The Road to 40 Day 153/365: Reasons for Rewards

I don’t get evaluations for doing what I do, so it falls on me to give myself rewards I think I deserve at times.

I’m not saying being a housedad is a thankless job. I find it very fulfilling. I get to do things that parents who care for their kids could only hope for. However, an increase in performance or an accomplished task doesn’t exactly translate to tangible rewards like when I was still in the workforce.

On this day, I arranged our pantry cabinet. It’s been a long time coming, but I finally focused on doing this one thing I’ve just been staring at for the past few weeks.

I don’t like arranging things because Che wants a certain way of arranging things. But then I realized that the kitchen is primarily my domain in our arrangement. I’d be the one to use the pantry anyway, so I arranged it the way I saw fit.

There were plenty of condiments thrown out, as well as a few items that have not been used in years. I figured, if we survived this long without using them or thinking “oh I have one of those!” then we can survive life without them. Maybe it’s a different way of applying the Marie Kondo ideology.

I feel bad about throwing away some food that went past the expiration date. For example, we got these Minion cup noodles from Japan because they were interesting and we were curious. We were able to try one or two, but there were two more that we never got to eat.

It’s like these special things we want to keep, but because we valued it more than what it is, we completely forgot to consume it as it was intended.

After clearing that up, I arranged the utensil drawer, so at least I know where the things in the kitchen are.

I felt like I did a good thing today, so I decided to treat myself to some nice food. Janggut Laksa’s curry chicken came to mind.

I’ve spent more on food, but I’m blessed to say that I am able to choose food based on what it makes me feel rather than how much it costs.

Today, my large chicken curry with rice and iced lemon tea came to about SGD10.50. The other day, my Korean brunch cost me about SGD 24.

Still, getting to eat this chicken curry at the time I did and at the pace I wanted felt like a nice reward for what I thought was a job well done.

I just needed to cross the road to ride a bus straight to Vino’s school, so the timing was just nice.

When we got home, I was still able to relax a bit because I already prepped dinner by marinating salmon. All I had to do was pop it in the oven.

Che and I both agree that we need more fish in our lives. I don’t cook fish too much because I don’t know how to handle it, and I don’t have a wide knowledge of fish, so I have very limited items on my menu for fish.

For this day, I tried to do Soy Miso Salmon. We saw this in a Reel some time back and we thought it was easy enough to emulate. The first time was good, so I was hoping this one turns out well also.

Che came home early, so I cooked rice and put the fish in the oven and asked for about 45 minutes because that’s how long the rice cooker gets its job done.

I also got some greens that I cooked with garlic, salt, pepper, and some sesame oil for sides because why not.

Fish isn’t on top of Vino’s list for food – like me – so I was a bit worried he wouldn’t eat much. However, he did. Meanwhile, Che said there was too much rice left in the rice cooker because she wouldn’t eat much. She finished her plate quick and got the remaining rice because like Vino, she liked it as well.

While I had to reward myself for cleaning up the pantry, seeing Che and Vino enjoy the food I made was all that I need to be happy doing the things that I do.