Yesterday (Friday) was an incredibly busy day. Fridays usually are the busiest day of my week, since our day of rest is the next day. This week, I had something major planned for each day and by Friday, I had gotten rather behind. Thankfully, Fridays are also the day that I have my sister Bonnie here to help me (can you tell that I feel like a queen, having hired help??!!), or I would probably never get my head above water! :)

Friday morning I woke up early, after a full night's sleep, feeling exhausted and sick. One would think that the night when I got the most sleep would help me feel ready to tackle a busy day, but I guess I get to enjoy the perks of pregnancy instead. ;)

I think just about everything needed done... laundry (4 loads), dishes, cleaning, cooking... the compost bucket was overflowing and my kitchen counter still had 33 pints of pizza sauce waiting to be washed up and stored away. There were bills to pay. There was clutter everywhere! And I hadn't had a shower in 2 days. The bedsheets needed changed. The fridge needed cleaned out. And I had meat that needed to be cooked and put in the freezer.

So when Bonnie stepped in the door at 10:20am, we got right to work. I had been able to get a shower and start on the piles of dishes (which had to be done before any cooking could be started!). Bonnie's a fast, competent helper, and it was nice to see progress being made. :) I was also feeling better by that point, and took full advantage of that energy. ;)

I even took the time to snap a few pictures, particularly during bagel-making. I love homemade bagels, and hadn't made them for some months. Actually, the cornmeal crescent rolls were the first homemade bread I had made for quite some time. I love homemade bread and had really missed having it! I think our whole family missed all of the regular cooking I used to do. :( Thankfully, I am getting back to a more normal-for-me pace and we're excited about trying some new recipes and getting back into the swing of things. :)

At the top of this post, there is a picture of Yehoshua helping me boil the bagels. This was his first time to do that, and he thought it was such a fun, special job. He set the timer for me, and then flipped them half-way through when I told him to. He told me they were swimming in the water. ;)

We made these into onion-garlic-poppyseed bagels. Bonnie had the idea to mince the onion in the garlic press along with the garlic. It did make a nice, mushy paste to go into the beaten egg, though crushing the onion brought many tears from poor Bonnie. ;) I brushed the tops and then sprinkled poppyseeds on top. I did this all on a rack over an old cookie sheet, so that my baking sheets wouldn't have excess egg and poppyyseeds on them.

Here the bagels are ready for the oven. I made 12 huge bagels. A couple were given to our neighbor lady, Bonnie took one home with her, and a few went into our freezer. The rest will probably be gone by tomorrow!

These onion-garlic-poppyseed bagels are rather messy, but they go fabulously with eggs for breakfast, or as a deli sandwich for lunch. And since I slice them all and put the extras in the freezer, they're an instant grab-and-toast addition to breakfast or lunch. Okay, not that I ever have any stashed in my freezer for any length of time, but... it's a nice idea, and one I'll surely want to implement before I have a new baby for care for. :)

And one final picture from the day. We fried up ground beef with onions and garlic and chopped green peppers, and after it had drained and cooled, Yehoshua helped us use the Food Saver to vacuum-seal it. After the work was finished, he had a grand time playing with the attachments and hose, until Eliyahu woke up from his nap and the supplies needed to be put away. :)

We put about 2 cups of cooked meat into each bag, which will be enough for a dish of lasagna, stuffed shells, etc. for our (small) family. :) Since we don't have a chest freezer, but do have the freezer on the top of our fridge, I've found that it's most space-efficient and time-efficient for me to freeze small portions of pre-cooked meat for casseroles, tacos, etc. and then make the actual meals as-needed. :)