Lunch with the Princpel

                  Growing up there was only my sister and me. We truly had the best child hood ever!! My parents were as good as they come. Loving, caring, hard working and understanding. Things were always very very tight at home. My mom was a Homemaker and my dad would sometimes hold 3 jobs to cover things. My family did not live an extravagant life. We never had cable and used make believe to pass our time. My mom packed my lunch until I reached Jr. high, there were 2 reason behind this, number one being cost. My mom did a lot of work to make menus, save money and prepare food for every one. Secondly,  if they had sent me to eat school lunch, I would not have eaten half of  the food on my plate.She would pack food we enjoyed eating and was beneficial to our health.
         I never really grew up thinking man" I wish I could eat school lunch. I feel completely left out." A lot of my friends did the same. We would all meet together, open our brown paper bags and nibble on carrots. Now that I've grown and have kids of my own, I have put a lot of thought into this subject. Life in general has gotten bigger. We have social media, sports, jobs and everything in between. We are surrounded with worries that were not present when I was growing up. As time has gone by I think there are some instances where health is not the number one concern when it comes to what is being fed to children in America today. I feel blessed to have grown up in a wonderful home where my mom took the time to make us all lunch's each morning including my dad. I am also grateful to have the knowledge to research this subject.
             I had a humbling experience this morning. Our daughter was chosen to eat lunch with the big guy! The principle!! I went shopping last night and had a plan I wanted to put into action! I woke up this morning 20 minutes before my kids needed to get up and get going. Thought that was plenty of time to whip up my master piece! But DANG it takes some serious time and dedication to make a healthy lunch your kids will eat. I still have some time until CapriLee is in full day school. Thank heavens! The reason I told you the whole back story, is because I think the experiences we have growing up help mold us into adult hood and parenting. The hardships and learning curves my family went through enforced a love to be a good parent with a health driven back bone.

I packed her a turkey sandwich, organic sweet potato and blue corn chips. Grapes, cantaloupe, pistachios, cheese and a juice.  She only had time to eat her fruit and cheese slices but gobbled the rest in the car on the way home. Being a mom is hard but so rewarding! Cheers to 27500 more packed lunches in my life time!