Saturday Morning Meal Planning

We are relaxing after a less chaotic week.  I will have to bill some hours this weekend but I can handle that.  I’ve also requested kid-free exercise time for Mother’s Day, which is the only present I want.  (Besides the inevitable kid-handprint-art, which I anticipate is coming my way.)

We built Craig’s big-boy bed yesterday.  Last week I mentioned to a friend that he was climbing out of his Pack and Play (which is what he’s been sleeping in for about 6 months, after we got rid of our crib to sell the house and move).  She said her kid had just moved out of a toddler bed into full size, and did we want it?  Perfect timing!

So now he’s in it, and he did great last night.  Although it comes with a wistful sigh for the passage of time, I’m also seriously pleased to say adios to the baby years.  My ancient old bones need a break from the back-breaking labor of the littles!

A quick meal plan, and then we’re out.  I never made the skillet basil cream chicken I’d planned on a couple of weeks ago, so we’re having that this week with couscous.  Oh, it’s so dreamy.   We’ll have spicy Hawaiian burgers and vegetables; veggie lasagna; enchiladas (already in the freezer, just add enchilada sauce and cook); and leftover (from the wedding) chicken teriyaki and vegetables with rice.  Add in a giant salad night (always a fave in summer), and a leftovers night, and we’re set.

Springtime in prettyNOLA is a good time of year.  The days are getting ridiculously long, the weather is pleasantly warm and not yet baking, and the flowers are going bonkers.  You step onto the porch and are practically knocked out by the heady perfume of Confederate jasmine, mixed with the smell of burgers grilling and crawfish boiling.  There’s always a parade somewhere.  (Last week, in honor of the giant sinkhole that has opened up in a major thoroughfare – destroying my morning commute and that of many others – New Orleanians got together for a Sinkhole de Mayo celebration.  There could be nothing more New Orleans than that.)

A year ago today, Lachlan died in his mother’s arms, with swabs of sweet tea on his lips and tractor songs playing in his ears, because if anybody knows how to squeeze as much life and love and laughter into too-short a time, it is Lachlan’s parents.  Even if you’re weary, worried, stressed, suffering, I hope you can seize the day and live with as much happiness as you can.  Eat drink and be merry, as Dave Matthews says.  Happy May, dear ones.