In the Kitchen

I am nannying for the first time in a week, and I like it. The last two days sure have been enjoyable with little to do besides start work on thank-you notes, spend some time at the pool, and hang out with good friends. Then, when the "day" is up, I figure out what to cook for dinner and head over to Cliff's apartment to fix us up something special. Monday was homemade pizza - last night was homemade spaghetti complete with rosemary and olive oil bread (okay, I didn't make that) to dip in a lovely mixture of spices, herbs, and parmesean with olive oil. I even made a mini-pizookie for dessert.

It's amazing how domesticated life can become. I happened to watch Oprah yesterday afternoon and there was a woman on there talking about how a part of her died when she got married and had kids - not that it was killed, perhaps, but that she let it die. Either way, I tried so hard to imagine what part of me might disappear in the next couple of months and I couldn't come up with anything besides my last name. I know marriage won't perfect life, and in a lot of ways, it won't be so different that I walk around thinking "I'm married, I'm married, I'm married" - but I do welcome any change it may bring, completely.

I spent time flipping through a Pottery Barn catalogue yesterday, coming up with ideas for how to decorate and accessorize our new patio so we can have meals out there or morning tea and coffee. Am I not ridiculous, or what? Haha. The catalogue came with a gift that was shipped to me instead of given to me this past weekend. I can now add a beautiful glass pitcher to the list of goodies like Pyrex, Corningware, Rubbermaid, an incredible professional waffle maker, my beloved coffee/espresso combo maker, gift cards, measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowls, dish towels, cookbooks, fun soup bowls, creamer and sugar bowls, a gravy boat and butter dish, and the list goes on. (I even got some, ahem, lingerie.)

The shower (literally) of gifts from people on Saturday was so neat - like Molly said, whoever invented that part of getting married is a genius. People just want to help give you the best start to your marriage - and for me - a lot of that starts in the kitchen. I love taking the time to cook for Cliff and to do it well; we talked last night about how maybe that's kind of an "Acts of Service" thing when it comes to Love Languages. I never quite realized that's how I might show love. Sometimes, though, I think I might get as much out of actually cooking, as I hope he gets out of eating the food I prepare.

Either way, I know there's a lot more to all of this than cooking meals and such - but I can't help but get excited about the little things like that. Just something else I look forward to about getting hitched!