When we were younger and newer boat owners, pre-children, naming our boats was a carefully thought-out process. A lot of time went into encapsulating the feelings we wanted to convey while on the water. We did pretty good with the first two.
Fruition (Pearson 30).
Progeny (Ericson 32).
They both told a story of our lives at the moment. Then the kids came and, with the extra bodies on board, we had an “I think we are going to need a bigger boat” moment and upgraded to a C&C 40. This girl had fabulous bells and whistles that we were missing in the previous ones, but it also came with the experience of sailing with two little ones. Hence the name Chaos.
Why am I going down memory lane right now with boat names? Because I was brought back to my Chaos days these last few weeks when my normal set routine went off the rails. We will start with my guy traveling for 2 of the 3 weeks. His first trip life gave me a big ole tack when my older pup started having seizures. To see a dog drop and go through all the spasticity that comes along with it was truly terrifying. Luckily, our vet is amazing, and we found that it was due to a tick infection, so she is on her way to recovery. There have been many sleepless nights on the couch the last few weeks as she heals and regains her mobility. Yup. I have once again been on the dog watch.
Then my love brought me home a lovely gift from his travels…a cold. You know the kind when your head feels like it is bobbling around and you can’t put a coherent thought together? Yup. It lasted two weeks. Two weeks of tissues and horrible, overcooked, and under-seasoned dishes because the goal was to get dinner on the table and do it without any thought to what actually tastes good. My brain was just not in the culinary game, but we didn’t waste away. Bob Evans mashed potatoes and rotisserie chickens were on the menu more than once, and burgers and pasta with jar sauce (granted, it was Rao’s. I wasn’t that far gone) were perfect for getting food in the belly easily. There were some salads and veggies intermingled in there, but the point was that the meals were easy and everyone was happy. It was a good reminder that food doesn’t have to be complicated to be nourishing.
Now my pup, the older gal I talked about above, is another story. She is now deciding she has an elevated palate and wants a wide variety of home-cooked meals, and is quite picky about her ingredients, so this girl has replaced her cookbooks with homemade dog food ones. I have a stock of fresh produce, proteins, quinoa, and other starches, and a special kelp powder. Is it more work? Absolutely. Is it worth it to keep her happy and healthy in her senior years? 100%! There are no sick days off where she is concerned, so I say to you, sweet Bella, Bon Appétit.
