Dinner Time: 5 ways to familyness charlotte family photographer
Over the years as I’ve photographed your family in your homes, spent time with you, and also heard so many of your stories via email. I’ve seen that familyness can look and feel so many different ways. I love getting to share with you my stories and what our familyness looks like and I’ll, of course, keep sharing. charlotte family photographer
For you charlotte family photographer
I wanted to get more of your stories out for all of you to see, share and experience. Not just because it’s awesome to hear what others are going through but also because I’m hoping that you’ll feel less alone, less like you aren’t measuring up, less like wondering if everyone else has it together but you.
Each of these women who have shared their answers today are incredible women! They are filling a house with love and running businesses. They have things they haven’t figured out and things they’ve totally figured out. Each of them has figured out different ways to make what they’ve got happening work for them. (Today is a glimpse…you’ll definitely be seeing more of these 5 women in the months to ahead.)
The spectrum
Some of us handle messy chaos with a relaxed easy nature. Some of us crave structure and organization in order to run a peaceful home and life. No matter where you fall in this spectrum I hope you’ll see some of yourself in the women featured here and and also discover the courage and inspiration you need to keep making awesome things happen and to…
Keep Being Awesome.
One Question:
What is dinner time like at your house? What do you do to make connection happen?
Five answers…
Davina’s Family
(different, super incredible Davina)
Right now I am the sole creator/provider of food for our son, as he is exclusively breastfed. Following his bath, we have one final, quiet feeding and my husband then holds him for a few minutes before he puts him to bed. It’s a simple routine that we really cherish. I love being the one that gets to feed him and spend this time with him. After he is put in his crib, he usually goes to sleep pretty quickly on his own and my husband and I have our time alone to have our dinner. He often starts cooking while I am feeding Max, and we eat and spend this time alone together – often for the first time that day. –Davina Kudish (new mom with 5 mo. old baby boy, full-time photographer)
Tara’s Family
We cook dinner. I try to precook a couple of meals for the week on Sundays to give myself a break on the particularly hard days. Pizza is a reward for good grades for the month. I usually do the cooking by myself while homework is attended to in the background. I would love to say that I get to sit down and eat with my kids every night, but usually it is the two of them sitting and eating while I juggle 20 things or eat the leftovers when they are done and I realize that I forgot to feed myself. The boys always eat together though, and they love that time together. –Tara McGovern (photographer and single mom of two boys, one with special needs)
Paula’s Family
Dinner time is fun! So over the last year I developed a great system to help me be organized at dinner time and eating healthy food too. I “meal prep” my meals for the week. Typically I’ll make enough for 20 meals, which for us lasts us the whole week. I will cook things like Lintels, brown rice, brussels sprouts, quinoa, asparagus, sweet potatoes, etc. Because I grew up in Colombia { South America } I was exposed to all these ingredients, so our boys are used to eating home cooked meals. Doing this meal prep, allows me to grab a meal and go, and re-heat for dinner time. I place them in tupperware containers and they stay good thru the week.
Usually on Friday, my husband will buy a cheese pizza in the frozen section and will add a few toppings, so we allow ourselves fun, delicious meals during the weekend. We tend to prefer to eat in, it’s been a hard challenge cooking, but worth it! –Paula Player (photographer mom with 2 kids)
Louise’s Family
We have a very fussy eaters so the children tend to eat together and then we will have a meal once they are in bed. We both cook so it just falls upon the one who is least tired! We eat a lot of comfort food, pasta, risotto etc. We also like traybakes as it’s so easy to just throw all the ingredients into the tray. We don’t go out for dinner much but we occasionally have a takeaway – if we have friends over or something. -Louise Rodgers (photographer mom with 2 kids)
Audrey’s Family
My oldest son is living away from home {yet nearby} in college he is only home one or two nights a week, my teenage kids have practice in the evenings and are all on different schedules. Sometimes I spend from 4-8 pm in the car … seriously! So dinner time is sort of grab a bite when you can and hopefully you are eating with another family member and connecting with them. We do not eat out much, we try and eat really healthy, and dinner is usually the 5-10 minutes between one practice or another. We share the responsibility of making dinner fairly equally. I hate to cook, he loves to [cook]! But we both do it. I try and have something figured out before the chaos begins so that it can be accessed and eaten. At the end of all the practices usually we all end up in the kitchen with those that have not eaten yet, even if we have. Just to be together. -Audrey O’Brien (full-time floral designer mom with 6 kids)
Thank you!
Thanks so much to each of the women who contributed their ideas today! I’m so excited for you to hear more from them about business, being a mompreneur, and their own familyness. So much great insight ahead!
Davina Fear is a Familyness Adventurer. Dinner time is one of her favorite times of day as long as she doesn’t have to make dinner by herself.
She is super excited about her upcoming familyness road trip to Florida and Washington DC! If you’d like to get your familyness photo shoot scheduled contact her HERE right away!
Leave a reply