So much to do, so little time

Being a working, single grand parent with two grand kids to raise and a third that I am semi-raising means there isn't a lot of time to do what needs to be done.  Yesterday was an exception.  We did get a lot done around here because the kids were cooperating.  That's because today they were promised a trip to the arcade with their older sister who just turned 14.  But only if you do a good job on the chores!  So they did.  They raked leaves from our yard and pine needles from the neighbor's yard.  They cleaned their rooms and put all their laundry away.  Boy even cleaned the bathroom. They wanted to know if I did anything or if I was just watching them work.  Thanks a lot!  I read them the list of chores that I did.  That shut them up for a bit. 

The biggest task I had was cleaning up the garage.  After Army daughter moved out I started with the clean up, but it was a mess and I never finished.  The garage is 1250 square feet.  That's larger than my first house.  It's larger than oldest daughter’s house.  About half of it was turned into a disaster area with some of Army daughter's things stashed away.  Then oldest daughter and son both cleaned out their houses and dumped things off in my garage.  Then I put things into the garage.  I ended up with an area about 10 feet wide and 15 or 20 feet long that was crammed full of stuff.  I had to get through the stuff just to get to the shelves to clean them up.  I have two bikes I'm going to drop off at Goodwill.  The garage is clean.  I even found my pressure cooker, which had gone missing in the mess of the garage!

The next door neighbors are on vacation for two weeks.  They asked me to take in the trash cans, move their truck around, and just keep an eye on the place.  Sure, we can watch the place and move the truck.  As for the trash cans, I took them straight over to my house.  Since they will be gone for two trash pickups, and in this area you get charged $50 a month if you subscribe to the trash service whether you have a pick up or not, I decided to fill their cans.  We don't have trash pick up.  I usually bring my trash over to oldest daughter's house, since she is in the city and the property taxes I pay on that house pay for the trash service.  I also don't normally have much trash.  If we are being really trashy we will go through a 33 gallon can in a week.  Usually it takes two weeks to fill a can.  The trash service around here provides 90 gallon cans!  Anyway, I filled both their trash can and their recycle can. I cleaned stuff up from the yard, the barn, and the garage! 

I still want to go through all the clothes bins again.  I just recently went through the infant clothes because there was a call put out for clothes needed for a three year old boy and girl.  We were able to donate quite a lot and still have enough clothes for a size three little one around here if necessary.  But Army daughter and son both dropped more clothes off for me to store.  I think their kids have enough clothes to wear everything once or twice and then put it into storage. 

Today we didn't do much since the kids got to go to the arcade after Sunday school.  When I returned home I found two grandsons in the backyard and one of their friends.  15 year old boy is working on his truck.  I was given two free Toyota pickups that together almost make one truck.  His goal is to have his truck working by the time he turns 16.  I think he may make it. I'm really proud of him for taking on this project. 

Now what were we going to do for dinner?  Going from three people to six, with the three additional being teenage boys could be a challenge.  Not really.  I had taken out some antelope steak, about a pound total.  I just sliced it thin.  The friend had never had antelope.  Girl told him it was armadillo.  Not even close!  I cooked up two pounds of noodles and made a sauce with milk, parmesan cheese, and parsley.  I added a lot more flour to the bread dough.  I put in a bunch of garlic into the dough.  Quick, easy dinner.  Everyone was full and we had one piece of bread and about 1/2 pound of noodles left. 

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the rest of the garden beds cleaned out and the plants given to the sheep. We are also going to butcher the chickens tomorrow.  Our blog friends are supposed to come over around 11:00 to help and perhaps give us some of their pointers.  They butchered their 40, yes 40 pound turkey at Thanksgiving!  Looking forward to actually meeting them!  

I also have a couple of conference calls tomorrow morning.  People are trying to rush getting things done so they can take off the rest of the year.  I expect to work some each day.  We are only going to be out of town on the 24th and 25th, otherwise we'll be around.  I'm hoping to do some work travel the last week of the month.  I have a project about 100 miles from home that will take two or three days.  Lots of friends and relatives have said they want the grandkids for part of their three week vacation.  We'll see...  Otherwise they will come with me and go hiking around while I work.  The hotels in that area don't have indoor pools so it won't be as much fun as when I brought them over to Paso Robles two weeks ago. 

There's just so much to do.