It’s going to be a great weekend! At least for my husband’s family. His brother’s family will drive the five hour road trip to come for a visit to my mother and father-in-law’s house. Pull out the red carpet, they don’t come to town often! So, this means we will make the one hour drive from our home to see them. We rarely see them and it is great for the kids to play and have fun and see each other and as long as I have an arsenal of wine, I can get through it, yes I can! Now, I have been a member of the family for about 20 years, but we all have our moments and although I love all of them, as with any family, they can drive me crazy at times.
The hardest part comes with the food and how very much my family’s eating habits differ from those of the rest of the family. We eat about a 90% organic diet in our home and, well, everybody else does NOT! Oh, and we are mostly vegetarians(my younger son and I completely and hubby and older son most of the time.). That being said, my planning has to start. Almost reminds of when my boys were babies and we needed the bag of stuff that only the baby could have and needed. I have to think through many scenarios, such as the awful diet colas in the fridge that my son will ask for simply because all of his cousins are drinking them. Well, I will buy him his special 4 pack of locally made root beer that is only made with natural ingredients(for soda anyway) and he will be stocked for the entire visit. Then there are the meals of meat, meat, and more meat. And not the best choices of meat(in my opionion). See, that is the thing, I don’t criticize anyone for their meat-eating, but I think consumers should purhase responsibly and aware of what their food goes through before it gets to their table. So, on the rare occasions that I do purchase meat it is ideally from a local farmer who did not use any antibiotics or hormones and the animal was grass fed. My husband will drool and indulge in a burger or five since he doesn’t get them much at home and I will be armed with delicious veggie burgers and organic veggies. Oh, and the snacks! This is a production for my mother-in-law when her kids come to town. She has a closet of goodies and the games begin. She always has the usual clam dip(she makes that herself), candy coated with all sorts of dyes, crackers, cheese and I am sure many others I have forgotten. So, I have to think this through and be prepared with some of our favorites that can qualify as substitutes for my kids. I have a few ideas and luckily there is a wonderful health food store close by so I can shop when I get there. I haven’t even mentioned the comments I will get from my dear father and mother-in-law about how my kids are deprived and how my mother-in-law wishes I would leave so she can feed them what she wants to. Seriously?! Compromise my kids’ health to get back at me(so to speak). Great support! Funny thing is, if I showed up with a bag of junk and meals from the local fast food joint not a word would be said, but because I bring my own healthy alternatives I am picked on and picked at. Anyone who knows me, knows I am tough and can take it! It doesn’t matter, though, because at the end of the day, I only have myself and my kids to worry about. And when they come to me later in life and thank me for not leading them into a path of obseity(the numbers are staggering for our kids), but instead for giving them the tools to make healthy choices and caring for their bodies, it will all have been worth it!! Time to go pack my case of wine, I mean clothes and get ready to go!
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