Learnin' the ways of a spoon

I am a procrastinator when it comes to letting my babies learn to feed themselves with a spoon. I try my best to give them good quality, organic foods, so I hate to see pricey food just dribble down their chest. And for Sam, being the little guy that he is, I especially want to make sure he gets every bite of that good, full fat yogurt or hearty oatmeal with butter. But the kid is almost 2 years old, so I figured it was about time he learned the ways of a spoon.

Boys and their toys.

It's so amazing to me to see Will gravitate towards the more boyish toys. Even when he was very young I remember him just out of the blue pretending something was a gun or sword. I don't feel like we have ever pushed a certain type of toy on him, it just naturally happened. I certainly wasn't going around pretending a plastic dinosaur was a sword.

We are not against our kids playing with toy guns or swords or the like. We don't believe for a second that it will push them to be a more violent person. As long as we are there to guide them in the right  direction, and teach him that real weapons are not to be played with. So, unless Will comes across a real gun that is yellow and purple with flashing lights and makes "pew pew" noises, I don't think it will be an issue.

Happy first day of Fall!

Or, to be more accurate, Happy Autumnal Equinox! In celebration (or in anguish, depending on your seasonal preferences) of this day I am going to share 3 loves and dislikes about Fall. Huuur we go.

3 Things I love About Fall

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1. It would be a travesty to give the number one spot to anything other than Pumpkin. I mean, come on now. Fall and pumpkin go together like, well, like Fall and pumpkin. I don't think any two things are more perfectly matched than that. There is Pumpkin cheese cake and pumpkin corn bread. Pumpkin pie scented candles and pumpkin decorations. Sure, you technically could have pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread any day of the year. But I think deep down deep in our souls we subconsciously know that that would just be wrong. It's like having watermelon in the Winter. You just don't do it.

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2. The clothes! Brown boots, leggings, sweaters and chunky scarves. Fall fashion is hands down my favorite.

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3. The beauty of nature in the Fall is beyond spectacular. Spring is nice and all with the new green grass and spring flowers blooming, but nothing beats the gorgeous color pallet of Fall.


3 Things I Dislike about Fall.

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1. After Fall comes Winter. I am not a fan. Cold and I do not meld well. I can have layers of socks on, but still have freezing cold feet. Ok, so I clearly have a problem. I just choose to blame Winter. It's easier.

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2. Having to wear Jeans. I thoroughly dislike wearing jeans. My thighs are not in proportion to my butt. I need a bigger size to compensate for my thighs, but then that leaves me with...yep, butt gap. Which leaves me constantly pulling up my pants. Which isn't good considering I have 2 kids and spend half my day bending over picking up toys or wipe noses or sitting on the floor playing with said toys. I pray everyday (ok, not every day) that sweatpants will become social acceptable to wear at anytime in public. There are leggings, which thank goodness are back in style. But I can't just wear leggings everyday or else I will be known as the girl who wears leggings every day. And I already was that girl 15 years ago, and let me tell you I will never live that down. So, the moral of the story. If you ever see me wearing jeans you can be sure that as soon as I get home those bad boys are off and my sweatpants are on.

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3. The extra amount of self control it takes to NOT eat all the yummy pumpkin and apple desserts. No other season has quite the extent of desserts that Fall seems to bring. Glazed donuts and apple cider. Pumpkin cookies with cream cheese icing. Warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream. I love it all! But, unfortunately, my body does not.

Enjoy this first day of Fall and have a wonderful weekend!

What to eat, what not to eat: Part 2

I grew up eating the Standard American Diet (SAD).  Like many people today, my mom just didn't realize how bad it was. I, of course, hold nothing against her for it. The food industry and USDA (to name a couple) are just plain devious. They've got everyone fooled. We live in a world where we are surrounded by fake and toxic foods that are advertised as "healthy". We've been duped, you guys.

Even into my married life I continued eating what I thought was perfectly fine "food". 5 years ago now I read a book titled, "Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About" by Kevin Trudeau. I actually started looking at the food I was eating, and realized...it wasn't real food at all. Even the meats, breads and dairy that once upon a time were considered real food, are now so processed with so many artificial ingredients/additives that to call it real would be a joke.

Taking the step to eating well is a journey, and really doesn't just happen over night. I may have read that book 5 years ago, but I am still learning new things everyday about what and how we should be eating.

So, I said I would share some steps that can help change your diet for the better, which I will do, but overall it really comes down to just one. I have said it before and will say it again...

EAT REAL FOOD.

Look at the ingredients of what you are buying! What you may think is just plain ol' wheat bread really isn't. Check out these ingredients in a whole grain, 100% wheat bread:

Unbromated Stone Ground 100% Whole Wheat Flour, Unbromated Unbleached Enriched Wheat Flour [Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic Acid], Water, Wheat Gluten, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Yeast, Soy Fiber, Contains 2 Percent or Less of Wheat Bran, Salt, Unsulphured Molasses, Honey, Monoglyceride, Datem (Dough Conditioner), Nonfat Milk (Adds a Trivial Amount of Cholesterol), Potato Flour, Calcium Propionate (to Retard Spoilage), Wheat Germ, Guar Gum, Soy Flour, Enzymes Brown Sugar, Sucralose and Soybean Oil.

Now, try to make that in your kitchen!

Like I said, changing over to eating real food will be a learning process. I'm still not completely where I'd like to be, but here are some of the first changes I personally made towards having a healthier diet.

(If I had the time I would write out my own thoughts on each of these "ingredients", but I just don't. I will instead link to some great articles, written by much more educated people than myself, about each subject.)

Here are 3 things I try my best to not eat:

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)/Corn Syrup/Corn Sugar: This stuff is in everything these days. It's super sweet, super cheap and super bad for you. Here are a couple articles explaining way better than I can about the dangers of HFCS. Here and here.

Hydrogenated Oils/Vegetable Oils (Canola, Soybean, Corn and more). These are toxic poisons! This is an easy to read and understand post about it, and here is a more in depth one.

Soy: This is a huge frustration of mine. That people think eating soy is healthy when in reality it is so terribly awful for you (Unless it is traditionally prepared (fermented). PLEASE read about the dangers of soy! Here and here.

I will leave you with this snippet from Michael Pollans book, In Defense of Food.

In 1960 Americans spent 17.5 percent of their income on food and 5.2 percent…on health care. Since then, those numbers have flipped: Spending on food has fallen to 9.9 percent, while spending on health care has climbed to 16 percent of national income.

I'm not the only weird one

Wow. I can't say enough good things about the Weston A. Price conference I attended over the weekend. It was so refreshing to be around people who didn't look at you funny for bringing your own glass jar of homemade yogurt to eat. In fact, there were even glass jars of yogurt to buy there!

I have known about the Weston A. Price foundation and what they support and believe in for a few years now after reading Sally Fallons book, Nourishing Traditions, and count myself very blessed for that. They have done so much research and have such a passion for sharing it with others, and that passion is contagious. It was just the kick in the pants I needed to get me on fire for providing good quality, nutrient dense food for my family.

And oh the food! The food was delicious! It was so nice being away from home and being able to eat GREAT quality food. Most of the food/ingredients were provided by an Amish farm in PA, who were there as a vendor as well selling all homemade yogurts, kefirs, raw milk butter, raw cheeses, kombucha, raw honey, mayonnaise, fermented pickles, beets, and salsa, muffins/breads and lots of other items. We were given just a lunch on both days, and man did we stuff ourselves! THE Sally Fallon even brought some of her own raw milk blue cheese that her farm in Maryland makes. So yummy!

Parts of it also made me a bit furious as well, to be quite honest. We watched a documentary called Farmageddon. It showed story after story of family farms being raided by the USDA and FBI and local police for the selling of raw milk. You NEED to watch this film. It is on You Tube and if you go to the Farmageddon site it will have a list of other viewing options.

I can't wait to share more of what was discussed! But for now, I need to head into the kitchen and get dinner going.

Away for the weekend

I know I promised a follow up to this post, and I haven't forgotten! I was so busy last week planning for our trip, and will be away again this weekend from Saturday until Sunday. So, it will have to wait until next week.

I am going out of town with my MIL and SIL bright and early tomorrow morning to a Weston A. Price Regional Conference. If you have never heard of Weston A. Price before, you should check it out! They have lots of great info on traditional eating, raw milk and the dangers of soy (just to name a few subjects)! I am super excited for this opportunity to go, and will try very hard to take lots of good notes to share with you. Have a wonderful weekend!