French Kids Eat Everything

In June Cordie had three weeks of sickness, a cold and two viruses.  Because her throat was sore she couldn't eat a lot and feeding was difficult.  After she got well she had developed some very picky attitudes about food.  Bananas, sweet potatoes, and Cheerios-that was the list of acceptable foods on her new "menu".  Big sigh.  Oh goody.  So I borrowed the book French Kids Eat Everything.  I wasn't expecting much, but I needed some practical advice and I was very pleasantly surprised!

The book details the journey of the author, Karen Le Billon, family's one year in France and how she used that time to break old habits and instill a new love of food in her two girls.  The books is focused around ten food rules that define the French way of eating.

Some rules I recognized from my own childhood like #6 "You don't have to LIKE it, but you do have to TASTE it".  Some were fairly revolutionary to the way I think about feeding kids, like #7 "No snacking".  Some of the things that weren't rules made the biggest impact on me.  For instance, research that Le Billon cited said that children need to try foods an average of seven times before they really form an opinion on them, and some kids need to try them 10-15 times.  Cordie didn't like peaches.  Of all things, peaches?  Peaches are great!  After maybe two or three tries, I gave up on them even though I had a huge bag of frozen cubes ready to feed her.  After reading that I tried peaches again-same reaction.  And again-hostile, but better.  And again-success!  Cordie eats peaches now!  There's no fight or fuss and she especially likes them mixed with yogurt, as much as any other fruit (besides blueberries which are a stand out favorite).

For the last chapter or two Le Billon talks about her family's move back to Canada and how the rules had to be modified some because of the cultural differences.  I really appreciated those pages because I found myself saying "yeah that works where EVERYONE is following these rules, but it won't work here."  The snacking rule was the one I saw the toughest time implementing here.  While I am all for not having to pack Cheerios, puffs, and yogurt melts for every outing, I would hate for Cordie to not have goldfish if the rest of nursery class is.  So the rules can and should be modified to your family and cultural situation.  I like that since I don't feel bad if the rules get broken sometimes!

I can say that the book has changed some things at our house.  I make a point to sit down with Cordie for breakfast and lunch (rule #4).  She already ate with us at supper already.  This way we are eating as a family for each meal (albeit without Josh).  It also serves to get her more diversity in her food while I act as example.  So if I'm having cheese on a sandwich, she gets cheese and some bread and I'm yum and ooh over how good it is and how Cordie is eating the same thing as Mommy (rule #3).  I still pack snacks in case of emergency when we go out, but I try not to give them out and we don't snack when we're at home (rule #7).  If Cordie doesn't like something, I put it away, but only temporarily (rule #6).  We will taste the same thing again later that week.  I'm also being more careful about what I eat.  Having her watch me eat makes me more aware of bad food choices that I wouldn't want her to mimic.  Plus I'm looking for things she can eat "just like Mommy" which is always fruits and veggies or yogurts and cheeses.  Sitting down is good for me (and her) because it makes an actual meal, not just picking at whatever catches my eye in the pantry.  

The hardest rules for me to follow are the slow food rule because I have becoming a very fast eater since meeting Josh and the no emotional eating.  Ugh, that one sucks.  I had a quarter of a bag of egg noodles this weekend in one emotional sitting.  I know in my head that is a great rule, but carbs call to me in times of stress or happiness or sadness or celebration or anytime I have an emotion. 

If you made it through this post:  congrats!  I had a lot to say on this subject and it's taken me awhile to even sit down to write this post because I knew it would be long. If you have a picky eater, I definitely suggest giving the book a try.  It may not revolutionize what you're doing, but it's a good, quick read that might give you a helpful hint.

The Choice to Turn off Satellite

Have you seen those infographics of what happens when someone quits smoking?  It's got these statistics at 2 hours, 12 hours, 2 weeks, etc after quitting showing how things in your body changes.  Well here is ours:

Changes After Getting Rid of Satellite

We had tossed around the idea of getting rid of satellite for awhile, but we could never commit.  It was pretty much our only entertainment and it was hard to decide to cut it out.  Two things really swayed the decision. First we got really serious about paying off student loans.  Satellite costs money.  I know, shocker!  But I HATE debt, so we looked at the budget and said that was a line item that could be deleted and those funds moved to debt retirement.  Granted, it isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, but pennies turn into dollars.

The second thing was a really great sermon by Andy Stanley that we heard.  I wish I could remember the title of it so I could link  you to it.  It was basically about all the little things you do that take time that amount to nothing, but how if you had put that same amount of time into worthwhile things you would have something to show for it.  This came after a week of binge watching My 600 Lb Life.  It's not that the tv show itself was bad, but over and over that week one of us would say "I should study for the GRE" or "I need to do my Bible study" and the other would be like "But let's watch this episode first" and the stuff that was really important would get left by the wayside.  At the end of the week, very little productive, growing things had been accomplished, but we had seen ten people have gastric bypass.

We still watch tv.  We have Chromecast so we can cast stuff from the computer to the tv, but now we watch more intentionally.  It isn't just picking something, it's actually because we want to watch a movie together.  I think we watch "better" things too.  We stream a lot more documentaries than we would have chosen from just flipping through the channels.  It's nice when it's off too and it's quiet except for Curly Girly's squeals.  We take more time to sit down and all three play together.  I'm definitely not advocating this for everyone, but for us, it was a good decision that's had a positive impact on our time and habits.

Post Surgery Life

So it's been about 11 days or so since I last blogged.  I kept meaning to update you guys and tell you that I didn't die during surgery or anything, but then I kept getting distracted by things like naps and Mad Men.  I've been a real a go-getter these past few days.

Yeah, obviously I didn't die.  That's a plus.  I didn't hallucinate about demons so that was a big plus (also, if you just read this post, that is not a normal occurrence, just an anesthesia thing).  Thanks for the prayers!  They were definitely felt.  The anesthesia was still hard on me.  Shew, my body just does not like drugs at all.  I was thrashing around and having a general meltdown when I came out of it so the nurses kindly broke the rules and went and got Josh for me.  I could not for the life of me figure out where I was (normal) or who I was (not as normal).  I finally decided maybe I had just been born and thus did not have a name yet.  Then I thought, no kidding, "man, I have a Fabulous vocabulary for a newborn!".  The surgery wasn't until midafternoon and I had had no water so I was parched.  They brought me some water and I said "Water was one of God's better inventions.  And giraffes.  Giraffes were good too."  About five minutes later I started to figure things out and I looked up at Josh and said "Why did I say that, giraffes are nice, but they aren't my favorite animal, elephants are."  I was pretty nauseous and generally icky the rest of the night.  The soreness lingers on and on, but otherwise I am pretty okay.  I wasn't healing as quickly as the doctor thought I would so I got an extra week off work.  Oh darn!  Don't you just hate that? ;)

I have pictures of my diseased ovaries.  I have no idea why the doctor gave me a copy, but Josh says it is going to be this year's Christmas card since it will be our most expensive purchase this year.  I sent a picture of the picture to my brother and he about hurled up his toenails.  Haha, ah, gotta love sibling affection.  The doctor was very confident about the outcome of the surgery.  I did have stage 2+ endometriosis.  I had several places on my ovaries and a tiny bit of it in my right Fallopian tube, but it's all gone.  He says I have a 70-80% chance of getting pregnant in the next six months and if I don't then we will have to look into some bigger guns.  Still, the numbers are on our side.

All this week I've tried to cut back on the naps and get up and do some stuff.  Yesterday I cleaned out a closet.  Geez oh pete when did I accumulate this much stuff?  Do you want it?  You can have it.  Except for the diamond earrings I found.  No joke.  I asked Josh about them and he's all "oh yeah, I forgot about those, they're for you." and I'm going "how do you Forget about diamond earrings???"  Anyway, score!  I've also finished my spring wreath that was languishing and started work on a great big collage/gallery type thing for that wall I hate.  Because that was what was suggested and I listen to you guys (when you comment, which you should).

I have also watched an obscene amount of Mad Men.  This show is incredibly addicting!  Also, I want everything in Betty Draper Francis' closet.  Please and thank you.  The fifth season isn't on Netflix and I am DYING to know what happens.  It is dramatic and wonderful and subtle and smart and fashionable and you should watch it, but be warned that there is a lot of extramarital sex.  Lots and lots, seriously how did these people ever get anything accomplished when they weren't sexing or drinking?

So yeah, that's life.  I'm here.  I'll try to blog something funnier/wittier soon!  Here's a picture of my wreath too because I like it.

First Chiropractor Visit

Today I went to the chiropractor for the first time.  Oh my goodness.  It was glorious.  First the doctor felt my neck and was amazed at all the tension and general badness there.  That doesn't seem like a good thing, but I felt like my pain and discomfort was vindicated by him repeatedly saying "Oh wow, that's really bad."  Then he hooked me up to one of the electroshock thingies like my old physical therapist had.  One of those patches got exactly on a nerve though and it made my shoulder have these repetitive and painful shrugs.  It's a little funny to watch.  Sorry about the triple chins.

Finally, we were just chatting and he was rotating my neck and all of a sudden he broke it off!  Okay, not literally, but it popped about seven times and I thought he broke it off.  Then after the wave of nausea passed I had no headache.  Alleluia, Alleluia, A-ley-luia!  I had had that headache all week and CRACK-gone.  Basically I now have very deep and special feelings for this man because I am terribly fond of anyone who helps me!  Maybe Monday he will break me some more and keep the headaches at bay!

Zumba with Frankenstein

So I've written a time or two about Josh and my (mine? my's? us bodies!) quest to get healthier.  Well we are still questing.  We are doing pretty well, we are exercising several times a week and eating healthier and using a really cool app to track our calories.  It's My Fitness Pal.  It's pretty great.  The best thing is definitely that it includes most restaurants.  So if Josh is wanting chicken tenders at Cheddar's, he check the calories of exactly that meal before he orders it.

In trying to find different exercises that I don't mind doing I tried the super popular Zumba.  ...  Oh goodness.  It was a sight to see.  The first time I went to the local fitness center and they had a huge projector screen and there were maybe ten other women in a big cafeteria shakin' our thangs.  Let me just say, my "thang" it don't shake.  I was jamming though.  In my mind I looked good and I was having fun.  Well I was doing it at home the other day and I pulled my full length mirror over so I could work on getting the technique right. 

One word:  cellulite.  I was not even aware that I had so many jiggly parts!  I've always been pale, but in the past I would occasionally lay out in the sun and try to tan (mostly burning in the process) but since that time something else has come into my life, it's called a straight day job.  So in essence my thighs haven't seen the sun in, gosh I don't even know when.  I am so white right now, I could get a moon tan.

These things wouldn't be bad if it wasn't for the actual dancing performance.  I am not Latina (Re: white enough for moon tan).  I do not have the inherent ability they seem to have to move their hips independent of their shoulders or any sort of fluidity.  Watching me dance would be like watching an android trying to dance, but without all the warm fuzzy feelings you get from watching a humanoid attempt to be a real human.  Have you watched Young Frankenstein?  If you haven't, then you lead a deprived life and I will pray for you.  If you have you should remember this scene

I am about three times spazzier than him.  I wish I were joking.  I can never return to that fitness center.  I can probably not go to the library as it is attached to the fitness center.  However, I am a glutton for punishment because I keep trying in the privacy of my own home with the door locked so not even Josh can see.  At this point I am just determined to make my hips shake!  Please enjoy a chuckle at my expense as I hide behind a pillow so I don't see any of my jiggly bits.