It’s 5pm on Wednesday, and I have been cooking pretty much every waking hour since Monday around 10am. I’ve prepped and frozen about 30 dinners, canned 6 jars of homemade marinara sauce, frozen 2 more of bolognese, and gone through somewhere around 30 pounds of meat from our weekend at Costco and Whole Foods. Our freezer is full to bursting, and I love it. This is all to prepare for the arrival of H Sprout and the expectation that neither Adam nor I will have it together to do much cooking for the foreseeable future. But we can throw things in crockpots or stick things in the oven!

But let’s not talk about how I’m feeling physically.

I actually started my maternity leave suddenly last Wednesday, when I just felt so run down I could not chase after those adorable munchkins at school one more day. I went to see my OB that day after work because I was having belly pains, backaches, and my feet were a mess. She declared it was time for me to stop, so I did. I’m pretty sure there was a pool going at work as to whether I’d give birth right there in the library, so I don’t think anyone at school was too surprised. And I did take it easy the rest of last week.

But by the weekend I was getting the itch to finish getting everything at home ready for baby. I still felt like there was so much to do, and figuring out how we were going to feed ourselves for potentially the next month or longer was at the top of the list. So I’ve spent some time getting us sorted out on that front, and I feel great about it. Between now and baby’s arrival we’ve got meals to just stick in the oven/crockpot, and many more to carry us after. But, I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been physically tough. It required more standing than I planned for, so this is officially it for me and endless hours on my feet until this kid gets here. Lesson very much learned. Deliciously, I might add.

Not everything is already cooked, most of it is just prepped and frozen, whether that means it’s raw or just browned. But I did make some chili and beef stew because those are always better when reheated.

I also wrote directions on everything so that either one of us can make dinner without requiring the excessive use of brain cells.

So this is what’s on the menu:

• 3 Lasagna Roll dinners
• 2 Baked Manicotti dinners
• 3 Beef Stew dinners
• 2 Lemon-Rosemary Chicken dinners
• 4 Cumin Roasted Pork Tenderloin dinners
• 2 Arroz con Pollo dinners
• 2 Beef Fajitas dinners
• 3 Chicken and 1 Pork Teriyaki dinners
• 2 BBQ Pork Sandwich dinners
• 1 Coq Au Vin dinner
• 2 Skillet Rosemary Chicken dinners (but we ate one last night)
• 2 Chicken Parm dinners
• 2 Chili dinners (but we ate one on Monday night)

Plus enough marinara and bolognese sauce to last a lifetime.

Now I’m hungry again.