When the Cat's Away....

Well, another hunting season is upon us! Ed left after school yesterday for deer camp, and will return on Sunday. His original plan was to stay through until Monday, but then Elijah was sick all week and we alternated taking days off. We both have missed a lot of school lately.

When our new Bunco group formed this past summer, we all chose our month to host. I picked November, knowing how dark and lonely the hunting season weekends could be. Sounded good back then. What I didn't anticipate was how hard it would be to plan, cook and clean for Bunco with Elijah around and Ed gone to camp! I was especially questioning my decision as I stood in line at Costco at 5:30 last night, behind a woman whose debit card would not work, as I watched the clock, realizing that in the next 90 minutes I had to have dinner prepared, Elijah fed and in bed and the house ready to accept a gaggle of women.

Throw in there an exceptionally fussy, feverish and mucousy almost-two-year-old. I still have no idea how I pulled it off. But when the first guests arrived at 7:05, Elijah was sound asleep, the house was sparkly clean (a rarity), and there was rotisserie chicken and stuffing warming in the oven, a crock pot of creamy mashed potatoes, Waldorf salad, cranberry sauce and even an apple pie and a pumpkin pie!

Admittedly, I took half the day off of school, and I made the pies, mashed potatoes and salad the night before (and the pie crusts 2 nights before)...but nobody needs to know that! The food was delicious, the meal was a huge hit, and we even played a record NINE rounds of Bunco. On top of that, I got the lowest score so I won the "loser prize" ($10). Cool. Miraculously, Elijah slept through the entire party...and it wasn't exactly quiet.

I only ever see midnight on Bunco nights. The morning came too quickly, and Elijah woke with a runny faucet nose, a terrible sounding cough and a fever of 103. We had a very low-key day, it poured rain so we hung around the house, watched a lot of Elmo and Bob the Builder, read books and played cars. We both took a 3+ hour nap.

Now Elijah's in bed and I am making a pot of Grammie's corn chowder as well as a pumpkin pie for a Science-teacher brunch I am hosting tomorrow. A much less stressful affair, since the house is already clean and after making a few "heads-up" phone calls, some of the teachers with children opted not to come tomorrow, due to Eli's illness (although before I had the bright idea of calling people, I soaked all of Eli's cars, balls and plastic food items in Clorox. Then I thought, "This is dumb. If I am feeling the need to disinfect all his toys, I probably shouldn't have children coming to the house!")

So it will just be a small crowd of maybe 7 of us or so.

That's my crazy deer camp weekend in a nutshell! Wonder what next weekend will bring?

p.s. I did talk to Ed-- Calvin shot a deer today, on opening day of rifle season. Congrats, Calvin!