The Grind

I apologize for the silence on our end, but we've had a busy winter!  First of all, I have been working my tush off at H&R Block doing taxes.  Yes - you read that right - I'm doing taxes.  This is definitely NOT anything that I thought I'd ever do, but the work fits for our little family.  I work 3-5 days a week (depending on how busy we get), but I'll only be working for about 4 months each year.  These 4 months just so happen to coincide with the months in which Jordan generally doesn't have any jobs.  It sure has been nice to have a little extra cash during the long winter.

While we have had to hire a babysitter occasionally, most days Jordan gets to play Mr. Mom.  He's done a great job, and the kids (Thane especially) love helping him work on construction projects around the house.  In addition, Jordan has been on a mission to clean out our freezers, where several years worth of old chickens, beef bones, venison roasts and pork bones & hamhocks have been contracting freezer burn.  Over the past few weeks, Jordan has been making and canning meat stock & soup.  I can't begin to describe how cozy and delicious my house has smelled the past few weeks, and the stock has such a nice, rich flavor (and it's kinda pretty to look at, too!)

Jordan has also been busy thawing out and grinding up pounds and pounds of old scrap meat.  His mom came over one day last week, and the two of them ground, weighed and bagged over 80 pounds of homemade sausage.  Fresh sage, breakfast, maple & Alsatian flavored sausage - YUM!!  They even managed to pressure can a double batch of chicken stock, 1 batch of beef stock and 11 pints of pumpkin!  THANK YOU MOM!!!

Ya - I'm thinking that I should have gone back to work years ago!