Trans fat, Health and Little Ones

I have been trying to be a good steward of my kiddo’s and my husband’s health by making our home Trans fat free and  White Flour free.  This has become a harder task then I thought it would be.  The whole trans fat thing is so hard to understand….Does 0 g. of trans fat the same as trans fat free?  I stilll can not find a report that lists this!  Also, I buy only whole wheat breads, but I make a lot of breads as well and I haven’t found any recipies that don’t use any white flour in them.

TIP: Did you know that in all baking recipes you can use 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white flour (make it equal the total amount of flour the recipe calls for) and not have to change the recipes at all?  That is how I make all pancakes, muffins, cookies, cakes etc.  Ask Dave’s friend and Brian and he will tell you the chocolate chips cookies taste even better that way.

So, I am on a mission that seems endless!  I know that it is, but I feel very overwhelmed by it all.  Not just the food we eat but the impression I am making on my kids.  I don’t want them to fear food or fear fat.  Neither of these things are bad.  I want them to have a healthy understanding of the foods we eat and what they do for our bodies.  I want them to love the foods that God gave us to enjoy, but I also want them to understand why some foods in big quantities are not good for them.  I also want them to respect their bodies which one day I pray will be a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Now here is the hard part…..how do I show and teach them without helping a long an eating disorder?  Here are some things we are doing:

1. Allow them to have the fun foods (fries, chicken nuggets etc.) but we choose the location.  Chick Fil A was ranked #1 fast food chain by Men’s Health because it have no trans fat and not one of their combo meals has over 500 calories!  Wow!

2. One third of our grocery money is on fruits and veggies.  This makes it so we have 2 veggies at each meal, one meat and a complex carb.

3. Only buying whole wheat foods.

4. Not telling them EVERY reason why I don’t want them to eat certain foods.  They are told that we are to fill our bodies with healthy foods and treat our bodies to “junk” foods.  This way they don’t say something to someone else that is eating something and they don’t fear the foods.  As they grow we will teach them about different fats etc.

5. When I go out to the gym they will tell you “mommy is making her heart strong”.  We never say we are trying to lose weight or that mommy or daddy needs to lose weight or we need to ‘get in shape’.  We make sure this is NOT talked about in front of them.  We want to make sure they have a very healthy attitude about body image especially at this young age.

Now, this is not enough, if you have any ideas please post them, I would love to hear them!

Chicago Cubs Baseball Batting Helmet and Build a Bear

Isaac and Grace have started to have chores in our home.  Isaac goes around the house and collects all the trash, then takes and puts in the trashcan outside.  Grace goes into Owen’s room and sorts and puts away his toys at the end of the night.  We stated this a few months ago and it is going great.  They each earn one quarter for each day they do their chores.  We then have them give some pennies to Jesus (which they take with them to Sunday School on Sundays) and then the rest is for them.

With the announcement that we were going to Chicago we encouraged them to save their money for a special prize.  Most days they did just that, other days they choose an ice cream from the ice cream truck.  When we got to Chicago the kids had almost 10 dollars each.  They were super excited!

Isaac picked out a Chicago Cubs batting helmet and Grace a Build a Bear bear carrier to wear on her back.  They proudly carried their things around with them the entire weekend.  We didn’t have to worry about them losing them or not taking care of them because they had earned them.  They had to do lots of work to get them and they knew how long it took them to save for their prizes.

This went over so well that we already have them saving for our Disney trip next year.  We are encouraging them to save at least 4 of their quarters a week for this trip.  Another perk is that we don’t have to save for souvenirs, the kids do that themselves!!!  How nice is that?

So Dave and Isaac just went to Home Depot and Isaac is proudly wearing his helmet and Grace is napping with her carrier. 

All Boy? All Girl?

I have never been one of those moms that could say that I had a child that was “all boy” or “all girl”….until yesterday!

After returning home from a long drive from Chicago the kids eagerly jumped out of the minivan and ran to the back yard.  We had to leave really early in the morning for me to get home to work that evening so it was only lunch time and they had tons of energy cooped up in their little bodies.

Isaac ran out of the car with a Chicago cubs batting hat (more on that later) and Grace with her Build A Bear bear carrier.  Isaac ran to his tee-ball and started to hit balls in the yard, Grace went in the house and came out with her doll stroller and babies (at least 3, because all mommies have to have lots of babies, right?)  She was pushing them up and down the driveway while daddy unloaded the car. 

That is when it hit me!  My little boy is “all boy” and my little girl is “all girl”.  I didn’t have to teach Isaac how to be a boy and I didn’t have to teach Grace how to be a girl.  I am not saying that their father and I don’t have a huge responsibility to teach and train them to be the man and woman that God created them to be.  It just hit me how different they are! 

Isaac will willing and lovingly play dolls with is sister.  Grace will willingly and happily dress up as Spider-girl or Bat-girl to play superheros with her brother.  It was just a great demonstration that God made them different, He made them to be a boy and a girl!  He made them to like different things and to be different.  How awesome is that?

 

Chicago: Happy Mother’s Day!!!

We are in Chicago visiting Dave’s brother.  It has been so much fun!  We all went out to eat at the Cheesecake factory, then to the top of the John Handcock building to see the sky at night time.  What a great time we had.  Had I known what a history lesson it was going to be I would have planned a school lesson last week about the fires in Chicago and the history of the town in general.  It was so awesome.

Today we went to the Children’s Musuem with the kids and it was so awesome!!  I love family vacations, I have been dreaming about them since I was a little girl and now I get to be a mommy!!!!  I thank God for this desire in my heart and the love He gives me for my family.  God is so good.

Tomorrow we are heading to the zoo and the Federal Reserve.  How cool is that?   We have enjoyed the trains and the buses and the walking in the windy city.   Grace was almost pulled down the road without us!  It was so windy on Navy Pier today.  Owen was in the stroller and he almost blew over, not joking!!!!

One thing about Chicago is that it makes me love my home more.  It is hard to get out here without extra hands, I don’t know how mamas with lots of children do it!  (well, I know, they don’t).  There are cars everywhere and the train can be very dangerous if you have children that don’t obey at all times for every minute.  Which I don’t know many of those kids!!!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mama’s out there.  Spent lots of time this year playing on the floor and playing with puzzels!!!!  Enjoy long walks down around the block looking at every bug and flower there is.  Enjoy cutting up watermelon and eating it with with a big smile, enjoy sticky hands and sweet kisses.  Enjoy the moments we have dreamt about for years and will long for for years after they are gone.

Happy Mother’s Day from the heart of Chicago!!!!

Graduating

I am an official graduate of the Seminary Wives Institute with an advanced certificate in Ministry study at Boyce Bible College!  This isn’t a big degree but to me it is.  It means something to me because when we came to seminary I left my undergrad work in Elementary Education to follow my husband here.  I was only about 13 credits from graduating.  I was a little hurt that I would never get to walk that stage. 

God began to work in my heart.  Why did I want to graduate?  I began to realize that it was to have the degree, I wanted the status of being a graduate.  God pointed out my sin of pride.

I repented of my sin and began to take classes at the seminary with other woman whose husbands were going to school to be ministers.  The certificate is a tangible way of me showing my family that this eternal degree is more important then any earthy degree I could earn.  This degree has taught me how to serve the church, other woman, become more devout to my Heavenly Father and how to be a be a ministers wife.

God is so Good!

 

When Would You Go To The Doctor?

Okay, I want to know something….when would you go to the doctor?  Dave fell at UPS on Sunday and this is what his leg looks like.

Now this is looking good, you should have seen it on Monday morning.  Now here is what the ankle is looking like (the blood from the impact on the chin is pooling in the foot).

 

Now you may ask….what did the doctor say?  I will have to say I don’t know because my husband doesn’t want to go!  You may ask….how much would it cost you to go?   I will have to say….NOTHING.  Because he fell at work it is covered with their doctors.

He fell off a conveyor belt (that was stopped) and hit his shin on a control switch when he fell off.  This is the spot of the impact….this pic is taken from the side so that you can see how raised it is from the bone.

The question of the day is:  WHEN WOULD YOU GO TO THE DOCTOR?

 

Lessons From My Children

God is continually teaching me through my children.  Isaac whole heartily wants a super hero job when he grows up.  He is always asking me to pray that God will give him one and he is always praying for one.  Today while driving in the car I hear “Dear God, Please give me a Power Ranger job when I become a men (yes, not man), please say Yes, No or Wait.  In Jesus name Amen”.  I sat there thinking about what I had just overheard.

This little boy fully believes that God will give him that job if He wants to.  He truly understand that God has the right to say Yes, No or Wait and that we need to be happy with whatever the choice is.  I asked Isaac, why did you say that God can say Yes, No or Wait.  And he responded “because He is God and we are not”…..WOW!  What a testimony of a young man understand that God is in total control and He is the Lord of our lives.

My husband is an amazing father!  He is fully devoted to teaching our children about God and His character.  I see the fruit of his labor with my children everyday! 

I really started thinking about what Isaac had said in his prayer to God.  Am I that willing to accept what God gives me?  Am I willing to be happy with a “no” or a “wait”?  I will have to say that I have not always been happy with God’s response to my prayers.  When we started to try for a child in 2002 we never thought it would take a year.  Did I respond with a happy heart?  Sadly I did not.  When my husband said he was going to pick up our family and move us to Seminary and I would not get to finish my collage education to be a teacher….Did I respond with a happy heart?  No entirely.  I have always wanted to be a teacher!  I did not know at that time that God was telling me “wait”.  I see now looking back that He had bigger plans for me.  He knew that one day I would teach, it just wouldn’t be in a formal classroom, it would be at my kitchen table surrounded by my little ones!  God is sooo good!

 

Update: on the new job

Many of you know that I took on a part-time job in the evenings and on Sat. to help get rid of our debt.  It has been a month and you know what?  It is working!!!!  We just switched all our credit card balances over to one account and it is interest free for 15 months….then after that only 7.99 percent.  With that we are able to put the 90 some dollars a month we were paying in interest toward the balance.  Then with the 300 extra dollars I am making at Applebee’s it comes out to almost 400 extra dollars toward debt every month!!!  With what we were already paying we hope to have it all paid off by the end of the year! 

The debt came at some tough times for us….Gracelyn’s surgery, Owen’s surgery, maternity leave that isn’t paid for, Dave not able to get “extra hours” etc.  Now that we have more money coming in than our expenses we are kicking butt to get it all paid off!

We will have been married for six years next week and during that time we have only had a full-time job for about 9 months!!!!!  THat is right, we have been living on a part-time income with 3 children for our entire marriage almost.  God is so good that he is now giving us an opportunity to pay off the debt that we occured.  We hope to be able to give him glory with our freedom from debt.  YEAH!

We still have a house payment and probally will for most of our adult lives, but we don’t have any car payments (haven’t for over a year now!) and hopefully won’t have any credit card payment next year.

Now this may sound really silly to some of my readers that don’t mind having debt.  For us we want to be able to give God glory by being able to give our money etc. to missionaries, chruch members or people in need instead of interest to the creditors.

This seems like a LONG journey, but it is one we deserve by our choices.