Cooking My Way through the Day

Yesterday I thought I was so smart. I made my barbecue sauce, set the table for eight, and just before I went to bed put a chuck roast in the crockpot, covered it with barbecue sauce,and let it cook all night, thinking I would have very little to do in the morning. Hah! Dealing with the barbecue took a lot of time--you know how recipes say to let 4 cups cook down to one cup and indicate it will take ten minutes. Hogwash! Took the better part of an hour! And then I had to shred the meat, combine the rest of the barbecue sauce, pour part of it, carefully measured over the meat and put it all in the fridge. Then came the bean salad which reqauired lots of  chopping--tomatoes, onions, grated cheese, etc. And I forgot I planned to make cucumber salad, so I peeled and sliced the cucumbers and let them soak in salted water, made the sour cream dressing, and went, gratefully, to eat my lunch.  By that time I had spent almost two hours in the kitchen, and I figured I'd count that as moderate housework for WeightWatchers points--after all I was on my feet, and I was tired. Must mean something.
But dinner was a snap to put together at the last minute--put the meat in a low oven to warm, make the onion dip, open the potato chips, heat the barbecue sauce in the microwave, chop lettuce and avocado into the salad (Jordan and Elizabeth helped). We were celebrating Elizabeth's birthday, a milestone one at 40 and she was well aware of it and appreciative of where she is at that age, as well she deserves to be. We were also belatedly celebrating Jay's birthday (40 plus some) of a couple of weeks ago. The barbecue sandwiches were delicious, if I do say so, and Jordan made a wonderful Bundt cake. A jolly evening. Christian, bless him, had all the dinner dishes in the dishwasher by the time we cleared the table and put the cake on. And Jacob was absolutely charming all evening. Weldon brought him superheroes comic books and figures (Weldon's always been a comic book collector and source of knowledge and now his new job puts him right in that field). He may just be Jacob's best new friend.
Now I'm tired and glad tomorrow is a long day at home. And look at the good leftovers I have! One thing I don't like about aging is that I can't cook straight through a day--I have to take tiny breaks to rest my back. But I still spent a lot of time in the kitchen today, and that's a joy to me.
And, no, I didn't forget my recent resolve not to let Weight Watchers rule my life--I loved the whole meal and ate heartily.