Cucumbers for Lunch

I've been getting on Stephen's case lately about the food that he's bringing home in his lunchbox. Our schools here don't have one lunch break like we had growing up, but they have two "Nutrition Breaks" during the day; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The students are encouraged (by their teachers) and threatened (by their mothers) to eat the healthy foods during the first break and the fun foods during the second break. Sounds good! And Stephen has done that, up until this week for some reason.

Let me also insert here that Stephen LOVES vegetables! He really does! I have had no problem sending cucmbers, carrots, celery, even raw mushrooms, cauliflower and broccoli with him, and they have always been eaten! But this week, for some reason, his cucumbers kept coming back home.

So I kept sending them back.

And they kept coming back home.

His only response was that he didn't feel like eating them.

Tonight I got a bit perturbed with this whole cucumber thing and frustrating thoughts were going through my head as I was packing his lunch for tomorrow. I was ready to throw that same silly container of cucumbers back into his lunchbox for day number four when I thought I'd better at least open them up to see what was so awful about cucumbers all of a sudden! They are his absolute favorite and most requested vegetable!

Boy, oh boy! Did I ever get a stinkin' surprise! That $1.99-English-cucumber-from-Zehrs-that-I-told-Fred-to-splurge-on-because-I-knew-that-Stephen-would-appreciate-it vegetable was COVERED in fuzzy, grey mold!!! Poor guy! No wonder he kept bringing it back home and wouldn't eat it! That stuff was worse than nasty!!! I pitched it away so fast and practically threw up while I was doing it. There is no reason that that cucumber should have been so disgusting since Fred JUST bought it, but after I tossed that stuff, I remembered that when I was cutting it, I did notice a little soft spot on the skin but I just zipped it off with my knife and dropped it into the container anyway.

I need to apologize to Stephen in the morning for getting so upset with him for not eating his vegetables this week. If I would have probed a little more into WHY he wouldn't eat them, or if I would have actually LOOKED at them the first day he brought them home, I wouldn't have put either one of us through so much torture.

Tomorrow he's getting fresh mushrooms. I know that they are good because I sampled some as I was putting them in his lunch. And if they come home again tomorrow, I'll force him to tell me why he wouldn't eat them .... after I look at them myself.