Everything's shaping up fish

It's Friday again! First, I must thank everyone who responded to my food challenge. Hummus and crackers was the star meal this week.

Plus there was a bizarre midweek appearance by "fish shapes." Yes, my choosy eater son chose to eat "fish shapes" rather than chicken tenders on the one day this week he ate school lunch. They were apparently fish sticks shaped like (what else?) fish. Curious.

I must also note that the most creative food suggestion I received was to mix something he likes with mascarpone cheese (protein!). So we mixed Hershey's syrup and cinnamon with it and served it on graham crackers. Success! Well, success at home, anyway. When I sent this creation to school, he only nibbled and then ate his grapes. I'm planning to try again next week by mixing jam with mascarpone and serving it on bread like a sandwich. Fingers crossed.

Hard as it is to believe, I've been doing other things this week besides obsessing over my children's lunches...I've also been obsessing about my job.

It's going well. This working five days thing doesn't seem so bad. (Do you like how I say that as if working Monday through Friday is some newfangled concept?) In fact, it makes my work life a little easier because I'm there every day. Also, leaving at 2 p.m. is heavenly. I'm not suggesting that it's as good as not having to go to work at all, mind you, but it makes it a lot easer to get up the next day and do it again.

And, naturally, because I have an inability to just let good things just be good, the fact that things are going so well has me questioning whether or not I could actually return to this corporate life...which goes against my previous decision that I would never go back to a corporate life.

Now, to an untrained eye, it may look as if I've already gone back to the corporate life (hello, it's been almost six months!), but I guess the difference for me is that I was viewing it as a temporary thing. Like it could end or I could end it at any time.

See, this corporate job and I have just been dating. Only now it's getting more serious. It feels like it could become exclusive. I'm afraid the corporation might pop the question...might ask me to be an employee...and I don't know if I'm ready. I still have so many freelance oats to sew!

Or do I? If my fab former (current) boss hadn't given me this opportunity, wouldn't I have continued to hunt for a job at another company? Quite possibly a big one that could pay me a living wage? Yes, yes I would have, because (if you recall), I was working for minimum wage at an ethically-questionable pseudo bakery when I got this job.

So really, I could be working 40 hours per week at another company right now, still mourning the loss of my freedom, but not being able to meet my boys' bus every afternoon. Which is to say that I have it good. And I should enjoy it. And nothing is forever, so I should really stop obsessing...

Sure thing.

Ultimate School Lunch Challenge Showdown

We all survived the first week of 1st grade (yay!) and now the boys have got me fixated on lunch, too, only for different reasons. I somehow forgot that there was a high likelihood that their classrooms would be peanut-free, due to the severe allergies of several of their classmates. Actually, I think that I remembered at one point this summer and then promptly forgot again...

Really the only sandwich Owen eats is PB&J. He has expanded his hot food options beyond macaroni and cheese and chicken fingers (even being so bold as to eat spinach quesadillas and salmon!), but when it comes to sandwiches, the only thing he'll eat without someone standing over him saying, "Three more bites! C'mon, just three!" is PB&J.

Well, wouldn't you know that Owen got the peanut-free class, while Aidan, who has a wide ranging palate, can bring whatever he wants to eat. Great.

Compounding the problem is the fact that they apparently get 10 seconds to eat lunch. Okay, I think they get at least 20 minutes - maybe even half an hour - but my kids are slow eaters. Owen, in particular, is a slow eater, as he tends to drift off to space every few minutes - this has always made mealtime a challenge. Add in a table full of kids to distract him and I'm sure he completely forgets he's even hungry.

This has resulted in not a lot of lunch getting eaten. Today, Owen reported that he ate his tiny cup of applesauce and drank his chocolate milk and that's it. Results were only slightly better on the one day he took hot lunch (french toast sticks!), but hot lunch is only an option when they are serving something he is likely to eat without prompting, which pretty much limits us to macaroni and cheese, chicken fingers, pizza, and anything in the breakfast carb family (pancakes/waffles/french toast).

So my challenge is to find a nut-free lunch that he likes enough to want to eat it (quickly) and that provides enough protein to give him a fighting chance of making it through the rest of the school day without a meltdown. No lunch meat. No cheese slices. Nothing weirdly textured ("It has texture!" he will say). And he already vetoed sun butter on a trial run.

Please allow me to make my challenge yours...ideas? Winning ideas get a napkin autographed by Owen.