PB&J

I have discovered a passion of mine that had remained latent for ten or twelve years: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I love them.  Could eat them for every meal for a month and would not grow weary (though, the minor stipulation is that I'd need to make them myself to ensure proper jelly to pb proportions, etc.).  Yum.  Also, because we had no bread at the end of last week, but we did have multi-grain tortillas, I discovered that pb&j wraps are also a tasty treat...and require less jelly, due to the layering effect.  I think I may be thinking too much about peanut butter and jelly.  But, I think, too, that my recent discovery leads me to greater enthusiasm because, historically, I had a very love/hate relationship with this school-time sandwich.

See, Dad always made my lunch when I was growing up.  And, this was, of course, a very thoughtful gesture on his part.  He certainly didn't have to make my lunch but, for me, the idea of not having to make my lunch each night was more appealing than the thought that I could have more food-related freedom if I spent five minutes in the kitchen and relieved Dad of his task.  Thus, especially in 7th-9th grade, I regularly ended up with bread from the bread machine (which tasted like the Tupperware container that housed it) holding together a light spattering of crunchy peanut butter (everyone except for my sister knows that creamy pb is MUCH better) and blackberry jam (which often required a magnifying glass to identify).  Made with love, but not with an understanding of proper bread/pb/jelly proportions (as I mentioned above), these were the sandwiches of my youth.  Except on pizza day when, invariably, the piece of cold pizza in my bag would have a bite missing.  Oddly, my pb&j sandwiches never suffered that same fate.

Through my re-discovery of pb&j, I have learned that my son, likewise, enjoys partaking in this salty-sweet masterpiece.  Sometimes, he gets it in cubes, sometimes in quarters, and sometimes in strips.  Regardless, he enjoys the treat as much as me.  And, the time that exists between now and when pb&j will invariably be a staple lunchtime food for him, is waning.  Ok, it's somewhere near 4.5 years away, but still...If the first year and a half is any sign of what's to come, four and a half years will be a blip.

I hope that I can be like the Skippy pb mom on commercials when I was little.  She always was SO good at making the pb look like a heart.  Ok, I really don't worry so much about the design of the pb, but I do hope that I will be on the look out for ways to improve my child's day.  I always enjoyed notes in my lunchbox, or surprise trips to Aurora Coffee and Donuts, or other such things.  Now, of course, I just wish I were back in school (it's amazing how topsy-turvy our perspective becomes, isn't it?!).  I guess that maybe I'll just have to be an excellent Room Mother one of these days!!!

But for now, I'm going to make me a sandwich...