I can make dinner. (If you really want me to.)

My wife is having a bad day. No problem, as a caring husband I am there to step up to the plate and take charge. She usually handles it all but I can do it too.

I start by being the referee to the kids. Simple, send them downstairs to clean the family room. Ignore the screams and the sounds of high explosives amid shouts of whose toy belongs to whom and "Get off the blanket. I am trying to fold it."

Next, make dinner. I have never really learned how to cook but I do have a few "specialties". I tell my wife that I can make waffles for dinner. (definitely a specialty!) But alas, she informs me that the kids haven't had any vegetables today. Since grilling your spouse on what the kids have eaten when I know that she is having a bad day isn't conductive to a healthy lifestyle, I say, "Sure. I can make something else."

Door number two. "Stir fry." It's not really stir fry. I just call it that because I stir it as it fries. Start by cooking two cups of rice. While that is steaming, defrost polish kielbasa and cube it. cook that in the APP (All Purpose Pan) until it has crispy edges. Pour in a bag a frozen mixed veggies and top it with your freshly steamed rice. Stir it in the pan until it is all warm.

I sometimes wish that I was on one of those cooking shows where everything is already in little pre-measured bowls and someone else does the dishes, but my reality differs.

My little one doesn't help clean downstairs. She likes to help cook. My oldest spends all his time begging the little one to come and help. He works so hard at it that if he would just focus that time into actual cleaning that he would been done already. The kitchen is a mess so I clean enough to make dinner. I can do the rest later.

Dinner is a success! That simply means that everyone eats it without Mom and Dad having to resort to begging, coercion, or threats. Send the kids down to get pajamas on while my wife takes a bath. Send the kids back down to "Get your pajamas on!" Thus, finishes another day. Whew!