They say that if you fall off (or get bucked off) a horse, you should get right back on...that was you won't freak out about it and never be brave enough to try again...well that relates to my blogging, only I couldn't get right back on. Here are some of the things that have caused me to fall off the blogging horse, if you will! We have been through a very crazy season since I last blogged! The biggest event was Esther developing pneumonia from the upper respiratory bug we had running through our family. Everyone in our family came down with this bug, with the only exception being Rachel, who decided that chicken pox was better to have (at least we think it was chicken pox, still not completely sure). The pneumonia put Esther in the hospital for 5 days (4 nights) and this was while I was at my sickest with a sinus infection! We just holed up together in bed almost the entire time! Then it was our yearly testing time, and since we had taken an early spring break it was perfect timing to get that out of the way before we went back to our normal school days. And since then, I have been slowly recovering and getting back into a more normal routine. I have been working more lately, cutting for the new line of products, but we have also been trying a few new things - like soap making and home making techniques. I borrowed Large Family Logistics from my dear friend,Jennifer of Squaw Creek Ranch blog (who is also my inspiration for home made soaps...you have to check out all her great blog posts about soap and home made recipes for things like cleaners, lotions and even deodorant!). So I am working to put some of the things in that book into practice around here. Many of the things in the book I already do, and some of it has a flavor of The Fly Lady, who I learned a lot from, but found was just not practical with a large, homeschooling family with a full-fledged home business! So far it is really making things run smoother around here, especially the laundry (but I must give thanks for Renee of Baker's Dozen Blog, for her tips on sorting laundry into loads of boys, girls and towels - that has been such a blessing! I am devouring several other books at the moment, like Emotional Purity: An Affair of the Heart, Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family, and I am going to dive into Fix, Freeze, Feast: starting this week! Jessica and I worked to make a quadruple batch of meat loaf (11 pounds of hamburger), so today we now have 2 meals in the freezer, at one batch last night, and have another batch in the fridge for lunches this week! Yeah! I also place the first seed order in years, from Territorial Seed Company, and included two seeding sets so we can do starts in the house starting this week! I am so excited to get this going! I need to keep this short, but I know photos are so much fun, so I'll show you some things that have been happening since we have been healthy enough to take photos again!
Rebekah got her purity ring for hte 16th birthday (Rebekah on the left, Jessica's on the right)
on our way to the petting zoo and Jennifer's house!
the boys enjoying the little chicks...so soft!
cuddly bunnies are the best!
Esther LOVED the rabbits!
And the chicks too - she was so gentle!
Elizabeth enjoyed the chicks and bunnies too!
Elizabeth with her best buddies!
Our first picnic!
my new soap cupboard - everything in one place, and safely out of reach!
doing "melt and pour soap" - fun for all!
Jessica is grating some soap we got from Jennifer - we tried "rebatching" and it turned out OK, but I am going to try this again but next time in the crock pot!
Jessica's pink and white melt and pour soaps
My creation!
And lastly, I have a new inspiration for blogging - sharing our His-story! I want to start compiling the stories of when God's has moved in our lives...how He has shaped and molded us through good times and trials and miracles...I hope to start this very soon, starting with the story of my birth!
I know I haven't blogged in a while...we have had oodles of sick people in this house...and I was one of them!
Over the past few weeks, God has been putting it on my heart to blog about our little Johanna. I have never blogged about Johanna before, and very few people who know me even know her story. God confirmed this tonight when out of the blue a customer emailed me telling me that she had just gone through a late miscarriage...she had no idea that I could relate so well to what she is going through....but God knew...
I Corinthians 1:4 speaks of this - "who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."
The story of Johanna takes me back over 19 years ago, yet at times it seems only yesterday. We found out that we were expecting the week we broke ground to build our first home through self help homes...we had committed to working 35 hours a week doing construction work to help build 7 homes...Daryl worked full-time and then some, so really it was a commitment that I would be working the bulk of those hours. The due date coincided with the expected finish date of the house...."how in the world can I do this" was my first reaction to the positive pregnancy test...not exactly a positive reaction...
So I started working on the house...forcing myself to put in long hours when I was dog tired...and then there was the repeated stomach flu...over and over again - not just me, but the kids too. I asked the landlord to test the well water, but she assured me that it had been tested just that year, and it was fine...
Work, sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep....11 weeks - everything looked fine....15 weeks, again, everything going fine...then at my 19 week appointment, the doctor had trouble finding the heartbeat...then we hear about 2 faint heartbeats...very faint..."have you been feeling movement"...my heart drops to the floor...think...think....think....nothing...sinking lower - I really had not been feeling movement for a while, but then again, I was so busy working, working, sleeping that maybe I just hadn't paid attention....he sent me home with an appointment for Friday to check again.
Those were two of the longest days of my life...trying so hard to feel something, anything...hoping, praying... desperately praying...this baby that had seemed to be an inconvenience was now someone I wanted so very much....I even laid on the couch on my stomach, hoping to feel that wonderful little flutter again....but nothing....absolutely nothing...tears, fear....this just could not be happening. I felt so guilty for no wanting this little one.
Friday finally came, and the doctor could not find a heartbeat at all. He said I needed to have an ultrasound - I had never had one before. He thought maybe the baby was just lying in a bad position so he couldn't hear the heart beat, but he wanted to check things out to be sure. Wow - an ultrasound! So exciting - I had never had one of those before. Daryl got the afternoon off and we showed up...bladder busting and all.
We got all set up in the quiet ultrasound room and the attendant came in and started...there was our baby...clear as day - the head, the body, the little legs and arms...it all seemed perfect....but the attendant wasn't saying anything...she was very quiet....she got up and said she would be back in a minute...then another person came back in with a KIeanex box...then I knew....I just knew....he was going to tell me what I so did not want to hear. There was no heart beat. I had never seen an ultrasound, so until that point I really had not known that we should have heard/seen a heart beat.
My heart broke, just a little then, as I went into some kind of shock or something...I just couldn't take it in. This doesn't happen - I'd never heard of such a thing...you get pregnant, you have a baby...that's just how it works. Oh yes, I knew of women, my mother to be sure, who had miscarriages, but that was early in pregnancy, right? Not after you are wearing maternity clothes and everyone knows you are expecting!
I was told to go back to the doctor's office. I really don't remember much of that, but he told me that to carry the baby after it was no longer living could be harmful for my health. That they should send me to the hospital to induce labor. So I agreed to go along with that plan. I was sent home to make arrangements for the children and was to show up at the hospital in the morning. I don't believe I slept at all that night...I was numb. The next morning we check into the hospital, and a doctor I never met before shows up and begins to explain the process to me...but I interrupt "is there any possibility that this baby is still living...we can not do this if there is any possibility". He tells me that the ultrasound was conclusive, and that the baby was severely underdeveloped....measuring just 14 weeks gestation when I was actually 20 weeks along (and measuring 20 weeks...). He then goes back to explaining things...I don't hear everything...something about anti nausea meds, pain meds...different method of inducing since there is no worry as to the effects on the baby...weird, but, whatever.
They induced with a suppository applied to the cervix...whatever...about 30 minutes later I am so chilled I am shaking the bed...fever...nurse reassures me this is normal...shaking, shaking, shaking....headache, stomach ache, so cold....4 hours of this...unrelenting pain and shaking...this was nothing like labor, I'd take labor any day over this...then he checks me and says I'm dilated enough to break my waters...as the water comes out so does our little one. She slips into the doctors hand. His hand...she is smaller than his hand...he asks if I want to hold her....her....her....she was a little girl...so tiny...of course I wanted to hold her.
He lays her in my hand....not my arms, my hand. I look at her hands - they are so tiny, you can not imagine how tiny. Her entire hand was smaller than my pinky fingernail. 5 fingers on each hand, 5 tiny little toes on each foot. Her head is out of proportion, large, and strangely soft...the doctor quietly tells me that the skull bones are still soft...as are most of her bones...pliable, soft, but her face is perfect...but so tiny...so tiny.
The nurse came to weigh and measure her - she weigh 5 oz, and was 7 inches long...I still remember that after all these years...if she had been a fully developed baby at 20 weeks, she would have weighed close to a pound, and been closer to 12 inches long....this was a baby that was normally never seen outside the womb...at 14 weeks, they are normally removed via D&C and there is nothing left to see...we had the opportunity of seeing and holding a baby so small...the nurse asked what her name was to be. Funny, we had already selected a name - Johanna Marie - a combination of both our grandmother's middle names (mine had recently passed away, and Daryl's had just been diagnosed with lung cancer). We had not picked out a boys name yet...God knew we didn't need one yet....such a big name for such a little girl.
I was amazed...sorrow was held at bay as I admired God's handy work. So tiny, yet so complete, perfect, and I knew, I knew that God loved her more than I did, that she was His to do with as He saw fit. After a time, the nurse had to ask what had to be a very hard question to ask..."what do you want us to do with her?''What???? Oh God, how do I answer this question. "What is normally done" "Well...this isn't quite normal - they usually aren't this small...I guess she'd be medical waste".....my mind shrank in horror...this precious life, this little loved by God and us, medical waste???? "There much be some other option" "we can arrange for a funeral home to take care of this"...yes, please do...and she said they needed to put her in a secure place for now...so I took one last look and released her into the nurses hand.
Then our pastor showed up soon after that and talked with us about funeral options, and that he had already worked to arrange to have financial help with everything. I was then moved up to the surgical floor out of kindness, so I would not have to continue hearing other healthy babies crying in the other labor and delivery rooms. Another long night...nurses that were not used to post partum moms...crazy people walking the halls...alone, so alone...so alone.
I got to go home the next day. Daryl and I went shopping for something to use as a casket. I was sure that the funeral home would not have anything suitable in size. We found the perfect thing - a jewelry box. For our jewel. For God's jewel. Then I went home and started crocheting. For each of our children, I have crocheted a layette...I hadn't even started one for Johanna, but I was going to make her one. A little one.
We met with the funeral director and showed him the jewelry box and "blanket" I had for Johanna...he looked all uncomfortable and said he didn't understand - wasn't it too small. I asked him if he had seen her, and he said no and left the room....he came back looking a little bewildered...I had to explain to him the circumstances of Johanna's birth, and then he said it would be fine to use the box we had.
We came back the day of the graveside service for the final viewing...I went in alone to say goodbye to Johanna. There she lay in the jewelry box, on some plastic..."to protect the doily" the director had said...how thoughtless...I carefully removed the plastic and placed her on the soft blanket...and cried, oh I cried...and then I had to leave her...forever...or what seemed like forever.
A few hours later we went to the cemetery, sat with close loved ones and heard about how Johanna was God's child, loved and know before we ever knew her. Never to experience pain, sadness, sin, aloneness, rejection, or loss. She was in heaven with her Lord, my Lord. Waiting for us.
Then we went home...to our other children...to our busy life...but the questions remained...the pain so great. I didn't want to talk about it - no one would understand. But then the letters and cards came..so many other women had experienced loss, some further in pregnancy like mine, some full term...so much loss that I had never heard about. But they comforted me in the way only someone who had experienced this kind of loss could. One very thoughtful woman who had experienced a still born baby gave me a copy of the book "I'll hold you in Heaven" - that book was such a comfort to me and helped me to understand that children of believers are holy unto the Lord, and that they are with God when they die before they are able to make a choice...read the story of David as he dealt with the loss of his firstborn son with Bathsheba and what he said after the child had died... Another woman gave me a rhododendron to plant in memory of her...that was especially thoughtful! Another gift I received was a plaque with a little girl running through a field, with Jesus watching over her, and a poem/bedtime prayer...
Days turns to week, weeks turned to months...the pain lessened...turned to years, and then God began to use it for His purposes. I found answers to my questions...I found God to be good and His plan for my best and His glory.
I have learned many things. I have learned that God's ways are not our ways. I have learned to trust Him in everything. I know without a shadow of a doubt that Johanna's life was not snatched away but pesticides in the well (later I found this out), that her life was not cut short, but that she had lived exactly the number of days that God had ordained for her (Psalm 139:3 and others). I have learned that nothing is wasted in God's economy - that what we experience, and the comfort we receive from God and others, is used by God to comfort others who experience similar things. He is truly the God of all comfort. But the most important lesson I learned is that God is near to the broken hearted (Psalm 34:18). I searched the Psalms for comfort while I grieved for Johanna. And I found God to be real, so real I felt His presence like I had never felt before.
Once in a while, we stop by the Lynden cemetery to see her little grave. It only has her name and a date - Johanna Marie Einfeld February 22, 1992. But when I go there, I do not only look at her grave, but at all the other graves in the baby section. So many babies, some with just one date like Johanna, but others with months and years between birth and death...so many stories I haven't heard, but I can feel in my heart the pain. It helps put things in perspective. My loss seems so small in comparison. And then there's the new graves...they are all in rows according to the time of death...recent ones, old ones...some with flowers, some with fresh remembrances (toys, stuffed animals), and others long unattended, but not forgotten, I am sure.
I still remember my grandmother, well into her 90s, relating the story of her little sister's death from burning, and her little brother death from failure to thrive and she still cried over it....some things stay with you for life....she I share about Johanna, I still cry, but not in despair and overwhelming grief, but just seeing God in everything and experiencing those emotions once again. I wonder what she looks like. She would have turned 19 this summer (her due date was in July).
Sometime after her death, I do remember that I had a dream...of a little girl with brown curls, and a fluffy dress, running through a meadow...I have treasured that dream, knowing that she is at peace, in God's presence, waiting to meet me someday.
If you have experienced the loss of a baby, I hope God has used what I have shared here to help you in some way. I'd love to hear your story - email me if you are uncomfortable sharing it in the comments.
I have also blogged about pregnancy loss and fear on this post:
I am really going to try to start blogging every weekday, but Thursdays will definitely be the toughest day for this as it is our "town" day - and we usually have at least 4 appointments to go to, shopping to do, filling up the gas tanks, and other errands to run....so we plan a short school day (only 2 subjects), and I am usually wiped out by the end of the day.
So, my posting, if any will be short and sweet - maybe just photos...like some bloggers who do a Wordless Wednesday - any ideas on a Thursday title that would work for short blog posts, or no words....Thoughtless Thursdays might work....
My Sweet Valentine - you can see the afghan I am crocheting for Daryl just behind her....
The results of Monday's early morning madness (remember the fire?) - the bread didn't taste like smoke at all and baked fine even though we had to open the door and turn off the oven right in the middle of baking the bread! I was able to make 6 gallons of strawberry/raspberry freezer jam (bought gallon buckets of frozen berries from Barbie's Berries - where we pick every year!)
The beautiful sunset night before last
Rachel's homemade volcano...needs work, but it was fun
Esther like the shoes she was wearing today - she wore them a year ago, but now they are getting too small...they are my favorite too - pink and white Mary Janes...
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
I am going to join in on this interesting new blog thing - All in a Day! Each Wednesday a group of bloggers, including myself, will be posting on the same topic: All in a Day. We will talk about how we are able to accomplish grocery shopping, homeschooling, laundry, cooking and more with many children in our homes.
It looks like the first thing I need to do is to introduce myself and my family...as there may be new blog readers finding me now (yeah!)
I am Ruth, contented wife to Daryl, mother to my busy family of 11 children. All my children are still living at home, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this will not be for much longer. Yes, they are all our children, yes, I birthed them all, one at a time. Daryl is a tool and dye machinist turned CAD designer, and has worked at the same place for over 20 years now. I worked part time until my third child was 2 years old, but I never wanted to work outside the home, it was just what needed to be done (long story). I have been a stay at home mom ever since. I started a home business over 6 years ago, selling cloth diapers, training pants, cloth feminine products and adult incontinent products - it's called Snap-EZ . I am currently moving out of this business so I can devote myself more completely to my family and their needs.
We live on 3 acres (mostly wooded), in a home we designed and had built 3 years ago. We had to do a custom home because we were required to build a 3 bedroom home, and there are no standard 3 bedroom house plans that can accommodated over 10 people....so we built a house that would hold us all, and my home business - and we accomplished our goals quite nicely - You can read about that adventure in my archives (2007-2008).
Our children range from 24 years down to 2 years old - 6 boys and 5 girls. Jeremy, our oldest, just finished 5 years in the Marines, so this year is our first year (and possibly our last) to ever have all 11 children living at home.
We homeschool, love to have homemade bread and jam and hope to do canning again this year after a 6 year hiatus. We love camping and taking trips (but it's a little hard when you don't have a vehicle that contains your whole family!). We love to have fun together - we regularly play ping pong, video games, card games, board games, volleyball (in the summer), or just play together goofy made up games! We love to have other families over and get to know them better - so if you live around here, or are passing through - drop me and line and let's get together!
Here's a little slide show I put together this year of our family through the years - hope you enjoy it:
And thanks, Renee, for inspiring me to start a blog 5 years ago, and thanks for Ruth D for bugging me to post more often!
Here is your chance to introduce yourself to us. Share a little about your family and link your blog post to All in a Day. Make sure you grab our "All in a Day!" banner to link up with us. You can find the banner here.
Some days my "To Do" list is daunting to say the least - here's what I hope to accomplish today:
Get up with Daryl, make his lunch, load and run the dishwasher
Have quiet time
Fold and put away my laundry/make my bed
Bake 10 loaves of Bread
Make 1 gallon of berries into freezer jam
Wash Dishes
Switch Laundry Loads/sort dirty laundry
Make 2 phone calls
Pay 2 Bills
Put all 6 Thursday appointment on the calendar (they are on my Iphone)
Look for Esther's missing foot brace
Do Therapy with Dayton
Do Therapy with Esther
Preschool with Dayton and Elizabeth
Be available for questions for big kids schoolwork
Singing with the kids
And I need to get all that done by 1:30 as I have a dentist appointment for my annual cleaning at 2 pm. I also have to go to the bank when I am finished at the dentist, and pick up a couple of things at the grocery store - milk and cat litter.
Then home to work for an hour or two sewing/cutting/snapping for orders.
Lastly, oversee dinner and the leave for bowling (and dropping kids off for Bible Quizzing Practice) by 6:15 sharp.
So far I have accomplished the first two, and I am halfway done with the next two...
so much to do, so little time....and then, while I was typing that, I smelled smoke and saw this:
So we opened the windows and doors, and I turned off the oven...but it just kept getting worse...smoke started billowing out of the oven - we checked the warming drawer and it wouldn't open (there was a wire rack in there jamming the door and keeping it from opening....PANIC....and it was pouring out smoke...there were hot pads in there....somehow the warming drawer got turned on (bumped the button???) and the hot pads caught on fire! I pulled and pulled and gave it all I had and it finally popped open - but how to get burning hotpads out of there????I took a bowl of water and poured it on them and they stopped burning...
So now we are freezing with all the windows and doors open as the house got so filled with smoke that the kids had to crawl around in the kitchen in order to keep from choking on the smoke...
On the lighter side - here are some photos from yesterday:
Kimmi thought school was preschool and it was naptime....
Esther loves playing the piano
The sun was out, so I sent the kids outside for some fresh air - they had a lot of fun with...
Esther - can you tell she was enjoying herself?
I'd better get going with my to-do list now that we have had out excitement for today....I hope the rest of the day is just busy and no more excitement!
I knew I had put it in a bag to bring into the house, and I had looked in every bag brought in, I thought....but I forgot about my afghan bag - the one I used to bring the afghan I am crocheting for Daryl to my mother's house and back home...I had taken out the afghan, but not emptied the bag....I found it by accident when my rocker wouldn't rock...it was hitting the camera in the bag...thankfully the camera is unhurt and now I can share photos from the last 6 weeks!
Christmas Hats - Jessica made the one Elizabeth is wearing!
Dayton appreciating the cake Rachel made for him - it's a golf course green!
Happy 7th birthday, Dayton!
what doesn't belong in this photo?
Our current schoolroom set up, as seen on an average morning
Dr Elizabeth, service with a smile!
Here are some things that have decorated our dry erase board lately:
Esther and I one Sunday morning
And here are some photo's showing Esther's super flexibility:
Esther loves to help play foosball!
She looks happy to be all dressed and ready for church!
The little girls were a little tired after their trip to Grandma's house!
Jeremy doesn't always like getting his photo taken!
Life moved into the fast lane - the holidays, school...plus life with this many people living under one roof is just plain busy even if there isn't anything out of the ordinary happening!
I don't have the time or the memory to catch you all up, but know that we enjoyed our holidays, keeping them simple as usual. We enjoyed two relaxing weekend pretty much just hanging out together.
Once the New Year was welcomed in, I set about in earnest to get Rebekah, Rachel, Reuben and Daniel all set up with Switched On Schoolhouse (Alpha Omega). It took some work, and I resurrected 2 desktop computers that had been put in storage when they crashed, dredge through bins and ordered a few spare parts, and now have 2 networked computers for them to do their schoolwork on. This is a huge improvement, although it took and is taking some adjustments for them to get used to the new system, but it is so much more manageable and do-able. They are all 4 taking the same grade in Bible, History and Science (it works for us right now), and starting Monday we can work on them all together (I just got the fourth computer running this week, and then I had to get them all on the same lesson). That should be much more efficient for me instead of going through the same lesson 4 times as they need help.
On top of our mornings of school, we have been inundated with appointments -
Jessica is still having weekly chiropractic and massage therapy from her car accident in Sept,
Jonathan is in the last month of braces,
Rebekah has grown so fast that her muscles are not keeping up, so she is starting physical therapy,
Rachel is getting her braces off in 2 weeks but ended up with a root canal this week PLUS she has had som back problems from the accident that we are finally getting her seen for so she is also starting physical therapy.
Reuben is starting the process of braces, and after several meetings/consultations I am awaiting instructions as to the next step to getting insurance to cover it (his is medically necessary and has been approved by the insurance),
Daniel is just fine,
Dayton is back in speech therapy, and his therapist thinks his improvement over the 6 month break in therapy is next to miraculous - when he started 2 years ago he had only vowels, now he only has trouble with "L" and final "s" and "sh". Dayton has also been seeing a doctor for another problem, but that has been resolved with her help, thankfully.
Elizabeth is in great shape, growing like weed (75% height, 50% in weight) but loves to tag along to appointments.
Esther is doing great over-all, but ended up in ER a week ago due to a choking episode. She has fought off the bad cold that went through our house with only a slightly stuffy nose for a few days whereas most of us were pretty well laid out for a week or more, so her immune system is doing great now! She also saw a new endocrinologist, and he said that if we do quarterly blood draws, he doesn't need to see her again for a year as long as there is no changes. Last June, if you missed it, Esther got a reprieve from cardiology check ups for 2 years, and late last summer she was put on thickened liquids due to two near pneumonia bouts over the summer, and has had all her breathing difficulties vanish - praise the Lord! No more breathing treatments!
When I compare our busy-ness and little trials with those of people we know well, not so well, and have only heard about/prayed about going through life and death struggles every day, losing their little ones suddenly to accidents, mothers getting cancer, fathers killed at work or in accidents...I am so thankful that my God is so big that I can trust Him with my family. I know that no matter what tomorrow holds for us, that we are all in His hand and that NOTHING can touch us unless it has first passed through His loving hand. He orchestrates everything for our good (the process of becoming Christ-like), and His glory. My only responsibility is to live each day serving Him by serving my family, not worrying about the what-ifs or may-bes...because He does not give me the grace for those - He will give me all the grace sufficient for the trials He does send my way, but when I start taking on tomorrow possibly trials, I am on my own....
If you have the time, please pray for the following families that I know who are battling deadly cancer - the Gustafsons (Debby, the mother has stage 4 colon cancer) and the Andersons (6 yo Jenson is spinal cancer), and the Jacksons (Javonn, the mother has cancer). Pray for God's grace and peace for each and everyday. If you are on Facebook you can follow Julie Anderson's updates on Jensen and support them in prayer as they travel this most difficult road - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_144400795617455
The camera is missing in action, so I'll share with you a photo slideshow I made last month of our family through the years!
If there's anything you wanted to hear about - just ask me in the comments!
from my dear friend, Jennifer of Squaw Creek Ranch blog (who is also my inspiration for home made soaps...you have to check out all her great blog posts about soap and home made recipes for things like cleaners, lotions and even deodorant!). So I am working to put some of the things in that book into practice around here. Many of the things in the book I already do, and some of it has a flavor of The Fly Lady, who I learned a lot from, but found was just not practical with a large, homeschooling family with a full-fledged home business! So far it is really making things run smoother around here, especially the laundry (but I must give thanks for Renee of Baker's Dozen Blog, for her tips on sorting laundry into loads of boys, girls and towels - that has been such a blessing! I am devouring several other books at the moment, like Emotional Purity: An Affair of the Heart
, Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family, and I am going to dive into Fix, Freeze, Feast: starting this week! Jessica and I worked to make a quadruple batch of meat loaf (11 pounds of hamburger), so today we now have 2 meals in the freezer, at one batch last night, and have another batch in the fridge for lunches this week! Yeah!
