Let's Do Lunch

I'm flying. To the majority of the earthly population those words mean I am moving through the air. But to the ladies in my demographic..mid forties, computer savvy mothers...that means I've been visiting the Flylady. My sink may or may not be shiny but I have a few routines that are really working for me and I am so proud. I decided I needed to take a few minutes and blog it out. I need to put it down because my kids are just growing up so fast and before you know it I'm not going to be doing laundry for five, and cooking meals for five, and all the things times five that are such a challenge to me now. It will all be times four when Bookworm goes off to college and then times three when Tween is out in the world, and after Youngest heads off - it'll just be Ex-marine and I - times two. And I know that it will happen and I won't even notice it. It will be like weaning Youngest from nursing. I never realized that the last nursing was the LAST nursing - because you do and then you don't and you do some more and then you skip a few days and then you all of a sudden realize - you're done. It's over and you completely missed out on the last one.

So what routine has me all maudlin at the moment? Nothing as "aww" inducing as nursing, I'm blogging today about packing lunches. Lunches have been a fixture of my weekly routine for years ... about five years to be exact since Youngest joined his siblings at the Catholic school. Every week, I would pack all fifteen lunches for the kids. First step was taking orders, "What do you want in your lunch this week?" to each kid. Then off to the commissary to do the shopping. When the groceries get unloaded at home, the unpackers know that "lunch items" don't get put away but instead get lined up on the breakfast bar as a visual reminder of my chore to complete. This chore gets completed as soon as possible because otherwise, the boxes get opened and the snacks would start to disappear! I'm not as bad off as Philosopher Mom with her nine kids who has to hide her snacks in the trunk of her car but still - one shopping trip is enough! The lunches get packed and I line them up in five rows, three deep on a shelf in the pantry. They stand there all neat and orderly and I simply add the fresh/cold items and distribute them each morning. For years I had to line them up with Tween's lunches at the end of the line - in our three deep line up, he was number three. That was because he was the one most likely to say to himself, "I'll eat my Zebra Cake today and it won't bother me on Friday when I don't have one in my lunch." Hah! He'd dig through his bags and get out his treat and then when the day came that his lunch had no treat...cry, whine, cry, whine, fuss, fuss, fuss. Ohh, that drove me crazy! But he doesn't do that anymore - you see... he's growing up. On a side note, it is characteristic of Tween not to be able to figure out that he could simply have stolen the Zebra Cake from one of his siblings' lunches and then he would have been able to have his Zebra cake and eat it too.

The change that has me thinking the end of lunches is near is with Bookworm. She's a junior in high school and is GOOD AS GOLD. I am so lucky! But she recently traded in her big roomy Vera Bradley tote bag for a stylish little American Eagle purse. So the usual lunch just doesn't fit anymore. And she'd rather look cute carrying her purse than have her sandwich. So now I am making one less sandwich. She is still stuffing "the sides" into her purse - Chex Mix, Apple Jacks, Cosmic Brownies, and Gushers but the one healthy item - the sandwich on Sara Lee Heart Healthy Wheat bread - no more! And that's how it will go - bit by bit - until one more of our regular routines is over. They're growing up - aww.