Hard work...

I don't know about you, but I find parenting to be wonderful yet extremely overwhelming when you consider the lasting impact parents have on the lives of their offspring. Wow, talk about pressure! My husband and I have a lot of dreams and goals for our children but something that drives many of our parenting decisions is the fact that we want our children to grow up to be hard working and self-reliant men. Working hard is something we try to model to them not just as a means to an end, but also as a source of happiness. Imagine my delight when I saw this sign as I was driving down the road the other day:

I'm not suggesting hard work is the only way to happiness, but it is certainly a contributing factor in my opinion. Whether it's schoolwork, teamwork, community involvement, whatever it might be we want our children to give the best of themselves. We don't want our children defined by how smart they are or how good they are at sports; instead we would much rather have them known for their work ethic. This trait will serve them well as they learn to take responsibility for themselves and will continue to provide them with a sense of accomplishment and happiness throughout their lives. This concept is so important to us so you'll find the words "integrity", "self-reliance", and most importantly "hard work" displayed in various forms around our house to serve as inspiration and motivation for all of us.

By now I'm sure you're asking what this long, drawn out post has to do with healthy lunch boxes?! Good question! If I'm being honest, I was so excited about the sign I spotted and really wanted to share it with someone which is how it landed here. However, the more I thought about it the more I realized that there is a correlation between the sign and this lunch box project. The process of changing 35 years of bad eating habits for both my husband and I has been HARD WORK. Re-learning how to cook and grocery shop has been HARD WORK. Getting our kids to try and eat new foods has been HARD WORK. Guess what...from all of that HARD WORK CAME HAPPINESS. The benefits we've gained from the effort we've put into making this transition are indescribable and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Today's quick-and-easy lunch includes: egg salad sandwich, plum, broccoli and ranch dip, homemade chocolate granola bar, spelt pretzels and cheese