Always fun to be noticed

Who doesn't like to get a little "atta girl" every now and then?  That's the fun of the Praise Gallery at TwoPeas.  And this layout was perfect for a challenge issued by Sandy on her blog.  So, here's my chance to Link it Up!  Click the title link for credits, please.

This page was created as I frantically tried to finish my son's 5th year album before a code expired from Shutterfly.  I love doing his books from them- and usually cry when I sit down with the finished product for the 1st time. 

Jeepers Creepers



Sale at PxlPress

Check it out!  One of the awesome designers who helps me get my family's life SCRAPPED is having a 30% off sale!  Visit the website!



A selfish little plug

Well, not really. :)

I love what I do and the company I get the honor of representing.  They do amazing monthly specials for both customers and hostesses and do not limit us in regions or territories.  However, we've grown a LOT and as such, they've asked us to take down any Pages on Facebook that represent our businesses.  I complied, but I wanted to be sure you had the option of still being in touch on those awesome specials they offer monthly!  There are 2 ways to say in the loop. :)

Subscribe to my monthly newsletter here  (this information is not sold or spammed)

Request to join my private Facebook Group

I am super excited that I'll also be working on a fundraiser to run in December or January to benefit Operation Special Delivery and Operation Shower. :)  These are causes that are obviously very near and dear to this military family's hearts!

Have a blessed weekend!

About food

Note- I'm an engineer.  I'm not a dietician, nor do I have any medical training.  I'm just a mom trying to do the right thing for my kids and sharing this is anyone else is out there trying to figure out how to make it work for their family.

My blog is sort of a mix of food, scrapping and life.  I hope that isn't too weird.  Oh well if it is.

I also don't often talk about our family aside from what you glean from my scrapping pages.  But I figured I share this because a few moms I was talking with seemed to have a similar issue with their young boys.

They are too busy to eat.  And they don't remind us that they're too busy to eat.  So, since we're busy too (and I don't know about you, but I don't need a real snack every 2 hours), we forget to offer them foods.

At my son's last check up, he was in the 6th percentile for weight.  I'd been suspecting something was going on- he really hadn't grown much, maybe changed 1/2-1 shoe size in the past 9-12 months.  The frustrating thing was the ped wasn't concerned until he would hit the 5th percentile.  This is probably the biggest issue I have with being a military family- no continuity of medical care.  Sure, you can transfer records, but I guarantee the PA that saw my son for the first 3 years of his life would have had a different reaction to this.  A much different one.

So, I am blessed by this military life that I have a dear friend on the west coast.  A dedicated, vegan mom who has children ranging in ages and understands that I've been trying the "easy" stuff to fix this issue.  I also can't drastically change everything in our family for many reasons but primary there is that the kids won't eat new stuff.  There's also some other issues going on and that research was leading me to believe that cutting all articial dyes and preservatives from our diets really couldn't hurt the situation at all. 

So, the dilemma is this:  How do I add weight to my active child in a healthy way and without creating negative body issues or eating habits?

If you Google it, there's not much.  Google the reverse and you'll find information about how to help encourage obese kids to lose the weight, but this?  Not really a societal problem at large.

I started by tracking his foods for about 2-3 days and emailing my friend the info.  I also weighed him, first thing in the morning in his underwear.  He now has a weekly weigh in so I can see where we are making progress.

My friend gave some awesome ideas.  I'll say these are the ones that have worked for me and his body is responding to- adding 1.4 pounds in about 3 weeks:

• Reverting to whole milk and whole milk products.
• Adding ground flax meal to his morning oatmeal (combined with making with 1/2 whole milk and 1/2 coconut milk which contains a lot of very healthy, good fats and good stuff)
• Constantly asking him to take more bites of his food.  Even feeding him the last few bites myself so I know he eats them.
• Setting a timer on my phone to go off at 10am & 3pm reminding me to offer a healthy snack.
• Offering a high protein/non-sweet bedtime snack (full fat yogurt, peanut butter, etc)
• Removing juice/lemonade from our house and offering V8 Splash instead (they call it fruit punch now) esp with breakfast.
• Spending some time thinking about what food I'm offering and what the sugar content could be doing in terms of highs and lows.
• Adding an extra slice of cheese to a sandwich & buttering both sides of the bread when its grilled/toasted.
• Removing fruit snacks from our house and offering Clif's Fruit Twists instead.
• Offering smooth soups with whole milk or full fat sour cream added to them.
• Giving fruit as a smoothie, esp the berries so that I can add whole milk or full fat yogurt to them.  You can also add in the ground flax meal here too.
• Getting him on board, understanding that the food I'm giving him will help him grow and that means his weight will go up on the scale or that if it doesn't, we can talk to the dr to help us find out why.
• He is rewarded for working with me.  Trying a food, eating all his snack/meals.  Those rewards he picked are activity based, not food based. And he's rewarded for trying, not for what the scale says since if there's an underlying medical condition, that's out of his (and my) control without more medical intervention.
• Getting him involved in the food process, particularly the shopping.  That's why I've changed our shopping location and primarily go to Trader Joe's because almost anything he picks there will be fine for him to eat.
• I keep a snack bag (#3000 from Thirty-One Gifts) at all times filled with good snack choices for when we're out- fruit bars, fruit leather, applesauce in to-go packs, etc.

Obviously, what works for one kid or family won't work for another.  I haven't become radical about things, but I'm trying for the easy changes.  And so far, those are working :)  Of course, I'm open to more ideas... I am just favorable to the easy changes right now as opposed to the ones that require me to spend 4 hours in the kitchen or make food art (as my friend would say).

Have a great week!

Some more pages to share!

I would seriously L-O-V-E to get my son's book at half price by ordering it before end of day Wednesday.  We'll see...  Here's some progress I've made.  Please click the title for credits and to leave praise :)

Masquerade

Hands on House

All American 4th of July

Thanks for looking!

New Release from Edeline Marta & Template Freebie!

I am working on a new weekly plan that includes scrapping 1 page a day.  My goal would be to take advantage of a Shutterfly special of 50% off photo books ending Aug 24!  I have to see how many pages are left to add to my son's album but if I can finish a quilt in a day, I can do a photo book, right?  ;)

On to the new release...

Clips from July

So check out the new releases at Two Peas:

Soft Painted Papers, Months & Days & Frametastic

Then head over to her blog and pick up the Freebie kit

And stop by and grab Heather's template too!  Hurry!  The link won't be around forever.

Have a great weekend!

Recent Scrapping Words

Some of my recent LO's.  Click on the titles for credits or to leave praise at 2Peas!  Thanks for looking :)

i <3 u quilt

P365: Week 32

Week 20

(I did correct the type in the 3rd paragraph- Charlene!)



P365: Weeks 29-31

Using the kit by Wild Blueberry Ink & Joey Lynn Designs: P365, 2011 Version

Menu Planning, sort of

It's so hard to do this and stick to it during a deployment.  BUT, I'm having some issues that are causing me to really look hard at the diet and regular offering of foods I'm giving my family and take stock.  So, here's the "suggested" meal for our week.

Sunday: Buffalo Chicken Calzones (without the celery and without the hot sauce for the kids)
Monday: Lasagna with garlic bread (version of this using homemade frozen spaghetti sauce)
Tuesday: Grilled Cheese and Cream of Tomato Soup
Wednesday: BBQ Chicken Breast and Baked Potato Fries with Peas
Thursday: Chicken Noodle Bowl
Friday: Pesto with Mini Bowtie Pasta (my daughter's choice at the Farmer's Market today), Fish sticks and carrots
Saturday: Apricot Pork Chops and Rice

I also plan to make more Breakfast Bars to use as power snacks and we've been making all variety of smoothie around here at night as a bedtime snack, sometimes with almond butter & honey sandwiches on whole wheat bread.  I also found a recipe for chocolate orange muffins that looks promising so I plan to make some of those and put extras in the freezer as well.

More scrappiness

Another awesome kit from the collaboration of Jopke Designs and Picture Designs.  In Harmony is amazing...  Still on sale so grab it now!

Princess Camp

And another layout trying to get some photos done for my son's book...  Using the kit It's Your Birthday by Edeline Marta and a template by ListGirl from the Daily Digi- Goody Gumdrops 

Born a Gymnast



You are Loved

An amazing kit just came out from the collaboration of Jopke Designs and Picture Designs.  In Harmony is amazing...  This page came together in seriously 20 minutes.  Love it and the kit is on sale, under $5!  Didn't you just spend $5 on a cup of coffee? ;)

You are Loved