Seth flew the coop last week and has since been in Lima, Peru for work. The day before he left Jackson asked if Seth was needing to go to work in Peru so he could have some peace and quiet to get some work done…this after a very stressful day of Seth attempting to telework amongst the boys. Truth is, I bet the peace and quiet have been nice!

A couple days into Seth being gone my aunt offered to come hang out and help out with the boys.  Those of you who know me well know that I am really bad at accepting help but being big pregnant and with Seth away I decided her company would be a lovely diversion to a tough week. She helped enormously with cooking meals for the freezer for upcoming days of desperation, doing homework with Jackson, helping me rearrange furniture (shhh! seth doesn’t know about this one yet), stayed with Owen during a dr’s appt for Jackson, and on and on. Seriously, she knocked my socks off. Maybe I should accept help more often. More on “Aunt Ruby” later.

So why the title about flip flops?  I went to the school to get Jackson, skipping the loading and unloading of Owen because my aunt had him, I was picking Jackson up solo. I must have had an extra spring of freedom in my step having only one child to care for and as I stepped out of the car my darn flip flop busted. Ummm, freeze. How do I pick Jackson up in front of the school with one shoe? Or do I take them both off, look silly showing up barefoot but not as silly as only one? Or do I put it on and figure out exactly how to hold my foot so it stays on temporarily? (this is impossible by the way) Oh wait, I have gum in my purse. good thinking. Quickly, I pop the gum in my mouth, get it good and ready and press it into the whole where the flip part attaches to the flop?! following me. No luck. Now had it worked there would have been the dilemma of walking to the school with the feeling of a wad of gum under my flip flop. Soooo…I decided to carry my flipping flop and that way it would be obvious to all curious minds that my shoe had just broken and I just needed to pick up my kid, for crying out loud.  I semi hid behind the bush hoping Jackson would see me before I had to tell my story. He spotted me and we darted back to the car. Feeling like 2 first graders with a shoe dilemma. When I asked about his day he told me it was terrible because his shoe laces kept coming untied and he was tripping over them. Seems it was a bad shoe day.

And then because flip flops have so much to do with freezer meals I thought I would roll this all into one post. Here are the recipes we decided to use…..

La Madeline Knock off  Tomato Basil Soup

(I use less butter and usually half and half but lots of butter and cream never killed anyone…well, it probably has but you know what I mean)

Baked Ziti with Spinach and Tomatoes

I added mushrooms since I had them…this is a nice break from heavy saucy pasta dishes. My sister-in-law introduced us to it!

Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Pot Pie

I skipped the homemade crust…and I used the modified version from her cookbook that includes a bit of white wine as well.

White Chicken Enchiladas

I only had one can of chili’s so we drained a can of rotel tomatoes and chili’s to make up for the rest

We also made Cinnamon rolls… but I don’t have the link for that at the moment!

The freezer is stocked…not so much for once baby arrives but more for the coming weeks when we have to keep up with soccer, school, bible study etc and I am worn out!