Fall is coming

It's FarmBoy's birthday and this signals that harvest and fall are coming to our neck of the woods.  He's getting anxious to get in the fields.  Things have been a bit hectic with volleyball games and I'm in training this week.  The crazy is building at our place.  We work as a team to handle things usually, but when harvest hits it's totally crazy.  The crockpot is probably the most used appliance in the house when harvest starts in earnest since I work full time and pretty much handle the kid.  He does manage to drop her off on his off and day shift days and that helps tremendously.  I deal with pick up and any sports events and basically anything else that comes along.  Sometimes I also handle shuffling him between fields and running a grain cart when needed.  Meals are leftovers, crockpot, or freezer things.

I make a ton of soup in the fall and this year I think I'm going to try my hand at canning some.  It would make life easier to send him to work on night shift with a jar of decent soup and a sandwich with little effort.  This helps when I'm helping him in the fields and still trying to keep up with laundry.  Since we have our own meat and I keep the pantry stocked up for just this reason I can make a quick store trip for milk and a few fresh things.  This keeps me more available for anything FarmBoy needs.  Shuffling him between fields, retrieving parts, and running a grain cart are just a few of the things that I pitch in on.  Having a hot meal in a crockpot makes it so much easier when the day is done and I don't have as much kitchen mess to clean up when I'm already tired.

This weekend is going to be a planning/sewing weekend.  I don't need much from the store this week so shopping shouldn't take all that long.  I did realize that I'm low on several laundry items that I use so I'll be trying to get those stocked up, but for the most part I'll be planning out some meals and making sure I have everything that I will need to make them as well as planning on how I'm going to can the soup.  I'm going to drag out my favorite cookbooks and Sprout and I are going to plan things out.  I find if I involve her there is less complaining about meals.  I'm still working on the quilt that I started last week.  I'm hoping to get the top all done and ready for signatures.  There is a home game on Tuesday and I think I can get it to someone to get the signatures then.

I know I said it was FarmBoy's birthday and kind of glossed it over.  He's not very sentimental about his birthday although I do several things for him.  I left him some of his favorite candy this morning and I left chicken tacos in the crockpot.  (It's one of his favorites)  He is on nights right now so he was planning on doing a few things this morning after he got off work and then sleeping much later than usual.  I'm picking up Sprout from aftercare and we are going to get cards for him.  When he is not on nights we will go out for a special dinner.  I'm thankful that we are able to flex things at our house and that God gives us grace when we are out of our usual routines.  Sometimes we do great at it and sometimes not, but we try.