The state of the economy is affecting the work lunch.

More people are brown-bagging it these days. Sure, bringing your own food has always been more economic and often healthier, but if you’re anything like me, by the time you get the kids’ lunches made and things ready for the next day, the last thing you want to do is decide what you’re going to feel like eating the next day.

OK, maybe that is just me.

But, restaurants are feeling the squeeze and lunch business is down. Lunch can be an important part of work socialization, and some companies are even subsidizing employee lunches.

I’m not one to give advice on bringing your lunch to work because I’m not very good at it, but we’re all probably going to need to economize in some way on work lunches, at least for the immediate future.

I think I’ll start by stepping up my surveillance of other departments in the building to see if they’re having free food or a party or something. If I’m diligent, I may be able to cover my lunch 1-2 times a week, but I may have to sign a lot of birthday and retirement cards.

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There’s a great post by Dr. Mary over at Work It, Mom! on The Myth of Balance, and one idea stuck with me:

Accepting that sometimes one thing has to get a bit more attention that another is yet another way that working moms can nourish and support themselves; it reduces supermom syndrome instantly.

We spend a great deal of time trying to reach the mythical place of “balance” where everything in life gets the same amount of attention, and it’s just not possible.

As I’ve said before, it used to be that we just called it “life” and sometimes, “life” is just busy and you do what you have to do and try to do it well.

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Erin of Unclutterer fame tried a novel approach to work-life balance one weekend:

On July 3, I decided that I was going to take a break from my laptop and from work for the three-day holiday weekend. Unfortunately, I had a few small tasks I needed to do over the weekend, so I knew I couldnt go cold turkey. I decided instead to unplug my computer at the end of the workday on Thursday and not plug my computer back in until showing up for work Monday morning.

I would survive for the holiday only using my laptops battery power and nothing else.

My first thought when I read this was that “I couldn’t get much done because my battery is in such poor shape”, and then I realized that was the entire point: it forces you to do the important things and leave the rest.

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My 12 year old is at camp for 3 weeks, so this got my attention: Parents get ‘kid-sick’ with children at camp.

Just like in the article, he’s having a great time, I’m not distraught by any means, but I’ll be glad when he comes home. On the other hand, I grew up going there, I love camp and I know he loves it. I don’t want to wish it away for him, but I just like it better when everyone is here.

I know they won’t always be here at home, and I’m fine with that, it’s part of the plan, but when they’re a little older.

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With a teen driver in my not too distant future, I think a lot about driving safety.

It seems that one of the up sides to the whole high gas price thing is that auto accident deaths are down due to decreased driving, maybe even by as much as one third.

Teens in particular are driving less since they don’t usually have a lot of money for driving expenses.

While I don’t have a teen driver, yet, I am a but nervous about the expenses involved, especially since I’m going to need her to transport her brothers home from school someday. But, I guess we’ll deal with that when we get there (3 years).

However, in the meantime I’m glad that auto deaths are down even though it’s because of crazy gas prices.

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