Waiting for Baby

For the past few weeks I have had plenty to occupy my time, and attention.  Between trying to finnish our basement, school, trying to get the house ready for a baby (despite all of the construction) and being sick with a severe head-cold for a week which then morphed into bronchitis that lasted for another week, I have had plenty to keep me from going too stir-crazy waiting for the baby to be born.  Unfortunately things have calmed down a bit now.  I am healthy again, and I think I am as ready as I am going to be for the baby; I have a freezer full of meals for after the baby is born, all the baby's clothes are washed and ready, and the house is as organized as it is going to be until the basement is finished.  Now all I have to do is wait, and that is one of the hardest things to do when you get to the "I'm too miserable to bear another minute of pregnancy" state that I have now reached.  My husband keeps trying to console me by saying that since my due date is less than a week a way, we know that at the most I will have the baby within three weeks, but when a day feels like a week, that is little consolation.

I thought I would pass some of the time by sharing some of the things I've learned over the past few weeks.  Here they are, in no particular order:

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and 2 tablespoon honey, heated and mixed with 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper is a good natural remedy for sore throats.  Gargle a bit and drink the rest.  It didn't even give me heart burn. . .
• That same 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 2 tablespoons honey heated, minus the cayenne pepper, can help sooth a cough, but not always . . .
• Eating an apple is a great natural way to get rid of heart-burn.  It has worked for me every time.  Even with the really bad cases that wake me up at 2am.
• These are great freezer recipes.  Double or triple the recipes and make some for dinner tonight and put the rest in foil baking dishes in the freezer for another night when you can't, or don't feel like cooking and you won't have to do any extra work to fill your freezer with food.
   Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
   Vegetable Enchiladas
   Lasagna Primavera
   Vegetable Chowder (I froze this and the next recipe in gallon freezer Zip-Lock bags)
   Tomato Soup
I also made and froze meatloaf, and spaghetti sauce, but those are recipes I have to type up if I find the time.
•  This is not a great freezer recipe (or regular recipe for that matter).  Unfortunately I didn't find that out until after I made a double batch. . .
   Mandarin Orange Chicken
In all fairness, I did recently find this recipe in its original form, in the book Once a Month Cooking.  It looks like their instructions would have corrected many of the things that caused the recipe to be so terrible, but I don't think I will give it another try.
• Babies come when they're ready, and no amount of wishing otherwise will change that.  Once they are here you forget all about the waiting and have a whole new set of joys and challenges in your life, so you might as well enjoy the moment.  (Well this is one I am still trying to learn, or at least remember.)