Dinner, It's Not Just at 5:30 Anymore

How many people can say they ate dinner sitting outside the high school last night?

Because sometimes our schedules are so crazy at night; that is what I was reduced to.

Eating dinner at a dinner table is important. I fully agree. I love catching up with the girls and hearing about their days. Sometimes they even like hearing about my day. Yesterday, was more of a typical school day...

Girls went to school, picked up one while the other went to cheer practice, ran some errands, came home and put chicken in the oven at 4 so it would be done at 5. Picked up cheerleader at 4:30, came home, took out chicken and drove swimmer to swim practice (25 mins away). Cheerleader went out to dinner with team and then to student council meeting. Swimmer and I got home at 7:25, cooked rice and green beans, re-heated chicken and drove to HS where we enjoyed our dinner under a street lamp and waited for cheerleader to get out of meeting.

I have a feeling we are not in the minority in our crazy dinner time situations. What if I had more than 2 kids? I make a conscious effort to check in with the girls during the day because dinner time at 7:30 is usually spent trying to cram in a little more homework. Luckily we drive around a lot and I can talk to them in the car. Sometimes I even sit down while they are eating breakfast just to get in that family unity time.

The hardest part about this is planning what is for dinner, who will be eating it at what time and remembering to take something out of the freezer. Which reminds me, hmmm, what's for dinner tonight? (More importantly, where will we be eating it?)

Dinner

I went to my friend Amy's house for dinner tonight. She is the photographer I assist during wedding season. It was such a lovely time. Her table was set like you would see in a Martha Stewart magazine. Which is funny because she is so not Martha. (Thank God!) There were 7 of us, 2 women I met for the first time. It was a completely different group than I more regularly hang out with and it was great. We talked about all the usual things Moms talk about....kids, kids' teachers (as in who is strict, who is sweet and who has no social skills when it comes to talking to parents, but the kids love'em), cats and their various issues (one Mom's cat had died earlier in the day as she was booking her son's birthday party. Can't you just hear that conversation, "Um, great, save that date, but I will have to get back to you after I give my cat mouth to mouth."), how great dinner was! and if there were otters on Cape Cod (evidently, yes). The sweetest thing was that she had little gifts wrapped at our seats and some random paper cubes with letters on them. We had to shuffle the letters to make a word. The word eventually meant what our names meant. Susan means "lily" if you were wondering. My mom watched the girls because Matt was out fishing. I am so fortunate for my mom, but that will have to be a whole'nother post because the wine and chocolate are making my eyelids droopy.