Open House

The next week, (which was already the first week of October!) I had scheduled for us to take a fall break. My mom was having an open house at her home the next Saturday, Oct. 10th. I agreed to have a little "booth" and sell aprons and baked goods. While the kids were doing chores and working on some handiwork of their own, I was busy sewing those aprons!

I made my whole wheat bread, pumpkin butterscotch bread, granola, and Emily Burleson's molasses cookies to sell. (I will post the recipes at the bottom!)

In the cross country realm (I think we could seriously have a decent TV mini-series!), we had planned to take the week off. However, the Tupelo team was having a race, and the coach invited us to participate! (Pretty major, b/c he has never really been willing to include us in anything before.) We planned on everyone running in the open division 5K, but Coach Hall said it would be better and cheaper for us to run in the small school division! Hot dog, can you believe it! After getting everyone geared up to run, I get another one of those phone calls....

Yup, you guessed it... un-invited again! Rats! We went back to our original plan of running the open 5K.

Thursday after practice, the kids and I headed to Memphis. In true procrastinator fashion, I still had to stay up and finish quite a few things! On Friday morning we got everything all set up and opened for business!

Ok... we were still waiting... customers could come any time now... Just kidding! Friday was pretty slow, but it was still a fun day! On Friday night, my parents took us to Cracker Barrel. We dropped off Sarah, Will, and Josh at Scott's dad's house. The younger three unanimously chose going to the barn to see horses over staying for another day of "Open House."

On Saturday AM, I headed to Tupelo (about 4:30) for the Tupelo Invitational. Hannah opted out of running and chose to stay behind and man my booth until I returned! It turned out to be a good thing... she is a good salesperson!

The Spartans all ran very well, and I had the opportunity to give the Corinth Coach his plaque. He was very gracious and understood that it was just a misunderstanding.

On the way back to Memphis, Emily Burleson and her older girls piled in for a day trip! Senorita Minnick also made the trip to shop and hang out. Saturday was much more profitable than Friday! I sold almost all of my bread and quite a few aprons! When the afternoon was through, we went to eat some Mexican, pick up the kids from the Duleys, and head back to Mississippi.

Here are some pictures from the open house:aprons, aprons, aprons!

Part of my mom's booth

My sister makes neat custom shields with coats of arms

Hannah made coasters, and sarah stitched pot holders

Pumpkin and wheat bread! I was glad there weren't too many leftovers!

PUMPKIN BUTTERSCOTCH BREAD
(makes 3 loaves or 6 mini loaves)
31/2 c. AP flour
2tsp. soda
1tsp. salt
1tsp. cinnamon
1tsp. nutmeg
3c. sugar

1c. oil
4 eggs
2/3 c. water
2c. or 1 can pumpkin

1 bag butterscotch chips

Sift dry ingredients. In large bowl, mix wet ingredients until smooth. Add dry ingredients and bag of chips. Bake @ 35o for 70 minutes (large loaves) or 45 minutes (mini loaves)


GRANOLA
5 cups oats- quick or original
3/4 c brown sugar
1/2 dry milk
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Melt oil, honey, and brown sugar on stovetop. Add to oats, dry milk, and cinnamon. Spread on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 for 10 minutes. Stir and cook 5-10 minutes longer. Add raisins, toasted nuts, coconut, etc. Cute layered in a jar as a gift!


MOLASSES COOKIES
3/4 c. butter
1c. sugar
1 egg
1/4 c. sorgham
2Tbsp milk
1tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 t. soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 tsp. salt

Chill dough 1 hour. Form tsp. size small balls of dough. Roll in sugar. Bake @350 10-14 minutes. Cookies will be very soft- immediately transfer to a cool surface.