Stumped

I'm repeatedly astonished that I can go through a time of relative ease in cooking and meal-planning, and then suddenly come to a stretch when I cannot think of one single thing to cook. I'll be in the middle of the week and find I'm drawing a complete blank about dinner. It's not that the standards don't sound good; I can't even think of what the standards are. Or I'll only be able to think of the one thing we don't have the ingredients to make.

I have a new theory about when it happens: it's when I don't have any mental whitespace. I loved loved loved my sister's visit. But partway through, I became totally stumped about what we could possibly cook and eat. I've been feeling bad about flaking out on the cooking but I've realized that my problem, though I'm not sure it really is a problem, was that I was having so much fun. I spent the whole time with my mind so full of our conversations and our amusements with the kids (and some worries about them being sick) that I became catatonic every time I looked at my blank grocery list.

We weren't that busy, but my mind was full. In the best way... unless you are looking at it from the perspective of the kitchen table.