right now

right now

Jun 22, 2011

Help Wanted

Intern Needed!
Pay - nonexistent
Education/Experience:  No education necessary because you need to learn to do it my way,anyway.  If you have experience with kids, that's a plus, but then again I don't care, you'll get it anyway.
Benefits package to include physical exercise, blood, sweat and tears as well as emotional baggage you can take with you to your next job.


What, no takers?!


I'll start out by saying this post does have a happy ending.


Last night, I never got my book started, I was too busy cleaning out file cabinets, fun times.  Today I thought I would just go out and water the garden, come in and do dishes and get some sewing or reading time since it was expected to be very hot out, not a good day for garden chores.  One thing led to another and here I am at 7 p.m. and I still have a good hour's work ahead of me folding laundry!


Yes, it was one of those days.  I started off by watering early and hunting down any harvest.  I pulled one of the Mizuna Greens plants that looked a little mature, but when I tasted it I was surprised that it was just fine.  I washed those up for a surprising lettuce harvest along with some Red Zebra tomatoes.  It was already getting very humid and there was a heavy haze and odor in the air from the wildfires that have been burning just across the border in NC for the past month or so.  

After doing several loads of laundry, doing dishes and sweeping the floor I realized that I was low on bread.  Uh, huh... with two kids and a hubby we are always low on bread.  Since by now it was already 11 am I figured I could write off any "me" time for sewing or reading and instead use the day to make things to stock up on for the next few days so perhaps I could have "me time" tomorrow.

I'm noticing now that school's out I need to have a different strategy for my routine.  Normally, the kids don't see hubby during the week, since he works from mid-afternoon through the night.  Now, however, they wake up at 6:30 and proceed to run around the house until they force daddy to wake up with only a few hours' sleep so they can spend time with him before he leaves at 2 pm.  Now I have 3 boys running around the house in my way, doing nothing constructive, and it's really hard to get anything accomplished without having to get involved with whatever they are doing.  Maybe I'll start working nights, too?

Have any of you experienced this? - no matter how hard I try to stock up on cooking and baked food, it disappears at the same rate?

I baked 2 loaves of bread for the past 2 days, that's 4 loaves... why do I have only half a loaf left and had to bake more today?  I made the kids eggs and toast this morning, so I went ahead and hard boiled a few to have "extra" for healthy snacks they can get themselves over the next few days - they ate them today!  I need a separate kitchen with a lock on the door!  It totally defeats the purpose of "stocking up"!


And what's up with the constant fighting and shenanigans?  I understand they are bored, but the heat index is 107ยบ today!!  I would love for someone to tell me to go sit DOWN and read a book or something LOL!


Instead I have to constantly walk into situations like this...


In between laundry and bread making, I made some strawberry ice cream to have on hand.  I thought I was going to be able to do this without them knowing about it, but I had to go switch loads of laundry and when I got back to the kitchen, there's Finn sticking a spatula into the moving ice cream maker... "I'm just trying to catch a strawberry mom, I'm starving"!  uh-huh, you're starving....


After this I threw the Green Tomato Pie away.  It was taking up valuable space in my fridge, nobody was eating it, nobody cares.  That led to taking the trash out, which then led to me having to scrub the trash can out since "something" leaked... yuck.

I then headed for the espresso machine for a fix, only to see that I was out of chocolate syrup.  Some of you know about my espresso addiction.  Yes, I do 8-10 shots a day.  I love my iced latte's with just a bit of chocolate.  I decided today I was done buying the chocolate syrup I use.  It's full of nasty stuff like corn syrup and I don't even like it anyways.  It's the reason that if I go to a coffee shop I have to ask for only ONE pump of chocolate, they always put half a bottle of sweet yucky syrup in there.  I actually like to taste my coffee, thank you, that's why I'm in a coffee shop!  Luckily I have an espresso machine at home to save $$ on my addiction, so now I am making my own syrup... dark chocolate syrup that is delicious!  


Well sorry, I guess there's no happy ending in this post after all, I need to go and fold laundry and put kids to bed, and I'm pretty sure I have ranted so long that you are now asleep or have moved on LOL!  Happy ending to my day will be in a separate post!

14 comments:

  1. LOL! I TOTALLY understand having no food in the house! Don't worry- it gets worse as they get older. Oops, I guess that isn't comforting. I'm finding that having teenagers (ok, one is only 11 but eats like a teen!) home all day is about to break the bank. I can plan for some leftovers to take for lunch and then- it's gone... and I've lost count of how many gallons of milk we've gone through this week. It's almost enough to make me seriously think about getting a cow!! But, then, I think that I'll be the one milking and then I REALLY won't have any time.
    Hang in there- school will start again someday....
    Judy

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  2. Judy, it's nuts! I totally laughed when you said cow since I thought the same thing... and I was thinking "goat" so we wouldn't have too much milk until i realized that I WOULD HAVE TO MILK IT! LOL...

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  3. Oh, Erin, I read this whole post with a big ol' grin on my face. Uh-huh, just another normal laid-back day. ;o} Would you believe I have a bit of the same food problem (STILL!) with only me and Papa Pea home. (Well, the occasional other person or two floating in and out looking for a hand-out also contributes to the disappearing stores.) On the one hand, you get to the end of the day and say, "What, pray tell, did I get accomplished today?!" Well, if you take the time to list it as you did (that's why blogging is good for us!), you'll see that you did one heckuva lot. It may not have been what you would choose to do (as in "me" time) but you're doing one of the most important jobs in the world: Fantastic Mom, Wife and Homemaker.

    It's not much comfort to hear in June, but as Judy said above, school will start again someday. :o}

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  4. Two growing boys and a grown one and you wonder why there is no food in the house ;-) LOL

    I have to tell my husband not to touch the leftovers (just 20 mins after he has eaten his dinner) so I will have something for lunch the next day.

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  5. Been there, done that, I'm glad mine are grown.

    Actually, I enjoyed my five when they were that age. It wasn't until they became teenagers that I lost it.

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  6. You all are scaring me LOL! Now it's 9 pm and I'm soaking beans... but at least it's QUIET now!

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  7. Are you kidding me? The happy ending IS the dark chocolate syrup! I use organic dark hot chocolate powder in my coffee. The husband insists on grinding his own coffee beans. I heat up my 2% milk and froth it with a whipper add it to chocolate flavoured coffee and I'm happy.
    And I'm sorry to add to your worry but it does get worse as they grow. I can never have enough food in the house. With the husband and the 6'2" son it's like they have bottomless pits for stomachs. Add a couple of friends into the mix and the cupboard is perpetually bare. UG!

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  8. Oh this was a good one! My poor head was just going round and round with it! You have a busy little noggin' too I see!

    Catching strawberries, starving! How could he be? He ate the whole loaf of bread, right?

    And I already know your day improved, cuz you got some cool stuff! But just in case, raise your glass to a better day tomorrow!

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  9. I read this and laugh and laugh----when I was raising "the boy", I had people ask "well, what do you DO all day?". There aren't enough hours in the day even now, all these years later. And ya know what? Though it doesn't sound like it at times, I (and you---confess!!!) wouldn't have it any other way. I love my FULL and BUSY days, and I know you do to. You're a do-er, Erin and a damn fine one at that!
    :)

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  10. Erin, when you run out of chocolate syrup and perhaps don't feel like making it, Trader Joe's sells a pretty good one without all the corn syrup. It's pretty good in a pinch too.

    Oh, and Happy Belated Birthday!

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  11. Good lord, woman, you EXHAUST me! :)

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  12. Hand waving in the air, "Me, me I'll intern for free and learn your way to garden and cook and have experience with kids, but I insist to learn lots of DIY stuff...Oh, you don't want 2 more mouths to feed and one of them a small boy who would add to the chaos? Well, word your ad better!" Lol! Glad to know that I'm not the only one with an bottomless pit of a boy that is driving everyone nuts this summer. :)

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  13. Well Erin, just do less. You can't get rid of the children for the next couple of months, but you could get rid of some of the homemade items. You see, nowadays everything is 'convenience', but there used to be a day when housewives really needed 'convenience items'- so they would not go insane, or develop substance abuse problems. Right about now you qualify with the heat index and children trying to be laundry, and garden problems. Ease back a bit and enjoy your summer, it isn't even July yet. :)

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  14. PS - I should add that the sewing machine I bought months ago is still in the box. And the fabric is in another box right on top. Martha would so NOT approve of my inability to be it all. If I made bread, ice cream, chocolate syrup, did general housework, and scrubbed the trash can in the same day I would consider it a success. A BIG success. :)

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