Piles of Things

I vowed to be productive today (or that day...I'm writing in hindsight).

Vacation is coming up. The garden is spilling forth produce in quantities of mammoth size. The hamper is full of dirty laundry. The house is neither tidy nor clean.

My goals are big, the kids are naughty (hmmmm, rambunctious sounds better), and the hours fly by.

We make it out to the garden and pick and pick and pick. Yellow Roma tomatoes, bright red Early Girl tomatoes, and lots of green peppers. Our big red basket fills up and I can barely tote it back to the house.

I've only barely learned to can. Still my fingers are itching to blanch, peel, chop, mix, simmer, pack and seal.

But those goals will have to wait for another day. There are other things to tend to at the moment.

Like baking. On my list of things to pack for our vacation with Adam's brothers, sister-in-law, and our little nephew is monster cookies, zucchini bread, toffee bars, and homemade chex mix. (No. I am not an over-achiever. Nor am I a perfectionist. That would be silly.)

I start with the cookies during naptime, but alas. I have thrown out all my eggs. The brand, plant number and dates all the matched the recall criteria.

This is a huge recipe that calls for 6 eggs. I can't fake my way through this one like I did once with a mixture of corn starch and water (I kid you not. It was an egg substitution recipe I found online. And it did work. I just didn't wanna try it here.)

Alright. Plan B. Call the sister-in-law down the road. Have her sit at the house while the kiddos nap. I will run to town and buy more eggs.

I get back. The kids are awake and crawling on the walls. Adam's home and is ready for supper before he heads back into town for his evening customer. Big deep breath......

Stir. Chop. Reheat. Pour. Mix. Blend. Preheat. Roll. Flatten.

*Poof*

Supper's on the table. First batch of cookies in the oven. Let's do this!

Everyone is full. Their needs are met. The husband is busy being a good tool man. The kids are busy doing...well I don't what they're doing...but they are not fighting or screaming.

Back to the cookies. Thank God for a double oven.

More rolling, flattening, cooling, stacking...and

*Poof* again!

Nine dozen of the yummiest gluten free monster cookies (not that I care if they are gluten free. It's just a great recipe. But I thought it worth mentioning.)

Ahh. Sweet success. I've done my job.

As I clean up the crumbs, some of which find their way to the kitchen floor, my toddlers come running and giggling into the kitchen.

"Are you having fun?" I ask, pleased that Ava has no new fresh bite marks from Jack and that Jack's ego hasn't seemed to be ripped to shreds by Ava's shrewdness.

"YES!" comes the excited reply.

"I made pile!" Jack proudly states. "A big pile!" And with a whirl of laughing and gibberish, they are on to the next room.

Satisfied with their happiness and with my productivity, I pick up the few toys that have strayed from the toy room.

"I'll just quickly clean up their toys" I tell myself as I round the corner into the toy room.

Pictures just do not do this justice. Jack and Ava makes messes every day. But this....this is every tub, every bin, every drawer dumped into a pile, not for the sake of playing but for the sake of making a big pile.

I'm not mad. I just laugh, turn off the light, and go corral the kids for bedtime. This pile will have to wait for another day.