These days leading up to Christmas find me at home. Off work on leave. I have been busy, though, but different from the usual hustle-and-bustle of work-work-work and community caring activities with my senior pals. I find myself engaged mostly in…
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\n…cooking. My mother-in-law is visiting, and she seems always to be eating or waiting at the table for her next meal. I have never observed an 85-year-old woman eat as much as she does.<\/p>\n
Yesterday morning, I prepared an egg-and-cheese casserole. According to the recipe, it was enough for six. Nope… not with my M-I-L. She ate half, just for breakfast! And she ate a waffle, too.<\/p>\n
Mid-morning, I baked a cake for her to have for dessert with dinner. I frosted the cake and put it in a cake keeper. I went out in the middle of the day to visit a friend at an up-county fire station to make a plan for a large community event next spring. <\/p>\n
Aside — when I returned home, my mother-in-law asked me where I had been, and I told her that I was meeting with a friend. I must have used a female pronoun (my friend is a woman)… then the MIL asked me, “is she married?”<\/p>\n
My response was one of incredulity. “Does it matter?” I didn’t answer her question because it really isn’t any of her business. Why does she care if I meet with someone who is married or not? Would she ask me that question if the meeting were with a guy? Sheesh… I just don’t get it.<\/p>\n
But back to the home quietude… Later, I prepared dinner — baked rigatoni — and again a meal enough for six was consumed in a double quantity.<\/p>\n
Then she asked, “what’s for dessert?” I opened the cake keeper and discovered that half of the cake was gone. “Who ate all this cake? … my spouse said, “Mom ate it for lunch.” Along with a huge ham-and-cheese sub that I made for her to eat while I was out.<\/p>\n
While I am not looking forward to it, I’m going to have to make a run to the grocery store today. I have two more guests arriving later — my brother and his wife — and I have to triple the supply of food that we have on hand to ensure that we have enough for everyone at our table. <\/p>\n
I have not had time to do anything else during my “Christmas staycation.” I was hoping to get some stuff done for my hobby website and other end-of-year activities. But that is not going to happen while the MIL is here.<\/p>\n
Oh well, at least the spouse finds this all amusing and is trying to help care for her while she’s here. I hope at least to have a little time to go with my brother to visit family, instead of always be cooking. Fa cosi sia. Such is life.<\/p>\n
Life is short: if eating my cooking makes her happy, and making her happy makes my spouse happy, then happiness reigns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
These days leading up to Christmas find me at home. Off work on leave. I have been busy, though, but different from the usual hustle-and-bustle of work-work-work and community caring activities with my senior pals. I find myself engaged mostly … Continue reading