Organicalize: It's a made-up word.

I try to buy organic.  Period. 

My grocery bill is generally higher than need be, but the health benefits of buying organic...yada yada yada we all know what they are.  But, I am also (relatively) normal and not made of money, so when it's between spending $4.99 and $1.79...guess what wins out.  I do what I can, but some prices are just absurd and I refuse to pay them.  I often end up switching out the organic product I chose for the much cheaper regular version, and end up with probably 50% of my groceries actually being organic, and the other half being 'normal'.

Rest assured, I am still out there reading labels like a madwoman on the non-organic stuff.

I was informed the other day that organic cereal is 'gross' and will not be eaten.  Why is it gross?  Because it's organic.  Oh, right, of course!  Duh, it's so obvious.  I mean come on, really?  But being the perceptive mom I am, it didn't take me long to figure out exactly what's going on here.  This is interesting considering my last blog was about how hateful my kids feel about the hot lunch at school.  Apparently, BREAKFAST is where it's at.  Yes, Breakfast At School, provided by the same folks who think mini corn dogs are nutritious and tater tots are a vegetable, is corrupting my child.

Our school is on this lunch card program that is hooked up to your credit card and gets refilled when it gets too low.  I get periodic emails saying that my payment has been approved, a card has been refilled.  The kids do buy their lunches sometimes, and it adds up, right?  Well, shame on you mom, you should have kept better track of whose card was being refilled more often.  Two words...THE BOY.  The boy has been taking himself out to breakfast a couple mornings every week.

A couple weeks ago, he came home with a Hostess-like cherry pie.  More recently, he came home with a gooey Honey Bun.  I barfed a little in my mouth when he ate it.  (Yes, I let him eat it.  Everything in moderation, right?).  He told me this was leftover from breakfast and he was able to take it home.  Uh, yuck, why would they be serving that stuff for breakfast at school?!  Here and there, when we have an especially rushed morning I will approve a trip to the cafeteria.  This boy is VERY hard to feed, and breakfast at home is always an interrogation and may involve force-feeding and threats.  When rushed, it is impossible to get food into this unwilling child.  I would rather he ate something than nothing, so fine, go to the cafeteria.  But now I am seeing how this little convenience is totally working against me and The Greater Good.  He won't eat organic cereal at home because he has now sampled the pleasures that are Froot Loops and Lucky Charms and the like.  The organic cereal I buy can hardly hold up to those...it's practically twigs and leaves in comparison. 

I admit sometimes I get carried away.  I buy some weird stuff, like veggie cheese or soy sausage or tofu hot dogs; stuff that there is no way anyone else here will even attempt to choke down just on principle, and I get that and don't blame them (too much).  I even had a stray thought the other day about giving our guinea pig cardboard to chew on and wondering if there was organic cardboard...no worries, I ended that thought process pretty quickly.  But I've tried those organic cereals, and they are good.  I mean, how badly can you screw up cinnamon toast crunch? 

Maybe what it comes down to is that the boy is prejudiced against organics.  I have so much trouble feeding this child and we get in so many arguments about him not eating, or what he's eating or what he wants or likes or dislikes or whatever that maybe he's traumatized.  Somehow he's come the the conclusion that all the food in our house is gross, so is it that off-the-wall to think that he believes anything organic is gross?  Does that even make sense?  What's a mom to do?

So, when you see me in the cereal aisle picking out ridiculously sugary, artificially flavored and colored cereals...don't be alarmed.  I may have come up with a solution.  I'm thinking about taking those cereals home and switching out their inner bags with some lovely bark, twig, and pebble cereal from the organic aisle.  I thought I was above trickery, but I'm not.  Not where nutrition is concerned.  Some peoples kids eat healthy stuff willingly, and some peoples kids sneak off to breakfast at school and stuff their pockets with cherry pies and honey buns.  I will not be outsmarted by a 9 year old.  Lucky for me I've learned a few tricks along the way.  Let's see how long it takes him to figure this one out...