Toddler Meal Time

Getting our little guy to eat has been somewhat of a challenge for the past few months. His appetite went from eating everything in sight to eating hardly anything and he became extremely picky as well. I know, I know, it is just a faze but wow, it seems like the switch was flipped overnight. Now we find ourselves adding in a quick prayer that he will eat well as we pray for our meal, and praise God over and over when we have a good meal with him.

We have found a few things that work with him. First, he has to be hungry! We have stopped allowing him to snack anywhere near supper time minus a few nibbles on ingredients as the meal is being prepared but even that is watched closely. This also means that on the days that he takes his extremely long naps and doesn't wake up until 4:00pm he doesn't get an afternoon snack at all.

Second, finding out what our little guys favorite foods are. Right now he could be classified as a vegetarian. He much prefers to eat pastas, rice, vegetables, and fruits over any sort of meat. He wouldn't go so far as being a vegan though as he loves his milk (still on whole milk but cutting back on how much he gets per day), cheeses, and yogurt. 

 Happy Meal Times with some of his favorites.

 Helping Mommy make a Zucchini Lasagna, 

sampling the zucchini before it is cooked.

Some of Andrew's favorite foods:

• Yogurt (any flavor, not picky)
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Peas
• Peppers
• Lasagna (one meal we can sneak some meat into his diet)
• Spaghetti (usually eaten without shirt or shorts on right now, less laundry)
• Cheese
• Breads
• Macaroni and Cheese (prefers generic brand over Kraft)
• Grapes
• Pears
• Peaches
• Blueberries
• Tacos, especially with carnitas (usually eats the insides first with a fork and then takes bites out of the tortilla)
• Applesauce

We do our best to plan meals around his likes and dislikes, the good thing everything on list are on Todd and mine's as well. Making sure there is something for him to eat well at every meal takes a few extra minutes in planning (just in case he decides he doesn't want the main meal) but a happy and peaceful meal time is very worth it.

Perfection Infection: One Perfect God

So here it is, the wrap up to the Perfection Infection. Jill Savage's book No More Perfect Moms was extremely powerful for me and really gave me a new look on different areas of my life. All in all we need to remember that we will never have perfection, but we are serving a perfect God. He is the only one that will ever hold perfect attributes. The book highlighted the following and I found them to be powerful reminders...

God's Perfect Love
     Unchanging - we can't make Him love us any more or less than He already does
     Unconditional - His love will stay with us no matter the circumstances

God's Perfect Strength
     God sees our weaknesses as a positive. Only when we admit our weaknesses can we realize our need for God's strength.

Each time he said, "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.           (2 Corinthians 12:9)

As people we are weak, but God gives us the strength to live out our days and tackle the struggles that come our way. Philippians 4:13 says "For I can do everything through Christ, who give me strength."

God's Perfect Hope
     Having hope in God means that we stand strong with trust, expectation, and a guarantee of Christ's return. This hope that we have will be with us through every high and low moment in our lives, cling to it during those low moments and it will lift you up.

Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone. (Psalm 33:22) 

God's Perfect Truth
     Jill Savage uses this great analogy, God's truth helps us to see the difference between black and white, unlike the world's grey vision. God's word is not changed relative to how we think or feel. 
      So much of our world has changed to make things acceptable by culture, we need to remember God's truth as we come across situations that begin to cross that line. These things can be rough but we need to also remember that we are called to be loving. 

God's Perfect Redemption
     Jesus' life was given in exchange for ours. He has forgiven our past and given us a future. It doesn't get any better than that!




At the end of the book Jill Savage poses you with a question of how will you go forward. My goal is to fight the Perfection Infection as my eyes have been opened to how much pain and destruction it can bring into people's lives. I am committed to being the best mom and wife that I can be with realistic expectations for each day. I want to spread this knowledge that I have gained to help battle the Perfection Infection as it strikes us all.


I want to embrace what Jill Savage writes out as "real motherhood", but I would add just plan womenhood...
          - No expectations
          - No pride
          - No fear
          - No insecurity
          - No judgement
          - No comparisons
          - No agenda
          - No performing
          - No more perfect moms, just imperfect moms (women) partnering with a perfect God.

Every day that I strive to be the perfect wife and mother, I will fail. Every day that I strive to do my best, with God in the lead, I will succeed.

Today while listening to the radio I heard this song and it is a great song to go along with these posts. Blessings.

Natalie Grant "Perfect People

  
 

Perfection Infection: No More Perfect Homemaking

When I quit my job as an accountant almost 2 years ago after Andrew was born I had this fairy tale kind of scene painted in my mind of how things were going to be. We were going to have this wonderfully decorated home oozing with Pintrest ideas (because I would have so much extra time to do things like this), Todd would come home every night to a fabulous home-cooked meal, and our home would be a revolving door of friends and family. I quickly learned that was not going to be the case.

When both of us were working Todd often cooked supper, during my pregnancy with Andrew he did all of the cooking simply because I didn't have the energy left in me to do anything. I was (and still am) so grateful for all of it that I wanted to repay him once I started staying home full time and got into a good routine with Andrew. I started doing the majority of the cooking in the house and I will be quick to admit that I wasn't that good at it right away, not having much practice.

I would end up crying and turning into a mess when things didn't work out as planned. I would get extremely frustrated with what I saw as a complete failure. Thankfully Todd would come home shortly (if he wasn't already home during the meltdown) and tell me that it would be fine and it didn't matter. After many times of this episode repeating I started to get it...it doesn't matter if supper doesn't hit the table at a certain time, it doesn't matter if a new recipe doesn't quite turn out right, generally all my boys (and myself) care about is if our stomachs are full at the end of the meal and it tasted generally good, there are always recipes that will never be made again. After reading this section in Jill Savage's book, No More Perfect Moms, my first thought was food is necessary but it isn't necessary to have a Rachel Ray quality meal every night; some days that just isn't going to be possible with Andrew attached to my leg or propped up on my hip. 

As for the house filled with Pintrest ideas, not so much. In decorating our new house I have been able to utilize some ideas but what was most helpful was using my friends and family to get opinions. We had a general idea of where most of our furniture would go before we moved it but not the position in the room. It was great to have the extra hands to help move pieces around and ideas of stealing pieces from other rooms. We purchased a few new pieces to help fill up the house and because of that I am no longer allowed to go shopping alone with my sisters :). Those ideas that I have all over my Pintrest collection but after looking at some of them again I realized that they really don't work for our family. 


As women we take pride in our homes and all the aspects of it. Jill Savage says that "women tend to be most insecure about body image and home image". That rings completely true for me (see more about that on my previous post Perfection Infection: No More Perfect Homes). Nothing is ever going to be perfect in your home and we need to keep realistic expectations; as long as it works for your family it will be great.

 

Disc Golf

The other weekend we went out to play disc golf with my sister and brother-in-law, thought we could all us some fresh air and it was a beautiful morning.

This has become a favorite thing for Andrew to go out and do with Daddy and he is picking up on the game quickly. He was born with natural athletic ability and coordination (neither of which came from me) so this is no surprise to us but it is still a lot of fun to watch a toddler throw a disc and actually make it into the pin.

Some pictures from that day out...

 Daddy and Uncle Neal showing him how it is done

Made it!!!

Daddy I don't think the pin is in the bushes :)

 Come on Aunt Nichole! 

He was so out of breath after running up this hill, but loved it.

Perfection Infection: No More Perfect Homes

I am a person that can get obsessed and stressed out about having the house absolutely perfect before people come over, especially new people. Now granted over time I have begun to establish cleaned up levels that are applied to different groups of people that come over consistently.

Infrequent Guests/New Comers: My goal, spotlessness everywhere.

Our Community Group: This group of people have become like family to us and they are over generally once a week for Bible study. They are welcomed by a picked up general living area and mostly clean counters in the kitchen (dishes from that night's supper still in the sink or on the stove) but there are probably messes in the rooms not seen.

Family that lives out of town: General clean up overall, make sure there are clean towels and sheets for them to use, and the spare bedroom is clean of any extra stuff that may have been dumped there.

Family that lives here in town: Seriously, they have a key to my house and can walk in at any given moment if they need to, sorry guys but you don't really get any special treatment just maybe a warning on its condition.  

Even this tiered system hasn't re-leaved all stress though. After reading this section in Jill Savage's book I gained a new perspective but this is one that I am still fighting hard against. I still work hard on keeping our home clean and tidy but I want to remove the stress filled evenings or cleaning when all I really want to do is enjoy spending time with my husband or the crazed mornings of last minute cleaning when my little guy just wants mommy to play. I am trying to adapt to these new goals that I have for myself.

Goals for each room:

Kitchen: organized enough to find things that are needed and enough cleanliness and counter space to make a meal. When we moved into our new home we quickly found that we had less counter space to prepare meals than our previous home. With that I have made it a goal of doing the dishes every day after lunch, this doesn't always happen but even if I miss a day they aren't piling up too much that I run out of counter space.

"Keeping our kitchen uncluttered is like shoveling snow while it is still snowing." Jill Savage (Love this because it is so true)

Bathroom: Cleaned regularly and organized enough to find what you need. Once again this was a change for us in our new home. The main bathroom for us has a pedestal sink and no storage in it (minus the linen closet right next to the bathroom). This has been interesting for us and soon we will be replacing the sink with a vanity and adding a cabinet. I give the bathroom a good scrub down at least once a week and in doing so it really cuts down on the time it takes me. Before this was my most hated job so I would put it off until it was terrible, now keeping up with it I'm finding it not so bad.

Bedrooms: The best question to ask yourself here is, Does it work for us? We are not bed makers (I know this would drive some people crazy, including my mom who makes her bed every morning) but it isn't something we find necessary to do every day. I try to keep the room very picked up because the last thing I want to do is go to crawl into bed at night and find a mess there that is going to drive me crazy and keep me from sleeping.

Living Areas: This was the hardest for me, next to the kitchen, because it is the area that is seen by others. I have found it easiest to spend just a few minutes a day working on these areas just enough so they don't get out of control. If a stranger knocks on the door it will be obvious to them that we have a small child as they will see toys out being played with and others in their storage places, but I try to prevent the tornado look through out the day.

This is not going to be an easy one for me to overcome; I feel like I won't ever stop caring what my house looks like or wanting it to be presentable but I think that is a good thing. My goal is to remove the stress and frustration that comes with keeping it that way. I have been searching through Pintrest and asking friends how they keep up with the cleaning, hoping to find something that works for me.

My Ultimate Goal: Finding what works for our family!