Cooking is an integral part of my daily existence, especially when Alexander is here.  He travels a lot for work, and after several weeks of being on the road and eating every meal in a restaurant, when he’s at home, he prefers home-cooked food.  I can’t really blame him for that, but geez, I’m not a short-order cook! 

He’s currently working out of town, but our two kids are doing a fine job of picking up the ”I’m-hungry-can-I-have-something-to-eat?” slack in the meantime.  They’re 12 and 9, so I really can’t expect them to prepare all of their own meals at this stage in their young lives.  And since we try to eat healthy foods most of the time, I also can’t say, “Oh, just go eat a bag of chips and a carton of dip for dinner.” 

Since my kids are homeschooled, they probably have more leisure time than many traditionally-schooled kids.  They have more time to run around outside, play tennis, ride horses, ride their bikes and scooters, jump on the neighbor’s trampoline, etc., and they’re doing a lot more of those things now that spring is here.  So at the end of the day, they’re especially hungry, even though we eat two or three meals a day with a few snacks in between.

I was working on my blogs last night while the kids were watching a DVD of old Pink Panther cartoons.  Just when I had started to type, Peter came out and asked me to fix him some pelminis (Russian-style ravioli — we always keep a few bags of the frozen variety on hand).  These pelminis are rather small, so he said 15 of them would do.  I cooked those for him, then sat down at the computer to resume typing.  Ten minutes later, he said he was still hungry, so he asked for 7 more pelminis.  I cooked them, then sat down again.  Fifteen minutes later, he asked me to slice him an apple (I hate to bite into whole apples or similar fruits, so I slice them up — my kids have obviously adopted this quirk).  I don’t trust him with a sharp knife, so I once again interrupted my typing in the interest of food preparation.  Fortunately, Caroline was satisfied with a container of yogurt and a peanut butter sandwich she fixed for herself while they were watching the Pink Panther.  Bless her heart!  

I really don’t mind preparing their food, since I feel that’s part of my job as a stay-at-home mom. And, it could have been worse while I was trying to blog last night:  I could have had both kids, plus Alexander, if not for the fact that he’s out of town, wanting to partake of my cooking skills.  

 My only wish is that my family would get all of their eating out of the way before I want to sit down and blog!  Waaah!