Breaking bread together.
Sitting together.
Sharing together.
Laughing together.
I do try to eat with Tate most nights. I grew up eating together as a family each and every night. We all had our places at the table, and we ate together. Every.Night.
Now I'm sure we probably didn't do it every single night especially as teenagers with our busy schedules, but honestly I don't remember those nights. Even when we had band concerts or babysitting jobs, we ate together in my memory. I suppose that's what is important...that overwhelmingly we ate together. We were lucky in that my dad was home by 5 as he worked 7-4, so he was there present with us as well. Traditional family that we were, my mom cooked, we girls helped set the table and clear it. We took turns arguing about who was going to wash dishes and dry them.
Our family broke bread together every night.
And I loved it. I loved it then. I love it now. Rarely would the tv be on, noone read at the table, obviously there were no cell phones at the table. We talked. We laughed. We argued. We enjoyed ourselves.
It's a tad harder sometimes with my little family of 2. I don't have time to make dinner every night. I plate most of Tate's food the night before, so all I have to do is warm it up and add the 'main.' He's so picky that there's not much that I like that he enjoys. I don't want our meals to be a fight of 'eat your food' either. So I struggle to come up with healthy, yummy meal options for the two of us.
However, just the other day he flat out told me he likes when we eat together. It was on a night when I didn't have anything cooked (which is more often than not) for me, so I was giving him a cheese quesadilla along with his pre-made broccoli and sweet potatoes. And he was upset I wasn't eating with him.
"I want you to eat with me Mommy. I like when we eat together."
Even when I don't eat with him, I always sit with him and try to give him my undivided attention...no phone, no laptop, no mail, just him and me.
But no he wants me to eat with him
He wants to break bread with me.
It reminded me of a night this summer. My cousin Rhonda and her family were in town from Virginia. I have not seen Rhonda since I was a child. But she's family, no matter how long we've been apart. They were in town and contacted me to hang out. Hang out we did. She, her husband and two children (ages 12 and 15) came over and we played games, read stories, played outside and just had a lovely time. We had planned to go to a race track place for the kids to play at, but ended up enjoying one another's company so much at home that we stayed put. Hours later it was dinnertime. I had nothing prepared for a group of 6, so we ordered pizza. We sat down as a family at my dining room table and Stacey blessed the food.
As they were leaving that evening we all hugged good-bye and Stacey said "This was a great evening, and even better we got to break bread together."
I've not forgotten those words.
Breaking bread together. The most basic of human needs...eating ...combined with the most basic of love...family.
Tate and I are a family, and I'm going to do my best to make sure we break bread together as a family much more often. I know he'll remember it forever.
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