Who’s paying attention?

Not me, apparently.

Case in point: The Chicken Noodle Soup Misfortune.

It was a Thursday night around 5:45 and I was sprinting back and forth from my office to the kitchen, working a real estate transaction, finishing a chapter on my second book while simultaneously cooking dinner and making bone broth for chicken noodle soup. Note that I was also incessantly checking my email, Facebook, and the blog subscription list. I was doing all of this in the compressed time period between dropping off my son at lacrosse practice and picking up my daughter from dance.

The stove timer sounded. I leapt from my desk and dashed into the kitchen. I was so-not-paying attention to the task at hand that I poured the bone broth that I’d simmered for three hours down the drain.

A goldfish might not have made this mistake.

Apparently the goldfish has a longer attention span than the average human. The internet has been abuzz with this astonishing statistic: goldfish attention span = nine seconds; human attention span = eight seconds (read more here).

And I’m guilty. I am conditioned to reach for my cell phone in the car at red lights, in a long check-out line at the grocery store, and even at my daughter’s dance lesson as I wait for class to end. I jump from one thing to another in a perpetual state of what’s next?

I’ve missed a lot. By always looking ahead, I’m not seeing what’s in front of me.

There’s a little voice deep inside telling me, “Stop. Absorb. Pay attention to the present. You’re rushing through your life. Heather—you’re pouring the bone broth down the drain!”

And my kids are worse. The phone is a permanent appendage and I fear their ability to concentrate for long periods of time is in jeopardy. I’ve had to hold firm on the rule that their bedrooms after 10pm are NO PHONE ZONES.

So back to the goldfish. Since I dumped the bone broth down the drain, I’ve been thinking that I need to slow down. Call me crazy, but I believe I’ve discovered the answer.

Sunday dinner.

That’s right! An instituted, forced rest period on Sunday nights for a family dinner. Everybody must be home by 5:30. The TV is turned off. Phones are put away.

And I’m loving it.

Sunday morning, I rummage through cookbooks, magazines, and online recipes looking for a twist on an old recipe or maybe a fresh new idea. Then, and this is the best part, my husband goes to the grocery store and buys the ingredients. The afternoon is spent leisurely prepping the meal. Most Sundays, my parents join us for the meal.

It took several weeks for everybody to grow accustomed to the routine. But I think the Sunday dinner is going to stick.The kids look forward to it. The grandparents look forward to it. And I look forward to it. We joke that we’re creating a tradition.

But I’m dead serious. Now that I’ve got it, I’m not letting go of Sunday dinner.

My hope is that my children will carry Sunday dinner memories into their adult lives, and one day they’ll offer me a seat at their tables.

For me, the Sunday dinner ritual is part of a deliberate attempt to be present, to consider a meal, to take a bit of time to prepare it, to put away my phone, to pause, and to pay attention longer than a goldfish—to rest in the moment. And to make my kids rest there, too—with their parents and grandparents and without their phones. It’s turning out to be a beautiful thing.

I hope you’ll try it.

Here’s the perfect idea for your first official Sunday dinner: Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup!

This recipe is hearty enough for a meal. I make a huge pot, use it for Sunday dinner and save the leftovers to take to work for lunch and serve as a quick, healthy weekday meal. The beauty of this recipe is that you don’t have to be precise in your ingredients. Add more or less as you please. I’ve broken the instructions into two parts.

Chicken Noodle Soup Ingredients:

1 whole chicken

Fresh parsley (several sprigs for broth, 1 cup snipped for soup)

Fresh thyme, rosemary, sage (several sprigs of each)

2 bay leaves

2 Tbsp chopped garlic

1 Tbsp Poultry Seasoning

1 Tbsp Kosher Salt

½ Tbsp pepper

3 whole yellow onions, (1 quartered for broth, 2 diced for soup)

1 bunch of celery (leaves and about of an inch for broth, the rest diced fro the soup)

1 cup diced carrots

1 bag frozen corn (16 oz)

1 bag egg noodles (12oz) – PA Dutch variety if you can find them

12 hard-boiled eggs (yolks removed, egg whites chopped)

Chicken Noodle Soup Instructions, Part 1:
First we’ll make a savory bone broth, which you won’t pour down the drain, because before you do anything else, you’ll find a big bowl, set it the sink, and place the colander inside of it.

Insert the chicken into an eight-quart pot. Fill ¾ of the pot with water. Add the sprigs of parsley, thyme, rosemary, sage, and the bay leaves, chopped garlic, celery leaves, plus 1 onion (quartered), salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer for 1 ½ – 3 hours. Remove chicken and set aside to cool.

Then strain the broth through the colander. Discard solids.

Chicken Noodle Instructions, Part 2:

Return the strained broth to pot and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, pick the chicken from the bone and set aside. Once the broth is at a rolling boil, add the diced onions, chopped celery and carrots, and frozen corn. Boil for ten minutes. Add the picked chicken and boil for another five minutes. Add the egg noodles and boil for six minutes. Remove from heat. Add chopped parsley and chopped egg whites. Stir and serve.

Yummy!

Thought For The Week:

Henry David Thoreau said, “You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”

How do you stay present?

(Post update: As of Aug. 2018 we’ll still having regular Sunday Dinners together)

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My novel, What The Valley Knows, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Black Rose Writing. Click HERE to read the first three chapters for FREE!

xoxo,
Heather 

 

 

“A taut, compelling family tale.”
Kirkus Reviews