Tonight, we’ve come to the end of the series, A Chef, a Wife and a Child. Thank you for all the emails and comments as you’ve shared with me and my readers your joys and struggles about raising a family with a chef.
Tonight, it’s my turn to answer the 5 questions. . .
Tell me a little about yourself and your spouse.
My name is Jennifer and I’ve been married to my chef/husband for 19 years. My husband started working in a professional kitchen about 6 months after we got married. He is now an Executive Chef/Culinary Directory for a restaurant group in Seattle and I stay home full time with our girls. I do a little website development and blogging from home as I have the time.
It’s that time of year again . . . time for the kids to head back to school. I’m full of mixed emotions this year as the kids started back. My first emotion is WOOHOO! I love routine and our family seems to operate better when we have things to do. The house will also be less messy, so less housework and with all 3 kids in school this year, I’ll have a few hours a couple times a week to myself.
While the kids are away the moms will play!
Then I start to think about how that routine means less time as a family and especially with my chef/husband.And there goes my excitement! (Although taking the picture above to “celebrate” the start of school will always bring a smile to my face.)
This past week my chef/husband was able to move his schedule around so he could take the girls to the bus stop and to school on the first day. He also happened to be off on Thursday and was able to go with us to Kindergarten orientation in the middle of the day which was nice.
Ready for work, but at the bus stop!!
The reality of combining a traditional school schedule and the job of a chef is not a pretty picture. They don’t go very well together. They don’t emulsify very well. (Sorry . . . I couldn’t resist.) We try really hard to make it work, but sometimes there are tears and there are many conversations about the hours daddy works to provide for us. 2 of our girls are now in school full day and our youngest goes for half the day. Unless my chef/husband has a weekend day off, they don’t get to see him much. I’m not ready for that part of the routine. There’s still hope something might be different with his new position, but I’ve learned to not get my hopes up. If better days off or different hours happen, that would be great! If not, we’ll keep working around the schedules. What else can we do? (more…)
Things going through the mind of a 39 year old chef’s wife on a Saturday night . . .
It’s Saturday night and my husband is home (asleep on the couch across the room from me.) Having him home on a Saturday makes me question what day it is as it rarely happens. I just looked at the calendar. Yes. It’s Saturday.
Why is it raining on the last weekend of summer vacation?
How is it that my chef/husband can fall asleep in the living room with the chaos of 3 children all around him? Oh right, he worked about 60 hours in the past 4 days.
I wish it would stop raining.
It looks like we will be able to go to church as a family tomorrow morning. I hope no one wakes up sick in the morning . . .
I turn 40 in 4 days. How is that possible?
I wonder what I should make for breakfast tomorrow morning.
What will it be like to have all 3 girls in school for at least part of the day? Will I cry when I put our youngest on the bus on Friday?
Why is it still raining . . . seriously?
I probably should try to wake my chef/husband up sometime soon and have him move into the bedroom to sleep.
Have you ever noticed that many people have gone through the same struggles as you have, but you never knew it until you started to talk about it? This happens to me all the time.
I had no idea how many women had miscarriages until I had one.
I know now that many women have miscarriages, but my Mom had 14. Yes you read that right. 14. I am an only child and she was on bed rest the majority of her pregnancy with me. I am like my Mom in many ways, but would this be one way I was like her as well? I of course had no way of knowing. So as we started to pray for our unborn child, we prayed that if it was God’s will, I would carry him/her full term.(more…)
Tell me a little about yourself and your spouse.
