When it rains, it pours.

The day started off fine, despite having to readjust to working in the middle of the night. At the hospital, I snarfed up a box of leftover grass fed burger patties and roasted veggies, and spent quality time with my work-husband, trading stories about our experiences attending the Whole Beef Butchery class at 4505 Meats.

And then everything went downhill from there.

As soon as I got back to our temporary digs (where we’ve been staying due to the mini tsunami at our house), we had to rush to get the kids ready for school AND pack up all of our belongings – again. The hotel is oversold, and we’re being kicked out for two nights, so we dutifully stuffed all our clothing, food, toiletries, and other supplies into garbage bags and cardboard boxes and lugged them down to our cars. 

Fitbomb sped off with the kids to deposit them at their respective schools, while I schlepped our gear back to our ridiculous mess of a house. With stripped floors, plastic-covered furniture, and deafening fans and enormous humidifiers in every room, the place is barely recognizable as our home.

But this is where I had to sleep for the day. After pressure-cooking some eggs in my dusty kitchen…

…I locked myself in the guest bedroom, pulled the shades tight, jammed in my earplugs, blindfolded myself, and did my best to catch some Zs.

I was awakened in the evening by my husband, who greeted me with two pieces of most unwelcome news:

1. Big-O is sick. He barfed during his afternoon kung fu class.

2. Our iPad app was rejected by Apple. That’s right: REJECTED.

The gory details:

First (and most importantly): Big-O. My in-laws reported that he was uncharacteristically quiet after school, and during his kung fu class, he told the instructor that he felt ill before rushing to the restroom to puke. Poor guy. When I woke up, he was splayed on his bed, still in his kung fu outfit and shoes, staring at the ceiling.

But after sipping some kombucha and resting for a bit, my little man seemed to perk up. He announced that he felt well enough to join us for a quick dinner at a nearby Chipotle. Good thing, too – I was in no mood for cooking in this dustbin of a house.

He managed to drink some juice and nibble on some guacamole and carnitas while we polished off two big pork-topped salad bowls.

But I’m guessing that the iPad owners among you are more interested in why our iPad app was turned away by Apple. Evidently, it was due to a technical error in our submission (a “missing IAP” – whatever that means). My project manager (a.k.a. husband) has been glued to the phone all night, chatting with our app development team to find and fix the problem. Our developer has promised to re-submit the app for approval in the next few hours.

Unfortunately, this means that the review process has to start all over again, and we’re no longer able to bank on an April 27 launch date

I know – total bummer. Trust me when I say that we’ve been anticipating the release of this app more than anyone else, and it pains me to report that you’ll have to wait a little while longer before the app is available. But we’re 100% committed to making sure this thing sees the light of day, because we think it’s awesome. 

I want to sincerely apologize to all of you for the delay. Please bear with us – we’re truly doing the best we can. I wish we had a bunch of minions to whom we could delegate all this headache-inducing work, but it’s just me and the hubs camped out here in our newly-wrecked living room. Between working full-time jobs, raising two kids, developing recipes, cooking, blogging, app development, juggling new super-top-secret projects (as if we don’t have enough on our plates!), and trying to figure out where our family’s going to sleep tonight, we’re feeling a little cooked.

But you know what?

This ain’t the end of the world. So what if the app release is delayed a bit? Or that our house is barely habitable at the moment? Or that we got booted out of our temporary housing? Or that our son’s most powerful kung fu move involves puking?

Our family has plenty to be thankful for:

We’re healthy. Other than the aforementioned vomiting, and a good deal of adrenal fatigue and stress, we’re relatively hale and hearty. With the medical issues and tragedies we’ve witnessed of late, we know better than to take our good health for granted. 

We’ve received tons of support from all of you in the real food community. I read each and every one of the comments, tweets, and emails from all y’all in the blogosphere, and I appreciate the outpouring of support we’ve gotten – not only in response to the events at our house this past week, but also the cheery messages that have propped us up every time it felt like the sky was falling this past year.

We’re blessed with wonderful friends and family, who have lifted our spirits time and time again. Even today, in the midst of all the Sturm und Drang, I received a wonderful present in the mail from my foodie soulmate, Melissa (Melicious) Joulwan – a copy of The Flavor Thesaurus by Niki Segnit. I can’t wait to read it!

The book came with a lovely note from Mel, which made me smile, and reminded me that there are much more important things than…things. It struck me that all our recent woes are related to material possessions. And in the grand scheme of things, this stuff just isn’t that important. (Not even the nifty little camera I just got – though it’s pretty darn cool, and perfect for less-conspicuous food photography when dining out.)

Even when the veins started popping out of our heads tonight and we started hurtling down the road to Apoplectic Land, it didn’t take us long to remember: Hardwood floors come and go. Apps and release dates come and go. But in the end, it’s the people we cherish that really matter.

That, and bacon. Insanely delicious, fully-pastured bacon.

(Which reminds me: Congratulations to DAVID WENDLAND, the winner of my U.S. Wellness Meats bacon giveaway!)

Remember: No post tomorrow. It’s my flip day – but I’ll be back before you know it. And hopefully, with happier news to report.

About Michelle Tam

Hello! My name is Michelle Tam, and I love to eat. I think about food all the time. It borders on obsession. I’ve always loved the sights and smells of the kitchen. My mother was (and is) an excellent cook, and as a kid, I was her little shadow as she prepared supper each night. From her, I gained a deep, abiding love for magically transforming pantry items into mouth-watering family meals.

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