Who, Me?? Busy??

Yesterday morning after Daniel left I had to crawl back in bed. We have been up quite late the past several nights - pretty much all last week and into this week, and it was catching up with me. Sunday night we were up until a little after 1am, Daniel was putting up the last piece of chair-rail on one side of the dining room and then took his tools down to the cellar and cleaned up the "mess" that comes with remodelling.

Monday morning I babysat at church for MOPS all morning, ran some errands and got home about 1:30. We had company coming at 6:00 for dinner, and the house was a royal mess. Sunday night while Daniel was doing his cleaning, I did scrub the toilet and bathroom sink, and did some major decluttering of a few places that just "catch-all". But there was still a LOT to be done!

I managed to get everything cleaned except the bedrooms (shut the door and don't open them!), and the meal made and ready to put on the table when they got here (I even used the good dishes!!!!)! It was a major feat, and I'm not sure how I did it, but it was (and is) great to have a clean house!

After the company left I spent a while on the computer doing some work, and it ended up being late again till I was finished and in bed. So I was pooped yesterday when I woke up! After sleeping in till 10:30, I felt much better and prepared to take on the day! Around noon I started mixing and baking.

I started with the first batch of roll dough. I got the yeast, sugar and water mixed together and it was ready to add the next ingredients when I realized that I didn't have enough oil!! I had checked all the ingredients last week and somehow I missed that. So I drove down to the trusty Food Lion and picked up a big jug. Once those were mixed up and rising, I started on the pies. They took a while to put together, and I made the Pecan Pie first since it started out baking at 400, then down to 350 when I could put the Apple Pie in with it.

The roll dough was rising beautifully... and I started to realize that the pies coming out of the oven weren't going to coincide with the rolls going into the oven... and I we were supposed to be at Mama & Daddy's for supper at 6pm!!! I punched the roll dough down for a 3rd time while the apple pie was still baking. Mama had asked if I could go early and help her get things ready, so I was trying to get things done so I could go. Her oven was going to be busy until 6:30, and I knew my roll dough couldn't keep rising/being punched down for 1 1/2 hours, so I needed to get them baked here before we left. While I waited for the pie to get out of the oven I whipped up the next batch of roll dough, then I shaped the rolls. Daniel got home and very, very, very kindly agreed to stay and bake the rolls so I could go over early, and then he would come when they came out of the oven. Now Daniel is NOT a baker. He doesn't like to be in the kitchen unless he's in there lovin' on me while I'm trying to cook, bake or clean, or if I'm feeding him food. So it was SUPER helpful and wonderful that he was willing to do that for me. I took the 2nd batch of dough with me to finish off later.

We had a great meal and a wonderful time visiting with Daniel's Aunt & Uncle from Mo., along with another Aunt and Uncle that live here. Throughout the evening I tended my roll dough and baked the rolls there.

When we got home at 10pm I still had 2 (or 3) cakes to make yet. I started on the Pineapple Upsidedown Cake and groaned when I saw it was to bake for 50 minutes. I put it in the oven at 10:59pm. Thankfully it didn't take that long, and it turned out really pretty :) As soon as the chocolate cake came out of the oven, I crawled in bed - at 1am, again.

This morning I HAD to be up, dressed and presentable because a co-worker of Daniel's was stopping by to pick up a trailer that Daniel brought home yesterday along with some of Daniel's paperwork that needed to go to the office. After he left I sat on the couch and ate a bowl of cereal, then dozed for a bit until the phone rang. Then I had to get to work finishing the packaging and frosting the chocolate cake. I had gotten the rolls and pies packaged up while the cakes were baking, so that was really helpful.

And here's the finished products!! :)

6 dozen rolls, 1 apple pie, 1 pecan pie, 1 Pineapple Upsidedown Cake, 1 Chocolate Cake

Up close on the pecan pie - instead of the "traditional" fluted edge, I used a leaf cookie cutter to cut out leaves (I think they are supposed to be oak leaves), and lined the edge with them. It looked really pretty :)And I will make and eat a cake in honor of the person who can tell me how to keep the frosting from looking like a bulging stomach hanging over the belt between the layers. As a result of all that yesterday and this morning, I am planning to do "normal" things for the rest of the day. Some laundry, probably go get groceries, clean up the rest of the dirty dishes (I think I ran the dishwasher 3 times yesterday... and no, it wasn't packed efficiently full each time, but I didn't have time to handwash all of those things and I needed them again, so I didn't care!), and get started on Christmas gifts :) I have some that I'm sewing, and a few that I need to wrap for a get together this Saturday.

I'm glad I don't have anything with a deadline today. So glad. And I'm glad we had company over Monday so the house is nice and clean and I can just "enjoy".

Oh, and... just to put a bug in your ear, if you hear of anyone that wants to spend alot of $$ on me for Christmas, or even just a "have a happy day" gift, PLEASE tell them to get me a new mixer! I have a hand mixer that works and is fairly new (I think it is Hamilton Beach brand), but I HATE, HATE, HATE it. If it was just the fact that it's terribly loud and has this totally obnoxious high-pitched "RRRRRRREEEEEEEEEE" sound, I'd probably tolerate it. But it is SO high-geared that speed 1 is fast enough to launch a space shuttle. It makes a mess of anything dry or very runny, flinging and flying stuff everywhere. Trying to "cream" sugar and butter, or cocoa and butter (for the frosting this morning) it just creates a huge cloud of dust. And if the stuff is very runny (like cake batter), uhh, it's a mess. Oh, and don't forget that if it's something very stiff, you just about can't control the thing cause the beaters are going so fast they jump around in the bowl and the motor part is just flinging around. Making mashed potatoes is a nightmare.

Sorry for the rabbit trail there...

Y'all have a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving if I don't "see" you before then!!