The Mother Country

We were fortunate to have live abroad for a year. We lived in Oxford, England while Jared studied at Oxford University through Wycliffe Hall. It was a wonderful year and as the days go by and we grow further and further from that time, I miss it more and more. I want to go back and we even contemplate going back and living there as a family someday. England is such a rich country. It is full with history and culture. So when it is cold like this and we have beautiful sunny days with the brightest blue skies like today, I often think of England. 
I miss the grocery stores. Yes, England has wonderful grocery stores with the best ready-made food you can buy. I miss the Covered Market, the smelly cheese shop, the cobblestone streets, the bluest skies you'll ever see, the walking, our dearest friends, the Borton-Branfoot clan (the family I nannied for), the pubs, the clothes stores with all the neatest prints and stripes. I miss Evensong, the walking paths, the rolling meadows, my weekly delivery of fruits and veggies locally grown. I miss the sausages, the sheep, and the weekends in the country with friends. I miss the snugs with coal burning fires and the ancient libraries, churches, and buildings. I miss the train rides, the exploring, and the motorcycle we owned. I miss even the kabob vans, the noodle bars, and England's triumph in making the best chips (fries) ever. I miss the simplicity to life, the creativity in the homes, making EVERYTHING from scratch, and their dinner parties. I miss it all. No, that is not true. I DO NOT miss the rain, but when rain falls here I jump at the chance to wear my wellies. 
England and all that it is engraved itself on our hearts and the time there really has become a part of WHO we are and not WHAT we did or WHERE we lived. You'll see England in us if you look carefully. England in our use of vocabulary, our dress, our snobbery to American cheese, our annoyance with America's disgusting obsession with importing so much of our food, our desire to be less wasteful, our love of Evensong music, reverence for the ancient, and a real desire to be able to defend our Truth to others. England is a special place. We miss our Mother Country.

Put a Little Love in Your Heart

Before children, Jared and I never celebrated Valentine's Day (much to my dismay). But now that we have kiddos, I have an excuse to celebrate even the most unimportant of holidays. All we last week, we did something pertaining to Valentine's Day. Whether it was  making our own Valentine's Day cards for our Homeschool Co-op party, making placemats, stringing red ribbon with white hearts over the lights in the kitchen, learning all about the heart shape, making pom poms, or just reading books all about kisses and hugs, we surely had a very festive Valentine's Day.

 

I laugh at myself because this past weekend my parents came to visit which is such fun and always a big deal. However, I have no pictures to post of them or them with the kids. Why is it that I always fail in this arena? I mean I have gotten so much better at picking up the camera or taking it along with me (especially now that we have a small digital that fits nicely in my purse), but I still can't remember to take pictures of other people besides my children. Oh well. I do see my mom's shadow against the tub in the picture above. Does this count?

I must say though that I am quite proud of my little placemats. I am not a "crafty" person. I must rely on other "creative" people for such ideas. You may look at this as my friend Rebecca did last night and say, "but Meg you are so very crafty. " And to that I say, ok, well, I am crafty with a side of impatience. It has to be an easy and very rewarding project or otherwise I say a lot of four little words (to myself). These placemats were easy with one exception. I could not find a laminating machine big enough in this small town (I was tempted to sneak into one of the schools and just laminate away). So I had to order a roll of laminate, roll it out, cut, peel off, and stick on. My goal was to have placemats that I can put away and pull out again for the next several years. I think its going to work just fine. The pom poms of course were the easiest thing in the world to do and I will cover these with garage bags and store in the attic for repeat use. Has anyone done this??? Do they hold up? By the way, please excuse the nasty intake, filter, air condition thingy behind the chairs on the wall. Ugly isn't it?

I must say though that my husband did rally for the cheesy holiday and purchased a beautiful orchid for me from him and the boys. Sweetest thing. I love it and I am hoping I will be able to keep it alive. Sadly, I have no picture.

And of course I cannot forget to post about the lovely "pow" (as Alder says) that fell so delicately all day on Friday. Pah! to all you Global Warming believers. "Pow" does not fall in lower Alabama. I mean it just doesn't and in the last 3 years it has snowed a handful times. I think once a year at least. Last year, we got snow on March 1st. Its just the craziest thing.

I forgot how snow is actually a form of precipitation and that when you stand, walk, or play in it long enough you will get wet. Yuck! But the walk was fun and worth all the wet clothes and cold, drippy noses.

And as if we were not cold and wet enough already! Thank you Alder for always crazy and intense personality.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

We are tired of the rain and the cold. We are counting the days until warm weather comes. I love everything about spring. I could live in warm weather climate all year around, but I guess I have to see God's purpose in creating the seasons for the good of the land. Alder adores splashing through the puddles and his wearing wellies. At least the sun is out today in our little corner of the world.

"and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." Acts 14:17 

More Broccoli Please!

This is my little secret when it comes to fixing veggies. I learned it from my Dad. Growing up we always ate great veggies. They were always seasoned wonderfully and cooked perfectly. Never too soft nor too crisp, but they rocked because of this stuff. I have no idea what the salt/sodium content on the Wyler's Chicken granules (which may be in great contradiction to my previous post), but I do know that tonight Alder was asking for "mur bracklee peas!" SUCCESS! I sprinkle the granules evenly over all veggies (not asparagus because we always roast them, hmmm, I should post that recipe) after I toss them into the pan of boiling water (just enough water, not too much, maybe 2 in.) and put the top on and let it steam. You never let it steam for more than 2 minutes (for broccoli that is) and maybe 5 min. for green beans. I use Wyler's for brussel sprouts too and they take on an amazing likeability as well. I promise. Wyler's is really all you need. We sometimes add salt and pepper at the table, but it really gives it that much flavor. Good bye bacon fat, loads of butter, and just plain wishing and hoping. I promise you will have lovers of veggies in your home in no time. Just remember to stick with the granules for veggie cooking.

Raising Foodies

Kingston is 8 months now.

 He is such a sweet boy. In fact, sweet does not quite do him justice. King King is pleasant, gentle, charming, agreeable, lovely, enchanting, nice, and just plain delightful (the thesaurus is always helpful). He is in need of his 3rd haircut. I love this little man. 

I get asked pretty often about my philosophy on feeding babies and children. I think it is a curious thing to some when they hear me talk about making my own baby food, nursing for a year, and our diligence in keeping sugar out of our children's diets. I am flattered that some of my friends become so inspired by what I do that they want to know how I do it. I certainly would not have this philosophy if it were not for my mother-n-law who has been instrumental in my parenting life. No, I promise it is a good thing. Yaya is so wise yet has NEVER pressured me into any of my parenting decisions. Years before I ever had children, she and I would discuss babies and children and how their nutrition is CRUCIAL to their growth, behavior, and health. Yaya helped to ignite a passion in me that has guided me to feeding my children in the best possible way. I continue to also be heavily inspired by my amazing sister-n-laws. When I get asked these questions about children and their diets, I always want to say, "well, if you think I feed my children well then you should meet my 3 sister-n-laws, they rock when it comes to feeding kids." It a family thing.

I thought I would throw out some resources I have used in feeding my children. I will be referring several of my friends from around here to this blog since I have had several conversations just in the last week regarding this topic. Know this though, Alder has had a Happy Meal, eats fries, has yummy birthday cake, and the list goes on. I think the key is to offer all such things in moderation as well as NOT introducing foods to them like candy, syrup, chocolate, sweet tea, and so on at too young of an age. If they have never had candy nor tasted a Coke than they will not know what it is they are missing. Alder thinks apples are the sweetest thing around and that is because he has never tasted a piece of candy. I think the goal is for my children to pick an apple over candy, cake, etc. any day. You may be thinking, "man, she is depriving her kids and poor them." Yes, I can see this, but they have the rest of their lives to eat this stuff. I want to keep their little growing bodies a pure as possible for as long as possible. I struggle to get the BEST stuff living here in rural Alabama and only having a Wal-Mart to shop at. I plan a lot and stock up at places when I can. I also hound the employees at Wal-Mart to order more organic and other such products. You should see the looks I get. I know when I go in there the employees are all thinking, "here comes that crazy lady with another UPC code for us to look up and order, RUN!!!" But one of my jobs as a mother is to advocate for my children and this means being very intentional about their nutrition. I have to follow a very strict grocery budget every week (yes, honey I realize I went way over last month...i'm sorry) and so I also have to keep this in mind. Jared always says to me, "you know Meg, you can be so principled that you are not practical." Therefore I cannot always shop and feed as I would like. I have to have faith that the good Lord is watching over my children and will protect them accordingly.

Here are my resources:

1. Nursing.

I have no real resource (i.e. a book) for this, but rather it just comes down to being a heart issue and a determination of the will. I tell friends who ask me about whether or not they should nurse that it will NEVER work if their hearts are not in it. It is an exhausting and overwhelming thing to tackle for the first time especially after having gone through childbirth. Always give it a shot though and line up a down-to-earth nursing mama before you give birth that you can call for advice, help, and possibly even a "live" tutorial (I have done this with my own children for some mamas and it has helped them immensely.) Hands down nursing is the best for baby and mama too.

2. SHAKLEE nutritional supplements

 

This post is long enough as is and I could go on and on about how wonderful SHAKLEE is as a company and how you should NEVER give your kids Flinstone vitamins and so on, but just take my word for it. Contact me via leaving a comment if you are interested about ordering from them and you can check out their website too at SHAKLEE.com Oh, I almost forgot. Since feeding your baby begins when you are pregnant, I take their vitamins and their vitamins only when I am pregnant and nursing (which has been a lot lately). These vitamins are really better than the big 'ole horse pills your OBGYN prescribes you. You take two a day which allows for better absorption and lesser amount of iron in one dose to help with nausea/morning sickness. All OBGYNs will agree that these are fine to take.

3. Super Baby Food

This book is great and also a little over the top. The author is very intense and also a firm believer in raising vegetarians, but I disagree with that. I take all of her stuff with a grain of salt and still it has helped me immensely.

My sister-n-law Lesley turned me on to this book. Thanks Les! It has a great chapter about making your own yogurt. 

4. Annabel Karmel

I got familiar with her stuff while I was nannying (is this a word?) in England. She is great and has a wholesome and realistic approach. She has filtrated her stuff into America and I have several of her books. I never follow all of her recipes to a tee, but I use them to help guide me when I start making baby food.

This is just one of her many books. I just checked out her website for the first time and she has a very impressive and informative website. She has information about pregnancy and nursing and so on. Check it out.

5. Feeding the Whole Family Cookbook

Beth, another sister-n-law of mine, recommended this book to me this past fall and I have really enjoyed it. The front part of the cookbook titled "Wholesome Family Eating" and "Including Baby" are a must read before cooking.

I hope this helps.

Please, I would also love to know of other such resources, foods, or new meal ideas for my little ones. Please share!

Bon Appetit!