Are We Done Yet?

"The steps of a man (or woman) are established by the Lord..." Psalm 37:23a.

I had several plans for my day today. I was going to finish the laundry. Pack up excess toys in Nora and Rose's room. Pack up the books on the shelves in the front hallway. I was going to work on clearing out the basement.

After making breakfast for kids, sending them off to school, I enjoyed reading the Daily Office with a second cup of coffee. Then visited with Mom and Dad as they ate their breakfast and we marveled at the sleet and wind.

I milked Coco, strained the milk and went down to the basement to work on the laundry project.

Here's where my steps got reestablished:

I opened up the big chest freezer to get out meat for our supper and found a bunch of thawed out meat. Over 50lbs worth.

The breaker got thrown and I didn't know it.

Daddy came down and helped me carry up the five roosters, the many packages of lamb chops, the stew meat, the venison, the remaining grass-fed beef, the lamb shanks, the chuck roast. And the remaining bear meat.

I didn't even cry or curse.

Just let out a sigh as I realized my day had just gotten rearranged.

Daddy paused his tasks and with the help of my new cleavers (thank you, Julie!) we chopped up tough old birds, threw them into a huge pot and began to make broth. Mom ran to the store and picked up more onions, carrots and celery.

I made four meatloafs. Several quart bags of taco meat. A huge pot of beef curry. A Mexican guisado with the bear meat. Five quarts of boned out chicken for future meals. 7 quarts of delicious broth, ready to go into the pressure canner. The lamb shanks are marinating. The chops are ready to be made into dinner tomorrow. I think there might be more, but now I am tired and can't even remember what we did.

But a near catastrophe has a silver-lining. We know have many meals ready to go for the busy weeks ahead. Thankfully most of the meat in the freezer was still frozen. I had been meaning to cook up those roosters for some time, but didn't want to deal with them.

Meanwhile, Tim and Daddy worked on different house projects. Mom assisted me. We even got my old highschool prom dress ready for Maggie to wear to a homeschool dance! And worked on selling a few farm animals. And folded the clothes. And milled some flour for a friend.

Why in the world am I recounting such boring, mundane tasks in this farm blog?

Well, I suppose everyone has certain expectations for their day and sometimes plans go awry. I still wish I had other tasks done. My pride winces when I look around and see the unfinished stuff in that has had to be set aside. But at the end of the day, at least we averted near disaster and found the gold at the end of the rainbow in a huge pot of chicken soup. And meatloaf. And guisado de oso (bear stew.)

I hope you can find your own pot of gold, metaphorically speaking!