Precious

I'm so thankful for this precious little girl that the Lord has entrusted to my brother and sister-in-law. I'm counting the days until I get to hold her, breath in that baby smell, and just marvel at the goodness of God right before my eyes. Soon.....

And I still pray that the Lord will enable me to bring another life into this world. My heart has that yearning. My children are hoping. My husband and I dream.....

I'm not wasting any time pining away over what I "want". I'm so blessed with what God has already given me. A little boy who calls manger scenes "Angel barns". :) A little girl whose heart for giving is keeping her quite busy these days. An 11 year old whose gentle and quiet spirit cause me to stop and ponder. And a young man so full of ambition and life. My husband and I are counting our blessings as we all pray for more.

Let's keep it real

Prices continue to rise but we can still keep it real. That's my goal. And I believe it to be very possible.

Local Nourishment has a great post on this, full of links to give you more ideas. It can be done! And then I want to point you to Storybook Woods who will show you how to do it with class!!! I'll be making her Roasted-Garlic Pumpkin Humus, only I don't have pumpkin. I really don't think it will be a problem. I'll just roast some squash! We all like humus, but my oldest has a love for the creamy dip! And all that garlic will be good for him as he's trying to recover from the flu.

Last night we had two large homemade pizzas that were, oh, so yummy! They only cost us $4.50. That's 75 cents a person. We might just have to implement a regular pizza night!

Raw Kale Avocado Salad

We love the salad! And I'm so glad. I plan to grow lots of this stuff this summer and I'm so thankful we've found a way that we can eat *lots* of this green, raw!

Sara at Happy Food has a great post about this salad, along with a video that will even show you how to make it!

This is what we put in our salad. I think next time I'll cut back on the lemon juice a bit. Zeke said, "This is spicy!" I think he meant very tangy! :) All of the kids agreed that it was good.

• 1/2 pound baby kale
  
• 1/2 cup tomato, chopped
  
• 1/2 avocado
• 2 tablespoons olive oil or hemp seed oil (go for less if you can)
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• Real Salt sea salt, to taste (1/4 - 1/2 t)

Grocery Cart Challenge ~ Share your recipes here

Dairy/Wheat Free Meal Ideas

For various reasons, we are experimenting with eating a Gluten/Dairy Free diet. I've decided to record some of our meals here as a reference for myself and also for anyone else that may be contemplating this.

Today's breakfast consisted of:
Fried Eggs
Oatmeal with your choice of Agave Nectar, Raw Honey, Molasses, Peanut Butter, and Flax Oil
Fruit Shakes ~ These seem to always be different. Today we enjoyed blueberries, bananas, flax oil, almond milk, and Pineapple/Coconut Juice with a bit of Barley Green Powder (you don't taste this).
Yum!

Today's Lunch:
Baked Talapia
Romaine Salad
Brussil Sprouts (This sounds like a funny combination but I could eat brussel sprouts with any meal! I love 'em!)

And for supper:
This was a pantry meal that was very thrown together!
Hamburger (from a local farmer), with rice and onion. Instead of cooking the rice in water I used Organic French Onion Soup and cooked it all together.
I served this with green beans. Very basic pantry eating! But it must not have been too bad or else everyone was very hungry because all but about a half of a cup is gone!

For snacks we enjoyed:
Sesame Rice Cracker
Apple Sauce
Pineapple Rings
Apples
Raisins
Juice Sprintzers
Dark Chocolate with Cacoa Nibs
Bananas
Wild Rice Cakes with Peanut Butter and Honey
My kids can never make it all the way to the next meal without some snacks, as you can see!

I miss being able to cook whatever I want. I feel like this "diet" hampers my creativity but we are making the best of it and we've eaten some wonderful food along the way!

More Neurotoxins

Back in the spring, I shared some information I had received at a conference. The lady speaking made a very strong statement, "Sugar is a neurotoxin." Today, as I was flipping through Sally Fallon's book, I read that she believes MSG and hydrolyzed protein are also neurotoxins. Now, it doesn't at all surprise me that MSG would qualify as such a poison. But hydrolyzed protein somehow seems much more innocent to me. Guess I need to wise up a bit!

Another great reason to eat "real food"!

Happy, Healthy Children

Our local health food store asked if I would write an article about what I thought was important for the health of children. This is really a sad/funny story in a way. I agreed to write the article and had a whole week to do it. But guess what?! I forgot, until the due date! Desperate and panicky are words which describe my mental state when I realized my blunder. I dropped the kids off at their karate class and Zeke and I sat in the car and I wrote like crazy! Thirty minutes later I turned in a hand written copy of the following:

Children who establish positive healthy habits will be equipped to live a healthy life as adults. Parents have a huge impact on these early patterns that are being formed.

Providing whole foods in abundance for my children is a gift I can give them. Whole grains, fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, along with quality raised meats provide wonderful nutrients for our growing children's bodies. Whole milk products, free of hormones and antibiotics, give our children the fats their brains crave.

A few supplements may also be appropriate. I would consider the benefits of cod liver oil, probiotics, and a whole food multiple vitamin.

Play. Unstructured play. Outdoor play. Children need free time to think their own thoughts and experience nature at their leisure.

Give your children whole foods, extra support through supplements, undisturbed play time, and of course, lots of love and you'll have given them the beginnings of a life of health.

Importance of Sleep

I've always felt that when kids aren't allowed to get enough sleep that it is very close to abuse. Guess I feel strongly about this subject. Maybe I'm just overly opinionated! That is is very real possibility!

Anyhow, I just know from my very limited experience with my own four children that when they are rested, our lives progress much more smoothly than if they are sleep deprived. My baby boy who is now 2 and a half years old still takes two and three hour naps. He's much happier, content and peaceful when well rested. Life just becomes a big frustration to him when he's tired. Tears are never far away.

This afternoon Nathan and I were reviewing the new math program we just purchased. It is an Intermediate Hands-On Geometry course. I decided to let Nathan "play". He loves hands-on learning of any kind, it seems, and I'm undecided as to which direction we should go in math and so we'll just play for awhile. Nathan is thrilled with this new course of study. Back to my point, as we were beginning the program I read over the page titled "Hints on Tutoring" and ran across this statement that I found interesting. "Research shows one of the major causes of difficulties in learning new concepts for this age group is insufficient sleep" Unfortunately the author, Joan Cotter, does not site the research she is referring to. I'd be interested in knowing more.

Interesting Info on the Brain

I've been trying to eliminate stress lately. I mean really working at eliminating anything unnecessary to my peace of mind. I'm doing this out of necessity. My blood pressure is high, again, and I'm even on medicine this go around. In light of all I've been working on lately, I found this article interesting. Here's an excerpt:

This has strange consequences. We try to talk on our cell phones and drive at the same time, even though it is literally impossible for our brains to multitask when it comes to paying attention. We have created high-stress office environments, even though a stressed brain is significantly less productive. Our schools are designed so that most real learning has to occur at home. This would be funny, if it weren't so harmful.

I'll be perusing Brain Rules blog and their website more thoroughly over the next few days.