"Mom made ALL that vegetables, just for her!"

Today is Friday, aka Marge-day. For years, the girls have been spending every Friday with Marge, our favorite local adopted grandma. Before they were old enough, Marge had the big kids. Now I recognize that this is seemingly a tangent to food talk, but bear with me.

Marge is amazing. I want to be Marge when I grow up. Actually, I am just thrilled to be friends with her. We were down-the-street-neighbors for ten years, and she is the closest thing to family we have here in Rochester. Every Friday morning, she faithfully showed up at our door at 9am, took my kids for an adventure walk, did a science experiment with them, fed them a fun lunch (kid friendly: mac and cheese, or pancakes), read them a story, and brought them home between 1:00 and 2:00. And, once in a while, she invites them for a sleepover. Sounds too good to be true, I know. Trust me, it only gets better.

Marge is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist, and we are members of the same church. She brought us dinner when the first babes were born, though we had never met, and that was the beginning of our friendship. She has played lovingly with all four of my children, let me cry on her shoulder, shown up to get a child off the bus when I'm running late, graciously kept the kids longer so Michael and I could have a lunch date, opened her summer home to our family, spent Christmas Eves with us, and has also been open to accepting help from us. It is a great honor to be able to give her rides, bring over meals, and now read her mail. Marge is 93 years old.

Perhaps now you can see why my girls have always referred to Fridays as Marge-day. Spending the day with her is one of the defining rhythms of our week, and we all love it.

Lately, Marge has lost a lot of her sight, and is getting ready to move to a new home in an independent living facility. These days, the girls still spend Fridays with Marge, but instead of dropping them off, I stay, too. Since this is prized time for the girls to be with Margy, I usually stay in the background, joining them only for lunch, but being nearby in case of need.

We always come with lots of goodies: stuffed animals, books, toys, and, of course, food. Today, Marge saw the quantity of food that showed up in her refrigerator and remarked that the girls would have lots of choices for lunch today. Their response? "No, Mom made all that food for her...it's ALL vegetables!" Being hard of hearing, Marge again talked about what a great cook their Mommy is and how there's a lot of food in her fridge. The immediate response was, "No, Margy, Mom made all that vegetables, just for her!"

Can you guess what I had for lunch today? Yup, vegetables. A giant salad, that I toted over in a 9x13 pyrex dish. Truly. This food plan is really all about food, and lots of it. The catch is, it's all good for you. Nothing about this plan screams deprivation, the word so typically connotated by diet. Thank goodness.

All that said, I'm really craving a pizza. Beautiful, steaming sauce full of oregano and basil, strings of melty cheese, and a delicious crust with just the right blend of crispiness and chewiness. There...that was a good food daydream. Now I will come back to reality, and make an equally delicious Asian poached fish, served with, you guessed it: a salad.