Life's a Picnic
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do less. live more
life’s a picnic
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was dinnertime.
For parents of small children, what was once a leisurely treat for the taste buds, a chance to kvetch about one’s co-workers and reconnect with one’s partner over a glass of wine, is now on par with sharing a meal in a dark subway tunnel at rush-hour while attempting to escape from the police. Lingering has given way to cramming food into one’s mouth in between cutting other people’s food into tiny pieces, soothing emotional disturbances, retrieving plates from infants’ gravitational experiments, removing indistinct food mash from hair follicles, and getting up from one’s chair sixteen times to address a child’s latest culinary whim, all to the soothing background of incessant talk from small humans who don’t understand the concept of “inside voice.”
Photo by Jake Givens on Unsplash
Dinner: A One-Act Play
A typical dinner at my house goes like this.
Me: How was your day?
Husband: It was--
Toddler: Um, excuse me, I’m trying to talk
Me: Daddy’s talking now, you have to wait
Husband: It was--
Toddler: Can I talk now?
Me: No, Mommy will tell you when it’s your turn to talk
Husband: It was--
Toddler: Now?
Baby: Aaaaaaaaaaaaa (Screaming and banging both fists on high chair tray in modified American Sign Language version of “give me more Cheerios.”)
Husband: Sighs profoundly, places head in hands, begins chewing at half original pace and doing NY Times crossword puzzle
Photo by Ryan Franco on Unsplash
When it Rains, it Pours…Death
Last summer, on a Sunday afternoon, we attempted to attend a concert in our neighborhood. As the band began to play, families from around the block spread out blankets for picnic dinners. It was lovely and idyllic. Three minutes later, a torrential downpour began. Eight year-old boys began running between blankets gleefully shouting, “We’re all gonna die,” while my toddler daughter (who shares in common with our dog that they are both terrified of the wind) began screaming, crying and shaking.
Not knowing what else to do, we returned home, spread our blanket on the living room floor, put on some music and proceeded to picnic there and then. After quickly moving the high chair down to the floor (the baby was Staypuff Marshmallow Man-ing all over our picnic) we redirected the picnic back on course and all tucked in to sliced cheese, salami, crackers, olives and apple slices. The kids drank milk from sippy cups and my husband and I enjoyed glasses of wine. With the exception of our toddler’s minute-to-minute requests for cheese, we had an extremely pleasant dinner. So pleasant that at one point I sat and looked around, startled by something unfamiliar. Quiet. It was so quiet.
Photo by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos on Unsplash
A Tradition is Born
That Sunday picnic happened over a year ago, and it was a tradition we continued all last summer. Last weekend we revived the tradition, at our daughter’s request. The baby is now a toddler, but still has Godzilla like tendencies, so we moved his booster seat onto the floor and strapped him in. We put on music, spread the picnic blanket out on the living room floor (it’s still too humid and mosquito-ridden to eat outside) and enjoyed an easy-breezy dinner. It required almost zero preparation (I requested that my husband, who does the grocery shopping, get pre-cut salami and cheese) and created only a few dishes (we used paper plates and our hands--so glasses and cutting board were the only things to wash), which is a pretty nice way to ease into a Monday.
Is it the novelty of eating on the floor? Is it the music? Is there something magical about salami? I don’t know the answers to these and other great mysteries of the universe, but I do know that the Sunday picnic has become a family tradition. After all, what do we have to lose?
Photo by Kate Noonan
sunday dinner made simple
Want to make dinner easier? Below is our menu for Sunday picnic. Pick up these or similar items at the grocery store and enjoy.
Menu:
Pre-cut salami
Pre-cut cheese
Fruit of your choice--we used blueberries, apple slices and grapes
Hummus
Crackers
Olives
Wine!
You will also need:
A blanket
Some device for playing music
A cutting board and knife
Glasses and cups
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