Sad confessions of a lunch packing mom

I have the lunchbox blues. Please, please help. I need you to be my Zoloft.

Let me start off with this: I have the option of paying for a catered lunch for my kids at pre-school. The lunch is from Jason's Deli, so it's quasi-healthy, but doesn't include all the things that my kids usually eat. They eat a lot.

I would probably have to pack more than just what they would get from that lunch. So, I just bite the bullet and pack their lunches every day. I won't lie and tell you that I like it either. It's about as much fun as a root canal, but I do it, danggit. I have been known to say that this was the bane of my existence. Dramatic? Maybe. Honest? Youbetcha.

Oh, and I'm cheap and don't want to pay for that lunch that I would have to supplement. Have I mentioned that I'm cheap, before? I think I might have here. Or here.

Here's the situation, though: my poor kids have a lot of the same foods over and over again. Not only because the foods are easy to pack, travel well, don't grow mold in a matter of hours, etc., but also because their mommy can't think of other things to pack!! I'm out of creative juices (or juice boxes in this situation)!
HELP!

I used to be the Queen of the Lunchbox, but I've gotten into a rut.

Here are my standard "guidelines": meat, 2 veggies, 2 fruits. (They get loads of whole grains at breakfast, so I don't feel bad about leaving those off the lunch list.)

Meats: Ham, chicken or hot dog (yes- the bad ones, they just taste better)

Veggies: Corn, Lima beans, baked beans, black eyed peas, green beans (anything in a can- I am NOT good at cooking frozen veggies. They end up burned on the edges and frozen in the middle when I cook them.) And I send fresh carrots, broccoli or celery with Ollie because he has chomping teeth (vs. his brother) and loves those. AND they give him ranch to dip them in. (Time out here to get a collective *AMEN- Hallelujah* for dipping accessories like ketchup and ranch!)

Fruits: Strawberries, blueberries, bananas, peaches in a little cup, cantaloupe, pineapple (canned), oranges (mandarin canned ones), pears, apples.

(OK, well I'm okay with fruits, thankfully because they will eat any fruit, but I need serious help in the other areas.)

Sometimes I get a little wacky and throw in a cheese (cubes or stringed) or a pasta (like the oh-so healthy Easy Mac). I feel really proud of myself on those days. Or I might send a soy nut butter (2 children in Ollie's classroom are deathly allergic to peanuts) and jelly sandwich with Ollie in lieu of a meat to spice things up a bit. Last week I was desperate and even sent Bagel Bites. I hope the teachers didn't talk about me at the microwave.


I need help!! Please click on Comments and take a few minutes to tell me your kids favorite things that you pack.

I try not to send things that they will completely hate because I want them to eat. I normally try new things at home so I can force them to try it with threats of taking away toys see if they like it before it's carted off to participate in pre-school. It might be traded for something, so it has to at least be a contender.

What? You see potato chips here? I do NOT know what you're talking about...

I also need tips on lunch box containers. I have to have a size that will fit into their lunchboxes, but I am SO tired of the cheap $1 ones I got from Target (that they don't sell anymore!!). I only have 2 lids without cracks left and I clean those and use them everyday. It would been nice if the packages told you not to dish wash the lids, but apparently the level of instruction on a $1 container isn't quite what it needs to be. Or didn't translate from Chinese. Or wasn't a concern while they were filling it with lead. Whatever.

They need to have separate areas for each food (that quirk comes to my beloved children courtesy of my husband) and preferably can be dish washed.

Go wild with your ideas and tips! You can do it!
Thanks in advance!! You're the best!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HENRY!

Henry is ONE today!! Holy Cow! When did that happen??

We had a wonderfully normal and fun day today. It rained most of the morning and Becca is babysitting for us this week while the kids are out of school for fall break. Ollie loves her (and all teenage girls) and I do, too (not the teenage girl part)! She and Cooper (our regular babysitter) are good friends and Cooper is out of town, so I'm so glad Becca could help all this week.

After Jason got home today we went to the park since it finally dried up after lunch.
Here's my big one year old swinging- his favorite thing:

Here's his 33 year old daddy being an idiot fun-loving, as usual, with his superman swinging.
How can you not love these cuties?
Alright, it's confession time. Here is Henry LEGALLY facing forward in his car seat. He has been ILLEGALLY facing forward in his car seat for six weeks since our trip to Kentucky at the end of August. It's so different with your second child. I always said it wouldn't be... but it is.
And then cake after dinner, of course! This is leftover cake from Ollie's birthday (in the freezer, people, of course). Refer to the last statement about your second child if you are thinking that you would never do such a thing.
We will have Henry's real party on Saturday with all our family in town. I promise I'll get him his own cake then.

I haven't posted a video in a while, so here is a fun one of us singing to Henry tonight after dinner. Be sure to listen to the dog howling and you can't miss Ollie.

Happy Birthday, Henry! You are a precious child of God and we are so thankful to have you in our lives!!

Confessions, A Shout Out and Life in the 'Burbs

A mixed bag tonight!

Confessions:
My dad used to take us fishing when we were little. I take that back. He would take my sister and I fishin'. And when you're fishin', you have to take bait. Sometimes we would take worms (I'm sure he loved to see US squirm at them) from Kelly's Superstore and sometimes we would take Zeigler red weiner hot dogs (I'm not sure why that brand, but apparently fish like them). The thing I remember most, though, is that we would take Vienna (pronouced- in our house at least- Vi-EEE-Ner) sausages. They were supposedly for the fish, but my dad would eat them on crackers and we loved them, too.
Once I became a teenager and realized that they had the equivalent of Spam in the culture world, I dropped them from my cuisine, of course. Like I'd be caught dead eating those in the sorority house, right?

Recently, when asking for food suggestions for Harris, my friend Tara mentioned that she had given her son those baby food chicken stick things at this age. So, we got some of those and Harris likes them a lot. Jason and I both tasted them and guess what? They taste JUST like Vi-EEE-Ner sausages. I think they are one in the same. So, I found the Vi-EEE-Ner sausages today at Publix, bought several, AND ate THREE a couple MYSELF today!! On a Ritz cracker, at least- not a saltine. Let me tell you- they are knock your mama good. Simple pleasures, right? So, there's my confession.

A Shout Out:

I just finished a Beth Moore study, Believing God. It is absolutely transforming (especially my prayer life) and I truly loved all of it. One of my favorite points towards the end of the study was about praising God when He does good things for us (see Psalm 47). Beth (because we are friends in my mind) was teaching about Joshua and the battle where he asked God to hold the sun and He did (Joshua 10:12). She made a great point about "praying big" because our God is awesome, but she also talked about how nothing is too hard for God (see Jeremiah 32:17-22). What stuck with me, too, was that God deserves our praise- for little and big things. She made the correlation of us giving our children a present and them not saying thank you or acting excited at all. That one really hit home. How many times do I say, "What do you say?" trying to coax a "Thank you" out of Owen for niceties people say to him? I think teaching them politeness is necessary, but sometimes that forced thank you just isn't meaningful. And then watching him open a train or something he is really excited about is totally different. He is jumping up and down saying "THANK YOU! THANK YOU! A TWAIN!!"

I want to be the one who is jumping up and down for our many blessings- and not just the biggies. At what age do we lose that?

Anyway, I'm regaining it!
Jason and I BOTH got raises this week! No glory to us! All praise and glory to GOD!!! WOOHOO!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! Perfect timing (as usual) since we will now have 2 children in childcare. Especially wonderful since we're paying for Harris to go to 2 pre-schools the next 2 months since we're "buying" Harris's spot to hold it until he's 12 months at MSH. Whew! Thank you, God!

Life in the 'Burbs:

We totally live in suburbia and I love it. In fact, our neighborhood has a community watch. Let me prefice with this: I am super thankful for the community watch, we do our part and we are appreciative.

Now, there are some people who are super-over-the-top about the community watch and the "red bag" that is passed from house to house when it is your turn to patrol. The bag includes: 2 magnets for your car that say, "COMMUNITY WATCH" and a log book of months and months or people signing their name, the date and "nothing to report". Every once in a while you'll see, "light out on corner of Huntsville Hills and Tree Line" or something worrysome like that. It should also include directions on how to scowl at people when you are driving around with the community watch magnets, but alas, it doesn't.

The news tonight- the bag is LOST! Heavens to Betsy! And one of the over the top folks- in fact- our STREET LEADER of our community watch called tonight. Jason couldn't get to the phone and so he walked over to see if we had it or had seen it. Then he went to all the neighbors houses and was getting a little panicky. This is where Jason and I got the giggles and started making up our own ending to the story. Like, the thieves have stolen the community watch bag- not anything from our homes, etc.

Gotta love suburbia.

Here's a picture of little man because posts with pictures are more fun!

Cleaning for the Cleaning Ladies

About a month and a half ago, while on our women's retreat, I came to the conclusion that I can't do it all myself. That might seem like a no-brainer to many of you, but I have always thought- without really putting words to it- that I'm super woman and CAN do most things (excluding changing my own oil, squashing bugs- not flies and cleaning baseboards). Anyway, I re-learned that God gave us communities of friends, families and neighbors so that we can get it all done. I am a much better, mom, wife and Christian example when I'm not stressed out. Cleaning is one of my weaknesses, so I've admitted that and enlisted some help.
I decided to make a few cuts in the budget elsewhere and hire cleaning ladies to come twice a month. I found some ladies that came highly recommend that work for $15/ hour/ person and you just tell them how many hours of work you want done. Not bad, huh? There are 2 of them that come for 2 hours ($60 total) and they dust, mop, vaccuum, clean bathrooms, take out trash and even clean the dishes in my sink if there happen to be some there (who am I kidding here- there are always dishes there!).
We had "hep" off and on growing up and pretty consistently from about middle school on and my sister and I would throw fits about cleaning before the cleaning ladies came. I didn't understand the point and thought "If I was going to clean then why in the world do we have these people coming over?", etc. You know the drill.
So, go ahead and file this under, "I NEVER said I would do that!" I was frantically picking up our house this morning before the cleaning ladies were coming. I think this is somewhat different though, because I don't want to pay for their time to pick up toys when I could be paying for them to vaccuum, right? Anyway, as I was hiding cleaning this morning, I had a flashback to childhood and could not believe that I was here- on the other side of this time warp. It's like words flying out of your mouth that clearly resemble your mother's, but were never supposed to come out of your mouth! Wow! Next thing you know, I'll be telling kids to eat vegetables (wait a minute, I already do that!) and asking them to put on a slip (okay, maybe not that one).
Gotta go pay the cleaning ladies! Money weeeeeelllllll spent!