Thankful for Food Choices

I plan my menus by the week. And for today the menu called for 'sausage spinach calzone'. I threw the ingredients for the dough in the bread machine - using the rest of my flour as I did so (flour promptly got written down on the grocery list) and turned it on. That taken care of, I took the children shopping so Pippi could replace her inexplicably mangled umbrella. When we got back, I made sure the ricotta cheese was defrosted, and I took the spinach and sausage out of the freezer in preparation.

The bread machine beeped to indicate it was ready. I noted it and went about doing other things - I didn't have to start the calzone quite yet.

And then it was time to start the calzone, I put some flour on a baking sheet and opened the bread machine - only to find - not a nice dough - but a big glop of stuff - looking very much like it did when I poured it in. I don't know what went wrong. I just knew that sausage-spinach calzone was no longer a viable option for dinner. So back in the freezer went the spinach and the sausage.

And then I had to do some quick thinking, after all, at this point it was five o'clock.

But I had choices - and I chose to make a meal the children call 'Favorite chicken.'

And although I'm annoyed that my bread machine seems to have decided to stop working, and I was kind of in the mood for sausage-spinach calzone, I'm very thankful that I had other choices - and not just one. I had food in the freezer, I had things I could cook. And failing that I had the resources to order out for pizza if I needed to.

So many people don't have those options, and I sometimes forget to be thankful for the simple fact that I do have enough food to eat and even daily options about what we will eat. Life is full of blessings. Thank you, God.