Suffering takes more time!

There's no doubt about it! The actual preparing of food, as opposed to assembling pre-made store bought items, takes more time. We have 4 little boys staying with us while their parents attend a wedding and they are suffering along with us for 24 hours or so. My husband made a pot of oatmeal this morning (whereas if they weren't here we would let our kids eat the aforementioned dreaded Trader Joe's O's or forage among the leftovers). I finished processing a ton of basil into pesto sauce to refrigerate for later. Then for lunch I decided to use the beans and cheese in the fridge but had to make the tortillas. I've never done that before and it wasn't too hard but the recipe said it would make 24 but it only made 12 (and I was feeding 10 people, 2 of which are teenage boys). Jonathon also made salsa from our tomatoes and I cooked up 5 or so butternut squashes (which weren't ready for lunch to make up for the inadequate number of burritos!) So after two hours in the kitchen we had slightly fed children, a huge mess of dishes, and some pesto and squash mashed with maple syrup and butter to show for it!!! Seems to me that I'm "suffering" more than anyone else :)

I saw a friend last night who told me she's going to get together some people to prepare for doing their own suffering simulation next year. They will have time to focus on their garden and stocking up their food storage. Kind of cool to inspire someone to try it themselves :) Though I wish I'd thought about it a year ahead of time instead of a few months. Live and learn...maybe we'll repeat it again next summer (shhhhh, don't tell my kids!)