I haven't really been posting much lately. I could easily blame lack of time, but the reason is actually far more insidious than that...

Perfectionism and indecision have reared their ugly heads.

Perfectionism and indecision; how often they have kept me from doing what I need to do. How often they have tied me down, keeping me from going for what I want, ensuring that I remain right where I am.

Why haven't I written?

I have ideas flowing like a river... which one should I choose?

I love some of these ideas... what if I can't do them justice?

The decision regarding which comes first is really quite complicated. If I write about one of the ideas in my head, it really might be best if I wrote another post first which I could tie-in to this next post... But, of course, I really shouldn't write that one until I do another, or until I can take a good picture, or until I gather all of the information...

You can see my dilemma right?

You understand, right?

Hmm...

perhaps, I should post something, rather than nothing- even if it's not perfect?

Do perfectionism and indecision get in your way when it comes to teaching your kids to be better eaters, when it comes to feeding your family better, or when it comes to feeding yourself better?

You've read about so many diets that you don't even know what's good for you anymore and what's bad for you.

After all, fat used to be bad for you- now, maybe the right fats are good?

Carbohydrates used to be good for you, now they're bad?

Whole grains are good for you right? Except for those who say we should cut out all grains...

So, protein is good for you right... well, maybe. But you need to make sure that your beef is grass fed and that your chicken and eggs come from happy chickens (after all, who wants to eat a sad chicken??!!)

Well, at least they (they, being the so-called "experts") can agree that fruits and vegetables are good for you. But, if they're not organic, will they do more harm than good?

With all of the conflicting information, it seems easier to just not even try. The perfect diet is impossible to achieve because tomorrow I will learn something new and discover that the "healthy" food I was feeding my family, now may be the very thing that will do them harm.

Hmm...

perhaps, it would be better to try to feed them well, to teach your kids to embrace a variety of foods so that you at least have a shot of feeding them some "good" food, and if what's "good" changes, they'll be open to the change.

I know.

It's hard.

Once perfectionism takes hold, it's hard to let it go. It almost becomes... comfortable.

So, even though I don't like this post, I'm going to click "publish," and then, I'm going to post another imperfect post and another, because, otherwise, I have nothing and "not perfect" is better than nothing. (I know it is, I know it is, I know it is...)

How about you? Do you struggle with perfectionism? Does a fear that you can't (or don't even want to) achieve a "perfect diet," stand in your way of even trying?

Have you Ever Wanted to Try Stevia? It's a Giveaway!

Last fall when I had gestational diabetes, I spent a lot of time cruising Pinterest pinning recipes that I had no hope of eating. Then, I came across a recipe for Thin Mints on Mo Betta using Stevia, a natural plant based sweetener. Even better, this recipe came with a giveaway for NuNaturals Stevia. I had recently been looking into trying Stevia and the brand that Adrienne from the site Whole New Mom recommended was none other than Nu Naturals.

This seemed meant to be so I entered and, amazingly, I won!

In addition to the powdered stevia packets, I also won a bottle of vanilla stevia drops. I brought it to my Mom's house at Christmas and had to end up leaving it with her because she got hooked on putting it in her coffee and her oatmeal. (I've never tried Truvia but my mom used to use their packets- she gives them to the barristas at Starbucks and they add it to her drinks for her- she now uses the NuNaturals and said to tell you all :) that they are much better than Truvia.)

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by someone from Nu Naturals who asked if I was interested in trying two of their new products: orange stevia drops and lemon stevia drops.

EVEN BETTER, he offered to send a set of orange stevia drops and lemon stevia drops to FOUR of my readers!  If you've ever wanted to try stevia, this is a great opportunity to try it for FREE.

If your kids are hooked on sweet drinks, putting a few drops of lemon or orange stevia would be great in water or sparkling water. In fact, my daughter currently has to take medication. In order to avoid the red dye in most antibiotics, we have been crushing up pills and putting the powder into applesauce, smoothies, etc. Each time we do, she says that the medicine taste is still really strong. When we got the stevia, I put a few drops of the orange with the crushed medicine and some milk, and for the first time, she said that she couldn't taste the medicine at all!

We also made orange "dreamsicle" smoothies with frozen bananas, milk and orange stevia (plus a little Greek yogurt for added protein).

So... if you'd like to try lemon and orange stevia drops for yourself, here's how to enter:


This giveaway is now over. Congratulations to the winners, Keitha, Tiffany, Jenetta, and Cathy!

FOUR winners will each win one bottle each of lemon stevia and orange stevia.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*I am not being compensated for this post- though I did receive free product for myself as well as for the giveaway. All opinions expressed are my own (or my mom's!)

Food Adventure Friday Link Up- How to Eat a Coconut

A Tropical Adventure

We've been eating quite a bit of coconut lately in a variety of forms: shredded coconut, coconut milk, coconut oil, and my current favorite sweetener, coconut sugar (coconut sugar actually comes from the flowers of the coconut trees rather than from the coconuts themselves.)

Coconut has, however, been a fairly new staple in our household and in a recent discussion with my kids it became clear that they didn't actually have any idea what a coconut actually was.

When I was grocery shopping last night, I saw that coconuts were only a dollar so I picked one up.

My kids immediately noticed the "foreign object," on the counter this morning. I let them hold it and shake it and listen to the coconut water inside.

My husband was put in charge of figuring out how to open the coconut. When it came time to actually do it, it was much harder than expected. It would have been a whole lot easier if we had read this post on The Boot.

All of the water came out of the coconut while my husband was trying to open it, but the kids wanted to try drinking the water straight out of the coconut itself so we poured some back in and let each kid try.

None of them liked the taste, but they were each willing to try even after seeing the previous child make a dramatic "yuck" face!

Next we wanted to try the meat. It was very hard and we difficult time getting it out of the shell. We would have had a much easier time, if I we had read this, and realized that it would have been much easier if we baked it first.

We were having trouble cutting it, so my husband used a mellon baller to scoop out some of the coconut. The kids were also not "big fans," but they did each try several pieces. I think they really wanted to like it.   My son kept saying, "I can't believe we're eating a real coconut!"

It was a fun and educational experience, though I'm not sure that we'll be doing it again any time soon...

Have you ever bought a whole coconut?

Features from Last Week

I am so grateful to those of you who shared your wonderful adventures with food. This week's features are all about veggies.

Recipes We Love shared this rainbow meal. I've seen lot's of fruit rainbows, and even made one myself, but this tasty looking rainbow is made from veggies!

I'm always on the lookout for good veggie recipes and Five Little Chefs shared a recipe for Brussels Sprouts that Kids Love!

The Tasty Alternative shared about their "adventure" making roasted fingerling carrots that they grew in their own garden.

Should we Allow our Children to be Hungry?

Last night, minutes after I put my three year old son to bed, he starting yelling, "I want to eat my dinner." When I told him no, that it was bedtime and too late to eat dinner, he yelled louder, he cried, he screamed.

This has happened before.

He doesn't always finish (or even start) his dinner at dinner time.  Sometimes I ignore the fact that he hasn't eaten, sometimes I pull out all my tricks, but usually, we just leave his dinner there and sometimes he returns to it and sometimes he doesn't.  Last night, he didn't... until it was time for bed.

Perhaps, in the quiet of his room, he finally decided he was hungry. Perhaps, he just didn't want to go to bed yet.

I told him that it was time for bed and it was too late to eat dinner.

He yelled louder, "I want to eat my dinner."

He cried.

I decided to stand my ground.

He cried.

He yelled.

He was quiet, for a while.

Then, he tried again. "I really want to eat my dinner."

Ouch.

As a mom, something stirred inside me. "He only ate a few bites of dinner," I thought. "What if he's really hungry."

This has happened before. And when it did, I gave in.

I was worried that he was hungry.

If he was really hungry, I had to let him eat right?

This happened before, and now he knows.

He knows that if he keeps yelling, keeps crying, I'll give in.

So, this time. I didn't give in.

With my older two children, it was much easier to stand my ground. But he is very strong willed. I worried he would never stop.

As parents, one of our most important jobs is to feed our children. It is essential for their survival. Within minutes of their births and then every few hours afterwards, they look to us for nourishment.

We feed them. We buy the food, we cook the food, we teach them how to eat. Their growth, their development, even their ability to learn depends upon being fed.

When our children don't eat, it stirs something in us...

I think that our instincts as parents that are meant to ensure our children's survival, may be the same that cause those eating behaviors that we unwittingly encourage.

As parents, we face decisions every day. We want to do what is best for our children, but sometimes what's best is not that clear.

As parents, we are afraid of our children being hungry.

Because of that fear, we let them eat whatever they want so that at least they will eat something.

Because of that fear, we give them something else to eat, even though we told them that tonight's dinner was the only option.

Because of that fear, we let them get out of bed at 8:00 at night to eat dinner, even though we already told them that it's too late.

What would happen if we let go of that fear?

Last night, my son eventually stopped yelling.

When he woke up, he wasn't starving.

He wasn't mad at me.

He didn't even ask for breakfast right away.

Tonight he ate almost all of his dinner.

Tonight he didn't yell.

Food Adventure Friday- Cooking with Kids

Want your kids to try new foods?

Help them to become more comfortable around a variety of foods.

Give them a sense of pride in what they've made.

Make food and eating about fun and togetherness instead of something that is the source of conflict or fear.

Cook with your kids.

Even if they make a mess.

Even if it doesn't turn out perfectly.

Need some more inspiration? Check out these link parties who shared their links during last week's Food Adventure Friday.


Happy Whimsical Hearts, has a link up called Happy Little Hearts are Baking:



Young Living Oil Lady and Adventurez in Childrearing co-host Kids in the Kitchen.



And, of course, link up here... Share the adventures you've shared with your family that involve food. How do you make food fun for your family? What new foods or recipes have you tried? What successes or failures have you had?


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Link Up! Food Adventure Friday- Fun With Kitchen Tools

I always loved helping my mom in the kitchen as a kid. When I think back on my kitchen memories, many of them involve using kitchen "tools," such as the mixer, vegetable peeler, can opener, or citrus juicer. However, my favorite tool is one that I had forgotten about until recently... the sifter!

When my mom baked, she always sifted all of the dry ingredients and doing this for her was one of my absolute favorite "jobs"!

I've done quite a bit of "recipe" surfing lately and I don't believe that I have ever seen a recipe that mentions sifting any of the ingredients.  However, I've noticed that, every once in a while, my baking soda doesn't blend as well as it should and I get an awful bite of a muffin or other baked good, that has the distinct bitterness of baking soda. I think that sifting would solve this problem; however, more importantly, I think that it would add to my own childrens' enjoyment in the kitchen.

I believe that the more the children are involved in the fun of cooking, the less "fear" they have of trying new foods. One of my kids' favorite ways to help in the kitchen is to use the food processor and they are willing to try anything that comes out of it.

Here they are eating (and loving) freshly grated raw zucchini!

I am also a big believer in letting the kids use measuring spoons and measuring cups. I usually put my oldest in charge of spices. It's such a fabulous way for her to learn about spices (and it's an excellent way to learn about fractions in a hands-on, practical way.)

Using the oil sprayer is another favorite "job." Don't let her less than enthralled expression fool you :)

Carrie at Making Lemonade (one of my favorite blogs) posted this week about her favorite kitchen gadgets for getting kids involved in the kitchen. I love her ideas, and she has definitely given me a few new ideas to my "wish list."

What are your favorite kitchen gadgets for getting kids involved in the food prep? Do you have/ use a flour sifter?? Share your ideas in the comments. And for even more inspiration, check out the kitchen gadget link-up over at Centsational Girl.

This post is linked up to: For the Kids Friday, TGIF, Fun Stuff Friday, and Kidz in the Kitchen

Help for a Fussy Baby- Part 2

In my last post, I talked about my quest to help my fussy baby which started with trying everything in my "bag of tricks," and ended with the seemingly miraculous discovery of gripe water...

Although the gripe water helped, it began to seem like more of a bandaid, than an actual "fix" to the problem. Gripe water helped when I gave it to him, but didn't have any lasting effects. He seemed to be having a particularly difficult time at either his 3 a.m. (ish) or 6 a.m. (ish) feeding. He would cry at the breast, make choking sounds, and generally "thrash around" in pain. Sometimes the gripe water would help to settle this when it happened, but it didn't prevent it from happening in the first place.

At this point, some memories started to make their way through my sleep deprived brain, and I recalled that these symptoms were quite reminiscent of symptoms experienced by my third child.

My third little one had fluid in his lungs in the hospital. It wasn't a big deal, but they did put him under a heat light and tell us to make sure the lay him on his side rather than on his back. It seemed to clear up before we left the hospital. However, after a few weeks at home, I noticed that he was making chocking sounds, as well as a straining sound (called strider) when I laid him down after (particularly a nighttime) feeding. I was concerned that this was related to the fluid in his lungs, so I took him to the pediatrician and she sent me to a specialist who performed an endoscopy on him. 

The endoscopy was horrible! They had me hold him down while they shoved a tube- forcefully- down his throat. He screamed and screamed and all I wanted to do was scoop him up and get him out of there as fast as I could. My reward for putting my baby through all of this torture was a diagnosis of reflux and a perscription for "baby" Zantac. I left the hospital crying and apologizing to my baby.

Although I am not opposed to using medicines when they are necessary, I generally try to seek a natural solution first, so I called a natreopath/ nutritionist/ pharmacist who has a radio show in Pittsburgh who both my mother and I had consulted in the past. He made several suggestions which made a big impact:

He first asked me to look at my diet and cut out the two most likely offenders- chocolate and dairy. He also suggested that I hold the baby upright for 30 minutes after each feeding and that I take digestive enzymes and a probiotic. These changes made a huge difference, but required constant diligence. I could eat cheese, but if I drank even a little bit of milk, ate ice-cream, or indulged in a chocolate covered pretzel, his symptoms were much worse. If I "got lazy" and tried to lay him down before a whole half hour had passed, he would choke and gag and struggle.

It was this same choking and gagging that I was starting to notice with my newest little guy. I would lay him down at night and he would choke and gag and eventually cry. I'd pick him back up, rock him, calm him, maybe even feed him again, but then, when I'd lay him down, it would start all over again. My husband and I had some long nights before I realized that maybe he had reflux as well.

I cut the chocolate and dairy (mostly) out of my diet, started taking digestive enzymes and probiotics and started holding him upright for 30 minutes after eating. I also stopped changing his diaper after he ate- even if he really needed it. Unfortunately, if I laid him down, even for a minute or two, he would begin to "reflux" and it took a long time for him to recover from this. Laying flat on his back (particularly at night) was always a problem so we had him sleeping in an inclined bassinet. Sometimes he would still have a painful episode and I could usually calm him with some gripe water. 

I was pulling out all of my tricks and they were (mostly) working- but he was still what I would call a "fussy" baby. My mom then reminded me that, in addition to taking probiotics myself, I also gave probiotics directly to my third child. I would open a capsule, wet my finger and then dip my finger in the powder and let the baby suck it off. This seems to be the final piece of the puzzle. Unlike the gripe water, it has a lasting and seemingly cumulative effect. I have even "cheated" and had a little bit of chocolate and was able to lay him down after only a few minutes of holding him upright.

Perhaps I have finally found my fussy baby cure, perhaps, at two months he has just finally reached a developmental milestone, or perhaps everything will change tomorrow... All I know is that I got 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep last night and woke up to a happy baby.

So, what does all of this have to do with teaching your kids to be good eaters? Check back next week when I will share some information I have found about a potential link between babies with reflux and future eating problems.

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