Post Script

I'm sitting with a cup of decaffeinated green tea, with rain falling gently outside my window, and with a short span of time before I have to leave for my OB appointment. Perfect for writing a quick post.

So, after I last posted about the events of my frazzled week, my husband arrived home and we settled in for a family fun night. We had some fabulous chili warming up and were going to spend the rest of the evening trying to finish a super-exciting historical novel together. As the children were racing to put on their pajamas for the reading time, Spiderman (AKA Tornado because of his propensity to rapidly travel in a whirl of energy) took the corner into the bathroom too fast and too close. He clipped his big toe. We thought it was no big deal, got past the drama and proceeded to read.

Saturday morning he was in too much pain to want to play in his basketball game. Those of you with Tornado Sons will understand that nothing stops one such child from playing. Something serious had to be wrong. We took him to get it xrayed and were referred to a orthopedic specialist come Monday. It turns out he has two breaks, one right into his growth plate.

So that was the cherry on top of our deliciously eventful week.

I did get to spend some wonderful down time with my family. I did get a nap on Sunday afternoon. And, I awoke to find that a very sweet friend had brought over some Breyer's Chocolate Ice Cream for us to enjoy later on. I am so blessed!

My post last Friday also gave rise to an interesting question... If you're still not cooking, what are you eating?

I can answer that with great thankfulness in my heart. After The New Little One's arrival, we were very blessed to have several friends bring over a meal. In the midst, my mom came down a few times to help out with the older four children. When she did, she prepared suppers big enough that we would have leftovers. My mom and I also created a stash of freezer meals that we have been enjoying. Plus, my mother in law was here yesterday so that I could take Spiderman to his appointment, and she thought ahead to bring all she needed to make us a Chicken and Wild Rice casserole. How sweet is that!

We have been blessed... I keep saying that, like a broken cd, but is there another word for it?

So the freezer stash... My mom came down the weekend after Thanksgiving and we turned the leftover pastured turkey and several pounds of grassfed ground beef into 12 meals. Well, I cooked up a frenzy and she washed every. single. dish. which is no small task! I made a double recipe of each of the following and froze them in two separate meal sized portions for our family of six eaters. Each recipe is loaded with vegetables, so that I wouldn't have to make a side dish of vegetables and I would only have to keep salad fixings on hand.

• my healthy version of Turkey Tetrazzini
• my super-duper vegetable-laden beef chili
• a savory turkey and rice meal I just invented
• turkey burritos using my chicken burrito recipe
• spaghetti casserole
• potato soup using the leftover mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving (from the More With Less Cookbook)

While my mom was here that weekend, we also made

• 12 loaves of bread
• three big batches of soaked granola
• 2 recipes of power bars
• 2 recipes of Love Muffins
• 2 recipes of Banana Nut Muffins
• 2 recipes of Sweet Potato Bread
• and 2 recipes of Hawaiian Bread

We haven't even had to order pizza... although we did eat burritos at Moe's last Monday after some late doctor's appointments.

I'm headed to my appointment. I will let you know what the DR says about this lump.
Thankfully,