Parents

I've recently realized in my profession, how helpful it is to be a parent. I mean, all the students that I teach have parents on the other end reading my newsletters and helping them with their assignments.  Being a parent, I am starting to see how much school effects our home life.  When Jasmine has projects for school, it can take weeks of planning to get them to the level that we find satisfactory.  This last week, we left an assignment until the last minute and realized how much work/stress it can be.  Being a parent helps me to be a better teacher and of course being a teacher helps me to be a better parent, so win-win!

There are so many responsibilities and jobs to do as a parent.  Recently I was reading an article about a women who was sharing her tansformation story, here is a quote that really resonated with me, "I had become a human doing, instead of a human being".  It is easy to get wrapped up in the daily grind and forget the bigger picture.  I often see friends on Facebook listing all the things they have to do in the day (I'm guilty of it, too!) like we need some sort of validation for all our "busy"ness.

Last week my parents were here.  I find as we get older, we almost forget that our parents were in fact parents and went through ALL the things that we have gone through with us.  Sick babies, teething issues, potty training, growing pains, school, sports, homework... We reminisced about my childhood and different events that took place.  One thing that always strikes me is all the things I can't remember, or maybe never really knew, like my dad was on the school council for 5 years.  I honestly think this is a huge part of why I scrapbook (in years, I will still have a memory of all that I have done).  Anyone in my family will tell you that I have a horrible memory.  For example, I don't ever remember my parents reading to me.  I'm sure they did, I just have no recollection of them doing that.  I know there have been times where I have judged my parents on what they did, how they did it or what they didn't do and resented them at times for it.  I think this is pretty normal for a kid, teenager, university student to do.  We blame our parents for all the things wrong with us and promise we won't do those things to our children.  But as hard as I try, I know I am teaching my kids bad habits that I promised I would not do.  I know I have neglected them in some way or another.  In years, I am sure that they will resent me in some form or another as well, but for now I am quite happy to report that I don't typically earn the "I hate you" or "You are the worst mommy in the world" phrase.

When you have your own kids and become a parent, you learn just how hard it really is to be a good parent.  It is tough to find a balance that makes you happy with every part of your life. 

When my parents were here visiting, we did so many fun, family things and I realized that being good parents takes many forms.  My mom was so helpful while she was here on her holiday: she put dishes away, folded laundry, made lunches and just helped take care of all the daily work load and really gave me a little bit of my own holiday.  Dad spent lots of time doing projects with the kids: a paper mache Pixie Hollow tree with Jasmine and a wooden rocket with Devin.  They were both great sports and joined us for bowling, snowshoeing and hiking in -20 weather at the sugar shack - pretty awesome!  Whether you call them mom and dad, or gramma and grampa - it's all the same!  They are taking care of me and my kids, having fun with us all and it was simply an awesome week!

Even though I am no longer at home, my parents are still an inspiration to me, they still help me and teach me and it is just a truly awesome notion to think I will still be parenting even when my kids are "all growed up".  I feel badly that I ever had any bad feeling towards them, but with ... age comes wisdom and a better understanding of all those events that happen when you are becoming an adult.  One great thing about parents is that they love you unconditionally and forgive you when you make dumbass mistakes like I did.

So, here's to being a parent... a good parent!  It's a hell of a lot of work and often unappreciated, but I know for me I love my parents and am so glad that I have them both in my life.  I also know that I love Jasmine and Devin more than anything imagineable and it is pretty cool to realize that is how my parents feel about me, too!

Here are some photos from the great week with my parents.  Thanks for ALL that you do mom and dad!

(We called this picture the invisible man - notice half of his head is missing - too weird!)

Nutrition and ALL that JAZZ!

Going back and reading my posts, I feel quite hypocritical.  Yes, I am doing all the things I said, but not as consistently as I would like or should be.  And I am not talking about all the things I am doing in between those things that are still not the best.

Here is what bothers me:

-We've pretty much given up pop, but when I am out shopping and get thirsty, or I am out at the movies that pretty much has me always choosing Iced Tea.  How many of you think Iced Tea is a better choice than pop?  Yeah, I see all the hands flying up so fast... not!  So I still have not solved this problem.  At home now our treat drink is chocolate milk (made with skim milk), to me this is still not that bad, but not according to the articles I read. 

-We have reduced our butter and margarine intake, and I haven't had mayonnaise in the house for months.  I bought a bunch of butter for Christmas baking and convinced myself not to use it, but now have 8 sticks of butter in the house and they haven't been touched.  We are using coconut oil in almost every instance where we would use butter, like on toast or of course the old replacement... EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil).  The problem, how much coconut oil is too much? I love the stuff and use it even on my popcorn!

-Nuts, they are good for you!  But not in the amount I eat, I love nuts.  No, I am not eating the salted ones or the carmalized ones (well maybe in a salad), but still they are high in fat and I eat them too often.  I finally switched from Kraft Peanut Butter to the natural stuff, but I still eat it fairly often, especially with apple slices or in a smoothie or my new favorite... on toast with apple butter.  I do like roasted almonds, but my nutrionist says I should be eating raw, natural nuts and that I should soak them overnight.  Apparently they absorb water and not only make them easier to digest, but the water content fills you up even more.  *I haven't tried this yet.

-Sleep.  I just do not get enough sleep.  I don't know why I can't convince myself to go to bed at night, when in the morning I can't convince myself to get out of bed - weird!  When I am tired, I have NO willpower.  This week I am tired, so I'm not feeling very good about my commitment to the program.  I'm still eating lots of healthy things, but just too much, too often and not concentrating on drinking enough water or eating veggies.  I never feel 100% about my effort, which is just a lousy feeling.

I am still reading and coming up with new ideas.  What is coming up next:

-soaking beans and not using canned beans as often because they are high in sodium
-focusing on the combination of foods, a carb with a protein (oatmeal and eggs at breakfast - could it be true?)
-focusing on me time... scheduling in time for baths, shopping, girl visits, etc. 
-reading more books and websites, up next... Your Best Body Now, The China Study, The Whole Foods Diet Cookbook and The Omnivore's Dilemma.
-a focus on exercise, too.  This is key, I never seem to be able to do both at once.  If I am exercising, my food is out of wack, likely because I am even more tired and making bad decisions.  Just for once, I would like to have an awesome week, where I do both things good for one whole week!  


So, all complaining aside, we are making lots of changes and lots of changes have stuck:

-threw white sugar out, use agave nectar, honey, apple butter, applesauce, coconut sugar as replacements. Still some brown sugar on occasion for baking.

-eating oatmeal a few times a week and not the packaged kind, real oats, quick oats which from my understanding are still nutritional like steel cut oats, but just cut smaller for faster cooking time.

-using more beans and not only in chili, trying to add them to things like soup, spaghetti sauce, other casserole dishes.
-eating more kefir and plain yogurt, still can't eat them plain, but using them for smoothies or adding dollops to soups.

-eating more homemade soups, carrot soup, tomato soup, veggie soups, all made from real veggies and pureed and using animal bones to make broth for some first - supposed to be very good as you get all the nutrients from the bone.

-eating kammut sourdough bread

-eating spelt, multigrain or spinach pastas when possible.

-using coconut oil, instead of margarine or butter, and still using olive oil as well.

-switched over to sea salt

-trying not to eat processed meat, if we do we are buying the natural stuff from Farmboy with no preservatives.
-minimizing fast food and limiting to subway or something similar.
-switched to natural PB or almond butter - a big deal for me!
-making a meal plan each week and trying to stick with it
 
So, there you have it folks, the true confessions of a food-o-holic!  I am trying, but it is hard to be consistent!  I figure as long as I keep at it and keep moving forward over time, things will work themselves out.
 
I love feedback, so send me tips and ideas that work for you or great whole food recipes.

Happy New Year

A great start to a New Year! 

(Some history, Pam and I talked about renting a cottage over the Christmas holiday. We got to talking and decided to simply save money and just PRETEND we were at a cottage and actually just have a sleepover at each other's houses, so we hosted The Dixons for the first 24 hour sleepover party!)

When the Dixons arrived, we joked about how long their drive had been to the cottage (they only live a block away) and how much stuff they had to bring for only 1 night!  We had planned to start our cottage experience by skating on a nearby outdoor pond, but the +7 weather made it a little slushie and so we opted for a nice hike through some local woods.  Pam was smart enough to bring bird food and the kids had enough patience to wait with the food on their hands and get some little chickadees to come a visit.  If you look closely in the next few pictures you can see some of them.  Jasmine was well liked and had about 6 little landings right on her hand, while Devin only had 2 (but he wasn't near as still as she was, Jasmine didn't even smile or look at the birds as they landed, she was too scared they would fly away).  You will also see a deer in the background of one of the photos, there were 3 near the front of the woods.  Next time we will bring carrots, too!

For supper we "went back to the cottage" to make crazy sandwiches.  Everyone had a different favorite, but the kids liked Nutella with Smarties.  I liked the one I had with smoked ham, Octoberfest mustard, avocado, red onion, bacon, hard-boiled egg and ripple chips - yum!  Kevin and Pam were up for the challenge and by the end of the night Kevin ate a chocolate turtle wrapped in bacon - sweet and salty!

After supper, we had the kids New Years Bash.  Jay tried to light all the sparklers at once, but as two of them caught fire, he couldn't get them separated from the pack and ended up dropping one on the carpet - yep, a little burn mark - oh well, more excuses to eventually get new flooring!  We had glow bands and horns to blow, the kids danced around and sang songs, while the grown ups recuperated from the fun supper!  We went around the room and all shared our goals for the New Year.  (Jasmine's is to read short novels before bed, Devin's is to practice his lower case alphabet, mine is to eat more fish and oatmeal and Jay's is to jump higher).  Well, that is some of them anyhow.

After the kids had gone to bed, the grown ups played Wii.  We started with a murder mystery game, which we did well at (at least on the first two levels, we will see how much harder it gets), then we played a lie detector game, which was pretty funny - Jay had to say who had the loudest gas at our house - guess who it was? After that we Rock Banded our brains out and Pam and I tried harmonies on the new Rock Band 3, which was a little trickier, but very fun!  We watched the Barenaked Ladies at Niagra Falls on TV and rang in the New Year, then watch the Air Farce New Year show and finally to bed after 1:00 - egad!  Pam and Kevin didn't even have to go home, just headed to their bedroom in the basement.  

The New Year brought another day of fun, a low key morning building Lego Star Wars Ships and King Cobras with Uncle Kevin.  We had a pancake breakfast using my new insect pancake pan (makes cute little bug patterns in the pancakes).  Then the men played board games and the ladies scrapbooked, while the kids played in the ...rain?, yes rain and watched movies, played dress up and on and on.  The Dixons headed for home about 4:30 and had a loooong trip back on windy roads from "The cottage".

A super fun way to spend time with great friends and start the New Year off right!  Hope you all had a fun New Years as well!  Looking forward to talking to you all soon!

Nutritionist update

I am slowing down my appointments to once a month and trying to balance all my new information with some normal home cooked meals.  Each time I make something I try and change it a little bit using something new I have learned.  Yesterday we had pancakes.  Same old recipe from my dad, but whole wheat flour, substitute agave nectar for white sugar (threw my white sugar out) and added 1/2 cup pureed beets, plus a handful of dark chocolate chips (70% cocoa, so a healthier choice).  Deanna had told me about adding the beets a long time ago, but I hadn't considered it because my kids actually eat veggies really well.  It wasn't until I started trying to add even more vegetables into our diet that this came to fruition.  Tonight I made a spin on cabbage role casserole, substituting quinoa for rice, adding black beans and 1/2 a pureed avocado.  Only thing I would change is draining the liquid from the canned tomatoes as the quinoa does not absorb as much liquid as rice.  Anyhow, my main focus is to be sure we are eating more vegetables, so always making sure we have a veggie in addition to the casserole that in this case already had cabbage, avocado, black beans, etc. 

We've been trying to always have a healthy treat option on hand, currently pumpkin muffins or breakfast cookies, something that is made with natural ingredients, but feels like a treat when you need dessert or a fun snack. 

We've also been experimenting with Kefir and have tried it in potato salad, smoothies and used the kefir cheese as a replacement for mayo in sandwiches.  We are getting used to it and it is supposed to be a great probiotic, better than plain yogurt!

Anyhow, that is the brief update!  Chat more soon!

Nutritionist update

Things are progressing along nicely.  Last week my homework was to lift 4 pounds of butter at the grocery store, because that is how much fat I lost.  So, I went to the store and lifted a pound up to my bicep and put 2 on my stomach and pretended that is where they came from.  After awhile they do get heavy, so no wonder I do feel tired so often- a lot of work carrying around all this extra weight.  I've always known that, but I guess never wanted to really admit that was the reason.

In the last year and a half or so that means I am down 20 pounds, so a nice number to reach and I am heading in a positive direction.  Today I bought 2 new books to help me out, Clean Eating for Families and Kids and Deliciously Deceptive.  We will see if they help me or confuse me?  Right now I am in the middle of watching a documentary called Food Inc. and it is... I guess what you would expect.  Most of us have ideas of how our food is prepared, but you don't necessarily like to see it in action.  They really show you the steps and I have to say I was pretty sad when all the little baby chicks were being swept down a metal slide and shoved around like potatoes :(  It talks a lot about salmonella and E. Coli, things I have heard of enough times, but don't really know that much about, so it is interesting to learn more.  This week we talked more about perservatives in the deli meats, she really doesn't like that we eat deli meat (I just find them so convenient) So, for now we are going to try and go mostly without, tomorrow we are making a roast and will have leftovers for sandwiches or salads all week.  

We have tried a few nice recipes, here are a few:

Grain Free Crumble

6 cups choppe fruit of your choice (we used apple)
1/2 cup honey

Preheat oven to 350 and mix together in glass baking dish

2/3 cups nut or seed flour (we used almond flour, but she also listed coconut flour, pumpkin seed flour, or sunflower seed flour - whatever you could find I guess - I got mine at Bulk Barn)
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup pecans
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup honey
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp all spice
1/4 coconut oil (this is my absolute new favorite item, even spread it on toast  - it is semi-soft like shortening, but tastes yummy, can be used in baking, cooking, etc. - I got mine at Bulk Barn, but any natural food pantry type store would have it)

Mix topping until slightly crumbly and spread over fruit
Bake for 40 minutes - very good, Devin ate 3 helpings!

Mexixan Bean Casserole

1 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup water
1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 1/2 cups mushrooms
1 red pepper chopped
3/4 cup brown rice
1 can kidney beans
1 can tomatoes
1 tbsp chilli powder
2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
grated low fat mozza cheese (my nutritionist would say organic, but I haven't got that far yet)

In skillet heat oil and water.  Add onion, garlic, mushroom and peppers, simmer until tender about 10 minutes.
Add rice, beans, canned tomatoes, spices and cover and simmer for 25 mintues or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed. 
Transfer to baking dish and sprinkle with cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted. 

We ate this with homemade guacamole (avocado, lime juice, garlic and a bit of salt and cilantro if you like it) and I'd like to say organic whole grain tortilla's, but it was multigrain tostitoes, oops!  Plus a big side serving of sugar snap peas to add the extra veggies in there and help fill us up!

Another blog - yep!

Our Quirky Class, is you guessed it my class blog!  There are 31 grade 6 students learning to blog along side me and we've just got it up and running.  Part of the whole process is to meet new people from far away and become closer with the people we are surrounded by daily.  Jasmine already made a post and quite a few kids replied to her question of, "what is grade 6 like?"  Tyson and Allie may like to check it out and we would love to have them comment on there.  Hope to see some of you on there!

A month has gone by

So, today was my one month visit to see the nutritionist.  I go once a week to visit her and get advice.  Tomorrow I am going to the natural food pantry where she happens to work once a week to learn more about all they have to offer and what is good or not so good.  I've been trying a few new products and 2 that I would recommend are coconut oil, which she says she uses as a replacement for butter, even to spread on toast or in baking.  I've tried both and am very pleased with the texture and flavor.  Apparently it is a good fat, like avocado and has many health benefits, still obviously used in moderation, but a nice option to have.  Coconut oil is semi-hard, like a margarine consistency, but white with more flavor.  I bought it at Bulk Barn, not sure where else to find it yet.  The other item is hemp seeds or hemp hearts.  I have tried a few new things like chia seeds and of course ground flax, but I like the hemp best.  It has a nice texture and flavor and doesn't get soggy in your cereal or yogurt like the others. 

Today we discussed the dirty dozen in produce, they are the 12 most likely fruits and veggies to have strong amounts of pesticide on them and so they are recommended to buy in organic.  I have never bought organic and still have to do research on this, but thought it was nice to have a target list to maybe start with.  Anything with a peel does not absorb as many pesticides, so not as necessary to buy organic oranges for example - made sense!

We also talked about deli meats and to stay away from nitrites, I need to look this up, too, but she said Farmboy has some options for natural meat, but of course you pay for it and it doesn't last as long because it has no perservatives in it. What I've read so far though, there is a reason for the nitrites and that is to keep the meat from spoiling and things like botulism, so I'm still thinking this one through.

I signed up for another month, so more posts to come!

And I am down 5 pounds - so yeah!