The Sunday morning comics and dinner with family…

It's Sunday morning and my husband just kissed me good-bye to go off to his weekend job to pay for the college tuition bills and my youngest daughter just got a ride with a friend to head off to the local soccer club to work all day. And I'm making a grocery list and a list of other errands I have to take care of today because there's not enough time during the week to do them.

What ever happened to sitting and reading the Sunday paper? – saving the comics for last and savoring them until it was time to get dressed and have Sunday dinner with family. I remember when Sunday mornings meant long leisurely breakfasts with the Sunday paper, then Sunday dinner at the dining room table with extended family in the afternoon. Even when I was in college and home on an occasional weekend I was expected to be free and home at 1 pm to sit down and eat dinner with my whole family. When I was younger Sunday's meant getting in the car and driving to my grandparent's house to enjoy a meal that my grandmother spent days preparing for us. It was either some kind of pot roast dinner or pasta with sauce that she labored over for hours making from scratch with fresh tomatoes and spices and there was always something homemade and delicious for dessert. Those times, I'm afraid are gone. During the week families are too busy to sit down and enjoy a daily meal together and the weekends are even more hectic so there's never any time.

Taking cues from my childhood upbringing, as I raised my own family I always made a point to make them sit down a couple of times a week to a family meal with no TV, no cell phones or anything else to interrupt us for at least a half hour. I have also always made it a point to make one weekend meal where all four of us could sit down together – either on Saturday or Sunday evening. When my oldest daughter was in high school a couple of years ago she actually thanked me for taking the time to cook and make her sit down to eat meals together. She said that none of her friends had this privilege – privilege! Something that should be part of our daily routines has now become a privilege, can you believe it!

I recently finished reading a great book written by my Mom's best friend's husband. A Lifetime Ago Before the Death of Childhood is about the life and times of a man who grew up in the 1950's – a simpler time. I highly recommend it for all generations so we don't forget how life used to be. And to remember when life was simpler, less hectic.