dinner story

i'll be the first to tell you that i don't plan meals very well. i'm grateful that spencer is really good about it. i can cook, but i'm not the best at planning ahead. i do pretty well when i have a menu-plan - don't ask why i don't do that more often. i do have my good times, however. sometimes i even plan more than just a main dish (i must admit that i usually just do a main dish).

today i had a great plan for dinner. three parts that didn't necessarily go together, but they were three things we had that i thought would be good. i was doing baked yams (bought them last week and didn't want them to go bad), pinto beans (we have tons and i've been wanting to try them for a while), and steamed carrots (i just got some today). spencer's last monday class goes until 6:30p and he found out this morning that he had to do research tonight at 7p. this afternoon i figured out when i needed to start everything in order for dinner to be ready by 6:30. the oven was set on timed bake for the yams. the beans were soaking on the stove. the carrots were peeled, cut, and in the steamer waiting to be turned on.

things were all going as planned and after benny got up from his nap and had a snack i hurried to get the boys ready to walk up to the creamery to get dessert for a family in the ward that just had a baby. spencer had said he'd go on his way home from class, but i was ready to go around 6. as i was crossing the street i saw spencer walking away from the creamery - he had gotten out of class early. after we got back i started the carrots and moved on to check the beans. as i was going to stir the beans i heard a crash and then benny start screaming. the steamer had fallen and all the carrots were all over the floor. i'm not sure if benny pulled on the cord or if the steamer just fell, but i have my suspicions... to top it off, the beans ended up taking a lot longer than i thought (i was about an hour off). tonight we had yams - and only yams - for dinner.

it's really not that bad, but when i had such high expectations, it's a little discouraging. i'm sure something like this will happen again, but i don't think that's a completely bad thing because it will mean that i'm getting closer to having real dinners on our kitchen table.

so, all of you reading this, help me feel a little better and share a "messed up meal" story of yours. :)