When you have kids, you realize pretty early on that they have to eat three times a day, every single day, and that’s not counting snacks. We don’t do a whole lot of snacking in our house, but we do cook pretty much everything from scratch. This means that a lot of our time during the day is spent cooking or preparing meals.
The everyday-ness of it all can get pretty exhausting. Every morning, I’m wondering what in the world I’m going to cook that kids aren’t going to complain about before they’ve even tasted it. Every afternoon I’m trying to figure out how to spice up a peanut butter and jelly sandwich—or what we’re going to have if we forgot to make bread or we ran out of yeast. Husband does most of the dinner cooking, but when it is my turn, that’s always the worst meal.
I’d find myself dreading 4 o’clock and then 5 o’clock and I’d just want to order something in or maybe stick some cut carrots and grapes and sandwiches on a plate and call it a feast. But then I remembered that I could listen to audio books.
Audio books have pretty much saved breakfast and lunchtime and dinner in the Toalson home. I actually almost look forward to this time now, especially when I’m reading a book I only let myself listen to when I’m preparing meals. It’s amazing how stories can hook into your brain so that something as mundane as cooking (I realize that cooking isn’t mundane to everyone, so please don’t be offended by my choice of words. Some people think writing is mundane, but without it, I’m pretty sure I would die.) can become something exciting.
Right now, during my cooking times, I’m listening to Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins audiobook. During lunch preparation, when all my boys are cleaning up, we’re listening to Stuart Gibbs’s Space Case audiobook, which my boys love.
So the trick to finding pleasure in things we wouldn’t normally find pleasure in is to include in it something we enjoy—like listening to books.
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I hope you’ve enjoyed this inside look at my life and family. Every Friday, I publish a short blog on something personal that includes a valuable takeaway. For more of my essays and memoir writings, visit Wing Chair Musings.
