Food is good

Did you wonder what the object in the picture was? It's the apple juice I mentioned yesterday. It's the water that I boiled the apples in to make applesauce (which I then filtered through a few layers of cheesecloth and then chilled). I added a smidgen of brown sugar to the apples as they were boiling, so this juice has a fair share of sugar in it. But I asked Jimmy to taste-test it and poured him a little glass (shows you how trusting my children are of me for him--especially Jimmy--to take a glass of liquid experiment and down it without question or hesitation). The verdict? "More please!" And then everyone else wanted some. So the juice is all gone now. No one fell ill to gastric distress in the middle of the night, no one died, so I'm assuming that either the juice was suitable for consumption or my children have intestines of steel. And no, I did not drink any. I'm a water gal. Except for lemonade. I like lemonade. And punch. Actually, I was a little afraid of tasting it. It's not a very translucent juice, is it? You can't see through it.

On to my next feat: SQUASH BUNS!
These are some rising wads of dough.

Here is the finished product:
I made 4 dozen yesterday (2 batches). Two more today. My freezer is filling up, what with a recent meat purchase (I'm eating roast beast again today, Jake!), the apple pie filling, and now squash buns.

I've been focusing on food a lot lately and my poor children have been neglected. So I'll do a ten things about them.

Ten Things about my children
1. Jimmy takes his driver's test in about 25 minutes. I'm not a very good judge of driver ability--as a mother I am required to be nervous at the very least and highly judgmental at most. But Jim says Jimmy parks well and I haven't suffered massive (or even minor) injury while Jimmy's been driving, so Jimmy should do ok. Maybe? Who can tell. Jim took half a day off work to take Jimmy to the testing center (because I have fake child today, otherwise I would have taken Jimmy). Results will be posted here tomorrow (or later today maybe).
2. Now that Paul is done with cross country, he has ample time to cast witheringly critical sidelong glances at Matt, who then takes umbrage and a shouting match ensues. SIGH. Phrases I say with increasing frequency lately: "Paul, stop looking at Matt!" "Matt, stop caring if Paul looks at you!" It usually ends well. Mostly I just have to encourage Matt to leave the room. The reasons for the sidelong glances of furrowed brow are usually because of some little quirk of a 10-year-old that is perfectly tolerable to anyone who does not keep Lego magazines in chronological order or figure out the perfect configuration for keeping folded shirts in a drawer.
3. This is getting long, like Hayley's hair.
4. She wants bangs.
5. I am unsure of my ability to cut the kind of bang she wants.
6. But I did get her clarinet fixed up good and proper. Our instrument repair guy is AWESOME. Now Hayley can play across the break with much less trouble. It was giving her fits before.
7. Hayley also joined the anime club at school. They eat snacks and discuss anime books. Please help me not to roll my eyes so far back that they get stuck.
8. And she wants to be in jazz band as the keyboardist. Hayley's piano teacher might have to include some of the jazz band songs in her piano lesson...
9. Hmmm. Two more things. Um. Matt can't find his boots. I'm not surprised; the garage is still full of my sewing room stuff. (Laminate flooring gets installed on Nov. 18th! Yay!)
10. The kids keep begging me for squash buns. I've told them that if I find that any of them have been eaten BEFORE Thanksgiving, I will give all the rolls away and they won't get ANY leftovers. (I will because I'll keep a secret stash for myself. Katie, if you tell, you won't get any when you are here in January. Keep that in mind....)

Post script: A friend is doing a thankful theme this month and I thought I'd chime in at least a few times on the topic of what I am grateful for. Today it's my children. Yes I nag them to do their jobs a lot and I don't hug (well, Hayley and Matt have sort of forced me into hugging at bedtimes. Jimmy and Paul wouldn't be caught dead within my embrace and Katie's a bit far away), but I do love them all. Mostly because they provide rich blogging fodder. Ha. No, although my life would be a tad more boring if they weren't so quick to make me snicker behind my hand. I'm grateful for their messy presences, their busy lives, their animated chatter, their growling stomachs, and their willingness to learn (except for Jimmy. He has only a tolerance for it, unless it involves something "cool." He's a sixteen-year-old; he already knows everything worth knowing).