Pretty Much Normal

I lay in bed and the tears just wouldn't stop seeping out of my eyes. I could easily have burst into full out sobs, but how silly would that have been? Every sentimental bone in my body ached, as I went over every little detail I was nervous worried about. Mentally, I counted up the months... seventeen of them. Seventeen months I'd been with my four youngest children almost every single day. Seventeen months we'd done everything together -- worked, played, argued, learned, fought, talked, laughed, cried. Seventeen months, we'd kind of been each other's everything. Tomorrow, they would go back to school.

Everyone has had their version of  'crazy' from 2020 and it's aftermath; this is mine. 

Seventeen months ago, school closed. I went from five days a week at home alone, to never being home alone, plus homeschooling and foster care. Twelve months ago, we chose to homeschool, and embarked on an adventure I never, ever wanted. Now, I cried, because the adventure was ending.

I don't know if I'll ever fully understand what these past seventeen months have been about. I feel like a completely different person than I did that day school closed so many months ago; a person I'm not really sure I know or recognize. It feels like our family has been in this sort of incubation period, where we've needed to learn to dig deeper, lean in closer and grow together, in a unique and different way. Now, it's time to turn that loose, and sort of reintegrate back into the real world. It's kind of scary for all of us.

That all sounds overly dramatic and a bit ridiculous and it probably is. This morning, I sent the four scholars off to school and practically danced around the empty house shouting hallelujah! Two days from now, I'll probably be crying into my pillow again. Maybe, after all, I'm simply losing my mind?

I feel like I have a lot of soul sorting to do in these next quiet days at home. I have just as many conflicting feelings about that, as the sad tears and happy dancing I just described above. 

Yesterday, I cried over the first day of school and Facebook memories from ten years ago.

Ten years ago: 

First day of school in Ohio

Re-enactment picture

before Isaac left for work

I went to town and bought groceries and had to call my husband to instruct me on what to do for my overheated van.

I picked up school children and discovered my youngest had thrown up at school twice on the first day.

I packed up clothes for my husband, who left on a work related fishing adventure.

I doled out purple medicine and emergenC to multiple children coming down with colds and sore throats.

I went to bed, and hoped for the best.

Maybe, after all, life is overly dramatic and a bit ridiculous. 

Today, I'll clean my dirty floors and sew the back to school dress that didn't get finished and hang out the never ending laundry... and marvel at the silence. Tomorrow, we'll take the emotions and drama that the day brings and go from there. It's pretty much all we can do, and it might even be pretty much normal.

Odds and Ends and Things Not Of General Interest

If you are familiar with the book "Cheaper By The Dozen", you immediately recognize the reference in my title. I feel like I have nothing of great importance to say -- things that Frank Gilbreth would have marked 'not of general interest' -- but I'm gonna give you a hodge podge anyway. 

We've spent a good bit of time the last few days peeling and cutting up peaches to put in the freezer. This was a fun book to listen to while we worked. 

We listened to it on Libby, read by the author, which made it very entertaining. She has fantastic, practical tips for decluttering and we all enjoyed her humor. Highly recommend. 

I also highly recommend having a husband who brings these home and sticks them in the freezer for his wife. 

I'll generally decline ice cream, and I'm not that much of a candy fan. Like my mom, I usually can't resist a candy bar, but these? These are over the top. I love them. 

It has rained and rained and then thunder stormed again in Ohio the past two weeks. We thought we might need to borrow the Amish neighbor's boat directly. 

Our grass was looking like we should invite the Amish neighbor's horses over for a free smorgasbord. Isaac finally got a bunch of it mowed today. 

I don't listen to podcasts a lot. I'm not particularly a fan of them, honestly. Every once in awhile I'll listen to one and actually love it. One that I do listen to fairly regularly is Couple Things with former Olympic Gymnast Shawn Johnson and her husband Andrew East. They are kind of the most unlikely people for a little ol Mennonite mom like me to listen to -- wildly different backgrounds and lifestyles, but I think that's why I find it so interesting and intriguing. Their faith and commitment to their marriage are not so very different from my own and it's eye opening to listen to people with a different world view. They host a wide variety of couples on their podcast and, while I don't always agree with all of their beliefs, I have come away inspired many, many times. 

Next week, school starts. It still does not seem real at all that I will be home alone five days a week again and I have a lot of emotions about it.  Pretty sure I will sit down and have a good, long cry and then I plan to sit on my recliner, put up my feet, and eat the silence and solitude with a spoon.

* * * * *

And now, I will leave you to decide if this hodge podge was of general interest or whether, like Mr Gilbreth, you are bored stiff. 

'Dad was the one who decided what subjects were of general interest. Since he was convinced that everything he uttered was interesting, the rest of the family had trouble getting a word in edgewise. 

"Honestly, we have the stupidest boy in our history class," Anne would begin. 

"Is he cute?" Ernestine asked. 

"Not of general interest," Dad roared. 

"I'm interested," Mart said. 

"But I," Dad announced, "am bored stiff. Now, if Anne had seen a two-headed boy in history class, that would have been of general interest." '         ~Cheaper by the Dozen

Just For You If You Like Yellow Squash

Remember all those little yellow squash, hanging on my enormous plant?

Well, they grew, and grew, and have produced a bumper crop!

I love squash fried in lots of butter and cornmeal, seasoned with onion and salt and pepper. (It's good on butter bread!)

But after awhile, even I can only eat so many fried squash. I haven't convinced many others in this family to join my squash feasts -- the funny thing is, I used to feel the same way when my mom tried to interest me back in the day. I'm honestly not sure when I started liking them?

So, anyway. I decided to go looking for a different squash recipe. I found a super simple one, and is it ever good! Thought y'all might enjoy it too. 

Yellow Squash Casserole

   ° 2 Cups sliced yellow squash

   ° 1/4 Cup chopped onion

   ° 20 Ritz Crackers, crushed

   ° 1/2 Cup shredded cheddar cheese

   ° 1 Egg

   ° 6 T milk 

   ° 1/8 Cup butter, melted

   ° 1/2 tsp Salt

   ° Black Pepper to taste

   ° 1 1/2 T melted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Place squash and onion in skillet over medium heat; add small amount of water. Cover and cook until squash is tender, about 5 min. Drain well and place in bowl. 

In a bowl, mix together cracker crumbs and cheese. Stir half of the cracker mixture into the squash and onions. In a small bowl, mix together egg and milk, then add to squash mixture. Stir in 1/8 C melted butter and season with salt and pepper. Spread into a greased baking dish. 

Mix 1 1/2 T melted butter with remaining cracker mixture and sprinkle over top. 

Bake at 400 for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

(Recipe could easily be doubled for a larger pan)

After I could hardly stop eating the stuff, I started googling "how to can yellow squash in a water bath". Found a recipe for that too! Tried a jar of canned squash in the recipe, and it worked perfect. 

Canned Squash

   ° 4-5 squash

   ° small onion

   ° 4 T apple cider vinegar

   ° 3 1/2 C water

   ° 3/4 T canning salt

1. Bring water, vinegar and salt to a boil

2. Cut squash into small pieces; chop onion

3. Parboil squash and onion in vinegar mixture for about 5 min

4. Scoop squash from vinegar mixture into prepared jars. Remove liquid from heat and ladle into jars. Wipe rims clean and seal jars. Process pints 15 minutes and quarts 20 minutes. 

I used jars with twist lids, you can use regular canning jars, of course. 

I was worried you would taste the vinegar and so I rinsed the squash before using it in the casserole. They tasted fine! Too bad I didn't discover this earlier in the summer before I gave squash away... I must say though, it was fun to be able to give away garden produce for a change. 

Enjoy!

These Busy Days

Well. I did not mean to go silent for two weeks running! Somehow the time got away from me, and here we are. Nothing says (end) of summer like rushing around willy nilly doing all the things, I guess. 

A week ago we were all breathing an exhausted sigh of relief after six days of going away every night for VBS. We were in charge this year, and being the Eicher/ Gingerich combo that we are, we couldn't possibly just do the normal thing of ordering a curriculum and doing what's usually done. We had a lot of fun brainstorming and tweaking ideas and being creative but I won't lie, there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Not everything went nearly as perfectly behind the scenes as it might have appeared. While we might be a very creative family with some wonderful talents, we are not perfect. We knock heads and hurt each other's feelings and have our issues, just like everyone else. 

At the end of the day, I think we learned some valuable lessons and hopefully a whole crew of children learned some things and had a good time in the process. 

Preparing bags of candy for a treasure hunt after the picnic Friday night. 

We went straight from the intensity of Bible school last week, to the hard work of putting up piles of fresh veggies this week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we saw enough corn and green beans to last us for a while!

Everyone pitched in Monday evening to finish up the corn. Isaac even learned the fine art of cutting corn off the cob -- I told him his wife would thank him someday. 

Those were some of the biggest ears of corn I have ever seen! Yum. Summer time is just the best, hard work and all. 

Friday we headed out first thing to do some school shopping.

I am glad I don't need to do that every day. Shopping, in general, is not my favorite thing in the world and shopping with four people in tow does not enhance my appreciation of the chore. Shopping for shoes for those four extra people is one of my least favorite things of all. But we survived. 

Our favorite bit of the day was buying this chair at the Goodwill.

It was priced at 99 cents, but since furniture was 25% off, we got it at the extraordinarily low price of 79 cents. We figured at that price we could use it as is, try our hand at restoration, or throw it over the bluff if all else failed!

Two more weeks until school starts, and they already look like they'll be full of all kinds of things. I don't know when I'll have time to sit down and unwind my brain and sift through all the things that are hiding under the surface there. I took a few minutes Thursday morning and ended up with more tears and words spilling out everywhere than I quite knew what to do with. I think I'd rather just bury my nose in some old book and not bother.

Onward and upward........