1. Finish planning Christmas! I’ve been printing off the workpages from my Grocery Shrink Christmas book and am filling them out. Ther’es not a ton of time left if I want to make gifts by hand.
2. Make Apple Chips–Thanks to Pinterest I found this tutorial: (I plan to use my mandolin slicer and apple corer to make it go faster. I also have some beets that I’m hopin to make into chips–but these are more time consuming since I will need to peel them.)
3. Make Pumpkin Doughnuts (Maybe I’ll move this to another day, but I have the pumpkin thawing in the fridge from last year’s harvest to make room for cooking and pureeing more this fall.)
4. Make Pumpkin Bagels–I’m for more grab and go breakfast options!
5. Start cutting out the boy’s duvet covers. I think I’ve finally decided on the random duvet, after I had definitely decided to do the patterned one.
6. Get the main areas of my house all straightened up and clean the floors. Which will include folding and putting away lots of laundry plus cleaning up the kitchen.
7. Plan Brandon’s birthday gifts and games and send a list to my mom. I’ve already grabbed him a really cool motorized ninjago motorcycle at a garage sale for $1 and a batman mask at the thrift store for $3. I would have thought it was highway robbery for the mask, but I had recently priced them for $10 new. Brandon loves to dress up in his bathrobe and ascot and say, “Hello, I’m Bruce Wayne.” So I hope he gets a kick out of the mask. It is not his year for a party, but I am planning to make homemade pizza with him and then play games as a family that he will enjoy.
Whew! That’s enough for one day and won’t half get done. But it’s good to think big.
Do you have a good way to keep the pumpkin for the winter? I am looking for a tried and true recipe. Thanks!
Andrea, pumpkin is nearly impossible to can with home equipment. So I puree mine and freeze it. I have a blog post about it here: http://groceryshrink.com/2010/10/how-to-make-pumpkin-puree.html
His year for a party? Do you have a year for each child to have a party? I’d like to hear about that? Parties are expensive!
Hi Tracie. The kids have parties when they turn 5, 8, and 13. We plan fun activites within our own family the rest of the time. This spreads stuff out, so I don’t have more than one party a year. And with 6 kids in our family, our friends would be spending all their gift money on our kids each year if everyone had a party.