Eating like a pig

I am "sick full" right now, and I can't stand it. I'm tired of the way we eat. We have fast food about once a week, sometimes more. We eat a ton of processed frozen meals, sodium filled deli meat, and junk. After lunch today, I ate an ice cream cone AND a cookie...why wasn't one dessert enough? This is just ridiculous. I am pretty "crunchy" in every other area of my life, but food..I just don't get it. I honestly don't even know what "healthy" looks like.  How bad are these hormones and antibiotics I hear about being in our milk? Should we even be drinking milk? What about the way the animals are fed- should I be getting meat or eggs from only organic/cage free/vegetarian/christian animals?? Where do you find this stuff? What is a farmer's market? How do you acquire a taste for exotic vegetables? How do you change your entire way of eating? Can we even afford it? What do you do when you really want that ice cream cone?

This is crazy to me that I can't "get it". I know why we make the choices we make as a family. Once I research a topic (and I mean, I go nuts finding out everything I can about something), I can bring all my info to Luis and we decide what we feel is best. I've done that with just about every parenting topic- breastfeeding, circumcision, vaccinations, med free birth, etc. I get those things..even if I was a novice before my research, I have read enough credible sources to know that we're making an informed decision for our family. But with food...I don't know, it's too overwhelming. What I really want is someone to come to our house and cook all our meals- our own private nutritionist, if you will. Obviously, that's not in the cards for us. I'd settle for someone who is knowledgeable in this area to take me grocery shopping once or twice! I feel like I need someone to guide me with this. The problem is, I don't know anyone who eats healthy! I have a vegetarian friend who shops at whole foods exclusively, and I think she's my best bet. Hmm...I wonder what she's doing this weekend.

Cherish EVERY moment

The other night, Luis and I were talking about how grateful we are for our children. Sure, it's hard work. Gavin sometimes cries for no reason, and Kadence has started standing in the middle of a doorway and refusing to move...it's her latest way to deliberately annoy us. However, we have two great kids! Gavin is usually happy and friendly to everyone. He squeals with delight when he sees Kadence, or any of her toys. Kadence is so beautiful and smart, full of energy, inquisitive, hilarious...just a joy to be around. While discussing Kadence's infancy, we were talking about how fast the time went. She is going to be TWO in less than three weeks. No more counting her age in months for us! I honestly can't believe she'll be a two year old. It seems like just yesterday that we had her, even though I've already given birth again since then. We realized at that moment how happy we were that people had told us to cherish every moment, because they grow so fast. That advice given to us long before we had children has helped us tremendously. We never rushed her to walk, talk, or reach any other milestone. We didn't bother sleep training her (and believe me, she was not a good sleeper) nor did we stop rocking her to sleep because we didn't want her "spoiled". We rocked her to sleep every night until she was just over a year old, and treasured every second of it.  Before we realized it, that time was behind us. Unless she's feeling sick, our baby will not even let us rock her to sleep. The quiet nights spent soothing our baby girl are now a memory, and we are currently making new memories rocking Gavin to sleep. I love sitting in the chair, having Luis wait on me while I rock and nurse Gavin. I'm in no rush to change things, because he's our last. When he's done having me rock him to sleep, there will be no more babies to rock. I love that we hold our kids often and smother them with affection, because there will come a day when they don't WANT that from us so much. I love that we let them sleep in our bed, because one day soon, they will want to sleep alone. I love that we let them have pacifiers which bring them comfort, because one day, they will spit it out and never look back. I am by no means a perfect parent, and there will be a lot of things I will reflect upon and wish I had done differently, but rushing them to grow up won't be one of them. I'm so thankful for that advice, I figure I should pass it on.