When Life Gives You Lemons…

Yesterday…did not go as planned.

Thankfully, I can see God’s hand, and knowing He is watching over even the small details of my life gives me the grace to face, well – an avalanche of lemons.

My friend, Amber, stopped in yesterday morning to use our highspeed internet for a project she was working on. I was happy to let her use the computer while I worked on my morning chores and we chatted. Then she offered to do some tasks to help me out while the computer took its time processing her task. Gratefully, I handed her the keys to my freezer room and asked her to transfer my strawberry stash from my side-by-side in the kitchen to our larger freezer which is in the garage of one of the other apartments in the trailer park. Off she went with a dozen bags of frozen strawberries piled into two of my cloth shopping bags. Two minutes later she was back at the front door and made an announcement that changed the rest of my weekend. “Uh, Trina? The freezer is off – and – all thawed…”

A queasy feeling invaded my intestines as I ran up to the freezer room to confirm my worst fears – my entire freezer had mysteriously quit and was completely thawed. I grabbed a bag of chicken and ran home to cut it open and see if it was rotting. Amazingly, the chicken seemed fine – it appeared we had found it just in time. I called Jeremy and he came to help me asses the situation. He brought all the chicken and frozen fruit into the kitchen and explained that the freezer must have gotten turned off when the previous tenants had had the power turned off when they moved out last week. I looked at the 12+ bags of frozen strawberries and peaches and 40 Lbs. of chicken and realized the rest of my weekend would be consumed with making the best of this situation.

And here’s where God came in – (actually, I have a feeling He was here the whole time) I had been praying just the night before for grace and wisdom for the busy months we have ahead of us – moving in 6 weeks being top of the list. I realized if I worked it right, I could turn all this thawed meat into convenient freezer meals for the coming weeks. An added blessing was that Amber had most of the day off work and willingly cut chicken and did dishes for me for hours. Here’s what we accomplished…

First shot:: a large pot of stock was thrown together with the bones from two packages of chicken breast which Amber de-boned so I could make chicken Caesar salad for lunch. Total at days end: 12 quarts of stock.
For the reasons why I added “make stock” to my already overwhelming list, read “Why it’s good for you”.

Next shot:: two crock pots full of chicken legs – today I’m de-boning all of these and turning the yummy dark meat into filling for some of my favorite freezer meals.

2 PM shot:: turning the strawberries into jam – by 5PM I had 6 quarts of strawberry jam.

Meals for Claire:: we even made freezer meals for Claire – the thawed peaches were sooo unappetizing, I turned them into baby food. I know that sounds mean, but it’s actually tasty – and now I have 17 meals worth of peaches for Claire.

Caught in the Act shot:: I was not alone with my mountain of tasks even after Amber left – Jesse took initiative and swept the floor for me all by himself.

6PM shot:: More of the chicken breasts sauteing in fajita seasoning to be turned into filling for the quadruple batch of tortillas I had soaking. I’ll freeze them like enchiladas.

Meanwhile outside:: Jeremy grilled a whole mass of legs in yummy cornell sauce for dinner.

Last shot:: thanks to my mother-law-doing the last of the dishes, I had a moment to relax at the end of a very long day and enjoy the sunset.

Thanks to God, not an ounce of my precious chicken went to waste, and I have a freezer full of food for the exciting days ahead. Thanks for the lemons, Lord.