TIME LOST
“Lost Time is never found again.”
Have you ever wondered what you would do with the time you spend eating and everything else connected to the task of eating. This thought comes to mind many times. The hours spent driving to one grocery store after another. Hours more writing lists and meal plans - if that is how one goes about their weekly meals. Then more hours spent cooking, eating, and cleaning up after meals.
The food I prepare for my meals the days the children are not staying with me usually does not involve much cooking. At least recently and definitely not during the summer months when I would rather like to stay away from the heat of the kitchen. Mostly the reason has to do with eating alone and thus not wanting to spend much time preparing a meal simply for myself. Other times I am simply craving something uncomplicated. This week it has been oranges and pistachios. A lot of oranges and pistachios.
When I was a teenager, I loved eating oranges - much as I love eating them now. Yesterday, or perhaps it was the day before, I ate eight small oranges throughout the day. Cold oranges from bottom drawer of the refrigerator, cut into eight half wedges. That and pistachios plus seeded bread with ground peanut butter and honey. The children were already in school so I was eating alone and did not wish to cook for only myself.
A trip to the store was made again today for cleaning supplies and more pistachios. The one-pound bag I purchased today is now empty. Most of it we ate for dinner alongside our banana cake which was the surprise I had waiting for the children when they returned from school today. The other pistachios made their way into my belly later tonight and into snack bags for the children's lunches as they requested 'a lot of pistachios' for lunch tomorrow.
Cinnamon and Sage were happy to have something different for dinner tonight. I baked the banana cake this afternoon with three over-ripe bananas which were waiting to be used for cake. It was one of the recipes I wrote last year when I was working on my bake book. My Sunday cake baking has been on hold this past year but is something I plan on starting up again soon. Tomorrow's surprise, though, will be lentil soup for their afternoon snack before I take them to their father's house.
Sleep, as eating, is another way we often 'lose' time albeit I would much rather forego eating than sleeping. Rest is something we find ourselves getting much too little of until it is too late. Until illnesses force us to slow down and change the way we spend our days.
If we did not need to eat as often, we could do much more with our time. We could read or play with our children or enjoy our hobbies without worry of preparing a meal, eating it, and then spending time cleaning up afterwards. Meals seem to need to be planned these days. Mine are not. If we could go back to eating simply fruits, vegetables, and nuts, we would get back the time lost and do something fun, productive, or both.
