Dinner time is my least favorite time of the day. It's stressful and loud and messy and chaotic and it happens to be the time of day when I am the most tired. Not a good recipe for success. To top it off, I've never liked being in the kitchen. I'm not much of a "food" person. Rick laughed at me one time when I said "Food is just sustenance for the body." Basically I was saying that I eat to survive, nothing more (well chocolate is a different story). I don't find enjoyment in cooking or baking, I just see it as work and a mess I have to clean up. And the times when I HAVE tried to prepare something delicious, it often ISN'T delicious and my kids don't want to eat it. De-motivational. So naturally I'm not well-suited for dinner time. But I've wanted to change that.
Recently our Relief Society invited The Food Nanny (from BYUtv) to come talk to us about the importance of dinner time with the family. I felt like it was Heavenly Father's way of helping me turn things around. So I bought her book and got started on her plan.
Oh boy did it take work. I guess I've always disliked dinner so much that I've never wanted to put work into it. Thus I've never been good at planning ahead, making a menu, creating a master shopping list, etc., all the things you need to do to make dinner successful. That's not to say I haven't tried, I just usually fall very short. It's like asking an artist to learn math AND be good at it. Hard to do when you don't love it. The point is, I spent the weekend creating my menu and grocery list, and then most of Monday grocery shopping (Sam's Club for bulk items, Sprouts for meats, and Walmart for anything else). Sooo much work.
Side note: I don't like grocery shopping, in fact I hate it. It takes so long and you have to concentrate so hard on comparing prices, and getting the right items and backtracking when you forget something or can't find something. I always come away exhausted and with a headache. And then you get home and have to put EVERYTHiNG AWAY!! And then after you're done it's either lunch time or dinner time, so you have to get stuff back out and make a mess of the kitchen and then clean it all up! Ok, I think I'm done venting. Sorry.
Despite all this work, I have good news. Yesterday was my first day following The Food Nanny's plan and it was a triumph! I knew what I was going to make, had all the ingredients, and The Food Nanny promised my recipe would be delicious and infallible. I started making it early so it was ready by 5:30 and guess what? All of my kids loved it (ok one just "liked" it). A miracle! And because we started earlier we finished earlier, so I wasn't too tired to clean up and do dishes (rare) and get all my kids bathed (double rare) and stories read and in bed by 8pm (triple rare).
Ahhhhhh, I felt like the greatest mom ever. Not bragging, just proud of my rare feat. Now if only I can keep it up.
Recently our Relief Society invited The Food Nanny (from BYUtv) to come talk to us about the importance of dinner time with the family. I felt like it was Heavenly Father's way of helping me turn things around. So I bought her book and got started on her plan.
Oh boy did it take work. I guess I've always disliked dinner so much that I've never wanted to put work into it. Thus I've never been good at planning ahead, making a menu, creating a master shopping list, etc., all the things you need to do to make dinner successful. That's not to say I haven't tried, I just usually fall very short. It's like asking an artist to learn math AND be good at it. Hard to do when you don't love it. The point is, I spent the weekend creating my menu and grocery list, and then most of Monday grocery shopping (Sam's Club for bulk items, Sprouts for meats, and Walmart for anything else). Sooo much work.
Side note: I don't like grocery shopping, in fact I hate it. It takes so long and you have to concentrate so hard on comparing prices, and getting the right items and backtracking when you forget something or can't find something. I always come away exhausted and with a headache. And then you get home and have to put EVERYTHiNG AWAY!! And then after you're done it's either lunch time or dinner time, so you have to get stuff back out and make a mess of the kitchen and then clean it all up! Ok, I think I'm done venting. Sorry.
Despite all this work, I have good news. Yesterday was my first day following The Food Nanny's plan and it was a triumph! I knew what I was going to make, had all the ingredients, and The Food Nanny promised my recipe would be delicious and infallible. I started making it early so it was ready by 5:30 and guess what? All of my kids loved it (ok one just "liked" it). A miracle! And because we started earlier we finished earlier, so I wasn't too tired to clean up and do dishes (rare) and get all my kids bathed (double rare) and stories read and in bed by 8pm (triple rare).
Ahhhhhh, I felt like the greatest mom ever. Not bragging, just proud of my rare feat. Now if only I can keep it up.
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