My boy loves . . .Green Beans?

Dinner last night must go down in HISTORY! for our household. Let me start this with a preface - my Hubby HATES most vegetables. Sure, he'll eat corn, and potatoes, celery or carrots (but only raw), but give him a plate of peas and he'd rather starve. It's not like I'm trying to give him Brussels sprouts, we're talking plain old peas, green beans, maybe steamed broccoli here. He won't have it. I've finally convinced him that he needs to be better, so if I serve it, he'll eat two green beans, three peas, or a floret. But he'll hate, no loathe it the whole way down. More than once I've pureed a can of green beans and hid it in taco soup, just to know he gets some vitamins in him!

I worry that Buddy is headed in the same direction. Veggies are not his forte. I know most kids go through this, and it just takes time, but if my son knows his daddy doesn't have to eat up, he won't either.

To help combat this, I've been very grateful for Hubby's schedule. He is usually gone 3 or 4 nights a week for dinner - which means his example is gone too. On the nights he's home, we do salads, corn, or potatoes, and he eats them up. When Hubby is gone, I serve peas, green beans, broccoli, and I eat them up. Girly-Lou-Who loves them all. Buddy, not so much.

Miricles can occur.

Last night, Hubby was flying, I served tacos and green beans. Buddy doesn't like tacos, doesn't like green beans. I knew I was in for a trial, but that was the menu. But Buddy looked excited for dinner. He watched Girly-Lou-Who dish up, his own enthusiasm a mirror of hers. We said a blessing, and they started to eat. In shock, I watched him pick up his fork and stab a green bean - without prompting! First! He popped it in his mouth and said "ook, Mom, I eat it!"

As I picked my jaw up off the floor, he went on "now youa say not eat!"

Ahhh, the game. He wanted to play a game.

Months ago, Besty over at Momformation, wrote a post about how she gets her kids to eat anything by telling them they can't do it. She hams it up, and the reverse psychology works every time. At the time, I remember trying it with absolutely no success. My kids were too young. Sunday night, as they picked over their meal, some psychology popped out of my mouth, and they devoured their meal. Now I understood what my son wanted - to play the game.

I played along, pouncing on every bite, groaning in despair when it went into their tummies, as they giggled so hard they could hardly chew. I got my daughter to actually use a fork. My son ate a taco. And between the three of us, we actually ate an entire can of green beans.

Miracles can happen. Even over beans.

Emergency stuff

I've been thinking a lot recently about food storage/72 hour kits/ etc. I've talked with several other people about this, and all of us are feeling the same thing: the time is far PAST when we should have done this! Honestly, I get a pit in my stomach whenever I think about how really REALLY messed up we'd be in a true emergency. So this year is my storage year. Along with the 8 bajillon other things I'm working on, I'm really truly going to start this stuff! Seriously - when Hubby gets home with the car this weekend, I'm off to the store, armed with my calorie appropriate 72 kit list (find it at http://www.mormonshare.com/node/7030 ), and a list of a few other essentials, I'm getting this going.

Of course, I've also found a couple of prepackaged drool worthy kits that I'd rather do . . . (insert "If I had a Million Dollars" clip here . . .) Maybe I can just win one! Check out http://blog.totallyready.com/
That's one I'd love to get! I'm excited to find this blog - I'm totally checking out her tips as the year rolls around!


(ok, so this one wasn't funny, or cute, or anything, but I needed to post the link to be entered, so there you go!)

The tender hands of a child

This post is going to be a bit harder to write. I usually try to be funny - but something is telling me I have to write this. I came home for Christmas - me, Girlie-Lou-Who, and Buddy. We've been here since the middle of December. Hubby was able to come for a bit, but had to go back and work (dang money. It would have been so much nicer if we could have just not worked for a full month, but unfortunately life requires money, and bosses get kind of angry if you don't show up for that long.) We would have headed home by now, but instead we stuck around to help my parents get ready to head of on their second mission. Anywho. The kids are getting a bit restless. They're missing their own beds and their own routines. A couple of nights ago, Buddy woke up around 10:00 with a bad dream. Worried that he'd wake up Girlie-Lou-Who, I ran downstairs to help him. It often takes a long time to calm him when he wakes with nightmares. This time was much shorter. I picked him up and almost instantly melted into my shoulder. I rocked my baby back and forth, back and forth, and rubbed his back. He tenderly reached over and began patting my back as well.

As my baby tried to comfort his mommy back, I was overcome a sense of love coming from him. I knew that I had to blog about this -I'm not sure why, but I knew this story needed to be told. I composed a beautiful entry in my mind - absolutely perfect in every way, but it of course didn't stick with me when I woke up the next morning. Why is it as children, we can show love and tenderness with out thinking of receiving anything in return. Why do I have such a hard time showing tenderness to those I truly love. What am I afraid of? I know my days are numbered as this way to big boy gets bigger and bigger. Way too soon, he won't want to melt into my arms when he's hurt, or sad, or just cuddly. For all I know, he might be the last baby I get to take home. I know I want more, I know I should have more, but maybe that's not in my cards. So why do I have such a hard time just enjoying my kids?

I don't have answers to these questions. But I believe that finding answers is an important goal in my life. In Matt. 18:3, Christ says we are to become as little children. I'm coming to realize that this is a big part of my character that I need to relearn from my children. I've heard things like this before, but this time it really has sunk in. Recently I read the idea of having a word for the year - one word that captures your goals for the year. I don't have a word for this idea that I'm trying to evolve into, except, maybe peace. That doesn't go quite far enough - there's more hear than just peace. I don't know, I'm rambling again. anyone else have a word to convey my thoughts? But that's one of my big goals for the year.