feast or famine

This morning I urged Tank to add more things to his sack lunch that he packs for school.  I guess if I'm being honest, I pack most of his lunch while he stands around acting bewildered with no concept of time.  My goal is not to enable him but to get him out the door on time.  I'm rarely successful at either.

Usually when he should be selecting food and making a sandwich, he is searching for socks.  Well, it isn't until Ed is begging him to get in the car so they aren't tardy AGAIN that Tank realizes he has no socks.  His would-be-productive time is spent messing around with the tots I sit for or quoting lines from a favorite Office episode or an Austin Powers movie.  He is a barrel of laughs, but tough to live with.

Define famine, Tank!  I stock goldfish,cheez-its (and sometimes other chips but those are supposed to be reserved for taco salads and Chicken Tortilla soup dinners) a variety of protein and granola bars, and trail mix.  Not to mention fresh fruit and 3 kinds of lunch meat.  Hostess cupcakes and crumb cakes are not pictured here because they are in another drawer.  How about rice krispie treats?  I expect the kids to eat fruit and a sandwich, but it'snot like I don't keep a supply of goodies in the house.  Tank won't bring cheese sticks or yogurt and prefers not to bring fruit because the food doesn't stay cold in his plastic bag lunch sack.  It is totally uncool to carry a lunch box to school complete with cold packs.   

I keep getting emails alerting me that Tank has purchased something (like chips or cookies) from the cafeteria using his 'pushcoin' account.  It is much more economical to pack snacks from home.  I told him that we will add up all the crap he ate at the end of the school year and he will have to pay us back.  True, we do keep money on his pushcoin account.  The intention is that he only use those funds for water or milk.  You recall that he lost 5 student IDs in the first week of school, right?  Sending him to school with cash is a horrible idea.

I think I have written about my numerous visits to the grocery store each week.  Apparently my brain is wired to think that the grocery is the 'it' place.  I can't seem to get enough.  So, this morning when I started calling out various pack-able lunch suggestions to my helpless freshman, Tank shot back:  'I mean I didn't know there was a famine.'  Funny, but impossible.

Am I alone here?  Do your kids struggle to bring a lunch to school?