School starts back here on August 8th. It's a half day, then they start back full time on the 10th.
Starting tonight (as I write this it's 11:30pm and I get off work in 4 hours.) I will get back into the groove of packing lunches. I've been packing Christopher's lunches for work all along well on the days when I didn't want to just crawl into bed and make the world ago away anyway. Packing lunches for the other 3 takes a little more time and little more planning though.
Rhiannon is so picky, she refuses to eat normal sandwiches. She hates most lunch meat. She hates tomatoes. She has to be in the mood for peanut butter. So, usually she'll just get a container of leftovers or maybe a pack of Yakisoba or cupnoodle. No matter what I pack her, she never eats it all, and so much gets wasted.
Faelyn is the opposite. She's eat just about everything and the more the better. There's never anything leftover in her lunch bag no matter how much I pack. So, I do try to make sure she has enough to eat and not be hungry. And don't worry about her overeating, she was gifted with a metabolism most people would kill for. She can eat 3 cheeseburgers and a whole pizza and not gain an ounce.
Then Zoe has had issues with kids stealing her food or begging for stuff at that lunch table so she keeps asking for stuff that's unable to be shared so she'll have an excuse. Of course complaining to the teachers does no good at all. I hope this year will be different. She'll finally be in 3rd grade.
So, anyway to get back into practice for packing lunches, I'm going to start tonight. I probably should have been packing them all summer so the kids would have something waiting for them in the fridge instead of having to scrounge or make mac n cheese or ramen and leave half of it somewhere or make a huge mess and not clean it up. Sleeping days due to work, ends up making my house really messy in the summertime. Anyway, that would have meant being a lot more organized than I was when summer break started. That was when things started going downhill, but I'm not dwelling on that. Time to take control and get back on track and organized again!
One thing I did when I went grocery shopping this weekend was to get Rhiannon and Christopher both new lunch bags. They both get larger containers than the other two do and their old lunch bags hardly ever worked and they'd have to just take canvas tote bags which I didn't like at all.
I also have a good supply of ziplock bags, plastic forks, and Tupperware containers and spill-proof bottles (those things are worth their weight in gold if they really don't spill!).
The lunch drawers in my sideboard are semi ready. I only have to deal with 3 actual days of school lunches, and the grocery budget was very limited this week, so I didn't get anything extravagant. I found a good deal on small bottles of orange juice I can pack for them to have at least that for breakfast.
I'll probably get some breakfast bars as well next time we do grocery shopping. They just can't roll themselves out of bed and get going in the mornings quick enough to eat, even if I wake them up earlier, they figure it out and slink back to bed. I also keep savory and sweet snacks in this drawer. The kids are usually good about staying out of the drawer unless they get home from school and I'm out running errands, they'll raid it then. That doesn't happen often. I'm hoping to get back to the point where we were earlier this year when I had a kids' snack basket in the fridge with things they could grab after school that were healthy.
So, they'll get a little baggie of fruit snacks that I found marked down to 40 cents a container, a baggie of cheese nips which were on sale $1 a box, then a bologna or salami sandwich with lettuce and home grown tomatoes, (Rhiannon's not here, she's at Grandma's for the week) and a sports bottle of home made peach tea.
Well, it's not like I pureed peaches or anything, but I've found a great way to make peach tea (like we can get at Pal's and other restaurants here in the South), at home. I simply make a pitcher of sweet tea as normal (and I do NOT use as much sugar as most Southerners. Mine is not syrupy.). Then I add one pack of this peach tea flavoring for bottled water.
I can't even believe this stuff is supposed to flavor one small bottle. It's strong stuff! It flavors the whole big pitcher. I'm not sure exactly how much my pitcher holds. I got it for 50 cents at Goodwill. It was from that Mr Coffee Iced Tea maker from the 80s I think. Works great as a normal pitcher and I like the lid.
I have a gallon pitcher I usually use as well, but this summer we haven't needed two pitchers going at once. I'd think the kids would drink more in the summer. I do go through a whole pitcher filling their bottles. Christopher usually gets two bottles in fact, especially if he's working a 12 hour day.
I'm also going to try experimenting with making tea like they serve at Petro's. It's got a touch of orange in it and you actually get an orange wedge. So, I thought if I use like 1/4 or 1/2 an orange flavor packet, it might work. I'm afraid it'll be too Koolade-y. They can't stand Koolade type drinks. They're so spoiled. Hehe.
Hope y'all have had a great week so far and have a great weekend planned!
Today I am linking up to a bloghop! Hi to everyone coming over from there! It's hosted by WAHM Resource Site and My Life as Mom and Wife.
Starting tonight (as I write this it's 11:30pm and I get off work in 4 hours.) I will get back into the groove of packing lunches. I've been packing Christopher's lunches for work all along well on the days when I didn't want to just crawl into bed and make the world ago away anyway. Packing lunches for the other 3 takes a little more time and little more planning though.
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| L-R: Zoe, Rhiannon, Faelyn, Me |
Rhiannon is so picky, she refuses to eat normal sandwiches. She hates most lunch meat. She hates tomatoes. She has to be in the mood for peanut butter. So, usually she'll just get a container of leftovers or maybe a pack of Yakisoba or cupnoodle. No matter what I pack her, she never eats it all, and so much gets wasted.
Faelyn is the opposite. She's eat just about everything and the more the better. There's never anything leftover in her lunch bag no matter how much I pack. So, I do try to make sure she has enough to eat and not be hungry. And don't worry about her overeating, she was gifted with a metabolism most people would kill for. She can eat 3 cheeseburgers and a whole pizza and not gain an ounce.
Then Zoe has had issues with kids stealing her food or begging for stuff at that lunch table so she keeps asking for stuff that's unable to be shared so she'll have an excuse. Of course complaining to the teachers does no good at all. I hope this year will be different. She'll finally be in 3rd grade.
So, anyway to get back into practice for packing lunches, I'm going to start tonight. I probably should have been packing them all summer so the kids would have something waiting for them in the fridge instead of having to scrounge or make mac n cheese or ramen and leave half of it somewhere or make a huge mess and not clean it up. Sleeping days due to work, ends up making my house really messy in the summertime. Anyway, that would have meant being a lot more organized than I was when summer break started. That was when things started going downhill, but I'm not dwelling on that. Time to take control and get back on track and organized again!
One thing I did when I went grocery shopping this weekend was to get Rhiannon and Christopher both new lunch bags. They both get larger containers than the other two do and their old lunch bags hardly ever worked and they'd have to just take canvas tote bags which I didn't like at all.
 |
| If any of you follow Flylady, you may recognize the water bottle there. I had bought the bottle for me, and he took it over. |
The lunch drawers in my sideboard are semi ready. I only have to deal with 3 actual days of school lunches, and the grocery budget was very limited this week, so I didn't get anything extravagant. I found a good deal on small bottles of orange juice I can pack for them to have at least that for breakfast.
I'll probably get some breakfast bars as well next time we do grocery shopping. They just can't roll themselves out of bed and get going in the mornings quick enough to eat, even if I wake them up earlier, they figure it out and slink back to bed. I also keep savory and sweet snacks in this drawer. The kids are usually good about staying out of the drawer unless they get home from school and I'm out running errands, they'll raid it then. That doesn't happen often. I'm hoping to get back to the point where we were earlier this year when I had a kids' snack basket in the fridge with things they could grab after school that were healthy.
So, they'll get a little baggie of fruit snacks that I found marked down to 40 cents a container, a baggie of cheese nips which were on sale $1 a box, then a bologna or salami sandwich with lettuce and home grown tomatoes, (Rhiannon's not here, she's at Grandma's for the week) and a sports bottle of home made peach tea.
Well, it's not like I pureed peaches or anything, but I've found a great way to make peach tea (like we can get at Pal's and other restaurants here in the South), at home. I simply make a pitcher of sweet tea as normal (and I do NOT use as much sugar as most Southerners. Mine is not syrupy.). Then I add one pack of this peach tea flavoring for bottled water.
 |
I can't even believe this stuff is supposed to flavor one small bottle. It's strong stuff! It flavors the whole big pitcher. I'm not sure exactly how much my pitcher holds. I got it for 50 cents at Goodwill. It was from that Mr Coffee Iced Tea maker from the 80s I think. Works great as a normal pitcher and I like the lid.
I have a gallon pitcher I usually use as well, but this summer we haven't needed two pitchers going at once. I'd think the kids would drink more in the summer. I do go through a whole pitcher filling their bottles. Christopher usually gets two bottles in fact, especially if he's working a 12 hour day.
I'm also going to try experimenting with making tea like they serve at Petro's. It's got a touch of orange in it and you actually get an orange wedge. So, I thought if I use like 1/4 or 1/2 an orange flavor packet, it might work. I'm afraid it'll be too Koolade-y. They can't stand Koolade type drinks. They're so spoiled. Hehe.
Hope y'all have had a great week so far and have a great weekend planned!
Today I am linking up to a bloghop! Hi to everyone coming over from there! It's hosted by WAHM Resource Site and My Life as Mom and Wife.
Thanks for stopping by my blog, following u bacj. I see u follow flylady, been thinking about doing it. Do u like it?
ReplyDeleteOh, your school starts early. ;( Our local schools seems to start a little earlier each year. Thanks for sharing your lunch ideas- I will have to start packing lunch for my oldest this year and am not looking forward to it. I just don't know what to pack and can't come up with any creative ideas. :P
ReplyDeleteI like that floral lunch bag. Cute. :)
Jessica, I do like Flylady! I started following her when I was pregnant with Zoe and she just turned 9. Wow. I am certainly not doing all of it. I always wanted to get to where I could do the daily missions and sometimes I do. Overall, she just gives you a new way to look at things. Even if you only shine your sink or put on shoes every day, her voice kind of stays with you and encourages you. It's great!
ReplyDeleteladybugs, we started with really doing the packed lunch thing last year. In the past the kids got reduced lunch at school and that was way cheaper than packing a lunch. But now, it would cost $12 a day for all three to eat lunch and breakfast at school each day. So, $60 a week! I can buy stuff for lunch and breakfast way cheaper than that! I'll try to remember to blog about other things we've found that the kids like. Like home made breakfast burritos. Those went over very well, also wraps for lunch instead of just sandwiches. I'm glad the older two have access to a microwave at lunch, but they have said the line is sometimes too long to deal with, so reheating leftovers or cooking ramen or something isn't always an option.
ReplyDelete