Food Frenzy...

I pulled a 21 hour day yesterday, had about 4 hours of sleep, and am looking at at least an 18 hour day today. Rest of the week is going to be crazy too. So tolerance for b.. s.. is a bit low right now, and I am certainly not as accommodating and flexible as I typically am.

There are strict food rules at Potatey's school.. for very good reasons as there is a whole host of kids with allergies in all shapes, sorts and permutations. So not allowing food to be brought in from outside, unless there is a specific medical reason (as in 'there is absolutely no food or drink in the school kitchen/pantry the kid can have'), makes absolute sense to me.

Just like I am perfectly cool with the fact that I sent any and all foods and drinks in to school for Potatey - with his weird allergies and the seriousness (as in 'he can die') of them it gives me great peace of mind to have total control over what he eats and drinks. Note that I didn't write 'ingest', as there are still plenty 'exposure situations' involving art and craft supplies.. the most recent one involved something called "ohbleck", a sticky stretchy substance in the sensory table that was made of.. drum roll.. CORNSTARCH!!!! While Potatey didn't touch the stuff (smart boy), the #$$#@ cornstarch dust was still all over the room. So we had a couple of 'fun' days involving tummy issues (and while I love the Center Director, her comment of 'well, you can't avoid everything for the rest of his life. What are you going to do when he's a grown-up', did not make me or Potatey feel any better. And truth be told, how many grown-ups do you know that make 'ohbleck' at their place of employment??)

Where am I going with this? The 'no food from outside' rule gets violated left and right when there are birthdays or just any type of celebration involved. So it's not an unusual situation for Potatey and me to walk into his school in the morning and to get 'jumped' with "oh, so and so brought in cupcakes' or 'so and so's mom is going to bring ice cream for lunch.' followed by "Can Potatey have any of it?"

The answer always is "N.O" (I guess people still don't get that 'he can die from eating X, Y or Z truly means he can DIE from eating X, Y or Z'; they really must be thinking that I am a kooky mom [OK, they're right on that one] who doesn't want her precious child to eat any of the 'good stuff'.. )

I don't mind the cupcake thing, as long as people give me a heads-up! I typically make a batch of cupcakes for the monkeys once a week, so sticking an extra one in Potatey's lunchbox is no big deal. But people need to give me a little notice!!!

This morning, the moment I walked in, I was greeted by "So and so's mom thought it would be cool to do a summer celebration party, so she's bringing in pizza and ice cream and cake for the kids for lunch tomorrow. Oh, and on Thursday, so and so's mom is sending in cupcakes"

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

As indicated at the beginning of this post, this is a very crazy busy week for me. So I don't exactly have a whole lot of extra time laying around cooking extra meals and extra food and extra treats (can't exactly just 'shake this stuff out of a box').

But I'll make it work somehow, 'cause that's what I do.

I'll make AND deliver a special pizza for Potatey tomorrow by lunch time.
I'll find time somehow to bake cupcakes and/or cake (I'll cut down to 3 hours of sleep, LOL)

However, I cannot do an ice cream replacement (I make my own out of lots of eggs and safflower oil.. it tastes great, but it doesn't transport At. All. - the eggs start to separate after having been out of the freezer for more than a few minutes) - as for the life of me I have not been able to find a 'commercial' ice cream that does not contain gluten derivatives or artificial crap or dairy derivatives or soy derivatives or corn derivatives or canola oil. So, I'll have to figure out something else...


Oh how I wish that 'no food from outside allowed' truly meant 'no food from outside allowed'.

(and yes, I've been called a 'food nazi' on many an occasion... Whatever....)