A Year of Gratitude – February 16, 2024

I found my gratitude while making dinner tonight in the farmhouse kitchen. We needed something warm and comforting for dinner tonight. It was a blustery winter day and a few unexpected challenges landed in our path. There was only one thing for me to do: head into the kitchen to make something to bring comfort to everyone’s dinner plates.

There’s something about breakfast for dinner that seems indulgent even when the dishes are simple. Perhaps it is the fact that you’re choosing something out of order, deciding to make breakfast at dinnertime, which makes it something I love. Or maybe it is just that it reminds me of happy moments from my childhood. No matter the reason, it was exactly what I needed to make and we needed to eat for dinner.

I grabbed my homemade pancake mix from the pantry and got to work mixing up a batch of sheet pan pancakes. I added chocolate chips to a quarter of the sheet pan, blueberries to another quarter, sprinkles to the third, and left the rest as plain buttermilk pancakes. Into the warm oven they went. In minutes, the whole kitchen was filled with the delightful aroma of pancakes and I started to count the minutes until it would be time to sit down to dinner.

I had bacon in the oven and eggs going on the stovetop. I love a busy kitchen, keeping several burners going at once, the oven working at the same time, and getting everything ready for the meal ahead. As I worked to keep it all going, I felt the day’s disappointments fading into the background. Sure, they were still there, but I was able to stop holding them so tightly in my hands. I had more important things to do.

When dinner was ready, everyone came into the kitchen to load their plates, pour on the maple syrup, and head to the table.  My kids were all eager to pile pancakes on their plates, they were happy about the prospect of this dinner. That made me happy for all the same reasons.

As I moved pancakes onto my plate, my last child, the furry one, came to make sure that I hadn’t forgotten about her. Of course I hadn’t. When I make pancakes, there are always a few for Penny Lane. She loves them. How could I say no to that sweet face?

I grabbed one of her pancakes to give her before heading into the dining room with my plate. She sat patiently but gave her lips a good lick just as I was handing it to her. She was so happy just to be included in pancake night. She knows me well and could expect more pancakes after we were finished with dinner. So, she curled up on the loveseat in the dining room and took a long nap while we ate dinner.

As I looked at the faces gathered around the dinner table tonight, I realized that I was filled with gratitude for their company and just for being in this moment with them. Just as Penny Lane was happy to be a part of pancake night, so was I. No matter how the day had gone, it had ended sweetly with pancakes on our plates, laughter floating through the air, and Penny Lane snoring softly nearby. How could I be anything but grateful for that?

I hope that your day gave you a moment of gratitude, a bit of kindness, and that it treated you gently.

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.