the food thing

Consistently, one of my biggest challenges in life is food. When I was single, I had such a hard time feeding myself that I got skinny. Eating alone just underscored my extreme loneliness. Plus, I was so busy that the effort of putting together those three squares a day was too much. Lucky for me, ministry involved quite a bit of eating with others, or I would have withered and expired. Really, it was quite bad.

Now that I am a wife and mommy, food is still a challenge. It has gotten better. I have realized what I am good at (baking) and what I am not (planning). I am not the most terrible or brilliant cook on the planet. This means that I have skills and potential, should I choose to exercise either of them. But mostly I am just scraping by.

I hate the planning. Hate it. I hate that my hubby mostly is a non-participant in the planning process. We have already had a million, zillion conversations that go EXACTLY like this:

Me: "What sounds good for dinner?"

Him: "Oh anything, whatever you like."

Me: "But what sounds good to you?"

Him: "Whatever you want."

Just when I get to the point that I stop asking these futile questions, he gives me feedback. Feedback that limits our already meager possibilities (such as: I'm tired of the stuff we've been eating.) or critiques a recent experiment, about which he said nothing but good things at the time. Ugh. I don't like being the sole input and creative energy behind the food production in the house. This is one of those hidden elements of the wife+mommy job description. I always expected to be the main food provider/creator, just not the only one giving input into the process.

So, here we are now. I have a picky husband with a limited palate and a baby just starting on solids. She isn't ready to eat what we eat yet and I'm kinda glad. Major changes need to be made in the food department. More consistent and nutritious meals need to be made. I need a regular infusion of variety. It would be SUPER if someone would volunteer to partner with me on this (most likely this is another person in a similar situation... anyone? anyone?). Accountability and friendship have always helped me to overcome my hurdles. I've been searching for the solution to this problem for quite some time. I found a woman who is blogging for the entire month of November about food (check her out at: thehappiestmom.com) and have found some tips there. I hope that her 6 meal shuffle will help me. I'll post about that next time I talk about food - with my own version of the shuffle. Any other tips or suggestions are totally welcome.

Humbly yours,

yukon "i'd rather be hiking" sally