Domestic Dysfunction

Now, you would think that a domestic engineer, such as myself, would develop certain skills, such as, oh I don't know, being able to put together dinner with a certain amount of ease. Unfortunately, I must have slept through that class, because I kid you not, every day--every day--I am totally surprised when it gets to be dinnertime and totally at a loss for what will be prepared. And just as I'm getting overwhelmed by the prospect, a baby starts to cry, kicking me into all-out shut-down mode. I used to have a great system where I made a menu for the week every Sunday evening, and then there were never any surprises. And then suddenly, somehow with the arrival of my second offspring and the expiring of my handy-dandy menu-planning desk calendar, that system has gone out the window. It's truly a tragedy. My husband is much better at this than I am, because he is not a slave to a recipe. He just throws things together and they (usually) turn out fabulously. But despite my deficiencies, I did manage to pull off a darn good dinner tonight...and it was even healthy. We had grilled portobello mushrooms and steamed brussel sprouts, and it was fantastic. And as a bonus, it was super-easy. Jeff claims I'm being too hard on myself and that I'm way better now that I was when we first married, so maybe I'm making progress. And perhaps, someday, when our dinnertime gets pushed back to something resembling "normal" (not 5:00), I won't be so surprised when I look up and it's already time to get dinner ready.