A couple of months back, I bought a large heart shaped cookie cutter. Why? Because I wanted to be that mom who cuts up sandwiches and pancakes into heart shapes. You know, the mom who leaves notes in lunchboxes and makes scrapbooks for each family vacation. (I sometimes wished for a mom like that when I opened my school lunchbox and only found kimbap instead of a note like my friend Audrey who seemed to get one every day.) I thought, "Tyler will know how much mommy loved him when he is old...because I took the time to cut out his sandwiches and pancakes." The first time I used my cookie cutter, Tyler was so excited to eat his heart shaped food and often requested it afterwards. I was so proud. I was becoming that mom.

Then, today, I had a change of heart. Right before we left for Tyler's school, he said, "Mommy, I want a peanut butter sandwich. A heart sandwich." Ok, easy enough. And then, as I was pushing the cutter down into the sandwich, I thought, "What a complete waste of food. Only in America would cutting food into cute shapes and throwing away the ends be considered cute." Ok, so it's just the crust and everyone hates the crust but it's still good food and it just gets thrown away.

Then, I started thinking about poor third world countries and how I'm lucky to be living in America and how I will only cut my children's food into a heart shape on special occasions...like Valentine's and their birthdays, maybe- if their lucky.

I will teach my children to use what they have wisely. And, give what is remaining.