Many people ask about the worth or value behind cooking 8 hours one day to have a month’s worth of meals. And I would say that it is totally worth it but it isn’t for the faint of heart! You must enter the endeavor with some levels of seriousness and discipline. Two words that Cortney just loves! As we were doing our OAMC day together – folks let me remind you here that Cortney and I have not done one of these together for about a year and a half – I kept some mental notes of our mood and how we survived. Here is my best attempt at helping you understand what to expect when doing one of these freezer cooking days.
Stage 1 – “This is so exciting!”
Here you are excited to get started! You can’t wait to have all that great food in your refrigerator. You are careless and carefree. You joke often and laugh much. You chat and chat and chat about any and everything. You chat about things you didn’t know you even wanted or needed to chat about. You make up new things to chat about when you run out of important things to chat about. You tell the “long” versions of stories (who am I kidding, all my stories are “long” versions)! In the beginning, your partner trusts you and asks you what she is suppose to do next. You should know, right, you did in fact author the site and the instructions. So when you accidentally add all of the hamburger meat and sausage to the spaghetti only to find out 5 minutes later that 2 pounds of beef was suppose to go to the taco soup, you improvise. Straining meat from spaghetti sauce was part of the plan right? (This is a completely fictitious example of course). And together you just laugh about it and move on. Laughter. The hallmark of stage 1.
Stage 2 – “Sweet! This might not take as long as we thought!”
I would liken this stage to DENIAL! I remember uttering these words a time or two but I am not sure exactly WHAT I WAS THINKING! I most certainly wasn’t looking at the instructions for the day and the rest of my “to-do’s” as person A when I uttered these words. These words are also like a curse that settles in on your day. However, you are still pretty light-hearted and joyful at this point, even if you are a bit delusional. You continue telling stories but they become more of the life philosophical stories about spiritual things, life, love and the pursuit of happiness. You start debating parenting styles and approaches and everything else that is important (which is actually nothing other than children when you are in the middle of raising children under the age of 2).
Stage 3 – ” “
This is what I like to refer to as the silent stage. There just isn’t much to say. Cortney has had to listen to my endless “long” stories. I have had to listen to Cortney complaining about the clumping blueberries and how she is going to be making waffles until her crows feet settle in for good. And we are only about 2/3 of the way through the menu items. There just are no words. If you were taking pictures of the cooks (which we forbade by the way) you would be witnessing slumped shoulders and furrowed brows. This stage is most like defeat. You are realizing that you ARE in fact going to be there as long as you thought you were. You realize you aren’t the fastest cook north of the Ohio River, and even though you are the author of the Once A Month Mom website, you DO NOT possess super cooking making powers that cause pasta to just leap from stove top to freezer. CRAP!
Stage 4 – “Somebody get me some hemorrhoid cream!”
Oh, this is so true, on so many levels! And spare me the, “I have never had a hemorrhoid story.” We know you are lying! This stage of the cooking day is marked by otherwise forbidden questions, phrases, and humor. ANYTHING to make the last few hours go faster. ANYTHING! I am pretty sure I muttered this exclamation at one point to make Cortney laugh (although completely true) and she snickered in our secret little agreement with my truth. My husband had wondered home with our little one and he was a bit taken aback! He has no idea! This stage of the game sparring and picking on each other picks up. Despite your desire to finish your pace, it actually slows a bit. You just aren’t sure you are going to be able to finish. Or that you can hold off much longer without the Preparation H! (Really, I know you want this stage to end but how often do you stand on your feet for 8 hours straight. Me. Not so often. This is an issue)! At any rate, chatter picks up again and you gain a second (or third or fourth) wind and are convinced now that you will be able to make it through.
Stage 5 – “What else needs done? Grey’s is on in 15 minutes!”
This would be the “I am so excited this is coming to an end, I will clean up so fast you will wonder if Mary Poppins just blew in!” After 8 hours of cooking the last thing you want to do is clean but it is so not fair to leave the host house with all of the dirty dishes. Our rule is that when the partners part ways everything is snug in the freezer, dishes done, counters and appliances clean, everything put back to it’s rightful place. This usually goes very quickly. Especially if there is a great show coming on television!
Success!
You know you have reached success when you arrive at the end of your cooking day and you are still on speaking terms with your cooking partner, you have food in the freezer, and you are ready for bed! Didn’t get around to cooking all the meals? That is okay too. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen. It can be difficult to master right away, give yourself some time to get use to it. And give us some time to get better at our menu plans! Woohoo! The first month is under our belts!