My Constant Struggle

My constant struggle is this: Eating at home. It isn't about the cooking, completely. I am a speedy cook- whipping up dinner in 30 minutes or less is my standard repertoire. It is also usually fairly tasty- nothing gourmet, but nothing disgusting. Hubby will say he LOVES, LOVES, LOVES my cooking. I am a fairly economical shopper, granted, our grocery bill has skyrocketed recently, but I will blame that on raising costs of food in general. It is unusual that I waste large amounts of ingredients.

What truly bugs me is the process of the whole thing. The preparation, the mess, the clean up. Argh. I can totally live without this.

Back in those leisurely college days, we sauntered into dining halls, whenever, whatever. Ate the stuff, complained about the stuff, shoved the stuff into big bins and walked out.

For the brief time that I lived on my own before getting married, all 18 months of it, I cooked for myself. I had to, there was no funds for eating out. I didn't mind that, I cooked my meals, scooped some onto my plate, ate it, and put my one plate and one fork away. (I also cooked about twice a week and constantly ate leftovers...)

These days, each meal is a big production, from the number of plates/utensils used, to the crumbs on the floor, to the number of times Hubby and I need to get up for this and that.

(And there are signs that Zoe doesn't like leftovers- I need to correct that, ASAP.)

It is just getting OLD.

I don't even do this three times a day. Except for weekends, at most, just twice a day. (And if Aidan agrees to eating in the car in the AM, then I only do this major production once a day.) I have NO IDEA how stay at home moms do this AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN.

I now know why my mom looked so resigned and frustrated so frequently at dinner, when we took our sweet old time getting to her diligently prepared meal, full of love.

ARGH!

Then I blame it on the government: like acork's comment on my blog a few days ago, if I only paid less in taxes, I would have more money to outsource this repetitive activity, to the PROS. And everyone would be happy, there would be more jobs, more revenue in terms of sales tax... But instead, I toil away at home.

I know that to serve my family is a privilege, and clearly, this is a lesson still in progress.

However, what keeps me going is this: if we tuck away $200 for not eating out (not that difficult to do, since that would mean saving $50 a week, probably just about 1 not-fancy meal with a family of four), and let it COMPOUND (go compounding interest rate!), in THIRTY YEARS, when I am in retirement, I would have an extra $170,000, assuming just a meager 5% interest rate.

The bummer thing is, by then, when it will be just Hubby and me, I won't mind the cooking, since there will only be two plates and two forks involved.

I know, I know, by then, I will also really miss the staggering mess those little ones make.

Meanwhile, I already snapped my pea pods (to get rid of the fibrous stuff), plated my fish so that is ready to be 'steamed' (I steam via microwave), the rice is already in the cooker, and we even have two different appetizers.