Day 135 of 365 Days of Being Thankful

     Today I am thankful that I  prepared enough food for the next few days.  I spent about 4 hours from the time I started until the time I had washed and put away all the pans and cutting boards The girls both have different work and school schedules so I just make the food, refrigerate it, and they heat it up when they are hungry.  The only problem is that sometimes they eat it all the first day or two.  I browned a lot of ground beef and ground turkey.  I do a mixture of 1/3 turkey to 2/3 beef.  It keeps the burgers really moist and you can't taste the ground turkey at all. Then I season it with onion powder and garlic powder. I made a lot of hamburger patties and froze them.  Then I mixed half of what was left with sloppy jo sauce and the other half with taco sauce.  Then I cut up all the fixings for the tacos. I also got two clusters of crab legs steamed and a pound of shrimp steamed.  As of 6:30 pm last night, most of the sloppy joes were gone, most of the taco meat and fixings were gone and half the shrimp was eaten and one cluster of crab legs was eaten.  My girls eat real food for snacks, not chips or cookies like I do. It's hard to keep up with their appetites.

Those Ukrainian genes just have such a fast metabolism, I wish I had it. My two Ukrainian daughters just inhale food! I also bought a six pack of bakery cupcakes 75% off because they were from Mother's day.  Olivia went to her boyfriend's house for dinner with his family.  She took the cupcakes for his family for dessert so that was the end of them! I really didn't need to eat them so it's OK she took them! I couldn't resist buying them because they looked delicious and were so inexpensive. Olivia later told me that Frankie's dad ate two of them before dinner so I guess they were a hit!  I have always told me daughters that you always take something when you go to eat a meal at someone's house.  It can be flowers or a small gift or food. It is just an appreciation of the invitation.
        Tomorrow night is a bereaved parent group night.  Carol will be away so Priscilla and I will run the meeting. The second meeting of the month is usually not well attended so I don't think there will be many people there.  I think I will give everyone a notecard or paper and ask them to write down a few things that they have heard, read, experienced, or were said to them that made them move forward or just get through a day.. For me, it was having other bereaved moms to talk to and to  tell me that I could grieve as long as I needed to.  I also wanted to focus on the civil trial. It took up a lot of my time and kept me busy. Bereaved parents need a focus or something to help them move forward with their loss and grief.  For Carol and her family, starting the chapter of Bereaved Parents USA helped them move forward. For my friend Debbie helping raise her two granddaughters Paige and Brielle brought purpose and so much joy to her broken heart.
     Today I am also thankful for a few hours of quietness.  Olivia is at cosmetology school.  Olya is at work.  The cat is outside.  I am going to sit my butt down on the couch and read my book.  First I will go to the gym, run a few errands, then home to the couch!! By the time I get home, I'll probably have an hour or so before I will have to pick up Olya from work.