by Jennifer | Being Married to a Chef, Blog, Chef Life, Holidays |
My cousin was 5 years old when we got married 18 years ago. She was an adorable flower girl in our wedding. Most of our lives we have lived a few states away from each other, but when we moved up to the Seattle area, I got to know her a little bit better. She no longer lives nearby, but I think and pray for her often.
It’s usually on the days when I’m really lonely and struggling with the long hours of a chef that I think of her and pray for her. Her husband is not a chef (although he cooks very well), but is deployed in the Army. So while I sit at home, lonely and depressed about my husband who is working long hours an hour away from our house, I am reminded of her and many others, who have husbands on the other side of the world who will not be home for months. (more…)
by Jennifer | Blog, Children |
While there are many unwanted surprises and changes in schedule when you are married to a chef, let’s be honest, there are some nice surprises as well.
For the last few months my husband has been not only the Executive Chef of the restaurant but the interim General Manager. For those of you in the industry, no words are needed to describe the challenges of that. With these added responsibilities his hours and days off have shifted a bit. While the hours have still been CRAZY, he’s been off on Fridays (unheard of!!) and occasionally home in time for dinner.
As I was making dinner the other night he called to say he was about 20 minutes away from home. Yeah! What a nice surprise!
So after a quick glance around the house to make sure there were no piles of laundry on the bed and no toys to trip on, I finished up dinner just in time for us all to sit down as a family and eat! (Fortunately this was an evening where I was not doing breakfast for dinner or random leftovers!)
The meal was not the best part of this surprise. It was what happened after. . . 45 minutes of piano playing and dancing around the playroom as a family. (And just to clarify, it was the kids dancing, not us.) (more…)
by Jennifer | Being Married to a Chef, Blog, Chef Life, Children |
So what hours does your husband work? Besides being asked if my chef/husband cooks at home, this is the second most frequently asked question I get because of my husband’s profession.
The hours are crazy and always changing, but harder than the long hours, is the last minute change in schedule. While my husband is the Executive Chef (and currently the interim General Manager) of the restaurant he works at, that is a ton of responsibility. So if something comes up and it happens to be on a day he is scheduled to have off, he works. Obviously there are others in the restaurant that can handle a lot of things, but sometimes, it has to be him.
Last Friday was a perfect example. He was scheduled to be off, but a last minute meeting came up and he had to go in for a few hours (with 2 1/2 hours commute time as well.) 🙁 (more…)
by Jennifer | Being Married to a Chef, Blog, Friends and Family |
I started blogging back when scrapbooking became difficult because of small children. I wanted to have a way to remember things that were going on in our lives without having to worry about my 2 year old injuring herself with one of my many scrapbooking supplies. While our family blog has been an off and on ordeal, we all enjoy looking back at previous posts to see things we’ve done. Sometimes, I write posts to myself so I’ll look back and remember something. This is one of those posts.
This morning I decided to deactivate my personal Facebook account. This is not easy for me as I am a very social person and love to know what’s going on in people’s lives. However, everyone’s life looks perfect on Facebook. I know it’s not, but when I’m sitting at home browsing through my newsfeed, it’s hard not to think how amazing everyone else’s life is and I am jealous at times. My life is not horrible. It could just be that I’m depressed and it’s December (and I’m married to a chef, remember? We haven’t seen my husband in a while. The girls and I are out doing fun things, but miss him terribly!!) God has blessed me more than I could ever deserve, but I already struggle with contentment and Facebook makes it even harder. (more…)
