Once a month mom

Have you heard of it? No, it's not a new dead beat mom program..although it completely sounds like it. It's an awesome program that you can do with a few other moms to take some stress off your shoulders of having to cook every day after a loooong day. Who am I kidding? Even when I wasn't a mom, I should have done this just because I always get hungry early and don't want to wait on everything to cook. This reason is also why the Quizno's by our house is so successful. I ate there enough that the workers knew my order when they saw me come in the door quite a few times. You can read more about the idea of Once a month mom  here but what you basically do is find a group of friends (you decide on how many) and you make one another freezer friendly meals.

 I have a group of four friends that are participating  and once a month I make two recipes and quadruple them, freeze them and then switch with those friends. They do the same thing so then you have eight frozen meals that you can cook and eat whenever you want. The more friends you include, the more food you make and receive.  I get annoyed with trying to find new recipes so this definitely helps with the boredom factor. If your friend sucks at cooking...don't invite her. I don't know why my friends invited me. I might get "laid off" after a couple meals. Then I'll just be forced to have another baby so people will bring over delicious food for us. Sounds like a plan to me. I kid.

This weekend marked the end of Isabelle's birthday MONTH. Holy moly guacamole, she had 3 parties. Yes, THREE. She got to "smash" 4 cakes (3 parties + a smash cake photo session) and I am ready to get my new little sugar addict back to a healthy diet. Having a huge family is fun on birthday's, Christmas, and anytime you need a baby sitter. I love it and I love that Isabelle will grow up having tons of people around her that love her like I love her. The part that isn't so fun? Accommodating everyone. It's hard and some one's feelings WILL get hurt. Mr. T and I are both people pleasers, but Mr. T comes from a divorced family so he has dealt with this dilemma his entire life. He's an old pro. I hate it and am terrible at it. I don't like to disappoint people, but at the same I also have no problem standing my ground. We have both had to do that several times over the last few weeks and it gets old being the bad guy, or feeling like your picking sides. That part truly sucks and puts a damper on special occasions. I hate thinking, "I can't wait until this is over" because I know we should embrace every memory and never rush through life. Sometimes it just gets overwhelming and I naturally start thinking negative thoughts like that. All of the parties were a blast and no one argued or got upset or their feelings hurt, but the days leading up to it all I could think about were negative thoughts about the whole event. STUPID! I guess that's the downside of having a big family? How do you deal with family stress or letting people down that you love? If there is a manual....I'll take one.

This little party animal had a blast. Shocker.