It's that time of year again!! I absolutely love the holidays!! We have all our family over to our house for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and then that night here comes the Elf on the Shelf to start the Christmas festivities!! I have tons of great ideas for the Elf on the Shelf this year, but here are the ones we did last year to give you some ideas!! Please feel free to share your favorite Elf ideas in the comments!!
Last week at my oldest daughters art class they made ice cream cones and my daughter didn't understand why the teacher had them put a cherry on top. I realized that we've never really gone out for ice cream and she's never actually had an ice cream sunday. I started to wonder if my desire for a healthy lifestyle has prevented her of some basic knowledge that all kids should know. Was she missing out on cultural experiences?
Then, after hearing some news that revamped my research (though it had barely slowed, I haven't been as adamant about what I buy and feed my family, it's hard to stay motivated sometimes but that's a topic for a different post), I started reading recent publications about GMOs and watching documentaries, and I am convinced that teaching my kids an organic and local lifestyle is the best. We try not to eat fast food (only the occasional Chick-fil-A these days) and limit our processed; hopefully we will increase this practice and be complete localvores. I'm proud that my daughter knows what farms are and who the farmers are. We interact with the farmers at our local farmers market and visit their farms. The girls know where milk actually comes from and they drink raw milk. They know what animals made the meat they're eating and what those animals ate. This is all part of the circle of life and in our crazy society, I'm glad that we're teaching our kids about real food. The problem is that we were never given a choice. We were never told that our families were part of some big experiment that companies like DuPont and Monsanto didn't even know (or chose to ignore) what would happen to our bodies and our environment after consuming these GM foods. Big companies are hiding the truth about what they're sending to the stores. They don't want us asking questions or thinking on our own. Over 60 countries around the world have banned GMOs, yet in America, most do not even know what they are. We should have a choice on what we are putting in our body. Labeling GMOs should not be a ballot issue. It's a human right. The ingredients are listed, they should have their actual name GMO corn GMO soy, etc. we need to join forces and know what we eat and what were feeding our families. Below are links to some great blogs and informational websites. Knowledge is power! And actions speak so much louder than words! Here's a couple sites with great info and a couple blogs I love, I've got some more to add but out of time today so I will update soon: http://www.nongmoproject.org/learn-more/ http://gmoinside.org/faqs/ http://www.ohbabyfoods.com/gmos/ http://foodbabe.com/investigations/ http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/ When I decided to blog our current sleep-tastrophe at our house, I had a hard time deciding which "category" to put it in. I cannot stand blogs that tell the do's and don't's of parenting, like their opinion or advise is the only way it should be done and all others are wrong, or worse! Bad parents! It makes me crazy! What I do like, however, is telling stories between my friends (or reading different ones online) about what works and doesn't work for particular families. With these, I can pick and choose what might work for my family! So this blog, is in the "Parenting Forum". It's a place full of comments (hopefully!) and what works for our house :) I've decided that parenting is the most basic form of the scientific method. We, as parents, make a hypothesis about what will work for our kids, then we try through an experiment, and usually we fail, lol. Then we keep trying, and sooner or later we finally succeed! Back to the purpose of tonight's post, our experiment. We are having some serious sleep issues, and mom and dad are exhausted... When our oldest was younger, we did everything by-the-book. She slept all night long in her bed, no issues. Then, once we had the second baby, she realized that the baby was sleeping in our bed and she wanted to also. This was the start of the downfall. We let her. Once the baby was a little older, we moved her to her crib where she would sleep. Though she still woke through the night, she was at least in her own her crib. We did have the big one in the bed, but one was better than two. Then, we converted the crib to a twin bed... and... she woke up, of course, and came to our bed where mom, dad, and sister were. Back to four. We've been at this stage for a while now. I keep hoping it will get better that one night the girls will magically stay in their beds all night. We put them together in the same bed at night hoping that would work. But they just woke each other in the night and both came. In other words, we are in a full on sleep-TASTROPHE! So tonight we are trying something new. The girls, since sleeping in the same bed, have had the same bedtime, 8. It's a little late for the younger as she gets really cranky at bed time, and it's a little early for the older as she is not usually tired enough so she takes forever to fall asleep. Tonight we changed the youngest bedtime to 7:30 and the oldest will be 8:30, plus, they are going to their own beds... Wish us luck! What works for your house? I'd love to hear your stories and share them with the fellow mommas and dads reading the post who are as exhausted as we are! |
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July 2015
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