Tonight the Hubs and I dined alone. Well, alone together. At home. Not at a restaurant. Not on a date. Just alone. Together. This is something that seems to be occurring with some regularity lately and I’m not really sure how I feel about it. It’s weird. It’s pleasant. It’s interesting. It’s weird. There we sat at the end of this very long table, enjoying a delicious dinner and talking about our day. That was good. It didn’t take long, but it was good.
We talked about how the Packers/Sea Hawks game still seems to be a hot button topic. We talked about the price of pork going up. Should we get another hog in the freezer before winter? Probably. We talked about how tasty dinner was. Riveting.
Funny thing is I cannot, no matter how hard I try, remember sitting down to a single meal with my husband BEFORE CHILDREN (approximately a 2-year span of time). He can’t remember either. It’s weird. I can remember fixing a LOT of Steak-ums and Rice-A-Roni and On-Cor Lasagna in those early years. I remember having trouble adjusting my cooking quantities. Days and DAYS of spaghetti. 😛 I remember that he often came home for lunch that first year because he worked just a couple blocks away. But not once can I remember just the two of us sitting at the table. What did we talk about? Did we talk? I don’t even remember what our table looked like back then!
I’m sure it wasn’t much different than it was tonight. And tonight was lovely. It really was. Weird and lovely.
Fact is, we will be eating more and more meals at the table alone, together. Fortunately for the Hubs, I’m a better cook than I was back then. You won’t find any Steak-ums, or Rice-A-Roni or On-Cor anything in my cupboards anymore. (Score one for our blood pressure and our cholesterol!) We will have a whole week in November where we will eat without the kids while they are away on their trip with the marching band to practice. (There’s that WEIRD word popping into my head again.) So why does it bother me that I can’t remember anything about eating dinner together before children? It’s just the next step in the journey of growing old together isn’t it?
I’m finding that the actual the conversation ISN’T what matters. What matters is we sat down together then, we sit down together now and we will be sit down together for a long time to come.
The more I think about it the more I realize that we will get the opportunity to discover ourselves as a couple again but with better food! I guess I’ll have to learn to pare down my servings again. 🙂 OH! And who says we can’t people over for dinner from time to time too! I mean, the kids are gone! Let’s PARTY! I can hardly wait!
Still, I think these dinners alone, as lovely and relaxed as they may be, have caused me to appreciate sharing the table with my kids all the more. It will be a few years before we are completely alone anyway and I think we’ll probably get so much practice that the transition will be seamless! Weird, but seamless. 🙂
Now, off to Pinterest to start pinning recipes for TWO!
Momma T's Table 