I am a good provider.
I don’t know exactly when it became a big deal to me. Well, yes. I do. It was probably hanging around before the pandemic, but when COVID hit and nothing could be counted on, when I couldn’t even reliably find toilet paper—that brought it to the front. I needed to make sure I was providing for my family. And I have, I do. Probably more than I really should, but hey. We all have our hangups, and there are worse ones.
For instance, Christmas dinner. Child 1 wanted ham. Child 2 cannot eat ham. Did I override child 1? Did I just get something small for child 2? No. No, dear reader. I got a ten pound ham, and an eight pound rib roast.
For four people.
And dessert? I love pumpkin pie. It’s necessary. If it’s available, I’m having it. In order to take it easy on us in a strange house and awkward kitchen, we decided we’d get dessert from Costco. But child did not want pumpkin pie. They wanted Costco’s wonderful tuxedo cake. Fine, then—I would get both. Only when I got there, all the tuxedo cakes were gone. So I got a cheesecake along with the pumpkin pie. And a chicken pot pie for Christmas Eve dinner.
Can you say “leftovers?”
One advantage of this house is that the fourth bedroom is part of a mother-in-law suite. So it has its own refrigerator. Thank goodness.
It’s been such a plus that roomie and I have decided we’re going to need a second refrigerator at home. I figure it will pay for itself pretty quickly, considering all the food I won’t be throwing away because it got lost in the back of the refrigerator and forgotten.
“But KD,” you say, “Won’t more stuff get lost, if there’s more fridge to lose it in?” See, that’s where you don’t know my family. If the second fridge is outside (which it will have to be, there’s no room inside) but the leftovers are RIGHT THERE in the inside fridge—they’re eating leftovers. Every time. So the outside fridge can be for the second carton of eggs, and the second gallon of milk, and the leftovers in the Instant Pot liner because I’m too tired tonight to divide it up but tomorrow I’ll saw up that roast, chop up that ham, portion out that soup—and put it in the front of the inside refrigerator. The fish sauce and the Worcestershire sauce and the three kinds of mustard can live outside. And anything that I think needs to be eaten, goes in the front of the inside fridge.
It’s genius. Maybe. We’ll see. I won’t be getting anything fancy, so it’s an experiment I’m willing to try. Hoping for a secondhand fridge-only in nice boring white, but I’ll take another freezer if needed.
What else do I want to take home from here? Me. I want to go home. I want my bed, I want my room. I want my TV.
Oh, and also I want to take the mother-in-law suite. It is life-changing to have child over there, and whenever the kids want to hang out they go over there and if they want to have company, their visitors are over there and it’s all just wonderful. We need to figure out a way to make home work better, because we all get along so much better when adults and kids can get away from each other.
Sorry to whine, but I want this over. I want to go home. I want to stop having to talk to strangers about my house. I want to go camping. We had a cabin rented for this weekend at Roper Lake, but for the second time in a row I’ll have to cancel due to all this. Argh.
I want to sit in my padded chair at my desk with a keyboard shelf, and work on my desktop, the computer that can keep up with my typing. And maybe look for a new laptop, though honestly it will be hard to let this one go now that I put one of my favorite Christmas presents on it.
Though if I do—this one is going on the new one.
I also got some gorgeous dice, a really pretty suncatcher made of sea glass, and a very important and correct towel.
And…stuff. There might have been a lot of candy. Maybe.
…I really like a good peanut butter cup, okay?
To come back around—the important thing is my family had a lovely holiday together. I hope y’all had/have the same, and that 2024 is nicer to all of us.