Nesting Begins!

  I'm almost 37 weeks pregnant, (yay!) and starting to feel very "nesty!"

  My birthing kit with all the materials needed for our planned home birth arrived in the mail last week and the newborn screening kits came today!

   I can't wait to get the little co-sleeper crib set up...but I'm trying to hold myself back a bit, because having it sitting empty in our bedroom that long is just going to make me all the more impatient!

   Best of all, last week we got my freezer STUFFED with meals for post-Baby. My dear Mama and sister Suzy came out and spent a couple nights at our place to help me out with the needed grocery shopping and massive food preparation! Bethany callously abandoned us to fly across the country and hang out in Pennsylvania with a dear friend she hasn't seen in years! *sniff* 

I guess I'll forgive her. Someday.

Supplies...

 Onions Galore

I think just about every dish required onions!

 Copious quantities of chicken for the casseroles

 Just FYI: it takes a LOT of butter to make 3 gallons of white sauce.

And, we ended up having to make about 2 more gallons later! 

 Brown rice, onions and white sauce cookin' away!

 Ready for assembly!

Suzy did almost all the wrapping up...we went through yards of foil!

I was glad to have invested in the monstrous box of it at Costco!

 

A small sampling of our labors...

  I ended up with the following:

5 - Ham/Potato/Corn Casseroles

7 - Chicken Devan Casseroles

9 - Pork Steak & Rice with Parmesan Casseroles

6 - Chicken Pot Pies

5 - Chicken Enchiladas

5 - Pizza Pasta Casseroles

30 bazillion Bean/Rice Burritos

...making a total of 37 dinners, not counting the burritos, which I'll probably mostly use for lunches! I'm not sure how many of those we got...I kind of lost count, but it was at least 30. :-) Each casserole is big enough for our little family to have good-sized helpings for dinner and leftovers enough for at least John's lunch the next day! A couple of them we made in 9x13 pans so I have options in case we have company. :-)

 Besides the list above, we made 4 extras to take over to my brother and sis-in-law to help them out during their first weeks with my newest little niece, Virginia Grace, who was born last Monday!

Take a good, long look...my freezer won't be this clean and organized again until I have to fit freezer meals for the next baby in there!

   We were exhausted by the time we were done...at about 10pm. Ugh. 

   But it was totally worth it! I feel so prepared now. :-)

   Thank you so much, Mama and Suzy! There is NO way I would ever attempt this alone, ever, let alone at 8 months pregnant! It is such a blessing to have such cheerful helpers!