Normal

Today was remarkable if only for its normalcy. It started with the usual race to get the girls fed and out the door to school.  Cate was the treat person for her after school vocal practice, and though I knew about it, I hadn’t planned treat buying into my weekend grocery shopping trip.  Cate, I’m happy to report, asked, “Uh oh, can we get treats even with our 7 project?” I told her I thought it was fine since the treats were a service to others, not for us.  I’m glad that even those little decisions that would otherwise go unnoticed in the flurry of our day are, at least briefly, under the microscope of FFE.  And I’m glad that she thought of it first.

Tasha was proud to report that she ate all of the lunch that she made for herself.  I asked the girls to commit to making their own lunches since they know better than I what they will actually eat.  They often bring home a lot of uneaten food.  It seems sort of silly to pack a balanced, healthy lunch that comes back home and has a high probability of being dumped.  So, my standard is now is “arguably healthy, but will be eaten.”  I’m okay with that.  The trick on the lunch thing will be to stick to my guns and to help the girls make packing their own lunch a habit.  I don’t know if I have the heart to say, “Tough noogies if you didn’t have time to make your lunch.  You’ll remember tomorrow.”  So, we’ll work on getting stuff together the night before and hope for the best.

Sydney took it upon herself to bake a loaf of gluten free bread, and it turned out great.  She even got a compliment from her chef-y younger sister.  I’m not sure if it was boredom or hunger that motivated her, but it was productive and I was grateful.

My friend Cheryl asked if I wanted to have lunch today.  My first thought was, “Great!”  My second thought was, “Oh man!  There’s no place I can go that serves my 7 ingredients.  That sucks.”  So, she graciously accepted my offer to bring her lunch to my house so she could watch me eat my leftover half pork chop, avocado, and apple.  We had a fun, brief catch-up conversation.  And I only wanted the shredded rotisserie chicken and mixed greens salad she was eating a little bit more than a little bit.  One thing I told her is that I felt like the I’m-so-hungry-I-can’t-stand-it days were behind me.  Like a true FFE soldier, I bragged, I could march on with this thing for a long time.

I was wrong.  Really wrong.  I totally have the munchies tonight.  How fickle our cravings are.  So I am munching an apple instead.  God knew what he was doing when he made apples.

And now I’m off to make my grocery list for my fourth shopping trip of the month.  We are out of milk and avocados, and short on pork and sweet potatoes.  Oh there.  I guess my grocery list is done.  Good night and God bless.