Summer is synonymous with slacking. Vacations, stay-cations, back yards, where ever summer is spent, it’s supposed to be relaxing. The BBQ becomes the stove, the deck the kitchen, and often the pool/lake becomes the bath tub.
Unfortunately, sometimes the slacking slips to the meal plan too, and you know it’s bad when the kids tell you they want to start eating healthier.
That is exactly what happened this weekend.
So, we sat down at Sunday breakfast (pancakes with fruit) and we discussed making ourselves healthier. We talked about the move from the food pyramid to the new My Plate theory. The kids agreed that we would cut down on treats (dessert only twice a week) and we talked about eating less red meat. Believe it or not, that’s where we got the most resistance. Yes, we are raising carnivores.
Then, we discussed eating more fruits and vegetables, and trying new things. In order to make that seem like something a little more fun, we decided to take them to the grocery store and let them choose the things they would like to try.
So, of we went to Superstore. The girls wanted to try coconut... a good start. Ethan wanted to try... apples? He picked 3 types, pretty sure he’s tried them all before, but they are healthy, so we are “trying” apples. We are also “trying” plums.
We moved on to vegetables. Eleanor wanted to try yellow zucchini, impressive. Rebecca wanted to try broccoli and Ethan wanted to try cauliflower... okay, so not so much new, but they are healthy... we are on the right track.
Another thing that came up at the breakfast table was the idea of a family workout on evenings when the kids don’t have any sports.
So, after eating all our veggies, the kids and I (Tom is sick) headed to the basement for our workout. We kept it short for the first installment. We each chose 3 stretches to start, then we each chose 2 exercises, and we ended with 1 stretch each.
I did friggin burpees tonight... burpees! This could get serious people.
Summer is almost over, so it's back to school, back to routine, and back to healthy.
You can learn even more ways to get organized and transition from summer to school on our Back-To-School 2014 page.
I wrote this Wednesday morning:
When my daughter was 1-year old, I went to New York for some work training. I was away for 1 week. At the end of the week, when my flight was delayed, I cried.
The delay meant I wouldn’t be home before bedtime. I would have to wait until morning to say hello to my baby, to let her know that I hadn’t really abandoned her, that I would never abandon her. How can you explain that to a baby any other way but to return?
Since then, I have not been away from Rebecca for more than a few days. She does go to her dad’s house, so I am used to her being away from time-to-time, but never for long.
She is 6 now, and this week she is staying at her dad’s… for the whole week. She is just 40 minutes away from me, but it feels like I am back in New York.
I wonder if she misses me.
I wrote this Wednesday evening:
So, this evening, I called Rebecca at her dad’s house to say good night, and he had to force her to talk to me.
Let me say that again... my daughter had to be forced to speak to me on the phone. Yeah, that didn’t feel good.
She has done this before... not to me, but to her dad. You see, usually I’m on the other end of the phone. I’m the one forcing her to speak. I don’t want you to think she’s not a nice kid, she only does this if you call and interrupt her while she’s having fun.
I caught her during family game time. I get it, I don’t like it, but I get it.
This is when I have to be the parent and separate my feelings of betrayal and disappointment and realize that she doesn’t understand how she is making me feel, and she is trying to deal with her own emotions too.
It broke my heart a little, but I'm sure that she misses me... right?
This year, Eleanor asked if she could do her own back-to-school shopping... I was reluctant. She has shopped on her own before, but never for clothes and never at a big mall.
So, I finally agreed... kind of.
I took Eleanor and a friend to Square One (A large mall about 30 minutes from our house) and I did let them shop on their own. However, I was in the same hall as them at all times shopping with Ethan and Rebecca.
The girls had a cell phone and they had to check in every half an hour. They had to stay in the area of the mall that I told them and we met up for lunch.
I thought that I had done everything I could to protect them and keep them safe, and then every store I went into asked me for my phone number and my email address. I hate this practice on the best of days (and never provide the information), but when I realized that they would be asking Eleanor this too, I hoped she would have the good sense to say no.
Now, I don’t think that stores would do anything more than send her junk mail, but I still don’t like the idea of a young girl telling a shop clerk her phone number with any number of strangers in line behind her. I know that most people wouldn’t blink an eye or even take notice of her digits, but it’s not “most” people that I worry about. It’s that one person who does take note, that one person who takes advantage of a simple situation where information is made available. That’s what/who makes me nervous.
The next time Eleanor checked in, we talked about it, and she said she had not given them information when they had asked. I was relieved, and I immediately thought “I have to blog this and make other parents aware”. If you are letting your kids shop on their own, tell them they do not have to tell the clerks any of their personal information.
Not only was Eleanor clever enough to know better, but she was also very successful on her first solo back-to-school shopping trip.
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