Being a Busy Bee

Sometimes there are those days you can't remember what you've been doing all day, but it was busy.
Monday was such a kind of day for me. I'm homeschooling DD13, so I can still remember I read up on some subjects like keeping chickens and square foot gardening, and helping DD11 pack her things for the schoolcamp.Oh, and of course sorting the postround for tuesday.
Well, tuesday I woke up very early, due to DH's alarm, and then I fell asleep again, and of course overslept.
The good thing was DD8 & DD11 were already wide awake when I finally woke up, so they got themselves dressed quickly when I told them we were late, and we managed to get to school in time/almost in time...
When I got home again I felt up to cleaning out the pantry, so that's what I did:











Considdering how much stock we have I think it's quite amazing I only found a few items that needed to be tossed, and don't worry, the oats and oatflour were almost finished, which probably is why they got out of date, because it was just not enough to make anything with it, so it was only the jar of mint sauce which really was a waste.













I also found a couple of items with a short date, so will now have to look for recipes to use it up:

This is what my pantry looks like now:

To start with I used up the almondpaste to bake "gevulde speculaas", a typical dutch treat, basicly it is almondpaste between 2 layers of gingerbreadcake, with some almonds sprinkled on top:

Very rich, very yummie and very addictive!

Last night was not much better then the day before,I woke up too early again (around 4.30 am) and gave up trying to sleep at 5.15 am. So, I got out of bed, folded some laundry, and hung some laundry as well, and even worked on the ironing pile. When it was just over 7 am, I woke up DD8 & DD11, as it was the big day: DD11 was going on schoolcamp!
She had to go there by bike, so I took her luggage and that of one of her schoolfriends to school by car, and other parents were bringing all the luggage to the final destination.
I forgot to take my camera with me, so I only have some piccies in terrible quality, which I took with my phone.

the luggage & the bikes

DD11 with one of her schoolfriends

A last hug for her little sister

And off she goes!

After that I went to an acquaintance, who had just moved home, to help her clean her new kitchen.
All too soon it was time to get DD8 from school again.
We (DD13, DD8 and I) had lunch at my parents, and after that I had another practice session for the foxhunt on friday. I really have to get the make-up right for the character that I'm going to be.
Both girls are convinced I won't be easily recognised, and in fact my act freaks DD13 out!
Back home again I cooked us a simple dinner.
When the girls were to bed I remembered I had seen something inspiring on my postround. So I had a look in one of my boxes of stuff and found those 2 little birds which were just perfect to finish my table piece I had been working on  before:

I think they look supercute like this!