Saturday, August 9, 2008

Shopping with Mother In Law

My basement pantry is finished! I'll try and get a picture up tomorrow. I cut and added the last shelf today and am very happy with it. The top shelf is all for empty canning jars. Right now, the second shelf has last years applesauce and the 8 jars of tomato sauce I have so far. I will be making pickles tuesday or wednesday and will add them to the shelf as well. I am trying to figure out what else I can make that we will appreciate and that can be canned using a water canner. I was reading Danielle's blog a few days ago and was inspired by her usage of her new pressure canner.

The guys came back from cub scout camp and things turned out pretty well. Son had a lot of fun and so it was worth the trouble and The Calls from Last Sunday. Oh, and my mother-in-law is visiting us now. Daughter and I picked her up yesterday from the airport. We had a nice field trip to the airport (lots of process questions were answered). I made a big mistake already. I agreed to go shopping for Daughter's birthday present with her. I hate to shop. She loves it. She bought way more for Daughter than I would have preferred. At one point she asked me what Daughter would like from the toy section. I said not much. Daughter had not expressed nterest in anything from Target's toy section but she had said she needed some new toys. I let the two of them browse together and now Daughter will be getting toy horses and accompanying stuff and a croquet set. I hope she uses them and enjoys them after she gets them of course! I am getting better at releasing control over my kids. I can see that when I watch my MIL interact with them. She is very authoritarian. We shall see what she thinks of our unschooling life! Did I mention she works for the NY State Department of Education?

1 comment:

Ronda said...

Zoa, Havae a great visit! It is always interesting to say the least when "less informed" relatives come to visit an unschooling house. I remember at my dtr's wedding last year some folks came to me and said, "We just decided we want to be "unjobbed"...then laughed and walked away. I wish they would have stayed around...I think unjobbing is a cool concept.

Totally relate to the shopping...hate it. Retta has never liked toys...is always a challenge when the relatives ask for BD lists. I always point them to Dick Blick.com

Hvae a nice visit. Breathe slowly.