I don't have enough minutes in the day, just like you, probably. I have a LITTLE bit of time when the baby takes a nap. When she does her nice, long, power nap, I usually take the time to tweak the house and do all the stuff that I can't do with one arm. I know I can rely on a bigger kid to hold her and play with her for a few minutes, but I find I spend most of my day holding and feeding the baby (not complaining, it's actually quite nice!) and that doesn't leave a lot of time for deep cleaning/intense cooking.
My pal, Rebecca, is having a recipe sharing dealio. It came just in time, as I'm making a meal for a new baby's family tomorrow night. I have a network of people at church who always inform us when someone has a new baby and we try to lighten the load of the family by bringing over a meal, over two weeks, several days of the week. I'm also going to take this time to really thank all the nice people from church, my friends, neighbors, and family who helped us right after we had Evangeline. They came to visit, brought nice outfits and gifts, and also brought MEALS! It was so so so helpful and appreciated. I recommend bringing a meal to a family of a new baby. Even if the mom is up and running soon after the baby is born. I had already re-started my running as early as two weeks after Lina was born, but that doesn't mean that I had a bunch of free time and energy. It just meant that I knew I had to go for a quick walk or jog to start to get back into shape to help this family stay moving. Having someone bring over a meal after a long, hectic day showed the older kids how important it is to foster friendship and fellowship. It also shows them how people are mostly kind and want to help when you are in need. You are not alone in the world when you have such wonderful people surrounding you and praying for you. I made meals for some moms in the past and brought my older kids with me so they could see how to help someone that you might not even know and how to stretch yourself, even if it's just a little bit, to reach out to people in need.
You never know when you are going to be the person in need, right? Well, I didn't do it to get it all to come back to me, but it DID come back to us...times 100!
Here's a link to the post about recipe sharing and the recipe I'd like to contribute is: BEEFY BEANS
I know, it sounds disgusting and it probably is...but it takes ingredients you already have around the house and it keeps the kids quiet (except the ones who object to beans, maybe).
2 lbs of Hamburger
1 big can of brown beans
2 Tbls brown sugar
1 giant squirt of ketchup
Brown the hamburger and then add everything else. My kids eat it in a bowl, kind of like "chili" but way sweeter and way more gross. If I'm feeling really fancy, I'll make some broccoli and some rolls. Everyone here likes it even though it's probably super sweet with all of that high fructose corn syrup and sugar. I'm sure you could sub with non-hfcs ingredients and the kids would never know. For some reason, they love this junk.
