Dinner Anxiety

I left work early today so that my daughter could see the doctor for her recurring ear infection. When I came home my wife handed me instructions for dinner. Suddenly, my eyes widened, my collar seemed to tighten, I began to feel warm, and I started to stutter a little as I spoke. My wife knew right away what the problem was: there was more than two steps to making the dinner tonight and I felt overwhelmed. After expressing her confidence in me, my wife took our daughter to her appointment. My wife suggested I wait to start dinner until 5 pm. It was 3:45 pm, and I started anyway and put it in the fridge until it was time to cook just so that I could leave myself enough time to mess up or have to deal with some other scenario that I might not be prepared for because I am never home at this time of the day. That was the right choice. As soon as our baby girl got up from her nap, it was interruption after interruption, and it would have been impossible to make dinner. It's now certain, my wife does the impossible every day. But I will always savor my wife's reaction upon returning from the appointment to see the table set with a perfectly prepared dinner.

*Thank you to my son for setting the table.