Taking a Time Out

Some of you may be wondering, "Where are the recipes from last week???  Did I miss them?  Did I inadvertently unsubscribe from The Laws on Dinner feed?  Heaven forbid!"  Well, rest your weary minds because there were NO recipes posted last week.  That's right, this girl took a time out.

Sometimes, even when there is something that you truly love, you just need to take a break...whether it be to save your sanity, to re-energize, or just to regroup and refocus.  This week, it just made sense to do just that...take a break.

My dinner rotations generally run from Monday to Sunday with my shopping being done on Monday mornings.  When I woke up to make my grocery list on Monday, I realized that I would only be cooking dinner Monday and Thursday nights as we have church on Wednesdays, and I was leaving Friday through Monday for a girls' weekend.  So, right then and there I made the executive decision to take the week off from cooking.  Now, don't get me wrong, I still had a PLAN because, let's face it, my life would not function without a plan...but my plan included me not cooking dinner from scratch once last week.

Monday night, we had Mexican take out which is always a treat and a hit with our crew.  Tuesday night, I took a frozen Shrimp & Feta Casserole (I'll share that recipe soon...thought I already had) out of the freezer and served it with some edamame.  Wednesday night, we were all over the place; one of the kids ate at church, George took the other two to Jersey Mike's, thought I was eating at church, and didn't get me a sandwich (husband fail!) so I heated up some Omaha Steaks chicken breasts, courtesy of my greatest great aunt Lynn and uncle Mike, popped a frozen twice baked potato in the oven, and had the leftover edamame and called it a night.  Thursday, I headed to The Porch and grabbed a beer with a friend while grabbing take out from the refrigerator section...make your own Taco Packs for Thursday and Pizza Packs for Friday for George, his parents, and the kids while I was out of town.  If you haven't made a trip to see the folks over at The Porch, I would highly recommend it...the atmosphere is relaxed and funky, the beer is ice cold, and the food, as always, was dynamite!

As I mentioned before, sometimes you just need a break, or a time out as those of us in mommy land like to call it.  That's exactly what Martin Luther King Weekend has been for me for the past 16 years.  Seven of my best friends from college and I have an annual tradition of getting together on MLK weekend with no kids, no husbands, and no plans.  We generally stay up way too late, stay in our pjs well into the afternoon, and just truly enjoy each others' company.  This is a group of designers, writers, teachers, counselors, entrepreneurs, daughters, sisters, wives, mamas...and not one "label" would ever encompass what each of these women is or what she does.  I love my family immensely, and I don't think anyone would ever question my devotion to them, but sometimes, like I said earlier, no matter how much you love something, you just need a break.  This break for me is the best kind...these women ask the hard questions, they give advice, they offer support, they laugh, they cry, they tell you when you are being brilliant and when you are being ridiculous, they tell you if you need to fix your "situation," and they build you up.  They make you remember who you were when you first met at 18 years old, how to bring some of that fire back to light, and how far you've come to be the person that you are today.  By the end of these weekends, I am always reenergized and feel that I am my best self just from being around each of these seven wonderfully unique women.

So whether it's taking a break from your daily routine, taking a night to be with your husband away from your kids, taking a trip with your mom, your sister, your brother, your father, your friends, give yourself permission to take a "time out" and realize just how thankful you are of the person who you are or how thankful you are to have the ability to change things so that you can become the person who you've always wanted to be.  Cherish those who challenge you, and hold tight to those who love you.

I'll be back this weekend with new recipes and maybe even a new format for the blog :)

Happy Cooking!!