Mostly Brave

“Cooking is at once child’s play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love.”

– Betty Crocker’s Cookbook

My Mom and Dad bought me a toy kitchen set when I was a little girl. It was the bomb. It had a stove and a refrigerator, a table and chairs, fake boxes of food, and a coffee pot that looked like it was pouring real coffee. Daddy would sit on one of my little chairs and let me pour him a cup and he would go on and on about how good it tasted. I spent hours in that kitchen. I was so excited because there was a girl down the street that had a pretty fun kitchen set and now I had one of my very own. Santa killed it that year!

In my kindergarten class there was a kitchen set that all of the little girls in my class would play with. I remember I was graded on whether I was a good sharer in that kitchen and my grade usually reflected that I could have been a better sharer. 😊

When my granddaughter Isla was born I couldn’t wait for her to get old enough for me to create a little kitchen set for her. I went to garage sales and thrift stores to come up with a playset that I thought she would love. I even staged her monkey and bear sitting at her little table having a tea party next to a plastic jar of pansies. I think she loves her kitchen.

Girls start playing in their make-believe kitchens around the age of 18 months and tend to stop around the age of seven. As little girls we even make trips to the library to check out Betty Crocker cookbooks. We are training for the role of our lives!

We then get married and the gifts are typically for the wife and not for the husband. China, plate sets, water goblets, pots and pans, cutlery, cutting boards, glasses to drink from, and serving platters. I was so excited to play the role of wife and mom for real when Bryan and I were married. It was time to put all of my fake-kitchen training into play! I wanted to prove that I could master the job at hand.

I am an entertainer.  I love throwing parties and I love letting my guests know that they are welcome in our home. I plan out what appetizers I will make, what dinner would be the best fit for the party, and what desserts would be the most delicious. I even enjoyed cooking for Bryan and the kids while they were growing up.

When I turned fifty something changed in me though. Maybe it is because it is not considered a challenge anymore, it can be pretty boring and can be a thankless job. Don’t get me wrong.  I still love to cook for Bryan, the kids, and my friends, but there are times that I feel the job is more chore than fun anymore.

I whipped out my trusted calculator and calculated how many meals I have made for Bryan since we have been married. If we are just talking one meal a day then the total comes to 13,505. If we are figuring up two meals a day then the number increases to 27,010. When I was a little girl playing with my kitchen set I was oblivious to the fact that I would one day be cooking anywhere between 13,000 to 27,000 meals in just 37 years of marriage. Those numbers are crazy to me. Really, if you think about it, it’s kind of like being president of your graduating class. You never REALLY understand that you will be saddled with planning class reunions for the rest of your life.  Another sucker born.

I am fifty-seven now and will be retiring at the age of sixty-nine. Do you think I can retire from my homemaker role as well? No, and if I am being honest, I wouldn’t want to either. The key to my not being resentful is to realize that every meal is a way for me to show love, whether it be to welcome people into my home or simply cook a dinner on a regular weekday night.

The role of a lifetime continues. What are you making for dinner tonight? 😊