Wit's End

First, I'm kinda laughing because people actually thought I did all the canning alone... but that's not quite true.

Izzy came over and watched the babies. That freed me up for about three and half hours to work on apricots. Anna came over and invited her friend Maria to join her and they stuffed jars while I washed fruit and jars and kept up with the lids and all that for about 3 hours. It took me the rest of the day to process the jars on my propane canner. I had two pots going at all times.

In all I have 175 quarts of apricots. And I still have a couple of boxes for jam and such.

The twins have been NOT NICE to me the last few days. The kind of not nice where I burst into tears every couple hours. Literally.

It starts from the moment they get up. They WON'T do their morning routine. It's become unbearable. Yesterday I made a good breakfast. Ate with the Buddy and cleared away the breakfast and put the food away and then the kids finally started to put a move on.

I was like, you know I made you breakfast. I can't wait all day for you to get your act together. I have already put it away. If you want to eat go out in the orchard and garden and find something. Missy came back with three apricots off the tree. James ate nothing.

This morning it was the same thing. I didn't bother to make breakfast. The Duckling was sleeping still and I took the Buddy and we went out. I mowed lawns and fed chickens and worked outside until the babe woke up. Then I made a pot of porridge and fed Buddy and Carissa and eventually let James have a bowl of porridge, but nothing else fancy. Missy had a great tantrum over a t shirt she kept lying about and ended up screaming her head off on the trampoline. Eventually she came in and ate the porridge, but when I wouldn't give her anything else she ended up on the trampoline in another fit..It was ten o'clock. She had a great freak out over washing her face, etc... I finally had her sit at my feet all sloppy until she was ready to sit up straight and not move for 5 minutes. Took about an hour. James is in the process of deciding when he's going to sit up straight now. He's thrown things across the room in anger, he's swept the garage, and washed the kitchen floor.

I'm all out of ideas.

Delores is taking the twins swimming this afternoon with her kids and Mary's. The twins don't deserve it, but I won't punish myself. I need the break and that is the whole point of it. The Buddy's visit was canceled this afternoon with his dad, which is a bummer, I was looking for a kid free afternoon to get my tomato plants fertilized and pruned. I would have had the baby still .... dad never wants the baby at the visit if mom isn't there. There's a ton of speculation as to whether this child is his or not.

I did manage to go out and pick tomatoes. I have enough for a restaurant order, and private order and maybe a pot of spaghetti sauce for us.