Cooking at the Kleckner Household

Cooking. Aaah cooking. It seems like cooking for your family should be so fulfilling and satisfying. In the movies people pour themselves a glass of red wine while they cook...pouring just a little into the bubbling goodness on the stove for added flavor and depth (oooh la la!). When everything finishes cooking at exactly the same time (say what?) it is plated (yes - plate as a verb) with lemon wedges and a sprig of rosemary. They grab the plate of beautifully plated food, the glass of wine and sit down at their perfectly set table (cloth napkins, gasp!) to eat a candlelit dinner with the ones they love. Is that Etta James I hear singing softly in the background? Indeed.

Sigh.

I’m going to share stories from my kitchen with you occasionally on What’s a Neko?. Successes, failures and everything in between. Complete with reviews from my dear husband and three live-in amateur food critics. The posts will not have anything to do with plating my food I promise...but may include drinking wine because...kids.

My husband and I try to eat healthy: low carb, high veggies, protein, some fat, you get the picture. However, we don’t live in a perfect world. Far, far from it. This is what cooking looks like at my house...

I find a semi-healthy recipe that I’m 96.8% sure my kids won’t eat. But I figure, maybe this time will be different! Or, maybe I can bribe them with a Teen Titans Go marathon after dinner if they eat it. Or Keurig produced hot chocolate? Or - if the stars are aligned - maybe we have Grandma Sharon chocolate chip cookies hiding in our freezer, just waiting to be used as a bribe. And I proceed with my fingers crossed and a semi-healthy recipe in hand.

This recipe likely includes chopping (which I LOVE!) but the 500 steps in the recipe require more time than I anticipate of course. So dinner is late and the kids come to the table already hangry (hungry and angry) because they are on the verge of death from starvation. And then. Then. They see their plate of food. Have you ever had a human being shed legit tears just at the sight of something you’ve painstakingly prepared for them? No? Well good for you, congratulations on your perfect life. Yes? Well, let’s just hold each other for a moment, shall we?

With sadness in their eyes my three lovely children start to poke at their food. Almost always, one kid kinda likes it, one kid tolerates it and one kid is either enraged over it or crying over it. And it is never the same kid, they rotate positions which is fun. The meal ends with me throwing some raw vegetables on the table and forcing them to eat at least three before they even think of leaving the table. And bargaining over how many bites of the wretchedness they have to eat to be able to earn their bribe.

So what is my motivation to even try? I can see you shaking your head and saying, why Neko? Why would you put yourself through this every night? You are so sweet for thinking I would do this to myself every night. Oh sweet baby Jesus, I would not. In between my creative meals I will throw in a Soup Sunday or a Taco Tuesday or a Chicken Tender Thursday (that’s not a thing, just play along). But when I actually do cook this is the usual scenario.

Welcome to my life, I’m happy you are here. Stay tuned for more creative genius out of my kitchen (note sarcasm).

Until next time,

Neko

P.S. My eldest read this post over my shoulder and said, “Mom, this might be a slight  exaggeration.” Yes, my dear, it is a *slight* exaggeration.

What's a Neko?

Hello friends, and welcome to blogland! Or wait, am I the one in blogland since I’m writing and posting and you guys are just hanging out in internet land? Oh boy, one sentence in and I’m already confused. Let’s start again, welcome to my What’s a Neko? blog! I’m so glad you stopped by to see what the heck I’m up to. So let’s start with that.

What the heck am I up to?

I’ve decided to start a blog (obviously). “But why a blog?” I’m sure you’re wondering? I have about 525,600 reasons. (Did anyone catch that reference? I know one person who would for sure, but we’ll see if HE reads my blog and comments). But reason number one, I’ve rediscovered my love for writing. Seriously folks, when I’m writing, I’m happy. When I’m not writing...well, I’m still mostly happy but I just really want to get back to writing. I’ve also started writing a devotional and am wildly excited to share excerpts occasionally with y’all (I’m not from the south but I just think y’all sounds kinda fun sometimes). Anyway...

What will this blog be about?

Well for starters, this will be a happy blog. A kind blog. You never have to worry about clicking on my latest post and being offended (at least not intentionally, please reach out if I’ve inadvertently offended you). It won’t get political because...well, if I tell you why then it’s become political. I will likely share stories about my family (see The Kleckner Crew below) and lots of other randomness. I’ll definitely be throwing some Jesus into the mix because, well I’m a die hard Jesus lover and I wouldn’t be writing if it wasn’t for some divine intervention (more on that in another post).

My writing style might take some time to get used to. I love to be funny and I hope my sense of humor comes across in my writing (because in my head I’m absolutely hilarious!). I will also use a lot of parentheses and … (what are those things called?). I also am severely allergic to typos so if you must call me out please be gentle and kind and loving or I’ll have to fetal position in the corner while I make my husband fix my errors.

What’s a Neko?

So...what’s a Neko? I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her. Did I mention I love to quote movie lines, specifically from the 1990’s? Anyway, there’s no boy in front of me currently (although one will be home from school in 20 minutes so I better wrap this up). I’m an Iowa native, northern Iowa specifically. Went to Iowa State University my freshman year of college (go Cyclones!) and then transferred to the University of Northern Iowa (go Panthers!) where I graduated with a degree in marketing. But I’ve always been a diehard University of Iowa fan (go Hawkeyes!)

My husband’s career brought us to the Des Moines area many moons ago. I worked in corporate America for several years (that’s where the question “What’s a Neko?” originated, maybe I’ll share the embarrassing story sometime) and decided to stay at home when my oldest was born. A  come-to-Jesus moment slapped me across the face this past summer before my youngest went to first grade and here I am!

I like to think of myself as an Ed McMahon type (or Andy Richter or Steve Higgins...do you see where I’m going?). I’m not usually the main story teller but I can add color commentary to any story told by someone else. I commonly set up my husband to tell a story and then help with the embellishments. I’m a born people pleaser often to a fault (my husband hates that I won’t ask a store employee for help because I don’t want to “bother” them). I despise being late and rarely am. I love to organize. And spending time in prayer and reading the bible is how I start my day every day.

I also am working on my first book as I mentioned above. It is a Christian devotional and is meant to ask serious questions with my humor sprinkled throughout. It is a ton of hard work but I can honestly say I’m loving every minute of it. God has been with me through this journey and has (not so subtly) nudged me to meet with spiritual friends and mentors and leaders to get me to this point. It’s crazy how God works!

The Kleckner Crew

Enough about me, what about the fam? My family is my everything to me. My hubby and I are a match made in heaven (barf, right?). Seriously though, he’s fantastic, I have zero complaints about this man. And he is supportive of me spending time writing when we should be binge watching The Walking Dead or Stranger Things (hard pass on those anyway, sorry fans). Without his support I wouldn’t be able to indulge in my newfound writing obsession. We’ve been married 18 years and dating for 23 years. Holy monkeys that seems like a long time when I type it! We were just-out-of-high-school-sweethearts but had been friends before that (I’ll be honest, I always thought he was a total smokeshow).

I have three of the best kids around and will likely blog about them often. Specifically my nine year old middle child because she is absolutely hilarious and has no idea. And maybe about the life of an almost seven year old boy who has two older sisters and is constantly babied by all three of us. And my eldest...well, I might chat about how life is changing as she is going through her tween years and middle school and how she’s my mini-me because she also hates being late and loves to organize and shop.

Is anyone still out there?

Did you make it to the end? I hope you did! And I hope you’ll come back to see what’s going on in What’s a Neko? land. I promise my posts won't always be this long. I’d love comments (please be kind) and I’m very open to blog post ideas! Share away! And subscribe to get posts sent directly to you!

Until next time,

Neko