Stop Eating Out - Day Two

January 2, 2010.  Roy came to me yesterday with a revolutionary (for us) idea.  He wanted to stop eating at restaurants for one year.  This, coming from a man who LOVES restaurants (especially the lighting) is huge.  I took me less than a second to jump on board.  I have longed for quite some time now to experience a simpler life.  One where we create more and consume less.  A life that is celebrated quietly around the home hearth instead of around a sticky table at Applebee's.  I want to travel back through time to a place where people gathered in each other's homes to eat, talk and simply be. 

We live in a different kind of world today.  Everything moves at warp speed, including the food.  We eat on the run.  It seems to me that home cooked family meals have virtually disappeared.  Maybe it's just me though.  Or maybe it's because I no longer live in small town Missouri.  When you live in a metropolitan area there is, quite literally, food on every corner.  People eat out to entertain themselves and to catch up with friends between meetings.  We eat out to unwind after a hard day at work when we don't feel like cooking.  We eat out to make life easier.  But does it really make life easier?  My husband and I spent over $10,000 in 2009 on restaurant eating.  How much less stress would I have if that 10K were padding my savings account instead of The Olive Garden's coffers?  I suppose we shall see.  The next year will be one full of challenges.  100 years ago this would be a non issue.  But in today's modern world, it feels radical.  I feel like a rebel.  A weirdo.  But I love this feeling of knowing.  Knowing that this challenge will change my life for the good, but not knowing how.

I am not sure how this blog will evolve.  Will it be a food blog?  Hopefully.  I hope to find the time between classes and clinical rotations to take pictures and post recipes of my culinary creations.  But more than that, this blog will be a place for Roy and I to process the inevitable unpleasant feelings that will arise when we remove one of the crutches that we have relied on for comfort for so many years.

I invite you, our bleaders (blog readers) to stop by often and lend a kind and supportive word to our cause.  You will most certainly be receiving a dinner invitation soon.  We hope to see you (and feed you) soon.

Kristie