At Cooper's school they talk a lot about writing notes for children. Children quickly learn that words have power, and if they are written down, they gain permanancy. Today, Cooper was frustrated that Erik's profile, and all the cars/trucks he unlocked, on his monster truck game got erased. So, we wrote a note asking Erik to basically get it all back. When I finished writing the note I handed Cooper the pen to write his name, something he has never done before. I don't push a lot of writing, especially since he gets easily frustrated if he can't do things 'perfectly'.

Here is the result.

 

Makes this mama so proud of her growing boy, as well as a bit tearful about the upcoming (gulp) 4th birthday.

Cooper felt "good and crazy" (and he insisted on typing this himself) about writing his name.

One Small Change

A few weeks ago I found a wonderful blog, Hip Mountain Mama. Here, you will find an amazing challenge that has been presented for the new year....make one change to create a positive environmental impact. I've joined the challenge. The change I’m making in our household is a commitment to only buying meat and eggs that treat the animals in ethical ways…free range, grass fed, etc. This is inspired by recently watching Food, Inc., along with knowledge I've had for years, but have been ignoring in favor of convenience and frugality.

Part of the challenge includes blogging about the experience once per month. So far, things have been going quite easily, mostly because I haven't had reason to buy meat, until tonight. I faced the need to purchase cold-cuts for making Erik's lunches. I was skeptical that I would be able to do this in a way that goes along with my commitment. However, I was pleasantly surprised that I could get some turkey at the main-stream grocery store. It is so great to see that it is possible to make conscientious choices and not need specialty grocery stores to do so.

My biggest worry about my commitment is the cost. I know that it is much more expensive to purchase meat that is free of antibiotics, that respects the animals, etc. In order to offset some of the increased cost I plan to increase the amount of meatless meals we eat. We already eat meatless suppers at least once per week, but I'm thinking this will probably increase to 3 or so times per week. I see this as a positive side effect, since the environmental impact of eating vegetarian is so much less.

Are you up for this kind of challenge? Join in!!! Visit Hip Mountain Mama and read all about it and sign up.

Old Friend Doing Good Things

It is with a heavy heart that I've been listening to all the news of destruction and devastation in Haiti. My old Red Run Swimming friend Andrew Hutson has put together an easy way to donate to the relief efforts. I wholeheartedly trust his endorsement of Mercy Corp. Please take a minute and visit his site and give whatever you can.

I also feel the need to remind those of you with young children to be mindful of how much they are hearing and what news is reaching their young ears. If it is overwhelming for us adults, just imagine how difficult it is for young minds to make sense of any of it. Be mindful of how much of the news you can handle too. And, don't forget, visit Mercy Corp and help the people of Haiti, in any way that you can.

Bread Experiment

We've been making bread for the past year or so using the amazing book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I had a hankering for a sweet breakfast bread, so I pulled off this bread experiment. I stretched out the dough, sprinkled on cinnamon, brown sugar, and sugar, on the dough, adding raisins on one. I rolled the dough and left it to rise a bit before baking. As an after thought, I added some butter (vegan soy margarine since I'm dairy free) by cutting slits in the dough and pushing the slivers in and trying to reseal. I baked the bread at a lower temp., and it turned out like this:

 It was delish!! It disappeared very quickly, every morsel. I think I might be almost independently responsible for that. Thank goodness for the breastfeeding metabolism!!