Category: family

Last night I FaceTimed my folks to chat. My Dad was in the middle of making himself a sardine and mustard sandwich. He lamented that his sardine sandwich yesterday just wasn’t as good because he’d made it on wheat bread.

Let me retype that sentence to really drive it home:

“He lamented that his sardine sandwich yesterday just wasn’t as good because he’d made it on wheat bread.”

I submit to you that perhaps it was not the wheat but instead the sardines that caused the sandwich to suffer. Really, this seems like the logical conclusion to me.

All this commotion of sardines brought my mother into the room. She looked at the sandwich and after making the international sign for vomiting (twice) she commented on how it’s better to watch a gross sandwich in the making than to build one herself.

Which brings me to the meat of this post. Especially with Mother’s day fast approaching, it’s worthwhile to pause and appreciate Mom D for the huge amount of lunches she’s made for my sisters, my dad, and me. Everyday of my youth there was a little brown paper bag with a sandwich, juice box, fruit, and dessert waiting for me on the counter (sometimes with extra hand drawn comic strips on post-it notes detailing the adventures of SuperPig). So how many lunches did my mom actually make for us?

In my hometown, there are 180 days in a school year. Assuming that we probably had field trips, special lunches, or school treats for ~10 days per year this equates to 170 lunches/kid/year. For 12 years of school and three kids that’s 6120 lunches. Adding in Dad D, who was also a benefactor for the same period of time, increases the total by 3920. But Dad D also received lunches when us kids were not attending school. If we were to add in another 15 years (assuming 245 work days per year (that’s 49weeks*5days)) we can include an additional 3675 lunches.

Mom D has single-handedly made 13,715 lunches.

Thirteen Thousand Seven Hundred Fifteen Lunches

None for herself
And in all honesty, it’s probably closer to 14 or 15k.

Wow?
Wow.

Mom D wins the ultimate dedication award. Thanks Mom D!