Day 13

What's for dinner? Is one of the most asked questions by a child to their mother, there is gotta be some kinda research out there that says this question is asked 4.5 zillion times. Dinner for me is one of my "highs" of the day, already mentioned my passion for food and I love to cook. It may sound odd, but it is my way of winding down for the day. Preparing a meal for my famiy brings me a sense of peace, not sure they are always happy with what I cook....but how does that go...it's not who wins it is how you play the game....same theory applies for me when I cook...it's the process I enjoy most.



Holiday baking with the fam, not the most flattering pic, but in true form apron and all!

  Making the dinner is only one part of the whole experience, the fun starts when we sit down for dinner and begin our meal. Not sure about other families but I've heard dinner is rarely shared at the table with the family together and normalicy these days is different meals and different times for different members of the family. Well we have never been normal that is for sure. We do make it a point to sit down most evenings (prob 6 out of 7) and eat dinner as a family together, no T.V., hands washed, and kids help set table, get drinks, clean up etc...

Helping make dessert!

Like  I a said the fun begins when we sit down, with 7 different personalities, a lot of things can happen during dinner time. We are lucky to make it through dinner without any food fights, spilt drinks, hurt feelings and minor injurys.

Meals begin with a prayer, thus the quaralling begins, each person has taken it upon themselves to be the one to recite the prayer for the evenings meal. If a person of authority (me or dad) does not interrupt and assign someone the task quickly, they all start in with their own version. Trying to stop this process is a feat in itself. Everyone is talking at different speeds, tones, and because of their ages at different levels of speech.

My 3 years old, speaks incredibly fast with a very simple vocabulary "thank you Jesus for my mommy, my daddy, my food, my school, my house, my car, my toys...and continues to name every noun he's seen throughout the day. My 5 year old, instructs everyone to bow their head, close their eyes, and fold their hands, before the prayer can even begin, so while she's waiting for everyone to do this, the 3 year old is half way through his day thanking Jesus for toilet paper and recess. My 7 and 9 year old boys, have already begin eating or have tried to, but have been yelled at by my 17 year old for not waiting until prayers are completed. Not to mention they are getting the evil eye from the 5 year old for not bowing their heads, closing their eyes, and folding their hands. Eventually if the process is taking to long I will intervene and complete the prayer so we can all eat before the food is cold or spoiled.

Next we move on to the main discussion, which is "highs and lows". This is a tradition I recommend for any size of family, it is sure to strike some positive conversations with a laugh or two. Highs and lows are where each of us take a turn explaining what our high point for the day was and what our low point for the day was, if you don't have one or the other you can pass, but almost everyone has at least one and most of the time both. It's is a great way to find out what the kids experienced that day and poke around a bit in their lives to make sure everything is ok with them and gives us a chance to talk a little bit about our day. It is often funny because like before with the prayers, they are so unique.The order it which they take turns will also determine how the conversation will go.

If the 5 year old goes first we have to interrupt her at least 4-5 times to get her to come to the conclusion of usually her high...which is often describing a story involving a princess and a Disney movie. Next is usually the boys who are pretty quick at both, but very opposite. My 7 year old is very detailed and accurate, but if he is in a giggly mood forget about it, half of what he says won't make sense. My 9 year old turns a story from the day into the most recent thrill packed action movie (he is quite the Indiana Jones in most stories), we often have to pick and choose what we believe from his storytelling, you can count on 30% being accurate. My 17 year old usually has one or the other but not both....and it is usually about someone that pissed her off at school or someone that made her laugh so hard she peed her pants. Her stories usually make the rest of the kids laugh, because she often changes her voice and uses facial expressions to act like the people she is imitating in her story. And of course there is the 3 year old, who usually goes last, because he wants to hear everyone elses stories so he can wrap it up into a summary and make it his own...which is Hilarious because it invovles everyone's highs and lows, a monster truck, a plane explosion and a motorcycle with a flat tire, oh yeah and him fixing the above 3 with dad's tools.



Got the giggles.



17 year old explaining highs and lows


And then we went on a mission with Spiderman and the Monster Truck



By then we are ready to wrap up dinner time, and the 5 year old and 7 year old have already asked a dozen times if we are having dessert so they can force down most of their meal, knowing I won't let them have it if they haven't done their dinner justice. I don't force them to eat everything on thier plate (knowing how that created horrible eating habits for me as a child), but I do encourage them to taste everything and take a few bites of everything. Dessert is not served every night, but occasionaly through the week, it is a special treat and not expected after every meal.



Making Halloween Dessert

 And there you have it....family dinner time....it doesn't have to be some tedious task that you dread each night, turn it into the best time of the day and get a few laughs. You don't have to have kids to experience highs and lows you can do it with anyone you are sharing a meal with...try it, you might learn a few things....about yourself mostly.

  

Until Manana.....