Lots to Learn

I learned so much today and it was fun to kind of feel like a student again.  Our morning kicked off at MOPS where we had a guest speaker who spoke to us about helping our children create healthy relationships with food.  I need to take her course of having a healthy relationship with food as an adult, I think, but I'm happy to have some new knowledge to help my children to have that peace about food and not have it be such a consuming part of their lives.  My goal is to create what she called natural eaters-- people who recognize when they're hungry and stop when they're satisfied, people who can have a plate of cookies in the house and not feel like they have to eat the whole thing, people who don't have good foods and bad foods, but eat in moderation, with awareness and joy.  How freeing would that be?!?!  I'm hoping that helping my boys will help me as well.  It's always been a tricky area for me.

A key step to creating natural eaters, she said, is to create predictable and consistant mealtimes, eating on dishes at the table, using it as a time to come together in love.  She also emphasized the importance of providing a variety of choices and being ok with what your child chooses to eat...so maybe you put out cheese, nuts, some crackers, and hard boiled eggs, being sure to include at least one thing they like and possibly something new or not so appealing to them and allow them to take what they'd like.  Or if you're doing taco night, bring all of the ingredients to the table unassembled and let them choose what they'd like.  Maybe they'll only choose meat and avocado but that's ok.  It's definitely a new way of looking at meal times for me.

Starting tomorrow, I'm going to try to have more consistent meal times and try having them choose from several options.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it works for us.  In case you're interested, she recommended the books by Ellyn Satter as a good resource as well.  You know I'll be checking them out.

While I educated myself, the boys had fun making this craft...

This time Colton chose the minimalist approach while Mason got a little more into it.  I don't think I'll ever figure those two out.  

On the way home from MOPS, I asked the boys if they wanted to go to the gym or to our house and was surprised to hear they chose the gym.  Good thing I had thought ahead and packed my gym clothes.  We swung in there for a quick 30 minutes on the elliptical, doing a variation of my favorite elliptical workout.  I've decided to do my own thing on the cardio days for Best Body Bootcamp.  It's working for me.  I am looking forward to another power circuit tomorrow though.

Now that I'm finished with The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks, which lacked his usual happy ending by the way, I started a new book while I was on the elliptical and was blown away with how intriguing it is as it teaches me about the male species...

If it wasn't in my kindle, I seriously think I'd be highlighting the whole thing.  I am only about 10% of the way through it but so far I say it is a must read, especially if you have boys or just want to understand your husband better...or if you're a man and want to figure out what makes you tick, since that's the audience it was primarily intended for.  I am reading it based on my husband's recommendation, and my friend's reminder that Beth Moore referenced it in her wisdom series.  

Here's couple of quotes from John Eldredge book so far...

“The recipe for fun is pretty simple raising boys: add to any activity an element of danger, stir in a little exploration, add a dash of destruction, and you’ve got yourself a winner. The way they ski is a perfect example. Get to the top of the highest run, point your skis straight downhill and go, the faster the better. And this doesn’t end with age; the stakes simply get higher.”          

“A man needs a battle to fight; he needs a place for the warrior in him to come alive and be honored, trained, seasoned. If we can reawaken that fierce quality in a man, hook it up to a higher purpose, release the warrior within, then the boy can grow up and become truly masculine.

“Masculinity is an essence that is hard to articulate but that a boy naturally craves as he craves food and water.”

And I stumbled across this one as I googled him to find out more about him...

As a woman, men often confuse me, but I'm already seeing how this book can help me to understand them better...and hopefully raise them well.  I'm telling you, it's intriguing stuff!

During nap time I was able to get in some yoga, something I'm trying to do more of, and had a workout I thoroughly loved thanks to this wonderful site I stumbled upon... Today I tried out the Core Work with Kyle and will definitely be doing it again.  It was SUCH a great workout.  I'm hoping to try out lots of their other free content as well.  

I also got to brush up on my Geometry while I helped a student student for a geometry test tomorrow.  It had been a while since I'd used Sin, Cos, and Tan...good stuff!  I'm a dork, I know.  

Our day winded down with a visit from a great friend who came bearing pizza and wine.  If you've never had the white pizza from Carmelas, and I hadn't until today, you've got to try it...it's worth the splurge if you ask me.  I'm working on having more balance in my life anyways, right?  A little pizza once in a while with a good friend does the body good.  Lucky for us, we have some leftovers too!

Off to put my feet up with some tea and my kindle.