A bomb in my kitchen

December 10, 2007 | By Kristen | In Chaos of Life

Hi! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. You'll get all my posts plus private posts plus special offers I occasionally share with my subscribers for free!

It’s been a hard week here with the news that the mother of a close friend is quickly losing her battle to cancer. A battle she has been fighting for the last year and a few weeks ago the prognosis was 6 months and last week it was shortened to two weeks.

I have dropped pretty much everything and spending my days in the kitchen preparing food to make sure everyone has some comfort food to munch on here and there. I feel it’s one of the few things I can do to offer my support at this stage as family drifts in and out to say their last goodbyes.

My kitchen looks like a bomb went off, between my food processor and vacuum sealer that are running full time and every pot and pan taking their turns between the stove top and the sink. Well, I have to admit, that I am one of those very messy cooks.

I try to keep organized and make my work area look like Rachel Ray could join me to cook… but… that’s not the case. I have every surface covered with something, a cookbook, a spoon, a container of flour, a basket of veggies, a half cut onion… you name it.

And of course, while I’m cooking I have my little three year old friend who is helping and can’t understand why I bother making anything more then just cookies. He has his own “safe knife” and I put him to work cutting bananas and other easy to cut fruits. No, I don’t really need them but it keeps him involved and he ends up eating them as he goes so it’s really a win win and his conversation is priceless.

I’m focusing on the comfort foods mashed pototatos, meat loaf, pasta, muffins and breads, chunky chicken soup, steamed veggies, pot roast, anything that is pre-made and just needs to be heated and served. I so love my vacuum sealer, seal it up and they just need to plop the bag in a pot of hot water to warm or even the microwave. How easy is that.

What do you say to someone at this stage? “How are you” seems like the most inappropriate comment but it seems better then not saying anything at all. I try to imagine myself in that situation as hard as it is and I would like to believe that I would want people to remain as normal, casual and up beat as they could and not be treating me different or staying away.

It’s hard as a mother to watch the interaction between my girlfriend, an only child, and her mother, who is too young to leave, doing the best they can in their last days together. I started to watch the Oprah special about having one more day with someone, who would it be and what would you do, what would you say? Well, I made it to the second set of commercials then I decided that was enough of that, grabbed my book and headed to bed.

It does make you say THANK YOU every day for what you have and thankful that all my children are healthy and say a prayer for those less fortunate and more then anything you don’t want to let a day pass that you don’t tell someone just how special they are to you.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Tagged: