Is It Possible to Satiate Their Need For Saltines?

So I am a bit perplexed.  Again.   I know, I am easily perplexed.  It's the unfortunate side effect of over-thinking.

But here's the thing.  I have been so cold the last few days.  So.  Cold.  Our building has been that kind of cold that makes me chill to the bone.  One day it was blamed on the work being done on our alarm system, therefor making "THE SYSTEM" not turn on.  I'm beginning to wonder if we even have "THE SYSTEM" installed in the building at all.  Because "THE SYSTEM" really is code word for "budget cuts and environmental responsibility has led us to the belief that lowering the temperature of the school results in better learning and higher test scores and few discipline issues."  I'm not really quoting anyone, just my over-thinking brain. So I've shivered my way through this week.  And I'm not fond of being cold.  Or hot, actually.  I prefer "just right".

And this has been a bit of a draining week.  Okay, a lot of a draining week.  I'm tuckered out.  Conference week means "opportunities" to take classes in the afternoon, which means by this afternoon I will have worked 8 extra hours in my work week.  Doesn't sound like much, but it feels like much.  Add to that the peak of crazy this week and next getting my girls ready for competition, and whooooosh, there goes my week.

Now I've set the scene.  I'm cold.  I'm tired.  I'm needy.  When I get in such a state, I crave the comfort foods that warm me.  Specifically this week it was tomato soup.  Mmm-hmm. Tomato soup.  From a can.  Made with milk.  The very thought of it propelled me through the day.

I came home and got my soup all ready.  And while it was warming I sought out the proper tomato soup accompaniments.  Saltines.  And I do like to raise the normal saltine routine and use Keebler crackers...their name escapes me but they are cute little rectangles in a green box.  They are buttery and yummy and perfect with my tomato soup.

Well, call me Old Mother Hubbard, because my cupboard was bare.  Of crackers, anyway.  I started to ask the question, "who ate all the...?"  But I stopped myself, because it's really a rhetorical question at this point, one that my kids would mistake for a question they must answer and they would start blaming each other and talking on and on about crackers and then my soup would grow cold and my irritation would grow hot.  And then I would hear the ultimate question back at me:  "well, if you don't want us to eat them, why do you buy them??"  And frankly they have a point.  That's why I don't buy them on a regular basis.  Because the whole cycle would continue as often as I bought them.  My soup would continue to go cracker-less no matter how often I bought them.  Because my kids will eat crackers and eat crackers and eat crackers.  I have come to the conclusion through these years of parenting that it is not humanly possible to satiate my kids' needs for saltines.  I'm putting it on the list of "Things That Will Be Positive About An Empty Nest".  Yep, I will someday again have crackers with my soup.