It was at exactly 1:31AM that I heard the three dreaded words uttered, ‘my ear hurts.’ I bolted up to see L in obvious pain, tugging on his left ear. Ugh, I know how painful those things can be. They are nothing to be messed with.
After some Motrin to take the edge off, the next two and half hours were spent doing what I like to call the ‘night shuffling.’ First L and I started off up in his bed. We weren’t sleeping. Then we went downstairs, kicked M out, and tried sleeping together in my bed. Nope, not working. Then I went upstairs to tell M to go and try and sleep with L and that wasn’t the magic combo either. Finally around 4AM we gave up and resorted to movie watching on the couch.
Throughout the whole night shuffling, I had two things on my mind. 1. Poor L and 2. Work. If you’re a working mom or have been, you’ll get it. You have to have a plan decided around 8AM as to what will occur for your day as you need to check in with your boss and your childcare situation. Your mind spins with your different options until you decide on a plan. I kept telling myself, yes it hasn’t been the best night sleep but I will be the first appointment at the DR’s walk in, get the prescription, pick up the medicine, drop L at my mom’s, and be in by 9. Yes, that was the plan.
Finally it was a somewhat acceptable hour to consume breakfast so I got the red Keurig flowing and sat down to my yummy plate and began to surf my favorite morning blogs like always. Except my finicky Ipad wouldn’t connect. REALLY? This made me oddly irritated. Although I did sleep for about 2.5 hours total so I suppose that isn’t all that shocking.
Ok, moving on. Time to wash some dishes – wait, why are my feet soaking wet? That’s not normal. Well, that would be because the sink plumbing is leaking and pouring water everywhere. LOVELY! The next hour proceeded to be cleaning up that mess, while comforting L, all along thinking ‘yes, I can still make it to work. I’ve got this.’
7:56AM rolls around and we are walking hand in hand into the DR. We are the first ones, as always. I am always baffled by this – how can we have been the only ones that have been up all night? Anyways, first ones in means first ones out, perfect. Prescription in hand we walk towards the car right on schedule (with the promise of making L these cookies later) only to have L stop to throw up from the pain. Poor little guy! We finally make it to the car and then just for good measures sake, throw up one more time in there.
At that point L turned to me with glassy eyes and says ‘momma, I just want to be home today.’ I couldn’t agree more L. I couldn’t agree more.
And that is when I gave up. The working mom guilt sets in. You know what is right, there is no question. Staying at home to take care of L is the right thing to do. No deadline or feeling of dedication at the office can supersede the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice. He needs you and frankly you need to be with him.
So that is what I did. I’m not even exactly sure why I wrote all this. I think, if you are a mom, that you can relate in someway to what I am talking about. At least, I hope I’m not alone in feeling this way. I don’t think I am.
To get back to food a bit here (sorry!), throughout the leaky faucet and prescription pick up and work emails I happened to have just one more thing on my mind. I watched the Pioneer Woman ladle thick and cheesey corn chowder into warm bread bowls on the Food Network the night before and the image was permanently branded into the forefront of my brain. I couldn’t think of a better time to try such an indulgent recipe than on a day like today.
Bowls of this by the fire while watching the snow fall and bedtime by 8. Exactly what the DR ordered.
- 4 TBS butter
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 slices of bacon, diced
- 1 red, 1 orange, and 1 yellow peppers, small dice
- 5 cups corn, from the cob or frozen
- 1/4 cup flour
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups half & half
- 2 cups grated cheese, I used sharp cheddar and pepper jack
- 1/3 cup chopped green onion
- salt & pepper, to taste
- 8 bread bowls, M picked ours up from Panera, hold the soup
- Preheat a large Dutch oven to medium/medium high heat. Melt your butter.
- Saute the onion for a few minutes, and add the bacon. Saute until cooked through and the onions are translucent.
- Add in your peppers and saute a few minutes, then add your corn and cook another minute.
- Sprinkle the flour evenly over the top and stir well to combine. Add in your chicken stock and stir here and there for a few minutes to help thicken. Reduce the heat to low and stir in your half&half. Cover for 15 minutes to thicken even more.
- Uncover, stir in your cheeses and green onions. Taste to add salt &/pepper.
- Cut off the top of your bread bowls, remove the bread 'innards' and ladle the cheesy goodness into your bowls. Cover with the tops for extra dipping.
If that doesn’t put you to sleep, I don’t know what will…
Courtney
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Courtney
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Totally can relate! More importantly this looks delicious please save me a bowl, not sure when I can make it, ha
Saved. 🙂