Selectively Juggling

Waking up on a sun drenched Monday public holiday, I was chased by two very separate thoughts, either sleep in or get up and do some baking. Obviously, with the incessant “mum please get up and make me breakfast” ringing through the otherwise quiet air, I chose to wake up and throw myself into making a delicious breakfast for the family. Who am I too argue with a verbose 14-yo daughter, who although living with a rare genetic disease, including epilepsy, benign brain tumour and mild/mod intellectual disability, has the assertiveness of a lioness. She is a Leo after all.

We are all gluten, dairy and egg free due to allergies (my hubby isn’t but he will still eat what I bake or otherwise eat his prepacked wholemeal bread) My kids eat meat, with the eldest now a flexitarian, meaning he tries hard to limit his intake of meat, but will ethically and mindfully consume it when he feels he either needs the protein, or taste. I on the other hand have not consumed meat in forever. In fact my husband, and children have never known me to eat meat. It is my choice, and something that is important to me. I have never waivered, and can swear the only thing that would get me to eat meat again, was the promise that someone could cure rare genetic diseases, such the one one my daughter has.

However, I understand this is my choice, my personal preference, and being a considerate human, will cook meat to meet their nutritional needs. I am ethically okay with this, as my kids had complex food, and chemical intolerances, and allergies when very young. I worked with specialists and dieticians, and meat was and is an important staple in their lives. It would have been remiss of me to push my agenda onto them. They are in actual fact, their own people, with their own ideals, beliefs and priorities. It is pretty much the same as religion. I have never and will never push any religious agenda on my children. That is their journey, and theirs alone. My eldest son, pleaded with me when he was just 8 years old “Mum please don’t make me have to do scripture at school, you know I am a scientist, an atheist, and being forced to sit through scripture hurts me”. Yes, he was assessed as being highly gifted at age 5, and able to clearly articulate his thoughts and feelings, even as a toddler. Nothing has changed, perhaps his vocabulary and musings, which are way beyond mine. Instead of scripture, they eventually introduced Ethics class. Which I felt was great. I regress.

Anyway, after a glorious Sunday spent at a Orchard, picking some delicious vine ripened tomatoes, and having creamy butter-like avocadoes sitting on the benchtop, I decided that freshly baked flatbread would be just the thing we all needed. I had a million other things I could have and should have been doing, like helping my 16-yo very gifted, and dyslexic son with the planning of his five major research projects due within this coming week (this is another son). I can tell you now, this week is going to get hectic, especially when you factor in that I have a big week at work. Oh, well that’s life. My 16-yo son’s social and political awareness is amazing, his empathy and compassion levels far exceed his age. He has dreams and ambitions, they are just not quite clear, and need some clarity. All I know is that they feature politics, philosophy and social science. They feature what ever he chooses to do … or not do. I’ve just got to be there to help guide him. I could write 10 posts alone on this one son.

So, there you go. A typical non-typical (whatever that means) Sydney family, spending quality time eating quality food. You could ask, why would I spend so much time trying to make such simple foods? Well my answer is simple, for me it is my love language. It is my way of ‘showing’ that I love and respect my family. It is my way of being creative, being healthy and being mindfully aware on many levels. I grew up with very little in terms of material wealth. I was shown that ‘love’ is a verb, an action, a doing word. This is my way of showing just a little love and stability to my kids in a very harsh and unstable world.