The First Day of. . . School?

So all of the kids' friends started school on Monday. Since we homeschool, we have been at it for almost two months. Hence the reason that I could employ slave labor yesterday in our time of need. And, I say that even though the kids were so happy that they were canning instead of going to school. Here's the story. . .

Sunday night we had ice cream cones for dessert. Well, one little girl who will remain nameless didn't get the big freezer shut all the way after she got hers out. This would not be the first time as the same thing happened the week before. I was home from church so I heard the alarm go off and was able to take care of it right away. Well, I somehow overrode the automatic alarm so that this week when the temperature dipped below its appropriate level there was no alarm. We woke up Monday morning to thawed out berries spilling everywhere. It was a gooey, slippery mess. And side note here--ziploc freezer bags are definitely NOT the way to store berries. They just don't hold the juice in when they defrost! Those of you who know us at all know that we don't do anything small. You can only imagine that this was not a small amount of berries that we had stored!

After we got the freezer totally cleaned out and and reorganized and back in working order, guess what we got to do! Oh, yes. . . we jammed all day long. Of course, we couldn't do things the easy way. Before we could begin we had to clean the terribly sticky laundry room and the very very messy kitchen. While we were doing that we discovered that one of the liquid dishwasher detergents under the sink was leaking all over the place. Oh yes, and we had a resurgence of our beloved moths. Thankfully they were contained--we really really hope! But that is a story from another day that I just don't have the energy to tell!The girls worked ALL day long, and it wasn't just a little work either. They smashed berries and washed dishes and stirred jam (until Allison got burned) and ran and fetched things and did laundry (yes we had to add laundry on there as well because we were out of clothes to wear!) and the list could go on and on. They were indispensable. And thankfully, Brent was able to take the day off and run and buy pectin and help out. There is no possible way that I could have done this without him. As it was I was pretty useless. I could only sit on the stool for so long and then I had to go and lie down. But, we managed and ended up with over 85 pints of triple berry jam which just happens to be Brent's favorite! We were all glad to see the end of those berries!

The good news for the day was that our pet gecko finally bit the dust. It has eluded us for almost two months and had been hiding out in the guest room. My mom swore that she wouldn't come and stay until it had been dispatched. Thankfully she can come now! Camden wasn't too fond of the dead gecko, and consequently Brent decided to chase him around the house with it! It was pretty funny. I don't think I've ever heard a girl scream as high as Camden did!

Thankfully Monday is over--and we hope to never repeat it again!