One Sunday night we came home late from church. Marilyn and I were tired as we always were late on Sunday evenings.
Four-year old Rickey wanted to know what was for supper. That, of course inspired three-year-old Timmy. “Yeah, what’s for supper?”, he echoed his brother.
I tried to convince him they weren’t really hungry and that we’d all better just forget supper and go to bed. But it didn’t work. They were not to be denied.
I did a little scouting. “I don’t see much boys, ” I said discouragingly, my head deep in the interior of the refrigerator. “Don’t you think maybe this time we should just….”
“I’m hungry,” moaned little Rickey. “Me too,” chimed in Tim.
This would never do. There was nothing in here that would be quick to cook. Just odds and ends of leftovers. This called for some creativity.
“Oh wow boys!!” I exclaimed. “Look what we can have!”
“What? What is it?” Rickey crowded close to the refrigerator.
“What is it?” copied Tim, warming up.
“We can have bean pie and corn pizza! Oh, all right! Oh, boy, this’ll be great! Bean pie and corn pizza! Wow!”
Of course the boys were excited by now. They both looked up eagerly as I emerged from the refrigerator with bowls of cold corn and beans.
“Tell you what, guys.” “You sit at the table and I’ll have this ready in just a second. This’ll be fantastic! It’s not every day you get bean pie and corn pizza!”
Almost breathlessly they watched as I warmed up the cold vegetables and then spooned them onto slices of bread on their plates. I set the plates in front of them and handed them each a fork.
“Look at that guys! Bean pie and corn pizza! It’s not every day you get to eat stuff like that!” (Which was true!)
Marilyn had heard snatches of the conversation as she put baby Nathan to bed, and now she entered the kitchen and watched wide-eyed as the boys emptied their plates.
They finished the last morsels, kissed Mommy and Daddy and headed off to bed, content at having a special treat as a climax to their day.
“You really have some bright ideas, don’t you?” my wife said wonderingly. “Bean pie and corn pizza?”
Now we laugh about it as a family as those boys still remember that “special” night!
-excerpted from Yes, They’re All Ours
- Savor the Season- Part 4 - July 19, 2018
- Savor the Season – Part 3 - July 17, 2018
- Savor the Season- Part 2 - July 11, 2018