Stir Oneself
When my husband and I first got married and began having kids, we really enjoyed hosting people. Even though we were in our early 20s, living in a small apartment with limited finances, I learned to be creative. Those early years taught me a lot about cooking, baking, hosting, and how to stretch our budget. We genuinely enjoyed making people feel welcome and at home. As we grew older, however, we became busier. Our careers progressed, and our growing children began to take up more of our time. The demands of busy workweeks caused the fun and joy of hosting to fade away. We started to look forward to the weekends just to catch up on rest and relax, often doing very little. I realized that the longer I let this continue, the more unlikely and difficult it would become to host again. My husband and I decided to reminisce about the last time we hosted some old friends. Despite our tendency to avoid hosting, we made every effort to find time in our busy schedules to invite them over. ...