The simple life

Thursday, I had a busy day. It was Tommy's last dinner at home, which we call the last supper. He chose Chicken Marbella for dinner and baklava for dessert. So after I nursed Meghan in the early morning, I got up, put a load of laundry in the washer, emptied the dishwasher, and started cooking. The chicken went into the marinade by 5:30 a.m. The baklava syrup was made and I had a chance to shower before Meghan's next feeding. There were a multitude of other things on my list: another load of laundry, kids at work, baklava to bake, kids to sports, a couple of emails to attend to, school book orders to finalize, a van to wash and gas up before trading with friends who needed a bigger one for a few days, and all the little things that don't ever go on the list but make my mommy days ones of joy.

When I got home from taking Katie to "mother's help" where she helps care for a friend's toddler and infant while the friend has a couple of hours to get things done around the house, I put the rice in the steamer and pre-heated the oven. I called John to be sure he could still handle the transfer of Katie from mother's help to baseball practice. He could. Meghan needed to eat, so I sat down to nurse. I was feeling very efficient. Everything on the list had been done--better yet, no one was late for anything today. Hooray!

30 minutes later, I realized that I didn't smell the dinner cooking. Aaaaakkkkk! I pre-heated the oven but never put the chicken in! Quickly, I put Meghan down and got the food into the oven. "Crisis averted," I thought, "dinner will be 30 minutes later, but I'll just have the kids
put their pjs on early and we'll still get them to bed at a reasonable hour."

7:30 p.m. Everyone is home for dinner. The table is set, drinks poured, food ready. I place the chicken on the table. Tommy asks, "It's a different color than usual. Did you change something?" Aaaaaakkkkkk! I forgot to add the brown sugar and wine to the marinade when I put the chicken in to bake! Okay, regroup. Someone took the baby. I added sugar and wine, raised the oven temp to 400, and set the timer for 15 minutes. On to night prayer, usually after dinner and before bed. Schedule rearranged again. The timer went off just as we began our petitions after prayer.

We finally did eat dinner, but the younger kids didn't get to bed until 9:30. Thank goodness it's summer and we can do that once in awhile. Meghan, who had slept beautifully all day, which helped me get through all my plans, decided that evening would be a good social time and stayed up until 12. When she finally slept, I crashed, too. Oblivious until she woke me at 5:30 a.m. to feed her.

And so began my Friday....

I tell you this not for sympathy, but because in the midst of the dinner crisis on Thursday, I felt very inadequate and especially crazy for trying to do what we do in this family. My husband and children all reassured me that it was not a big deal, and we did all get to eat dinner and sleep eventually. :-) But I felt a longing for a simpler life.

Elizabeth Foss has a lovely post on this topic today. She reminded me of the proper perspective. Give it a read.