Taking Pride in What You Do

Before my lungs entered the end stages of CF, I was a working woman. I loved my job, I got great satisfaction out of it, and I felt it defined who I was. When people asked what I did for a living I would proudly reply, "I am a disability counselor." I got my sense of self-worth from what I did at my job. I can remember wondering how women could stay at home. Wouldn't they be bored? Wouldn't they feel unfulfilled? Where would they get their sense of accomplishment? I believed I could never do that, certainly I would be bored.

Boy was I wrong. It is not what you do, but how you do it. I took pride in being a counselor and gave it my all, that is what made it special. Homemakers are no different, they take pride in their home, in caring for their family, in making the home environment be as wonderful as it can be. What an awesome and important responsibility!

I don't think I was a very good homemaker in the days that I worked. I took no pleasure from the household chores I did. I didn't think of it as a labor of love, but instead as a pain in the you know what! I did what I had to do to keep our household moving, but I can tell you right now, there was no love involved.

Isn't it amazing how time and experience can change you? After my transplant, as you know, I struggled. I was bored, frustrated, scared. I didn't know what was next for me. I knew I couldn't go back to work, I am too susceptible to infection, so what was I going to do? In the last month, I discovered one new purpose to my life and that is caring for my family. Not in the way I used to, by bringing in a paycheck, but by providing them with a loving home environment. What a noble choice of profession. I have cared for so many people through the years, why not turn my full attention to the ones I love the most. I started to take pride in being a homemaker and suddenly it wasn't dull and overwhelming, it was fulfilling and enjoyable!

One of the things I really hated was cooking. I am not a very good cook and I didn't think I really wanted to be. Then I went to see the movie Julie & Julia (great movie by the way!). Julie decides she will take a year and make every recipe in Julia Child's French cookbook. I enjoyed the movie very much and became intrigued. Maybe I could do something like that. So... I got out my barely used 13 year old Better Homes Cookbook and started flipping through.

The cake section caught my attention. Yes, I knew you could make a cake from scratch, but why would you when you can get it in a box? On those pages I saw scrumptious cake ideas and thought, why not? So, I have made a banana cake with homemade banana frosting (SO much better than the can!), a carrot cake, and a pumpkin molasses cake. Boy were they good. No more boxed cake for this girl.

Although the cakes were delicious, I decided I needed to try some "real" food, so I have been trying out new recipes each night. The funniest one so far was the Belgian Pot Pies. These were waffles made out of a batter with chicken, veggies, broth, etc. Although they tasted good, something about a waffle tasting like pot pie was just not appealing!

Last night I tried a chicken recipe that was, by far, my best creation yet. I used to be afraid to cook anything that called for chopped up veggies like garlic, onion, etc. Why chop up fresh veggies when you could use dry from the can. I had received a food processor for Christmas many years ago that has sat on a shelf in our laundry room untouched, well, in the last two weeks, I have broken that bad boy out of its dusty box and used it numerous times. How incredible is that machine? Throw in an onion and it comes out finely diced, who knew?

I started cooking around six, the recipe said it was quick, not really so. At eight when I finally uncovered the finished product, I was so excited I had to take pictures. I had created something that not only looked great, but it tasted amazing. Dear Scott, who was starving by the time we sat down to eat, told me it was well worth the wait and was "restaurant quality". Watch out Martha Stewart, here I come...

So, this was my long way of saying, it doesn't matter what you do, you can make it wonderful by taking pride in it and putting your full heart into it. What a wonderful new lesson I have learned!

My love to you all! Nancy