
Finally, after peaking in intensity around 2am, by 4:30 they had calmed enough that I was finally able to sleep. They felt better in the morning, but my hands stayed tender for several days, although I am not sure if that was from the peppers, or from all the crap I put on them!

On Saturday, I worked (slowly and exhaustedly!) on getting the rest of the peppers sliced and seeded. I finished in time to go to the Social, which turned out amazingly! SmallDaughter had a pretty great evening, because the food was hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries & potato chips! There was a photo booth with adorable props, and she walked around holding them up--cat eye glasses, bow ties, and her favorite--big lips! BigGirl had slept on, and then baby-sat in velcro curlers, so she could do authentic 50’s short curly hair (almost all of the other YW have long hair, so there were LOTS of pony tails). She also tried out the new makeup she got for her birthday from Bec (who also taught her how to apply it!). I did big Marilyn eyeliner for her, and she was truly a knock-out! Lots of people didn’t recognize her, and several gave her that “favorite” left handed compliment “You look so pretty--you don’t even look like yourself!” Her favorite was our good Bishop saying “does your Father know you look like this!?!”

It was a super fun activity, and had really good turn out. I am glad that the entertainment was videotaped, -it is pretty hard to describe the awesomeness! Some of the memorable moments included: The YW presidency doing “Splish Splash” with super cute bathtubs they cut out from cardboard and painted white, then used blue balloons as “The Wonderdog”, The Nursery and Sunbeam boys doing “Jailhouse Rock”, the little girls doing “Lollipop, the Faith in God Girls doing “Hand Jive”--and in one of the sweetest moments of the evening--SmallDaughter went out with them, and was very careful to mimic their dance moves and hand moves!!! I was not the only one crying, either! The young women did a really cute dance to “Blue Suede Shoes” and the young men were a showstopper with a lip synch medley of favorites whose highlights included LargeBoy doing a hilarious Jerry Lee Lewis at the piano for “Great Balls of Fire” (We accidentally even got the hair right!)!

My Favorite Gentleman worked all day Saturday, and then came home about 3 am on Sunday morning, and left from church at 10:30. He only came home because Bill (his usual roommate, and the guy he carpools with) was going on vacation this week, and My Favorite Gentleman was the only way he had to come back!

On Monday, I finally got the dang peppers made into pepper butter and canned, and after all that work, I scorched it, and I am not sure it is edible! I canned it anyway (hope springs eternal, and My Favorite Gentleman’s taste buds are not that picky!) Then I started peeling on the 20 lbs of carrots and 30 lbs of spuds for canning mixed veggies. On Tuesday, BigGirl went with me over to buy the supplies I needed for getting the bees ready for winter, and to pick up my spinning wheel from the repairman. He is fun and delightful (as all spinners are!) and we ended up talking to him for over 2 hours! Then we picked up a bed frame that was on Freecycle, and came home, where I continued to work on canning!

Yesterday, BigGirl helped me get mixed veggies canned and the bees taken care of. They are doing great, but I am not extracting any honey this year--I suspect we will have a long, cold winter (we had a cool, wet summer) and I want to make sure they have plenty of honey. However--their honey is very pretty! We will have one more “bee care day” next week, and that will pretty much be “it” for the year--except for building an insulation box to put around the hive next month.

We started to work on canning some of our chickens, but the meat is so tough that I just ended up putting it in the crockpot all night, so it could soften up! I suspect I will end up canning all of it, for that reason. Today, I need to continue my canning (I am waiting on the dishwasher to finish my jars), and I am harvesting all of my tomatoes. BigGirl has been harvesting my herbs--which had a hard year, since Dad had to put the scaffold up on top of them to work on the siding!

Tonight, besides the RS broadcast, our ward is having a “Super Saturday” with crafts classes and dinner. SmallDaughter is being indescribably cute lately! She has really had some good development, and is just hilarious! She is loving riding the big yellow bus. She can be in a bad mood in the morning, but as soon as she sees the bus she cheers up! School seems to be going well for her so far (she hasn’t complained, anyway!!) Thursdays are her favorite, because she gets to go riding and get “hamburger, fries and apples” from McDonalds. I am not sure which thing excites her more! BigGirl and LargeBoy are doing awesome. They are both pursuing a lot of self directed studies, which is a pretty exciting stage for a mom! The Wonderdog is as awesome as always.