It's Taco Tuesday! Ask my boys:
- Me: Bisc (Short for Biscuit, AKA Samuel) what day is it?
- Bisc: TACO TUESDAY
We Love Taco Tuesday at the Emmitt Household :) Seriously, our boys have a designated day for tacos - Sammy Biscuit eats three full sized tacos, it's a great dinner.
- We use ground beef from the 1/4 Farm Raised cow we get every year
- Soft corn tortilla shells fried in Crisco w/ salt & pepper
- Cheese, Franks Hot Sauce, refried Beans, lettuce, sour cream, salsa, taco sauce
- Homemade guacamole
mmmmm
I had Campbells Soup On the Go - 2 cans, Tortilla and Creamy Tomato
Fail...
Actually, today was the easiest day so far. I didn't crave or almost east food once. Admittedly, my mouth did water while I was frying the shells but it was never a struggle. Seemingly, my stomach is getting used to the liquids and my body is adjusting to the calorie schedule, this is good because the last six days have been unpleasant. Though I must be losing weight:
17-year-old brother-in-law: Hey, your face is looking less fat.
Me: (Blank quizzical stare)
17-year-old brother-in-law: Er, um, I mean that in a good way
Me: Thank you
So yeah.
I'm trying really hard not to let my Lenten experience affect our routine, which I love, so I'm still cooking dinners and we still sit at the table and "eat." This is important because some day, not to far away, life will get the better of us and little league, wrestling, dance, scouts (or cadets), work, PTA, gymnastics, whatever... will be there and we won't get "dinner time". Dinner will be on the go, or "in between", or "when we get there" and though it may involve family members, it won't involve sit down time. It won't involve sharing stories, listening, yelling at the kids to stay seated and stop banging the table. Dinner won't have spilled milk on the floor, a dog begging for scraps, a baby with food on her face, laughing at burps and toots or bible stories at the end. Dinner won't start with hands being held and "Thank you for our food and our many many blessings and for our family and friends, AMEN." Dinner won't be our anchor for the day, it won't be what starts the bedtime routine, it won't be what it is now.
When I was young, before my brothers were too busy, before the evenings were taken from us by life, dinner was our anchor. My dad sat at an end of the table, then going clockwise I was to his left, than Tim, than Nate, than my mom and finally Kate (to my dad's right). Every meal started with "Thank you for our food and our many many blessings and for our family, AMEN". When Tim left for college we add "Wherever they are" between "family" and "AMEN" and sometime in my late teens we add "and friends." I remember pulling a chair to the wall, so I could see out the window, to look for my dad's truck coming down the road. There were not cell phones, no pager, no email - dinner was at 6:00 PM, maybe 6:30 PM and dad made it on time to dinner. It was Shepard's Pie, or Tuna Casserole, or Shake and Bake Chicken, or Hamburger Helper, or Lasagna, or Spaghetti w/ garlic bread. At a lot of meals one of the sides was regular sliced butter bread, the idea is foreign to me now - with so many banked goods in a can... but back then, it was what we had, what we ate. On Friday's it was homemade pizza and the "Friday Family Movie" on broadcast. Sometimes we played Monopoly, or Risk, or Easy Money, or Careers, or Pit, or a VHS Game "Doorways to Adventure" or if we were lucky we got to rent a VHS and have Pizza Magic (now Crazy Gator) takeout, from Highland, MI.
Oh I'm sure there were exceptions. I remember scout meetings being on Tuesdays and I'm sure my dad didn't always make it home on time, but he made it enough so that the experience of a family dinner is the strong memory and not the special occasion. My brother's are 4 & 5-years older than I am, so I'd imagine by the time I was 7 or 8, family dinners were no longer the norm. My brothers played sports, had scouts, were in clubs. I played sports staring from 5 or 6, was always in scouts, often had clubs. But the dinners, the dinner memory is there - strong enough to a real, substantive, cherishable memory.
My kids will have that, they'll remember family dinners. They will remember Taco Tuesday, grilled burgers, chicken pot pie, shake and bake chicken, pizza (homemade or not), crock-pot meals, breakfast foods for dinner. They'll also remember too many fish sticks and chicken nuggets - but that's okay because mostly they will remember the event - how we were all there, how we made time, how it started with hands held and that catchy little Emmitt prayer, and they'll remember how it ended, with a Bible story before a tubby or shower, or TV, or games, or the WiiU, or toys. They will remember how dinner was the start to the end of their evening. They will probably remember being yelled at for getting out of the seat, or not eating veggies or banging the table, but all that only makes the memory that much more real.
So I don't mind cooking, I not sad that I didn't get to eat a taco tonight. I'm not sad that last night I didn't have a hand formed, grilled burger on a toasted bun, with homemade thin-cut baked french fries, or roasted broccoli. I'm not even sad that my dinner came from a can or cup and that three minutes I can both prepare and consume it. I'm happy that I had a reason to yell "get back in your seat", a reason to read and a reason to hold little hands.
Sam's leftovers from Monday evening - normally I'd make sure he is in the "clean plate club".
Started the day at 203 LBS - finished with ??? calories but 3-Beers - go me!
