Camping

After a 5 year hiatus from camping, partly due to living in NYC, we finally went camping. We got to cumberland falls in 96 degree 90% humidity weather. It was HOT!!. But look how beautiful.

Cumberland falls is the only place that has a moonbow, seen only on a full moon, with clear skies. Well we had the full moon and clear skies, until about 5 in the afternoon of the full moon, and then everything clouded over and the rain came...............so no moonbow. but we saw some beautiful falls and some beautiful hiking. It wasn't hiking in utah but it was great to get out into nature again.

Lars loved it. He would be outside 24/7 if i would let him. he did great and got dirty and played in the mud and gravel, had fun swimming in a lake and hiking in the backpack.

All in all a very successful trip.

My Utopia

As many of you know, I love Nutrition. I love reading about it and learning all there is to know regarding holistic healing and mind body wellness. And much thanks to a dear friend in NYC (Kassie) my eyes have been opened about "the conspiricy" behind the food we eat. Before Kassie my learning had leaned more toward holistic healing more than on prevention; That is not to say I didnt' eat well. I haven't eaten much in the way of refined foods except for the occasional thing in social settings, but there were still changes I could definatly make to improve even that. So this weeks marks a great turning point. I now live in Kentucky where homebirth is illegial (which is unfortunate) and it seems Natural Things were going to be hard to come by (Ex: heath food stores, homeopathics etc.) However I have finally found a farm where i can by Real milk and Pastured eggs. My first delivery came this week and i must say it tastes delicious. Since childhood I have never tolerated milk well. As a baby my mother says i threw it up a lot and perhaps i was mildly allergic (I now see that my body didn't like dead milk: the stuff that has been killed by pasturazation and mangled by homogenization) But real milk tastes great with it wonderful cream on top and i haven't had any problems drinking it. I am now looking into a fruit/veggie coop to participate in. The only thing left is to find a meat supplier to buy pastured beef and chickens. In my reading lately It has come to my attention how much nutrition is lost because we are feeding our cows the wrong foods. They were not meant to only consume grains. Whereby they are not absorbing enough good nutrients..........affecting in turn our consumption of beef is now lacking in nutrients.
It has gotten me really excited and i have finally decided to finish getting my degree in Holistic Nutrition.
My dream (although probably too grandious) would be to heal the world with natural methods.
I just know that what you eat is sooo important to not only your physcial health but to your mental health as well. I have a grandfather who in his late 90's doesn't take any medication. Can you imagine everyone over 30 to never have to take the 20 pills you're going to have to as you get older because you didn't take that great care of your bodies. I think much of what is happening in the world would stop if we really took a moment to take care of our bodies, treat them with the respect they deserve and feed them real foods. All these mental chemical diseases would dwindle and it might even be the cure to cancer:) seeing as 100 years ago cancer was a rare disease. This is my utopia.................although realisticly i know i won't be able to cure the whole world but if i help in my small area maybe it will inspire others. So Thank you Kassie for being my inspiration and for opening my eyes.

A Little Tangy

We were eating strawberries the other night and he was making such a hilarious face. And the fake laugh.........he does it all the time. He makes me laugh all the time.

He can't walk yet..........but he sure can climb

Yesterday we were working in the garden and Lars decided to brave crawling across the grass over to the swing set. He then proceeded to the slide and started climbing. I couldn't keep him away from it. I put a backpack in front of it to prevent it but he just climbed above it and got on the slide anyway. Before I took hm off and refused to let him get on again i had to take the video. It was taken on my phone so it isn't the best quality. But watch with amazement how good a climber he is for not walking yet

Hi

Lars is with his Grandma Bjarnson. He loves to wave at everyone and everything. It is pretty cute. This week has been a milestone for Lars. All of a sudden he is just hungry and is ready for 3 meals a day. Here is his first experience with noodles and a veggie cheese sauce. He loved it and ate quite a bit, which I thought was great until it made him so constipated today that he hasn't been too happy. He loves to feed himself and is his usual method of eating.

where has all the time gone.

My days seem like a crazy running together of never quite getting anything done. Really, Where has all the time gone? As I am sitting here thinking of what has gone on, my mind becomes all blurry. So here is what i do remember

I am down to only babysitting 3 days a week, which is a schedule I am much more fond of. The days I don't babysit, Lars and I go to the park and either walk, run, or play on the swings. As you can tell on the picture below with his cousin, he loves the swings. He is going to love amusements parks when he gets older.......he loves swinging high and you can toss him in the air or swing him around any which way and he just laughs. He seriously has no fear.


He has 4 teeth and only wants to eat what i am eating. In order to get him to eat his food I have to hide in my bowl and feed it to him with an adult spoon, while he is also holding an adult spoon. Such a big boy. And he would much rather have real looking food vs pureed foods. So i make him a lot of curried sweet potatoe fries (baked w/o oil of course) but seasoned with curry and garlic. They are so delicious i usually make a bunch of them so i can eat them too. I have started cooking peas for him with mint.....odd combo?..............just try it. stick a bunch of mint in the water you steam your peas in. Fantastic! or even better make split pea soup with mint in it!! yum yum. It has been fun to make all his baby food.
He is 30 inches long now and his weight gain has started stopped accelerating at such a fast rate. he was 19 lbs 3 months ago and as of last week he is 20.4 lbs. But with how chubby he was before he still looks healthy and chubby still. He is crawling around so fast and is scaling furniture. He will definatly be walking soon. He loves to play and gets so excited when he sees other kids that he says hi to them (literally says hi many times and then squeals in delight)and starts waving both his hands.

My sister in law and i started a garden. It was my idea but she is the one with the backyard. So we plotted it out. and then we decided to start growing them indoors and then we would transplant all the wonderful vegetables into our garden after the first frost. We found a cool class held through the county about gardening and our indoor veggies grew really well. So 2 weekends ago we transplanted all the spring veggies and then planted more seeds straight in the ground. Well she told me last night that all the veggies we grew indoors and then transplanted have not made it but all the seeds planted are blooming and thriving...............So next year.......we are only planting seeds straight in the ground....it was much easier anyway!
I can't wait for it all to grow......strawberries, onions, carrots, radishes, beets, corn, peas, green beans............and more. we still haven't planted the summer veggies and fruit......that will be done in May.
Lars and i went to the zoo on monday, which was fun. he did great and loved the animals. and he and i fed the giraffes.......i'll post the picture when i can find the camera. Giraffes tongues are like 2 feet long and them come out and you put a cracker on it. Suprisingly it wasn't very slobbery.

Negotiation Generation

I was at the library to get a book on parenting and found 2 awesome books I wanted to share.
I totally recommend both. they are awesome
"How to behave so your children will too!" by Sal Severe (i heard about this one from a friend giving it as a baby shower gift) It is a great book on how you can become a proactive parent. It explains how you can act differently to your childs responses to create better behaviors in your child. It works on raising a cooperative child while still giving them age appropriate freedoms. Very positive book. I love this one because it discusses what i as a parent can do in creating more harmony in my home.


"Negotiation Generation" Lynn Reeves Griffin (a friend told me that when she read a book about "stop negotiating and start parenting", it changed the whole outlook on raising and teaching her 2 children. I am not sure if this is the book or not but it is awesome. It Talks about how we have become a society that instead of setting clear boundries for our children we negotiate with them and end up with our children in control of everything and how out of control our homes become. She sets up clear positive ways to set boundries that are age appropriate and following through without feeling like you are punishing your children when they test their boundries.

There were a few quotes i wanted to share.
This first one is about when she does her workshops, she asks for volunteers.
"If you volunteer to assist me, i ask you to join me on stage and stand facing me. There's a chair behind where you're standing. The directions are simple: just do what i tell you to do as i tell you to do it. Are you ready?
"don't stand. Stop looking at me. Don't sit down. Stop looking at teh audience. Don't turn to your right; don't turn to your left. No laughing"
As the exercise progresses, you're likely to feel flustered because you can't seem tochoose the right thing to do, or to do anything right. Some volunteers laugh because they're embarrased they can't seem to figure out exactly what i want them to do.
At first the directions seem simple enough, but the reason they're difficult to follow is because they're really a two-part exercise for your brain. First you must figure out the opposite of what i've asked you to do. then you have to actually do this opposite action. There's no question about it: whether you're a parent or a child, directions are clearer when phrased in the positive. "sit down. Look at the audience. stand up . look at me. turn left. turn right.""


The other point that they made, which I thought was very interesting, is that it is harder today to parent than it was in our parents and grandparents day and age. Back then people had generally the same values and morals. But because everyone has such differing values today it can be confusing to parent and confusing for the child why he isn't allowed to do something that others may do.

Anyway........i totally love these two books and totally recommend