Exhausted!

First I need to say a big Happy Birthday to my nephew!  I have been totally slack in getting anything of substance up for his b-day.  So sorry Remmington!  I keep doing the next thing, and before I know it it's bed time!  A bad aunt, I am!  Try, try again.

Today started at 7 AM.  I have been going, going, going all day long.  I got a ton done, but I can only hope I didn't overdo myself, leaving me incapable of accomplishing the basics for tomorrow.  Let's see if I can recap my day.

I really, REALLY needed to jump into making up my freezer meals.  The ground beef I bought was marked down to a great price, and although the expiration date is still a week away, it's been in our fridge for the past 4 or 5 days.  I needed to either get it in the freezer, or cook it.  I really despise having to deal with defrosting meat.  So I knew that cooking was my only other option.  Yesterday I chopped a whole bag of onions, which I am so thankful for as all I had to do was scoop out a cup to put into my recipe.  I cooked up 8 chicken roasters.  Two in my stand alone roaster, the other six in the oven (two at a time).  After the first two were done in the roaster I used it to start some chicken broth.  I was VERY thankful that Flannery and Saoirse thought it great fun to debone the chicken!  Seriously it was a big help.  After the first four chickens were done, I made them into chopped, breaded pieces for chicken salad.  The other three are going to be used in chicken soup.  I can't put that together until tomorrow since the broth needs to simmer all night long.  The last chicken, we ate for dinner :-)

Around two o'clock I asked Moira to take the boys outside before it started to rain.  The forecast for today was rain this afternoon, changing to some snow tonight, but no accumulation.  Um, yeah, they got that wrong!   Just as the kids were going out it started to snow.  I figured it wouldn't last long.  Well, a handful of hours later, and THREE inches on the ground later, it finally stopped!  The kids were loving it outside.  Unfortunately they came in and out 50 gazillion times for extra clothing.  By the end of it all I had a pile of wet clothing and a bunch of muddy water all over the floor.  The girls all took a bath to warm up and afterwards I had them vacuum and mop the floors.  I had already took some paper towels to mop up the puddles.  While the girls were taking a bath Jonah decided to 'help' me with putting together some meat loaves.  He thought that the meat loaf was a lot like the bread dough he likes to play with.  Let's just say I needed to haul him off to the bath tub after I put the meat loaves in the freezer. 

After Jonah's bath I started cooking the beef for the taco meat.  My pan can only handle so much meat, so I had to do batches.  When that was done it was time for dinner.  Then I decided to catch up on the dishes before I started anything else.  I started to put together the recipe for the beef stroganoff.  I got half done.  We can not find our wine bottle opener, so I decided to wait till tomorrow until I finish the stroganoff (my recipe calls for red wine).  Bummer.  But I have half done, which is better than none.  So tomorrow I just need to make up the other half, and make up a large batch of pasta sauce.  Then I will be done with most of the meat dishes.  I think after that I need to use some of the pasta sauce for two lasagnas, and I need to cook a couple more chicken roasters to make the enchiladas.  But I got a LOT done today and I am very thankful for that. 

In between all of this cooking I did seven loads of laundry.  We even managed to fold and put it away!!! 

I went to the chiropractors yesterday to get adjusted, and to have her do the Webster technique on me.  The Webster tech. is supposed to help loosen up the sacrum, giving the baby the room it needs to get in the proper position.  I will say that the baby was doing a whole lot of moving around afterwards.  It appears that it *may* be turned head down.  But I don't think it is staying that way all day long.  It is so hard to tell!!  I am still trying to do the exercises, and wearing the belly band to help get this baby to go where it's supposed to go.  Only five weeks left.  Obviously plenty of time for it to turn, but by now most babies are head down.  I would just feel a lot more comfortable about the upcoming labor if it would be in it's proper position.  I've had enough apprehensions about the pregnancy and labor, and this just isn't helping!

I started taking double the amount of my vitamins.  I was only taking half the dosage, so now I am taking the full dosage.  I did this in hopes that my muscle cramping would improve.  Nope.  So we bought a liquid calcium/magnesium supplement.  I took that yesterday, and for the first time since the beginning of this pregnancy, I wasn't having the cramping I have been having.  However, it must have been a fluke as today I had some major cramps in my shin, leg and arm.  Ugh.  I am sooooooo seriously done with this!!!  I can't win.  I will continue with the supplements as I am sure it will take more than a day to catch up if I am deficient.  I guess that is what is so frustrating....I don't know why my muscles keep cramping up, and no one else knows either.  Labor is hard enough, I certainly do NOT need to be having major muscle cramping through the whole of it. 

I need to tackle my bedroom.  My 36 week appointment is coming up on Friday, and I am supposed to have all the birth supplies ready and waiting.  Part of that is having my room not be a maze!  I had just cleaned it two weeks ago and you would never know!  I have things in there like, two huge plastic boxes of Christmas decorations (we can't put up our tree until we get new lights), about six pails of wheat and oats (the girls were supposed to put them in my closet), and some of the things that were on top of our cabinets in the kitchen that we needed to move out to paint.  So it's not messy because of the normal stuff.  I did get my birth kit in the other day, and today Jeremiah picked up a new hose and plastic tarp (for the birth pool).  I think the only thing I need to get is a homeopathic remedy that is supposed to help prep the uterus during the last three weeks of the pregnancy.  I think my uterus needs all the help it can get :-)  So now I just need to get everything set up in my room. 

Alrighty, it's time for bed!