The Applesauce Adventure

A few weeks ago, Carsen and his mom, Kelly, came over to make applesauce. There is usually a third mom in our party - the more practical one- but she had already beaten us to it. So without our counterpart, the two of us moms, along with three 2-year-olds, set out to turn 5 bushels of apples into mushy goodness for our families.

The contraption, borrowed from my mother-in-law, that we used to turn cooked apples into sauce was set up the night before by my husband, and thank goodness! I've set it up before, but that was prior to loosing most of my brain cells from mothering toddlers, and that thing has numerous pieces.

The next morning, with everything set up and bowls in place, we began chopping and chopping. We filled up pots and saucers with apple chunks, and soon they were simmering away on the stove.

The day was heating up to be the warmest of the fall, and with four burners going on the stove, the kitchen was soon sweltering at 80 degrees!

Our tots played amazingly well while we chopped, cooked, mashed, packed, and sealed. But the rest of the world was not about to leave us in peace  for a few hours of domestication. The phone rang, and even though I abhor telemarketers, I do not have the heart to be rude and hang up. So I listen to the pitch and assure the lady that we're fine without her amazing septic remedy and that I really and truly do not know of anyone else with a septic system. I explain that everyone (well....almost everyone) I know either has an old grandfathered-in system with sewage draining into to the ditch or they live in town. We mumble good byes and I return to my applesauce station.

Shortly after this, I notice 2 strangers walking around my yard. Before they ring my doorbell, I realize that they are a part of a local religious group that frequently does door to door evangelism. I cringe a bit, but answer the door with a smile.......after grabbing the big bowl of apple "poop" (my term for what spits out the back end of the apple-sauce-making contraption - mostly seeds, cores, stems and skins that are compacted and very gross looking) in an attempt to look very busy. The bowl of discarded apple parts barely phases my guests, and we embark on a friendly discussion of heaven and God's expectations of us. I try very hard to bring up the topics that I know to be controversial between their faith and mine, but maybe they were indeed scared by my bowl of apple poop because they gracefully skirted around those issues.

The literature toting guests leave, and Kelly and I simply chuckle. We continue our process and our large pile of apples begins to slowly shrink.

The manual contraption, however, apparently needed some tweeking by this time as every crank of the wheel caused applesauce to ooze out of the device in every conceivable spot. There was applesauce on the counter, splattered on the wall, and dripping on the floor. There was so much dripping on the floor, in fact, that we placed an ice cream pail on the floor to catch the extra. By the end of our project, the 5 quart pail was half full, and although dear Carsen nearly knocked it over, I was able to salvage it all and fed it to my family over the next week!

As I mentioned before, our children have been busy playing, so busy in fact, that I failed to notice my little girl was in the bathroom taking off her skirt and undies. While Kelly was performing a toddler head count and safety check, she discovered that my little princess had just had a bathroom accident of the ummmm....... solid variety. Without skipping a beat, we moms go from admiring our smooth homemade applesauce to admiring the princess' BM. (You see, I'm never mad over an accident of this sort. I'm just so glad she actually goes; it's a bit of an issue for her).

Not being one to miss out on something exciting, Jack joins us in the bathroom. What he doesn't take into consideration, however, is that the little girl has also peed on the floor, leaving the tile a bit slick. He runs into the room and .....SPLAT.....his legs slip out from under him and he belly flops onto the floor. Laughing in spite of it all, I clean up the bathroom, clean up the kids, and wash my hands at least twice before returning to the applesauce brigade.

At this point, Kelly's phone rings and she is informed that friends, whose family includes a doctor and US Congressman, from out of state have just landed their private airplane at the local airport. Without Kelly's vehicle, they are stuck at the airport, so she takes off to pick up her friends, and they all return to my house to drop off Kelly who is know stuck at my house.

The kids are getting cranky; it's naptime, so we quickly rap up our project.....which was what again? After all that, what was it that we originally set out to do? Oh yes, applesauce. We quickly package and seal and divide out 30 quarts of applesauce between the two of us.

What a day! What a project! But what fun! And what a blessing to have a freezer stocked with homemade applesauce.