Public Service Announcement

Editor’s Note:  This is not a paid endorsement (Ha!  This little tiny blog?  The word PAID?  Surely, you jest).  Nope, this is one lone, hungry woman speaking into the lives of a whole lot of other dinner makers out there telling you that IT GETS BETTER.  Take heart, my downtrodden friends.  You don’t have to live this way.

Once upon a time, a woman had some trouble. 

BIG, recurring trouble.   

That trouble was called DINNER.

Here are the fundamental problems associated with DINNER:

1. Children get hungry.
2. Children get hungry at predictable intervals.
3. The dinner hour arrives every single night at a predictable time, and is designed to assuage the predictable hunger.
4. The parent on scene is reminded, yet again, that some adult around here (namely, HER) is going to need to make dinner.  Most nights, this parent is surprised anew that the dinner hour is upon her YET AGAIN.  She is gobsmacked and amazed and bewildered that she is going to have to create culinary alchemy with whatever is in her freezer and pantry, because, despite her high level of education and above average tactical abilities, she forgot that dinner is a DAILY THING, and therefore planned NOTHING.  Nada.  Zilch.
5. Cue the shrieking and crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth.  (Not from the children, mind you.  From the dinner-maker).
6. Parent pours a glass of wine and starts throwing baby carrots, cheese sticks, and crackers at her children, not at all unlike a really deranged zookeeper.  

Sound familiar to anyone?  

Please say yes.  Please, please say yes.  Please don't let me swing in the wind ALONE over here.

Well, NOT ANYMORE!  There is a NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN.

Plantoeat.com has changed my life more than any single technological advancement in the history of the world, and while I am obviously prone to exaggeration, THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE TIMES. 

It’s just that life-changing.  

Here’s how it works:

1.  You sign up for the free 30-day trial.  FREE!!  Then you quickly fall in love and decide that the monthly subscription cost of $4.95 a month is just a STEAL, as it ALLOWS YOU TO REGAIN YOUR SANITY.  
2.  In the handy-dandy recipe book, you either type in or upload your favorite recipes (using this convenient little button that you install on your computer’s toolbar). 

Isn’t it darling? 

Then, the recipes appear in a neat, organized column for you to peruse at your leisure.  IT IS MAGICAL. 

3.  Now.  BRACE YOURSELF HERE.  You need to look at your calendar for the MONTH.  Yes, the MONTH.  You may weep softly to yourself and curse the day you agreed to let your children do ANYTHING outside of the house.  But then, you take a deep breath, wipe the tears from your eyes, tell yourself that at least the DINNER PROBLEM will be solved for the month, and you GET TO WORK.

4.  Open the planner and DRAG AND DROP your very own recipes into the date that you plan to make the dinner.  PRO TIP:  Consult your calendar while you do this.  I look to see what the evening activity schedule looks like, what kind of running I will have to do, and if there is a carpool involved.  These factors inform my meal planning decisions.  Will we eat at the table?  Will we eat in the car?  Will dinner be consumed in shifts?  MUST THERE BE A THERMOS AND BENTO BOXES PREPARED?  I make a note at the bottom of each day what the after-school time looks like before I start the DRAGGING and DROPPING and PLANNING. 

THEN, THE REAL MAGIC HAPPENS.   

Click on the SHOPPING LIST tab.
That’s what I said.  CLICK SHOPPING LIST.
VOILA!  Look what appears before your bright little eyes!

Everything that you just planned has been automatically created into a grocery list for your very own convenience!  NO LIST MAKING!  It’s MADE, Jack.  You just bookmark the PlantoEat website on the homepage of your phone, click on the shopping list, and get your sweet little self to the store.  Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy, as Carter would say.  

What are you waiting for?  Are you still even HERE? 

Leave me now.  Just go. 

Get thee to plantoeat.com and change your life FOREVER AND EVER.  Amen.  

One more thing. . .

Interested trying a month's membership to the greatest, biggest, baddest dinner game changer in the history of the world?  Sign up for a 30 day FREE trial at plantoeat.com.  FREE FREE FREE FREE.  Did I mention it's free?   F.R.E.E.

Ok.  One MORE one more thing. . .

Wondering what’s for dinner this week? No problem, friends.  The Pett boys will be dining on fish tacos, courtesy of the great cookbook Dinner, A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach.  CLICK HERE to read about what happened when I first got this book in my hot little hands. 

AND LASTLY, a BIG THANKS to my friend Kara for convincing me to give this a try.  YOU HAVE CHANGED MY LIFE FOR GOOD.

If you love your friends, and I know you do, share your joy.  JUST SHARE THE JOY.  Keep us posted on how this works for you!

HAPPY EATING!

Ordinary Time

For the past two weeks, we have been up to our ears SPECIAL around here.  School closing ceremonies, end-of -the-year gatherings, class parties, college reunions, championship games.  Special is. . . . special.  Special is high drama delight in the midst of the regular mundane, the ice cream after your healthy square meal.

I gathered this past weekend with woman from all over the country, some of whom I have not seen since we dispersed from the ceremony marking our graduation in front of the imposingly beautiful LeMans Hall.  There was much to discuss, much to share, and plenty of reminiscing going on, but I was struck by this one driving curiosity:

Photo credit:  Julie Steinke

We wanted to know the ordinary. 

Shortly after reuniting, we quickly dispensed with resumes, residency, and number of dependents and got down to business.

We dug into the ordinary.

Who are your people? Who do you love?  How do you spend your days?  How long does that take you?  What saw you through that time? How do you do dinner when you have three kids and arrive home from work every day at 6:00?  How do you manage the after school activities?  What keeps you up at night?  What's your stance on cell phones and social media?  How long is your commute?  How do you manage that?  What's next for you? 

And my personal favorite. .  .

Give me a regular Tuesday.  Walk me through your day. 

Let me in to your regular life. Let me spend some time with you.  We don't need the unusual or the special.  We yearned to know the everyday mundane, where the beautiful and sacred reside. In Simply Tuesday:  Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World,  Emily P. Freeman discusses how Tuesdays, being the most ordinary of days, are examples of the smallest, but most glorious things in life.  How we spend our Tuesdays is how we spend our lives.

Cheryl, my sweet, hilarious, remarkable roommate, wished we could come back and just do one regular day.  Not graduation.  Not football games, parties, or dances.

Photo credit:  Krista Hansen DeLong

Just one regular Tuesday, with classes, meals, homework, and dorm life.

Together. 

Regular.

Ordinary.

The ordinary is the good stuff.  The ordinary is when we see people's strength of character and expressions of faith.

The ordinary is where life is lived.

I find it to be no mistake that the bulk of the liturgical calendar marks Ordinary Time.

When gathered, we did what we had had always done.  We walked the campus, visited our old dorms, journeyed to the Grotto.  We listened to our music and laughed until we cried and shared meals and joys and struggles. Pain and grief.  Confusion and clarity.  The real, beautiful, hard stuff of our lives.

Thank you, Saint Mary's College, for being the place where we discovered how we wanted to spend our extraordinary, yet extremely ordinary lives.  Thank you for giving us each other.  Thank you for teaching us truth and giving us SPES UNICA, one hope.  Thank you for showing us that glory is to be found in the ordinary.

Sister Madeleva, CSC

LeMans chapel.  Photo credit:  Krista Hansen DeLong