Eat in

I heard, on a talk show today... someone said...

"Cooking for your family is a tough job. Mom's are responsible for what the family eats, and it's tough to make it all matter."

Or something to that effect.

I AGREE!

I take it as a an important aspect as my job as Mother.

My families health and well being begins and ends with me.

If I were a lazy woman, my kids would be eating take out every night.

I don't always enjoy cooking. Sometimes it is a downright drudgery.

Sometimes I hate it.

But I do it.

Why?

Because if I don't, someone else will, and I know what goes into the food I prepare.

How do we know if the guy making the burgers at the burger joint just picked his nose, or sneezed? I know... gross, but oh so true!

When I was taking a food handling course, we were shown a film of actual workers in a busy restaurant setting being filmed by hidden camera.

Cured me from eating out for a lllooonnnnng time. Don't be fooled by an "A" grade on restaurant window.

***

It's time we sat around a table together and ate as families again.

It's time we see the value of breaking bread together.

I had a friend once who invited me over for dinner, just a few years ago.

She ordered in, which was fine, but I was so surprised to see that she made her three childrens plates, and they got them, and carried them into their rooms or family room and ate the meal on their laps.

I assured her they didn't have to leave the table just because I was there, and she said

"No, are you kidding? We eat dinner like this every single night! We can't do the Leave it to Beaver way like you do at your house. My kids like eating while playing video games."

I wanted to cry. Not because she offended me, nope, I'm proud of the way we eat around our table every night, together, TV off, and nothing but our conversation as noise.

I wanted to cry because she was missing a huge opportunity to get to know her family, to connect with them, to learn about their days.

Their memories of mealtime would be reduced to which video game they remember playing while they ate pot roast.

***

Mom's job is hard.

Let's face it. Most Dad's just aren't going to cook every night, so it is our cross to bear.

Learn to delight in it.

Get excited about the amount of money you can save, get glad that your family still lives at home and wants to be there!

Get excited about finding some produce at a great price and make the most of it for that nights meal!

Try a new recipe and give the naming rights to the first one to try it without whining, so if little Edgar tries it and names it

Edgar's gross, squishy, Barbie Cake, then that's it's name in the recipe file!

Even if the recipe has fish and it's not cake!

Eat with your family this week!

The stock market sucks,

Everyone wants us to be scrambling for our lives and yelling doomsday...

but as long as we have our families...

WE ARE RICH!