Real Food

I have always kept a keen eye on what my family eats. I used to do organic, but it gets so costly with a family of five. I do when I can. My latest move is to eliminate processed foods. This is the slightest change that I feel has made the most impact on all of our lives.

Within the last few months I had one doctor say you need to eat a Paleo diet and the other said it should definitely be an alkaline diet. I bought books on both and was overwhelmed. This was so confusing to me. I don't eat beef and pork which are the bulk of eating Paleo. So, by default I thought to follow the alkaline way of eating.

I could never seem to get through the alkaline book and truly follow it. Therefore my pH is still lower than I would like. One of the simplest things I have done to implement an alkaline state is to add lemon to my water. With the other stuff, my family is always dueling (well, not literally) over what's for dinner. I decided just to cut out all processed foods. My general rule is if the earth or I didn't make it then you can't have it. For the most part, everyone is eating their dinner. This didn't happen before.

We are eating more whole foods. I still don't have it down to perfection, but I am on the beginning of that journey. I would really love to cut out bread completely. The girls do like sandwiches for lunch, but I just can't get myself to make my own bread. One day!

A really great resource is 100 Days of Real Food by Lisa Leake. She is such an inspiration. For the last six weeks I have been making most of our meals from scratch. It doesn't seem to take that much more time than using processed or prepared foods (although I never used many processed foods when cooking previously). Meal planning sure does help in this process.

Some of the changes I noticed for me was better skin, less moody, no discomfort during menstruation, eczema is gone, unintentionally lost weight eating well, no snacking, no food cravings, better sleep, and just overall feel better. Improvements in my girls are less moody and irritable, no food cravings (especially for sugar), better concentration, asking for fruit, better behaved and attitude. My husband claims no changes with him yet he lost 6 pounds without dieting.

I think there is something to eating real whole food!

Wordless Wednesday

I know it is "Wordless" Wednesday, but I felt I needed to explain. This is camel racing at the New Orleans Fairgrounds. Yes, most people go to see horse racing, but in New Orleans we go to see camel and ostrich racing. Only in New Orleans!

I'm Back, Time Permitting

Wow, it sure has been some time since my last post. But then again, who actually reads my blog? I was going to say my mother, but I'm not sure she even knows I have a blog. For reasons obvious (well, at least to me), life has been super crazy.

Our three girls (now 8, 6, and 4) are so busy. They have a greater social life than their parents. Between their numerous activities to birthday parties to summer camps, I am exhausted. In order to spend more time with them, I vowed I would ween off FaceBook and limit my internet time. This would be the main reason I have not posted.

I am learning to plan life a bit more efficiently these days. One of my greatest accomplishments is learning to plan a weekly menu. This task might take a few hours but, can save me tons of money and time each week. Yes, I fall off the wagon now and then, but for the most part it is a lifesaver.

In addition, I try to plan the night before. I always talked about doing some of these things, but now that I do them, it helps alleviate stress and chaos. For instance, I get all school bags and uniforms ready the night before. I also get everything set up for lunch that can be on the counter before going to bed. Another quick trick is to turn the dishwasher on before bedtime and unload it as soon as I wake up. We never knew if dishes were clean or dirty.

I am hoping with a few of my new time saving tips I will have more time to take care of myself. Hmm, here's an idea! If I start having more time for myself maybe I will post what I am able to do with my free (efficiently made) time.

Happy reading and I hope to post more often!

Summer Swim Team

This summer we decided to try out swim team. SG LOVED it and did fantastic. MM liked it, but was no way near dedicated like her big sister. That is understandable since she is just 5 and her sister is 6 approaching 7.

SG did so well, she was given the chance to swim in the Meet of Champions (MOC) this Saturday. We were quite impressed because going into the meet, SG was 2nd in her division for freestyle and 3rd in her division for backstroke. She sure did accomplish a great deal of technique in just a few weeks in the summer.

Although she didn't do as well as her division competitors at the MOC, we are still very proud of her commitment and accomplishment.

Immersion Works!

My latest cause is immersion programs in the school system. My husband and I went round-and-round trying to figure out where and what kind of education to choose for our children. After endless conversations and hours of research, we decided on a world language immersion program.

So far, so good. Our oldest daughter just completed first grade with "A" honor roll all four 9 weeks.Our 2nd child finished pre-k 4 with a great foundation for her target language. We feel like it was a really great decision. Initially, we had SG enrolled in a parochial school. The one part of public school we were torn about was the fact that there was no daily religion class and they wouldn't get the religious foundation we hoped for. SG also tested into an advanced placement school which you must score a 95% or higher. She did and was accepted, but still we wanted that language immersion.

As the end of the 2010-2011 year approached, we got word that the immersion programs within the Jefferson Parish Public School System was considering eliminating them. The worse part is that the school system didn't notify the principals, coordinator for foreign language and immersion programs, teachers, or parents before the news story broke.

We have gone 1 school year with great results from both of our children. I don't want to see this program go. I was brainstorming with another parent and we came up with an idea to fight the school board and educate everyone what immersion is, the importance of it, and why we need to keep it in the public school system. That is when Immersion Works came alive.

We were just a group of 2 and have grown to a Facebook group of 219. We now have a voice! We had a voice before, but now it is a stronger, louder, and a very educated voice. Our school board members didn't even know we had immersion programs much less what an immersion program was. One of the school board members did attend one of our meetings and went away very knowledgeable and is now an advocate for Immersion Works.

June 7, 2011 at 3:00 PM is the school board meeting that will determine if the immersion programs will truly be cut. As a group, we will attend the meeting en masse all wearing the Immersion Works logo T-shirt. If you are in the area, please join us to show your support.