It's going to be a great year!!

It's going to be a great year!!

I can feel it!

I know I am onto something with this red food dye experiment.

This morning I made the kids waffles. It was the 1st day of school!

I also made their lunches in their expensive lunch boxes.
Do you realize the anxiety involved in making lunches that don't have anything pre-packaged in them? It's extremely stressful! I have people ask me..."It's just lunch. Why are you stressed?"
Well... It's NOT just lunch.
This is a meal that needs to get my kids from point a to point b during the day.
If they are having a bad day and I send them junk for lunch do you think the day will get better or worse?
If they are having a bad day and I send them healthy food that looks pretty then I think the day will get better.

So today was the first day and this is what their lunch looked like...

I prepared by making the small muffin looking things the night before.

I think that lunch looks yummy!

Remember when I said I made them waffles for breakfast?
This morning was relatively calm while everyone got dressed and ate.
I walked h to school because he starts before everyone.
When we walked into the school I asked him if he wanted to go to the BIC room or if he wanted to go to the 3rd grade holding station (cafeteria). He thought about it a little while and decided the cafeteria!
I couldn't believe it!
I waited in the cafeteria with him and when his teacher showed up I explained what a big deal this was.
I reluctantly left the school and proceeded to have a small anxiety attack.
I decided to spend the majority of the day running errands.
When I got home I noticed I had a message from the school.

My first thought was

SHIT! NOT AGAIN!

I listened to the message expecting the worst and instead it was a message of encouragement.
Yup, h's new teacher had left a message saying what a fabulous day he was having. She said that she knew I was nervous and wanted to be sure I was reassured.

I was so overwhelmed I started to cry.

I honestly can't explain my feelings.

All I can say is that I feel like a weight has been lifted.
I feel like he has a teacher that truly has his best intentions at heart.
I feel like this is the year everyone will see how wonderful my son is.
I feel like this is the year where my anxiety level will even out.
I feel like my house could go back to normal again.
I feel like there is hope for my baby boy.
I feel like this teacher is a blessing.

Did I mention that she said she prayed for h this weekend.

His new teacher prayed for him!

I feel like we are right where we need to be...  we're not a perfect family but we are family.

WE CAN DO THIS!!


Now if you'll excuse me... I have to take out my homemade cheesy chicken taquitos out of the oven and finish my homemade ranch dip.

Why the hell do I do this shit at midnight instead of during the day??

Divine Intervention?

Do you believe in divine intervention?

Ever since I spent a small fortune on 5 planetboxs I have been stressing about what is going to go in them. They have a little area that is good for the "treat/dessert". G teased me and said that I could give them 4 chocolate chips because that is about as big as it is.

Last week I was at my home away from home, Costco.
While standing in line I noticed them sampling almond pops.
.
These little bites of yummy goodness fit PERFECTLY in the little dessert section of our new planetbox lunch boxes.

This is the bag...

 

They are gluten free, oven baked, kosher, all natural.

And best of all...

 

NO food dyes!

 

Then today I got my newest box in from zulily.

In all the times I have received boxes from this awesome website, I have NEVER had a sample of anything.

 

Today there was this...

 

Toothpaste that is DYE FREE!!!

 

As if I needed more affirmation... "Made for kids 8+" is written right there on the box.

The expiration date on the coupon is March 2014. h's birthday is in MARCH!!

 

 

Do you believe in divine intervention?

 

Do you believe this is a higher power telling me that giving my kid dye free stuff is the key??

 

I know what I believe and right now I believe I will go cry....

Is this the cure for h???

I came across a website recently called www.diefooddye.com.

This is what caught my eye....

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12 Signs Your Family Has Food Coloring Sensitivity

Do you or anyone in your family exhibit these signs of dye sensitivity?
1.  Hyperactivity:  Can’t stop moving, runs most of the time, constant movement of hands and feet.
2.  Lack of attention:  Cannot focus either at home or school – without affecting all areas of life all the time (not ADD).
3.  Sleep problems:   Has a hard time settling down for sleep, or has sleep disturbances throughout the night.
4.  Mood swings:  Unexplained emotional problems, hours-long tantrums, inconsolable crying, paranoia, and meltdowns over tiny things or schedule changes.
5.  Violence/Aggression:  Biting, spitting, growling, hitting, kicking, and uncharacteristic mean talk.
6.  Lack of impulse control:  Increase in risky behaviors, excessive talking at inappropriate times, loud talking, disruptive, interrupts people a lot, hard to transition from one activity to another, does not adjust behavior in response to discipline.
7.  The Ickies:  Headaches, stomach aches, and vomiting.
8.  Bed-wetting:  This includes daytime wetting, well past the age of toilet training.
9.  Skin ailments:  Eczema and hives.  My daughter had eczema and cradle cap before we eliminated dyes.
10. Breathing problems:  Some kids require an inhaler due to dye-induced asthma.
11. Compulsiveness:  Pulls out hair, eyelashes or eyebrows, picks at skin, repeats certain actions numerous times.
12. Not consistent: This is the single most important clue to watch for.  Can you give your kid sugary treats without problems some days, but then other times, they freak out?
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NOW, if you've been reading my blog for a while you know what kind of shitty year I had last year with h.

Let me tell you something right now....
This list describes h.
He has ALL 12!!
No, he doesn't use an inhaler but he does have some breathing issues at night.

For me this is affirmation that I am on the right track!
I have been stressing about lunches this year because I am on a mission to keep pre-packaged items out of them.

Thank you JG for showing me this website!!

Experimentation time!

Ok I am on a mission to get my kids healthy.

My 8 year old now weighs 55 pounds less than I do!!

I bought into a co-op program that has organic fruits and vegetables.
I don't know if I buy into the whole "organic" thing but I figured its not hurting anyone so I'll give it a go.

Saturday I picked up my whole share in Ft. Worth off 7th street.

In my bin (30 lbs) I had celery, bananas, kale, cherries, squash, Japanese sweet potatos, cucumbers, zucchini, butternut squash, collard greens, sweet potato greens and shitake mushrooms (yuk!)

Sweet potato greens? WTF are those?
Collard greens? I know what they are but I have never made any! Like NEVER!

So I consulted my good friend google and made the sweet potato greens. I recently posted on facebook that my kids ate them like I wasn't going to feed them again. There was even an arguing match over who got to eat the rest.
For those wondering.. I ate the rest.
I mean shit I'm the one shocked them back to life when they were "accidentally left in the car all day during tax free weekend and 100+ heat". I chopped the stems up. I chopped an onion up. I sauted them in EVOO. Then I added the leaves and some PURE maple syrup. Those puppies were so good the kids are dang lucky I even let them have some!

So tonight I ventured into the collard green territory.
I put the greens in a pot with some ham shanks, a diced onion and about 2 boxes organic chicken stock from Costco. I let them come to a boil. Then I simmered them for 3 1/2 hours while I worked upstairs in the kids' rooms.

The smell was so awesome all day.

Isn't that pretty? Can't you just see the steam? Smell it? Yup it smelled amazing.

Well I knew I was going to drain it and add something else but I didn't know what.
Well my friend SS & collard green aficionado said that I should add hot sauce & sugar.
So I did.

 

Just like the sweet potato greens from the other night, my kids inhaled these before they realized I might have put a little too much hot sauce in them...

 

 

So to make up for the burning mouths I let them have dessert.

Here are 4/5 of my kids enjoying their homemade frozen smoothie things.

The smoothie recipe was found on a website called 100 days of real food.

1.5 cups plain organic greek yogurt

1 cup fresh strawberries

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons milk

½ – ¾ cup fresh spinach leaves

Optional: if using fresh berries (instead of frozen) add some ice cubes

 

I threw it all in my ninja.

Then I filled up these silicone bpa free things I bought on amazon. Put them in a big plastic cup and set it in the freezer.



Tonight they squeezed the bottom of the silicone things and worked the smoothie up to the top like a push pop.

SUCCESS!!

Maybe eating healthy won't be so hard after all.

Next up....

Homemade nutrigrain bars and graham crackers.

I can do this!
I can do this!
I can do this!

In other news.
I bought myself a new TCU shirt.

Size??
MEDIUM!!

I like it but it sure showcases my DDD's!!

Summer Sucks... Bring on SCHOOL!

This summer sucks.

I have been trying to hold onto my sanity and it's not working.
When these days happen do you know what I do...

YUP! I bake!

However, with some recent discoveries (h's weigh in at the shrink) I have decided to make some drastic changes around here.

My 12 step program to healthy lunches...

Step One:
Bought all my kids expensive ass Planetbox lunch boxes.

Step Two:
These new lunch boxes will prevent me from buying baggies and pre-packaged lunch crap.

Step Three:
Dust off all "as seen on tv" items from garage.

Step Four:
Start experimenting with "as seen on tv" items.

Step Five:
Convince children that dehydrated fruit tastes much better than fruit snacks.

Step Six:
Convince children that homemade beef jerky is much better than store bought.

Step Seven:
Convince children that raisins CAN taste good if you make them yourself from big ass juicy grapes.

Step Eight:
Make a chicken in your own rotisserie to show children that whole chickens can taste good.

Step Nine:
Keep buying fruit and throwing it in Ninja because ONE DAY you will figure out how to make homemade fruit roll ups.

Step Ten:
Convince children that drinks found in pouches don't taste as good as water. (yeah right)

Step Eleven:
Get children excited about new lunch possibilities!

Step TWELVE:
STOCK up on LOTS of wine because I'm starting to feel overwhelmed about these future "healthy" lunches.