I both love and hate packing school lunches. I love that feeling of providing a nutritious, but fun lunch that fits perfectly inside an EasyLunchbox. I imagine in my head that the teachers and other students envy the freshly sliced fruit salad or the homemade broccoli cheese soup. I think of my child every day at noon, enjoying my 7am creations and it gives me immense satisfaction..but I hate waking up early to make this happen.

Humble brag off of my social media page: spinach burger with feta and ranch, sweet potato fries, and apple straws that my child brought for lunch

Oh sure, I could make lunches the night before, but some things just don’t taste the same prepared 16 hours before eating them.

I could have my kid prepare her own lunch. This is true. I could also just toss the entire bag of veggie straws in her back pack because let’s be honest, that would be the equivalent.

Amid all of my woes, the one part I love is leaving notes taped to her lunchbox. I’m sure this stems from the nostalgia of my own mom writing notes for my lunches in elementary school, before it became uncool. It makes a difference in a child’s day. This precious joy of mine is used to seeing mom all day everyday and now she’s thrown into the world (albeit a safe and nurturing school). How can she survive without me constantly reminding her of my love? 😉

The lunchbox note. That’s how.

Here’s where planning takes a key role. I already loathe waking up before dawn to prepare a lunch for someone else, and there is absolutely no way “morning me” is in the right mentality to write a sweet, thoughtful note.

So when I have a solid half hour downtime, I spend it Googling easy to read (because elementary school) and meaningful lunch notes, as well as little kid friendly jokes (because love notes are great, but my kid likes to be the funny one in the room). Then I use my remedial drawing skills to draw relevant pictures. Then after preparing her lunch, I pick a card out of the pile and tape it on. Easy peasy.

It’s a good feeling knowing my daughter has a good lunch and a reminder of my love, and I will keep doing this for her…for as long as it’s still cool to get love notes from mom.