Wray said to me the other day, “So, wiferston, you think you could go an entire month without eating in a restaurant?”. Instantly I thought, “No, dummy. Why would I even want to?” I know we spend WAY too much money eating out every month, but I also feel like there are a few good reasons for this.
Living with mom and dad is stressful. They’re great, and we’ve had it as easy as anybody could. But there’s something depressing about constantly cooking in your mother’s kitchen. After awhile you start to feel like you’re not a real wife and mother, like you’re still a kid in your parents house. Which, technically you are, but who wants to be reminded of this? Wray’s schedule is crazy, and we don’t get to spend that much time together. And when we can be together, it’s not like I want to be cooking. So we go out a lot. In the restaurant, it’s easy to forget all that other stuff. While we’re there were just as normal as any other family. I know that all of this is fairly irrational and we, of course are a regular family, we’re just real-estate challenged. We like to go out though, and that’s why I think we do it so often.
I was cool with this facet of our lives. Then I saw our family pictures. I’d straightened my hair for the pictures, and I was wearing a blue top and jeans. The photographer is WONDERFUL, but she likes to take pictures of moms holding their kids hands and walking away. So there are these pictures, basically of my butt. And with my long hair hiding my neck, I look like a big blue Grimace. You remember Grimace, the huge fat triangular purple guy that is a McDonald’s Character. If you’re reading this, I’m sure we’re friends. At least polite acquaintainces. So I know that you are thinking, kindly, she’s crazy. I promise, now that I’ve mentioned the Grimace thing, that if you saw the pictures you’d have a hard time keeping a straight face. Your mouth might say, “No, you look fine.” But your face is going to say “OMG, she totally looks like a blue Grimace.”
THEREFORE, We are going to try it. 30 restaurant-free days. That doesn’t mean health food necessarily. But I think that if we’re cooking at home we can do at least a little better. Of course there will be a few times where social obligations will require us to GO to a restaurant, especially with the holidays coming up. But we will not eat there. We’ll see if we can develop better habits. They say it takes 21 days to develop or break a habit. We’re building in the extra 9 days just in case. Wray and I are stubborn. We’ll see how this goes….I’m off to cook.
