Frantic Friday or Sue Ann's Sibling Service Shambles

Sometimes I get myself into a little trouble by scheduling too many things on the same day (or even sometimes at the same time). Friday was a case in point. On Thursday I was talking to my brother David on the phone. David and I have had this little thing going for a couple of weeks about me baking hot rolls for him to take home with him (he works not too far from where we live). He was supposed to come Thursday and get his hot rolls, but his son Seth had a football game that afternoon. So, David had to hurry home to the game and he couldn't stop. So while we were talking I told him that if he'd stop by on Friday, I'd have not only rolls, but an entire dinner for him to take home to his family. His wife Jan just had a procedure done on her back and is still recovering.

I had a busy afternoon and evening on Thursday and so I kind of put the dinner for David in the back of my mind. Later that night my sister-in-law, Melanie called me (while I was driving--so not at home to check calendars or anything). Which in this case wouldn't have made any difference at all since I didn't put the dinner for David's family on the calendar, just in my head. Melanie wanted to know if I could take her daughter Olivia to a soccer game in a town about 25 miles away from where I live, on Friday afternoon. Melanie had to work late that day and couldn't be in two places at once. Thinking that I could give a little service and that I didn't really have too much going on on Friday afternoon I told her yes. I'd be free to pick up Olivia and her sister Sophie, go to the soccer game, take Olivia home and then take Sophie home with us to spend the night. Adrianna and Sophie had been wanting to have a sleep-over all summer. I just needed to pick up the girls at around 2:00 and be at the soccer field by 3:00. NO problem I said!

Fast forward to Friday morning. Earlier in the week my sister Lisa had asked me to help her with a flag she was making for her son Parker's football team. All we had to do was cut out and sew a block letter "B" to a couple of pre-made flags. We had decided that Friday would be a good day for that project. So Friday about 10:30 Adrianna and I head over to Lisa's with sewing machine in tow. We made good progress but weren't finished by noon when I had figured I'd need to leave so that I could finish up a few things at home, have lunch and head to the soccer game. We decided we could finish the flags Friday night after I got home so Lisa could have the flags for Parker's first game which was Saturday morning. So I left and told Lisa I'd call early in the evening when I got back from the game.

Adrianna and I were just starting to fix our lunch when all of a sudden it hit me that not only did I need to fix dinner for David and his family, but I needed to do it in about 35 minutes so that I could still leave for the game on time. Now on a normal week this wouldn't have been too big a deal, but I had needed to go to the grocery store all week, but hadn't made it yet. So let's see what did I have to work with? I frantically pulled open cupboards, freezers, etc. I had chicken breasts, I had onions, I had rice, I had a baking pan, I had a crockpot, I had chicken bouillon granules, I had green chillies and I had some spices. I didn't have much of an idea of what to do with these things. First I thought I'd make a chicken and rice casserole and have it bake in the oven, but then realized that wouldn't work (how long to bake it, who would put it in the oven, and no curry powder, almonds or yogurt kind of stopped me on that one). But, not before I had greased a casserole dish and poured raw rice into it. After deciding that wasn't going to work I decided to cook the rice on the stove and have it done and just needing to be reheated for dinner. So I put water on to boil and scraped the rice from the baking dish into the boiling water along with some butter and bouillon for flavor. But what was I going to do with the chicken? I had no cream of chicken soup, no mushroom soup, and only half a package of Onion Soup Mix. In desperation I called my neighbor across the street and she fortunately had a can of mushroom soup. So, in record time I shoved frozen chicken breasts into the crockpot, topped them with green chilies, chopped onion, coriander, cumin, and oregano. I then mixed the mushroom soup with garlic, chicken bouillon granules and water to make what I hoped would turn into some sort of gravy. I flung it over the chicken in the crockpot, turned it on high and hoped for the best! The rice was done by that time, so I left the cooking crockpot, a covered container of cooked rice, rolls and some cans of green beans on the kitchen counter and hoped for the best! I told David to just let himself into the house and take the food on the island and explained where I was and that Bryce wouldn't be home from work yet. While I was performing this feat and Adrianna was fixing our lunch at a frantic pace, she kept telling me that I looked and sounded a little stressed! Wonder why she thought that?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, at around four o'clock, Bryce (who knows nothing about my volunteering to feed David and family) came home smelled something yummy cooking. He saw dinner laid out on the counter. Keep in mind that it had been a pretty busy week and our dinners had mostly consisted of things like bad hamburgers, left-overs, hot dogs, or whatever was available. Not a good food week at our house. So, to actually smell home cooking was a major bonus for the week. He was pretty impressed with my organizational skills--knowing I had taken Olivia to her soccer game--of planning dinner to be ready even though I had to be gone all afternoon. Well, minutes after he arrived and began salivating, David walked in (he was surprised to see Bryce) and took all that yummy smelling food!! Because Bryce is a good sport the only action he took at this point was to text me and say "David just came and took all the food. I guess you knew about that. It's OK with me. I'll eat something later, I'm sure :)" Poor man. He really is the greatest!

But the adventure isn't over yet! Did I mention that we were at the soccer game 30 minutes earlier than necessary and it was beastly hot with not a breeze or particle of shade in sight? The good thing about the game was that Olivia's team won and there was a shady playground nearby so that when Adrianna and Sophie got bored with the game, they could go hang out there in the shade! I, being a dutiful aunt, watched the entire game while broiling in the sun (of course I had made the bad wardrobe choice of dark navy denim capris!) On the way home we ran into more traffic snafus than I could have imagined possible. A freeway accident, a closed freeway entrance and yes, a second accident to work our way through! It only took about 2 1/2 hours to get from the soccer game to home! This did include about 15 minutes of visiting with Melanie while dropping Olivia off. But it should have been at most a 45 minute trip.

When we got home (just after 8 pm) we were of course hungry, and of course, there was no dinner waiting for us. That unfortunately was just a figment of Bryce's imagination. He didn't even have time to come up with something for dinner because he had to go home teaching and got home from visiting his families just before we arrived back home from our adventures. So it was the old standby dinner of scrambled eggs and toast with orange juice.

But my day wasn't over yet. Remember, I was supposed to help Lisa finish the flags. So off I headed (after my tasty eggs, of course). We finished up the flags around 10 pm with only minor stress. We squeaked by using the very last of the black thread--we had about 1 foot left on the spool, and ended up using navy blue on the bottom bobbin. What a day! Hope I don't have another one of those soon.