In which I slack on the cooking posts!

Foolish me, I thought when I stopped apprenticing -- and by the way, everyone, I did not quit; I am taking a break! -- I'd have more free time. According to my weeknight schedule, the joke is on me:

MONDAY: Cub scouts. Early dinner then my three scouts rush off (Dustin's a den leader).
TUESDAY: Erika's parenting class. Yes, even the most perfect parents need help sometimes with their litter of children.
WEDNESDAY: Maizey's Dog Class, then a late date with Leigh.
THURSDAY: I see Dustin and the kids for more than 4 minutes consecutively before bedtime. Hooray!
FRIDAY: Dustin's Nerd Night/Erika's night to put the kids to bed early and cuddle up in bed with People . (And, oh, when my People doesn't arrive in Friday's mail, there is hell to pay!)

This schedule does not take into account the postpartum work I'm doing for the next three weeks. Postpartum work involves going to someone's house and helping them adjust to life with a new baby. My twist is that I cook and bring them food, including some freezer meals.

I love cooking. (Phrase #2241515 I thought I'd never say, along with #131241, Please stop licking the dog and #42546 Stop trying to pee on your brother in the shower.) Specifically I love casserole-type meals. This is a real issue for my children, who do not want their food touching anything else, and want to scrape the cheese off the lasagna noodles -- or, alternately, want to scrape the noodles out of the meat/cheese sauce. But I love the idea that with a casserole you can get the perfect bite that includes protein, vegetables, starch, and carbs. Chicken pot pie. Spinach and beef lasagna. Enchiladas.

Sorry, kids, Cheerios with cut-up banana on top does not count. This does not count either, in case you were wondering. Because putting anything with Cheerios -- other than whole milk -- is sacrilege.

So, I'm at a new mom's house, cooking and cleaning -- I actually washed a few dishes by hand recently; like, hello, why have a dishwasher if you're not going to use it?!?!? -- and doing laundry and snuggling new babies. It's fun, but I wish I were home, sticking everything in my dishwasher and ignoring my own piles of laundry and snuggling my own children for the ten seconds they'll still let me snuggle. 

Since my break from apprenticing, I've let go of a bit of the whole SuperMom thing. For a while, I felt like because I was doing so much, I should be SuperWife and SuperMom. Kept house immaculate. Cooked homemade every night. Even stayed on top of laundry and linens. Then, for a week or two, I was totally off the wagon and barely looked at the washing machine or fridge. Now I'm finding a balance.

I seem to have a lot invested in what others think of me. I was really worried that my decision to take a break from apprenticing would come at the expense of my reputation in the birth world. Turns out (1) nobody really cares -- and I mean that in a good way (2) everyone seems understanding (3) nobody ever figured out how or why I did it in the first place. It's not like I needed more things to do. Even without doing postpartum work, my life is full.