Everyday Mom

We eat out way too often.  Do you?  I don’t really know how it got started, but I know that we are finding it incredibly difficult to get it under control.  We enjoy eating out–well we enjoy eating, period!  It is just nice to go out for dinner together as a family.  I do remember when we called it Friday Family Fun.  I’m just not sure how the other 6 days of the week got rolled in.  I suppose that I could blame it on being busy, having two active children, etc.  But even that isn’t always true, and yet I still allow myself to justify just picking up something quick.  I used to enjoy cooking.  I got some sort of satisfaction out of putting a hot meal on the table and hearing my family’s praises as they enjoyed our time together.  Now, it seems the kids have become pickier eaters, it takes too much time to plan, prepare, and clean up, and the desire to be supermom has left me.  Unfortunately, eating out is so expensive.  Every now and again, I add up the debit transactions–it’s staggering!  We’ve eaten a lot of money recently.  I need to get back in the groove and cook more.  Summer is coming.  The grill is a great way to cook with less mess and less time involvement.  Maybe if I can get a jump start this summer, I’ll be able to slow the eating out trend and move toward a less expensive, more healthy routine for the whole family.  I hope I’m not alone–what do you do when you need to reel in the eating out?