That’s not really what I was going for here — making school lunches healthier so that kids can grow up to be good soldiers? I was thinking more along the lines of doing it so they WON’T die. But at least they’re interested in better nutrition? I’m not sure what to think.

Here are some additional school lunch links for those who are interested:

Fed Up With Lunch: The School Lunch Project – Mrs. Q is a public school employee who is eating the school lunch right along with the kids every day in 2010 and reporting on it.

Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen is a blog series from January 2010 by Ed Bruske on The Slow Cook. He spent a week in a District of Columbia elementary school kitchen, observing how food is prepared and served.

Revolution Foods was profiled in the New York Times in January 2010; it’s a company that contracts with schools to provide healthy, freshly-cooked meals made with natural and organic foods. Sample menu: “All-natural honey-glazed chicken with roasted potatoes and garlic braised collard greens.” But the main problem with programs like this? Money.  Oakland Unified School District, for instance, where Revolution Foods is located, is unable to afford this service due to low government reimbursement rates. They have, however, made significant improvements to their meal programs over the past several years.

Berkeley Unified School District, on the other hand, has started a School Lunch Initiative, in partnership with the Chez Panisse Foundation and the Center for Ecoliteracy. They’ve made sweeping changes to their school lunch menus, including use of local and organic ingredients. Perhaps private philanthropy is part of the solution, if the government can’t afford to subsidize healthier food?

Finally, an answer to a Twitter question. @kitchenmage asked — as a serious question, not trying to get people mad – “How many of you parents who hate school lunches are letting your kids eat them? Why?”

Yes, my kids do eat the school lunch, and the school breakfast. We are on the free lunch program, and it does help financially.  They do get healthy food at home, and they’re smart enough to make good choices like white milk instead of chocolate at least some of the time.

But even if I were making lunches for my kids, I would still care about what all of the kids get to eat. I work in a school. I know they don’t all get to eat properly at home. I’ve seen the kids who bring a bag of cold food from McDonalds for lunch, or a donut, chips and a Capri Sun.

We need to do better for everyone.

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Image: heebs lunch, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from crd’s photostream

From what we’ve seen (and there’s only one episode to go), Oliver did a great job developing relationships with people in Huntington and getting them to try cooking and eating his dishes.  He’s gotten both grade school and high school students eating healthy foods at school, although budgeting has been an issue, and one school cook in particular has been resistant to his methods.

The big question remaining is “Will this have a lasting effect?” I’m sure they’ll be addressing this in the last episode — although it’s really only been six months or so, and that’s not much time for creating or measuring lasting change.  This AP article cites a survey which says that children at the Central City school we actually buying fewer lunches after a month on Oliver’s program — they were bringing lunch from home instead.  Hopefully things have gotten better since then. The AP article also reports that the school principal has enthusiastically embraced healthy eating and has lost 20 pounds.

Although I agree that school food should be healthy, I think Oliver could have devoted more time to helping people eat healthy foods at home, too.  If parents aren’t willing and able to support healthy eating, kids aren’t going to be interested either.

Sarah Gilbert, a writer, locavore, and parent of three boys, has written about how families can eat Food Revolution-style on a budget. Her recommendations so far include eating seasonally and getting a handle on snack foods.

I’m also a fan of the Six-O-Clock Scramble, which helps me to cook healthy food with fresh ingredients, even on busy weeknights.

So how can we pass these ideas along to others? I’d love it if you’d share a link to this post (you can use the buttons below to tweet, share on Facebook, etc.), but I’m thinking about non-internet methods, too. What about teaching kitchens, like Jamie’s Kitchen in Huntington? Would people come?

Don’t forget to sign Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Petition! Our collective voice matters.

Actually, I’m suddenly wondering whether balance is really a good metaphor for life after all. I’ll have to think about that more.

But for now, here you go:

Author Christina Katz (The Writer Mama) recommends A Lovely Little Book About Claiming the Physical, Mental, and Emotional Space You Need to Write. Christina also has a new ebook out, Author Mama.

Debbie Ridpath Ohi interviewed Katz earlier this year on Time Management For Writers.

Fellow Portlander Katy Wolk-Stanley recently noted that control is an illusion.

And here’s a post from Zen Habits on The Lost Art of Solitude.

Good night!

As a busy mom, what’s a typical day like for you?
I’m really disciplined about my time which helps me be super-productive most of the time.  After I eat breakfast, drink coffee and help kids get off to school by 8:30, I take my dogs for a walk in the woods, often with a friend (this is my prime social and exercise time) for 45 minutes to an hour.  Then I spend most of the day from 9:45 to 3:30 or 4 working while the kids are at school, with breaks for lunch, a shower, and a snack or other sanity break.

After the kids get home I try to stay off the computer and have a little time to engage with them and/or drive them or pick them up from activities (we carpool as much as possible).  I also use the afternoon time to spend at least 30 minutes on home-related stuff like dealing with the mail, cleaning off the counter and conquering items on my to do list.  By 6 or 6:30 I’m making dinner, depending on what we’re having and what the carpool schedule is like, and we usually sit down for dinner at 7:00.

After dinner and after the kids go to bed I often read and respond to personal emails for 20 minutes or so.  I try to go to bed between 10 and 11 depending on what time I need to get up the next morning.  Of course if the kids are sick or I’m travelling or anything else comes up, the schedule gets turned upside down.

How old are your kids now? Do they help with meal preparation?
Solomon turns 13 this month and Celia is 10 (she’ll be 11 in May).  These days they have a fair amount of homework and sports and music practice so they often don’t have time to help with dinner during the week.  They usually take turns setting the table, though, and if either of them is finished with all their responsibilities they like to help with dinner.  Celia likes to make salads and loves to bake, while Solomon loves to peel potatoes and other vegetables, squeeze citrus, and other hands-on tasks.  He’s also my videographer and editor for cooking videos.

Your new book (SOS! The Six-O-Clock Scramble To the Rescue: Earth-Friendly, Kid-Pleasing Dinners For Busy Families) focuses on making meals more environmentally friendly. What else would you like to tell us about the book?
I’m really excited about the new book—it comes out next month, just in time for Earth Day.  The book has new recipes (about 300 of them) and some great strategies for growing your own herbs, composting, eating sustainable seafood and more meatless meals, deciding when to buy organic, and other earth-friendly tips and suggestions.  It’s also seasonal to help you shop locally and enjoy the best flavors, and it has a fabulous seasonal fruit and vegetable chart to help you plan your meals and grocery lists.

Do you have any plans for adding breakfast and lunch menus to The Scramble?
Not at this time, but we may be adding a dinner party planning feature and we have a new app coming out soon to help people use their grocery lists and menus on their iphones and other “smart” phones.

Thank you, Aviva! SOS! The Six-O-Clock Scramble To the Rescue comes out April 13, 2010 and is available for pre-order on Amazon.com (affiliate link).  If you’re interested in trying The Scramble meal-planning service, use the promo code GLKAT4852 to get $3 off on a 6 or 12 month subscription. I don’t get anything for recommending it, and I don’t get anything if you sign up. I’m just a satisfied customer.

I waited a bit, looked out the window again, and checked the weather forecast, but the rain simply wasn’t going to stop.  I got myself together and rode off, getting just a little wet from the knees down.

It wasn’t too terrible. I picked up one child at her after-school program, and dropped her at home (the oldest was already home; she stayed home sick today, yes, she is old enough). I thought about leaving the youngest at daycare, and letting my husband pick her up. Why stay out in the rain longer than I had to?

Then I asked myself, what would super-mama-bike-o-rama-riding Sarah Gilbert do? Yeah. I’m pretty sure she would ride in the rain. So I set off again, for the daycare provider’s house, half a mile away.

I picked up a cheery girl who was thrilled to be riding on the Xtracycle with mom all by herself.  She sang “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring,” and then broke into “if all the rain drops were lemon drops and gumdrops, oh what a rain it would be.”

I had to sing along. We sang it all the way home, actual raindrops falling into our mouths, “Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah.”

I’m glad I didn’t miss out on that.

“Oh, no”

“What?!”

My husband and I responded simultaneously. He turned the alarm off and went back to sleep, since he was going to work two hours late today.  I rolled over and didn’t go back to sleep; I got up, checked the news on the web, and then went in to work early.

It’s now just after 9:00 p.m.  If I go to bed now, can I get up at 5:00 again?

I’ve been a night person for as long as I can remember, but when I do manage to get a decent amount of sleep and get up in the morning, I can be very productive.  This would be a good thing for my writing.  I’ve been struggling with finding time in the evening. The girls need my attention, and that’s how it should be! Tonight, we played Star Wars Trivial Pursuit and watched a little American Idol, and it was great. I want to spend time with them.

I do like to stay up late, but by the time they’ve gone to bed, I’m not at my most productive. I’m often caught in between: too tired to think but not tired enough to sleep.

So I’m heading for bed. I’ll let you know if I get up in the morning.

I think we need to do something about bedtime again. I know that having a routine is key, especially for young children. But we seem to change our routine every few months or so, either because it isn’t working or because we’ve stopped using the routine we’d intended to use.

When the girls were babies, we didn’t worry about their bedtimes much. We based their routines more around ours.  But now that they’re in school and daycare, going to bed and going to sleep is more important.

We instituted an 8:00 p.m. bedtime at first, but found that with all of us getting home around 5:30 p.m., we’d just have time to eat dinner and do homework and chores and then it would be bedtime. We didn’t have time to just be together, so we changed bedtime to 8:30 p.m.  Everyone is used to that now; we don’t have arguments about going upstairs to bed.

But we don’t really have a positive routine in place. We were reading stories for a while, but got out of the habit at some point, perhaps when we had too many evening meetings.  And, I have to admit, it’s also because we as parents can be selfish. We don’t want to go read stories if we’re in the middle of a TV show, or a blog post. We don’t want to go upstairs and come back down again.

Foolish parents.  So it’s back to the drawing board. How do we put a 10-year-old, a 7-year-old, and a 4-year-old to bed peacefully, and still have some time for ourselves?

When she turned one, we were living in California, and invited all nearby family members for a birthday party. We honestly didn’t think they’d all show up! We were glad they did, and enjoyed it, but it was a big crowd for our small apartment.

At some point we moved from adult-centric parties to kid parties. When she turned seven, we agreed to spring for a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, with the understanding that this would be the only Chuck E. Cheese party for her, ever! This was surprisingly fun and easy. We reserved a 10:00 a.m slot, which is the earliest available, and were able to have the party before the restaurant got crazy (and before I got crazy). We also did this for our middle daughter when she turned four. The youngest hasn’t had her turn yet.

We’ve also had completely homemade parties. For one, we had homemade cake and did sticker art as an activity.  Another was a slumber party for eight girls, which was a bit much for me. Eight seven- and eight-year-olds in the house means DRAMA if everyone doesn’t get along.

Other times, we’ve limited birthdays to just the family, especially when the kids are very small. For summer birthdays, it’s fun to have a family party in the park, where we can all relax, talk and watch the kids play.

This time it’s a slumber party again, but with just a few girls. In fact, we’re calling it a sleepover and not a slumber party. I think it will be very low key, and we’ll have less chance of personality conflicts.

Things are not so homemade tonight, though. It’s been a busy week of back-to-school, and I woke up this morning with a migraine. So I bought a cake and some easy, low-prep food instead of trying to do everything myself.  My dear, dear husband did most of the house cleaning, and he’s planning to just stay out of the way.

Well, they’ll be arriving any minute now — wish us luck!

I say that’s not sustainable. How could it be? How can we possibly expect infinite growth?

But aside from growth being unsustainable in the long run, this mindset can have negative short-term effects.

For example, look at baby formula.  Formula is a good thing when it’s used as originally intended. Without modern baby formulas, babies who can’t breastfeed, for whatever reason, might die or grow up significantly less healthy.

However, baby formula companies haven’t been content to just provide the formula as a resource for those who need it.  From a business point of view, the companies think they need to get more and more people to buy formula, so that their businesses will grow.

As a result, formula is marketed to people who may not really need it.  In the U.S., we now have disclaimers on formula ads saying that “breastfeeding is best.” But in many less wealthy countries, women are still led to believe that formula will somehow be better for their babies, and so they don’t breastfeed, and the babies don’t get the benefits of breastfeeding. And sometimes they use contaminated water to mix formula, and babies die. Or they over-dilute the formula to save money, and babies end up malnourished.

Is there a better way? I wish corporations could be counted on to just do the right thing.  Perhaps shareholders could put some pressure on the formula companies and let them know that constant growth really isn’t necessary in those products.

But meanwhile, you can also donate to organizations that promote breastfeeding around the world:

MercyCorps originally drew my attention to this topic with an appearance on Live at 7, in which they talked about promoting breastfeeding in Indonesia. They’re not currently offering a breastfeeding Mercy Kit, but they’d be a great target for donations.

The International Baby Food Action Network “consists of public interest groups working around the world to reduce infant and young child morbidity and mortality,” and breastfeeding is a big part of that. IBFAN is one of the core partners in the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action.

UNICEF works through its Infant and Young Child Feeding programme area to promote breastfeeding at national, health system, and community levels.

I always save up too many things to do during school breaks. It’s very easy to do that, especially as a break approaches.

“Bake cookies? I’ll have plenty of time during the break.”

“Call the optometrist’s office? That’ll be much easier during break.”

“Teach the kid to read? I can do that during winter break.”

“Lose weight? Winter break!”

As you can see, all of this is going to be hard to balance.  And I also want to spend time with my family, write, read good books, and keep up with my social networks. Ha!

I might have to make a schedule. Schedules, of course, often fall by the wayside when you have three children. But it helps make sure I’m fitting everything in.