Yesterday we were in full on back to normal schedule, cue choir of angels! School was in session and I went back to work. I don’t know about you, but once January 1 rolls around I am ready to get a move on with the new year and kiss all the trappings and wrappings of Christmas goodbye. I may or may not have uttered the words, “Do you girls want me to drop you off at school a day early?”  when they were fighting earlier this week. I am obviously not home school mom material.

I wanted to prep for the first day back to school after the holiday break so I opened the cabinet where I store our lunch boxes as Miss C told me she wanted to bring her lunch on the first day back.

Where the heck was her lunch box? It should have been right there in the cabinet. Hmmmmm.

And then it dawned on me. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually laid eyes on her lunchbox, or her sister’s come to think about it.

Oh heck no.

The cute lunch tote OF DEATH MOLD SPORE fame.

I stepped down from the kitchen chair I’d been standing on and then nervously eyed their unopened since well before Christmas backpacks on the bench of our coatrack. For weeks they’d sat untouched, tossed aside in gleeful “YEA SCHOOL’S OUT” fashion.

I gingerly unzipped Miss C’s plaid backpack as if I expected a wild animal to lunge at me. There it was…the missing lunch tote. I didn’t detect any foul odor, so I went ahead and unzipped it, even though it felt full. Inside was her lunch from December 16, pristine as the moment I’d packed it because she’d had an end of the year pizza party in her classroom that day and never did eat her lunch.

Memories of soured milk filled sippy cups unearthed in various nooks and crannies hit me as I examined the gooey turkey blob, I mean sandwich.

Hey at least I know her sandwich keeper really works.