Taco Tuesday

Today I made dinner for my kids and grandkids at their home. My daughter is working her last graveyard shift tonight so she can more fully concentrate on school. For many years, I cooked most nights as the kids Dad played with them and gave them their baths. We would then sit down to a relaxed family dinner.

In 2019, I declared to my then partner that I was done cooking. Cooking was an activity that I thoroughly enjoyed for many years. I was burned out - exhausted from working all day and coming home to cook dinner - for decades.

I found simpler ways to prepare a decent dinner and other meals for myself. For a while I did a lot of prepackaged meals that I could just pop into the oven or microwave. Smoothies became my breakfast of choice. Sometimes dinner was yogurt and granola. Eating out was a frequent solution.

Over the past year I have returned to cooking. I find myself enjoying being in the kitchen again. Tonight my heart warmed at the sounds of my grandkids giggling and playing well together. I thought how nice it was for my son and daughter to have few minutes to connect once he got home from work. Precious few minutes are between when he gets home and she heads off to her shift at the hospital.

My son came down and helped with the final preparations and to make his wife a plate. This is the second time my son and I have cooked together in his kitchen. I find special joy spending this time with him. During his childhood I was a kitchen tyrant. He would stand in the kitchen doorway not daring to put his feet on the tile floor and talk to me. It is fun to enjoy a laugh over my perfectly imperfect parenting style when he was young.

We prepared the kids plates and then our own. We sat down to enjoy a family dinner before sending Quynh off to work. Afterward, my son and I put away the left over food. He made his lunch for tomorrow. I sat down to rest as he finished up the dishes. I am blessed in so many ways.