So there was this time that my dogs ate my dinner. Because I gave it to them.

It was a rainy day, one among many. We had not played outside in days it felt like.

I was doing some cooking/baking. Those can be stressful days. I often don’t realize it until after the fact. I truly need to learn how to manage my expectations! If I’m going to put in time in the kitchen, I should expect to get less done everywhere else. Maybe I’ll remember that next time…

Emma rode the bus home, so we didn’t even have that little jaunt to school to break up the day. I had dinner in the oven when she got home. Bless her she doesn’t get in the door till 4:45 on bus days.

I guess it all started really steam rolling down hill when my 13 year old wrinkled up her nose at my dinner & informed me she wasn’t eating it.

Hmm.

I was pretty proud of my concoction. I had used frozen beef tips & pressure cooked them in my Instant Pot with a little water & spices. (My daddy raises fabulous beef & I am so thankful to have a freezer full of it!) I’m just learning to pressure cook, and yall, it’s amazing! So those tips went from frozen to relatively tender in a 30 minute period. I had then thrown them in my cute, little teeny tiny crockpot with a can of cream of some kinda soup. I keep celery, chicken & mushroom & pretty much use them interchangeably. Last step was to add some white rice, a little bit of butter, water, some beef gravy & throw that bad boy in the oven. Again, I don’t claim to cook low fat. It smelled delish. Emma comes home starving & I was determined to feed her dinner, not a bunch of snacks.

Now Emma got very sick a couple months ago & the last thing she had eaten had rice in it. So naturally she does not have any desire to eat rice right now. I was not thinking about that little fact. All I could think was that she turned up her cute little nose at my dinner & was rummaging through the cabinets for SNACKS.

I may have gotten a bit dramatic & informed her that one day she would know how I felt when she cooked dinner & nobody ate it. I may have alluded to the idea that I might be dead & gone by then. I told y’all I was a bit dramatic. That triggered an outburst from her that got her phone taken away & her sent to her room. I waited till I thought we had both calmed down & had a civilized chat with her. We both acknowledged how we could’ve handled that situation better. I can be mature when I need to. I told her she was welcome to make tacos if she wanted to, but I was done in the kitchen. Except for the ginormous pile of dishes I still needed to tackle.

Meanwhile Thelma & Louise are taking full advantage of the situation. Callie is crawling on top of the table. Earlier she had climbed from the sofa arm to the window sill, balancing on her cute little chubby toes. Libby was feeling especially loving & needed to be picked up right that instant. I obliged, tried to grab the TV remote & dropped it on my big toe. It sounds silly now but that HURT. Also, at the same time, I see Emma feverishly chopping up burger & flinging RAW hamburger into my beef & rice dinner which was innocently sitting on the stove waiting to be appreciated by someone.

I lost it for a minute. Threw the dinner out the door to the dogs. Put the child down, turned everything off in the kitchen. Turned Paw Patrol on & banished them all to the living room. I went to my room, turned the fan on, ran some very hot water, threw in some bubbles & sat myself down. I set the timer on my phone & hit reset on my mind for 15 minutes.

My sister Kim called & we chatted about this great idea I had for a blog post while I settled myself.

This parenting thing is hard sometimes. Sometimes we are hardest on ourselves. Sometimes we need to admit we messed up. Sometimes our kids need to hear us say “I’m sorry.” Sometimes they need to be the ones to say it.

“Beautiful Messes” is a song that Hillary Scott & the Scott family sing. (She’s the awesome girl from Lady A). It’s my favorite song right now, actually the whole album is great. This sums it up pretty much for me these days.

“Give it to the One who can carry it all

Even at our worst, to Him we ain’t lost causes,

Just beautiful messes”

Oh & the dogs LOVED my dinner. So there.

Here’s a picture of Emma on a happier day. When she was eating Bread. Confirms my theory that Bread is life.