Category: children

#33: A Nod to the Chickens

This Thanksgiving, we are thankful for seasonal foods.

So we embark on our first fall/winter without eggs in the fridge. As we get more and more committed to eating seasonally, we decided that’s as it should be, since chickens lay fewer eggs in the colder months, when the days are shorter. Rather than add to the stress of the chickens—who have to be tricked into believing the days are longer with artificial light and the like—we decided to just go from almost no eggs to no eggs for a while.

Since Mike and I were just using them in recipes once in a while, we don’t really notice a change. It’s Bella, who loves her egg burritos once a week or so, who must adapt. What’s been so wonderful (once we distracted her with an equally tummy-pleasing meal) is listening to her explain to people that eggs are for warmer months, because in the cold the chickens don’t lay as many eggs. She says it just like that, and it makes sense to her. So although it’s only November yet, it seems like it won’t be too hard to convince her to wait out the season for her burritos.

Now if we could just convince the kids to try cauliflower…

#22: My Quest for Composure

Experimenting with meditation

I knew this wouldn’t be easy, but my G-D is it hard to sit and calm my breathing and try not to think of all the things I could be doing if I were not trying to meditate. Clearly I need to be doing this.

My first try went like this: I thought about how in the world I would sit still for 5 minutes, I recited a list of positive mantra-type thoughts (I am happy, I am healthy, I love my husband, my kids are thriving, etcetera), I thought (accidentally) about lunch, I thought about calming my heart rate, which was racing, probably with nervousness about “wasting” precious baby-nap-time, and then I sneaked a peek at the clock. It had been 3 minutes. I decided that was enough for a first go.

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