Why I'm Thankful for Making Dinner (Even Though It's Every Night)
Because I have a healthy body, arms, legs and all of these fingers that make mistakes--"Was it three eggs or four? Yep, the garlic is officially burnt."--and it's certainly a big mess, but it ultimately produces a warm meal for my family every time.
Because there are three gorgeous little faces sitting at a table waiting for me. Yes, the hands will soon be spilling food all over the floor, but those cherub faces, they get me every time.
Because I have enough money to actually go to the store and buy almost any ingredient I want (except at Costco. I get into trouble there). There are many people in the world, most people in fact, who simply lack the resources to buy enough food for their families. The last time I saw our cart, brimming with broccoli ready for roasting, organic milk, salted butter and fresh meat without any disease in sight, I almost gasped. What a windfall. What an honor. Then the kids started squawking about who was going to put the bread on the conveyor belt at checkout, and my moment was over.
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Because I have a house with electricity to make dinner in. I just turn things on. Burners mean instant heat. Baking? Press a button. Storing leftovers? No problem. Can you imagine salting your pork in order to preserve it so you don't die the next time you cook up a side of bacon? And let's not even get started about having fresh water. This is the stuff I consider when I'm loading the dishwasher for the zillionth time every week, "Wait, I have a dishwasher! The pilgrims certainly didn't have one." Ditto for the clothes dryer which we did not have in Italy. And that was in 2012. Modern American appliances are things of beauty.
Because I'm safe here, never, ever worrying about attacks, wars, pirates, nothing. Nothing but peace and opportunity. The hardest part of my day is, in fact, making dinner, and I write a whole blog about cooking for kids. That's about the time the kids go nutso, the whining begins, my toddler wants me to hold him just as I'm chopping cauliflower with my biggest knife. So I get things going, then we sit down for a book. Or maybe walk outside to the swings. On our best days, the kids' and mine, we turn on a 22-minute video while I quickly finish getting dinner ready. It's the hardest part of the day, and for that I'm truly grateful.
- By Charity Curley Mathews
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