Procrasti-Cooking

     I don’t hate deadlines. I don’t fear them, either. I play games with them. I ignore, taunt, manipulate, until eventually, we see eye-to-eye. Remnants of this old cycle of self sabotage--the cleaning of the closets, organizing junk drawers, cleaning out files, pulling a thousand weeds, volunteering for too many committees or church activities--didn’t seem as appealing as they used to. So for the last two months, with a deadline to finish editing nine children’s books by the middle of February, (I actually asked my friends in Longview to give me a date that was two weeks before they actually needed the first round of edits.)I cooked.

     And not just old favorites: I went to my friend’s houses where they taught me their most famous recipes. And I didn’t just learn how to cook them, I filmed the hoopla. And if that wasn’t enough--it did actually proved to be a bit much-- I took a crack at Imovie so I could create video recipes to share on the blog.

     Not bragging or anything, but that’s some hard-core dedication to procrastination right there.

     I took the Ring’s flakiest apple piecrust recipe and used it to make chicken pot pies. And how about that gravy in those pot pies? I made the gravy, added some sausage and mixed up biscuits or Meli’s potato rolls and started dipping. And Mary's Tres Vite Cinnamon Rolls? Well they’re even better with an orange glaze that was a frosting mistake. And rangoons and pork egg rolls and Chinese noodle salad and turkey chili, etc.

     Every time anxiety kicked in, I prayed, cooked, and comforted myself with how well I had just fed my family. Only then, did I do a bit of editing, if time and energy permitted.

     And no one said, “You’re wasting your time.” Or “Don’t you have some work to do?”  OR “How’re those books coming?” At least while they were eating anyway. 

     All I heard was, “Yum.” and “Thanks.” And "Killer.” And I must admit, the payoff for making good food comes so quickly--smiles, full bellies, happy family--that it makes writing and editing seem like a real downer.

     But then I remembered how many years I languished in procrastination, not listening to God or anyone for that matter, busying myself with so many GOOD distractions, but not being filled and not seeing much fruit.

     And I thought about my sweet friend in Longview, who for some crazy reason believes in me and continues to hire me for assignments and I got back to work, which wasn’t too hard to do with a full tummy and someone else doing the dishes.

     And oh, yeah. Me and my deadline. We finally made nice.