Odds & Ends

Today marks the end of my little winter staycation.  Ok, technically it ended yesterday, but the kids were sick since Monday night, so I ended up staying home today too.

The plan was for me to take a long weekend and get caught up on some things at home, test out some cool stuff I found on Pinterest, then have Tuesday afternoon to be home all alone to take a long bath and a nap or maybe have a friend over for tea.

All was on track until Monday night.  I made my cool Pinterest stuff: wood butter, lavender bath scrub and cake from a mix that supposedly tastes like a bakery cake.  All yielded favorable results, by the way.  I got a respectable amount of housework done and made a few nice dinners. 

The kids played nicely.  They doctored up the cat after she sneezed "three times in a row" and appeared to be "real sick".  They made her a bed, gave her an ice pack and got her a tissue.  

Meow in her bed with a nice soft blanket and a lego tower to amuse herself.

Joey did some scuba diving in the bathtub.  Goggles are now required gear for bath time.  He likes to put them on by himself.

Then, just in time for my day of alone time, the kids got sick.  One at a time.  Just far enough apart to get my hopes up that I could go back to work as planned and all would be fine.  Nope.  Two nights in a row of getting up every few hours to respond to frantic calls from the bathroom.  Poof, there went my afternoon of solitude.  

Since I wound up with extra time at home, I also got our venison ground up finally.  My brother-in-law loaned us his electric grinder which made short work of our 15 pounds of meat.

Fifteen pounds of ground venison (with added pork).  This is a big pan. 11 x 16 I think.

All wrapped up and ready for the freezer.

Oh, and I read a book too.  A really good one called Still Alice by Lisa Genova.  Its about Alzheimer's disease and I highly encourage everyone to read it.  

Now I'm out of projects and looking forward to my return to civilization.  Hopefully, we'll all get a good night's sleep and be back into our normal routine tomorrow.