The End - It's Just the Beginning

6:30 AM - her alarm went off.

She rolled over and snoozed the iPhone alarm - it was still dark out. "Ugh - how am I going to get up and manage to make his lunch on time?" she questioned herself in the dark room. Fifteen minutes later Dina slumped out of bed and into her dressing room - she quickly splashed her face to wake up and got dressed - the floor was icy cold and she had to turn off the air conditioning before her feet froze to the floor!

She snapped on the lights of the kitchen and got quickly to work - the assorted veggies were pulled out of the refrigerator and washed - in hindsight she was lucky to have bought 2 of the 4 kinds pre-cut! Setting aside the washed veggies she started the water boiling for the rice - she was going to make him broccoli flavored rice - his favorite vegetable! She turned to her clean veggies on the counter and swiftly began chopping them. He had stocked the kitchen well - the knife was large and sharp, Dina had never been able to cut veggies so quickly, perhaps her determination was a factor along with the knife.

At once she heated up the pan and started sautéing her neatly chopped veggies - zucchini, squash, mushrooms and carrots - lots of lemon pepper (his favorite spice from among those she had introduced to him) and a tad rosemary. The veggies were on their way and the rice simmering - she stacked the dirty dishes neatly next to the sink and made a mental note to clean those and empty the dishwasher from the night before a little later in the day - though not in that order!

Several minutes later the food was ready. She turned off the burners and let the food sit and cool for a while - in the meantime she got the lunch box ready to be packed and the little boxes full of snacks ready to go - a little coleslaw, some almonds and chocolate goldfish crackers, and a few grapes for her soon to be husband. She added some juice and just a few chips as a special treat and boxed up the fresh food she had just prepared. As she finished putting away the remaining food for her own lunch, he walked in and was ready - she had managed all of it in time to enjoy sitting with him on the patio and drinking their morning beverages before it was time to drop him for the train.

A satisfaction came over her when she entered the apartment after dropping him at the train station from where he would head to work. This was the second day in a row she had managed to give him lunch, not feel tired, and feel extremely satisfied with her work. As she looked around she knew this was her household to take care of. Her to be husband was a big and important part of it and she was so grateful for that - like how he had seen the garbage full from the previous night and replaced the bag in the can, but she did not even realize it until she opened the can while cooking lunch in the morning. It had made her pause and smile - to know that he had done that was something so small but so special to her that she realized this was all going to work out well. This was her household and she was proud of it and would put all her love and affection into it to make it the sweetest one for them. And she knew that once he let go of the bread on the counter top they would make it work great. A sweet, simple, full of love house would be meant for them.