Wednesday's Words on a Friday
On Wednesdays, Delores,
from Under The Porch Light, has a word challenge meme which she calls “Words
for Wednesday”.
She puts up a selection
of six words which we then use in a short story, or a poem.
I’m hopeless at poetry
so I always do a story.
It’s a fun challenge…why
not join in?
This week's words are:
1. expensive
2. thorough
3. franchise
4. dispense
5. broccoli
6. mundane
or: "we who sleep....dream....wait....'neath marble slabs and blowing grass"
I have no idea what to do with that phrase, so I've chosen to use just the words.
Here is my story:
After Craig's death, I'd applied for employment at several job agencies and taken the first position offered. We needed the money. There was rent to be paid as well as living expenses for myself and the boys. I'd been working extra hours learning the ropes, so we'd been eating out a lot and the budget had taken quite a lot of punishment as a result.
But I had the job well in hand now and was able to cut back on the overtime as I'd learned to balance out the multi-tasking needed to oversee the different types of paperwork that came across my desk.
For several weeks now, we'd been eating the good plain food I'd cooked at home. Last night however, the boys, Angus and Rory, had said they were tired of the mundane peas and beans I'd been serving up with the chops at dinner. "I'm tired of chops too", said Rory, "can't we have something different?"
While shopping for groceries after work, I decided broccoli would make a nice change, along with sausages. With a few extra purchases, including cheddar and parmesan, plus an extra carton of milk to make cheese sauce, (always a favourite), bread for their school lunches, the total was a little more expensive than I'd hoped. A thorough search of every compartment in my wallet revealed a sad lack of ready cash, so I took out my debit card.
The cashier apologised for any inconvenience and told me the EFTPOS machines were not available for use right now as the bank was having some sort of system issues; she offered to hold my items while I found an ATM. I made my way out into the mall, found an ATM and inserted my card, keyed in my PIN and waited for the machine to dispense my chosen amount.
With the small amount in my wallet, I could have taken the boys to the usual fast food franchise, but we'd done that way too often for my liking in the weeks after Craig's funeral. I preferred the boys to eat my home cooking. It had disurbed me quite a bit to see how quickly they'd grown used to cheeseburgers and fries, even learning to order their own meals at the counter. At ages five and seven!
While I was proud of their confidence in being able to do this, even enjoying their lack of shyness, I still didn't want them growing up on burgers and fries.
.png)
Lovely...just an everyday tale but woven so expertly.
ReplyDeleteExactly!!
DeleteI can relate to this when I was working and cooking for a family you do tend to do simular meals every night and fast food is so easy.
ReplyDeleteMerle..............
A few memories were stirred as I read this post. I won't relate them here as they'd probably turn into a novella!
ReplyDeleteAs Delores commented...a well-woven tale. :)
A wonderful story and I do remember what it was like to once have not sufficient funds in my purse but back then there were no ATM machines or credit cards.
ReplyDeleteI am glad the boys are being weaned of take away food but am anxious to know this: did the ATM deliver the money that was wanted or could it possibly have swallowed up the card?
Do please let us know the outcome of this great story, please.
Delores; everyday stuff deserves a write-up now and again and who knows? it may just take off on a tangent someday.
ReplyDeletefishducky; thank you
Merle; it gets to be a habit doesn't it? you know what they like and what they won't eat, so you stick with what they like and what the budget can afford until they get sick of it.
Lee; now you have to write that novella for us! a post idea for you.
Mimsie; insufficient funds, oh boy! When I had the first two babies I had no idea how much hubby earned, all I knew was the allowance he gave me and that tiny amount was what I managed the household on.
The ATM dispenses the correct cash and life continues for this little family and even without eating fast food too often, the franchise has quite an effect on the boys as they grow up.
Excellent! And, I'm sure many can relate on even some level.
ReplyDeleteI also like the phrase option, and my head was churning with a tale of the undead...
Vicki; I know of so many mums who rely on fast foods because of their limited budgets, also because they grew up on it themselves and never learned to cook simple wholesome (boring) meals and I wonder why the same burgers and fries day after day don't also become boring?
ReplyDeleteThe phrase option has me stymied. I got nuthin'
I cannot relate to it at all. To me, fast food is so much more expensive than fresh food. When we were poor, i.e. Earning $5/hr wages, we only shopped at the fresh food market, Central market, and buy veg at $1/ tray, meat or fish/ tray when the stalls were shutting up. No preconceived ideas what we wanted, all dictated by what was available cheaply. Our food budget for the whole week was $20, then we just cooked up pots of concoctions with homegrown herbs, it was fun to be creative. What do you do with 8 bunches of spring onions for 20 cents? The stalls were practically giving their stuff away at the end of the day.
ReplyDeleteDon't me wrong, we LOVE fast Food! We just couldn't afford it, so it became a birthday treat. Now, we have 5 properties, we still shop at Central market to buy the cheap fresh food, and reserve fast food for birthdays.
ReplyDeletemm; I agree fresh is cheaper.This little family had been eating fast food because it was quicker and easier after the mum had been working longer hours learning a new job, she was just too tired to cook. But once she could cut back on the hours, home cooking was resumed. I remember shopping at Central Market on Saturdays, we'd go to the Asian stall and get the cheapest vegetables, yummy greens, the freshest carrots I ever tasted and so on. Fruit from our favourite stall, kassler from the deli for sandwiches, our last stop was the butcher where we often got kangaroo meat for casseroles. On the way to the bus stop we'd get bread and buns from the bakery.
ReplyDeleteI remember our "fast food" days, one a week, when I made burgers and fries or fish and chips at home and the kids ate off paper plates.
FIVE properties?
Yes, retirement plan - sell 2 and pay for 3, then live in rental income. Managed to scrap $2k together after 2 years to buy some shares, then sold shares to buy the first property, and then use it as equity to buy the 2nd one, and use the first and 2nd as equity to buy the 3rd and so on.
ReplyDelete