Because it really is personal…

Dinner is simmering on the stove- a pot full of marinara sauce, rich with garlic and fresh herbs from the garden. We always had an herb garden when I was growing up, and I can’t imagine cooking without one. There’s a pan of garlic bread, also sprinkled with chopped herbs, and a basket of salad greens just picked and rinsed.

Feeling smug a little, Rootie? No…not smug…satisfied. Some people get paychecks every week. That’s a source of satisfaction for them. For me, it’s putting a really good meal on the table, every night (almost). Cooking is something I am very confident about. It’s a skill I’ve developed these last 30 years or so, and I’m proud of my ability.

I wear aprons when I cook. It’s almost like putting on a uniform. It gets me in the right frame of mind, and I don’t have to be careful about slinging something or slopping on my shirt. I am a phenomenally messy cook, and now that the boys are in charge of cleaning the kitchen, I’m not too careful about how many bowls I dirty up, either. My aprons are many and varied, ranging from utilitarian, to silly (it reads: Life is too short to cook for you people), to…well…I have one that would be seen on Nelly Oleson, with wide ruffled eyelet on the straps and and endearingly feminine floral print. I’m wearing it this very minute. My grandmother made it and gave it to me and I feel very Domestic and Sweet in it.

…I can almost hear JerseyChick choking on a cookie…

…I like feeling Domestic and Sweet…most of the time. It allows me to pretend I’m a good wife, which I want to be…most of the time.

Isn’t it wonderful how each of us can be so different and still find something to cheer the other about? I mean, CrazyTrace (link in the blogroll, I’m too lazy to link it here) gets tremendous satisfaction out of athletics. The stuff that woman and her family does! Now she’s talking about cross-country skiing! She admits to hating housework, the very thing I really enjoy, and I admit to being as athletic as…I dunno…that big squashy pillow on the couch over there..the one the dogs lay on all day. And yet, I read her and she reads me and we both seem to enjoy it. JerseyChick (at The Daily Drudge, on the blogroll as well)is a *herm* Yankee (through no fault of her own), a Linguaphile (is that a word?) and homeschools her kids. I can’t learn a new language to save my life, and my kids are all thoroughly Public School Semi-Edumcated, and yet, she flutters her (much more feminine that she realizes) eyelashes at me and I fall on the floor and beg her to let me do the crafts for her Vacation Bible School, because I love her so!

I guess that’s what happens when you grow up. You learn that different doesn’t necessarily equal bad, and that making fun of someone’s differences is…well…kinda tacky and Junior High.

So, here’s to differences. Pull up a lawn chair and have a glass of sweet tea, and tell me all about it!