My first once-a-month-cooking experience

OAMC.  Once a month cooking.  That was one line item on my list of things to do this week.  In hindsight, I should have probably left it off and instead made a gigantic list of all the millions of tasks included in "OAMC".  For someone who loves to check things off as much as I do, that would have been WAY more fun and WAY more rewarding.

Amidst the chaos

I really can't believe people do this every month, and most of them do it in one day! It took me four days...four LONG days of sore feet, dishes, aluminum foil, DISHES, ziplocs, and more dishes.  Of course I didn't cook non-stop.  I squeezed it in during nap time, bedtime, and here and there throughout the day when Connor was happily entertaining himself.  He was a trooper! And he loved the really off key song I made up and sang at the end of it: "I'm done cooking.  I'm really done!  I'm done!!!  I'm done!!!!"  I think I was on the verge of going crazy. :)

I actually do hope I'm one of those crazy people who will do this once a month.  Next month I'll be 8 months pregnant. I don't know how that's going to work exactly, but if there's ever a good time to fill the freezer with meals, it's when you're 8 months pregnant.  Now I know it can be done.  And I'm sure over the next few weeks when I don't have to cook much, I'll get very motivated to do it all over again.  

Amazing! 12 dinners just sitting there!

Foil...ziplocs...foil...ziplocs...foil...

This is a tiny fraction of the amount of dishes I've washed over the last few days

Connor had quite a fun lunch while I was busy cooking something...I pretty much had to hose him down afterward.

Battle wound

Here is what is now in the freezer:

16 dinners (each dinner is enough for 3 adults)
A dozen cheese/garlic biscuits
10 breakfast burritos
14 bean/beef/rice/cheese burritos
18 whole wheat cornbread muffins
2 servings of pizza sauce
Chicken for bbq chicken pizza
2 pizza doughs
Taco meat
3 things of baked oatmeal

The Boys' Room is Finished!

I am SO glad to cross this "project" off my list of things to do.  It took a really long time and involved a lot of tasks that I wasn't very comfortable doing (I don't consider myself a crafty person and there are lots of "crafty things" in this room).  But I did it and now it's done--with 9 weeks to spare! The end result is pretty much what I envisioned--sort of a bright and colorful ocean-themed room.  It will work for a couple years I hope.

That little guy in the crib is not, in fact, Landon.  But we aren't quite ready to make the toddler bed transition so he gets to stare at Landon's letters for a while longer.  

Couldn't find cute bookends, so like most things in this room, I thought "Why don't I just make them?"  Now I'm very prepared in case I'm ever asked to make little bean bags for carnival games.

I couldn't find toddler bedding I liked, so I used the extra fabric I had  (plus the curtains I made for his last room) and he has toddler bedding!

First time I've made pillows!

Connor's "pirate" quilt

Landon's "sea creature" quilt

I also looked for one of these, but I ended up just making it. 

The crib skirt

This isn't part of the room, of course, but I got really excited about how it turned out.