Sunday Dinner, June 10, 2007

Believe it or not, I'm actually cooking for Sunday Dinner this week. I know y'all can barely contain your excitement, but try your best, please.

I asked Jessica Saturday afternoon if she and Jason planned on being here for Sunday Dinner and she said they were planning on being at church Sunday morning but she wasn't sure if they would be here for dinner. She asked what was on the menu and before I could get the words out of my mouth she interrupted and said, "We'll be there!"

My menu? My homemade beef roast, potatoes cooked in with the roast, brown gravy from the roast juices and fresh garden green beans cooked with bacon for seasoning. Roast, potatoes and gravy is Jessica's favorite meal that I make.

Now, what's on the agenda for your Sunday Dinner? Share your menu and/or your plans in the comments.Beef chuck roast has been outrageous for about 4 months now at Kroger, which is where I buy most of my meat. They finally had it on sale for $1.99 /lb. and I got 2 that weigh about 3½ lbs. each. All other beef is still priced way beyond my means. Ground beef is over $2 /lb but I still buy it, although not as much as I used to. Occasionally it's on sale for less than that, but not often.

It's more convenient for me to make my roast in the crockpot and I do fix it that way sometimes, but it just doesn't get that browned goodness in the crockpot that it does in the oven and I like it better prepared in the oven.Things didn't go quite the way Jessica and I had planned on Friday and Saturday but that wasn't a bad thing, just different from what we planned. Jessica had all intentions of working on Saturday but her boss got her wires crossed and assumed that Jessica wasn't coming in to work so she called in a replacement for her. Jessica found out Friday morning that she didn't have to work but she asked if I would still come over and help with Emmy. Emmy hasn't been sleeping well and anybody who has or has had a baby knows that when the baby doesn't rest, neither does Mama.

Emmy has had a tummy ache and just generally been sleeping very restlessly. She's not running a temperature or showing any signs of being sick. She's just going through the normal baby adjustments. We found out that Emmy loves her swing. More or less as a last resort Jason put her in her swing on Thursday night and she settled down and slept for a good while.

It's not that Emmy cries constantly, she just hasn't been sleeping well or for very long at a time. She did do better on Friday and Saturday while I was there. We adjusted her formula a bit and I think that is going to do the trick.

I stayed home with Emmy Friday night so Jessica and Jason could go out to eat and have some time to themselves. They need time to be alone together occasionally and Grandma didn't mind helping out with Miss Emmy at all. I was thrilled to have so much time with Emmy and Jessica will be going back to work full time next week so she's going to have to acclimate herself to being away from Emmy for longer periods of time.

Jessica's neighbor will be keeping Emmy most of the time while Jessica works but I'll be her backup when the neighbor can't keep Emmy. That's fine with me because I can't keep Emmy full time but I still get to keep her occasionally.

Instead of hauling Emmy and all her gear back and forth Jessica's neighbor will just come over to Jessica's apartment and babysit Emmy there. It will be more convenient for Jessica and the neighbor will be close enough to her apartment that it will be handy for her as well. There is only one apartment between Jessica's and her babysitter.

Jessica got a good night's sleep on Friday night. I got up with Emmy and fed and changed her. Emmy was awake sometimes every 30 minutes or so, but she did sleep for about 3 hours straight at least once. I can understand how your sleep being interrupted like that would get exhausting after so long a time, and I remember well those days when Jessica was a baby. Many days I stumbled around like the walking dead, just going through the motions. It wasn't all bad, though. Those days with little or no sleep don't last long at all in the grand scheme of things. The baby sugars more than make up for the lack of sleep, and just watching them change and grow before your very eyes is amazing. That first smile, when you know that they really recognize you and their face lights up - it makes every sacrifice worthwhile.

On Saturday Jessica, Emmy and I went to eat at a local barbecue restaurant. This was Jessica's belated Mother's Day gift from me. I gave Jessica a choice back in May of me buying her a gift or taking her out to eat and she chose eating out. Of course all the complications with Emmy and then Jessica having to have a C-section 3 weeks early threw a monkey wrench in our plans when Emmy arrived on May 8th. So we finally got around to eating out for Jessica's Mother's Day gift on Saturday for lunch.

We both got a half-portion pork barbecue sandwich plate for with baked beans, slaw and fries as the side dishes. It was good and Emmy was a good girl while we ate. She woke up while we were eating and just played quietly and looked around until we were ready to go, then fell asleep again as soon as we got back in the car. She likes to ride in the car. I suppose most babies like to ride, though.

Lyndy and Mombo, I smooched Emmy for y'all! Heck, I got so much sugar I smooched a hickey on Emmy's face, LOL! :-) So, anybody that wanted sugar and snuggles from Emmy, there's plenty to go around. Oh, GreenEyes, you're greedy, huh? You want some more baby lovin', eh? Well, okay then. ;-)

As usual for my Saturday nights I still have my Sunday School lesson to study and some things I still have to do tonight in preparation for my Sunday Dinner. I'm going to leave you with my usual prayer for all my dear friends and family:

May God bless you by meeting all your needs, and may you have enough to share.