When Dreams Die...

One of my dreams died last night. I'm happy to report that it was not a dream which was deeply embedded in my heart. Still, it was a dream. It was this: that my family would learn to enjoy eating fish. We all know the health benefits associated with eating fish, so every few weeks for the past few years, I've bought small portions of fish (what ever is on sale, of course) and served it up for dinner. On the menu has been salmon, tilapia, bass, sheepshead, thrasher shark, swordfish, orange roughy and, most recently, red snapper. Well, the red snapper is what slammed a fat stake into the heart of my fish-eating dream.

Jeff asked what was for dinner as I was banging pots and pans around in the kitchen.

"Broccoli and macaroni and cheese," I answered.

"No meat?" he queried.

"Nope, no meat," I answered, honestly. (Technically, fish is not meat.)

A few minutes later, he incredulously asked, "What is that SMELL?"

I played dumb, but it only lasted for a few seconds because he figured it out. "We're having FISH, aren't we?"

I nodded, flashing him a hopeful smile.

A few minutes later, I had dinner on the table and had called the kids in, bracing myself for the imminent moans and groans they'd emit once they saw what was on their plates. They did not disappoint me. Over the years, I've heard comments such as, "Aw, sick!" "How much of this do I have to eat?" "Are you ever going to serve this again?" and "Mom, not even Dad likes this." One of the more positive comments has been, "Well, this isn't quite as disgusting as I expected it to be." Hmmm, praise indeed...

Anyway, Tobias has a way of inhaling the least desirable item on his plate first so that he can forget about it as he dines on the rest of his meal. Fortunately, his portion of fish yielded no bones. Jeff's, on the other hand, contained 9 bones (and this was a little 2" by 3" piece of fish!). After realizing how many bones might be in Delaney's piece, I broke it up into little bits and found 3. She still didn't trust it and used her hands to further dismantle her meal. Not a good idea, you'll see why later if you haven't already guessed.

Halfway through our dinner, Jeff announced to me that he didn't care for the new recipe of macaroni and cheese that I had prepared. No wonder he looked so sad as he forked bites of his meal into his mouth. When your favorite part of your dinner is the plain old steamed broccoli (which was a bit over-cooked, by the way), that makes for a depressing dining experience!

Realizing that the hearts of my family held no fondness for red snapper, I cleared the dishes and then washed them as thoroughly as I could, using lots of soap in hopes that no odor had adhered itself permanently onto the atoms of my crockery.

Once the kitchen was clean, the kids and I hopped into the car. I dropped them off at youth group and made my own way to women's bible study, silently wondering if Jeff was getting into the Honda and making his way to Burger King to purge his palate and memory of my most recent culinary concoction.

The dream died as a result of three chronological occurrences.

#1--During dinner, I realized that once again, though I had combed the internet for a 5 star fish recipe and had purchased fresh fish, my family still didn't like it. "How many times will I try this and fail?" I asked myself, pulling a fish bone out of my mouth. The glimmer of my dream began to tarnish as reality was finally setting in.

#2--When I returned from bible study, I opened the door to my house and walked straight into a wall of foul smelling air. This was no fish market, this was my home! Although I had thoroughly cleaned the dishes and all the surfaces that the red snapper had touched, the all-pervasive odor had effectively established a dictatorship over our beloved home and it was unknown how long it's oppressive reign would endure. However, the coup de grace was yet to come...

#3--The death-stroke to "fish for dinner" occurred when my precious little girl told me, "Mom, So-and-So at church smelled me at youth group tonight and said, 'You had fish for dinner, didn't you?'" When your kid starts to get the reputation for being the "Stinky One" at youth group, it is definitely time to end the fish fantasy.

There can be a bit of a relief when a dream dies. Now if only that stench would die with it.