Going Bananas! (In More Ways Than One)

Today is the day when things are supposed to settle in and go back to normal. Why not last week, you ask? Because I just happened to be born two days after New Years and dagnabbit, I had to keep the house cleared up for my big birthday dinner with my friends, courtesy of my husband, Roland the Wonder Chef.

Saturday was spent with my husband prepping a meal for six women, and all I was asked to do was buy his ingredients, chop some veggies and stay out of his way. Dinner was served on his grandmothers fine china, but we never found the matching silverware- you see, I had decluttered and it got stored away somewhere, not to be found until we both die of old age. So we used the everyday silverware. No one noticed.

The meal was lovely, with a raspberry vinaigrette salad with almond slivers, shrimp bisque, half a roasted herbed chicken, complete with broccoli, green beans and a potato latke (potato pancake)- then for dessert we were served a raspberry fudge cream cake. All of this was made from scratch- not a single can was used in the entire process- and we all ate our fill as we talked about women stuff.

It. Was. Awesome!

He even did the dishes afterwards! It took him that night and most of the afternoon the next day, but he did it all! It took him so long because he used about every cooking vessel we own, as well as most of my kitchen gadgets. I just stayed out of his way and let him do what he does best. After 15 years of marriage, I know better than to stick my rear in our little two-butt kitchen while he's there- especially when he has the kids helping! It was like a well-oiled basket of ferrets in there- they knew what they were doing, but all you saw was chaos!

And the house managed to stay fairly neat the entire two weeks. It was a miracle of elephantine proportions, but also in part because we shoved all the extra stuff in our bedroom. The staff from Hoarders should be calling us any minute now! I have to do gymnastics to get to my dresser, and the same goes for my husband (um, I mean he has a hard time getting to his dresser too!) We don't let the cats or the kids in there for fear of never seeing them again.

I was planning to tackle the bedroom today, but I'd forgotten about a blessing we received late last week. We were offered a ton of bananas, and since they were ready to go a little too ripe, it was the perfect time to make banana bread. I put them in the fridge until after my birthday dinner, fully intending on making some yesterday after church.

But God said Sunday was a day of rest, and my body let me know that if I remotely did anything physical it would hurt me, so I listened and took a nap.

Today is the day everything should get done, and the only thing I've accomplished was making enough banana bread to feed a small country. I haven't touched the bedroom yet (my room tackling was more of a nudge), and I still have to make pizza dough for dinner. And now I see I have to get my daughter before she decides I've abandoned her and goes off to live with the neighbors. After all, they just got a puppy!

Still I managed to get a lot done, just not what I expected to. This used to drive me nuts, but now I just roll with it. In this case, I just make banana bread and pizza!