Ovaltine vs. A College Education

Good morning everyone.  You would think my first blog in almost a week would be about the first days of school.

Yea… you would think so.

And I really want to write about them but, to go totally psycho-babble on you, I haven’t quite figured out how I feel about them.  In other words, I haven’t processed them yet.

I think they went well.  No phone calls from school.  No notes home.  I got a simple email about Sean having a water bottle in class….

Nothing earth shattering.

I’m sure to find out more on how everything went when I see staff tomorrow morning.  It’s time for our domain meeting and to update our histories with the social worker.

Oh how I dread airing my dirty laundry and feeling like I’m one wrong answer away from losing the kids to child services.

Isn’t that ironic?  I can tell my innermost thoughts, feelings and fears to a semi-world-wide audience, and yet, sitting down with a social worker scares the wits out of me….

Either way, it must be done.  And, of course, I will share as much as I can about the experience with you.

Now onto the topic of the day…

I just refilled Sean’s water bottle and milk jug and put them in the refrigerator.  Sean drinks milk or water.  He doesn’t juice and only has a rare soda with pizza.

How I wish I could have his habits!

Trying to be eco-friendly, we wash our plastic bottles and then re-fill them.  Sean can go through three or four of them a day. 

As we stood at the sink washing up to twenty-five or more bottles a week, we began to wonder how eco-friendly we really were being.  Besides, this particular chore was becoming one that we procrastinated endlessly upon.  Was it worse washing them every day or watching them pile up beside the sink until one of us finally gave in?

After Sean and I returned from our weeklong camping trip, an idea finally struck.  Sean now uses the large water bottles from our camping gear.  We have a pitcher of water in the refrigerator and, in theory he should re-fill the bottle as needed.

Of course, Sean being Sean, he just puts the empty bottle back in the refrigerator in the hopes that some magical fairy will one day fill it up.

Mom, maid and now, magical fairy… a little girl’s dream come true!

Sean’s other drink of choice is chocolate milk.  I know, I know…. It’s not good for you… extra calories…  I know the drill.

I’m a milkman’s daughter so I grew up on milk and nothing was better than a carton of fresh chocolate milk from the dairy.

Yummy!

Along with the fruits and vegetables that I should have raised Sean on, I should have also left the chocolate milk out, but I couldn’t.

If I was having some, then he wanted some as well.

How could I deprive my baby?

And thus, it began.  But I wanted to go a healthier route than Quik.  My girlfriend was adding vanilla Ovaltine to her daughter’s milk.  I had never tried Ovaltine but thought it worth a try.

Sean took to it and a habit was born.

Now the habit is costing us out of house and home and yes, a college education for Sean.

He’s old enough to mix his own but his two scoops have turned into almost an inch of the stuff in the bottom of the cup.

Whenever I catch him exceeding the scoop limit, I always remind him and he always replies – accompanied with a guilt-inducing sigh,  “Fine…”

You would think I had crushed his spirit by restricting his computer time.

After emptying out yet another container in a matter of days, the magical – now diabolical – fairy struck once again.

I’ve decided to make his chocolate milk ahead of time.  Therefore, I can keep him to a mere three cups a day and… this is the best part…. I mix the Ovaltine 50-50 with the Quik that I can buy in bulk at Sam’s Club.

Has he noticed?  Has he said anything?

Not yet…

Oh crap.  I exited the room for a minute just now and left my blog entry up on the screen.

The little bugger read it.

I’ve been caught.

Dang…

Now I don’t know what I’m going to do.

I guess I’ll have to decide…college education or continuing my kid’s Ovaltine habit?

Or I can always get a second (or third) job.

Is anyone out there looking for a somewhat diabolical magical fairy?

No need to pay me, just give me Ovaltine.