Thankful for milk

When I was a little girl, I hated milk.

Sometimes I wonder if this was because we usually had skim milk.  When I was two, we flew to California to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins.  I remember drinking everybody's coffee cream out of the tiny, round containers with tear-off tops (back when airlines served meals).  I think I even remember my parents commenting in surprise that I liked the cream so much.  However, I hated milk.

This all changed when my own children were very small.  When I became a nursing mother, I craved milk.  When I had a one-year-old who drank whole milk (as per doctor's orders), I started nipping in the whole milk, and discovered that it was delicious.  As ensuing children were born, I always kept whole milk in my refrigerator, and I usually gulped down a large glass before every nursing session.  "Milk in, milk out," I would tell myself, swallowing fast.

Now that I am gluten free, it sometimes feels difficult to get full, not being able to top off with bread or pasta.  For this reason, I am more thankful than ever for milk.  A nice, big glass of milk does wonders for satisfying the appetite and giving a person that settled, finished feeling after a meal.

I am thankful for milk, and I am exceedingly thankful that I am not dairy intolerant!