A New Freezer and...A Really Big BOX!

Ah, the joy of the really big box. Last night we trekked over to Menard's to buy a chest freezer, and it was probably less than twelve hours between Matt nearly herniating himself hauling the boxed freezer down to the basement and this:

  

Hello, ratty basement playhouse in the playroom I painted pink because I didn't remember how it would crazy up colors when I photographed in it!

The kids and I are fond of projects we can immerse ourselves in for days (I mentioned that I'm obsessive, right?), so I expect the playhouse decoration and interior design to only get better, but while Syd napped her afternoon nap Will and I were able to get a lot of work done on one side wall--

--and the front door--

I donated the scrapbook paper that I bought as part of a set but that is way too cheezy for me to actually use (surfing? the American flag?)--

--and Will and I worked some collaborative finger-painting, as well:

 

And then after Syd woke up, both kids had a good long play down in the basement with the playhouse while I went about my own productive business. Of course, the playroom floor now looks like this--

--but whatever, it's not like it looked that much better before.

The chest freezer is 7.2 cubic feet, and we got a pretty good sale on it. The idea is to freeze stuff, duh, but dinners mostly--this coming fall semester I'm teaching the same hours that I worked last fall semester, Monday through Wednesday, 5:45 pm to 8:30 pm. And last fall semester, Matt would come pick me up after teaching, kids in the car past their bedtimes, and likely as not, as soon as I got in the car he'd ask, "What do you want for dinner?" If he didn't ask that question, you can bet there would be a hot pizza in a cardboard box waiting on the passenger seat. 

And mind you, I'm not going to fill our new chest freezer full of gourmet home-cooked dinners--when left to my own devices every day, I feed the girls Quorn nuggets/grilled cheese sandwich/peanut butter sandwich/Boca dog/leftovers from last night's dinner with the additional possibilities of cheese cubes, whole wheat crackers, or soy yogurt, and no less than two different raw fruit/vegetable combinations--but I can fill it with lots of bulk frozen dinner options from Sam's Club. Matt and the kids are both inordinately fond of plain cheese tortellini, no sauce--barf.