My baby girls, already dreaming about chocolate pie.
When I started as the Tulsa World's food writer six years ago, I hoped I would have the title for 30 years.
I loved everything about my job, from the first day until the last. I couldn't have imagined anything that would have led me to leave the Tulsa World and this most joyful of jobs – writing about food every day.
Enter the pitter patter of little feet. Make that six little feet… in 15 months.
Where once life was all about leisurely weekends, travel, cooking and reading, it's now about potty training, kissing skinned knees, rocking babies and the Itsy Bitsy Spider.
Two years ago, my twin girls were born. Fifteen months later, we were blessed with their baby brother. They have taken me on the greatest adventure of my life. It's wild, sometimes wobbly, often exhausting, but a privilege.
My beautiful girls were born 13 weeks premature, with the complications that come with it. In their early days in the hospital, when I had one hour a day to hold them, I would whisper to them all the sweet and wonderful things I had planned for us. Even in the NICU, when my girls hadn't yet had their first taste of milk, I often talked to them about food.
I remember watching my girls' staccato breaths while I told them all the delicious things I planned to make them for Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey, cranberry sauce, pecan pie, I would tell them, with each creak of the rocking chair.
Food is as important to me today as it was when I started as a food writer. But now, I'm making baby food, disguising vegetables in spaghetti sauce and making sure we’re all eating enough whole grains.
Leaving my job as food writer will allow me to follow through with all of those plans I whispered in my babies' ears. And yet, I'm thankful to have the opportunity to continue with the Tulsa World as a correspondent.
I'll be blogging for the Tulsa World about events and things to do. Through my blog, Tulsa To Do, I'll let you know what's happening, what's fun and, sometimes, what's worth loading up your mini van to get out of the house on a Saturday afternoon.
When you know of things going on around town, let me know. This blog will be a two-way conversation of what's going on in and around Tulsa.
The talented Nicole Marshall is the Tulsa World's new food writer. She brings years of experience as a reporter and a passion for food and cooking to the table.
In the coming days, check out tulsaworld.com/tulsatodo.
