It's spring cleaning time

We will enter the month of April later this week, and next week will be the school children?s spring break, so we are moving right along into warmer months. My husband, Joe, also doesn?t have work next week, so the whole family will be home. After spring break, there will only be 9 weeks of school left for the term. Time sure has a way of slipping by too fast.

My sister, Emma, her husband, Jacob, and family assisted us Saturday with our work. The new finished bedroom will be our 16-year-old daughter Elizabeth?s. Elizabeth?s friend, Timothy, also helped us. They finished sanding the drywall in one of the upstairs bedrooms and the hallway is done now, too. I need to get some paint so we can start painting. Once the painting is done, we can start with our spring cleaning.

We will be holding church services at our house in June, so there is much to do to prepare, and we want to have all of this work done by then. Sanding upstairs on Saturday has left us with a dusty mess. That is what is nice about getting it done before we start spring cleaning. The girls also cleaned and mopped the basement on Saturday. It sure needed it. The dust from the coal stove can really collect heavily.

Next week we are are going to try to get the yard raked up from the winter, the leaves, twigs and other stuff. Usually every spring break I like to take the children into town to treat them to lunch for being such a big help.

Sister Emma has a Pampered Chef party on Wednesday in the forenoon. All the guests will enjoy a brunch prepared by the Pampered Chef hostess. It seems like our days are too busy for something like this, but it is nice to have a day off occasionally. We get too caught up in our work so a break is good for all of us once in awhile.

Last week I assisted my sisters, Susan and Verena, clean up from the recent remodeling they had done on their house. Also there helping were my sister, Leah, and her son, Paul Jr., brother, Amos, wife, Nancy, and son, Ben, and twin daughters Arlene and Marlene. Sisters Liz and daughters Elizabeth, Rosa, and Suzanne, all from Berne, Ind. came to help, too.

Sister Emma from our church district was also in attendance. It has been quite a few years since my five sisters and I were together for a work day. If brother Albert had been there, all eight of us siblings would have been present.

My husband Joe came over after work and helped brother Amos and Ben carry the furniture out of the living room. Verena and Susan?s plans are to have their living room remodeled next. The house doesn?t look the same on the inside as they turned the laundry room into another bedroom. They also took the wall out between the porch and kitchen and dining room area so that it is more open. They cleaned out all of their cabinets, cupboards, etc. and washed all their dishes. The remodeling had left a lot of dust.

Everybody brought in a dish or two for lunch. Susan and Verena served baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and lettuce salad. Others brought in deviled eggs, oatmeal and blueberry pie and someone brought cookies and ice cream. We ended up with a lot of food with everyone bringing something.

To Leota from Macon, Mo., I never can my meat using an oven. I always use a pressure cooker to can my meat.

To Louise from St. Francis, Kan., I am sorry I do not have a recipe for ?raw burger.? Could it possibly have another name? Louise also requested my recipe for horseradish pickles. Since it has been a couple of years since I have shared it, I will repeat it now.

HOMEMADE HORSERADISH PICKLES

1 cup salt

3/4 cup dried mustard

2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup horseradish, chopped fine

Cucumbers, quartered and cut length-wise, do not remove peelings

1 gallon white vinegar

2 1/2 tablespoons canning acid

Day 1: Put cucumbers in a crock or glass bowl, adding enough water to cover them and then add salt. Let sit overnight covered.

Day 2: Drain the salt water, but keep the cucumber slices in the bowl or crock. Add the rest of the listed ingredients, minus the salt.

Cover the crock and stir. Makes 3 gallons of pickles. Pickles will keep in the crock for several months.