Wish I had a camera. . .

Mine is on Spring Break in Arkansas at the moment.  But, if it were here, I could show you all the things I've been up to lately sans children.  Things like:

--Collecting the last of the sap and pulling taps from the maple trees.  I really, really, wanted to get pictures so I could write a post about making our own syrup.  But, the camera is in Arkansas and the trees are budding, so I had to stop with the sap collecting and hope that the few pics I took earlier in the season will suffice.  If I remember, they came out kinda blurry and I was hoping to get new ones on a day with better lighting.

--Boiling said sap (and still boiling said sap, and probably tomorrow still boiling said sap. *sigh*).  Next year we will be building a proper evaporating set-up instead of using the turkey fryer and it's deep-but-not-enough surface-area-for-quick-evaporation pot.

--Making a trip to Goodwill to browse for treasure.  It was a rewarding trip, spent less than $5, and I came home with a new-in-box set of Easter candy molds (for filled eggs, hollow or solid chocolate bunnies, and Easter-themed candies), a mini-food processor/chopper, three 1000 piece puzzles (I love puzzles, and won't do anything less than 1000 pieces!), a small heart-shaped basket which now resides next to the african violet on my phone table, a medium sized flattish basket with handles on the ends that I haven't decided if I will use it at home or for displaying goods at the farmers' market, a small Christmas tin that will be filled with homemade goodies and given as a holiday gift this year, and the book A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives.

--Putting together 2 of my new puzzles (in 48 hours, lol).

--Playing with some dried cherries and my favorite brownie recipe to see if 'black forest brownies' might be edible and a potential new offering at my farmers' market booth come June when the local farmers' market opens.  I'm undecided. . . maybe if I eat the other half of the pan I will be able to come to a decision.  :0)

--Painting the basement stairwell pink.  It's not actually supposed to be pink, the color I picked out is more of a red wine color, but right now, while it's wet, it looks an awful lot like beet juice.  DH isn't fond of beets.  Good thing he won't be seeing it before it dries!

I've also done some less interesting things, like ALL the laundry in the house.  In January of 2010 I told all the children they would be responsible for their own laundry from here on out.  My main goal was to get DS2 to learn to wash his own clothes before he leaves for college, but I was also tired of seeing things I knew the girls hadn't worn appear back in the laundry baskets still folded but dirty from being on their floor instead of put away in their dressers.  I'm such a mean mom!

While they are away, I decided I would go for the novelty of having a totally empty laundry room, and I washed whatever was down there.  Wow.  Six empty laundry baskets, and a counter that doesn't have anything sitting on it.  Who knew it was possible?  Too bad I can't take a picture!