No More Perfect Meals

(Today is the Third Thursday of the month. Time for the Hearts at Home Home Blog Hop! This month's topic: No More Perfect Meals. Head over to Jill's blog to see what other women have to say.)

Ideally, dinnertime would be a picture of my family gathered around the dining room table for a well-balanced meal that I had planned long in advance. The reality is that I rarely know what I am going to serve before the whining declarations of hunger are directed my way. Tonight for example, I asked my husband to pick up cheap pizza on his way home from work. When my brain could hardly manage the task of placing the order, I knew the right decision was made.

I surround myself with friends who make meal plans and freeze a month’s worth of dinners ahead of time. Other friends choose a healthy lifestyle without options of fast food or cereal for dinner. For myself, I’ve found I need to give myself some grace and just do the best I can with today.

Tonight, I had planned on eating breakfast for dinner. We are low on groceries and I had no desire to head out to the store in torrential downpours resulting in area wide flooding. Happy with the fact that I had a plan, I began to do some serious spring cleaning in my daughters’ bedroom.

Just before lunchtime, an unplanned play date came our way. The pounding storms had brought my friends a basement full of water when their sump pump quit working along with other unexpected damage. Taking their child for a few hours was the least I could do to help. With limited food on hand, I offered options to our young guest. With pancakes now on our lunch menu (after I had eaten French toast for breakfast), I no longer had a desire to eat breakfast again when dinner came around.

It’s due to my lack of planning that I feel crummy from our meal of convenience. At the end of the day, I would have preferred meat and vegetables that left me feeling good about my dinner choices. However, I feel wonderful that I was able to step in and help a friend out in her time of need.

As my family sat together around the dinner table this evening, I looked into my girls eyes as they listened intently to their daddy’s story from his college days. I realize it’s not the food that matters. It’s the time together that counts.

I’ll continue to strive for better. There will also be a part of me that wants to fuel our bodies with nutritious meals every time. I will always welcome tips to help me plan meals and reduce the stress of the dinner hour. Most importantly, I will need to remember to extend myself some grace.

It’s unlikely that we will eat a nutritious meal I am pleased with every night. However, when I’m settling on something less than the best to get through the evening because we are helping others, I can go to bed satisfied. While I may never get meal time right before our kids grow up and move out, I hope they will always know it is the relationships that matter.