Making Applesauce

This afternoon we all went over to my husband's parents house (in their absence) to get some apples from their trees. They have three large apples trees in their side yard, each one loaded to the breaking point, with the ground underneath carpeted with fallen apples. We didn't think ahead enough to bring any buckets, but found two cardboard boxes on the porch, which worked well. S. had a good time helping us fill them. K. became very upset when I sat her on the grass (too prickly), so I moved her over to the driveway, where she was a bit happier. Feeling ambitious, I sent J. to the car to look for some bags. He found a large purple plastic beach bucket. S. thought that was great, and took charge of it. Basically, I want to take care of as many apples as possible so my mother-in-law won't work herself to exhaustion. But we hardly made a dent with what we took.

At home, I eagerly started making applesauce, which turned out to be a mistake. Really, it's very easy to make, and not too time-consuming if you have a grinder/strainer thingee, but it's not really the project to start right before supper with two fussy kids. So I only got some made, and frazzled my nerves in the process. K. was hanging on my legs half the time. The other half the time S. was making her cry. Then after supper I had to wash all the paraphanelia, knowing that I will just get it dirty again tomorrow when I finish the job. I had foolishly used two large pots at the same time, so I had to wash them both by hand as they were too big to fit in the dishwasher. At least the girls both liked eating it for supper.