Freezer Cooking

Last Saturday, while most of the locals were enjoying the Grabill Fair, I and 3 other industrious/adventurous moms were inside the church cooking up a storm...

For 9 hours!

9 hours of work=96 meals x 4 hungry families = 24 meals per family

How did we get there you ask?

I will preface this story by saying that we think that NEXT TIME it will not take as long!

The original plan had us starting at 9:30 AM. Well, that was before we realized that the parade path for the fair was set commence directly outside the front entrance of the church! As I was pulling into the parking lot the road I had just driven on was being shut down. This prevented Sarah from getting to the church. She had to park as close as possible, load up her stroller with meat and supplies, and then walk to the church!

Carrie and I scooping pasta into baking dishes.

So while we were waiting for Sarah, we started the pulled pork in the roasters. A big part of the reason that we used the church kitchen was so that we could use the big roasters, pots/pans etc. Once we got the pork started we immediatley blew a fuse in the outlet that all 3 roasters were plugged into and we didn't know it! Ahhhhhhh....not until 2 hours later. Whoops! Luckily the janitor popped in every once in a while and helped us out a ton. He showed Becky how to flip the fix the fuse, brought us a big trash bin, and even took the massive amounts of trash out to the dumpster! What a great guy!

Becky, our happy meat mixer/chicken wrangler!

We each took on different jobs as the day progressed. All of us took turns washing dishes and putting utensils away. About halfway through the day we decided that 4 was the perfect number for this task. The logistics for purchasing and transporting all of the supplies/ingredients for a task this size is quite large. We were busy the entire time. We all always had something to do and we liked it that way! Then, once the meals are assembled, you have to store them until the end of the day. The industrial sized refiderator and freezer at the church working perfectly! I really don't know how we could have done this at one of our houses? Maybe if you just had 2 people working?

Our list of meals:

chicken enchiladas
broccoli cheddar soup
meatloaf
cheesy chicken and biscuits
white chicken chili
calzones
baked pasta with meat sauce
pulled pork


The chicken enchiladas

White Chicken Chili

Cheesy Chicken and Biscuits served with a green salad

A picture of how our dishes were assembled.

The bread dough that we used to make the calzones! It had risen. It had risen indeed!

Sarah taking a turn washing dishes. Everyone looks so happy!

Becky cleaning the floor! Isn't she beautiful?

All 96 meals divided up per family and ready to load! That's a lot of work but oh so worth it!

If you think that is crazy, brace yourself, we already have plans to do this again in October!

As the day progressed we decided that we would be MORE motivated to use the meals at home if we already had the next cooking day set up and on the calender. That way we would eat and enjoy our precious meals knowing that more were to come. Plus we just learned so much from our experiences that day and we took notations along the way. That way our shopping list can be more precise. We did overbuy on a few items and doing a cooking like this one soon will help us to use up those extra ingredients that we already have purchased and bring down the cost of each meal.

After dividing up all of the ingredients we each contributed $153.00.
Not bad for 24 meals. That's almost a months worth of meals! We also hope to further refine our process after collecting feedback from each family on what meals we like and want to try again!

Overall a fun and productive day! Now don't you want to try it? I admit is has been WONDERFUL all this week to know I have quite the selection of meals to choose from. How easy is it to put a meal in the fridge in the morning and then preheating the oven before dinner?

Totally easy!

The Helm

Bethel has a new entrance! Honestly, this is our very first photo at the Helm. I really wanted this to be a family shot but the boys were sleeping in the car. Maybe next time? On the drive over Luke said "what is a Bethel?"

20 Weeks and Still Pregnant!

My watermelon sized belly (well, not really!)

This belly is definitely lower than the other two! I am not sure it it means anything other than my maternity stash of clothes is fitting more snugly this time around.

Half-way there! I really didn't think that 11 weeks ago I would be here!

Lots of baby movement and wiggling! This is my 3rd pregnant birthday! Getting ready to turn 31 on Thursday!

Target Toy Storage

Why baskets? To conceal our growing toy collection. The shelf is low enough for toddler access and my kids can easily pull the baskets in and out of the shelves. I like it because it keeps the toys off the floor and looks more adultish! Plus it goes with our Ikea bookshelves that we've owned since our Mishawaka house many moves ago. Shelf and baskets recently purchased at Target. I had to go to 2 Targets to collect 6 matching baskets! So hurry and go get you some.

Our living room in the morning BEFORE the toys are unleashed!

Just a reference picture for my Texas and California friends who may never visit in person! When I first brought the shelf home I tried it in the entry (it fit perfectly) for concealed shoe storage but I figured it would get more use for toys in the living room. The search for the perfect entry piece continues! I am thinking a narrow table with legs but when the right piece comes along I will know!

Now looking at this photo, I think I may need to lower my little chair collection a few inches?

19 Weeks - Elephants

It hit me this weekend that expecting a baby girl = overwhelmed shopper


We walked into the Carter's Outlet and Phil said "wow, this is very bright." The girl section of the store was like a bright rainbow of cupcake sleepers and hot pink hairbows. My brother was with us and to say that he looked out of place is an understatement. I collected an assortment of girl outfits and headed to the checkout. Phil and Drew had wandered over to the more familiar boy section where they felt more comfortable.

While in line I noticed a rack with ruffled tights. I thought about how I had always wanted to buy ruffled tights so I got out of line. There was a huge selection of tights, stockings, socks, hairbows, and bags. Suddenly that gagging feeling that plagues me so early on in pregnancy was back. I instantly knew that I was WAY out of my league. The pressure to put together a complete ensemble made me sweat in my eyebrows.

So I turned around and headed back to the sale rack and put most of the outfits that I had selected earlier back! Then I pulled myself together and headed over to find the boys. I told myself "Brooke will help me figure this all out!" My friend Brooke is queen of coordinates for girls.

The boys were more than ready to move on to the next store and so was I! Yikes. I did not expect this! I thought I could easily pick out a few onesies but it is clear that I am not ready for full outfits! I need to enroll in a baby girl mentorship program.

We did manage to pick out a few things for Baby Girl!

Phil picked this onesie out!

We also choose this super soft and sweet elephant lovie from the Carter's Outlet. Proof that I did buy a few items!

I love that the animal print on the lovie is actually hearts!

Hmmm...the start of nursery inspiration? We will see...

Flat Front Pants

More pants were sewn this week.

I had a pair of pants (from college) that I had been holding onto but they had a hole in the rear by a back pocket. Don't you hate when that happens to good pants?

So I repurposed them into a pait of smaller pants for my oldest son.

Again, I followed an online tutorial. I made these flat fronted pants for more style!

They turned out super cute!

New churchy pants. CHECK!

Time to do some roof work!

18 Weeks and a Baby Girl

My mother in law picked up that onesie for our new little GIRL at the Creation Museum! She said that we are just going to love this baby no matter what! In one of my early conversations with Barbara my beloved duola she reminded me of the same. No matter what happens this baby was created in God's image! You know how things happen at just the right timing? It is no accident. I believe that there is a reason and purpose behind EVERYTHING!

When "rumors of this baby's demise" first started I managed to avoid the "why" and the "why me" questions. But it is funny how the questions started to come when we were getting the good news. After the initial shock of the turn around/healing I started thinking "why us and not somebody else?"
In May when I first discovered I was pregnant, a woman that writes a blog I follow discovered that she was pregnant too. Like our due dates were a day apart. At 7 weeks she felt like something was up with her pregnancy. She went from being super sick to feeling great so she went to her midwife and got an ultrasound. Everything ended up being fine, in fact, she learned that she was carrying twins! I don't actually know her but I was super happy for her and I started to think of her often. Last week she updated her blog after a long break and shared her story. While on vacation she ended up miscarrying one of her twins and then a week later gave birth to the other twin. But she was way too early and small to survive and lived for about 40 minutes. My heart broke and is still breaking for her. Plus, I was overwhelmed by reading a story that was so similarly predicted for me. Her July ended the way that mine was supposed to end. And for the first time started wondering "why her and why not me?" Here I am in August still pregnant.

I don't think that there is anything special about us or our situation. I wish that I could tell other people going through something similar that everything is going to be okay. The thing is I did not think that things would be okay for us either. I remember telling Phil early on that I just had a feeling that this was going to be a long and drawn out process. I also remember feeling like always before I could tell myself that "everything was going to be alright" and in this case I just could not say or feel like it was. That was a scary place for me to be.

How do you accept the unknown in a logical way? And how do you help others? For me it was taking the focus off of myself explaining the facts to the ones around me who were going through this grief with us. And telling them that I have no answers. Like I said earlier, I believe that things happen for a reason and have a higher purpose. A purpose that may not present itself until later. Maybe even years later.

Why did this happen? I don't know.

How did we get to a regular 18 week baby check? It had been 4 weeks since I had an ultrasound and we were comforted by NOT knowing what was going on with the baby. We had been on information overload for far too long and the month break was nice! I convinced Phil to come with me to my appointment. It is a good thing that he came because my appointment turned out to be all ultrasound! The tech that did our original ultrasound did this one too. I asked her if she remembered us from the beginning of the summer and she did! I could tell that she was excited to see what was going on with the baby. I was nervous and surprised that we were even doing an ultrasound! Yikes. So here we go:

She can tell right away that this miracle baby is officially a girl! And she is moving all over the place! She was really active just like all of the ultrasounds have been. Her heart rate was around the 150 range and NORMAL! Yay! Some "normal" news right off the bat!

Here she is putting her thumb up to her mouth!

So then we start in with the serious measurements. She is estimated to be 9 ounces and measuring developmentally 5 days early! This was normal news to me too because both boys were measuring 5 days early at their gender ultrasounds. The umbilical cord has 3 vessels and the heart has all 4 chambers!!!! Yes! That was the biggest concern at our last ultrasound. Relief comes over me. Next the brain measures fine and the stomach and kidneys are there! They exist! More relief. I make her check the lip and make sure that it is all there. Yes! I ask her if there is still concern for chromosomal abnormalities? She says that ultrasounds are 99.9% correct in prediction. Normally this would give me more great relief but we have a history of red flag ultrasounds that apparently turned out to be nothing.

The tech then tells me that she had a similar ultrasound with her third baby. She says that there was some concern about her baby at first but the problems cleared up in a later ultrasound and she now has a perfectly healthy and beautiful 4 year old daughter. She says that this is the reason that she did not say anything to me during that first ultrasound. I feel like this clears up some fuzziness in my brain from that first visit. She then says "why, did they scare you?" Um, YES. We tell her about our second ultrasound and she has no explanations for that one. I kept saying: "I am just so happy to be here." I keep thinking about my blogging "friend" who is not.

The high risk doctor knocks on the door and comes in. Apparently he has been watching the whole ultrasound from the other room. Like a guardian angel? He comes in and wants to see the "miracle baby" for himself. We look at the heart again and he makes sure that the amniotic sac has attached. It was sagging a little bit at the last ultrasound but today it is perfectly placed. Again he says his famous/favorite words "rumors of this baby's demise were premature!" He is happy and let's me know that he is always there for me if the need arises but "the less you see of me the better." Those are sweet words to my ears as well. He has certainly proved himself in that area. He has always been right there in the office, in the ultrasound room, at my appointments. I wonder if maybe he is having a hard time letting go? Maybe I am too! I decide that I want to make him proud. I want this happy ending for him too!

Our baby girl is so tiny and at 18 weeks. I think she has a little "Who" face. You know the Who's from the Grinch and "Horton Hears a Who." I read "The Grinch that Stole Christmas" to Luke the other night and discover that he has a small 3 year old crush on Cindy Lou Who. What 3 year old boy wouldn't? We tell him that he is getting a sister and he says "let's name her Brother?" Don't you love 3 1/2 year olds?

SO happy to be here and writing this post. Not so happy about the 10 pound weight gain that accumulated over the past month. But is it probably a good thing? No more worry/stress/grief pregnancy diet that resulted in lost pounds. I do feel big for 18 weeks though. This baby wants to be SEEN! I have some catching up to do on getting the word out. Spread the word!