Father’s Day for a mother

Megan and I cooked dinner tonight—in truth, she cooked most of it, and we worked some details out as we went. The result was delicious—scallops and mushrooms in a lemon sauce, with a salad dressed in blue cheese vinaigrette. One of the most elegant meals I’ve had in a long time. And fun to do. I loved being in my tiny kitchen with my daughter, both of us trying hard not to trip over each other. The rest of the family went to Concerts in the Garden—Christian’s Father’s Day celebration, complete with dinners from Central Market. But the report we got was that the adults were having a blast, and the boys were bored.

The meal capped an interesting day. We went to church, arrived in good time, and settled in the pew where Jordan began to read the worship bulletin. She suddenly jumped up in alarm—she had just read that Jacob was an acolyte this morning. It was a mad rush, but Christian got him into his robes and to the narthex just in time. You’d never have known, as he walked down the aisle, that he’d been so late nor that he’d blithely told the coordinator, “We forgot.” All ended well.

The sermon was powerful, on the subject that is on so many minds these days—the immigrant children taken from their families. The question the preacher posed was, “What does God want us to do.” Even my visiting eleven-year-old grandson was enthralled. Unfortunately, there is not cut-and-dried easy answer to that question.

We went to a late lunch to celebrate Christian on Father’s Day—and our late lunch turned out to be really late. It was such a long lunch I thought we might stay for supper. Christian chose the restaurant, so I hesitate to be too critical, but it was the slowest service I’ve experienced in forever. Food was okay not great, noise level was high enough that I had a hard time hearing, orders got bungled. Not a place I’ll go back to.

Home and a nice nap, and I was ready to fix dinner with Megan. Blatant self-promotion: the recipes are in my cookbook, due out this fall, Gourmet on a Hot Plate.

And so we head into another week, wondering what will come out of the White House. I for one am looking forward to sitting at my desk and tending to my own worries. And enjoying having Ford and Megan with us. Hope everyone has a good week.