Seven Quick Takes - I can can. Can you can too?

1.) We've Begun our Foray into the Wild and Wacky World of Canning

We had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year. 

Tons of the things. We were given a couple plants that produce these grape sized tomatoes, and they...erm...got busy and we had a bunch of volunteer plants spring up this spring, in addition to a few more plants that we brought in. 

Lots of tomatoes. 

We'd lucked into a pressure canner at a yard sale for $2, and, after ordering a gauge and a few replacement rubber rings, we were ready to go. 

No one tells you that the cans make these really weird bubbly noises when you open the canner lid, and that they continue to make weird bubbly noises for a good 5 - 10 minutes after you take them out. 

It's really weird. Sort of like having a pet swamp thing in a jar. 

2.) Also, We Have a Lot of Squash. 

Observe. 

Seriously not sure what we're going to do with all of it. I think you can use butternut squash in a pie in a similar way to pumpkin, but I have yet to test that out. 

3.) Does it count as a vintage doll if I'm just making it now, but the kit is from the 1980's? 

My grandmother got rid of some stuff awhile back, and there were a couple of Cabbage Patch style doll heads and a "pre sewn doll body" from a company called Doll Baby. The packaging is marked "copyright 1984", and I have no memory of my grandmother making any dolls like this, so I guess it'd been sitting in a drawer for 30 years, just waiting for its day to come. 

(EDIT: I looked into the history of Doll Baby, and its creator, Martha Nelson Thomas. It turns out that the creator of the Cabbage Patch Kid dolls, Xavier Roberts, hired her to create dolls for him, and that he basically stole several of the design elements of his dolls from her dolls. She sued him, settled out of court, and sold kits to make her dolls during a time when buying a Cabbage Patch Doll came with a huge price tag and a nine month waiting list. 

So what I've stumbled onto here is actually a really interesting piece of doll making history, and not a knock off as I originally assumed, but something from the actual originator of one of the biggest toy fads of the 1980s). 

Little Girl's birthday is coming up in November, so I decided to actually assemble the doll. I still have some more detail work for her hands and feet, and I have to come up with an outfit (which will probably be cut and assembled from some old dresses and skirts I have lying around), but I think she's coming along nicely so far. 

4.) Pinworms are basically evil incarnate 

Image Credit: CDC 

 

My old enemy has returned. 

We had an outbreak back in February, but I thought that they'd been successfully ousted. Months passed with no incident. 

Then, a couple nights ago, Little Girl woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. I checked her bottom, and sure enough...

All I can figure is that we picked up a new infestation from some containers of previously owned play dough that were given to us about a month ago. The past couple of days have been a blur of loading stuffed animals and dolls into the washing machine, mopping, cleaning every surface that my children touch and vacuuming. 

The house is now very clean, and I think I'll probably get rid of the offending play dough sometime in the dead of night when my children won't notice. 

On a related note...

5.) Did you know that you can wash plastic toys in the dishwasher? 

The kids' collection of Lego and Little People dolls has thus been cleansed, along with the play food and a plastic truck or two. 

Thankfully nothing fell on the heating element (there for the 'plate warm' cycle), so we didn't have to deal with a molten smoky mess on top of everything else. We lost a sippy cup that way a few days ago. 

I may have mentioned this fact in a past Quick Takes. Still blows my mind every time I clean toys that way though. Not sure why. 

6.) I'm thinking about trying to write a book 

I found this really cool ancient saint story awhile back and that, coupled with a really cool book I found at the thrift store (for $1!) about how to write a novel, have sparked a story in my imagination that I think would be really worth telling. 

I enjoy writing, and I've enjoyed the little bit that I've worked on it so far. I'm trying to remind myself that I'm doing this primarily for fun - good fiction is much harder to write than non fiction opinion pieces on a blog, and it's much, much harder to publish, so I'm trying to keep my expectations low.  

It'll be educational, anyway. 

7.) The reason I haven't written a post in a long time is we went to an out of state wedding. The reason I'm writing now is because we're in self imposed quarantine to be on the safe side. 

My brother recently got married in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart Notre Dame in Indiana, so we made the very long trek up there from Texas to attend the wedding via caravan with my parents and teenage brothers in their van. 

The trip was long, the wedding was beautiful (that church is jaw droppingly gorgeous), I got to sneak away to the famous Notre Dame grotto for a few moments, and we got to visit with family we don't see very often, so all in all, a pretty big adventure. 

Then we came back to Texas, and to make sure we don't introduce the virus somewhere it hasn't been yet, we're self quarantining a little stricter than usual for the next couple weeks. No leaving the house unless it's an essential errand, and masks stay on everyone the entire time we're out. 

So, since we're not really going anywhere, I have time to write again! 

And...make a weird Cabbage Patch-esque doll, I guess. 

Beats arguing on social media. 

Click here for the rest of this week's Quick Takes.