Shannon Yee

In my younger years, I was an avid reader. I was always reading something and most often it was simply fun fiction. As an adult, I’ve continued in my love for reading, but almost always non-fiction to learn something that I’ve been curious about. Occasionally I will still enjoy a fiction book, but it is the exception.

I think in the last 7 years I’ve read a handfull of fiction books – J.K. Rowling, Francine Rivers, and now recently Stephanie Meyers. One of the reasons that I don’t read a lot of fiction is because of the way that I get involved in a book… I tend to immerse myself rather completely in the fictional world and neglect all other aspects of life. This was fine in high school, but as a mother and wife it can be a bit reckless – not just for my own life. I have thoroughly enjoyed each of the fiction series that I’ve indulged in (even if Brian didn’t) and Twilight proved no different.

I read 2560 pages in about 6 days; I really did try not to read during the day when I was responsible for the care of three small children. Since I so thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in the fictional world, I’m debating what to read next. Any ideas of great (and short, for my hubby’s sanity) works?

Every week I make a plan of meals in my head, this week I’m going to write it down…

Breakfast:
Pancakes
Fruit and yogurt smoothies
Oatmeal (with dried apricots or honey)
Toast (honey whole-wheat recipe from Gwen) with peanut/sun butter
Egg, lettuce, tomato sandwich
Zucchini muffins

Lunch:
Rice salad and fruit
PB & J and veggies and fruit
Pizza and fruit
Hummus on crackers and veggies and fruit
Grilled cheese and veggies and fruit
Taco salad (cucumbers and green peppers) and fruit

Snacks:
Toast & cheese
Fruit & yogurt
Veggies & hummus
Nuts
Zucchini muffins

Dinner:
Pizza (homemade) and salad
Lentils and rice (onions & green peppers)
Lasagna (veggie?)
Broccoli, tomato, sausage rotini
Fish, couscous, green beans
Tacos and black beans
Caprese salad and spaghetti

A friend of mine recently emailed me this link and asked for my take on it. I generally adhere to this sort of parenting philosophy that some would call Attachment Parenting for the beginning of life, but for the toddler/preschool years I like to think I have a parenting strategy, but really I’m just trying to make it through each day while showing and teaching love and responsibility.

The continuum concept basically seems to say that we are social beings who evolved to meet the expectations placed on us and we thrive when in loving relationships. I whole-heartedly agree that humans are social and designed for relationships, but by the Creator’s plan not evolutionary adaptation. I believe that God made us to be social beings who need physical contact from birth with immediate response to signals of needs in babies (ie. nursing on demand, co-sleeping, being in arms most of the time for the first 6 months). I also believe that humans are rotten to the core (in theological terms we are sinful from birth – that is total depravity).

So, the continuum concept asserts that the reason children fight and are selfish and demanding is because we are a child-centered culture. While this may be a confounding issue I do not see it being the sole reason nor do I think that by simply going about our adult responsibilities with kids watching that we will not have any of these attitude or behavior problems. That said, I do see that when my kids are secure in the knowledge that I am confident in my roles and responsibilities there are less battles – some of that I attribute to the fact that when I am doubting myself and insecure my kids (as social beings and wanting to meet the expectations of those caring for them) pick up on that.

All this rambling basically to say that I hope that parents will be in a loving relationship with their Creator and from Him draw strength and wisdom to love their kids and care for them – meeting their needs and shaping them into loving and responsible people. God’s grace and love are limitless to cover the limitless mistakes made. I guess that is my parenting philosophy: God-centered.

If you eat fast food regularly or frozen dinners more than once in a while then you might benefit from the information in this book, but I really don’t know many people who aren’t at least vaguely familiar with how they should eat. I think that Mr. Pollan gets it right when he says that it is a matter of priority. Spending more money and time on food to have a greater quality of food and a lesser quantity of food is of interest to me and lots of people that I know (because let’s face it we often associate with people who are interested in the same things we are), but not to the general public.

This book has an interesting discussion of the rise and preeminence of nutritionism in America and the deleterious effects of this philosophy. It also contains an amazing resources section with lots of other places to go for more information on eating well all around. I would add the resource of NourishMD for moms as it is a company devoted to encouraging moms to feed their kids real food. The first seven words (and the entire third section of the book) are the recommendations for eating real food. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.” I found this book to be a recap of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” with the addition of basic holistic eating info.

I did sort of laugh at Michael Pollan’s suggestion that eating real food is a type of rebellion… Those darn hippies.

I’ve put a lot of things on hold since the end of my pregnancy, and am still recovering from the aftermath of that pregnancy (another kid!)
Having three kids is a lot harder than two and I’m pretty tired at the end of the day which is when I used to do all the things that needed to be done without my children’s “help”.
One of these days, I might get around to starting and maybe even finishing one or two things on my ever growing list.

So, I put Thaddeus down on my bed for a few minutes to brush my teeth and Josiah was in his room getting dressed. Eila was in the living room singing (very loudly) on the coffee table. Thad, of course, started crying within a few seconds and Josiah responded with “Eila stop singing; Thaddeus doesn’t like it.” Josiah continued yelling at Eila to stop while Thad continued crying and Eila continued singing. It was very loud and a little comical as each child was in a different room making themselves heard throughout the house. Fortunately, it only lasted for a very short while. Now, we’re off to play outside and have a dance party while we play baseball.

Something that I think about often – about five times a day – is what to eat or what to prepare to eat. I, of course, want it to be healthy and wholesome and tasty and easy. Well, this book is sort of about that. It is really about where our food comes from (or where it could come from) and how it gets to our table. I found it to be a very interesting topic and well researched and written. The author is a journalist, so I expected as much. This is the type of book that will cause you to re-think what you eat and how you spend your food money. If you are happy eating processed corn and aren’t interested in change, then do not bother with this read. I really appreciated all the info on farm industry as well as the history of the organic movement. I learned a lot about mushrooms and grass and more than I wanted to know about corn, chickens and cows in the farm industry.
I think I’ll try to read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food next.

I had the privilege of reading and reviewing this book for the author who is part of the Holistic Moms Network.

I found this book to be a great resource for infant and child massage. I really know nothing about this topic and enjoy learning in easy and practical ways. Mommy, Draw Stars On My Tummy by Martine Groeneveld provided very basic information and techniques for massage along with fun and easy rhymes, songs and games to accompany them. I really appreciated the detailed instructions and tips. My kids, who love to be tickled, cuddled and massaged despite my skill level, also really enjoyed the stories and songs. It would’ve been nice if it included a few more rhymes and especially the ones that are like X marks the spot… now you’ve got the shiveries. You can pre-order your copy here.

“Mommy, come see the funniest thing ever. Hurry!”
I rush outside to see a cherry pits and stems and a plum pit thrown about the deck. This was so not the funniest thing ever, but I did at least produce a mild grin.

I found this site today, but I’m still not interested in family cloth (that’s no toilet paper for those wondering).

On a related note, Krysta sums up my thoughts on how everyone, especially those who claim to believe in God, should be taking care of the earth and their bodies.