Eating A Rainbow

A few weeks ago, after my normal Friday work-out class, I stuck around to attend a presentation by one of my classmates who is a certified master herbalist and holistic health expert.  She brought all kinds of food samples (mainly the reason I stayed) and had lots of interesting information about eating healthy and taking care of your mind, body and soul.  She shared her own personal battle with anerexia and how God brought her through that struggle.  I found her testimony to be quite moving, and it gave some background on why she is so passionate about total body health now.  Her motto is "Food. Fitness. Faith."  I like that.

Anyway, like I said she gave several easy, practical tips on how to live healthier.  One of the things she mentioned was to simply "eat a rainbow".  She suggested that when taking kids to the store each week, go to the produce section and let them have a color scavenger hunt.  With younger kids, she said you might just go with one color each visit.  For example, when given the color orange, they might pick up carrots, butternut squash, oranges, peppers, etc.  You get the idea.  I loved this simple idea and tried it with my girls during our next shopping trip.  They loved it!

Tonight, I needed a side for our simple dinner of sandwiches and chips.  So I told the girls we were going to make a rainbow fruit salad.  We were on a mission.  Leah found cans of mandarin oranges and pineapple tidbits in the pantry.  Hannah discovered strawberries and purple grapes in the refrigerator.  We already had red, orange, yellow, and purple.  I chopped up a Granny Smith apple to provide some green, and that's as far as we got.  If only I had some blueberries, our rainbow would have been complete.  Oh well, it still looked pretty and it tasted great.  Even though these were all fruits they love, they are much more likely to try something new if they help choose it or prepare it.

Our "rainbow salad" before we mixed it up.

In addition, at the end of the presentation at my gym, I picked up a guide for "when to buy organic."  I thought it was pretty interesting, so I am going to share it with you.  These lists are the "Clean 15" (which are lowest in pesticides) and the "Dirty Dozen" (which are better to buy organic.)  

DIRTY DOZEN

1. Apples

2. Celery

3. Strawberries

4. Peaches

5. Spinach

6. Nectarines

7. Grapes

8. Sweet bell peppers

9. Potatoes

10. Blueberries

11. Lettuce

12. Kale/collard greens

CLEAN FIFTEEN

1. Onions

2. Corn

3. Pineapples

4. Avocado

5. Sweet Peas

6. Mangoes

8. Cantaloupe

9. Kiwi

10. Cabbage

11. Watermelon

12. Sweet potatoes

14. Grapefruit

15. Mushrooms

There you go.  Some FOOD for thought.  Haha! I'm so punny.

*The lists came from www.foodnews.org

Swords

Lucas is really into making everything into a sword. He has his light saber as an obvious choice, but other things become swords as well. Things like pretzel rods (one of his favorite snacks), carrot sticks, hair brushes, my Swiffer duster, and even the remote control. Anything is fair game. The most unusual "sword" he has found is the green nasal aspirator we brought home from the hospital when he was born. He loves that thing for some reason. He grabs it, waves it around, yells "high-ya!!!", and challenges me to a dual. Tonight he said he wants to sleep with his "green sword". I hope he is always my funny boy.

The Stats For Today

1. I completed one hour of cardio work in a fun new dance class. I made it through everything from hip-hop to salsa, the Jive to the Charleston, and even a Jewish wedding dance. It was a lot of fun!

2. Lucas and I spent some time at the playground enjoying the gorgeous weather.

3. My little boy took a nice two hour nap. He fell asleep in about two minutes. I think staying up until 11:30 the night before had something to do with that.

4. While Lucas napped, I decided to declare war on our laundry situation. I busted out six loads! That's right, I washed, folded and put away six full loads of laundry. The good news is we all have clean underwear now!

5. We went out to eat as a family after Mike got home. We had three coupons for free kids' meals at a nearby restaurant, so the price was right. Score!

6. As per usual, we came home and had Family Movie Night. Tonight's selection was Holes. I read that book to my sixth graders every year when i was teaching,and my kids always loved it. My girls thought it was good too. Jon Voight's performance is my favorite part of that movie.

7. It is nearly midnight, and I am tired!

Good-night, World! I leave you with a cute picture of Lucas. Just because.

A Rough Patch

Of all my children, Lucas has definitely been the best sleeper.  The boy slept through the night at 2 months (way earlier than either of my girls), has gone down easily for naps and bedtime, and when he dropped from two naps a day to one, that one nap was usually a monster 2.5 to 3 hour nap.  I thought I had hit the child/sleep jackpot!  Then, the dreaded day came when he started climbing out of his crib.  Soon thereafter we moved him into his big boy twin bed.  In addition to his new sleeping arrangements, we also took away his beloved pacifier.  With these circumstances in mind, it is safe to say we have hit a rough patch in his sleeping habits.

Honestly, the pacifier issue is not so big anymore.  It's been almost two weeks and he barely mentions it at all.  I think it is the change of bed that has him in a funk.  He has tasted the freedom of being able to get in and out of bed on his own, and he likes it.

Usually, our night time routine goes like this:  bath, read 2-3 books, turn on lullaby cd, tuck him in, Mom or Dad sits with him and scratches his back for a song or two until he either falls asleep or is very still.  Lately, though, he does not get still.  At. All.  He flips around.  He talks.  He pats my face.  So we nixed the mom-dad-scratch-back routine and decided to tuck him in and say just good-night.  At this point he sometimes begins to scream and cry.  We try really hard to ignore the screaming, and sometimes that is all it takes.  10 minutes of intense screaming will wear anyone out!  But then there are the nights like tonight where the screaming doesn't wear him out.  Instead, he goes to Plan B which is do not stay in bed at all.  He just pops right back up after we tuck him in.  Every time he gets up, one of us calmly puts him back in, tells him to stay in bed and go to sleep, hoping that consistent repetition will get the point across.  Some nights we do this fifteen times or more.  Some nights he isn't asleep until 11:00 or later.  Right now he is just flat wearing me out in this area.

I took this picture at 10:15 tonight.
It's an image we see all too often. 

 It's the "I'm going to peek around this corner and see if I get caught" expression.  

So I'm at the point of opening myself up for suggestions.  What has worked to help your child transition from crib to bed?  What sleep methods have been helpful?  I know that we can get our good-sleeping boy back one day!

CSI: Barbie

The Barbies have been on pretty good behavior lately.  I haven't had anything to report on in quite awhile.  But all of that changed yesterday evening when at 11:00 at night I walked into my bathroom to get ready for bed.  I came around the corner and spied this unusual scene.

Take a closer look.  Beware, there is mild nudity involved.

After some crime scene investigating it was determined that Ken has been skinny dipping in the tub only to slip on the edge and fall to his death.  His harmless evening in the nude ended in tragedy.  

Case closed.

What A Day

I like to keep it positive here on this little old blog-- positive, yet real.  I try really hard to see the silver lining in all situations and trust God when things just don't make sense.  Sometimes life throws you some really interesting situations, and yesterday I got to experience one of those in a big way.  Are you ready for a story?  I promise to put a positive spin on it in the end. :)

Yesterday the kids were all out of school for President's Day.  I took them to the gym in the morning and then planned to run by Target (which is nearby my gym) to pick up a few items before heading home for lunch and nap time.  I had it all planned out to run smoothly.  I was going to have an easy, enjoyable day with no problems.

After a good work-out, we headed to Target.  The day was cold, windy and rainy.  It was an ominous sign of things to come.  We entered the store and found a shopping cart which could fit all my kids.  It's the kind where two bigger kids can sit facing each other near the front and a smaller child can sit in the basket behind.  It's like the SUV of shopping carts.  The girls got buckled in, then I placed Lucas in his spot and gave him my iPhone so he could play Angry Birds to keep him occupied.  Don't judge.  He loves Angry Birds.

I glanced at my list:  trash bags, toilet paper, cat food, and new toothbrushes for all three kids.  Easy Peasy.  Before I knew it, I had all the items I needed except the cat food which is located all the way at the back of the store.  I started heading that way at the exact same time Lucas decided he was done.  He was done playing Angry Birds and wanted to get "Oooouuuut Noooowww!"  I kept trying to reason with him by telling him I just had one more thing and we were going home soon.  He just got louder and louder.  Eventually he took his antics a step further and climbed out of the cart while my back was turned picking up the cat food.  I placed him back in and started pushing the cart, but he began screaming and tried to dive out of the cart (I should mention that there were no working straps in the cart to restrain him).  I finally decided to just let him "help" me push the cart up to the front registers.

Slowly we rolled along when I saw a display of two liters of  Diet Dr. Pepper on sale.  As fast as I glanced at the display, Lucas was already there ready to do some damage.  In slow motion I saw him whack at a bottle with one hand and a two liter toppled over.  He slapped it with enough force that when it hit the floor the red bottle cap shot off into oblivion and the contents of the container spilled and fizzed out all over the floor. I never realized how much liquid is really in a two liter when spilled onto a flat surface.  It's a lot, I'm afraid.  Embarrassed I quickly put Lucas back into the cart, grabbed the near-empty bottle so I could pay for it, and started looking for an employee so I could tell him about our little fiasco.  Oh and just so the picture in your mind is complete, Lucas at this point is screaming at the top of his lungs, "GET ME OUT!!!!"

I find a teenage employee and tell him what has happened, apologizing profusely.  He looks at me and says, "Uhhhh.....ok."  I can tell he has no idea what to do.  He runs off to go find someone else to help him, and I head to the nearest cashier so I can get out of there fast.

I think there are 30 checkouts at this particular Super Target.  There are exactly two cashiers working.  Lovely.  I choose the line that seems like the best option, but I am the fifth person in the line.  This is where things continue to go downhill.  Lucas would not stop screaming or climbing out of the cart, so I grabbed him and put him on my hip, my arm in a death grip around him.  I'm holding the mostly empty bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper in the other hand (there's approximately a cup of soda left) and try scooting my cart forward with a crazy combination of my elbows and my stomach.

I would like for you all to think that I remained calm and in control during this entire thing.  That is not the case.  I didn't cry (which is a first for me), but I kept mumbling under my breath, but loud enough for my girls to hear, sarcastic things like, "Gee, thanks for letting me go ahead, people.  Love the compassion you're showing right now.  Yeah, I enjoy holding a screaming toddler and a sticky Dr. Pepper bottle.  It's a lot of fun, you should try it.  Heaven forbid you offer to take this bottle out of my hands."  Not a single person did a thing to help me, and that made me more upset.

Eventually we got to the car, and when everyone was strapped in I called Mike and recalled the entire incident in angry detail to him while he patiently listened.  I think I said something dramatic like, "I will never take all three kids to a store ever again!  I will shop at ten o'clock at night if I have to so I can avoid situations like this!!!"  I hung up the phone and Hannah's small voice from the back of the van piped up.  She said, "Mom, I know what you should have done."

"What?"  I asked.

"You could have prayed."

Ouch.  Truth from my seven year old.  I took a deep breath and said, "Hannah.....you are absolutely right.  I should have prayed.  Even though I was frustrated, I shouldn't have said mean things about those people in line." (shamefully I might have told Mike those people "sucked")  So right there in the car, in the parking lot of Super Target, I prayed.  I prayed that God would forgive me for my bad attitude and bad example I set for my children.  I asked for wisdom in how to better prepare for and handle situations like these.  I thanked Him for His mercy and grace.  And hopefully I redeemed the situation a little for my kids.

We made it home, ate lunch, and Lucas went quickly down for a nap.  I am sure part of his antics were due to the fact that he hadn't napped the day before and hadn't slept well at night either due to a stuffy nose.  He was out cold for three hours.  The girls and I played some games and watched a movie together.  Lucas woke up a new man and we had a much better evening together, glad that the events from the morning were starting to become a distant memory.

I like to remind myself of how cute they are after a hard day.

Have you all had any days like this?  Care to share your stories?

Shopping With Gram

Tonight was a special night. My mother-in-law is in town and she offered to take me out to dinner and to the mall to do a little shopping! I immediately said yes! I am so blessed to have such wonderful in-laws, and it made me feel so special to have one-on-one time with her. I tend to shop at bargain stores and on clearance aisles, so getting to shop elsewhere was a real treat. I got two new pairs of shoes, a few tops perfect for spring and early summer, and a fun summer dress that I can wear for fancier occasions like weddings or baby showers, etc. More than the things I got tonight, though, I am so grateful for the quality time we had together. That to me is priceless.