Food. Everybody loves food to a certain
degree. We all eat it to survive. There
are others who eat it for pleasure. The
question is who cooks it? At my house,
that would be me. I take full chef
honors. There used to be a time when my
husband ruled as Lord of the barbecue grill, and my realm was confined to the
kitchen. My kids and I would wait, with baited breath
and growing appetites, for him to come home and cook something, anything, on
the grill. 
Growing
up, it was the same scenario on the most part, since my dad was also an over
the road truck driver like my husband.
While he was away, Mom ruled the kitchen and did all the cooking. When Dad came home, he not only presided
over the barbecue grill, but also dazzled us with his skills in the kitchen. Crazy enough, it was my Dad that attempted to
teach me how to cook and insisted on me helping. He taught me how to cook breakfast: eggs,
pancakes, french toast, you name it. He
showed me how to make his spaghetti and his barbecue chicken. My Dad
actually had a huge collection of recipes that he began accumulating after my
mom died, and I got that little gold mine when he died in 2004.
1) Every day that happens to be a school day I have to get up at the butt crack of dawn and wake each of my children, one by one. Now that my oldest is in junior high that means my alarm goes off at 5:30 in the morning. Almost a month into the school year and I am sorry, 5:30 in the morning is entirely too early for anyone to be up looking about let alone rushing out in the dark chilly air. I wonder if as the year unfolds if I am still as bleary eyed at 5:30 in say December as I am now. Even the sun has the sense not to be up, so why must I? I am not a morning person; I am more of a night owl. My son is getting to be more of a challenge to wake. He is also a night owl. Where my daughter grudgingly bounces out of bed and gets on with it, my son stays in bed as long as he can. I entice him out of bed with promises of cereal and a game of cards. It works every time. Lately we play a game I got recently called GUBS. We love it!! Being the protective mother hen I am, I walk each of them out to their bus stop. I walk my oldest half way and wave from afar before heading home because staying longer makes me feel like a stalker in that large group of teenagers and is so NOT cool. My son is a lot younger so it is still cool for me to stand at the bus stop with him and hug and kiss him goodbye in front of God, everyone, and our neighbors. 
3) With two kids in the house and sometimes a husband that has been gone several weeks at a time accumulating dirty laundry in abundance for yours truly, I do laundry every single day without fail. Into the washer, into the drier, then folding, and putting away.
5) I read every single day. Whether it is other blogs or books, I am reading and loving every minute of it.
5. A very important link to my husband is my cell phone. I am not sure how I ever lived without a cell phone in the past. These days my cell phone is my primary phone. Why pay for a house phone and a cell phone? So I don’t. My cell phone goes everywhere I go. I love my stopwatch/timer app that keeps track of how many minutes I am pedaling on my exercise bike and when to turn the meat on the grill. I check the weather, my bank account, and who died from my phone. It is another link to the outside world that I use constantly.
7. I can’t live without food. I admit it, I love to cook and I absolutely suck at dieting. I love to create in the kitchen and I am good at it. I love to try new recipes and tackle new culinary challenges. We all have to eat right? While I hate the drudgery of the cleanup, I love the creation of great food, the satisfied expressions on my family’s faces, and the accomplishment I feel when my French baguettes come out of the oven perfect. I love trying new things and the thrill when I get it right. 
When I was diagnosed recently with a heart condition and hypertension my doctor immediately prescribed medication to lower it and a strict diet to help me drop weight and get healthy. The diet consists of lean meats, lots of vegetables and fruits, and skim milk. This is what I had for supper Saturday night. I made a simple meatloaf combining 95% lean ground sirloin, onions, and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. I had a serving of Brussel Sprouts, and a serving of raw vegetables on the side. I rounded it off with a serving of strawberries and kiwi washed down with a glass of skim milk and a cup of beef broth. While my doctor said I would lose weight, it would be slow going. I haven't been doing this very long but so far I have lost about 23 lbs according to my bathroom scale. My husband was passing through on his way to Vermont and actually told me he can tell I am smaller. Hooray!
One Halloween my sister had made a huge batch of vegetable soup just like our mom used to make. I honestly thought I had died and went to heaven. She gave me a huge container of it to take home and asked me at the time “Why don’t you make a big pot of soup yourself if you love it so much?” The answer was simple. My husband didn’t like vegetable soup and hated carrots. She seemed unimpressed. I remember her saying “Hells Bells Kathy, as much as he is gone, why is stopping you from making some for yourself? I would make the things you like when he isn’t around and make what he likes when he is!” That stuck with me, and I made up my mind I was going to do just that. Believe me, I became an even happier person when I realized this small truth.
Once my Dad retired and came home from a life on the road trucking, he sent for a subscription for “Easy Everyday Cooking Recipe Cards”. Every so often he would get a new batch of cards to add to the recipe box he had received with his first shipment. All of a sudden, my dad was getting creative in the kitchen and new dishes were popping up on the table when we came for dinner.
