Anxiety, in-laws and too much chocolate...

Do you have those days when it just does not kick start? It fails to ignite and try as you might basically it should be skipped.
Today was one of those days.
I should have just skipped it.
I am getting increasingly  anxious about an imminent visit from my in-laws, which is in fact more than six weeks away, but I am not really looking forward to it.
Suffice to say like a lot of people I find my in-laws are problem. Not that they are bad people or anything; they are not - it's just we don't get on. I rub them up the wrong way and they do the same to me.
I feel not quite good enough and approaching 50 and after 15 years marriage I really should be far more gown up about it. But you can take away the childhood but you may never take away the child and I am that child.
Nervous, anxious and then just badly behaved because I don't want to be nervous or anxious.
I have managed to avoid my in-laws for the past couple of years and personally I think this is a good thing for all of us. I am happy not to see them and truth be known I very much doubt they are anxious to see me. But there comes a point when we must all meet and at least pretend to get along for appearances sake.
So that my children can be free to love them as grandparents and my husband not find himself in a bind  pulled between his love and desire to protect me and his love and desire to be with his family.
Possibly my failure to see my in-laws  has given rise to comment, and this of course must be rectified. I cannot believe they are in any hurry to see me at all. But I think they feel that they ought to be more involved with their sons and grandsons and I am obviously the problem.
So in an effort NOT to be the problem I am hosting a Birthday weekend for my mother in law. I fear it is going to be disastrous and just another excuse for them to say how awful I am and I probably won't let them down - behaving as usual  in a manner  unbefitting.
I have never ever been rude to them bar the once when I told my MIL to foxtrot oscar - though I did have post natal expression at the time. And in general I am very accommodating allowing them to bring their dogs, invite their friends over etc etc but after such a long time away from their company I fear they are now bogeymen so my chocolate intake is increasing as I try to stay calm and days like this drift by  without me getting much done…
Wish I could wave a magic wand and be the perfect daughter in law

The Most Evil Dog On The Planet Strikes Again And I Have A Moral Dilemma…

Most Evil Dog On The Planet enjoying herself in the long grass

I love her.

I do.

I really, really love her.

BUT.

But sometimes she’s just evil.

She’s horrid. She more than lives up to her sobriquet EBJ (Evil Black Job) aka the wickedest whippet in the world. Sometimes she is SO bad she’s the most evil dog on the plant.

Today she was the most evil dog on the planet and I have a problem.

Both she and I had been out running and being that is was cold and I was very tired after my exercise I decided to have a very long, very hot bath.

Sheer bliss.

I trotted downstairs afterwards to have a glass of water and to ready myself for the rest of the day. Work and the like.

I drank my water.

And then I noticed a lovely smell.

Chicken stew.

But it seemed out of place. I hadn’t been cooking any so why could I smell it?

And it dawned on me as I turned to look at the stove that I normally put the lids of the pans on properly, the right way up, not upside-down as this pan lid was.

I approached the pan and noticed a tell-tale blob of chicken jelly on the top of the oven.

I am NOT a messy cook. I DON’T leave blobs of stew on oven hobs.

Somebody…

Somebody had left it there and it couldn’t have been the boys.

I glanced around the kitchen it was strangely devoid of canine inhabitants.

I eased the lid off the stew. The stew that my Darling Husband had spent hours on Sunday, cooking.

Hours and hours slaving away

The one that I was supposed to have carefully put in containers and frozen on Sunday night. The one, which I had every intention of giving my In-Laws on Friday night when they came to stay for the weekend.

I peered inside the pan. There was still stew.

But it had gone down somewhat. There wasn’t as much stock in there as there had been the night before.

Although I cannot say for certain it was her because as usual there is a lack of evidence and I cannot afford a full forensics, my gut tells me it was, that and the fact she is studiously refusing to look me in the eye.

But now I have a problem. Knowing what I know, do I go ahead and put the stew in the container and freeze it and serve it up to my In-Laws on Friday or do I throw the lot away?

And what do I say to my husband who is expecting to see said stew on Friday for supper if I do throw it away? Should I ‘fess up or should I just keep quiet? Or should I just blame the dog?