…. In which the wailing and gnashing of teeth continues …

LightGirl, “We are going to suffer from malnutrition and STARVE.”

LightHusband, “No … we have a house full of food and we need to eat it.”

LightBoy, “No. we. don’t.” (impeccable logic there)

LightBoy, “I don’t understand why we have to do the inventory and this pantry thing. Nobody ever tells me anything.”

LightHusband, “Mom read about this on her computer and we thought it would be a good idea.”

LightGirl, “Mom spends waayyy too much time on her computer. She’s going to kill us.”

There was more … but those are the salient points. 😉

We’ve made this into a homeschooling project. Once the inventory is complete, the LightChildren are going to learn about the wonders of spreadsheets and inventory control. How many calories do we need for a day? For a meal? Do we have them available? Little do they know the fun that awaits them … thus cackleth the evil mommy who spreadeth the household labor far and wide so that she mayeth sit like a queen (at least according to LightGirl).

We’ve apparently been keeping our friend, the Schwan’s man, in business. No wonder he likes us so much. There are far too many unopened Schwans boxes in our freezer. Lots and lots of salt marinated convenience food. Three bags, I’m told, of apple-something orzo. Nice.

I’ve been noticing some funny thoughts that wander through my head when I least expect it. Things such as “Well … we can live off of pancakes for quite a while.” or “No one’s holding a gun to my head, I can drop out at any time.” or “Why am I suddenly so focused on food anyway? We have plenty right now. Except onions … we don’t have enough onions.” But last night we wanted to make a favorite chicken dish. Only we were missing a key ingredient (cream of mushroom soup) that we thought we had. So we had to can that idea. It’s a wholesale, abrupt change in the way we usually think about meals. Instead of thinking, “Hmmm what do I feel like having for dinner?” It’s, “What do we have and what will that make that I can live with?”

Interesting … very interesting.