I love the LDS Church’s children’s program’s, which are focused on service, developing faith and goal-setting. Between the ages of 8 and 11, children are challenged to complete their Faith in God and when they are 12-17, the young women do Personal Process while the young men to scouting and Duty to God.
Many people marvel how good our youth are. It’s because we keep ‘em so busy they can’t get into trouble.
Hadley has been slowly working on her Faith in God goals. I say slowly because I don’t want to make goal-setting a negative stress and have been letting her choose what new challenges she’d like to take on at her own pace. Under “Developing Talents,” she decided she wanted to cook us a healthy, gourmet meal. She and Bode frequently help me in the kitchen but this was by far her most ambitious attempt: Grilled coconut-lime chicken skewers with peanut dipping sauce, garlic and truffle oil mushrooms, honey-ginger green beans and made-from-scratch brownies.
She spent several hours with me in the kitchen and, though we were both exhausted, she was delighted with the result and declared she loved cooking.
So do I. Especially when someone else (like an unsuspecting kid) takes over dinner duty from me in a few years. #MyEvilPlan
She set the table in our best china and called us all to dinner. With each bite, she waited with great anticipation for us to pour on the praises, which Jamie and I did. Bode, on the other hand, was reluctant.
“C’mon, Bode. Just try the peanut dipping sauce. It is delicious,” she begged.
And then my personal favorite as her frustration grew, “Do you know how long this took me to make, Bode?”
Couldn’t have said it better myself. In fact, I pretty much do every. Single. Week.
After we finished cleaning up, she looked at me with great appreciation and said, “Wow, Mom. You do a lot of work to prepare our meals every day.”
And it was so nice that she finally acknowledged it.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 