Some days I can’t win. Hell, I can’t even place. Not that I’m particularly competitive. It’s my four-year old who wants to race. “I winned Mama!” We race down the sidewalk, the driveway, up the stairs.
Kind of like I chased down the street pulling my garbage can this morning yelling, “I forgot! I forgot!” At its next stop, the driver was nice enough to tell me he was picking up recycling, not garbage. Only two of my neighbors saw me. And my recycling was already at the curb. Ugh, taking the trash out used to be my ex’s chore. I still tell myself every Sunday afternoon that I should take the trash up to the street. Then it gets dark and cold and I plan to do it Monday morning because the trash doesn’t get picked up until afternoon. Then I worry that the truck will come early. And today it did. Well, the recycling truck did.
The trash isn’t my only trouble though. Packing lunches for Cavanaugh is reminiscent of my old friend’s poem about being in an imaginary fire-building competition with some man his girlfriend used to date. The first day, I was nearly paralyzed imagining what the other kids might have in their lunch boxes, what the teacher might think of his lunch, and then telling myself I didn’t actually care what any of those folks thought. But Cavanaugh has a laptop lunchbox with four sections and I feel this pressure to put something in all four. It should be healthy right? And something he’ll eat when I’m not there. And it needs to stay good for the 3 1/2 hours between when I pack it and he eats it.
A friend of mine was complaining recently about someone at her daughter’s school sending macaroni and cheese every day. Cavanaugh will eat macaroni and cheese if I’m not there. And it’s kind of healthy. Really, what I’m saying is that I need some lunch ideas.
Today, I packed an orange lunch: macaroni and cheese, carrot sticks, pirate booty, and clementines. (As you can see, all he ate were the clementines). Then, it turned out Cavanaugh didn’t have school because it’s MLK Day and I don’t know about school holidays and vacation days and I felt like a screw-up as a mother, and a trash-taker-outer, and a lunch-packer.
So, I need to get disciplined about taking the trash out on Sunday. I put the school schedule on the frig with Cavanaugh’s Magnadoodle kitty magnet. And I will look through the little booklet that came with the lunchbox to get ideas. Today, though, it just felt like one domestic failure after another. If I can’t be a domestic goddess, I wonder if there’s some other option for me. Wood sprite maybe?
Posted on January 17th, 2011 in 
I’ve been seen many a time running to the bin men with my wheelie bin (a few times in my nightwear). I have never seen my neighbours doing so. I have seen them cutting dying leaves off wall plants in the perfect garden that adjoins their perfect house. At that point the realization hit me that they have both too much time on their hands and lead incredibly boring lives.
I figure I keep them entertained!
Do you have Capri sun? I freeze a box of them at a time and then put them in packed lunches. They act like cool cell, keeping cold for fresh and as they defrost can be drunk like a slush.
I understand the stress about packing lunches. Emma just will not eat lunch at school (unless I pack junk). I get so tired of making a lunch that I know will not be eaten, but I can’t send her with nothing. So usually it’s applesauce, a cheese stick, crackers, and another fruit like dried cranberries or fresh blueberries. These are the things she will sometimes pick at or eat a few bites of. At home she loves blueberries and crackers, but in her school lunch she just eats a few bites. I guess she is too distracted by her school friends to eat. I bought these cute lunch punch sandwich cutters but after about 2 months of her never touching the sandwiches I gave up to stop wasting bread and peanut butter, turkey, and other sandwich stuff.
I’m right there with you on both counts! I could count on one hand the times I have taken the trash out the past six years. Lunches… I am always looking for ideas too. So far, this is what we do. I always put in some fruit – five or six strawberries, about 12 grapes, half of an apple, pear, a clementine, etc. Sometimes I put in a carrot. I also put in a quarter of a home made waffle or a butter sandwich. This is the part I struggle with most. I tried pasta and rice but she didn’t seem all that interested in eating cold rice or pasta. Lastly, I usually send in some orange juice or some watered down crangrape juice. Oh, the waffles… I make them in the weekend and freeze them. In the morning, I can just grab a quarter and put it in her lunch box. I hope this helps some! Good luck!
I manage to get the kids to eat sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, etc. by sending a mix of various trail mixes that also include a few m&m’s. They can’t have the m&m’s the next day if they don’t eat all of the nuts.
Cashews have been a hit with Ruby. The protein I put in is pb&j made with ezekiel bread (crust removal is a must on this dense bread). I’ve tried sending sliced boiled eggs, no go. Frozen fruits are always loved. I also send frozen green beans–mixed results. Langston has sometimes eaten them if I cut them into “pants” (cut partway down the middle and arrange to look like pants). Carrots cut into heart shapes or bunny rabbit shapes get more love than sticks. Frozen corn has been a hit with Langston.
The bulk section of Central Market has been a good place to get small treats to make the kids more likely to eat everything I send. Fig bars are natural, but packed with sugar. But a thin slice of one gets me a lot of points for packing a good lunch.
Generally, my kids get a big kick out of a laptop lunch with lots of different foods. I use silicon cupcake cups to divide the inner containers. Sometimes I have to rig the cupcake containers with other cupcake cups squished on of them to keep things from spilling when the lunch goes upright. The new laptop lunches have extra lids.
I hope this all helps!
Karen