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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Food Memories - But First....

First, I just need to get something out.  I'm really aggravated with myself.  I set my alarm to get up early, at first I was doing it often, not everyday but often, now I don't do it at all. So nap time consists of trying to rush through a work out and do whatever else I have to do during nap time.  Not to mention since I'm working out about 2 hours a day, I either have to work out the entire nap time or do an hour at nap time and then an hour at bedtime, which isn't the best time.  So I don't really know what to do with myself.  I may have to put myself on a strict bedtime, but I know I'm not good with "rules" or "restrictions"...I sort of rebel from them.  Like, tomorrow I'll be gone all day a good 12 hours, and I know in my head that I desperately need to work out before I leave the house, but I'd have to get up at like 430/5 to do that.  I honestly love the idea of doing this, I know I'll be awake and alert and just feel better through out the day but when it comes to that alarm going off, I'll just hit snooze.  And, today, it's a Wednesday, which are always crazy days, and I just ignored the alarm clock and when I did get up I ended up falling back asleep on the couch for 15 minutes.  Oh the days I could sleep for four hours and have abounding energy....

So, now that that's off my chest.  Onto food memories.  I have a lot of these, it's probably one of the many reasons I have food issues.  My mom was an amazing cook, we grew up on good, country, home cooked meals.  She made our breakfast before school almost every morning (which I hope to do for Isaac and Zoe), we always had a hot meal and we always had some variety.  I do remember lots of pork chops and potatoes probably because they are cheap, but she always had a variety of ways to fix them.  My favorite pork chops where breaded and laid over stuffing and baked...yummmmmy!!!  I don't think I've ever fixed pork chops in this house. 

For our birthdays every year we got to pick the meal for dinner.  My sister always picked either liver and onions (because I HATED it and she knew it and she was being mean, because I either ate that or nothing...so I'd pretty much eat nothing), sometimes she'd pick Fried Chicken, which is what my dad makes her now.  I'd pick meatloaf, with potatoes and green beans.  Travis would pick chicken and dumplings with either corn or peas and Andy would pick Spaboli (inside out pizza...sort of...kind of like a cal zone but like 100x better).   And sometimes these would vary but this is mostly the picks.  

Grape Nuts remind me of my maternal grandma, because I always had those for breakfast, and we never had them at our house, and I never understood why there wasn't any grapes in it.  My paternal grandma I have awesome food memories with, crackers with butter, fried egg sandwich on white bread with mayo and she used to make this hamburger and noodle thingy sometimes, she wasn't really that great of a cook but she definitely got an A for effort.  According to my dad she was a terrible cook, her mom died when she was a baby and she was the youngest of 5 girls so she was sort of babied, I guess she didn't really have to learn how to cook. 

The other day I was eating strawberries and I have a very distinct food memory that wasn't about my childhood.  Now, strawberries should probably remind me of my paternal grandpa because he had a farm (he didn't live there but he had one) and he had strawberries there and so we often had fresh strawberries.  Just an FYI, fresh strawberries DO NOT taste the same as what you get in the store and they dont' get as big (probably the case for most all fruits/veggies).  But as I was eating the strawberries I remembered how after Zoe was born I'd order a bowl full of strawberries for EVERY meal.  I was nursing so I was allowed to order as much food as I wanted and I literally would order an entire meal (plus some for snacks later) and then a big bowl of strawberries and sometimes it was the only thing I'd eat on my plate.  I dont' know what it was about strawberries but it's all I wanted.  And I was at the hospital for 4 1/2 days so I ate a lot of them.  Then I remembered craving then after I had Isaac and get this huge bowl of all kinds of fruit and it was so yummy, but I couldn't keep it down, I didn't give myself enough time for my stomach to settle after surgery.  I'm pretty sure if I get the pleasure of having another baby I'd probably eat a ton of strawberries.  Since I'm only "allowed" to have 2 more babies (it's all the c-sections my doctor feels safe to perform) I sort of wish I could have those last 2 in a couple years..... It's not like I can just keep having babies forever, I obviously can't....  anyway...wow, didn't know that was gonna come out in this entry.  I'm fine where I'm at if these two are all I have, I feel blessed to have a boy and a girl, healthy, happy and whole!

So, I have a lot of food memories beyond what I shared.  In my home growing up it was important that we all sat down at the table together to eat, that we had a nice, hot, home cooked meal and we turned the TV off.  It's not what I do now, but it was really special to me and really good for us kids.  Plus right now it's hard to fix two separate meals (and sometimes more because I have some insanely picky eaters at this house) and then sit down and watch everyone eat their huge plates of yummy food and I'm eating baked fish and roasted broccoli!  Anyway, I think everyone could link food to memories or memories to food.

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