Poo Poo on Our Plans This Week

I am utterly bummed.

I think I am more bummed than my kids. 

We were invited to a birthday party for one of my students and his brother. It's going to be 103 degrees out today and this party was suppose to be a pool party.  And this party was going to be fun. 

My daughter, unfortunately is sick.

Again.

I don't know why she keeps on getting sick like she is. When she gets these stomach bugs they really knock her down hard. This started yesterday morning and continued well into the evening with non-stop trips to the bathroom or her head hanging over her bucket.

Poor thing.

She was feeling better this morning and asked me for a glass of Tru-Moo. I haven't ever tasted this brand of chocolate milk, but apparently it's all the rave in the 6-12 year old age group where chocolate milk is concerned. 

And apparently all the moms in the commercial just go on and on about the healthy benefits of drinking this milk.

So my daughter consumed two small cups of this moo milk and next thing I know she is running to the bathroom...and I needn't share anymore information.  

You know what happens next.

She took a bath afterwards and is now sleeping on the couch. I informed the parents of the boys that we would not be attending, and the dad let me know that one of the birthday boys is sick as well and if we still want to come we are welcome to do so. 

We'll see how she fares when she wakes up.

Praying to the tummy Gods that she is miraculously cured and we can go. 

This has been a really crappy weekend.  Yesterday my daughter missed movie day at school. Today we are all missing the birthday party. Then last night I got a call from a friend of mine who was suppose to fly in next weekend, letting me know she can't make it.  Her sister in law's cancer took a turn for the worse. 

It doesn't look good.

It broke my heart listening to her crying on the phone. She was feeling upset about her Sister-in-law's condition and upset about the fact that she couldn't visit the kids and I. I told her family comes first and she shouldn't apologize for being with family at such a difficult time. We will have other days.  

Her sister-in-law won't.(I didn't say that for the record)  But we will still be here, so she needs to do what she has to.  I felt so bad for her.  

Then my oldest son contacted me on Facebook. He wants to come live here. I am all for that. However, he needs to make some major life decisions.  I can't make him help himself, he has to want the help. That's all I'm saying.  

Well, I don't have much to share right now.  So I'm going to go and lay down and take a nap I think. This work week wore me out and yesterday really wore me out. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. 

I will try and hop back on here later.  I'll fill you in on a little story.  Nothing major but it involves the infamous world of online dating.  No... no fish caught to speak of yet, but I'm hopeful someday my prince will come.  In the meantime, we can all laugh at the ridiculous experiences I have had using this thing called online matchmaking.  It's easier finding a needle in a haystack, than to find a good man around here.

That is all for now...

 

 

What's For Lunch Today?

I'm sitting here drinking a cup of coffee and enjoying a Hostess Zinger. Man these buggers got smaller since I was a kid.  Yes, I realize I'm older and bigger(ahem...taller) but these are literally the size of a Hot Wheels semi, maybe a wee bit bigger.

I bought these for my kids' lunches. I pack them some pretty good lunches too if I may say so myself. I may skimp on name brands when it comes to clothing or shoes or paper towels, but when it comes to my kids' lunches I want to make sure they eat what I pack so I will cave and buy the name brand lunch meats and peanut butter and jellies to make sure they eat what I pack for them.

I can't believe though how expensive lunch meat is.  For the cheap off-brand lunch meat, usually ham or turkey it's $5.49 a pound; the "good stuff" costs anywhere between $8.99 to $9.99 a pound.  Yeah, ten bucks for about 20 slices of one pound of a dead pig.  

That's insane. 

But that one pound makes four days worth of lunches for three kids and myself.   Then there is the peanut butter...it's about six bucks for one tub of crushed and creamed peanuts.  Choosy mothers choose Jif, and so do dirt poor mothers who want their kids to eat everything they pack for them in their lunch boxes. 

I also put Gogurts that I stick in the freezer for them in there, along with some Jello Pudding Cups, some variety of a snack size potato chip bag(i.e. Doritos, Sun Chips, Cheetos, or Cool Ranch Doritos), a fruit or vegetable(Strawberries, Grapes or Baby Carrots) with ranch dressing on the side, and a cupcake, Zinger, or other sugar-laden confection to appease their palettes.  

I also throw in a bottled water and a juice box to wash it all down.

Now some moms would argue that what I pack isn't "healthy" enough. Or it's loaded with too much processed junk food.  To that I say, "Well, if you would love to pay my grocery bill, I'll stick in some organic vegetables, soy milk or almond milk and some organic muffins to help their hunger go away."

It's expensive to eat healthy.  And in my opinion, fruit snacks and puddings and chips aren't that awful for kids their age. I ate them when I was younger and you didn't have to roll me down to my desk in grade school. 

I was an active kid. I played in that virtual world of long ago called, "OUTSIDE", and it allowed all the calories I consumed to dissipate(not so easy for me these days however).  And I didn't have any cavities, nor did I ever have any ADHD or any of that crap that supposedly comes from kids who eat too much "junk". 

I remember field trip days.

I loved when mom packed up lunches for field trip days.  My little paper bag looked like it was just about ready to burst.  She had packed us so much stuff in there that even other kids around me wanted to swap lunches.  I had a sandwich, chips, candy bars, cookies or a snack cake from the infamous Little Debbie, and a Soda.

YEP! THAT'S RIGHT....A SODA!! A soda loaded with caffeine and sugar.

Still never lost a tooth.  

Or got fat. 


Because I went OUTSIDE!

I ran around. I did things that didn't involve sitting in front of a TV screen and being a couch potato. 

I had an incident at my daughter's school a couple of years ago, when I had packed her a lunch with a Gogurt, PBJ sandwich, juice box and chips. The first thing my daughter did was open her lunch box and attempt(unsuccessfully I might add) to eat her Gogurt. The lunchroom Nazi,  cafeteria monitor told her to put it back in her lunch box and eat her sandwich.  Needless to say she came home that evening, and when I went to clean out her lunch box for the next day's lunch, I found a warm and flimsy Gogurt still in there.

She explained what happened and let's just say, those Gogurts aren't cheap. And I was NOT a happy camper. I called the school the next day and talked with the principal. I told her that I pack my kids lunches and they can eat their lunch in whatever order they so choose. I chose what goes in those boxes and if they want to eat the snack cakes only, that is their choice, NOT the school Nazi's choice.  

She was very understanding and assured me that she would handle the problem.  Needless to say, the Cafeteria Nazi is long gone and lunches are a lot smoother running these days.  

It's a lunch for crying out loud, not breakfast, not dinner....lunch.  It's like having a picnic in the park only indoors versus outdoors.  I pack fun picnic items, not boring tofu-laden, organic whatever you call it type of lunches with a soy milk to wash it all down.  If you don't like what is in my kids' lunches, don't watch them eat it then.

Also, to all these people hell-bent on kids eating healthy, instead of concentrating on telling parents what to feed their kids because of our children's supposed "obesity problem", how about telling the kids to get off their lazy, technologically addicted asses and go swing a bat (at a ball that is, not at another kid), or kick a ball, or jog a little, or take poor Scruffy your neglected dog for a walk.  

Kids only emulate what they see their parents doing.  So if you're glued to your Ipad, or Kindle or cell phone, I can guarantee you're partially to blame for their weight as well.  Unless your kid has some type of medical condition(thyroid, diabetes, etc...) you need to kick them off the couch and get them moving.  And even if they do have a medical condition, a little bit of low-impact exercise will do them good.  Not only is it good for muscle development, but  it's also good for their lungs and heart.

Gets the blood pumping...ya know?





I guess I'm just getting tired of people telling me what to do when it comes to my kids, especially where lunches are concerned.  If I want your advice, I'll ask for it.