Living with teenagers presents some daily challenges that continually push adults toward madness. Seeing as how the teenagers outnumber the mature adults in our house 3 ½ : 1, we are by far pressed harder than most households. We have 7 kids in this house, ages ranging between 11 and 18 (almost). Feeding this troop alone is enough to make me want commit myself to a facility for a nice long rest and let someone else try to provide 3 healthy meals plus countless snacks each day. I seriously have to fight the urge to run and stick my head in the sand anytime I hear the words “Mom, I’m hungry. Can I have …” I can honestly feel the dollars being sucked out of my bank account with each bite they take. I will not divulge the cost to feed such a large group because frankly, I don’t want to make anyone sick. Needless to say the amount is astronomical and we could sustain a small city indefinitely in just our food bill alone. Anyway, in order to win back some of the time that I spend slaving away in my kitchen each day (not much that we put in our bodies comes out of a box or bag. I make almost everything fresh), I started spending part (most ) of my Sundays in the kitchen prepping food for the week. I have a huge freezer in the garage that I keep stocked with meats and veggies. I cut up all out fresh fruit and split it into portions, then freeze it for easy lunches during the week. I make a ton of banana bread, or waffles, or whatever we will be grabbing to pop in the toaster for breakfast as I shove them out the door to go to school. I like having everything ready to go when we need it. Sundays my house is full of the scents of baked goods, which seems to bring everyone’s spirits up. All the kids come running when I pull something out of the oven, or off the waffle iron, or am knee deep in fresh fruit all cut up and ready to be eaten. That’s when I get to have my fun! I kick them all out of the kitchen and don’t let them have a bit, cause they will eat everything in the house in less than 30 seconds, if I let them. Oh yes, I do enjoy my Sundays.
