Why I Make Everyone Their Own Individual Breakfast

I am constantly feeding hungry mouths.  Well, that's not totally true.  My kids all sleep through the night (from 7 or 8 pm until at least 6 am), though maybe that's not wise to declare.  Such declarations in the past have led to children suddenly waking up in the middle of the night.  Okay, let's start over.  I am constantly feeding hungry mouths from 6 am until 8 pm.  There. That works.

A husband, four kids, a dog, and four chickens.  Oh, and currently 2 of the 25+ tadpoles we brought home last week that are still (somehow) alive.  Do you know how much food we go through?  And how many different preferences there are in this house?  

Let me just say, I'm a stickler about everyone eating the same dinner.  I just feel it's respectful to whomever cooked (ahem, that'd be me), it gives the kids a good opportunity to try different things, get used to other items, or learn that sometimes we don't like the food we have, but if they don't eat they'll go to bed hungry.  On rare occasions, we will eat something else if a new recipe I've tried totally bombs, but that's really not too often.  

However...other meals I am not so strict.  Like at breakfast.  I KNOW that everyone has their favorites.  I do, too.  And I want my family to be able to have a time in their day where what they eat is completely their choice.  My husband, obviously, can eat whatever he wants, whenever he wants because he's an adult and my partner and it'd be completely ridiculous for me to ever dictate what/when he eats (out of courtesy to me, he always eats my dinners-just like everyone else).  I'm not his mom.  But the small people-yeah, I'm the boss of their food.

For a long time, breakfast was oatmeal.  That's it.  Everyone likes it (at least a little), it's inexpensive, fast, and it's healthy.  Since I have been waking up earlier to swim in the morning or get other things done, I've found myself with extra time before my husband leaves for work.  I swiftly decided to use that time to make breakfast a time of choice.

Now, this does mean that it takes me longer to prepare breakfast, I dirty way more dishes, and it costs us a little more, but everyone is getting to eat something of their choice which is exciting and important to me.  

Yesterdays breakfast looked like this:

Me & Ben: Spicy sausage, egg scramble with cheese, peppers, spinach, and broccoli

Ellie: Toast with jelly

Zoe: Spicy sausage, Cream of Wheat with raisins

Aaron: Cream of Wheat with raisins

Levi: Baby oatmeal mixed with homemade banana/applesauce puree

It's a lot.  I know it's a lot.  And when I see how many pots and pans I've used I wonder if I'm being ridiculous.  And, truthfully, maybe I am.  But I've decided that it's a good ridiculous.  It's a ridiculous that shows my family that I value their preferences, likes, and choices.  It's a decision that teaches them that they are worthy of my time and efforts.  It's a choice that teaches my children to make decisions about what they'd like to eat.  And it's a choice that makes for a more enjoyable breakfast time for everyone.  

This may not always be how breakfast in our house works, but for now, it's beautiful (and messy and time consuming).  I also really need my chickens to grow up so I can get free eggs, but that's a whole different conversation.  

Do you have time during your day when your family members get to choose what they want to eat or do you all eat the same things at every meal/snack?  

A Collision of Craziness and A Decision of Hope

We've hit a really interesting spot in life.  It seems as though every major occurrence, either planned or unplanned, all collided neatly into a 2 month span of life.  Given every opportunity to fall into discouragement, frustration, anger, and bitterness, we are choosing instead to have hope, faith, and our trust in Jesus.  It hasn't been easy.  It's been really hard.

In late April we left our church to start a new church.  The process did not look like we thought it would.   Many deviations in the plan were frustrating, disappointing, and heart-breaking.  God has given us favor, though, and has turned some of those deviations into blessings!  (He's good at that, you know.)

In the second week of May, ahem, on Mother's Day, Ben was playing in a soccer game when he sustained a very serious knee injury.  Imagine hearing that the specialist caring for your husband is concerned that an amputation may be necessary.  Okay, now stop crying.  Yeah.  He's not allowed to play sports.  Ever.  Coaching seems like a fun job, right?

Our current lease on our house was up at the end of June.  The rental housing market here is insane-o.  Expensive and not much out there.  About 10 days before we needed to be out and gone from our house, we found another and were on our way toward South Reno, our desired location (not so much exactly where we are, but it's a step).  Friends came to help us move since Ben was still not moving around.

Mid June Ben had surgery, where he again heard about how "lucky" he was to be keeping his leg.  The 4 hour surgery took 2.5, but he was in lots of pain and had to stay the night.  He was home the next day enjoying "conversations" with "people" quite regularly due to the crazy pills he was taking.

Early September Ben finally got off crutches.

The entire surgery cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000.  Yes, those zeros are all really there.  Ben was two months shy of insurance at his new job.  We got the price much, much, lower than that, but regardless, we didn't, and don't, have that kind of money.  Ever maxed out a credit card before?  Well we've just joined that club.  Fun.

I believe with my whole heart that we serve a good, loving, faithful God.  He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), he has GOOD plans for us (Jer. 29:11), he always cares about us (1 Peter 5:7), and he is ALWAYS faithful (Deut. 32:4).  I believe that he will supply all our needs (Phil. 4:19), including our finances.

So, what's my "job" in all this?  My job is to rely on Jesus.  My job is not to "make it all work".  My job is to be faithful and deliberate with the finances that we do have.  My job is to encourage my husband and forgive him (because I did, in all honesty, find that I was a little bitter that he played soccer on Mother's Day, and that's when his injury happened-you know, that "if only he had stayed with me" ridiculousness).  My job is to love the people that I see each and every day, and continue to love the people that God brings into our church.  My job is to love my children and to physically, verbally, and emotionally show them what it really means to trust Jesus despite our circumstances seeming glum.  I want them to know, REALLY know what it means to depend on God.

I am choosing hope today.  What areas of life do you need to stick a little "hope" into today?  God is faithful.  Choose to hope in Him!