dinner bliss... cooking in bulk

Yesterday we needed to mop the kitchen floor in a major way.  Because I'm trying to stay off my feet, Zack took over this job and did fabulous.  But in order to do it thoroughly, we moved all of the kitchen stools and table into the family room, in front of the tv.  And because it was different and fun, we put in a movie and started making dinner around 11 am... chicken noodle soup was on the menu and that's easy to put in the crock pot and let simmer all day.

(The littles help unwrap bullion cubes while the older boys chop veggies.  I bag the extra opened bullions and keep them for later recipes.  I hate opening those suckers and it keeps the kids occupied for a while... they have "races" and usually make a decent mess.)

Soup turned into making a quadruple batch of rolls (some for neighbors and others to freeze), which turned into banana bread (the second batch this week, we now have 10 loaves sliced and in the freezer), which turned into chocolate chip cookies, and while all of that was going we cooked 10 lbs of ground beef and probably 15 pounds of chicken.  It was just all on the stove and in the oven, and didn't seem as crazy as it sounds.  Ben and Luke spent over an hour shredding the chicken and putting all of the meat in the freezer in baggies for future meals. (I do this every several months, but for some reason it just ALL happened it the same 3 hour period.)

We usually double the cookie recipe, scoop all of the dough and then separate a dozen cookies in small ziplock bags and freeze it for later.  It makes it so nice to bake only a dozen at a time and have it on hand for last minute desserts or treats. 

When all of the food was chopped and cooked and stored, Zack had finished mopping the floor, the boys moved the table and chairs back and our kitchen was spotless again.  It was around 3 pm.  That gave us another 3 hours to read together and then clean up the rest of the house and wait for Daddy to come home from work.  It was such a great day, the best in a long time.  When Aaron got home (later than expected) we were upstairs finishing the LAST load of laundry and watching "West Side Story".  All of the kids were helping and were in the best moods.  I was showered with makeup and was wearing an actual outfit.  Aaron came upstairs and everyone loved on him.  He changed his clothes and we headed downstairs together to eat dinner. (two of the boys on his back at the same time.)

Dinner conversation was awesome.  Ben talked about scouts and Luke and Zack were being really giggly and laughing about some kind of prank they wanted to play on Simon. I told Aaron all about our productive day (even though, really I didn't go anywhere and I wasn't on my feet much... I had time to take a bath and relaxed quite a bit.)  Anyway, at the end of dinner, Aaron finally got a chance to talk. I was shocked to hear that he had had one of the worst days ever.  A project that he was working on for weeks needed to be done again, and he found out he needs another surgery on his ankle (crutches again... before the baby comes.  At least two weeks of recovery and more physical therapy, etc.) and he's just stressed about everything... Lots on his plate right now.  As he was talking, I felt SO bad that I hadn't asked about his day earlier and at the same time, I felt SO GRATEFUL that he had come home to a clean house and happy kids and warm dinner on the table (and dessert to boot!)  I was imagining him having a terrible day at work and then coming home to a miserable wife and kids.. which happens often.. I was feeling so relieved it didn't turn out that way on this particular day.  It made me want to pretend that every day is really hard for him, because in reality, it probably is.  I would hate to have to be at an office all day and then come home to take care of grumpy people and a messy house.  It makes my job at home so much more important and meaningful.