An Army Runs on it's Stomach

Food.  What a trial lately.  I have been more aggravated with coming up with meals and the associated mess than I can express.  On average I don't mind cooking, heck even sometimes enjoy it, but the last few weeks  I feel as if I spend more time cooking and doing the dishes than anything else.

Gosh, don't quote me on statistics or anything but vaguely recall reading that the average housewife in 1900 spent like 75% of working time on food/meal preparation and clean up.  Despite the fact I have nifty things like a gas stove, dishwasher, refrigerator, and four grocery stores within a 10 minute drive I feel as if that percentage hasn't really changed that much for me.

Weekends are the worst because I have the whole crew here perched around waiting for meals three times a day.  Hubby is good, he definitely scratches up meals and helps out, but I feel like it's a non-stop rotation of feed, clean-up, feed, clean-up, feed, clean-up all weekend and I suppose it really is. 

It doesn't help matters lately that suddenly both boys have started eating like lumberjacks.  I'm astonished as I watch Sonny Boy polish off two brats with buns and a nice serving of french fries last night.  Igor - to whom eating was a hated chore - has started tucking in too and regularly eats a fair share of a meal too.  No longer does a simple PB&J and a glass of milk do for lunch we must add some fruit, and or some yogurt before either boy declares himself satiated.

This leads to fear of the teen years.  I remember being a teenager and eating like there would never be food again.  Hubby replies that he can never remember ever being REALLY full (that sounds bad - he had plenty, just a hollow leg)  I see images of huge roasts planned to last a couple of meals devoured in one sitting, shopping at Sam's club not in an effort to save a dime, but because I must cook five pounds of potatoes at one meal.

There really is no need to complain I suppose.  We are really lucky.  Food is not a luxury item, we can eat as much as we want and the money is there to buy more.  Those of us in the land of plenty tend to forget that much of the world isn't that lucky and that everyday I complain that I must cook another meal, there is a mother who cannot.