I Pledge Allegiance

It isn't just the new house that has been filling me with promise; its the start of a New School Year.  The start of the school year rivals January 1 in terms of its promise-filling abilities--if you're the student, there's no missed assignments, no lunchroom embarrassments, no trips to the office, no sleeping past the alarm clock yet.  And if you're the teacher, there's no flopped lessons, no misplaced stack of graded work, no crushing heap of extra duties, no misguided top-down initiatives yet.  Gosh, just thinking about all of that took some of the New School Year wind out of my sails.

This year is special.  This year, Amanda starts kindergarten.  Half of my heart is soaring--the pride! the excitement! the good times ahead! and the other half is trying not to hyperventilate: welcome to THE MACHINE.

And so, with all of this in mind, I pledge allegiance anew to my waste free goals within the context of school lunches.  Now, it isn't just Amanda who is going to school.  We are a three-person Palo Alto Unified team at this point.  We ALL need school lunches.

We already have all of the little boxes and containers and pouches and bags we need to be waste free for lunch.  The issue is twofold: time and energy.

The morning is fast Fast FAST! on school days, and getting the lunches ready to go is tough.  Yes, I know that conventional wisdom suggests preparing the lunches the night before, but here's where I insert my formal complaint:

First, I don't like the not-fresh way the lunch seems by lunchtime when it was constructed the day before.  Second, CAN I PLEASE HAVE SOME TIME TO RELAX IN THE EVENING? Honestly, I punch out about thirty minutes after the last kid falls asleep.  That's just enough time to do damage control on the current day, let alone prep for the one to come. I'm done on my sad violin now.

I'm going to spend some time in the next couple of weeks focusing on making sure the lunches are 100% waste free.  It's all about the habits.  If I can get off to the right foot, I'll dance all the way to June.