Reliving Beautiful Memories
November 11, 2015
When I first took the #10in2 challenge, I knew it would be a worthwhile adventure. As I’ve talked about here in my previous post, having family meals together at the dinner table is something that I’ve always cherished about my childhood. And although nowadays, life seems to move quickly and everyone is always busy, I was very excited about participating in the Billion Family Dinners Challenge. I knew it would be something that I would enjoy… but I never realized originally just how amazing the whole process would be for me!
In case you missed my first post, the Dinner Call app lets you take pictures of your meals, log them in the app, and share them to your social media networks. Doing so makes you stay accountable, but it also does something else pretty spectacular. It creates this archive of memories- this collection of images that represent meals you’ve enjoyed over the past few weeks. I never originally realized just how powerful this archive of memories would be, but looking back at pictures of my meals brings back so many fun memories from these occasions! It’s really quite extraordinary. Let’s take a look at some of my most memorable meals logged with the DinnerCall app!
Reliving Beautiful Memories
Reliving Beautiful Memories
Lunch Date
DinnerCall app
Looking back at this picture brings me right back to the day my husband and I enjoyed a quiet lunch together at a fabulous Italian restaurant. Both kids were in school and we had a quiet, relaxing and enjoyable meal together. I remember the tasty Pasta Fagioli soup that I enjoyed that day, along with the lovely crunch of the salad and the sour spiciness of the banana peppers. I remember discussing with my husband upcoming plans for our family, including a fun trip we are planning in a few months to an amusement park. I remember splitting a chocolate dessert with my husband after the meal and also talking about how quickly time passes. I still cannot believe we’ve known each other for 15 years (we were high school sweethearts!)
Yogurt Parfaits with the Girls
DinnerCall app
I remember this meal well, too. My husband had left to work extra-early that day, and my girls happened to wake up earlier than usual, too. My daughters (aged 2 and 4 years old) and I enjoyed these quick yogurt parfaits that I made using vanilla Greek yogurt, sliced mangoes and raspberries. I don’t always sit at their kid-sized Sesame Street table (it’s not the most comfortable seat in the house), but I decided to do so that day. I pulled up one of their chairs and we all enjoyed the sweet & creamy yogurt, along with a conversation about what we would do that day. Neither of them had school that day, so we wound up planning a little trip to a local, indoor kiddie play place. The girls had a blast that day, and I remember they both fell asleep early that evening from a fun-filled adventurous day!
Breakfast in Bed
DinnerCall app
This picture of an egg omelette, along with some toast & jelly, brings me right back to the day I enjoyed this yummy breakfast. It was a weekend morning. My husband and girls were home for the day. My husband decided to wake up extra early that day and prepare a lovely breakfast for everyone in the house! He made these delicious egg omelettes, filled with tomatoes, feta cheese and red peppers, and served it alongside one of my fave jellies on some toast. The girls wound up climbing into our bed in the morning and the four of us wound up eating breakfast in bed! It was fun and my daughters really enjoyed this (rare) special treat!
Participating in this #10in2 movement has been a wonderful experience for me. I have made a concerted effort to make time for family meals together. I have made a concerted effort to be present (and unplug all electronics) so we can all enjoy some quality conversations. And I absolutely loved feeling more connected than ever to the people who mean everything in the world to me! Making time for family meals together hasn’t always been easy, but it has been worthwhile! And one of the best parts of participating in this campaign? Being able to look back at all pictures of my meals and reliving so many amazing moments! This has been a priceless experience.
Without the DinnerCall app, I would have never had the chance to relive all of these beautiful memories. If you haven’t started already, here is what you need to do:
- Download the FREE DinnerCall app (Android or iPhone)
- Sit down to 10 family meals in the next 2 weeks.
- Track them using the DinnerCall app. Make sure you tag me (@EngineerMomBlog) and @DinnerCall and use the hashtag #billiondinners so we can keep track of your shares!
Oh, and the folks behind the Billion Family Dinners Challenge are so passionate about this cause that they are offering five $100 grocery store gift cards to those who take the #10in2 challenge and complete it by November 15! Get started by clicking here and you might just win!
Let’s start tracking our meals and let’s get to a billion!
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I’m getting hungry just looking at all the photos! I wholeheartedly support this movement to get the family back together around the dinner table.
Yes it’s such an important cause!
I think this would also be an excellent way to keep tab on meals you take. The app can also be a memory bank of happy moments eating.
Yes it totally served that purpose for me!
What a great app with a great cause! It’s so much more than just taking pictures of your food. It’s a whole family movement.
Yes, it really has been such a worthwhile campaign! I’m so glad to have been a part of it!
We love our family dinners and guard them religiously. I think it’s so important for us to take that time to reconnect with one another!
Yes it’s definitely a great way to bond as a family!
We have dinner together as a family every night. But I love that this lets you create memories to look back on. It is true that so many memories happen around food.
Yes it’s so natural to share our days over dinner!
I love the idea behind this campaign! We always try to spend family time around the dinner table every night.
That’s great Vera! We try to, also!
What a fun app! My family has always had a bad habit of eating separated in front of the TV! This really makes me want to bring back the good old family dinner after the table <3
I understand that it’s not necessarily easy but it’s definitely worth the effort!
i signed up for this app as well and love the way that it sends reminder emails to log your photos and really spend time with your family. now i feel guilty since i let mine eat in the living room tonight!
I love the app.
Recently loss my Dad so I’ve been thinking a lot about my childhood. Love the memories of dinner together especially when my aunt, uncle and cousins joined us.
I’m so sorry to hear about your loss Wendy. It’s nice though that you have beautiful memories to think about.
Ah the perfect app for a blogger. I would def. have fun with this one.
I should really download this app so I can also relive precious memories through my photos. It would be awesome to win the giveaway prize as well. Thank you for sharing.
Coming together for dinner is still so important.. sometimes that is the only time you get to see everyone at once! Everyone is so busy now!
This indeed is a great cause for the whole family. It is so important I think for the family to sit and eat together along with preparing the meals too.
Sounds like a great app. I love reliving memories with my children. They grow up so fast.
This would be a great way to remember what you ordered so you can get it the next time.
Haha I never thought of that. That’s definitely a unique benefit of this app!
A nice way to keep memories of your food. I am that person who goes to restaurants and snaps pictures of my food so this would be fun for me lol!
Great to hear that this campaign made you want to spend more family time together without electronics!