The Splurge

I sent Brett to Costco today with a list of things to pick up. You know how it is. If you don't go to Costco with a list you are bound to spend far and away too much money because everything there is tempting. When he arrived home he informed me he had splurged. "Hmmm, what could he have a splurged on?" I thought. It could be something as simple as a bag of candy to a new flat screen tv. You just never know with Costco. When he came in toting a box of raspberries we hadn't planned on buying I decided I couldn't be upset about that kind of "splurge". I think our kids agree that it was an excellent decision.

I dream of living in a place where berries grow rampantly. There is almost nothing like fresh berries. It's the perfect treat.

Celebrate the Successes

Like pretty much any parent, I have a desire for my kids to eat a healthy diet and I don't want to instill unhealthy relationships with food, like emotional eating or addictions to fat, sugar, salt, etc. That being said, like pretty much any parent, I am far from perfect. I have had disputes with Adie about eating all her vegetables, not wasting food, bribing her to finish her salad by slathering it with ranch and promising a marshmallow if she finishes thereby essentially canceling out any nutrition I was trying to force into her little body. She is a kid, after all, and well, her parents aren't always setting the example of nutritional excellence anyway. However, today, we have (so far) had a nutritionally very excellent day, with all food being eaten with enthusiasm. I feel I need to celebrate this success.

Snack time is often when Adie wants all the junk I am trying to slowly eliminate from our house. This time she was happy to de-pod sugar snap peas and go to town devouring those, along with Chase, the pea-eating maniac. Then, I decided to see if she would continue to contentedly consume more healthy options and pulled out some honeydew melon and kiwi I had frozen with the idea of creating some sort of ice cream and / or popsicle. I told her she could help me make popsicles for her afternoon snack. The result was delicious. We froze some for popsicles this afternoon, but we both downed the rest as "ice cream" during lunch and I don't feel the least bit bad about it because this is the recipe (all ingredients approximate since I just threw it together on a whim):

1 C spinach
1/2 bottle of pears
1 C frozen honeydew melon
1 C frozen kiwi
2 T vanilla soy milk

Blend / food process spinach with pears and juice from pears until spinach is well-blended. Add frozen fruit and continue to blend / food process. Add soy milk as needed to make smooth. Eat as ice cream (if still thick), smoothie (if runnier) or pour into popsicle molds and freeze for later.

You don't need any additional sweetener because the pears and vanilla soy milk already have some in it, and of course, fruit is already sweet. You can also substitute vanilla yogurt, dairy milk (checking to see if you need additional sweetener), other plant milks for the soy milk.

As ice cream, this was a delicious treat, and I am sure the popsicles will be equally delicious. My only complaint was the grainy texture from the kiwi seeds and pear. That doesn't usually bother me but it was pretty overwhelming in this, so if that's something that would get to you, you might want to steer clear. If not, try it. I dare you to not like it!

I got the inspiration to make something like this from this blog post. The whole blog has some excellent ideas on family-friendly, nutritious meals but the fruit and veggie pops have been my favorite idea so far.

Local Control

I love the Constitution of the United States for many reasons, not the least of which that it advocates local control and a decentralization of power. I know not everyone sees that as beneficial, but I just read an excellent blog post by author Denver Snuffer on the subject and thought I'd pass it along. He does an excellent job of explaining why the Founders' original ideas of a loosely-controlled conglomerate of sovereign states is superior to the federal government behemoth we currently deal with in the U.S.

"Right now there is such a diversity of views among the political groups in the United States that there is potential for a national breakup. States are talking about seceding from the Union. Texas, which was an independent nation before it joined the United States, has always retained the right to secede. Other states have discussed departing, and the reasons are diverse. Taxation and profligate Federal spending motivate some. Liberal issues motivate others, like Vermont, to want to leave in order to avoid conservative backlash. Conservative issues motivate others, who believe the Federal agenda is just too reckless.

"The problem of national politics is its "one-size-fits-all" approach to governing. There is no room for diverse local populations to make independent decisions about their course of political development. Originally the nation was intended to be loosely governed from the national level, where such minimal governance as was necessary would be provided. National defense and interstate commerce were to be controlled to prevent invasion and internal warfare between the states. But the states were to govern their populations as independently sovereign states whose authority sprang from their people.

"When you move power to the national level alone, you then create a distant and oftentimes disconnected government which will take so much upon themselves in taxation and regulation that they alienate local populations throughout the country. Taxes which would never be assessed at the local level are levied to impose policy decisions and programs which are not wanted by the local populations. That continues until, as we see now, there is resistance from both sides of the political spectrum and talk about how oppressive the national government has become.

"There's a lesson there about how humanity will react when they are forced to accept a one-size approach to a divergent local circumstance. When there is only one approach tolerated, and others suppressed and controlled, then people will eventually rebel. They will simply walk away from the benefits of national programs in order to pursue their own course freely.

"It is always better to leave room for divergent approaches to divergent problems. That was what the separate states were originally intended to accomplish. A problem could be experimented with at the state level. Kentucky could try one approach, Florida another, and Maine yet another. If Kentucky's worked better, and Florida's was a disaster, and Maine's somewhat of a success but nothing like Kentucky's; then the populations of the various states could learn from what worked and what didn't. They could debate based upon the outcome of various experiments they conducted in their sovereign territories. Every one of them would benefit from the conduct of the other. Now, with only a national approach to social issues, tax issues, educational issues, and health issues, failure is not acceptable. When there is failure, the failed program is given more money, more personnel and more rhetoric to justify it. It becomes a matter of politically-correct thinking and speaking; because if you don't believe in supporting some failed program then you are uncharitable, or racist, or bigoted, or ignorant, or worse. Experimentation is not permitted and therefore failure is national in scope and expensive to endure.

"It is always best to "control" as little as possible and to interfere with development of separate ideas as little as necessary. This is true of government, and it is true of rearing children [after you have instructed them in the foundational truths], as well. It is also true of churches, civic organizations and any cooperative human endeavor. Cooperation through persuasion, meekness, kindness, pure knowledge and love unfeigned works, whenever it is tried. (D&C 121: 39-42.)"

Chase @ 9 months

Our dear little Chase got to visit the doctor for his 9 month checkup this last week. Turns out he's going to be a bit of a runt. He's weighing in at 22 lbs and 29.75 inches long. Both of those put him well in the territory of "normal". He's starting to outgrow his 12 month clothes and moving onto 18 month clothes. Adie was solidly into 18 months clothes by 9 months. Oh well, what can you do?

Here's a picture from this afternoon to show off his smile.

Moms Rock!

Just wanted to shout out to my mom, mother-in-law, grandmas, friends' moms and friends who are moms. You are all amazing. We love you and miss those of you we don't live near (which is almost all of you). Thank you for the incredible influence you have in our lives. We couldn't do it without you.

We Love You, Moms!

What's He Been Up To?

I know the burning question on everyone's mind lately has been what has Chase been up to. It's been a big couple of weeks in the little guy's life. In a few days, he will hit the 9 month mark. I suppose he decided he couldn't very well turn that corner without making some attempt at mobility so just over a week ago he decided to start rolling. He can now quite successfully roll in all directions. It only took him 8.5 months and a week of terrible sleep for him to master these skills. He should be on the way to crawling soon. He often propels himself forward from a sitting position to being on his hands and knees. I don't think it will take him long now that he realizes what kinds of things he can do with his new-found mobility. He also entered the world of teeth this past week. After probably 5 months of thinking he was fussing because of teething, one finally poked through, and after last night, I certainly wouldn't be surprised if another one is on its way.

He is also following in his sister's footsteps and sporting the puffy hair look. His hair sticks straight up in the air 2 or so inches. It cracks me up. I wonder if all our kids will go through this hair growth stage. Anyway, he's a cutie and continues to be a mellow, happy baby that can only sleep well for 3 or 4 day stretches before he presents us with a new challenge. I've decided it must be a game for him. He's winning so far, but we're getting along nicely in spite of that little hiccup.

Quote of the Day

I've been in a blah mood today - bad sleep, no exercise, and a long to-do list equals no motivation for me. However, I did read a really fabulous quote that I thought I'd share. I think I might just be ready to start getting something done around here now. My wonderful husband is so tolerant of my unmotivated days. Anyway, here's the quote:

"The moment you are aware of your holiness it goes sour and becomes self-righteousness. A good deed is never so good as when you have no consciousness that it is good—you are so much in love with the action that you are quite unself-conscious about your goodness and virtue. Your left hand has no idea that your right hand is doing something good or meritorious. You simply do it because it seems the natural, spontaneous thing to do. Spend some time in becoming aware of the fact that all the virtue that you can see in yourself is no virtue at all but something that you have cunningly cultivated and produced and forced on yourself. If it were real virtue you would have enjoyed it thoroughly and would feel so natural that it wouldn’t occur to you to think of it as a virtue. So the first quality of holiness is its unself-consciousness.

"The second quality is its effortlessness. Effort can change a behavior, it cannot change you. Think of this: Effort can put food into your mouth, it cannot produce an appetite; it can keep you in bed, it cannot produce sleep; it can make you reveal a secret to another but it cannot produce trust; it can force you to pay a compliment, it cannot produce genuine admiration; effort can PERFORM acts of service, it is powerless to produce love or holiness. All you can achieve by your effort is REPRESSION, not genuine change and growth."

The Way to Love
~ Anthony De Mello

I know that quote had little to do with me not being motivated. Really, though, when I get in my down moods, I try to remind myself to look outward, not inward, to get over it. That takes effort, so I am most assuredly not where I'd like to be. However, I would like to be the kind of person who does good effortlessly and without realizing it. That really does seem to be the ultimate expression of being charitable. It's a really beautiful thought to become the kind of person who is not self-interested and is motivated only by love of his fellowman. I guess it gives me something else to put on my to-do list ;)