An Introduction: How did we get here?
This is (mostly) a blog about food. Well, food and kids, but before we get started you should know where I’m coming from.
A little less than a year ago two events occurred that changed the course of my life. First, I had a baby, second all of the appliances in my kitchen died. Suddenly I was back at work, had a three month old, a 2 hour commute, and was dealing with pump parts and bottles WITHOUT A DISHWASHER. If you’ve never dealt with pump parts and bottles, let me tell you, it’s a big enough pain with a dishwasher. After 2 hours in the car, my evenings were consumed with nursing my baby and cleaning pump parts. Then I would get up and start all over the next day. This was the straw. The exhaustion from this pushed me and my husband to reevaluate our situation. “Not sustainable,” was the phrase bandied around most often. Even with a dishwasher, this was not what we wanted our life to look like. We decided to make a change that we had been discussing casually for quite a while. I was going to quit my job. My fancy corporate job that made good money. Yikes. I would take care of the kiddo and find something to do that fit into our new life better. Big bonus points if it was also something I was passionate about.
It’s been 5 months since I quit and shook up our whole life. Yesterday, I finally packed up my office clothes. I’m keeping the box of them in the attic as a crutch, because honestly, I don’t know if I can really make this work, but I’m going to try. Our evenings are no longer filled with putting the baby to bed, washing everything, rushing around to pack everything up for the next day, then falling into bed for a few hours of sleep. Now, there is a lot more curling up on the couch with bowls of ice cream and watching bad TV after the baby is asleep. It’s not perfect, I don’t have it all figured out, but when I was working I really missed those bowls of ice cream and snuggles. Lately I’ve been trying to stay true to my promise to give my art a fair shot and genuinely loving hanging out with the coolest kiddo around (I may be a little biased, but I think you can tell from the photo, he is pretty cool).
The best part of being home are the unexpected places where I’ve found pure joy. One of those places is sitting at the kitchen table sharing meals with my kiddo and introducing him to new foods. I’m passionate about food. How it tastes, where it comes from, how we grow it, prepare it, and the love that is expressed in serving, sharing, and eating it. I come at the dinner table with the perspective of an anthropology degree and the heart of a girl who grew up baking bread with her mother.
My husband and I have always eaten fairly healthy and mostly local when we can. However, in feeding my son, I’m noticing how much non-food tries to sneak its way onto our plates. I want C to love food, but I also want him to be conscious of what he puts in his body and I want him to know where his food comes from. I’m starting this blog to capture my experiences sharing the joy of food with my kiddo. It’s part a collection of recipes that work for me, part a place to store my (ever changing) methods and philosophy, and part a collection of random stories from our days, because life is nothing if not hilarious.
