Monday Life Awareness

Well, it's a fact, I am crabby on Mondays. The weekend always goes too fast and I'm left staring at my phone asking why it is telling me to get up and go to work. Well, this prompted me to start focusing on being aware of all the good in my life. So every Monday, I'll be posting something that I am thankful for. Hopefully this will get me in the habit of being grateful even when I am cranky and hopefully will counteract the acute "case of the Mondays" I seem to contract every week.

Today I am thankful for my education. As a child I was always the "why" and the "how" child.

Why do people say mean things?
How do we know how far away the stars are?
How does the tv work?
Why... How... Why...

My parents must have had a ton of patience!

But I am thankful for my knowledge and training. The biggest thing my parents taught me (besides everything) was how to investigate. I was introduced at an early age to finding out things for myself in books and from people. And when the internet began coming out in full force, I was taught how to find information there as well. It might sound silly, but when I was young I considered myself a whiz at search engines (and sometimes, I still do). I was almost always able to find what I wanted, be it a driver for some obscure video card or facts for a research paper.

Last night while I was making dinner, I was pondering how to make a good veggie side dish my DH would eat. This isn't as daunting as it used to be because he's been a very good sport about trying new things and his palate is certainly expanding as well. And yet, I was up against a fierce opponent: spinach. DH isn't a fan (and by that I mean he made faces / would barely eat it the first 10 times I served it in any form), and I adore the stuff (I eat it plain from the container when I first get up, or as a quick snack when I get home from work. or.. when I'm bored, or watching tv... or--you get the idea). Also, I had never cooked spinach before except in eggs or casseroles, so I was completely unsure of how to prepare it.

So I used my longtime skill of foraging for information and I Googled (PS, I love that Google is now a verb) around for a bit. I found the general consensus to making tasty spinach was to use onions / garlic, and butter. Lots of butter. Armed with this new knowledge, I made some darn tasty spinach! (if you're curious, I also added freshly ground salt and pepper). I wound up taking the butter and onions from the bottom of the pan I had used to roast the chicken and adding that to the spinach and it was soo good! It also had some chicken fat which added a bit more flavor. For the garlic I just used a bit of garlic powder (such a great thing to have on hand).

And I've used enough parenthesis for about 17 blog posts, so I think I'll stop (maybe not, though), but that's what I'm thankful for. I'm thankful that instead of feeling helpless on how to make nutritious food that DH will also *want* to eat, I can use the simplest gift bestowed to me by my parents so long ago.

Thanks mom and dad!

Also, I'm really glad dinner wasn't a bust. I hate when that happens.

Also, I'm really glad the farmer's market is finally selling veggies again! The prices there are so much kinder to my pocket book than Whole Foods.