Friesencold

I have had three different friends ask me unrelated questions recently and after typing out some fairly substantial responses, I figured maybe I’d get a little more bang for my buck and post them on the blog for others to see and share in, if you happen to be interested.

Friend 1 Question 1: Do you have a schedule you follow during the time TJ’s at work? You know, like a routine for the day?

Answer: To answer your question, parts of my day during the week are scheduled. Cash always goes in his crib for an hour of rest/play time each morning from about 9-10am. I love that break I get so I can spend the time with Bauer and/or do other things I need to, like take a shower or send an email or two. Usually I spend the first 20-30 min doing some sort of activity/craft/reading/etc with Bauer and the rest of the hour I take a shower and get ready for the day while Bauer watches TV. He usually watches 30-45 min in the morning and that’s it for the day. Once in a while I may let him watch 15-30 more min in the afternoon if I need the time to do something. But now that it’s nice and the kids can be outside more, I feel like we don’t need the TV as much for entertainment.

After Cash’s rest time – which by the way, is not a nap…I just put toys and books in his crib and he is very happy to play by himself for that hour. I never did that with Bauer but when Cash started to give up his morning nap, I never stopped putting him in his crib, except I just started giving him toys and leaving the light on and the curtain open so he can see outside. He doesn’t know any different and it’s the bomb to have him trained like that to be back there for an hour each morning. I definitely plan to do this with any other kids we may have – so anyway, after Cash’s rest time, we often will go and do one errand, sometimes in the van, sometimes walking. Today we drove to Costco, some days we may walk to the library or the post office, and 2x a week it is a trip to the chiropractor. We get home by about 11:30 from whatever little outing we take and then the kids play outside in the backyard while I fix lunch. We eat out there too now that the weather is nice and by 1, I have them back inside and getting ready for naps. Cash goes down by 1:15 or 1:30 and sleeps till 3:30 or 4. Bauer naps probably every 3 days, not as often as every other day but sometimes it works like that. If he naps, it’s for about 2 hours so he’s usually up just before Cash wakes up. If Bauer doesn’t nap, I make him have Quiet Reading Time in our bedroom, which is an hour of him being on our bed either reading, coloring, drawing, or doing activity books (but no toys). After his hour is up, I let him come out and play something quietly like Legos or puzzles. After about a half hour of that kind of quiet play, I will usually do something with him for a little bit until Cash wakes up or Bauer will help me get started in the kitchen on dinner prep. After they are both awake, we usually do something outside before I have to start really cooking dinner. Bauer still loves to go to the train station so sometimes we go over there to watch the trains….Bauer rides his bike and I push Cash in the stroller. Or we walk to the post office. Or play in the backyard. If we end up staying inside, Bauer might keep helping me in the kitchen while Cash has a snack or wanders around getting into trouble. Or Bauer and I may do an additional alphabet activity for his ABC book. Another favorite thing to do is listen to music, sometimes inside, sometimes in the backyard, but my favorite is on the front porch. Bauer takes his CD player out there and we sit in beach chairs on the porch and listen to his music CDs and watch the cars go by. Or the boys might be out there listening to music and having a snack on the porch while I’m inside getting more stuff done in the kitchen so when it’s time for dinner, it will go a lot quicker. Once about 5 pm rolls around, I send the kids outside to play while I fix dinner. I keep checking on them of course and they keep coming to the door for something or other anyway, so it’s not uninterrupted cooking by any means. TJ gets home by about 5:30 most of the time, so he plays with them while I finish getting dinner ready and then we eat by 5:45 or 6.

Not sure if this helps you in any way, but it does show you that we have a bit of a routine. While the boys nap, I try to sit down and do some sort of Scripture reading / praying / journaling. That is often no more than 20 minutes and not even every day. I also send emails, go through mail, fold clothes, clean up the kitchen, do research on the internet about whatever I need to figure out, make phone calls, reply to MealBaby emails, etc etc. I don’t do all of this every day obviously but that is just a sampling of the kind of stuff I do. I want to spend more time just reading for fun during their naps but it seems like I stay busy with everything but that.

I work out in the mornings, either before TJ goes to work or I’ll take the kids for a walk in the stroller first thing. I bring something easy for them to eat in the stroller and then I’ll fix smoothies when we get home. I probably work out 5 days a week and I try to do free weights every 4-5 days or so. That is something I’d do in the afternoon during their nap time or if Bauer wakes up, I’d perhaps let him watch a little more TV while I finish.

Friend 2 Question 1: We travel a lot, and it is almost impossible to find fruits and vegetables on the road. What do you guys do when you have to travel?

Answer: When we travel, I bring along a lot of our own stuff, especially for the kids, but also for myself. When we fly, I pack almond butter or sunflower seed butter  sandwiches for all of us and I bring along steamed sweet potato, cut into chunks, for the kids. I always have bags of veggies, like sugar snap peas, carrots, cucumbers and celery, all cut up and ready to eat. I cut up a few apples and slice them and have them in bags for the kids to eat. I bring bananas, almonds, raisins, dates, little cups of applesauce (organic, no sugar added), little cups of diced pears or peaches in their own juice…..you get the picture. When we get where we are going, I try to buy similar things that we eat at home. I’ll usually go to a grocery store and try to buy things that are healthy and not too difficult to prepare when we’re traveling. The kids really enjoy vegetarian baked beans (I drain and rinse them from the can and they eat them unheated), avocado chunks, Ezekiel 4:9 cinnamon raisin bread, and of course more fruits and veggies. I haven’t found it to be too challenging to travel and have plenty of healthy stuff to eat, but as Bauer has gotten older, I have become a little (not a lot) more flexible as far as letting him eat some junk when the occasion calls for it.

We don’t do much fast food at all, even when we travel. If we ever make it somewhere where there is a Chick-fil-A, we’ll eat there with excitement and Bauer gets the nuggets and fries and an apple juice. I still usually have food for Cash to eat, but let him have a few fries. I also make sure Bauer is eating some veggies along with his nuggets and fries and he’s pretty good about it, but even if he doesn’t want any, I know he eats so well the rest of the time, that it’s not such a big deal. We eat at Chipotle when we can because it is a healthy “fast-food-type” place. Do you have Chipotle there? All Bauer knows about McDonald’s and Burger King is that they have fish sandwiches and he thinks that sounds gross. I’m glad that’s his perception of those two joints

Friend 2 Question 2: My son has become pretty picky with food … I made all of his food when he was a baby, and he ate anything I gave him. Now that he is a toddler, he has done a 180. He still eats mostly organic fruits and vegetables, but he has his favorites and doesn’t like to try new things anymore. I know that he and Cash are pretty close in age … have you had any issues with Cash not eating some of the meals that you make? I’m a little nervous about what I am going to do if and when my son refuses to eat some of the new things.

Answer: I do feel blessed as far as Cash’s willingness to try new things. Bauer wasn’t as willing as Cash, but even so, I think my overall philosophy has been to only offer them healthy things, and even if they eat a lot of the same things, it is way better than eating a variety of junk. Bauer ate a lot of steamed sweet potato and raw cucumber when he was younger, and he still does. I think his nose even started looking orange-ish at one point (TJ remembers that, but I don’t). Some things I just don’t buy, such as yogurt or cheese sticks. Bauer knows he likes yogurt because we have bought it occasionally and his friends have it sometimes, but I just tell him that we don’t have yogurt at our house, and he really has no concept of eating cheese. I buy shredded cheese for 1 recipe I make a couple times a month and that’s all the cheese he gets (other than our occasional splurge on pizza).

So what would I do if they refused to eat what I cooked? Well, I guess I would try and see if they have a true aversion to it…..like Bauer really dislikes the texture of potatoes in this corn chowder I make, although it’s one of Cash’s favorite meals. I have learned that Bauer isn’t just saying he doesn’t like it to get out of eating it, and every time I make it, I still make him eat one good bite. I figure he may eventually learn to like it. I always plan to fix him something else when we are having corn chowder, or just let him eat the other stuff we are having at that meal. He is pretty content eating the same stuff over and over though. Every day for lunch lately, he wants an almond butter and honey sandwich, and besides that, he will often eat steamed sweet potato chunks (cold, by the way) and veggies from the veggie tray that I keep in the fridge at all times. He likes eating them plain, or dipping them in hummus, or even dipping them in ketchup (Cash, too!).

If your son were to start refusing to eat what you make, especially as you try new recipes, I think my advice would be to have other healthy options you know he likes, such as the veggies he likes or some other sides you have prepared that he likes, and let him just eat more of that, and just do your best to get him to try a bite or two of the new stuff. I wouldn’t deprive him of food altogether just because he doesn’t want the main thing you are preparing, but at the same time, I wouldn’t prepare a whole different meal for him or  just give him grilled cheese all the time because he likes it (not saying you do this, but I’ve heard of moms who just always fix their kids grilled cheese or something similar because their kids don’t like the meal the rest of the family is eating).

Friend 2 Question 3: Do you buy all organic? I was wondering what things you tend to buy organic and the things that you let go. It’s hard for me to buy anything conventional anymore, but I am not a millionaire, so I have to.

Answer: As far as organic goes, I always buy organic spinach, organic strawberries (fresh and frozen), and organic applesauce. I buy organic potatoes 9 times out of 10, and I used to always buy organic sweet potatoes considering how many of those the kids eat (but it became too much trouble to make special trips to Whole Foods for them and they are more than double the price usually). So now I just scrub the conventional sweet potatoes extra well and I always peel them before steaming.

I would like to buy organic grapes and apples and celery all the time as well, but have not been able to find good quality, reasonably priced organic options for those. So I always peel our apples, wash and rinse the grapes in a big bowl of water SIX times, and I wash and peel the celery. Oh yeah, I also usually buy organic carrots, not so much because I worry about the pesticides on those, but because they aren’t much more expensive and I really think they taste better.

I have recently starting buying more greens (mainly Swiss chard and kale) and if the organic selection on those looks good, I will buy those and if not, I’ll go conventional. Dr. Furhman’s newest book, Eat for Health, really inspired me to get serious about adding greens to our diet much more consistently.

Friend 3 Question 1: How is house hunting going?

Answer: We actually went through a 4-month process of trying to buy a house that was a “short sale” from Jan-April, only to find out after about 100 days that the bank said no to our offer. We went up some on our offer at that point and they were hemming and hawing (basically giving us the runaround) until they finally came back and said we could have it if we brought an extra $1,000 to the closing, as well as having the seller bring $1,000 and both realtors taking a lesser percentage than their usual cut. It all seemed a bit sketchy to us, plus we had started to feel like maybe we were trying to force something to happen that basically wasn’t going to happen on its own. We had been in prayer a lot through the whole process and it just seemed like God wasn’t giving a certain YES. Even though there wasn’t a certain NO either, we made the decision, after taking advice from some people we trust to the core, to back out of the whole process with that particular house we had been trying to get for the previous few months. TJ and I both felt very comfortable with our decision and are looking forward to spending another summer here in the house we are renting in downtown Naperville. We love the location and we especially love our backyard with our new (used) Rainbow swing set some friends passed on to us when their kids outgrew it. Tonight was our first weekly backyard BBQ of the summer with some friends and it was a joy to host them in such a pleasant setting in such pleasant late-spring weather. I definitely don’t miss Orlando this time of year! So, we are not house hunting at the moment, just trying to focus on other things that are moving forward for us (MealBaby being one of those – yay!).

Friend 3 Question 2: Any great reads?

Answer: As far as what I’m reading, well, Little Bee by Chris Cleave was my most recent read and I loved it to pieces. You may have seen this on my blog already. I have been trying to get into Cleave’s other, earlier novel called Incendiary, but I have not found it nearly as appealing. I think I may take a pass on it. My mom lent me a book called Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay and I was hoping to read that next. But I haven’t given much time to reading at all lately. I did decide to re-read Todd Cartmell’s book Respectful Kids during the month of June, and then another parenting book during July. I am excited about Respectful Kids and starting to implement some of the practical training tools. Bauer has responded quite well so far. It is so cool when you realize you can train your kids to make good choices (such as fast listening, flexible thinking, or even sitting still in the chiropractor’s waiting room) if you take the time to be intentional and to set out your expectations for them before you are in the upcoming situation. That’s something I learned from Dani Johnson’s book Grooming the Next Generation for Success. That might be my July re-read. Or the book by John Gottman called Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child. I figure I have found these few books that are full of wisdom and rather than keep trying to read new books on parenting, I should just re-read these few good ones and put them into practice, so help me God.

In no particular order, thank you to my friends Maggie, Lindsey, and Beth for the questions you asked and the blog material you provided.

We had fun with the letter C the last few days. Below is a sampling of what we did:

Bauer made a letter C with his body.

I picked out a couple of our books to be the C books, including one of my all-time favorite children’s books: Cookies by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

TJ read the C books to the kids at breakfast one morning.

For a special C treat, we made Chocolate-Avocado Cupcakes.

Bauer wanted to put a candle in his, and I couldn’t say no since candle starts with C too!

Deli-C-ious!

Unrelated to C, I just wanted to share some pics of our dinner last night. These burgers were a big hit! I have made them before but Bauer wasn’t really into them. Last night, however, he loved them. With the burgers, we had a box of Lundberg Farms butternut squash risotto with chia gel added in (those are the little black seeds that you see); peas; and steamed kale. I thought it would be fun to take pictures of each of our plates before we ate last night.

First is Bauer’s plate. He didn’t finish all the peas, but he ate 2 burgers!

Next is Cash’s plate, minus the ketchup. He liked the risotto and the peas the best, but he also ate some veggies and about half of his burger.

TJ’s plate next!

And finally, my plate.

I actually ate a third burger too. I made the burgers a little smaller than the recipe I just linked to. I couldn’t remember whether to use 1/3 cup or 1/2 cup scoop to make the patties. I chose the smaller and ended up with 10 burgers instead of 7. There were plenty to go around and a couple left over for the kids to eat today.

For the letter B, Bauer helped me make Banana Ice Cream (ingredients: frozen bananas). The Champion Juicer is the b-b-b-b-b-bomb!

These next shots are from a couple nights ago at dinner. TJ was doing something across the table to crack Cash up, and of course then Bauer wanted in on the action. The ketchup on Cash’s plate was to dip homemade potato chips in (but Cash also likes to dip his cucumbers), and the pasta in Cash’s bowl is this.

Last, here’s a picture of the salad I had for lunch yesterday. It was the best salad I’ve made in a long time, thanks to the leftover roasted potato strips and green onions, which both added terrific flavor.

Here’s what’s in there: Organic mixed baby greens, organic spinach, broccoli, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, yellow pepper, celery, cucumber, green onion, avocado, sliced raw almonds, roasted potato strips, and Newman’s Own Light Honey Mustard salad dressing.

2 Tablespoons of the tiniest little alfalfa seeds turned into this, a big ole’ plate of alfalfa sprouts!

The buckwheat groats didn’t bulk up quite as much, due to the seeds being larger (and hence, less of them) to begin with.

I had to dump the sunflower seeds because they weren’t sprouting the way I thought they should and I was also worried they might be spoiling due to me not being able to get all the skins removed from the soaking water (that is what my instructions said to do).

The sprouted wheat berries didn’t have enough Wow Factor to dump them on a plate and snap a picture, but here’s my line-up in the fridge. This is after being sprouted from 10pm Tuesday night to 3pm Thursday afternoon, so what’s that? Not quite 47 hours.

From left to right, it’s alfalfa sprouts, buckwheat sprouts, and wheat sprouts or sprouted wheat berries – however you say that one.

Today for lunch I fixed myself a few pita pockets filled with shredded and chopped veggies and then overflowing with sprouts. They were just great!

This was just my first plate. I ate three more halves after this!

I spread hummus inside each pita first, then added shredded carrot and zucchini, followed by chopped cucumber and red pepper, and topped with the sprouts. I felt so cool eating my work!

Has anyone ever seen such gorgeous Swiss Chard?

I steamed some to go with our dinner tonight. We had Roasted Veggies with Quinoa. It’s one of our favorite meals. I added carrots to the roasted veggie mix for the first time tonight.

I plan to try my hand at sprouting some seeds pretty soon. We went to Whole Foods this morning after church so I could buy the seeds. I’m going to start with hulled raw sunflower seeds, hard red winter wheat berries, hulled raw buckwheat groats, and alfalfa seeds. Now all I have to get is either nylon tulle from a fabric store or gray fiberglass screens from a hardware store to go over the tops of the quart jars I will use. Maybe I’ll send TJ to Menards since those types of stores are his favorite and my least-favorite.

Coleslaw!

When we were in NC a couple weeks ago (see the great pictures under Photos tab at top), we had some barbeque and coleslaw, and ever since, I just haven’t been able to get my coleslaw fix. I keep buying cabbage and I keep making slaw. My version is super-simple: just use the shredding disc on my food processor to shred green and red cabbage, plus a couple carrots. I mix it all together in a big bowl with lid to store in fridge. Then when I want slaw, I scoop some of the shredded veggies into a bowl and pour a little Newman’s Own Light Honey Mustard Dressing over it and mix it all together.

I love it, TJ likes it, Bauer likes it, and Cash spits it out. He kept thinking he would like it at first and pointed at the bowl, grunting. But once those little shreds made it to his mouth, out they came.

Today for lunch I made veggie sandwiches with mashed avocado, red pepper, mushrooms, cucumbers, lettuce and coleslaw. So delicious! Reminded me of the sandwiches at Which Wich, which TJ and I love because they put coleslaw on them. Now we can just make our own at home.

I am reading Dr. Fuhrman’s 2-book set called Eat for Health, which includes a ton of recipes. There are several versions of coleslaw that I want to try. That and about a zillion other things. I haven’t forgotten about my homemade bread experiment either. Did I mention a friend recently gave me a breadmaker? I’m thinking that’s about the only way I’m going to get myself going on making homemade bread, i.e. let the machine do it for me. And no, in this case, I’m not the machine.

I’ve been thinking about story a lot lately. I just finished reading Donald Miller’s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and my favorite part of the book was the part about Bob Goff and his family and the story they are living. I want to have a story like that, or just a story period. I am going to go back and write down all the lines I underlined in a little bird notebook my sister gave me for Christmas. I love words and quotes and lines from books, and I love having them all together in one place so they can add up to something in my life.

Here is just one line I loved from this book, “You become the character in the story you are living, and whatever you were is gone.”

I am also thinking about placing an order for some new supplements from Hallelujah Acres. I have never taken a greens supplement before, but now that Hallelujah Acres has introduced a berry blend of their well-known BarleyMax product, I was thinking I might want to try it out. I worked it out, and the cost to take BarleyMax Berry would be $1 a day.

I also want to order some of their professional strength probiotics. I realized after starting to see the chiropractor that the probiotics I have been taking don’t have nearly enough strains, especially if I am hoping for that to help resolve the hormonal issue I referenced earlier. The chiro recommends 20 billion strains a day, and for me, he said 40 billion might be good for a while. The cost of this amount would also be $1 a day. So just for these 2 supplements alone, I would be spending $2 a day on myself. That’s not counting the Iodine supplement I am also considering, or the Vitamin D3, Vitamin B12, multivitamin, or chia gel I am currently using.

I was thinking about the 67 and the 20 which are numbers our church talks about all the time. 67% of people in the world are far from God, and 20% of people in the world live on less than $1 a day. And here I was, fixing to spend $2 a day to take a concentrated greens supplement and probiotics. I am thinking about what I think about this.

What if I took that $1 a day I was going to use on BarleyMax and actually did something different and specific with it?

I think it is so interesting that there are so many causes that a person could get involved with. For example, I was at the train station one day last week with the kids. I took them there to see the trains but it was cold enough that day that we had to go inside the train station to wait for the next train to come. I saw an old man sitting there in the train station. He was wearing glasses and he was holding the paperback novel he was reading very close to his face. I couldn’t see the man’s face as his back was to me, but I kept looking at how close he was holding the book to his face in order to see the words. It made me think, what if he needs a new prescription for his glasses and he can’t afford that, so he has to make do with the glasses he has and hold whatever he is reading so close to his eyes in order to see the words? I felt very sad for that man. I told TJ about him that night, and I have thought of him and felt sad about him multiple times since that day.

What if I found a way that I could give the money I would have spent on BarleyMax to an organization that helps people who can’t afford to pay for getting glasses, or new prescriptions, or vision check ups? That would be a true gift, to enable people to see. What if I couldn’t see the words that mean so much to me? Without the words, I would not be nearly as healed as I am. Words heal me in ways I cannot describe with words and what if that healing is what I would be offering by helping people to see with their eyes? I am just thinking about all this and wanted to share it with you.

I also wanted to tell you what is on Bauer’s little mind. Besides loving Caillou, which we discovered during the itchy days of chicken pox when all he did all day was watch TV, Bauer is truly head-over-heels about the little Lego instruction booklet and product catalog that came with the Lego City police helicopter set I bought for him recently.

I have never seen Bauer so attached to one thing for so long (except Tucker). He has been carrying the little booklet around with him for days and almost always has it turned to the one page with the big green Lego airplane that sits in the middle of the Lego airport scene. He says multiple times a day how much he loves that airplane. If he happens to forget about the Lego booklet for a little while, as soon as he remembers, he is quick to ask me where his airplane book is (and of course, I always know). He wanted to go to Target the other day just to look at the Lego stuff. He wanted to know when his birthday is and if he can get the airplane for his birthday. He wanted to know if he can get it sooner with the money in his jars or if he sells stuff he has (yes, my idea). He keeps wanting to know how much the airplane costs. He took the booklet in the bedroom before his nap today and wanted to lay on the bed and look at the airplane page for a few minutes before he went to sleep. He wanted the book left open to the airplane page when I put it on the nightstand by the bed while he took his nap.

This whole thing is just so cute for me to see, that Bauer has a desire. Something he really truly wants. I like the idea that we can try to teach Bauer to be resourceful through this want of his. Like, if you want something in life, what can you trade or give up to get what you want? I am also thinking, though, about how to teach him that we are not entitled to anything, that all we have is God’s, and that what other people need is way more important than what we want.

You know how the very hungry caterpillar ate all that junk, but then on Sunday he ate through one nice big green leaf?

Well, I kind of did that through my shopping experience today at Meijer.

Here are the fruits and veggies I bought:

24 Fuji apples
39 bananas
5 Bosc pears
1 Asian pear (tastes like candy, but because they cost $1 each, I only bought one)

2 one-pound clamshells of organic spinach
1 head of celery, or is it stalk?
6 cucumbers
3-lb bag of yellow onions
5-lb bag of organic russet potatoes
3 one-pound bags of organic baby carrots (on sale for $1 each!)
8 avocadoes
1 head of cauliflower
1 head of broccoli
1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 bunch of kale

And here’s the other (non-produce) stuff I bought:

2 jars of mild salsa
4 large cans of diced tomatoes
1 loaf of whole wheat bread
1 pack of whole wheat hamburger buns
1 package raw walnuts

The thing I spent the longest time deciding on at Meijer was what bread to buy. I’ve noticed that I’ve done the same thing during several recent shopping trips. I just stand there on the bread aisle, looking at all the options, looking at all the prices, looking at all the ingredient lists, trying to pick the best overall. We used to always buy the Pepperidge Farm 100% Whole Wheat Hearty Texture, but when the regular price of this loaf went up and held at $3.69, I started looking to substitute with cheaper, yet similar loaves of bread.

Now I’m starting to think I might try to make some homemade bread. Maybe I will make that my project for March. We recently were given a loaf of bread from Panera and TJ really enjoyed slicing the bread himself for thick pieces of toast. I liked the idea of it, and how it seemed healthier somehow. There was no label on it, so I don’t know what the ingredients were or how much fiber or sugar or protein were in each slice. But just having that loaf of bread made homemade bread seem more achievable somehow.

During the same week as the bread from Panera, I read this article on a website that my friend Gretchen from Texas told me about and it made me feel part-inspired, part-overwhelmed. I know it’s supposed to be simple, but when you’ve never used a packet of yeast or kneaded a lump of dough in your life, well, it’s a little scary. I know the best way to start is to start small, so for the rest of February, I’m just going to think about making homemade bread. I’m not going to do it yet.

But what I am going to do this month is try to make some homemade Larabars. I searched online this past week for some recipes and found a few that look to be good copies of the real thing. I will let you know how it goes. My first kind to make will be the Cinnamon Roll kind. TJ will thank me.

[Disclaimer: This is a long post entirely related to health/nutrition/wellness stuff....so make sure you're in the right frame of mind and you have a little time on your hands. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!]

Two of our latest health-related ventures are the incorporation of chia seed into our diet and the addition of chiropractic wellness care to our arsenal against pain and sickness.

Let me remember, though, that I am not in control. I repeat, I am not in control.

Part I

Chia seed was introduced to me a while back by none other than Jeffrey L. Hardin. That’s my dad. I don’t know how he originally found out about chia seed, but he has done quite a bit of research on the topic and has shared much of what he has learned with me. It’s like my own nutrition seminar. He even bought me what could be the textbook, The Magic of Chia by James F. Scheer.

Chia seed has been around for ages but is just now starting to make a comeback because it is only in recent years that chia has been farmed in large enough quantities to be affordable to people like you and me. Today, in fact, I saw a big display of bags of organic chia seeds at Whole Foods. I was really surprised, but at the same time, not. I have been wanting to write this post for a while to share my newfound zeal for chia, but I kept feeling like I didn’t know how to sum it all up concisely enough to do it justice on the blog. But I’ll try.

Chia Gel and Chia Seeds

Here’s a little synopsis I got from an article about chia seeds that my dad printed for me a long time ago (which I cannot currently reproduce now for some reason). Chia seeds contain:
*6 times more calcium than whole milk
*15 times more magnesium than broccoli
*3 times more antioxidant capacity than fresh blueberries
*3 times more iron than spinach
*2 times more potassium than bananas
*More fiber than flaxseed
*More protein than soy
*Good source of B vitamins and the bone-building mineral combination of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, boron, and copper

I am also sharing with you this website where I purchase chia seeds (I buy the black seeds at about $7/lb, which is $4/lb cheaper than what I saw at Whole Foods today) and where you can read this to learn more for yourself about chia. Here’s another place to learn some basic facts about chia. And if that’s not enough, here’s one more article. Or just go read the book.

The bottom line is that chia seeds are high in protein, calcium, fiber, and omega-3 fatty acids, and they do not turn rancid the way that flaxseed is known to do. In fact, as I was learning about chia seed, I also learned simultaneously that flaxseed has been banned for human consumption in some countries because it contains toxins and other antinutritional factors. What I read was convincing enough that I threw away about 5 pounds of flaxseed that I had just purchased at Whole Foods the week before.

Chia seeds have the interesting property of absorbing up to 9 times their weight in water, which means you either need to consume it as a gel (water already absorbed into the seeds) or you need to consume the dry seeds along with liquid so that the seeds don’t soak up the fluids inside your body. The primary way I currently use chia seed is to mix 2 cups of water with 1/3 cup chia seeds. Stir the mixture with a whisk and let it sit for 15 minutes. Stir again, then put in a container with a lid, and store in the refrigerator for 24 hours before using. Now what you have is chia gel. The recommended amount to take, according to the paperwork I received with my chia seeds, is 3 Tablespoons of chia gel 3 times a day. My understanding, though, is that you cannot use too much so I don’t really worry that much quantities. I just try and use it when it makes sense to add it to something.

Our current use of chia seeds/gel includes:
*Adding several Tablespoons of chia gel in place of ground flaxseed to our smoothies each morning before blending in the Vita-Mix.
*I usually add a couple more Tablespoons to the top of my smoothie because I enjoy the unique texture of the gel which adds a little “chewiness” and a lot of nutrition.
*I have also added the chia gel to soup a couple times.
*I have added ground chia seed to the banana-oatmeal bars I make and also to the boxed butternut squash risotto we have on occasion.
*I have been adding 1 Tablespoon of the dry seeds to a 20 oz bottle of water and letting it sit in the fridge overnight before drinking it the next day. This ratio doesn’t end up being as much of a gel as the regular chia gel, but each little seed does form a bit of a gel pocket around it and almost makes the water chewy. Hard to explain, but a fun little experiment.
*To show another use for the whole chia seeds, here’s a little snack I’ve been enjoying lately:

Sliced Banana with Sunflower Seed Butter and Dry Chia Seeds

So that’s the chia story. Anyone who has any chia experience of your own, I’d love to hear it!

Part II

My friend Lisa has been sharing hers and her family’s chiropractic experience with me on occasion over the past year or so. I have never felt any pressure to “join,” but I have always been interested in and intrigued by things she has shared with me. Last Friday night, Lisa and I were hanging out at Starbucks and I was sharing with her the most recent of Bauer’s ailments in the long list that started right after Christmas with croup, followed by chicken pox, soon followed by a bad cold, and finally ended with an ear infection. I was talking to Lisa about the ear infection, how it was Bauer’s second ever in his life, and how we had gone for five days since it started, trying to wait it out, seeing if it would get better on its own. We took him back to the doctor to see if it was improving and they told us it was getting worse, which made sense as Bauer had not slept through the night in five nights and was complaining often of his ear hurting, not to mention his hearing was about shot.

We finally resorted to an antibiotic to try and treat the infection. I really don’t know if the antibiotic did it or if time did it, but Bauer seems to be all better now, minus the minor hearing loss he is still experiencing. After I got done with my whole speil (yes, that’s a real word and that’s how it’s spelled – I just looked it up!), Lisa shared with me about how that same week, she had taken her 9 month old daughter to the pediatrician for a well visit and came to find out that her daughter was suffering from an ear infection. Lisa was surprised to hear it as her daughter wasn’t any fussier than would be expected with the teething she was in the middle of. Nonetheless, Lisa decided to leave the pediatrician’s office and go straight to the chiropractor to have her daughter adjusted. [FYI, Lisa's daughter has been being adjusted since the day she was born, literally. Their chiropractor came to the hospital and adjusted her that soon!] Lisa decided not to tell the chiropractor about the ear infection diagnosis and just see if he noticed anything unusual when he was doing the adjustment. Lisa said that he did notice that something didn’t feel right around one of her ears or on that side of her neck, or wherever it is that they feel stuff like that. He put some pressure in that area, and Lisa said she heard a popping noise. Well, two days later, Lisa took her daughter back to the pediatrician just to have her ears looked at, and she was given a clean bill of health! That whole story was pretty convincing, given what we had just been through with Bauer. Lisa shared more things with me as well, but the ear infection incident was especially timely….more timely than I even realized that night, as I had no idea what was to come for Cash just a couple days later.

I went home that Friday night after talking with Lisa and talked to TJ about all this. And then on Saturday morning I called the chiropractor’s office where Lisa goes and made an appointment for me and Bauer on Monday morning to go for a consultation with the chiropractor and to have X-rays done. I wasn’t sure at that point if TJ was going to be able to go with us, or whether I would take Cash. But at the very least, I wanted me and Bauer to go.

Once Monday morning arrived, it was very clear to me that whether TJ could go or not, Cash would definitely be going with me. The reason for this is that all Sunday night, Cash did not sleep. And that means we did not sleep. Cash started with his crying around 8 or 9 pm on Sunday night and was basically up off and on throughout the whole night, running a fever, crying, tugging at his ears, and not being the Cash we all know and love. After our recent experience with Bauer’s ear infection, I was pretty sure that was what we were dealing with with Cash. I called our pediatrician’s office first thing on Monday morning and was in there for an appointment at 9:30 am. TJ was home with the guys who were replacing our hot water heater (yay for our new 40 gallon hot water heater and showers that are actually hot from start to finish!), and Bauer was watching their every move and wishing he could help.

The pediatrician confirmed that Cash had lots of fluid in one ear and a bright red eardrum in the other ear, signaling an ear infection. She said it was a low-grade infection at this point, but could easily develop into more. As soon as the appointment ended, I went back home and picked up Bauer and off we went to the chiropractor for our scheduled 10:45 am appointment. TJ couldn’t come with us because the worker guys were still working, but thankfully my friend Lisa was able to arrive just a little after 11:00 for their weekly adjustments and then stayed to help me with the kids during what ended up being about an hour and half of talking with the doctor, me and Bauer getting X-rays done, and Cash having his first adjustment.

I don’t think the chiropractor would normally have done any adjustments on our first visit, but with the ear infection news, I was eager to have the chiropractor work his magic on Cash. At least that’s how I was thinking of it on that day. It must have been magic because when we got home, Cash ate a tiny lunch and then had a not-so-tiny nap. Five and a half hours to be exact. I was leaving at 7 pm to go out with some friends that night and Cash was still sleeping from his nap. I got home at 10:15 that night to find Cash up and just as happy as a lark. He was playing with Geo-Trax, toting around a piece of a sandwich or something TJ made him. TJ said Cash had finally woken around 8:15 pm! The chiropractor had told me Cash might want to sleep after the adjustment and he wasn’t kidding! We put Cash back to bed that night around 10:45 and he slept through the night with no problem. I will say we did give him Infants Motrin a couple times that first day and then maybe once or twice the day after, but it was nothing like the amount of Motrin we gave Bauer during his week of pain. The next morning (the morning after Cash’s long-nap-day), I noticed a dried puddle of yellowish fluid in Cash’s crib, which I assume was drainage from his ear.

We went back to the chiropractor again on Tuesday, and this time the chiropractor adjusted Cash again, and me and Bauer for the first time. Bauer was a little hesitant, but he did well. The adjustments are over so quickly so there really isn’t much time for the kids to be anxious, and I’m sure they will get more used to it the more we go. TJ came on Tuesday as well so that he could hear some of the initial results of mine and Bauer’s X-rays and so he could see how the adjustments would go. Today (Friday) we all went back again, with me, Bauer, and Cash being adjusted, and TJ staying extra so he could have an X-ray of his own and a consultation with the doctor. TJ and I will be going to a little class with some other new folks next week so we can learn more, see the detailed results of our X-rays, and go over the financial stuff (i.e. insurance coverage or non-coverage) and then decide on a plan of action for our family.

This is all very new to me, but very exciting. I just feel like chiropractic care could be the missing piece in several areas of our lives. I am still dealing with some hormone-related issues since being pregnant with and giving birth to Cash, Bauer has his ongoing allergy/asthma issues, TJ has had some knee pain that he’d like to see gone, and Cash, well Cash is the only one of us without an actual pinpointed issue, but wellness is not a bad reason to see a chiropractor.

I am very thankful that Lisa shared with me about their experiences with this chiropractor and that we have the opportunity to try the practice for ourselves. I’m even thankful that Cash had the ear infection so I would know to take him along with us that first day. I’m thankful that TJ is willing to give this a try with us. I’m thankful that here in America, during this time in which we live, we are so fortunate to be able to just decide we want to do something for our health and we can do it.

You can do it! Just remember, you are not in control.

We had a very low-key Valentine’s Day this year. No cards, but TJ and I did go to Barnes and Noble one night and look at the Valentine’s cards and try to pick out the ones we would have bought for one another. That was a fun thing to do that I think is quite sustainable for future holidays. No gifts either, except for something small that TJ bought for me. On the morning of Valentine’s Day, TJ told me to go look on the big bookcase from IKEA for my gift. Right away, I knew it had to be a book and within seconds, I had found it. What TJ doesn’t realize is that I stand in front of the bookcase often, just looking at all our books, so when a new one (especially one with a bright green cover) appears, I’m sure to find it.

The book is called Simply in Season, and I love it! My friend Hannah has mentioned this book several times in posts she has written on her blog, which is how I first found out about it. I also recently ordered a copy of the book to give to my friend Amber for her birthday because I know she loves eating good local food and it just seemed like a book she’d like, but I also secretly wanted to check out the book for myself to see if I’d truly want my own copy. TJ must have heard me say I did!

The book is really a book of recipes but with lots of interesting commentary throughout on not only the recipes themselves, but on the bigger picture of eating in a way where everything belongs, meaning good for us, for those who grow our food, and for the earth itself. Isn’t that all the rage these days? But this book isn’t faddish at all. The title really is most appropriate. It’s about eating simple meals, whole foods, what’s in season, and what’s local, and appreciating God for all of it.

Today I was flipping through the Winter Recipes section and found myself going over a Sweet Potato Soup recipe a few times. It looks like something I want to try. What caught me even more, though, was the short essay at the bottom of the page. I feel like these few paragraphs really capture the essence of the book, and the essence of what I want my family’s eating to be about. I like how there is room for imperfection and growth and how we can “celebrate with gusto” what we are given to enjoy. I am typing it out to share with you here, now:

“Cherish that sweet potato”

If I had to put what I believe about food and the environment into two words of advice, I would say this: Celebrate hope.

If you can find a farm, a market, a store where you can see that love for the earth and for future generations is a priority, sell all that you have and buy their food. If you can find friendly faces in your local food system who are willing to go beyond public relations and discuss tough questions, hug them! If you can smell the Spirit of God on their sweet potatoes, buy 20 pounds! Eat these potatoes with gusto, thanking God that someone, somewhere had a vision.

You are not consistent in all areas of your life? Lord have mercy on you, a sinner: act on one little thing you know. You can only afford one holy sweet potato and the rest is boxed macaroni and cheese? Act on what you can afford. You will love that sweet potato and the earth that grew it even more.

-Jennifer Schrock