Part of the overwhelming appeal of the Fishmaster’s school is its tiny size and its pared down structure. Like, the man who lives there and runs it with is wife is also the admissions person, the activities person, the hiring person, the grounds person. There is no cafeteria – the kids bring lunches from home and are free to eat them wherever they want to: in the library, outside up in a tree, in the porch swing with a friend, at their desk studying.
Which I love because the Fishmaster is completely happy to eat the healthy lunches I pack. Recent favorites of his are ham and shredded-cheese-with-mayo-and-mustard rolled up in healthy tortillas, bagels with cream cheese and deli meat, tuna or chicken salad with crackers, and the ubiquitous (at our house) PB and honey sandwiches.
They let the kids use the fridge and microwave at his school if they need to (the insanity!!) so I can send him with leftover stew or spaghetti and meatballs or whatever, too. (Yes, I use insulated thermoses to put his food in, but it still doesn’t stay hot enough.)
So, the Fishmaster’s lunches are golden.
Rockinrolla’s, on the other hand, are public school cafeteria lunches. They’re better health-wise than they used to be, but they’re still very heavy on the white flour/sugar/processed food stuff. Rockinrolla likes to get the morning snack at school (usually, I think, a sausage biscuit) and then he’s been getting the school lunch.
Lately, he’s expressed dissatisfaction with the lunch menu.
Things are trickier here, because Rockinrolla is a little pickier with his lunches. Also, I think there’s some ew-what-are-you-eating-that-looks-weird that goes on at his school that the Fishmaster doesn’t get at his school.
He has asked me to get him some Ramen noodles and put them in a thermos for lunch. Which is okay, I guess, but aren’t they the nutritional equivalent of saltine crackers with a meat-flavored salt cube? Also, will they get mushy if they sit in a thermos all morning? Will I get in trouble if I throw some peas in?
We used to do Lunchables a lot, which are also borderline junk food, but whaddayagonna do. You’ve got to give them something they’ll eat when you’re not there, right?
Did you used to eat school lunches or bring lunch from home? (I always ate school lunches; my mom worked and appreciated the buy-lunch-at-school option, I think.) Do you pack lunch for your kids or do they eat school lunches? Are you happy with the school lunch choices? If you pack, what do you put in their lunchboxes?
In other news, my cousin Erin is getting married this weekend. Today is her bridesmaids’ luncheon, to which she sweetly invited me (I’m not in the wedding.)
Erin is quite possibly the most responsible and lovely young woman I know. She is a long-distance runner and has this great slim figure with muscles, too (fine, YES, I’m jealous, but not enough to start long-distance running) and this hip fashion sense. Plus, she can wear fabulous 4-inch heels and look completely at ease. And she has this naturally very curly dark blond hair that I covet.
She has been dating her fiancee for years, but they waited until they both got their Master’s in accounting before they got married, so now they are all set to work at great jobs and be good-looking and in love, too. (Jealous of the working? – not so much. Maybe I should have given her the cousinly advice that she should have just gotten preggers ASAP and avoided the whole pesky career thing.)
Her wedding is in one of those huge mega-churches that has, like, a campus around it, but the church itself isn’t insanely huge and is truly beautiful, with stained glass and carved wood everywhere.
Ah, weddings. I can’t wait.
love, loss, and rainbows 