7 Quick Takes Friday - Late Edition

1. I haven't written anything since last Friday... Two quick takes posts in row - sad? Perhaps. Or...

2. The sun is finally out!! This has a lot to do with why there have been no posts between then and now. We've had a terrible spring in the Pacific Northwest and summer appears to finally be making an appearance. We've been outside a lot.

3. My anniversary weekend with my husband was a resounding success. We had so much fun together - we went out of town for the night, the kids were in great hands, and we had a blast. We walked around town, went on a couple hikes, and ate some great food.

Me and the Hubs in the Cascade Mountains

4. Speaking of food, I started going through the incredible blog, Wellness Mama, which prompted me to start doing more research. My brain is still swirling with everything I've read and learned. Some of it I knew, some of it was new to me, and some of it was simply worse than I realized. She touts the benefits of eliminating grains from your diet, and at first I was highly, highly skeptical. But the more I read, and the more I realized this went along with things I already knew - the more I became convinced.

5. So we're making some big nutritional changes in our house! Slowly but surely, and there are things we'll still have, and things we won't. We're using paleo/primal/cave man/grain-free/whatever you want to call it as our framework.

6. This is a huge shift, especially for my kids who I was forced to admit, live mostly on cereal, cereal bars and crackers. I mean sure, I feed them other things - but that's a HUGE portion of what they wind up eating every day. I had to take a hard look at how I'm feeding my kids, and I have to admit, I'm pretty ashamed of how lazy I've gotten. I've told myself they eat "good enough" for a long time, and the truth is, they don't. I may as well have been giving them bowls of sugar every day.

7. This also led to a mom-piphany. My usual routine for everything but dinner, is to stand in the kitchen and ask what they want to eat, and then get it for them. So for breakfast they might want cereal (dry - the weirdos don't even want milk on it), so I'll grab whatever cereal they've requested. For snacks, I'll do the same thing - ask, then grab. It occurred to me today that I could forego the "what do you want?" (and think they're going to request something super healthy simply because Mommy has been doing internet research) and instead simply put out a plate of food with a bunch of stuff on it, and tell them to have at it. I did that today - put out a plate of peach slices, carrot sticks, celery, salami and cheese. And you know what, they ate it up, not missing a beat! I seriously think my boys ate more produce just today than they ate all last week (which is completely MY fault - hence the changes!).

I'm excited about making these changes and I know we're all going to be healthier for it. Yay!