Why do I love my freezer? There are so many reasons. I like to buy fruit and vegetables when they are in season and inexpensive and freeze them for later. Our pecan tree yields every other year, but I can freeze enough pecans to last until the next yield. It's wonderfully convenient to have packages of frozen vegetables for those moments when I realize that someone in my two blood type family is about to be short changed at dinner. Hormone free meats are pricey, but when something goes on sale I buy one to cook and one to freeze. Sometimes I plan meals ahead of time, but sometimes I like to be spontaneous and fix what we're in the mood for. It's hard to do that without a freezer.

But most of all, it's really nice not to have to go to the store every 2 or 3 days.

When we had our second child, the freezer got bumped to the garage. It works out fine to have it there 9 months of the year. But July, August and most of September the weather is just too hot. The poor freezer motor has to work much too hard. So right after the 4th of July holiday I turn it off.

I still have the small freezer in the refrigerator, but it's not big enough for me to stock up or buy in bulk. Plus I have to keep flours and lentils frozen in the summer, and they take up a lot of space.

It's been two weeks since the thermometer hit 95 degrees, so today I turned the freezer back on. My daughter and I went shopping and began to restock.