No Dessert Tonight

I'd always lived with my parents until the day I got married. Learning to live on my own also included learning to live with another person.  I found that sharing my personal space was harder to adjust to than being away from mom and dad.

Oh, there were issues! For instance, what kind of person takes his feet and kicks out the nicely-tucked in top sheet, night after night? Why must he sleep in the middle of the bed leaving me no room to curl up in the fetal position - as any sensible person would!

Beside the sleep issues, a major adjustment was regarding food.  First, the preparing of food.  I only knew how to make three things when I first got married:  banana chiffon cake, cheeseburgers and Texas Rice Casserole.  Before marriage, my husband assured me he was a big eater and could eat anything.

He exaggerated greatly.

After marriage, he informed me he did not like casseroles or rice.  Well. Now I was down to two things I could make.

Living on cheeseburgers indefinitely would work fine for me but I realized it would get old to him pretty quickly.

Never one to give up, I spent all my energies on learning to cook.  God had smiled upon us and seen that I was given two different cookbooks at our wedding shower.  I perused them daily and tried out new recipes almost every night. Unfortunately, I found out almost every night something new the Big Eater did not like.

However, I learned two important things during this trial and error period. First, I could make only those things I really liked!  If I was not fond of something, why should I go to all the effort of cooking it? The end result was weight gain.  It's not good to eat every day lots of your favorites. We are supposed to eat to live, not live to eat.

Secondly, I learned that if I made a dessert then even if my husband was not crazy about the main dish, he was happy anyway.  Sounds like a win-win ... but no.  I found out if I made a dessert, he would eat the WHOLE thing and be ready for a new one the next night. It got old coming up with a new dessert every night.

I decided to outsmart him and hide the dessert so there would be some left over.  Let's see ... where would be a good place?  I decided on hiding some pudding behind the lettuce in the crisper.  He never eats raw vegetables. Why would he look in the crisper?

Later that night, I heard rummaging in the fridge.  "Hey honey, why is there pudding with the lettuce?"

Rats!

Marriage is a learning experience.  I learned to not get upset when the sheets were un-tucked and we bought a king-size bed with room to curl up.  He learned he was not going to get dessert every night.

I also learned not to hide anything in the crisper!

This post was written in response to Writer's Workshop prompt 3.) Write about what it was like to live on your own for the first time.

What was it like the first time YOU moved away from home?  Leave a comment and share, or link up at Kat's blog, "Mama's Losin' It" and tell us all about it.