Because of my line of work (but more because I'm addicted to them) I read and subscribe to a great many food magazines, follow certain websites and food blogs. Often I catch up on my reading early in the morning as I'm making breakfast, packing lunches and doing the prep for that night's dinner. Dinner? Yep! Often dinner before my morning coffee! With 2 small boys, a busy husband and a business to run, dinner can get lost in the shuffle and when it comes time to the witching hour (5pm-7pm in our house), if dinner isn't ready at the right time then this mother can find herself amongst 3 cranky boys! Anyways, this morning as I was wadding through raisin toast, orange segments, drinking my instant coffee (blah - don't even ask why!) and blanching the dinner vegetables I was scanning the latest online edition of Canadian Living. There I found once again a validation on why I was slicing leeks and fennel so early in the morning over a cup of weak brown sludge. Dr. Joey Shulman's article entitled The Benefits of Family Meals speaks to the lost art of the family meal. Like Dr. Joey I too remember sitting down as a family most nights and discussing the days events and eating food we helped cook with my mother. We might have done it with a scowl on our face as we heard our friends playing in the street but we did it anyways. And looking back I'm so glad we did.

In my own family, I know we don't sit down everynight together but we do make a point of sitting down at least 3-4 nights a week as a family. It may mean that my husband and I have to rearrange the rest of our daily meals to make sure our appetites are ready for a 6pm meal but it's a small sacrifice for us in order to gain wonderful benefits. Like listening to our 5 year old wax poetic about his first month at school as a "full day boy" complete with stories on how Sam's mom packs more interesting lunches because he gets gummy bears everyday! Or how we have noticed it seems like overnight our 17 month old has mastered the art of feeding himself with a spoon (okay so there's still more yogurt in his hair then in his stomach but he's doing it himself!). For those 30 precious minutes or so, there is no tv, no radio, no electronic toys that make way too much noise and most importantly there is no arguing! I love it!
Now maybe things will be forced to change a bit once afterschool programs enter into our lives more but for now it's something that I will continue to hold dear to. Think about the last time you had a family meal together that wasn't on a Sunday and maybe you might find yourself chopping leeks and fennel at 7am tomorrow morning! If you do, just make sure your coffee is at least freshly brewed!