Thank You, Schwan's!

If it weren't for Schwan's, I'd starve. My husband cooks when he's home, but he travels. When he's gone, meals are up to me. I used to go out to eat (and still do) but don't as much because I found Schwan's. 

Schwan's brings foods that are frozen right to my door. Their catalog and website have many things, but I mostly buy things to microwave. I ordered from Schwan's off and on for a few years, but consistently do so now.

The deliveryman, Marv, and I have become friends. He's nice and even offers to put my things in the freezer. I say "no, thanks" so instead he puts them in the garage BY the freezer - where Per or Andrew can put them away when they are available. In the summer, I might take Marv up on his offer so the food doesn't unfreeze.

Anyway, I digress...

The things I like about Schwan's food are: 1) they taste good 2) they make a home-cooked meal 3) I can make a little or a lot. 

Let me just mention their blueberry muffins. They are sold as frozen pucks that I can just put in a muffin pan and cook. Did I mention how good they are? They are delicious!! The thing I like is that I can make as many as I want. Did I mention how good they are? :)

I'm sitting here right now having blueberry muffins and herbal tea. I can assure you that if I didn't have the muffin pucks, when I wanted something for breakfast, I'd have nothing.

More thoughts: Why did I choose to do things the hard way? For years, I cooked from scratch. (I'm a creature of habit and don't consider things that would make my life easier.) I see now that, in cooking, taking shortcuts but getting the same results is fine. When my kids were at home, my family liked home-cooked meals. I made everything from scratch and wore myself out because that's what I thought a wife and mother did. 

My family didn't care how the food came to be...all they cared about was that it tasted good. I see now that taking some shortcuts would have made my life more enjoyable. Even if I took shortcuts to make my life easier, having dinner at home with my family would have been more than what most people did.

I was taught to do the hard thing and take the high road. That didn't mean 'make things things harder than they need to be.' It's okay to give myself a break. It's okay to be nice to myself. I know that my family is getting the best from me. If I kill myself over preparing meals, it hurts me most. It's not selfish to do things the easy way when it comes to meals. And it's not selfish to think about myself. I'm not a second class citizen. I give. I serve. It's okay to treat myself like a precious object. In fact, doing so will make me strong.