A Muffin Too Far

As my little boy walked through the kitchen with his new airplane embroidered backpack strapped to his shoulders over his Thomas the Tank Engine jammies, his little face still sticky with this morning’s breakfast, all work on my manuscript came to a screeching halt. This is one of the dangers and great joys of running the house, a construction company, and a budding writing career all from my small oak desk in the corner of my kitchen. Constant interruptions that I would not eliminate even if I could, crash through my thoughts mid-sentence of an intense scene I’m writing. But, isn’t that the life of every woman, every mom, trying to hold the loose ends of life together before they unravel and leave us with a heap of tangled threads at our feet?


“Mommy, I’m going to school,” my little boy beamed holding out his airplane lunch bag, not understanding that he doesn’t start preschool for another week.

I’ve spent the past two weeks obsessed with learning all that I can, not about daily life in the late 1700’s as would help in the writing of my historical romance manuscript, but the artistic creation of bento box lunches for preschoolers. In my effort to keep the wheels on all of my works in process, writing and otherwise, I have once again gone overboard in my quest for perfection. Little peanut butter sandwiches cut into the shape of cars, tuna salad rolls made to look like mice, cheese in the shape of the three little pigs, all intricately carved and packed into the matching lunch bag with his name embroidered in the top. Which brings me to my question of the day: Will my need to be a great mom overshadow my son’s need to be a normal boy. In other words, will the elaborate school lunches I’m planning be a muffin too far?

The great lunch debacle of 2010 has been the topic of conversation at my house this week. My husband, who for the purposes of this blog I will just call Mr. Alpha Male, thinks that I am going to get our little boy beat up at preschool with my over prepared lunches and matching airplane themed school accessories. I think that I want my perfect little angel to have the best of everything, including his lunch. Then again, does Mr. Alpha Male have a point? (Now, now ladies, don’t be dirty.) Bunny sandwiches are not exactly manly, after all. And furthermore, would my current work in progress be finished by now if I spent more time with my mind in the late 1700’s and less of it on the perfect blueberry muffin recipe to put into the perfect airplane themed cupcake wrapper and into the perfect airplane lunch bag?