Well....At least the Salsa is done

Total count of sick children.....THREE!  Yes, it is true - all 3 of my children are sick.  My oldest is sick at the Naval Academy.  She went to medical this morning only to be told she has allergies. Allergies? That is so odd - because she does NOT have allergies. In fact she is not allergic to anything.  And since when does allergies cause fevers? And a very productive cough? And deep chest congestion? ACK!  How frustrating! This is one of those times where I wish parents of Naval Academy midshipmen were allowed to be parents.  It is hard knowing your child is sick and you absolutely cannot do one thing about it. To make matters worse, my younger daughter is not any better.  Our physician is on call tonight and she said if she isn't improving or gets any worse, I have to take her to the Emergency room tonight.  If we make it through the night here at home, we need to go back to the doctor again tomorrow morning to see how she is doing. She is that sick. The only bright spot in the house of WHY IS EVERYONE SICK is that my son is starting to feel better.  I think he will make it to school tomorrow.  I am grateful that he got over his bug so quickly. Tonight we are all going to just hunker down and ride out the storms. Luckily I picked up some more yogurt for our puppies at the store this afternoon before the storms rolled in. I had to be sure my little puppies had their "parfait" dinner tonight.  They just love that. Right now, we are being hammered by quite a display of Mother Nature's awesome power.  We have high winds, drenching downpours, hail and tornado warnings until late evening. I am so glad we have worked so hard all week long getting our veggies in.  I am not sure how our plants will survive this storm.  It was so lucky that we got all our tomatoes picked before this hit. I know for sure this amount of rain coupled with the high winds would have pretty much wiped out all the ripe tomatoes. Thank you Mr. Yesteryear Acres for picking the tomatoes yesterday. We turned yesterday's tomato picking into salsa and finished right before midnight. Last night's total count of salsa....36 quarts!!!!!  How awesome is that?!  I am completely done with the salsa for the year! Yea!!! And for those wondering about my crushed tomato haul.....Total count of canned crushed tomatoes....129 quarts!  Now that is a serious pantry stockpile. I still have a few things left to process before the end of the season but most of the hard work is behind me.  I think the only things left are picadilly green beans and then several days working to make dehydrated tomato quarters. I make my own sundried tomatoes and they are really yummy. It is a pain to do as each batch takes about 12-24 hours and the end result is SO much smaller than what I started with.  It is amazing just how much room water takes up inside a tomato.  Once the liquid is gone - just a little sliver of tomato remains, but the flavor is intensely delicious. I might not get to the last of the garden projects until next week.  I need to get my little babies all feeling better first.  It doesn't matter whether your baby is 6 feet tall or 17 years old or a Navy midshipman - in a mother's eyes, they are still that sweet little helpless baby you brought home from the hospital.  When your babies hurt - you hurt.  Plain as that. My only thoughts this evening are filled with the hope that mine get better soon.