Day 4:

My meal plans were somewhat detoured last night when our beloved Aunt Sharon came over for a visit.  Now, Aunt Sharon, being Paul's aunt, has always been in our lives, but did not play a significant role until Savannah came on the scene.  In the months before our fourth baby was born, Sharon retired from her job, and found herself with much more free time that she had previously experienced.  So, when we had Savannah, and my maternity leave wrapped up, she said she would come babysit while I worked from home upstairs in my "office" (walk-in-closet, where I could shut 3 doors between me and the loud people).  It just so happened that the night before she started watching the kids, I broke my ankle when my softball cleat caught in the dirt on a slide into home.  I spent the next month and a half EXTREMELY grateful for Sharon, as it was impossible to carry a new baby while walking with crutches.  It has been seven and a half years since that day, and even though I quit my job two years ago to stay home, Sharon has been a constant in our lives, visiting two or three days a week.  Now, when Sharon visits, she doesn't usually come empty-handed.  Most days, she is loaded down with grocery bags of goodies; ice cream, popsicles, chocolate milk, pizza, shrimp, etc.; sometimes all at the same time.  The kids absolutely adore her and every single one of them screams with joy when they see her car drive up.  Olivia has had her phone number memorized since she was about two, and all of the kids call her, sometimes several times a day, with requests (and shopping lists) for her next visit.

Anyway, before my meal prep started for the evening, Sharon arrived with food that was WAY too tempting for the kids to pass up, and Mom's food ideas all became garbage.  However, during the day, they almost all have been using the homemade bread for toast and sandwiches.  In fact, my usually carb-conscious husband even took half a loaf, and the entire tub of butter, into the family room to munch during his evening brain dump hour in front of the TV before bed.  I have been loving having the smell of bread permeating the house several days of the week, and served a warm, fresh loaf during our book club meeting today. 

For breakfast, Savannah created her own parfait by choosing a flavor for her yogurt, mixing it together and then layering it with granola in her one and only remaining goblet purchased from a neighbor's yard sale (with the money she was "holding" for her sister).  Yum!  (For the record, she's not really this short.  She just hadn't gotten dressed for the day yet.)

Another change we've made is in our fruit and cracker consumption.  I knew that if I kept buying fresh fruit, we would never have a reason to make any kind of dent in the surplus of canned fruit we possess.  (Paul, having a Master's in nutrition, is against this particular part of the experiment, but he's also willing to go along with my plans for 30 days--and he doesn't want to waste his limited non-work and non-exercise time going to the grocery store.)  To prepare for this, I purchased a lot more small tupperware boxes.  I knew that the kids would still need to bring fruit, and other food in place of crackers in their lunches, so a way to carry them was essential.  Applesauce in a baggie is just weird.  They all still think they're dying when they look in the pantry and don't see the usual row of cracker boxes, but they're also eating more real food and leftovers this way.  I think it's a win!  But, again, it's only day 4.

One thing I wasn't prepared to face was my deeply-ingrained need to protect the food storage at all costs.  One of the WORST things a person can do to a food preserving person, right after they have finished canning, is to OPEN a jar of what they just spent their lifeblood, sweat and sanity putting in that dang jar.  Marriages have been threatened by this, friends.  Husbands have narrowly escaped with their lives for this offense.  Ask me how I know.  It's hard to turn this intinct around to, "Sure!  Why don't you go choose a jar off the shelf?!"  But, right now, I really do want them to (kind of.  Do they really have to eat? hahaha).