Just one hot meal, please.

What I wouldn't give for just one hot meal. No, I'm not poor. (I am broke, but there's a difference). I'm just a mommy.

Every morning, I make breakfast for the kids. Now, I use "make" loosely - sometimes it really is pancakes or waffles. Sometimes it's toast cut into silly shapes. Some mornings, it's oatmeal. But others, it's cold cereal or a poptart. I know the breakfast isn't going to be the balanced meal it should. And after making their breakfast, his sack lunch, my sack lunch and cleaning up before getting them ready for school, practicing spelling words and darting out the door, I'm lucky to snag a banana on the way out.

Lunch, it's kind of a hot meal. Usually at my desk. Sometimes a lean cuisine meal or cup o' Campbells. Usually a sandwich.

But dinner, there's where I get crabby. Every.single.night. I work hard to make a homemade, hot, balanced, tasty meal every night. I meal plan, I shop intentionally. I organize my pantry, fridge and recipes for the week. I love to prepare these meals, and it feels good to know that I'm providing this for my family. My husband and children benefit.

Me, not so much. These are my dinner options:
a) Eat it first, before they realize it's done
b) Try to eat with them, but get up 100 times to get this, that, cut, slice, refill, clean up spills, etc.
c) Wait until they're done and in bed, then fix my plate

None of which allow me to eat it the way I wish I could...piping hot AND with my family.

Someday, they'll be gone, fixing food for their kids, and I what I won't give to have them back home, asking me to get them something else.

It's all about perspective. Hot food be damned. That's why God invented the microwave.