On my refrigerator are pictures of friends and family and animals and one of my dad falling off a chair laughing. There are magnets too. Imitation cabbages, cauliflowers, bittermelons, and pumpkins — all fitting the decor of the kitchen. The dieter's favourite Bible verse is there: “He must increase but I must decrease.” Here are a few of my favorite fridge magnets:
- You'll eat it. You'll eat it and like it.
- Make yourself at home: Clean my kitchen.
- Coffee isn't helping, get the jumper cables.
I don't know about you, but I love the kitchen. It is the heart of the house, the pulse of a family. So much happens there. Botulism and putting out fires is only part of it. Few things bring a family together quite like opening the fridge together and playing “Guess What It Was.” Could that thing that looks like a Chia Pet have once been a cucumber? The cheese weighs two pounds more than when you bought it, and it has hair! And that large thing, providing a sort of neon lighting, could it be the pot roast?
Then there's the stove. Nothing bonds a family quite like standing around a roaring grease fire on a cold winter's day.
And finally there's the table, the centerpiece of family discussions, announcements, debates, arguments, overeating, and even napping.
Whether it's breakfast, lunch, brunch, dinner, or a Thanksgiving or Christmas feast, being together in the kitchen is about as good as it gets. Few things can silence teenagers more quickly than food. And few things can bring a family together faster than a feast.
A friend of mine has a sign on her fridge: “Home is Where The Heartburn Is.” Sadly heartburn is commonplace in families today. We run to appointments, stressed-out, grabbing half-made sandwiches or half-baked muffins with scarcely a nod left over for each other. In the midst of busy times, here are three items to place back on your menu, three suggestions to help you de-stress your life and bring back the joy.
Linger longer. One of the best ways to keep your children at home is to let the air out of their tires and sew the tops of their socks together. Another way is to fill their mouths with dessert. Families that eat dessert together stick together. So carve out time to enjoy chocolate, and put on the coffee pot too. Drink enough coffee and you can visit all night.
Ignore the dishwasher. Few inventions (besides the remote control) have pleased me more than the dishwasher, but recently in the Callaway house, something strange began to happen. Our water got weird. The glasses came out murky, caked in sludge. We called the experts who told us it was something to do with the water treatment plant and possibly Global Warming and they were working on both. In the meantime we began washing dishes by hand. We introduced our children to something called dishcloths and dishtowels and a strange thing began to happen. We began talking while doing dishes. Actually communicating. Do you remember what that used to be like? I taught my daughter the fine art of snapping towels on her brother's hindquarters. I taught her how to run real fast down the hall and lock the bathroom door behind her. We hadn't heard this much laughing and screaming since the time my son tried to vacuum the neighbour's cat.
Pray together. There are five more items on my fridge, more precious than any fridge magnets. They are photos of our adopted children, the children we sponsor through an international organization. Their names are Carlos, Joel, Dariani, Habtamua, and Ndagirijwe (don't worry, I can't say it either). Whenever we remember, we pray for them before meals. Each of these five lives in a country where food is scarce. Praying for those who are less fortunate helps us remember how much we have to be grateful for and it's a sure-fire cure for complaints about the leftover Chia Pet salad.
