I think the most tedious part about homemaking is making the meals. It has to be done every day, at least three times a day, and you can never say, "Oh, I'll just leave that to tomorrow." In fact, you can't even leave it for later. Especially not around here.
I live in a family of eaters. Caleb eats like a growing teenager. Meagan can hold her own. Neither Don or I are shy when it comes to food either. And, of course, you can see with the chubby cheeks on Abby, she's not missing meals either. I hear about these people who "forget" to eat...this is something we simply cannot comprehend. We eat 3 good meals a day and usually 2 snacks as well. And, we are notorious for eating early lunches and dinners because we simply cannot wait any longer.
Yesterday, in fact, due to a little snafu in the kitchen which left me with pizza crust being ready way too early, we ate dinner at 3:30. That happened to be a record, but when I called the kids to the table, neither of them batted an eye. We were all hungry. Of course, that left us ready to eat again by 6:30, so we had popcorn and then Caleb ate a third of a cantaloupe at 7:30.
With all this eating around here, I often feel like food prep/food service is all I do. Of course, feeding Abby for 30 minutes out of every 3 hours or so doesn't help that feeling go away. I feel like I'm either feeding her, cooking a meal, planning for a meal, prepping for a meal, shopping for a meal, cleaning up after a meal or eating a meal for every second of every day.
I do understand that a lot of it is due to my choices. If I bottle-fed, I could pass Abby off to someone else to feed. If I bought loaves of bread, pizza crusts, cold cereal, dinner in a box, canned soup, etc., instead of making things from scratch, a lot of time would be freed up. But, that wouldn't be best for my family. So, I do what I do. Don't get me wrong...I'm not complaining. I love staying home and this is my work. But, at the end of the day, sometimes I wish there was something more tangible to point to and say, "This is what I did today." Instead, I have dishes drying in the rack and a refrigerator that is a little more empty. But, I guess what I also have is a family that is fed and cared for...one day at a time. And tomorrow, I'll do it all over again.
Now, it's time to start thinking about dinner.
3 comments:
It took me a long time to come to grips with this as well. It is never ending, is it not? what helped me was to find joy in the fact that my family i eating healthy food. So each meal I made that was good I'd say to myself "Ya, it was hard work but the alternative was cold cereal. I'm glad I didn't give in this time." And took it one meal at a time.
It also helps that my kids are old enough that I never clean the kitchen anymore. ;)
Your new sweet bundle is too cute!!
Katie
www.teambettendorf.com
You give me motivation. It does seem sometimes like this is all I do, but it is ok. Carrie and I were just talking about the fact that it seems we don't accomplish much these days....but really we do. Thank you.
My problem is actually making it to the grocery store. That's why we are getting chickens and just aquired a milk goat. The grocery store is about 50 ft. out my back door, and it's open at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. LOL!! Hang in there. :)
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