Making Sliders

For FHE tonight, our kitchen was a hive of activity. Corey was in charge of FHE tonight, and yesterday he asked for suggestions. The kids said "Leatherby's!" Corey was 25 hours into his fast, and so the idea of food sound good to him. But he thought "let's make our own hamburgers!" I protested that hamburgers and potato wedges AND milkshakes would be too much food. We don't want to be gluttonous. "We'll just do tiny hamburgers... sliders!" Corey looked up and printed recipes and they each chose a part of the meal to help with - Abi: patties, Lily: fries, Sophi: toppings and condiments, Natalie: milkshake, etc etc. He told them to look at the recipe and gather things we had at home and make a list of things they'd need from the store. After he got back from work today, they all headed down to Smiths. While they went to the store for their ingredients, I finished loading the last dish in the dishwasher and wiping out the sink (I typed "packing" the dishwasher first... I've been watching too much Bluey!). Then they all came back and began their "dining out at home" prep. Abi was mixing beef and soon was grilling her tiny slider patties. Lily was cooking bacon, splattering grease everywhere. Natalie was mixing whipped cream with mixers in a big bowl and putting other ingredients into the blender. She poured the shakes into cups, then repoured all of them into other cups that were smaller. I felt my stress climbing as they made messes and all I could think about was that this was going to be a lot to clean up. Too many cooks = too many dirty dishes.

I did excuse myself at one point to go upstairs and take a breather. I admit I was focusing on the wrong thing. They were happy with the meal they prepared, and so was Corey.

Time to enjoy all their hard work.

And that was the message Corey was hoping to get across: when we each do our part, in our different roles, it blesses everyone. So we can encourage one another and cheer each other on in our different strengths and successes. I didn't eat any of it. Ground beef is not appealing to me at all, plus I feel better when I skip dinner, so I said no to the fries and milkshake as well. And as for my concerns about the big mess, they did clean up (kinda). They loaded the dishwasher and wiped things down a little bit, but then they were off to do chores and practice and I worked doing a more thorough job wiping off the stove and coutners, plus cleaning and washing the large bowls and pans they used up. 

It took me about an hour. And I was remembering how last time they used the skillet on a Sunday to cook up sausage, it was so messy and gross, and I told myself then I never wanted to clean up a pan from cooking meat ever again. I felt even more irritated as I washed cause the handle to our faucet is loose and thus won't rotate all the way down, so we can't get hot enough water at the sink, which means the grease from the burgers and bacon wasn't going anywhere. In frustration I ended up taking the cast iron skillet up stairs to our bathtub. As I vented to Corey, skillet in hand, on my way up the stairs, he asked "Are you trying to make a statement about the meat we cooked?" (I do find it messy and unnecessary) "A little bit, but mostly just wanted to let you know why our bath tub feels greasy when you take a bath in the morning..." Meat, grease, mess. It's super easy to clean out a salad bowl, veggie tray,  or a plate from cut up fruit. That's the kind of mess I prefer. 

Ok, that's enough about my bad attitude. We enjoyed talking to Wes tonight. He's doing good. We had a good turn out. We filled Wes in on some of the craziness going on right now as Trump winds up his second week in office. (yikes). If you want to know some of my concerns, go read Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter (Friday after the plane/helicopter collision, Feb 1 (too much crazy in that one to give a summary), and Feb 2 (Elon Musk stuff). I've been forwarding a lot of them to Corey this week. 

I also really liked this one sharing a bit of the history of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. I sent that link to the kids and shared how I was in the MTC before the 4th of July and I was in the MTC Choir, and the Battle Hymn of the Republic was one of the songs we performed. We also sang that hymn a lot in our district classroom. I’ve loved it ever since. It was cool to read Cox's article and learn that it was basically given to her as revelation!

Only other thing from today - Sophi is feeling sick. She had a headache and was dizzy on Saturday, and almost didn't go to a girls ballroom party at a friend's house, but felt well enough to go after taking some pain reliever. She felt a little woosy yesterday but was able to sleep it off. This morning he head hurt again, so she went to school a little late (Corey dropped her off) and then she called me to come pick her up cause her head was really hurting. So K and I went to get her. We saw Natalie walking past on our way out, and K was excited to see her. Natalie wanted to take K to her next class, so I gave Sophi the keys so she could go to the car, and I was there soon, after I walked with Natalie to her class so K could say hi to her classmates. "AWWW! Is this your baby sister!?!?!" 

Hmm, Natalie is looking especially grown up in that pic. What happened to my little baby? or my two year old? Darn, when she was 2 I had baby Owen come in to fill in the ranks, but not right now, sniff. (I can dream, can't I?) As I was trying to find a pic of baby Natalie, I came across this post of our messy house. Wow! I've really come a long way in handling the chaos! Of course at that time I had 9 kids at home, and right now I only have 8, haha. Katharine cleaning tonight ~

She likes walking around the house with a spray bottle and polishing cloth and spraying and wiping down any surface within her reach. Cute girl. So, house was clean, then messy, now it's clean again, and my hands are raw. I need to go get some lotion.