"Lay down, Kaybub" (Kaybub= Caleb)

"Play Kaybubs toys" 

"Come here, Kaybub"

"A kiss!"

When I was in college, it seemed easy to work towards changing the world. There were rallies and prayer meeting to go to. There were places to volunteer at. There were clubs to join and causes to support. Now that I'm in mom-world I realize that changing the world must look a lot different than it used to. It's not about rallies or volunteering long hours. It's about the little things--the small choices I make for my family every day. Moms in young growing families like mine are probably some of the largest consumers there are. We buy all the food, clothes, and toys for our family. We are buying our first homes and buying furniture and decor to go with them. We buy and consume so much! I hope to be responsible with my purchases by buying from companies that are socially and environmentally conscious. I have also been working on my family's eating habits for the past 3 years. When we got married we were given this book as a gift:

It has defined our food philosophy. It is a Mennonite cookbook based on the idea that in the midst of a world food shortage Americans need to eat less and eat smarter. The introduction states, "There is a way which gives not less but more. More joy, more peace, less guilt; more physical stamina, less overweight and obesity; more to share and less to hoard for ourselves."

Here are some of the key ideas from the book:
1) Eat less meat and dairy (or none at all).
Americans eat twice the recommended daily allowance of protein and most of it is from meat and dairy products. The problem with animal sources of protein is that the animals must be fed large amounts of feed and must also use land for grazing/living. It is a better use of resources to use the land just to grow grain, beans and vegetables than it is to grow the food, feed it to the animal, wait for the animal to grow and convert the food into meat.

2) Avoid processed and convenience foods. Highly processed food often means chemical additives, higher prices, and wasteful packaging. Instead, celebrate the joy of simple meals made with wholesome ingredients.

3) Eat more whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Good for you and for the world!

The book is full of useful statistics, charts, and ideas to help you reduce waste and eat smarter. Many of the meals are also simple to make, one dish deals. Here is an example of one of the recipes in it that I love:

Baked Lentils With Cheese

(look at all this goodness you could be putting in your body for dinner tonight)

Preheat oven to 375. In a 9x13 pan combine: 

1 3/4 cup lentils

1 cup of long grain rice

3 3/4 cup water

1 bay leaf

2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp each marjoram, sage, thyme

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 cups canned diced or crushed tomatoes

Cover tightly and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and stir in:

2 large carrots, sliced

2 stalks of celery, sliced

Bake covered for 40 minutes. Stir in:

1 green pepper, chopped

Top with 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese. Bake  uncovered 5 minutes and ta-da!

 The best part is the only dishes you have afterwards are a knife, cutting board, and casserole dish.

Our entire neighborhood runs out when the ice cream truck rolls through. We don't like Kai to have a lot of sugar (especially sugar that overpriced). As an alternative, whenever the ice cream truck comes by I pull a frozen yogurt tube out of the freezer for Kai so he doesn't feel left out when the other neighborhood kids are all eating ice cream.

Today when the ice cream truck came through the kids all exclaimed, "the ice cream truck!" and ran inside to grab their change. Kai looked at the truck coming and happily shouted, "the yogurt bus!".

There are a lot of benefits to being friends with people who aren't your age. Obviously, having "older, mentor" type folks in your life is awesome. Having 12 year old friends in your life is awesome too.

These are our friends and neighbors, Alma and Jennifer. Kai can't pronounce Jennifer's name right. When he tries to say it, it sounds like he's saying "f*cker". Even though I find that absolutely hilarious, we are trying to teach him to just call her "Jenny" instead. ;)

Alma and Jenny are on summer vacation so they're bored and stuck at home all day. I'm still learning how to pack a diaper bag for 2 kids instead of just 1, so I have trouble getting out without an extra hand. So this summer we are combining our resources (their extra hands and my minivan lol) to go on adventures together. Our first adventure was to have a picnic at the fountain at UGA with the "jumping water" as Kai calls it haha. We had so much fun. I love these girls. 

Woah, did he really just eat vegetables?

So I have found another way to get Kai to eat vegetables! Kale chips! yummy :) I love them too.

We order kale from a local farm (we order from locallygrown.net ...really awesome way to connect with local farms, check it out).

To make kale chips, wash and dry the kale. Tear it into small "chip size" pieces. Toss the pieces in olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place them on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes. The bake time here is really important because the kale will burn easily. You want them just barely browned on the edges. Also, don't stir or flip them.

They come out crispy and delicious. So good even my 2 year old will eat them by the handful and beg for more afterwards!

When the cat's away...

As we prepared for Caleb's arrival I wondered how Kai would handle having mommy's attention on another baby instead of always on him. Fortunately, instead of being jealous, Kai has been taking full advantage of mommy's distracted state to get into all the mischief he wants. For example....

We had some friends coming by to bring us dinner and hang out. I thought I would get ahead of the game and give the boys their baths before company showed up. I bathed Caleb, took him out of the bath and began drying him. I turned around as I heard Kai exclaim, "Yucky! Eww"...

.. as he shoved a gob of petroleum jelly into his mouth. It was all over his hands, face, hair. Good thing I already had his bathwater ready. While poor Caleb cried naked on the changing table I quickly dumped Kai into the bathtub. I turned back to Caleb to dress him. Oops.

Don't let that innocent face fool you. While I was turned around, he climbed out of the bathtub, grabbed the bottle of baby shampoo, and dumped the ENTIRE bottle into his bathwater. Between the petroleum jelly and the soap he was slippery for days! haha

2011 Goals

Spiritual:

1. Wait and ask for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

2. Study prophetic books of the Bible

3. Cultivate a heart of worship and gratitude again

. 

Physical:

1. “More with Less” our eating habits

2. Exercise a couple days a week

Random:

1. Write discipleship curriculum

2. Start a blog to write down and share stories of the boys

3. Sew my own cloth diapers