Moms, take back your time by making dinner time easier.
http://thejuicywoman.blogs.com/my_weblog/2014/07/dju-eat.html
Food. Gotta love it. I sure do. I love eating it. Preparing it and looking at it, thinking, talking and everything else about it. Food has always held a certain magic for me.
But as an author, speaker and blogger, radio show host, and recovering food addict, I often get so wrapped up in what I’m working on that I completely forget to eat.
Last night while munching on takeout pizza for dinner, the fam and I gathered and we debated this whole issue of what I like to call, “D’J’U eat?”
When I first married my husband, Angel, I was running the family business with my grandmother as my partner. Lucky for me, my office was my Nana’s penthouse in Manhattan that had a terrace and an astonishing view, which overlooked the GW Bridge and the Hudson River lay at our feet.
It was wonderful having the freedom to make my own hours and customize my work and home schedule to fit my needs.
My Nana was the one who taught me how to cook. From the time I was a little girl I used to sit in her sparkling white kitchen, sit across from her at the table, glance out the window at the beautiful expanse of sky and watch her deft and chunky, arthritic hands rolling out a pastry dough, making homemade jams and jellies, icing cakes, filling pies, cutting out ravioli or stirring a Sunday gravy. She was always in the midst of making preparations for either the next family dinner, or adding to her goods table to sell for the church bazaar. Helen Perrella, my Nana was a dynamo.
Not only did she spin her magic in the kitchen, but she also had a head for business. She was in charge of doing all the accounting for my family’s real estate business. She managed the accounts of 110 families and commercial
businesses and did it all without knowing anything about computers or
technology. In those days the cutting edge technologies were her Pitney Bowes stamp machine, a check signer, a copier, her adding machine and a typewriter.
In 1985, by the time I stepped into managing the business, I realized that my Nana was quite an act to follow. But like her, I learned to weave the same magic and before I knew it, I was able to multi-task, and manage the business, screen a new tenant, prepare the bank deposit while at the
same time feeding my son and stirring a gravy. It was insane.
That’s a frenetic pace to maintain, and it’s very difficult to stick with it.
So that’s why yesterday when my husband called from work and said, “D’J’U eat? that question brought up some tension.
As we sat at our pizza table, exchanging stories about favorite camping adventures our daughter, Cara’s acceptance to the Culinary Institute of America, and our son, PT’s birthday, I raised the issue of my upset with the whole D’J’U eat? issue.
I told Angel that everytime he calls and asks that question, I automatically assume he means that deep down he expects me to have a 4 course meal prepared, ready and waiting for him to sit down and eat.
He laughed when he heard that. And said, “honey, when I ask that, I’m asking you, if you and the kids have already eaten. If not, then I’ll bring whatever you need and either come home and cook it for you or buy it
prepared.”
This year we’ll be married 24 years and every day I discover more reasons to love him. I just realized that I’ve been looking at my life through the old filter of the Donna Reed-like way I learned to live and I don’t have to. Insane, but true.
I teach my clients and I use a stress relief process called Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT. EFT is basically tapping on a variety of acupressure points on the body to release anxiety and limiting beliefs. I’ll be tapping on all my Donna Reed beliefs today so that when Angel calls before he comes home and asks, “D’J’U Eat?” I’ll be able to hear what he’s really asking and offering.
Now your challenge is to look at something that you’re doing in life that you’ve done a million times without thinking, yet find yourself silently resenting, and think it through and realize that you do have a choice.
Please leave a comment here and stay tuned for details on my August 12 Mother/Daughter Bully Bustin’ Body Beautiful Hangout on Google +Like my Facebook page to find out what’s coming next.
Much love,
Andrea