Bento box lunches?

This morning, while I was drinking my first cup of coffee, I was going through my email accounts and I came across an article written by a mom who started giving her kids Bento box lunches. I have heard of the Bento box lunches but never really got into them. But after reading this article, I decided to look into that further. In fact, I’d been thinking of creating a board on Pinterest about school lunches so I decided to “just do it” today and created the board, but in this case pinning stuff about Bento box lunches. And I gotta say, wow! This is a really big thing! There were tons of images and articles on Bento box lunch ideas. It really grabbed my interest in using them all the more!

So when Jesse finished getting dressed for school, I asked him if he was interested in me packing him some Bento box lunches for school. I showed him a picture of a Bento box lunch in another article and he scowled. “That’s for babies,” he said. I assured him that kids of all ages were using Bento boxes for their school lunches and there were even adults packing their work lunch into Bento boxes. I also showed him the many different types of Bento box lunches I had pinned on my board.

Still, he wasn’t very interested in them. He thought the cool shapes were neat but he just wasn’t interested.

I guess some school years will be different with his lunches. One year, he only wanted Lunchables for his lunch. At one point during that time, however, one of the lunch volunteers took me aside when I was visiting one day and told me that Jesse was not eating the meat in his Lunchables. She also told me she had been sitting with him to encourage him to eat the lunch meat in his meals. Even though I was irritated that she was forcing my son to eat something he doesn’t like, I thanked her for the info. (My son is not a big meat-eater. He likes hot dogs and chicken nuggets, and every once in a while he eats bacon or a corn dog, but he’s just not into eating that much meat.)

This year, however, any time he wants to take a lunch to school, Jesse always requests the same thing:

Juice box
Peanut butter sandwich, without crust and cut into 4 triangles
Crackers (either Ritz, Cheez-It, Goldfish or Wheat Thins)
Raisins
Treat (either a cookie, fruit snack, Twinkie, cupcake or some other sweet item)

And so far, he hasn’t asked for anything different! I did consider asking him if he’d like those foods in a Bento box, but not sure if that will catch on for him.

Later, I told my daughter about the Bento box lunches too. I told her it was like a Lunchables but with more variety and you don’t always get the same thing. She was curious about it and said that she might want to start taking a Bento box lunch to school. I made a mental note to look for them at the store. I know that some parents are even creating their own Bento-style-boxes with used containers and muffin cups. It’s something else to think about too. I’m just glad I have some lunch ideas now!

I think the Bento box lunches are cool. At first, I thought maybe it would be bad in case it’s lost at the school or maybe they’ll end up in the trash can instead of being brought back home, but it might work out okay. I am totally for trying new foods and trying new things and if this is something that the kids want to use, or even one of my kids, then I think it might be a nice change from what they normally eat for lunch.

Pinterest drama

Over the weekend, something very strange happened while I was on Pinterest. I got an invitation to join a group board – I get a lot of those – but before I accepted the invitation, I checked out the board first. I wanted to have a good look at it first. I ended up liking A LOT of pins on that board and started pinning like crazy. I guess the person who owned the board got offended that I did not accept her invite right away because she ended up blocking me. (It’s too bad; I also checked out her profile and she had some really awesome boards and I wanted to follow her but I couldn’t because she had blocked me.)

I tried to figure out if I had done something wrong. Did I break some kind of Pinterest etiquette rule? Was I in the wrong to FIRST pin from that board before addressing the invitation? I would’ve accepted the invitation but could not do that anymore. Still, I was already following that board, and I was not banned from it, so I was still able to pin from that board.

But, still. I was confused. This was a really bizarre thing to happen. I was trying to figure out if I had done something wrong or if I was being affected by somebody else’s drama.

So I contacted the folks at Pinterest to see if I had committed some kind of goof. I have NEVER run into this problem so the whole thing had me a bit flummoxed. Because it was the weekend, I knew it would be a while before I heard back from TPTB at Pinterest. I contacted a friend of mine who is also on Pinterest and who I follow and I asked her about it. She said it sounded strange to her, too, and she hasn’t run into something like this either despite being on Pinterest for a long time. After that talk, I figured that maybe it was the board owner taking issue and that I had not done anything wrong. It struck me as silly that we would HAVE to accept a group board invitation. I don’t think we should be forced to.

Well, I heard back from Pinterest today. The person said A: The board owner is allowed to block anyone for whatever reason. B: I was not obligated to accept an invitation to join a group board. And C: I was still allowed to pin from that board if I wanted to.

I am so glad I got answers! So apparently the bottom line is that the whole “crisis” was about someone else’s drama. NMP!

I have to admit, though, that I’ve since been wary of group boards. I REALLY don’t want to run into a situation like this again. To be honest, this is the first time since I started using Pinterest years ago that I have run into drama on Pinterest. The BIG thing I have always loved about Pinterest is that it’s been drama-free (up until now, I guess). So many people on there are SO NICE and KIND and UNDERSTANDING. And fellow fangirls get the way we talk and act crazy over pins related to our fandoms. So now I guess the drama will be everywhere, even on Pinterest.

That said, I am now wary of group boards. Unless I know the person IRL or we’ve been Internet buddies for years, I won’t follow anymore group boards. I’m not gonna deal with other people freaking out over me not accepting their invitations to join their group boards. Yeah, I know it means less boards for me to follow, but that’s okay. There are lots more out there.

And now I can just walk away from this whole situation untroubled and keep doing my own thing!

So much death

I made an observation to my daughter last night: I’m reading books with the theme of “death.” One book I recently read was Blue Nights by Joan Didion. In the book, she talked about losing her husband and losing her daughter, but mostly the book was about her daughter. Knowing her in a way only she did.

And now I am reading two other books that also have the death theme. One is The Sum of Our Days (nonfiction) by Isabel Allende. This is about her loss of her daughter, Paula, and life after she was gone. The other book is The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. TFIOS is fiction. It’s a novel. It’s about cancer kids dealing with cancer and the prospect of dying. The prospect of death.

I did not shed a single tear as I read the nonfiction books about loss (I am still reading TSOOD.) But I cried like a baby when I read The Fault in Our Stars. Seriously, I broke down.

My daughter was the one to encourage me to read TFIOS. I had to keep putting it off because of a backlog of novels to review for Night Owl Reviews (one boring novel held me up because I didn’t have interest in reading it so much). But she REALLY pushed me to read this book. So, I figured, okay. I’ll take a week off from being the Dutiful Book Reviewer Sticking to Her TBR Pile and read another book.  

(WARNING! SPOILERS! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE FAULT IN OUR STARS YET BUT PLAN TO, SKIP THIS BLOG POST!)

As I read this novel during the week, I sent a few text observations of the story to my daughter:

I know why Hazel wants to know what happens to the other people in the book: It is a transference of her own life. She knows she's going to die but she's worried about the people she will leave behind. The characters in the book represent the people in her life and somehow, by knowing what happens to them, she is subconsciously trying to assure herself the people in her life will be ok after she's gone, because she will tell herself that she knows what their lives are going to be like now.

That Van Houten guy is such an asshole!! Fucking douchebag.

Your father caught me talking to myself. I was ranting at God, ranting at religion, ranting at society and stupid old-fashioned ideas and stupid alcoholic authors and bloody CANCER!!! Oh God. Why did he have to die?? Why??!!!!!???

After I sent that last one, I then sent an emoticon of me crying. There wasn’t one of a person bawling their head off. But believe me, I was bawling my head off. When I got to that part in the novel, I was sad. Then I was angry. Then I was Very, Very Sad. We’re talking bawling-my-head-off sad. I literally bawled. Seriously. I was in tears and just crying over the loss and over the injustice of it all.

I had told my daughter that I don’t like reading sad books. Because they make me revisit my own sadnesses. The sadnesses that I carry around every day – like the loss of my parents and all that. But this book was not just a sad book. It’s also a book that made me think. It made me hate cancer all the more, of course, and I recalled stories of people who died from breast cancer in my ebook, On the Wings of Pink Angels. Which then reminded me of how that book’s sales benefit a charity for children who are coping with the death of a loved one. Like a child who has lost a parent.

And then we come back full circle again to the subject of death. The theme of death. In a way, everybody’s lives have a “death theme” because our story begins when we are born and ends when we die and that is it. No more story about us. Nothing new about us. We’re dead and gone. And when we die, that is The End. Yet other people will hear our death stories because they’ll recount memories of us or share something we once did or said.

This book also made me think about how it took cancer to make those kids live their lives. To embrace their lives. What if they had never had cancer? Would they have spent their days locked up in their rooms, blaring rock music? Would they have not tried to make anything of themselves at all? Or see anything in the world at all?

I have a new appreciation for sad books, because despite being sad, they also have a purpose. They have a REASON for existing: We have to be able to revisit our pain without it allowing us to crumble into a million pieces from it. We have to allow the tears to come and the weight to tug at our hearts because we know that it is a reminder that we loved someone. Then, once settled, we must pull ourselves out of that funk again. Get back on our feet and keep marching forward through life. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Because we are still living our life. We are still living our story. So we gotta continue with our stories and hopefully try to make it a good one because something like cancer or a heart attack or a car accident can strike out of nowhere and take it all away in the blink of an eye. Or after months of suffering. So I have realized it’s okay to read sad books, because they important. They make us feel, they make us think and they help us to grow.

LGBT and ... G?

I don’t like labels. There, got that off my chest! Phew! But I realize that we DO live in a world of labels. As unfortunate as it is, every human being on this planet has some kind of label hanging over their heads. “White.” “Black.” “Fat.” “Thin.” “Smart.” “Slow.” “Christian.” “Jew.” And there are lots others: “Rich” and “Handicapped” and “Lesbian” and "Scientist."

We humans use labels on things in order to prevent chaos. It's a way of identifying and socializing with each other. The kind of people who love to organize EVERYTHING with label-makers in order to know where everything is come to mind. In a way, we are all labeled as such in order to be allocated to some mental group or another. “Oh, that’s my gay friend.” “Oh, that’s my Christian friend.” “Oh, that’s my super-hottie friend.” We don’t say these labels out loud but it’s how we recognize other people, because these “invisible labels” are a part of their identity. It is who they are and we must recognize them as such. It is how we know not to expect them to understand a language, a term or an experience because we know they do not speak Japanese, they do not work in the scientific field or they are not a parent. After all, it would be inappropriate to expect a Jewish friend to participate in Christmas activities, right? So, we have these labels to acknowledge a person’s identity and relate to them in due order.

I myself have labels. I am “handicapped” because I am deaf and I have a physical disability on account of my left hand. I am a “stay-at-home mom” because I am currently unemployed. I am a “college dropout” because I didn’t finish college. (And right about here, I’m thinking that at least some labels are not permanent. After all, I was once a Christian – and labeled as much – but I am no longer a Christian.)

Now, all of that said, I began to think about something my daughter has been going through lately. (I’ll talk more about that after I have more information.) And I was struck with a question: Is there a difference between transgender and genderfluid? (Again, totally related to something going on today!)  I spoke about “genderfluid” in a previous blog post so if you’re not sure on what it is, have a read. When I had that question, I started digging around on the Internet to find an answer. I didn’t want to ask one person. I didn’t want to post this question on Facebook hoping to get an answer there. I wanted to poke around on the World Wide Web. I wanted to see what the world at large was saying about that. If there really IS a difference. And if other people are even asking this question, too.

Turns out, they are. And, there is! There is indeed a difference between transgender and genderfluid. (I actually identify as genderfluid and my daughter does too. Heck, I believe that EVERY HUMAN has two genders, but that’s for a whole ‘nother blog post.) Being transgender means going from one gender, the one you are born into, to the other gender, and it’s a permanent change. But with being genderfluid, you can go from male to female and back again. Neither is permanent.

But, sadly, the whole genderfluid thing is not as commonly known about. And it doesn’t seem to be all that widely accepted. I know and very strongly feel that we are all of two genders. I feel that it is a natural part of the human experience to be genderfluid just because of that. Not only do I feel that we should have more awareness about it, but I also feel that it should be right in that mix of letters right there. As in: “LGBTG.” Because being genderfluid is a very real thing and I think it deserves a bit of recognition.

Well, maybe not everyone is going to agree with me on that one. But, yeah, the whole “genderfluid” thing needs to be in the spotlight a little bit more. People need to be talking about it a little bit more. And it’s my hope that, one day in the future, it will be accepted a little bit more.   

Spike

Today was a big day for my daughter, Jennifer. It’s the day she would gain a new pet: A Bearded Dragon. At first, I thought it was a Water Dragon, but when we went to pick the lizard up, it didn’t look like a Water Dragon. I asked questions about it and was informed it was actually a Desert Bearded Dragon. I guess there was some confusion when Jen got the call.

Anyway, yes! We have a lizard in our home now. And it turns out that this lizard is actually a rescue: His previous owner is moving and cannot take the Bearded Dragon with him. He called everybody he knew asking if anyone would take him. I found out after the pick-up that we were the only ones who agreed to give him a new home. So we pretty much saved this Bearded Dragon from going to a pet store. Yay!

When we went to pick him up, I learned that he is 3 years old and his name is Spike. I gotta say, for a lizard, he is cute! (But of course, having lived in the desert for 14 years, I guess I would end up saying that THIS particular lizard is cute!) We instantly fell in love with him. He is just so darn cute!

When we were loading the tank and everything into my car, I accidentally dropped the heat lamp and the bulb broke out. Oh, no! I was devastated. I knew that Spike NEEDED that heat lamp, with a good working bulb! I talked to the lady and she said the bulb is sold only at pet stores. There is one pet store that we frequent and so I just HOPED they were still open.

So after we loaded Spike and all of his stuff into my car, we headed to the pet store. Unfortunately, it was closed. I knew someone who owned another pet store, but that one was closed too! I knew of a third pet store I used to go to to get stuff for my Chihuahua but that third one was also closed! Argh!

So Jen got on her phone and looked up both PETCO and PETSMART. We had an emergency situation! We needed a new bulb for the heat lamp! I didn’t want this lizard to die. Not on my watch! She fed me the information about both stores as I was driving and, being my co-pilot, she directed me on how to get there. At first we headed for PETSMART, but since PETCO was on the way, we checked out there first. Thankfully, they were open! Woo-hoo!! We went inside and someone who worked there helped us get a new bulb for the heat lamp. (I had to run the heat lamp in so she could test it to make sure it was the right bulb.) So we got the bulb for the heat lamp and were back in business in providing Spike with everything he needed for his new home. Yay! I was SO relieved we were able to get that bulb. And as I was driving home, I started to think, what if this kind of situation had happened to some other pet owner after pet store hours? What if there was an emergency but nobody was open to help? I started to wish there was a pet store open 24/7, just for pet emergency needs!

After we got home, I helped Jen carry the tank to her room. She got everything set up and now Spike is safely and comfortably in his new home.

As we ate dinner later, I told Jen I was really glad we were able to take in this lizard nobody else wanted. It really made me feel good knowing we helped an animal in need. I started thinking more on that and thinking that maybe just one day we can have our own animal sanctuary. Helping animals in need – the family business!

A bit of overscheduling

I knew that today was going to be a busy one. I knew about what today involved. All the running around it would require. And how much it would have me jumping in and out of my car.

I knew this. I expected this. I braced myself for it.

The unexpected came when I realized we had a scheduling conflict today. And I didn’t think I would freak out about it. But I did.

Today was the day Jesse was supposed to meet his new teacher for 2nd grade. Today was also the day that Jen had her orientation for 8th grade. Also today was the day that Jesse started gymnastics class. And, finally, we had set up a time for Jennifer to pick up her newest pet: A Water Dragon.

The conflict arose when I realized something: Jen’s orientation kinda-sorta overlapped with the beginning of Jesse’s class. Yikes!

At first, I tried to convince myself that the orientation would not last THAT long. That we would be in and out of there. No sweat. But, ya know, my life is SO unpredictable. I have a spat of bad luck this year. And NOTHING – I meant NOTHING – goes according to plan in my life. For reals!

So, yeah. I kinda freaked. I kinda panicked. I even started having trouble breathing over this.

But I had to get a really GOOD grip of myself and remind myself to do one thing: BREATHE. Just. Breathe. Take it one step at a time.

I often ask, “Why can’t there be two of me?” I was asking that a lot today. But there isn’t. There is only one of me. Like I so often remind my dear offspring. There’s only one of me! And that one of me had to figure out how to get my two kids to each of their two different destinations today!

So, I talked to Jennifer. I explained to her the situation. I suggested that we try not to take too long when we are at her orientation. Just do what we had to do. Not socialize or chit-chat with people. And just to get through it as quickly as we could. And I just HOPED that would ensure Jesse got to his class on time!

That done, I felt that there was not much else I could do about the situation. It was what it was. I had to accept that.

In the long run, Jesse was five minutes late for his class, but everything still worked out okay. And Jen’s second thing was rescheduled for tomorrow. I was just glad I didn’t have to go out YET AGAIN. So, tomorrow, she’s getting her pet lizard.

We got through today okay. I was tired, worn out, hungry and barely got much housework done. But the important stuff got taken care of and I’m glad today was not as bad as I thought it might have been.

Back to (the) school schedule

Last week, I started the kids on their “school schedule.” This meant they now had a bedtime and they now had a wake-up time, too. And even though they didn’t really have to go anywhere, I made sure they were dressed at certain times, fed at certain times and “ready to go” by certain times. That first week was pretty bumpy and of course not without complaint (we all kind of enjoyed NOT having a bedtime during summer vacation). But we got through it with not too shady of a result. It was also hard for me because I was SO used to sleeping in (many times during the summer, I wasn’t in bed until 3 a.m. Yeah, we’re a bunch of night owls!). And even one time, I gave the alarm clock the finger because I DID NOT want to get up so early.

But Week 1 went over okay. And now we’re in Week 2, in which it’s the real deal because school starts this week. Jesse goes back to school on one day and Jennifer goes back the next.

I also have a change in my everyday routines. In order to get the most out of my day while the kids are in school, I prioritized my tasks and made a “schedule” for things to do at certain times. As of today, I got most of the things done during designated times. But as with all schedules, “times are approximate.”

This week is gonna be busy in the next few days with meetings, orientation and getting everything set up and squared away. But I’m actually looking forward to getting back on track with the routine and getting things done. The kids aren’t happy about going back to school and I’ll miss not having a bedtime myself, but we got as much fun and “lazy days” out of our summer while it was summer and now it’s time to get busy again. Now it’s time to get ready for textbooks, homework, assignments, lunch boxes and school activities. Today has gone by well and I hope the kids have a better adjustment by the time their First Day gets here.