Conference, Tantrums, Canning

We had a pretty good conference weekend. I made some toffee as a treat, and it was gone pretty quickly. James listened while he was driving "into the wild" to take pictures of sandhill cranes, and I tried to pay attention at home with the kids. It wasn't the easiest.

Saturday night, we ate dinner with the Murrays. It was really fun to hang out with them. I worried a lot the next morning that I said something offensive to Taylor, but nothing specific came to mind. It's just been so long since I talked to anyone for that long.

Amy and Katie came over for the Sunday morning session of conference with lunch afterward. That was really fun. James and I did a short DnD game with Devin and Samantha (who was virtual since she was sick) after my emotional resilience class.

It's been a tough week with Katie again. She's been having a hard time getting ready for school in the morning, so I've had to be really patient and talk her through getting dressed. Every tiny bit of fuzz or supposed stain bothers her. She thinks there's "gross spot" in her dresser, so if anything touches that, she won't wear it. She also won't wear anything that has touched anything that touched the spot. I did find the spot. It's a TINY sticky spot in the drawer, so I'm going to wash everything in there, clean it, and put it back. She's skipped breakfast a few times but said her teacher gives out lots of snacks. I'm not so worried about her food intake, but the clothing issues are driving me absolutely crazy. No worry ever seems to last more than a week or two, so I'm hoping this goes away soon. Then, I'll have to figure out something else.

The Murrays gave us about 70 lbs. of tomatoes and 30 lbs. of apples. I've been making dried apples every day this week and plan on an apple pie on Sunday. I made one batch of salsa and one batch of tomato sauce. Now, I'm waiting for the rest of the tomatoes to get ripe so I can make a batch of tomato sauce with meat. I've been using the pressure canner for everything, and it's great. I can't believe I was every scared of it. I find it a lot less cumbersome that using a water bath canner.