Only 9 More Lunches to Pack + A Half-Hearted Apology to my Kids on Lunch #711

There are 180 days in a school year, all of which require me to pack a lunch. Now on my 4th year of school lunches, and on lunch 711, I would like to issue a half-hearted apology to my kids.

Dear Joe and Brooke -

Although my lunch making started out strong, with eggs the shape of cars and rice that looked like a super hero, you may have noticed the steady decline in the quality.

It all started at the 3.5 year mark, just after winter break 2013, with the onslaught of requests for help with homework, rides to after school activities, my boss wanting me to do my job and the baby wanting to wear clothes and eat each day. Your teachers will also note that this was about this time that I started to avoid eye contact and pretend I did not hear requests for volunteers. I can assure you all that it's not that I don't care about your lunch experience or your classes.

I actually care so much that I started the end-of-school count down timer on the first day of second semester. The smaller the number of days got, the more I celebrated, leaving me with less time for cutting out nori to look like a penguin face. And now that we have 9 days left, I am afraid that your lunches will look a lot like leftover Chinese take-out.

To commemorate the school year, let's just review the progression of your lunches:

I started with homemade sushi and brightly colored veggies.

And made rice that looked like chicks.

And was inspired by sprouts to make little people.

And made the occasional caterpillar.

And I'm sure you now find it hard to believe that I used to make eggs look like chicks in a nest of spaghetti squash.

And even my quesadillas were awesome.

And I actually used 4 pots (and cleaned 4 pots) to make rainbow noodles.

But really, you should have seen the end is sight, when I began making waffle sandwiches.

And was sending you to school withe store bought Greek food.

 

And then Cheerios became a side dish.

And that quickly got us to where we are now.

And no, with only 9 days of school left, I can't even bring myself to make a peanut butter and jelly and please don't ask me to peel a carrot. For this, I half-heartedly apologize. And remember that 1st semester of next year is sure to start off fantastic (before steadily declining to the point of leftover Chinese food).

Love,
Mom