Making Grandma Earn Her Keep...

Grandma Talcott came to visit us this week. She somehow knew to come right when we would need her the most. All 3 of the kids have been sick this week, and she has been helping wipe noses, comfort kids, and even stay home from church and Bible study when they were too sick to go. It has been a huge help! She leaves tomorrow, so I decided to send her home nice and exhausted, ready for a vacation from vacation: today we made and canned 34 quarts of applesauce. Here are the very first fruits of our labor:

Here's Carver, turning the crank (look familiar? Thanks for the loan, Heather!)

Here's Grandma, filling jars:

Oh, and we decided to throw a little pumpkin canning in at the end, just for fun! The pumpkin I had picked was so huge and unwieldy that I ended up cutting it with a saw from the garage. The kids helped scoop out the seeds:

And, just because there are no pictures of Laura yet, here she is!

An exhausting but successful day! We will be eating yummy homemade applesauce all winter!