The Sophomore Effort

This was my second full week of cooking at home. I must say, the first week went swimmingly. I cooked some really good stuff: pork chops and warm black-eyed pea salad, peanut chicken, parmeasan penne pasta with ham, mozzarella chicken sandwiches with Italian BBQ sauce, a homemade apple pie, and homemade brownies. I received lots of kudos from my husband. My children begged for ham and cheese sandwiches everyday until today when I made regular old spaghetti and they ate it all with no complaints!

I am pleased with our eating at home effort. We have eaten out once as a family so far this month and it did seem like a bigger deal than when we did it everyday or so. This second week of cooking was still good, but a little slower. Everything in the world seems slower this week. People I know are hurting and sick and lonely, plus the whole world is just looking at Haiti in disbelief, trying to grasp the heinous devastation that rules there now. Suddenly, trying to create a weeks' worth of brand new meals and putting a rush on my new Rachael Ray magazine aren't priorities. I may still do those things, and that's okay. But this next big grocery shop with be with a clear sense of gratitude for my most basic needs, that are met with barely an acknowledgement. I have plenty of water, shelter, enough to eat, and the knowledge that my children are all safe in bed, dreaming of nothing remotely close to the nightmares Haitian children cannot escape, even in sleep.

When we gather at our family table and give thanks for our meal, I will be aware of the reality of the grace we say. Even if it is over the usual ham and cheese sandwiches.