The Heathen Housewife

So far so good – we've sold at least one of everything, and we're having
a lot of fun…
–Shelly Kang

It's still very hard to take pictures through a two-way mirror,
downright impossible on a camera phone. So instead you get to see what
Sophie did during the lesson again…her own private little lesson at
the barre.
–Shelly Kang

The ugly old coffee pot is dead. I've been waiting years for this nasty
old Mr. Coffee to kick the bucket so I can buy a prettier one and get
this beastie off my counter.

Sorry for the lack of depth in posts this week. I'm running myself crazy
trying to get ready for that craft show this Saturday. Plus I made a
giant pile of applesauce, dried apples, and frozen apple mix ready for
more crisp. Zoinks. Really, though, all is as well as it gets around
here this week.

Now if I could just convince that toaster oven to end its days…
–Shelly Kang

Little N's mama will be here to pick him up soon. Just to show you that
we did in fact make it to all play areas in the house. He's a happy
baby, and we really had no problems at all.
–Shelly Kang

Knock on wood, everyone is playing together pretty well.
–Shelly Kang

–Shelly Kang

Yeah, you may see a few more of these throughout the day. This one is
incredibly blurry, but you try taking a picture of yourself with a
camera phone while holding two children. They are both down for morning
nap now.
–Shelly Kang

I'm watching a little cousin for the day today, and once he calmed down
after his Daddy left, we took a little walk to the coffee shop. Yes, I
broke down and ordered one of those fancy drinks. But now I get to sit
here and watch Sophie play with her cousin for a little while, and the
walk home will be even more entertainment.

This afternoon will be even more exciting – three kids at once!
–Shelly Kang

I’ve been wanting to take Julie apple-picking for a couple of years now, but for one reason or another, we hadn’t gotten around to it. Okay, we hadn’t gotten around to it mostly because Joe is allergic to apples unless they’re cooked, and he’s also allergic to the dust in hay, which would make a hayride downright miserable for him. Where’s the fun in that?

Lucky us, then, when a good friend e-mailed this morning to invite us to come pick Haralson apples off the trees in her yard. We drove right out there for a little apple-pickin’ fun.

This is what we saw when we drove up.

The girls loved the idea of picking apples off the tree, and they had a hard time waiting to eat them till after they were washed.

Julie took ownership of “her” bag of apples and really wanted to carry them to the car herself even though the bag had to weigh at least twenty pounds.

Sophie said “apple” for the first time this afternoon.

There were so many big beautiful apples just dangling there, I had a hard time stopping even when our bags were heavy with more than I knew what to do with.

We came home and the girls well…

Look at those cute happy faces as they enjoyed their crispy sweet-tart apples.

Luckily, my awesome neighbor M has one of those hand-crank apple peeler-slicer gizmos and she loaned it to me in a heart beat. I know what I’m going to be doing tomorrow night. Because, you know, I could really use another project. Now the question is slice and freeze for pies, apple sauce, apple butter, something else?

Here’s to awesome, generous friends and neighbors!

(Will the real Sophie Kang…)

Julie decided to wear her new tutu to her dance class today, so Sophie decided to wear the practice skirt.