What's For Dinner?

I actually love the mundane tasks of being a (mostly) stay-at-home mom. I love calendars and schedules and filling out forms and school shopping. I don’t mind driving kids to their activities or to the doctor, or having playdates or really even changing diapers (which I should be done with very soon)! I pick up the same toys a minimum of 5 times a day, I never forget that Library is on Wednesday, and I am the OCD mother who checks her daughter’s backpack immediately upon her arrival home. Although the state of my house is far from a picture in Family Circle, I try to keep things organized and thanks to my front loading washer/dryer I don’t even mind doing laundry all that much.

Just PLEASE don’t ask me to make dinner.

Every day I get out of bed with all good intentions to actually provide my family with a nice, home-cooked meal.  And every night one of two things happens: I scramble to throw some pasta together, or my husband makes dinner. After he works all day. Because although I may excel at mothering my children, I SUCK at cooking.

I really don’t know how this came to pass. My own mother made home cooked meals EVERY night. She made holiday dinners, candy and cookies galore at Christmastime, and always made our favorite meals on birthdays. I have many of her recipes in a book she made for me on my 24^th birthday. (Clearly, she saw this coming) Eating out at a restaurant when I was a child was always for a “special” occasion. Not weekly Thursday dinner like in my house.

The odd part is, I have Thanksgiving every year (and cook my own turkey), and I’ve even managed prime rib on Christmas Eve and crazy beautiful desserts for Easter, Mother’s Day and baby showers I’ve thrown. I just can’t do the day to day. I can’t seem to think of a single thing to have. In fact, if I didn’t have children to provide for, I probably would never cook! Isn’t that why they invented Chick-Fil-A??

Making better meals was my New Year’s resolution. It’s April now, and I’ve made no progress. I’m sure there’s probably an iPhone app for that. But I’m trying to turn over a new leaf. It’s in print now so maybe I can do better. I’m open to any and all suggestions.