There was an article in the Huffington Post recently about a mother who put her 7 year old on a diet, and has now written a book about it.  Three questions arose in me when I read this. Firstly – what was the child eating that she became overweight in the first place? Secondly, what were the activity levels of the child?  Why she couldn’t run off any excess weight? And thirdly, what were the stress levels in the family that …

“Meaning hides in repetition:  We do this every day or every week because it matters.  We are connected by this thing we do together.  We matter to one another.  In the tapestry of childhood, what stands out is not the splashy, blow-out trip to Disneyland but the common threads that run throughout and repeat:  the family dinners, nature walks, reading together at bedtime, Saturday morning pancakes.” – Kim John Payne
The message in this chapter is that we can help our …

Ever since reading Simplicity Parenting I have wanted to put together a meal plan. But I also kept putting off creating it until I had more time to think about meals and the flow of our week and eating healthy and all the other things that go into a well thought out meal plan.
Then one day I just got fed up waiting for the right time to come, and put one together on the fly in about five minutes.  It …

After such a slow, wet and chilly start to the season, we are finally, blissfully, immersed in summer weather.  But still, already there is a chill in the air that whispers of fall.  I do hope the sun continues to shine into the beginning of September to give all of us west coasters the feeling that we had a great and long summer vacation.  It’s no secret, however, that fall and winter are my favorite seasons, and I’m eager to …

It started as an all-out attack on the family grocery budget. My love for feeding my family “real” foods with simple ingredients I recognize was deeply rooted, and, I think, an integral part of our simplicity journey…but it was decidedly not compatible with my grocery budget.  What was I to do?  After several months of flagrant overspending, it became clear that Food and Finances needed to sit down and have a little meeting of the minds.

I discovered a fantastic …

As long as I can remember, having people over for dinner always meant trying new recipes, or at least making something complicated that I already knew how to make.  I’m not sure why that is the case.  Even something “easy” like quiche, I would make it more complicated by putting in ingredients like sliced potatoes and asparagus that had to be cooked and sliced and diced before going into the quiche.  And as far as the new recipes were concerned, …

Self-care wasn’t modeled for me. I didn’t see self-care as a valid option until I had been a mother desperately in need of it. I imagine how I could have benefited from learning this skill early on – from my mom, in kindergarten, or in college!
It was tricky in the beginning. When I started caring for myself, I wasn’t exactly brilliant at it. It was the first thing to go when things began to get challenging. …

Six weeks ago I set out to make a meal rhythm for our family. I was looking to make a little headway against “ick I don’t like that” which had recently made it’s way into our house. I sat down and looked at the kinds of meals we eat regularly, this is easy for me, I’m a food blogger. I looked at what kind of meals I feel best about serving my family. And which ones made my family happiest. …

“Eat food, Not a lot, Mostly plants ” ~ Michael Pollan
Green vegetables are the foods most missing in modern diets. Learning to cook and eat greens is essential to creating health. Greens strengthen the blood and respiratory system. Green is associated with Spring, the time of renewal, refreshment and vital energy. In Asian medicine, green is related to the liver, emotional stability and creativity.
Nutritionally, greens are very high in calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorous, zinc and vitamins A, C, E …

What a wonderful resource The Parenting Passageway brought to our attention today!
Visit Carrie’s post about this free e-book that many parents will want to download.
Happy Tuesday Simplifying Families!