The Board of EOR is traveling to Ethiopia in December to work with Engineers Without Borders to build a well is Boru, Ethiopia. This well will get clean water to nearly 5000 people. Please help us get this project completed and order/renew your magizines here.
Soda that is. I haven’t had a drink of diet anything since Sunday night. I am a religious soda addict drinker. I would often have multiple sodas open around the house so that I was never too far away from one. But as part of my whole food eating plan–soda and anything artificial is a no no. Sugar is too so there won’t be any real soda either. I have made a relatively slow transition to the whole food eating–that’s really to say that I have had a piece of chocolate each day. Today will be my first day without it. I haven’t been 100% religious as today I used bottled salad dressing that has a tiny bit of sugar in it. But I have been trying. It’s easier than I thought but really is time consuming and for someone like me who really is often crunched for time–it certainly would be a lot easier to pop a hot pocket in the microwave and eat that instead of eating a sweet potato at 9 after I put the kids to bed. But It is what it is and sweet potatoes rock.
One thing I have done to help is I ordered produce from a coop. Picked up my first order last night. Can’t believe what I got for $23:
5 apples
5 oranges
7 clementines
2 yams (about 2lbs each–they are huge)
2 heads of romaine (again–huge heads)
2 tomatoes
1 carton cherry tomatoes
1 carton mushrooms
1 bunch bananas
1 cucumber
2 grapefruit
4 pears
1 bunch cilantro
3 bunch green onions
2 broccoli crowns
1 dozen eggs
2 10# bags of red potatoes (if you live near me and need some potatoes let me know–I certainly won’t be eating all of these)
I know there were a couple more but I can’t remember right now. Anyway as you can see it’s a lot. I am not sure how I am going to eat it all but you can bet I’ll be looking for some recipes for potatoes–any suggestions? While ideally our coop would be organic (it isn’t) but I can make due. I hate the ideas of chemicals, etc., but the coops are hoping to move toward organic as they get more and more members. I’ll probably still by some organic produce (the stuff the kids really like to eat).
So, week one is almost done–my go to meal has become: quinoa, sweet potato, onion, mushrooms, spicy tomato sauce and a pinch of goat cheese–I either it it vegetarian style or will throw in chicken or shrimp. It is delicious. I try to make enough so that I have leftovers for lunch the next day–the kids like it too. I also love tossing some quinoa in my salads–nice added texture and flavor.
What are some of your healthy eating tips? Don’t forget about the potatoes–what am I going to do with those?
It is no secret around these parts that I struggle with weight and want to lost weight. There is this one problem–I absolutely love food. All food. I enjoy it and I love flavors and textures, etc. I love it all. I have worked hard at “dieting” and counting calories and exercising but have yet to find the approach that is best for me. It isn’t as simple as I want to lose weight–I have PCOS which screws with my hormones and with how I digest foods, etc. While in theory it is as simple as calories in vs. calories out–not all calories are created equal. Not all calories are processed the same in our bodies, etc. So, where is this boring lecture on food stuffs going you ask? Well, I am adopting a whole food way of eating.
I am cutting out processed foods and most meats–unless they are fish or lean grass fed beef or lean pastured chickens. I am going eat foods that come in their natural state. I am giving up caffeine and soda. I drink only diet soda–but as soon as my stash of soda is gone at home–I am done with it. I am going to eat better to feel better. I am going to stop counting calories as the way of losing weight (I’m still going to count to make sure I am eating a good amount of calories). I am going to treat food as fuel and recognize that the type of fuel I put in my body is important.
This change is going to happen over the next two weeks-so by the end of the first week of March, I have made the complete transition. I am looking forward to seeing the effects this has on me and my family. I will be slowing changing the kids over to a whole food diet–they eat pretty good as it is now–but there are some things that are not the best for them and I will be slowing ridding the house of those items.
Any of you out there eat a whole food (or clean) diet? How did it work for you? Any advice?
Posting from my phone and seeing if it works.
I am pretty sure that I have said this before–Zoë doesn’t really see the point of sleep. Well–let me reword that. She doesn’t see the point of going to sleep before she is ready. Hard to argue with that perspective; but as a mother who often longs for a quiet hour before her own bedtime, I want her to go to sleep at 8 like Noah does without any fuss. I know…but a mom can dream can’t she?
Zoë is getting more and more understandable in her talking. She has always been pretty verbal–it would be nearly impossible in our house not to be verbal as we rarely stop talking. There is always talking going on at our house–so if you want to participate you talk. Both kids learned this pretty early on and have always been talkers. Zoë’s latest thing to talk about is all the things she loves–we tell each other at our house “I love you” a lot. She walks around the babysitters all day singing “me love wowa, me love mommy, me love daddy, wowa loves me, mommy loves me, daddy loves me.” Repeats it all day long. Very cute isn’t she.
Well it is cute until you’ve been sitting in her room playing scrabble on your iPhone for 40 minutes with the following conversation every 5 minutes:
“Mommy?’
“yes.”
“Me love you.”
“I love you to.”
“Mommy?”
“Yes.”
“Me love daddy.”
“Daddy loves you too.”
“Mommy?”
“YES”
“Me love Wowa.”
“Noah loves you too.”
“Mommy?”
“YES”
“Me love you.”
“I love you too–go to sleep Zoë”
a brief pause
“Mommy?”
“YES”–half smiling, half ready to scream
“Me love kitty. Me love bubby (pacifier), Me love chocolate milk”
“Good-night Zoë”
Another pause
“Mommy?”
“yes”–at this point I am completely defeated by the two year old
“Me love you.”
I love you too baby.
She ended up sleeping with me in our bed. I certainly know how to show her who the boss is.
I don’t give my hubby enough credit for all the things he does. I should–as he does a lot of the family work these days. Two-three days a week I leave for work usually before the kids get up. Hubs gets them up, fed, dressed and out the door to school and daycare on time–all the while getting himself ready for work. Two nights a week he has to be home early for me to leave and he then prepares dinner for himself and the kiddos. On the weekend, I leave on Saturday before everyone is up–or as they are getting up and I am out to work out and home after he has fed them breakfast and entertained them with some activity. Then I usually am gone for a 4 hour stretch on either Sat or Sun to do school work and he entertains and occupies them so I can study.
As I write all of this, no wonder it feels to him like I’m never home and often when I am home, I am so exhausted from all of the jobs, etc., that I am not much help. I always knew he would be an amazing husband and an amazing dad–but he has surpassed all of those expectations as he really excels at domesticity (he doesn’t read here) and I can take care of what I need to knowing that he has picked up the jobs I am just too busy to do. These are all things I did, before I went back to work full-time-ish. It is nice to have a partner in the truest sense of the word. I couldn’t do what I am doing without him. Thanks baby. I do promise to finish school and get a “real” full-time paying job so that you can someday follow your dream. Thank you for letting me follow mine.
Adoption is part of our life. A huge part and talking about it is also part of our life. I have been too busy to pay much attention to what is going on in Haiti. I am not oblivious but without radio/npr in my car, I don’t get much news in my life–as well life it just busy. Yesterday, I was driving to teach in the am and was listening to NPR–I have a loaner car while mines getting body work done–oh how I miss NPR each day. So, I was listening to NPR and they were talking about the devastation in Haiti and about mothers giving up or trying to give up their children before and after the earthquake. This is not a new phenomena to me–I understand that isn’t the right word–I can’t even begin to understand the desperation these women and families feel in these developing/impoverished countries feel and experience.
They were talking about the surge in women attempting to give their children away for adoption in the aftermath of the earthquake as most people houses and jobs have been destroyed and lost. How completely bleak it much feel when you see no tangible way to provide food, clothes, shelter for your children. They had a Haitian woman’s sound byte about her attempts to give up her four children because she sees no way to feed them or take care of them. At this point, I lost it and the tears came out in a flood. I had to pull over in a parking lot. It saddened me so much that these people are living in such a state of utter destruction that they cannot see how they can keep their own children. It really hit home, as I can infer that this is how my kids birthmoms must have felt. It saddens me to think that any parent give up their child when they are healthy simply because they feel they cannot provide for them. It is overwhelming and reminds me of the other side of adoption. The one we rarely talk about–it is a blessing for me as an infertile–but for those who surrender their children based on a feeling of desperation, it must leave a whole in their heart and soul that can never be filled.
As grateful as I am, I am also sad. My thoughts are with all of the mothers who have sacrificed their parenthood to “give” their children a better life. I hope to make you proud.
I have had this window open for over an hour and I just don’t know exactly what to write. Things are crazy at Che Finley, as the new semester has started and is underway. School is good and things are progressing. I am so ready to be done, but can’t think about that now as I work on a research project that will hopefully get me published. Already the mantra “publish or perish” is now a common part of my lexicon and I’m not even finished with my PhD yet. What a live I have chosen. Sorry hubby, school will always be apart of my life.
So, in lieu of anything profound or even remotely interesting–here are some pics of the kids. Who really make it all worth wild.
Certainly not my popularity. No, Noah is the cursed one. He is by far one of the most sought after kids in his class to play with/be with. Please do not mistake this for parental bragging. Being popular can be very isolating. As some of the kids are forming these bonds with one or two kids–Noah has a host of kids who want to play with him all the time. He is being pulled in many directions and he doesn’t seem to get to really spend time with a core friend or two.
His one teacher today talked with me a bit about how she often sees Noah being pulled in several directions and wondered if I had noticed him being stressed out or anxious at home. I told her not really, but that there was an issue and that Noah didn’t seem to understand why he couldn’t be everyone’s friend. OMG–already cliques in pre-school. He has a three different kids who want to play with him often–they are three kids who don’t play together and often as soon as Noah walks in he is smothered by all three. The kids all want to be his friend a don’t quite understand that he is everyone’s friend and that because he plays with one doesn’t mean he doesn’t like the other.
“Mom, B says S isn’t my friend.”
“Is that true?”
“No, S said we have to keep it a secret so B doesn’t know”
“You can be everyone’s friend”
“I know by B gets mad when I say I am S’s friend”
How I wish the world was easier for my little man. Noah negotiates these issues well and splits his time. I can’t believe I just wrote that my son is splitting his time amongst other 3/4-year-olds. His teacher assures me that they are keeping an eye on the situation and step in to help when they need to. Is it sad to wish my son was the shy one and not the one everyone wants to be with.
I don’t know what I’ll do when Zoë starts school. They both can’t be popular can they?
Who thought with a kid in private pre-school, I’d have to be dealing with bullies. But in these tough economic times, Noah’s class has two. Dad wants him to tell the bullies “no” when they hit/kick him and if they continue then he should hit them back. I am not a fan of this and Noah even said to his dad, “But my teachers might see me.” Clearly he understands that hitting/kicking someone is wrong. Because there are two teachers and 18-20 students, the teachers can’t see everything that happens. And as the boys play rough much of the time, can you really tell from a distance or glance if they are engaging in consensual play or one is being mistreated.
Hubby is surprised I am not more concerned. I don’t want my son to get hurt and bullied by some kid. I’ll do what I need to to protect my child. But those of us who have kids know that our kids don’t tell us anything. Noah might tell me three days later that S or B hit him and it hurt. I had a long talk with Noah today about how to handle it when kids are mean to him and try to hurt him–whether kicking, hitting, or pushing. I told him to yell “No, Don’t hurt me.” Thinking this will get one of the teachers attention and Noah doesn’t have to resort to the “eye for an eye” mentality. He is too young to be learning that hitting back is sometimes necessary. I don’t want him to learn that. I want him to learn to walk away and not give the bully what he wants/needs.
So, here we are at a bit of an impasse. Re-enrollment is coming up and I have every intention of re-enrolling Noah, but I know there are a couple of families that are considering not re-enrolling because their kids are being picked on repeatedly. Noah is pretty outgoing and he’ll go and play with a few of the girls if the boys are playing in a way he doesn’t want to play. He is starting to learn and I hear him tell B that he doesn’t want to play like that and isn’t going to play with him. I like that he is figuring this out for himself. But, I might be a little more apt to react if he was showing signs of distress and anxiousness.
Have your kids had to deal with bullies? How is it handled at your kids school? How have you handled it?
Well, the new semester is back in full swing and it already has me completely over scheduled. How does that happen not even a week into it? My calendar is quickly running out of white space.
I have to say, I really did enjoy my break–although I spent most of it working, it was nice to not have to leave the house to get work done. It was also nice not to have papers to grade. Can you believe, I already have grading to do? I know. What am I thinking, giving them work already. I have had one student in my online class actually ask me to reconsider the amount of work they had to do during the first week of class. Thank goodness it was an email and she didn’t see me laughing hysterically.
I am sure things are only going to get crazier as my research study picks up, the class that I am taking actually starts and my hubby quickly tires of me being over scheduled. Ah, the glamorous life. It almost makes me miss waiting tables…almost.
