Progress Toward Goals

I mentioned earlier my goal to walk 1,200 in 2012. After just over a month, progress is pretty good. I need to walk at least 100 miles each month, but in January, I took a 3-day weekend trip to Portland and didn't walk a single mile the whole time I was there. Once home, I had serious catching up to do, but fortunately, I finished January logging exactly 100.05 miles. That's how close it was. This month began well, but then I went to Rexburg last weekend and once again, didn't walk for three days. Now I'm once again in catch-up mode. I did six miles yesterday and five today. We got Ms. Kitty a choke collar in attempt to train her to walk next to us rather drag us along behind. It works great; it's like walking an entirely different dog. She's not crazy about the collar, but she lets me put it on her if it means she can go for a walk. She did three of my six miles yesterday, and she was one tired Kitty! She curled up on her favorite recliner right next to me and barely lifted her head when everyone started coming home from school.

I mentioned in the other post that this was really my only resolution for 2012. And that is correct. Sort of. I do have one other goal, although I wouldn't exactly call it a resolution. For some unknown reason, I had this idea that I should start cooking more in 2012, eating out in restaurants just a little bit less often. Why? I'm not really sure. But anyway, that's what I've been thinking. For those who may not know my history in that area, I was pretty much raised in restaurants. My dad was a fire fighter and worked one 24-hour day out of three. On that day, we'd always eat out, usually with my grandparents. I won't lie; I loved restaurants then, and I still love them today. When we had four very young children (pre-Seth), we ate out at least once a week, sometimes more. But the real transition (read: we eat out more days than we eat home) came when we moved to Billings 7-1/2 years ago.

It was then that Gerald began working swing shift. From that point until now, he has never been home in the evenings. I've been essentially a solo parent all that time, including during the dinner hour. And here's the thing: I'm a terrible cook. Seriously terrible. I don't enjoy one thing about cooking. I mean how many of you just love to do things you totally suck at? Yeah, I didn't think so. Even the supposedly simple recipes often fail when I try to cook them. It's ridiculous how bad I am. So without Gerald to participate in meal preparation, I basically opted for restaurants/fast food most nights.

And there are more obstacles than just my woeful lack of culinary skills. The people in my family have so many weird eating idiosyncrasies:

1. Gerald won't eat mammals. He's not quite vegetarian because he does eat chicken and fish, but no beef or pork.

2. Shulamith doesn't eat any fruits or vegetables. None. End of story. And she's even pickier now that she's pregnant, which I would have said was not possible, but it is.

3. Matt doesn't like onions or mushrooms.

4. Isaiah doesn't eat much of anything, and certainly nothing I cook.

5. Seth prefers Kraft Macaroni & Cheese or Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup over anything I could make.

So you can see the challenge here. To prepare a dish that might please everyone, it would need to be vegetarian (or include only fish or chicken), contain no fruits or vegetables (especially no onions or mushrooms), and taste better than mac & cheese and chicken noodle soup. This is no easy task. But I've been trying. My plan is to eat at home three out of the four weekdays (Mon. - Thurs.) It's against my religion to cook on Friday or Saturday nights, but we do try to honor the Sabbath by cooking and eating at home on Sundays. So that would be four nights eating at home, which may be overly optimistic, but we can try.

One thing that will undoubtedly help is that starting next week, Gerald will be working day shift. Yep, after 7-1/2 years, we will actually have him home in the evenings. This dynamic will be a definite change for all of us, but a good one for sure. Seth will get to see his dad more than just on weekends. Gerald will be able to attend Seth's evening activities, which he never could for Isaiah and Eli. Best of all, Gerald will be here to participate in dinner preparation. W00t! So here's how it's going so far. On Monday I made vegetarian lasagna. Everyone except Isaiah and Seth likes that, but as I said, they don't like anything I cook. Then last night, I tried Lindsey's recipe for meatloaf. It actually turned out good, but I used lean ground beef rather than ground turkey, which means Gerald won't eat it. And he's really the only one who eats leftovers. Face it...when the food is crappy the first time around, why would we want to eat it again?

On that note, we are now off to Rumbi, our favorite Hawaiian grill. Because after cooking two nights in a row, I'm pretty much over it. At least for now. Maybe tomorrow, I'll gather the energy to try again.