November 25, 2024

Slow Down

We eat every meal together and at the table. Honestly. And no, I wasn’t raised that way. Growing up, the dining table was my busy father’s desk…unless company was coming.

There’s just nothing better than a table simply graced with my homespun plaid tablecloth, and whatever simple centerpiece I can lay my hands on. Yankee candles are nice! Flowers? Even better. ‘Specially if they’re in a mason jar!

Pet peeves? Paper plates. Okay, they are handy, but too utilitarian. I have my white Corelle for everyday, my flowered china for “special occasions” and my southwest Frankoma for Mexican foods.  And my blue and yellow Target butterfly plates for lunches with my darlin’s.

Have you ever been guilty of not using things because they could possibly get broken? (Like the special china that’s only for company…) Face it, we could die tomorrow. Live for today. Get out the china and celebrate…the first day of the month! Or do it just to be festive. Light the candles and eat like pioneers.

Leave the Christmas decor up through January.

And visit this site to find out the new trend in food…slow food. Yeah, the opposite of fast food. It’s pretty neat actually. What is slow food? It’s a “reference to living an unhurried life, beginning at the table”…

Sounds good to me.

12 thoughts on “Slow Down

  1. thanks for visiting my blog
    u r good we try and mostly do sit at the table we have a little man in the house again I find it easier for us to eat at 5.30pm when he eats
    off to check out that slow food site

  2. There’s actually a really good manual you can get from aboverubies.org which is called “the family meal table and hospitality”, well worth checking out!

  3. Great advice! 🙂 I’ve heard to “use that good china” before but needed the reminder again! I’ll check out that site, too! 🙂

  4. Well, in all honesty my family all eat at different times. I eat two meals a day, so by the time my little guys get served dinner, well, I have already eaten and hubby he eats in his room.

    Have dinner all together sounds heavenly.

  5. Amy, thanks for the article and site suggestion!
    Leticia, I’m sorry if my trumpeting our eating habits stung. Our lifestyle is pretty slow-moving, so we’re usually all at home in the evenings at the same time. I hope it’s always that way, but one never knows. You’re not alone…sooo many families eat at different times. Another thing that used to be the norm and now is rare.

  6. Girl that is way too many dishes to wash. LOL. I think it’s great that you have them though. I use my China maybe twice a year. I’ve broken several pieces of my Corel–yes it’s breakable. And sometimes I run out of my paper stock. Then you eat from a paper sack with the Golden Arches on it. LOL.

  7. I hear ya, and know the feeling. But usually, I like facing a sudsy, hot sink of dishes! (Weird, I know!) Maybe it’s because I use my dishwasher for most of it…but in the winter, sometimes I do them by hand just because! And the nearest Mickey Dees is over 30 minutes from us, so that’s just plain unavailable!
    Thanks for your comment, gave me some smiles!

  8. I have my Thomas Kincade Christmas Village up still from last Christmas. And just took down some Christmas lights from an upstairs bedroom last week, and that was only because we had to take the air conditioner out of the window and they were in the way. Don’t know if it’s laziness or “slowing down” but whatever, it works! 🙂

  9. I think you’d appreciate this:

    When my daughter had knee surgery, we moved her into the “hospitality room” (guest room with queen-sized bed, very near the kitchen). At meal times, we would spread a tablecloth over the BED in there and eat there together, like a picnic.:)

  10. I do appreciate it, Rebecca! What a great idea.

    After I wrote this, I realized that we don’t always eat at the table…we’ve picnicked in the girls’ forts, or up on the hill behind the house…or on the hide-a-bed for a family movie…

    I hope our schedules as the girls grow allow us to continue to do this…

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