Cooking from Scratch

I have been married for almost 20 years...and almost every night, it is up to me what we will be having for dinner.  I did not marry a guy who likes to cook.  In fact, he does not even know where most things are in the kitchen...true story.  My mother in law is an amazing cook, but not of that got passed down.

So, now, we have moved to Belize and homeschool our kids, so I make for sure two meals, and sometimes three meals a day.  But mostly for breakfast they are on their own now.  I still have a sinkful of dishes each morning though.

This afternoon, as I was mulling around in my head, what to have for dinner tonight...I got up and began to wash the red onion and green pepper, put the beef in the microwave to thaw, and started chopping.  We are having tacoes...a staple in this house...everyone likes some variation of the meal and it makes great leftovers if we have any.  Anyway, as I was chopping, I thought, this is kind of therapeutic.  It has been a crazy busy day, like most, and we have a meeting to go to tonight.  So dinner needs an early start tonight.  There have been fighting kids and frustrated students and teachers:), unplanned interuptions in our day, daily chores that still must get done...  BUT the simple act of washing veggies and chopping them, preparing even a simple meal, from scratch...feels so right, so good.  Feeding my family.  A very simple thing, yet, it is what I do.  In the States, I cooked, of course, but we ate out a lot too.  And there were a lot of shortcuts to cook things there.  And we could always pick up frozen food, etc.  Those things are not options here.  To buy a pizza, you are looking at least $40 US to feed our family.  Not a cheap meal here.  So, I cook.  And I cook often.  We do go out to eat about once a week.  Those are nice breaks for me.  But I have learned to make so many things from scratch.  You can buy cake mixes here, but they are usually old and expensive.  So I make cakes from scratch.  Cookies?  Yep, from scratch.  Chili?  No canned stuff here...or its way too expensive.  I'd rather cook up a big ole pot and have leftovers.

But every night (or 99 percent of nights), we gather around the dinner table.  Wini has come home from school, the kids are done with their schoolwork, I am usually done with my chores and Lee is usually done with work for the day...  It is a time where we gather and eat together and talk about life or our day.  It is a time to be a family.  An imporant time.

When Lee and I first got married, we did not have a table, just barstools, so we ate our meals at TV trays on the couch.  Then, 3 1/2 years later, we had Josh.  And something changed.  We did not want to eat in front of the TV anymore.  Because now we had a family.  And in all the moves, all the transitions, all the chaos even of our process of coming here, that is one thing for sure.  We usually eat dinner as a family around the table.  Even if it is takeout...even if we are in a hurry.  It is not an option.  We always tried to limit our kids extra activities outside of church activities...and I am thankful for the structure that is there.  Just like praying as a family before bed.  Every night...no matter how exhausted we are...Lee or I pray with all the kids.  Every night.  They pray too.  You know why?  Because kids need to know how to pray too...so they can.  So they know they can go to Jesus...by themselves.

Well, enough of that.  I have some chopping of lettuce, tomatoes, and onions to do.  And thankfully, my kids will all help.  Tori will fry the corn tortillas, Josh will grate the cheese, Erika will set the table...

And we will enjoy our dinner as a family before rushing off to a meeting.