House Missing, Jam and Raising Quail

We've been away for almost two weeks, and my kids are starting to miss their home.  A lot.

(Except our house isn't the Downton Abbey home like the silhouette on this one.)

Kembia told me she misses her kitchen, her living room, and her toys.  I am assuming she doesn't miss her room because she shares with Truitt...

First thing on my list besides unpacking, something which I hate more than laundry, is purging my entire house of all the excess stuff in it.  There are several reasons for that, of which I won't go into details, but I am excited to do it.

And if any of you have the urge to purge, here is an excellent, quick article on what not to do while trying to declutter.   

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I finally finished Middlemarch.  For the most part I thought it was boring and I had to force myself to finish it.  The reviews are excellent, and in general I love the classics.  But it took me a long time to get it done.  I might watch the movie and see if that makes me feel better about it.  But probably not because movies are always worse than the books.

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I bought a crate of peaches and infested my parents' house with fruit flies, but I made three peach pies and lots and lots of peach jam using this recipe.



After our strawberry jam, pluot jam, and now peach jam, we have jam coming out of our ears. More than enough to last us until next years fruit season kicks off.

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My brother hatched a bunch of quail babies, and so now I think we might raise some for awhile.

   


    quail egg vs. chicken egg

They are super tiny, reach maturity in 8 weeks, and their adorable eggs take 5 to equal 1 chicken egg.

Why are we doing this?  Mostly because I think it's good to give our kids a country upbringing as much as possible where we live in suburbia.  And we'll eat the eggs after we acquire enough for a meal.  And for us, that will take a few quail and a lot of days!

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And I finally am making time to finish Downton Abbey Season 4.  I've been watching the episodes at my parents after the kids have gone to bed.  Apparently there was quite a scandal in the last week with a water bottle accidentally being left in a promotional picture for next season.  According to this article, they have forbidden anything modern, including underwear.



I googled and found this article on the history of women's underwear.  Apparently, in the early 1900's in England, underwear were open and it was kind of a slip-like clothing that you wore underneath everything else.  So no visible pany lines allowed for the Downton actors!