Some days dinner is going to be cereal.

Like, not even breakfast for dinner which typically includes pancakes or french toast or eggs or all three which I’m actually salivating thinking about because breakfast is delicious at any time of day. But seriously, sometimes the Martells have cereal for dinner. Because here’s a fact: I cannot do everything. And sometimes I have to drive too many carpools and run too many errands to make it to the grocery store or even to a restaurant for take-out and there are seriously just not enough kosher restaurants that deliver. But, there’s always milk because coffee. And there’s always a cabinet full of Cheerios and Vanilla Rice Krispies and Frosted Flakes and Kix (hey, it’s kid-tested, mother-approved.) So even when it seems like my fridge is full of nothing but beer and condiments, a meal is a possibility.

Today was one of those unable-to-do-everything days. We were heading south this morning before 7 to make it for a family bris. A wee baby boy who has five older sisters is a very, very good reason to get out of bed extra early after a particularly insomnia-filled night in which I tried to describe myself in three fictional characters and it’s actually way harder than you think because in that moment you forget every single fictional character than ever existed and then I watched at least five old episodes of House in a row and I don’t really even like House but it’s fun to count how many times they mention Legionnaires’ disease. (also there were dozens of my most favorite Richmond Bakery cinnamon buns as a wonderful morning surprise — I won’t tell you how many I ate, but it was less than three and more than one), but it meant that my editing-two-bat-mitzvahs day had a late start. There was lyrical dance class and football practice and Emily needed to be picked up from her three-day camping trip. And my trainer stopped by to destroy my already deteriorating body.

So when my children begged to have dinner for dinner instead of cereal, I ran to the grocery store. {Mostly because we had cereal for dinner last night.}

Why is it that when you look like you just worked out — because you just worked out — and you are wearing something a little too casual on top and something a little too fancy on the bottom and you’re not wearing deodorant and you haven’t brushed your hair and you think that there’s no way you’ll see everyone you know YOU SEE AT LEAST A DOZEN PEOPLE WHO YOU KNOW?! So not only does the entire neighborhood see that sometimes when your chef husband plays hockey you go to the grocery store and buy ready-made, ridiculously overpriced chicken fingers and serve them to your children for dinner so they don’t have to eat cereal again.

Oh hi everyone who thinks we eat well every night because we are so lucky to have a husbandslashdad who is a really good and adventurous chefcook. I like to keep it real around here. We don’t.

Are you wondering which one of these fictional characters eats cereal for dinner?