Busy Bee

That's exactly what I've been today. Travis went out of town today with his brother, Stephen, and his dad to work on his Grandpa Joe's farm. During Elizabeth's nap (around 10 a.m.), I watered the garden and picked peas. After she woke up, we ate some lunch with my mother-in-law and then shelled peas. We went from there to the liquor store (to get orange liquor for a recipe...no, not a drink recipe, either!) and HEB. After unloading the car and putting everything away, I made an excel sheet to keep up with who's-getting-what for Christmas. I should say we made an excel sheet because Elizabeth wanted to sit on my lap and help type the whole time! By that time she's getting fussy and hungry. I fed her a little and then gave her a bottle. Then I let her play with the bottle and she got soaked in milk! Bath time! After her bath (it's about 5:30 now), I put her in her crib to play while I picked up her room, got clothes out for tomorrow, and put her laundry away. She's had a long day and not much of a nap this afternoon, so she's really getting sleepy. As the angels were singing, the clock said 6:00 and she's asleep!! Oh, I am so lucky because I still have tons to do...

We have another Thanksgiving tomorrow and I'm bringing the sweet potatoes. Ok, no problem. Well, they usually have something to snack on before dinner, but it's usually shrimp or a crab dip. Since I can't go anywhere near those things, I decided to make a bacon cheese ball to take. No biggie, I'm up to 2 dishes. Well...I should bring a dessert, too. I've been wanting to try the Barefoot Contessa's recipe for Chocolate Orange Mousse. The recipe says that everything should be at room temperature, the eggs, the butter, and the chololate. Great. You have to get the chocolates hot to melt with the liquor (see, I told you it was for a recipe) and then let it cool down to room temp. How long is this going to take? So I did the heating up part and then was going to jump in the shower real quick while it was cooling...but, my landlady called and wanted to bring over some hot-out-of-the-oven apple pie. Crap. I'm naked! Throw on a robe, meet her at the door, talk for a second (which actually turns into a few long minutes) and then to my shower.

I end up working on all 3 dishes at the same time, because they all have a little down-time. I'm just glad I kept them all straight. My whipping cream was a little overbeat, but it doesn't taste like butter. And my egg whites were a little on the dry side, but everything was finally finished and I got to have a long waited for taste. Delicious!! (The angels sang a little chorus here, too, when I finally had it all finished!) All of the gently folding was soooo worth it! Oh, my goodness it took me a little over 3 hours to make everything! My poor feet are tired. Luckily I washed dishes as I went, or else I'd still be standing at the sink! Hopefully everyone will just love the things that I've made. If they don't, who cares! I get to bring it all home!!

I've got 2 baskets of laundry to fold and then it's to bed. Whew!