I was real bored with my post yesterday. So bored, in fact, that I felt the need to post again today. No worries Ivy and Emily, you (my subject) didn't bore me. It was my restlessness, my need to write more, to express what I was REALLY feeling. However, I kept it short and nondescriptive and it bothered me all day that I didn't write more. What IS it with this addictive blogging?! The ironic, and possibly plain stupid thing about it, is that I feel the need to write about time (and my poor use of it. Yes, I continue to blog..?).When Geof. and I were first married, I used the excuse of being sick and pregnant to not cook (yes, I was sick and prego 3 short weeks after), and then when we had kids, I had the good excuse of a baby, changing hormones, inexperience, Geof.'s crazy work/school schedule, Cole not really eating regular "adult" food, oh so many excuses..to not cook. At least not on a regular basis. Yes, once in a while (if we were lucky, twice a week), I'd pull something together and have it ready for a sit down meal. But most of the time, we were eating at separate hours througout the day, and very seldomly together at the table.
My good friend Emily lived next door to us in our first apartment in Orem. She was a fanstastic cook! Not only did she seem to always have a clean, orderly home, she also was able to pull off (daily) a hot, delish meal, ready and waiting on the table when her husband arrived home from school. Poor Geof. had to deal with a mess of a house (I will say that I've never been dirty, messy, but not dirty..I'm pretty nazi about my toilets and kitchen floor) and an unprepared, "hm..oh, it's 10 pm? What do you want for dinner? Oatmeal, again?!" wife. And he never complained. Yes, he'd poke fun of me when I was poking fun of myself, but that was pretty much it.
Six years and 2 MORE kids later, I'm still in the same spot! What's WRONG with me?! Wait, I know the answer to that. I could be in the kitchen at this very moment preparing some tasty cuisine for my beebs (kids, not boobs..if you're confused) and patient husband, but I'm not. I'm on the computer..again. Don't judge me, you are too. (;
I do know that a schedule works real well for the ADD type that I am, which is exactly what I'm going to do as soon as Dayne finishes Wubbzy's Big Movie on netflix. And I'm sure this schedule, meals and all, will work just wonderfully for a good 2 weeks or so, but then I'll be back in the same rut again: What to cook?! A slim budget, a desire to cook without meat and lots of fresh fruits and veggies, the fact that most everything I try comes with Cole's (and sometimes Dayne's) consistent reaction, "Ew..this is gross!", to which he gets sent to his room for a good 10 minutes (unless I'm in a good mood and can sweetly explain how that makes me feel), are just a few of the reasons why I have a hard time cooking for my family.
I looked up "time" in the scriptures and came across this one that I'd never read before: "Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him." Ecclesiastes 8:6.
Hm.., I do bring a lot of misery upon myself when I don't use time and judgement wisely. (;
Oh, and one more thing. Cole and Dayne have their Primary program this weekend. I'm the primary pianist and if anything else (it's not my favorite calling), I get to keep my eye on my two oldest. Cole's speaking part is this scripture. We've been practicing it a lot more than Cole would like these last 3 days. I've heard this scripture many, many times in my life, but it's perfect! If we could only make that our motto every day.. I DO love the scriptures.
7 comments:
i'm right there with you. there is not enough time in the day. i don't struggle with making dinner though. i make that a major part of the day. in the morning, i decide what to make, pull whatever out of the freezer, pick up whatever i need at the store, and at 4 when my kids start homework at the kitchen table, i start dinner. that way i'm in the same room with them.
my struggle with time is on behalf of my children...i want them to have unstructured time each day to do what they want to and to be kids. so then i have to figure out what isn't as important to get done: homework is a must, and so is piano practice and reading. often chores go to the wayside because i do them so they can play. am i a bad mom? are they going to learn how to properly clean a kitchen?
OK Darla, this is far to flattering! What if getting dinner on the table is about the only thing I do all day? Talk about not using my time wisely, this is something that I struggle with ALL. THE. TIME. I feel, especially since we moved and started the house, I've been a constant state of survival. What I mean by that is that if sitting on the computer and letting my kids watch movie after movie some days makes me feel better about parenting without Derek a good portion of the time and stay sane then I tell myself that's just what I've got to do. Meanwhile you should see my toilets and kitchen floor! (Or maybe you shouldn't?!?) And hear how impatient I can be like 80% of the time. I just hope we can recover. As for dinner on the table, I just like cooking. period. and I'm hungry and want good food, so I do it, otherwise I resort to junk and I'm grouchy. I cook dinner, you run marathons...I love you, my sweet friend!
OH Darla! I think you happen to be a human being and we all are too. We each have our strengths, and our weaknesses.
Your strengths... eating healthy, staying fit (as a family too), having good old fashioned fun, catching life (you know how to enjoy the beauty around us more than any one person I know), and you teach all of these things to your children. You have many other strengths too, the list would be so long... cyberspace would malfunction in posting it.
And just a little info, I go in and out of doing good too.
D-
Check out Menusformoms.com
It makes it all so very easy. You can choose different routes too, "Busy Mom" "Budget Mom" whatever. It gives you a full menu for every night during the week, and then a grocery week for each week, so you just go shopping once, and you know what you're cooking every night.
Let me know what you think!?!?
Also, you are a great Mom. Seriously. Your kids adore you. And your husband thinks you're smokin hot. And so do I!
okay try cookingbynumbers.com (I think that's what is it?) You check the boxes of what you have in the cubboard. and press enter it gives you a bunch of options of what you could make with what you have. That helps me not have to load the kids up to go to the store. That helps me with "time". And also you are an awesome mom always taking your kids places, that is why you don't have time it is not because you are lazy. And just because Dayne is watching movies today doesn't mean you are. I like one of the previous comments---You run Marathons I cook dinner. That is so true with me. Today I have cleaned---(slightly), worked out --(slightly), fed babies and the only other thing I will do is cook dinner. I will not take my kids to the park down the street, Central Park, The capital Building, a ferry ride,a subway ride, or anything of the sort. So don't be so hard on your self my dear! And don't come back with "it was a half marathon" It was a marathon in my eyes. Love you!~
I loved reading what everyone else said about this.I have to tell you that I love to cook but some days I make it a priority and others days not.But since my income has cut in half I've had to really watch where my money goes.Since I have been cooking pretty much every night I have saved so so much money.It has become a game for me to see what I can make out of the leftovers.My kids love it because I always have dinner for us but unlike you, I haven't been so good on the FHE so I count our sit down dinners as that.But, honestly, it's taken me about 25 years to catch onto this so give yourself a break.You're a great mom!Love reading your posts! Love, Aunt Joanie!
I have decided that I hate cooking right now...maybe it is because I don't have a kitchen and I am out of practice but I feel like everything I make is crap. It takes forever to plan it, cook it and then clean it up so lately we have been eating out. I know that's so bad. I need to get back into the habit of cooking. Good luck to us both I guess.
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