100 Days of Happiness Day 97

You know what's relaxing? Cooking dinner for a big family... Just kidding. It's about as relaxing as sitting in rush hour traffic. While doing your taxes. I'll admit... my healthy family dinners in which we all sit down together have become fewer and farther between. It's hard with activities, events, and you know, Owen. But tonight I wanted to cook something special for my Mom, who drove 2 days to be with us. So I found some pretty recipes and told everybody I was going grocery shopping for dinner ingredients. Quinny followed me out to the car. "What are you making?" she wanted to know. She likes to stick to the three basic food groups: noodles, taquitos, and/or pizza.  I told her, "Buffalo chicken salad... and also a peach/basil and prosciutto salad." It was as if I had thrown ice water directly in her face. "What!?" she practically shrieked. "What are you making *for the kids*!?" I wanted to tell her that when I was a kid I would have killed for a peach/prosciutto salad. That I would have walked two miles in the snow just to eat a salad like that. Then walk two miles home in the snow. But that would be a lie, so instead I said, "Macaroni and cheese." I buckle so easily. But the weight of the world was now off Quincy's shoulders.
I got the groceries, came home and unloaded, and just as I was in the thick of cooking and mixing ingredients, Owen decided he had better have his dinner asap or else all hell would break loose. I fed him and got back to cooking. John took O outside to play with his new lawnmower and I got cracking. The recipe said that prep time should be 20 minutes, but I don't think they could have anticipated the state of perpetual chaos in my house. If they could, they probably would have at least allotted 45 minutes to an hour, which is how long it took.
But look, I finished my pretty salads. And they were yummy, too. Sitting down at the table -- all 7 of us... I found myself thinking sentimentally... I really really need to work on the girls' table manners in earnest. We are out of practice. And also, I love my family... and having family dinners. Cooking for everybody makes me happy.