Kitchen Duty

I wish I had a more altruistic reason for cooking. I hear stories of people who find great joy in creating a beautiful and delicious mean for their family because simply having others enjoy the food brings them joy.

I tend to feel jaded about the hours I spend preparing and cleaning up, only to have people appear in the kitchen, wolf it down and then get on with their day without much notice about how long it takes.

Then again, when I have gone through times where I push back against the labor of meal preparation, I notice the lack of connection in our family. When those times come, I regroup and get back to spending more time in the kitchen.

I have a friend who is an amazing baker. She says that she bakes because she loves to eat. I should remember it. There are many great things that come from the hours in the kitchen....one being that I get to eat great food!

We have made some seriously great food lately:

I made this creamy potato soup. It is to die for!! It is really filling and so delicious.

 Allen made macaroni in bacon bowls! When we were first married, macaroni and cheese was something we specialized in. I find I need to have less of that stuff these days....but I sure love it! This was an amazing dinner.

 Frank doesn't get why he can't have some too!

Get down, Frank!

Allen made this amazing salad. It had tuna steak, tons of different vegetables, nuts and crispy somethings that made every bite a delicious experience. He said he's been working on it in his mind (and sampling it at Joey's trying to figure out what makes it so good) for about a year now. Good food definitely takes time!

Okay. I didn't make this one....we went for dinner and spent way too much money at Shoe and Canoe, a restaurant in a hotel downtown. They had a beet salad that was ah-mazing!! It was inspiring. Who would think to put hummus with beets?! It was delicious.

Finally FLYing

FLY stands for "finally loving yourself".

I've been a FLY Lady fan for years. I embrace the morning routine and evening routine idea. She was my inspiration for doing a load of laundry every day. It has changed everything. Just one small load a day, washed, dried and put away...it's easy! I keep my sink pretty shiny. I also love the zone idea - you focus on one zone a week. However, I'm not so good at staying focused. As a result, when I have time off work, I always have these grandiose plans that I will spend an HOUR a day working on my house. The truth is, however, I really don't want to spend an hour a day when I'm off doing stuff like that. The first day is usually fine, but then I get bored and think, "Meh, it doesn't look that bad around here."

This year, I'm recommitting to just 15 minutes a day. On Saturdays I will do the "home blessing house" where I clean the bathrooms, dust and vacuum the whole house in hopefully an hour or less. On the other days, I will do 15 minutes in each zone. I've been working on the Living Room this week. Last night I polished up the piano, put away some decorations and just generally tidied up. Everytime I walk by the Living Room I smile at how lovely the piano looks! Today I vacuumed under the cushions of the couch and chairs. What a difference!

I'm pretty excited about this. I think I can keep this commitment.

Happy Birthday? Wait. Happy New Year!!

 Not just a happy birthday, but happy new year!!

Last night my sister came over and we visited for a couple hours, then I went to bed. My family, on the other hand, attempted to stay up all night, I think. It was a rough day for them today. Good thing staying up all night is really only something once a year.

The parties weren't a big hit. Jill went to the YSA dance and she gave it a "meh". Although, she did run into a missionary friend, so that was really fun. Peirce went to a party at a friend's house which ended up not being that fun because they played drinking games and got throw-up drunk. Blech. Tony and Zoe went downtown for dinner and saw fireworks. Their report was the most positive. Allen stayed up for all the reports. Personally, I'm fine waiting until the next day for the updates.

But, the happy birthday part. What is that? Well, thanks to Dale Shoults, we learned that today Allen is 18,000 days old! Isn't that something?! Happy birthday old guy!

My favorite picture of our family

Everything is cuter with Frank!