2012 Goal: Family dinners

Right now, I see to it that my family eats dinner every night, and that the dinner they eat it is nutritional (with a little leniency every now and again on that front). The only issue is, we don't eat all at the same time. Kaleb eats his dinner at 6:30, while I sit with him and talk to him. Then Kyle and I eat our dinner after Kaleb is in bed. Timing-wise this has just been easier. When I get home from work I'm able to just be with Kaleb and not be focused on prepping a dinner for all of us to eat. Also, we just kind of evolved into this routine since Kaleb as an infant and young toddler was on a totally different schedule than we were for eating. However, my goal of this year is to figure out how to make eating dinner as a family every night a reality.

Kaleb is 2 now, and his schedule is predictable and can be easily aligned with ours. He is also more capable of entertaining himself while I prep and cook a meal. I have the mom-thing a little more under control now than I did when Kaleb was in his first year. I am also starting a new schedule at work, where I will be out of the office by 4:45 at the latest every day, which means I'm home by 5:15 or 5:30 reliably. If I aim to have dinner on the table by 6:30 each night that gives me an hour from start to table. With some forethought as to menu, and maybe even a couple hours during Sunday nap time spent chopping veggies and prepping sauces, I think this is a reasonable and doable undertaking. I know working moms across the country pull it off, and there is no reason I can't as well.

I'm giving myself this week to lay out my menus and my shopping plans. I will do my main shopping trip next weekend, and then that following week I am committing to at least 2 nights of family dinner at 6:30. I already have a decent rotation of crock pot dinners, and a nice collection of go-to quick dinners. And with the combination of an internet full of recipes, and a group of other moms I know who do family dinners, I'm going to be able to pull this off.

I am hoping that, by starting now, I'll have myself on a routine well before the baby comes (only 9 more weeks!!!). I expect some slacking on the family dinner qualities during those first few weeks (pizza, takeout, etc) but will also maybe have discovered some great freezer dinners I can prep during that week I'm on maternity leave before he arrives. Then it will be summer and we'll be into the always-easier cooking season of grilling almost all our dinners.

It is important to me that my boys grow up in a home with family dinners every night. I am excited to see how far I've come on this goal by this time next year!