Thursday, October 9, 2008

Just Thinking Out Loud

For the last few mornings I've gotten up and made my way to my kitchen only to be faced with three large bowls of tomatoes.

Daunting.

Every day Husband asks me, "Are you going to take care of the tomatoes today?"

I go through my mental list of to-do's and say, "I don't know...depends on how things go."

The bowls of green tomatoes have me less worried than that bowl of red ones. The green ones will take a couple of days to ripen but the red one wants taking care of now.

I have contemplated inviting my dear, pregnant friend over, who currently is having tomato cravings and sitting her down with the bowl and letting her have at it.

This afternoon there will also be grapes and Granny Smith apples joining the entourage of produce.

Now don't get me wrong. I am in no way complaining about my good fortune. I know that later this winter I will be ever so grateful for the "free" produce sitting in lovely jars in my pantry. It's just the energy I know it will require to get it all into those jars AND trying to do school with the kiddos as well.

I think it's the combination of the two, canning and schooling, that I'm finding daunting.

We are also going to celebrate my Father-in-law's 80th birthday this weekend. So that means Saturday is shot as is Sunday. (We will be traveling 8 hours to his home, thank God that gas prices have gone down some this week.)

So here is what I think I will do. We will be traveling home on Monday. I think we will have a "recovery" day on Tuesday and I'll get some of that produce taken care of and then back to school on Wednesday.

Yes...I think that is what I will do.

Thanks so much for coming by and listening to be babble about my tomatoes.

5 comments:

Robin Lambright said...

Nothing beats a home grown tomato! I hope to have my veggie garden ready for next spring. It is very small, I have it plotted out but I still have to do a lot of work on the soil, that GA red clay is not the best for yeilding a good crop. Happy canning! I know it is hard work, I have on occasion put up several quarts of apple sauce, apple butter and mincemeat! Lots of work now but you are so right at the satisfaction of seeing all the jars all lined up in the pantry.
Blessings
R

Skoots1moM said...

wish i could take some of those off your hands...especially frying up some of the green ones!
i'd be overwhelmed with teaching and canning, also, so cut yourself a break...sounds like hubby needs to help : )

Cyndy said...

I'd happily give you some Scoots, if I could.
And just so you know, hubby has helped quite a bit. We've already done a batch of salsa and a batch of stewed tomatoes. He just hates to see anything go to waste.

Anonymous said...

That's definitely one of the most major challenges I face with homeschooling... the ease at the ability to decide to just skip school for the day. Actually, in your case one day has now become two. I'd be willing to bet that if our kids were in public schools, skipping Tuesday wouldn't even be an option. :) It becomes so difficult at times to treat homeschooling like "real" school with a real committment. - Jas

Amy @ Amy's FMQ Adventures said...

Peppers- I am overrun with peppers. Thankfully NOT the kind that had me running to the internet for cures for pepper caused burning hands of a few weeks ago. All I have to do is chop em and freeze em, and yet, they're piling up.

They taunt me. May you have more success with your maters than I am having with my peppers.