What to Do When Your Child Gains Too Much Weight

What to Do When Your Child Gains Too Much Weight

Worried that your child has put on some extra pounds? Simple healthy habits can change all that. Here’s what you do when your child gains too much weight.

Worried that your child has put on some extra pounds? Simple healthy habits can change all that. Here's what you do when your child gains too much weight.

My husband came back from our son’s doctor appointment with disheartening news. Our toddler had gained weight and was on the borderline of being overweight. “How can this be?” I wondered. We cook healthy meals at home, don’t eat junk food, and he doesn’t watch TV. The statistics weren’t adding up.

“Seventy-five percent of the time, this can be genetic,” his pediatrician explained. Because while my husband and I are pretty slender, we also easily gain weight when we don’t watch what we eat.

Still, I had to dig deep and see how my toddler had jumped from 73% BMI to 85% in six months. I came up with a few not-so-surprising reasons why he gained weight—and what we plan to do about it.

Common reasons kids gain weight

Being pregnant with twins means I’ve been a sloth these days. I don’t get a chance to run around and play with my preschooler all that much. Kids his age shouldn’t remain inactive for longer than an hour at a time.

We’ve been baking

I’ve gotten less strict with what my son could eat, and this included sweets and treats. This month, we had been baking every week. Since it’s October, I baked pumpkin treats like cookies, pumpkin bread and cheesecake. I imagine this hasn’t helped with containing his weight.

I’ve been trying to gain weight

Since I’m carrying twins, I’m trying to gain a massive amount of weight. I gained a measly two pounds my first trimester (thanks, morning sickness). I now have to play catch up and have been cooking high-calorie, rich food for our meals.

Breakfast isn’t only oatmeal, but oatmeal with toast, orange juice and a fruit. And I’m snacking throughout the day. All this eating means my son has been eating my high-calorie, extravagant meals as well.

Strategies for when your child gains too much weight:

Now that we know what we have up against us, my husband and I plan to make smart choices, including:

Watch portion sizes

My son can be a bottomless pit and hardly turns food down. So it’s easy for me to offer him the same portions an adult would eat. We’re more mindful that he shouldn’t fill his plate with the same amount of food that’s on mine. Now I give him about half of what I would eat.

Encourage self-regulating

One of the best ways to promote his sense of fullness is to allow him the opportunity to feed himself. We let him eat at his own pace and use his own utensils.

Only offer food when he’s actually hungry

I don’t offer him food when he’s not even asking for any. I’ve even had to tell other people to stop offering him food because he’s isn’t going to turn food down. This may seem delightful to others who like sharing food with him, but bad for his weight. I’ll have to be a hawk over what he eats and make sure others get the A-ok from me first before offering him food.

Serve healthier choices

We’ll lessen our baking activities to special occasions—no more once a week baking. And no more pregnancy diets with elaborate meals and rich, high-calorie foods. If I need to snack, his pediatrician recommended I do so in private so he doesn’t succumb to social eating.

Be more active

I’ll do my best to play ball or at least encourage him to be active, even if I have to be slow or immobile. And my husband will do more active play, leaving the slower-paced activities for me.

Most importantly, don’t make an issue out of it

I’m not one to ignore a doctor’s diagnosis. But I also realize the negative effects of parental stress on kids. If we stress about his weight too much, he’ll feel like he did something wrong or shameful. Or he’ll develop poor self-esteem because we focus so much his eating.

Instead, we’ll be smart about it: do what needs to be done, and enjoy our son. We don’t want to make an issue out of it that he has a negative view of eating. We don’t mention food, weight, or portion control to him or in front of him.

Any discussions I’ve had with my husband or other people were done in private. And should anyone discuss this topic in front of him, I’m quick to cut the conversation. This is our issue to worry about, not his, and we have to make better choices on his behalf.

Considering that the diagnosis was more of an FYI than a dire warning, I don’t want to blow it out of proportion. He’s still on the borderline of being overweight, and we found reasons to his recent weight gain.

I’m confident he’ll continue to be healthy now that we can see where we slacked off and how we can improve.

Get more tips:

Have your kids gained weight? What were some of the reasons that led to their weight gain? What actions helped rein it in?

Do you feel overwhelmed balancing the needs of your family and your role as a mom? Struggling to find the time to get everything done? Get organized with a FREE copy of my ebook, Time Management Strategies for the Overwhelmed Mom!

Original article and pictures take sleepingshouldbeeasy.com site

What Other Professionals Have To Say

What Other Professionals Have To Say

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Original article and pictures take fit2b.us site

What Not to Eat When Breastfeeding

What Not to Eat When Breastfeeding

When you were pregnant, you had to keep a close eye on your diet. Now that you’ve had baby, you may be wondering what not to eat when breastfeeding.1

Eating and Drinking: What Not to Eat When Breastfeeding

Alcohol: You won’t hear many practitioners advocating alcohol when you’re breastfeeding. However, new research says you should be fine with a few drinks – as long as you’re capable of caring for your baby, you should be ok to breastfeed. If you’re still concerned, however, you could just wait to drink right after you’ve breastfed your baby.

Fish: Although the rules on fish and breastfeeding are a bit more lax than they were with pregnancy, you still should avoid high levels of mercury (so skip the mackerel, shark, swordfish, and tilefish). You risk damaging baby’s developing nervous system if you ingest and pass on too much mercury. (However, certain fish oils can be very beneficial while breastfeeding.)

Caffeine: High levels of caffeine can make adults jittery, so just imagine what it can do to a bitty baby. Even though baby will receive a smaller amount than you, you may still want to reduce your intake if you’re a big coffee drinker (and no energy drinks, please!). The recommendation currently is to keep caffeine consumption to fewer than five cups per day! Again, you could always wait to drink your coffee until right after you’ve nursed. And remember that caffeine shows up in other places as well, including chocolate.

Allergy Foods: If you have a history of allergies in your family, try to avoid eating those foods while you breastfeed. It’s also a good idea to avoid some foods that people are commonly allergic to, even if you don’t know of anyone in the family with that allergy. Some examples include nuts, dairy, eggs, wheat, soy, and certain fish. Although you can’t eliminate all of them from your diet, you’ll want to watch those closely if baby seems particularly fussy after a feeding or develops a rash or any other allergy symptoms.

Herbs: Herbs are always tricky, whether you’re breastfeeding or not. Some herbs will decrease your milk supply, while others might actually be harmful for your baby. Although not a complete list, some potentially harmful herbs include ginseng, star anise, rhubarb, bladderwrack, black cohosh, and licorice root. Try to avoid herbal teas, and stick to nursing-specific teas (but always double-check the ingredients!). There are some lactogenic herbs you may find helpful, however.

Citrus: Citrus can agitate a baby’s growing digestive system and may make baby fuss and spit up more. It can also lend to an increase in diaper rash. If you think you need to lay off the citrus, try to compensate for the lack of vitamin C by eating other C-rich, non-citrus foods, like mangoes and strawberries.

“Gassy” Vegetables: You may love broccoli, but baby might not agree. Cabbage, cauliflower, asparagus, and Brussels sprouts are other common gas culprits, so avoid those if they seem to be making your baby gassier than usual.

You may find that some foods on this list don’t affect baby at all, while other foods that aren’t even listed might bother your baby. Pay attention to your food intake and baby’s signals. If you’re having a hard time noticing a pattern, try keeping a chart for a while of what you eat, when, and any symptoms or fussiness baby may have. You might have to try certain foods a few times before seeing an obvious pattern. Many mothers find that if a food adversely affects them, it bothers their baby as well.

If you’re concerned that some foods might be harmful to your baby, talk to your doctor, and have your chart ready if you’ve been keeping it. You should also talk to your doctor about any potential loss in nutrition caused by avoiding certain foods and how to compensate.

How about you? Did Baby tell you what not to eat when breastfeeding him/her?

Original article and pictures take www.breastfeedingplace.com site

What Kids Can Really Do in a Real Food Kitchen at Every Age {GUEST POST}

What Kids Can Really Do in a Real Food Kitchen at Every Age {GUEST POST}

This is a guest post from Jami of Eat Nourishing. An absolutely inspiring guest post, I might add. I need to talk to my 7yo son about doing dishes, methinks…he’s been unloading since he was 3 or 4, as you see below, but we kind of got stuck there.

What can kids do in the kitchen at any age? Helping with dishwasher is an early option...find more in this comprehensive post!

What can kids do in the kitchen at any age? Helping with dishwasher is an early option...find more in this comprehensive post!

If you’ve been cooking traditionally for any amount of time, you’re bound to have run into challenges: challenges of resources, challenges of abilities, challenges of knowledge and challenges of time, especially if you are like me and are playing catch up trying to figure out the whole homemaking thing after coming to a conviction that having a career outside of the home probably wouldn’t best serve your family. I’ve been reading blogs, books, mentoring under godly women and everything for the past five years and still feel like I have a long way to go, but I have learned a few golden nuggets along the way.

Probably one of the most valuable tidbits I learned when running a traditional real foods kitchen is that you shouldn’t try to do everything yourself, if you can help it. That’s right, we need to let those controlling tendencies go. Delegate and teach. Not only do we (eventually) get a little much needed assistance, but we educate our children along the way about the importance of nutrition and having the discipline to make wise choices about our food preparation.

I happen to have two little girls, ages seven and three, who will likely grow up and have to run a household someday. They enjoy playing mommy and basically being my shadow. I take this time to teach them valuable skills in the kitchen now, so they won’t have to learn them later, plus I get a little relief. Okay, sometimes it’s not much of a relief when I know I can do something in less than half the time it will take them, but it is worth it for the skills they are receiving. I also have a little boy that I want to teach to do his part of household chores as well.

Getting your children to work in the kitchen (and actually enjoy it!) is not as difficult as you may think. Start small and work your way up, gently instructing them and thanking them for their help along the way. I am going to give you a few practical ideas that I use with my children, but some of them I’m saving for when they are a little older and more skilled. Obviously, you know what your children are capable of more than I do, so use your own discretion. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Get creative thinking of ways to get your children involved in the kitchen.

Most of all, remember you are investing in your children now so that you both will be rewarded later, them with valuable kitchen skills and you with some much needed help.

Katie here, just interrupting for a sec if I may with an exciting announcement about something I’m super passionate about…kids cooking dinner!

Your kids can learn to cook!

If your dream would be a night off dinner – or you know it’s vital that your kids have life skills like cooking – or they’re ASKING to help in the kitchen but you’re not sure where to start – these brand new videos can help!

It feels like you don’t have time for anything else – but teaching kids to cook truly creates time where there was none once they start pitching in on dinner prep. #kitchenmiracle

For a fun sneak preview of one of our recipes, here’s my 5yo making mac and cheese in the Instant Pot – can you figure out what that secret VEGGIE ingredient is?

This ties in so perfectly with this week’s Monday Mission – thanks, Jami!

Ages 18 months to 3 years

The Dude putting away silverware – 2yo

During this time, your children will need guidance, instruction and a lot of help, but can do quite a bit. You might be surprised!

• Put away and sort clean silverware (I take out the sharp knives first)
• Put silverware into the dishwasher
• Rinse some dishes–just not heavy or bulky ones
• Scoop out beans and grains into a bowl
• Stir non hot items
• Shake out the tablecloth
• Hold the dust pan

Ages 4 to 6 years

Jellybean measuring rice out to soak – 3.5 yo

Children should be able to do all of the above with less guidance and help needed, but will still require significant instruction for below items.

• Measuring out grains, beans and flour and the stuff to soak them in. This is a great opportunity to teach them about fractions! After a few times, I could tell my daughter that we needed to soak 2 cups of beans and she was able to measure them, put them in a bowl, rinse, fill with warm water, add lemon juice and cover. She did the work, I only had to tell her how much. Yea!

• 

  Pickle Pie and Jellybean doing dishes – 7yo & 3.5 yo

  Washing (probably not the best washing and you may have to go over it again afterward) off the table, counters and other kitchen surfaces. (No more getting on hands and knees to get those baseboards!)

• Stirring hot things with supervision
• Setting timers
• Rinsing all but the heaviest dishes
• Pulling ingredients out of the refrigerator and cabinets that are needed to prepare the meal.
• Roll out dough and cut shapes
• Press the buttons to process things in the food processor and blender
• Clear the table of dirty dishes
• Set the table

Ages 7 to 10

Pickle Pie making breakfast – 7 yo

By this time, if you have been training your child for some time, they should be familiar with kitchen practices and be a significant help in the kitchen.

• Unload and load the dishwasher
• Wash dishes by hand–unless they are particularly difficult to wash items
• Dry and put away dishes
• Sweep the kitchen floor
• Prepare scrambled or boiled eggs by themselves

• 

  Pickle Pie and Jellybean grinding flour – Ages 6yo and 3 yo

• Grind flour
• Soak grains, beans, nuts and flour
• Prepare foods for the dehydrator
• Help prep for lactofermenting
• Make a batch of kefir, water kefir or kombucha by themselves
• Make a smoothie by themselves
• Pull items from the freezer to defrost

Ages 11 and up

By this time most children read fairly well and hopefully have a pretty good understanding of how the kitchen works. Supervision in some areas is still necessary, but they should be able to take a lot more responsibility. We hope to give our oldest daughter one meal a day to prepare by this time.

• Follow real food recipes to prepare simple meals
• Do pretty much any kitchen chore
• Begin helping with menu planning
• Prepare a grocery list based on a menu plan
• Do just about any preparation for the next day’s meals

Get a free printable to help you figure out what kids are capable of in the kitchen at every age!

I hope you’ll join me in teaching your kids to cook, whether you become a member of the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse or simply involve them as often as you can.

Do you have anything to add to this list? What are some of the ways you get your children involved in the daily kitchen duties?

PIN THIS FOR LATER!

Wouldn’t it be great if you had a useful tool to better know what real responsibilities kids at every age could have in a real food kitchen? Well I’ve got just the thing for you then! Use my printable guide in the kitchen with helpful information for kids ages 18 months to 11 yo and up. You’ll see a shortened snapshot of it below, but get the FULL, printable version immediately after clicking the button below. I’ll also email you the guide so you always have it available (especially great if you’re on mobile right now)!

What Kids Can Really Do! Get them in the kitchen at every age and you may be surprised by what even the littlest ones can accomplish with the right training. Free printable in the post!

About Jami Delgado

Jami Delgado

Jami is the editor of Eat Nourishing, the recipe sharing website completely dedicated to real foods! She runs EN with the help of her amazing tech-y husband, Anthony, who is a full time seminary student. Jami has three children that she homeschools while trying to educate herself in her various interests of homemaking, gardening, vocal training, professional writing and classical literature.

Follow on Twitter @EatNourishing

Original article and pictures take www.kitchenstewardship.com site

What I’m Learning About Natural Home Remedies

What I’m Learning About Natural Home Remedies

I’m currently taking the Parent’s Guide to Natural Remedies online course. You guys. I can’t tell you how good this is. I really don’t have time right now to get wrapped up in this course (because hello graduation party, speaking engagement, end of the school year, everyday life, and many summer plans staring me right in the face). But every day or so, I pull up the course and click on another module to listen to – and I can’t stop listening. This information is incredibly helpful to me.

I’ve been trying to take some notes as I go. This is a crack up because I can’t write and listen at the same time because I’m afraid I’m going to miss more good information. Thankfully, I can go back and listen to and read the info over and over in this course.

I love being empowered to try home remedies first – before heading straight to the doctor. As the creators of Natural Home Remedies say, we know our kids better than any doctor. BUT, I also love that these ladies share information about when we DO need to take our kids in for doctor’s help. That’s always one of my biggest question marks. How much to treat at home…when to take them in. This course answers that. I’m loving this.

Here are some of the notes I’ve been scratching down. (But I can’t share all the specifics because the information in the Online Course isn’t mine to give out freely.)

~ Fever is Your Friend

I knew some of this already, but I didn’t know how much a fever kicks those healing white blood cells into gear. We should watch our kids’ energy level more than their temperature. Caution flags should go up with babies and when kids get dehydrated. Many more details are given in the course about what to watch for and how to treat.

~ There Are Many Reasons to Avoid Tylenol

Throw out the tylenol. Throw it out, throw it out, throw it out. I knew it wasn’t good, but I had no idea how bad it was. Wow. I’m so glad to know all this information from someone so studied and knowledgeable. Tylenol keeps the body from doing what it needs to do. It’s too easy to overdose, which really hurts the liver.

~ Everything we put on our skin is absorbed into the bloodstream.

It’s just like eating food. If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin. What a great way to help determine the safety of skin products and treatments. (Although I think an exception to this is essential oils. I don’t take them orally, but they are wonderful to put on the skin so they can absorb and get to work.)

~ A Urinary Tract Infection does not automatically mean you need an antibiotic.

There are natural ways to treat these at home first like unsweetened cranberry juice and chamomile tea, plus essential oils and more.

~ Be empowered to know the right questions to ask if/when you take your children to the pediatrician.

Yes. Thank you. The information shared in these modules helps so much with this.

~ There are many, many options for helping treat ear infections that do not involve antibiotics.

But you might begin with these two ideas before trying anything else: chiropractic care and cutting out dairy. If your child continues to have trouble, then try the many homeopathic remedies mentioned or treatments from a natural doctor.

~ Homeopathy is treatment that works with the body to help the body do what it is already trying to do to heal itself.

I guess I never heard a definition before. I know our bodies were made to heal themselves, and that sometimes when we’re sick we need a little help. I love knowing that homeopathic treatments simply give the body a boost of what it needs so that healing can occur when our bodies are weak.

This Course is incredibly professional, completely thorough, and wonderfully helpful for parents. I am so grateful to have all this information available. The cost for A Parent Guide to Natural Home Remedies is regularly $99, and is well worth that price because of all it includes. I can’t imagine how much money we can all save by practicing all of these home remedies and avoiding doctor bills. Plus, having all this information at our fingertips?? Priceless.

What are your favorite home remedies to use?

This post contains affiliate links.

Original article and pictures take heavenlyhomemakers.com site

What I Think About My New Instant Pot

What I Think About My New Instant Pot

I finally did it. After so many of you told me how great the Instant Pot is, after so many insisted that I would love it, after all kinds of hemming and hawing and rebelling about getting one more appliance for my kitchen…I finally got myself an Instant Pot.

It was Amazon Prime Day. It was a good deal. It was a big pot for my family’s big needs. It was time.

I’m sure you’re all wondering, has my new Instant Pot completely changed my life? Am I a better mom now? Do I sleep better at night because of it? Does it help my house stay in a less cluttered state? Do I get mail to the box in better time? Am I finally wearing matching socks? In other words, does the Instant Pot help make my world go round?!

The answer to all of the above is “no.” But I do make mean batches of hard boiled eggs in record time, so I think we can all give a cheer and feel that this was definitely a worthwhile purchase.

I’ve truly had fun with my new toy, which isn’t taking up any extra room on my counter because it has actually taken the place of my coffee pot if you can believe it! (I realized after I started drinking this healthy coffee that I no longer need a coffee-maker taking up space on a daily basis. Away went the coffee pot. In its place went the Instant Pot. A pot for a pot. It just seemed logical.)

At the very moment our Instant Pot arrived on our porch, I was making Tuna Salad. Matt decided he definitely wanted boiled eggs in his tuna since we now had an Instant Pot in which to make them quickly. I read the “how to boil eggs” instructions while he got it set up, and while I’m pretty sure we didn’t do everything right, nothing blew up, our eggs hard boiled like they were supposed to, and Matt got eggs in his tuna the way he wanted. Good story, huh?

Not long after the arrival of the pot and the making of the eggs, we headed back out to church camp for a week. So our Instant Pot sat forlorn and lonely on our counter-top all week. Since coming back from camp, I’ve been playing with it as I’ve had time. Here’s what I’ve tried, though please don’t get excited because my stories might bore you to sleep…

For instance, one night we had company and my stove was full of other big pots cooking other food. So I tried steaming our broccoli and carrots in the Instant Pot. The recommended seven minutes was way too long and our broccoli came out dead and mushy and completely unappetizing. Perhaps it’s not a good idea to try a new appliance when you’re serving food to company?

See, look. My full stove, which is what led me to steam veggies in my Instant Pot. Fascinating.

A few days later I put a whole chicken into my Instant Pot, dumped on some BBQ Sauce, and turned it on. That was ridiculously simple and we ate chicken for lunch 35 minutes later. I served it with okra. It was very good. The end.

The part of the story you don’t want to hear is that I asked Matt to please take the leftover meat off the bones, but I didn’t communicate clearly about saving the bones so I could try making broth in my new Instant Pot. Learning to make broth in my new pot will have to be a lesson for another day.

Perhaps my favorite of anything I’ve tried so far is cooking frozen ground beef! As soon as I perfect this method, I will for sure share the details. I think this will be a HUGE time saver!

Sooo, while none of this Instant Pot news was super exciting to read about at this point, you can be sure that as we settle into a new school year with lots of teenage mouths to feed, we will be absolutely making the most of our new Instant Pot! And when I figure out all the great food we can make with it, I’ll share all the fabulous details!

I’d love to hear from you if you have an Instant Pot. What are your favorite time-saving recipes to make?

Original article and pictures take heavenlyhomemakers.com site

What I Learned About Modern Life From My Older Neighbor

What I Learned About Modern Life From My Older Neighbor

It was a gorgeous day.

One of those days where you kind of just wish you were on a beach somewhere. For the first time in weeks, it wasn’t humid. The sun was warm, the breeze was cool. The kids begged to go ride their bikes, and I couldn’t say no.

We headed outside. Even the 14-month-old was eager to go, racing out the door as fast as his little legs would carry him, as soon as a sibling opened it. I trailed behind a bit.

The older three kids hopped on their bikes and began riding. The 3-year-old brought me the wagon and demanded I take him and the 1-year-old for a walk. I loaded them up, and off we went, meandering along the sidewalk in our neighborhood. The older kids raced back and forth on their bikes, much faster than we were.

A ways up the sidewalk, an elderly woman had come out of her house to get her mail. We were approaching her just as she was turning around to walk back to the house. I smiled at her. “Hi!”

What I Learned About Modern Life From My Older Neighbor

She stopped to chat. I had never met her before.

She asked how many kids I had. The older ones were still scattered around on their bikes. “Five,” I told her.

She smiled. “I had five too!” (I don’t know what it is, but I always seem to meet ladies who had lots of kids. They’re happy to see my bunch.)

We talked for a few minutes. All of my kids gathered around us and introduced themselves. Some talked about their birthdays and favorite activities.

She asked my how old the littlest was. She asked me if I was planning to have more children. (When I said yes, she said “I really wanted 6, but it just wasn’t in the cards.”) She asked if we homeschooled — my kids are obviously school age and it was the middle of the afternoon.

She was sweet. Then she needed to get back into the house, because she’d just had knee surgery and couldn’t stand up too long. Plus, my 3-year-old was demanding I “go!”

It was a pleasant little chat with a nice neighbor on a gorgeous afternoon, and yet it made me think.

It Used to Be Simple

I’m not sure how old she was. She mentioned that she has a great-grandchild, so I’m guessing she’s close to 80.

If we consider all the “advice” we’re given these days about what to say or not say, then she said lots of stuff that was wrong. She said “You have your hands full,” and asked about my reproductive plans. Who does that?

People who are trying to be nice. People who are trying to make conversation.

Back in her day, there were no “10 Things Not to Say” style internet lists, to let her know all the ways she might be offended people if she opened her mouth.

Maybe that’s a good thing.

These days, we do have the internet. We do have those lists. People tell themselves and others that it’s okay, even somehow righteous, to be offended when someone is intending to be nice to you, because they used the wrong words to do it. We’ve stopped caring about connecting with another human being, and started caring that they somehow read our minds and don’t say the wrong thing.

I don’t know why people are so offended by all of these things. Innocuous things. “You have your hands full!” said with a smile is not an insult.

Sometimes, I feel beaten down by it all. And I know I’m not alone. Friends come to me privately and say things that they wouldn’t ever say in public, because they would be attacked for doing it. Their words would be twisted.

Maybe it struck me so much because it was a Monday that we were walking, after a tough weekend. A weekend in which I said, “I want to help people with autism, who are struggling, to be the best versions of themselves.” I meant well. The message received, however, somehow, was “I hate autistic people and think they’re better off dead.” I still have no clue how my sincere and well-intentioned words were twisted so badly.

Intentions Matter More Than Words

Language is constantly changing. What was acceptable to say, or even “politically correct terminology” 5 years ago, is now considered out of date and offensive.

It’s wearying to try to keep up with these changes. It’s wearying to mean well and yet offend people anyway. It’s wearying to try to consider their point and come up with nothing…because the heart should matter more than the words that are spoken.

I suppose some would consider it offensive to ask a woman if she’s planning to have more babies. It’s not really any of their business. But many women love babies and enjoy talking about them, and don’t mean anything by the question. (It’s not really cool to say, “You’re not having more, are you? You are using birth control or getting sterilized?” because there’s such a negative and judgmental attitude there. It’s obvious from the way it’s worded.) But “Are you going to have more?” is neither good nor bad.

It would be better for all of us if we just stopped being offended by everything all the time. Most people mean well. Rather than calling them out because they didn’t say it right, if you know they weren’t intentionally being rude…just give them the benefit of the doubt. Answer politely (if you’re not comfortable you don’t have to answer the question directly, or you can smile and say something like, “Yes, my hands are full, but my heart is fuller”). Don’t call them out. Don’t be rude.

It’s just ironic that when someone means well, and says the ‘wrong’ thing, that people who are upset about that person being ‘hateful,’ when they really weren’t, will then speak hatefully to them, to teach them how wrong it was to be ‘hateful’ in the first place. That’s just crazy.

The Lessons Are Important

Yes, I got all of that from a five-minute conversation with my elderly neighbor.

I appreciated that she wasn’t worried about saying or doing the wrong thing. She spoke up, she said what she was thinking, but gently. She made small talk. She connected with me on an area we obviously had in common — a love of children.

We both parted from the interaction feeling a bit happier, I think. Positive human contact tends to do that.

We all need more of that in our lives. We need more contact. We need more positive interactions. We need to get out and simply see the world, and take it one minute at a time. We’re so much better off, than when we’re sitting in our quiet little social media groups, where people largely think the same, and coming up with more and more warped ways to be offended by things that are different from us.

I get it. I do it sometimes, too. We all do. And, it’s nice sometimes to be surrounded by others who do “get it” and not have to stick to small talk or explain yourself. We can do both.

But on the next gorgeously sunny day…go out for a walk. Greet your neighbors with a smile and a wave. Have a short chat. Connect with another human being. Remember that this is what truly matters.

How do you feel about modern life? Do you think we ever forget what’s important?

Ready to get started living a healthier life? This complete, 50-page guide will walk you through the steps, product swaps, recipes, and more that you need to get started today!

Original article and pictures take www.modernalternativemama.com site

What Happens When You Ask Your 15-Year Old Son to Open Your First Aid Kit

What Happens When You Ask Your 15-Year Old Son to Open Your First Aid Kit

It’s amazing that in our household of four boys we haven’t been to the emergency room more often {knocks on wood}.

Our oldest son holds the record for “most times in the ER for stitches.” For once, his brothers are okay with losing a competition. But by the way – why is it that most “emergencies” take place after normal business hours? (And why does a tiny piece of gauze cost $52 in the ER? Did you know you also pay a fee for the tray that holds the gauze? I am very serious.) I’d like to request that in the future, all accidents should take place between the hours of 8:00a-8:00p where stitches cost a fraction of the price. Is this too much to ask?

Just a few weeks ago, our youngest took a pretty hard spill off his bike – after normal business hours, of course. Not that I think about money when my child is bleeding. But still.

My husband was a rock star and spent about an hour and a half getting him cleaned up, comforted, and bandaged. Thankfully, we didn’t need an ER visit this time, and Malachi limped along for a few days while he healed up. The timing of Malachi’s fall was perfect (as if there’s ever a perfect time to fall off your bike?). What I mean is – we’d just received this First Aid Kit as a review item and were so very grateful to have all its contents on hand just when we needed it!

It contains everything a family needs to handle basic emergencies at home so a wound will be cleaned and bandaged properly. It holds everything from cold compresses to eye wash to bandages and gloves. We’ll probably keep ours in the car to have at all our sporting events. I’m not sure why we hadn’t thought of this genius idea before!

But allow me to share when I heard when I first asked my 15-year old son to unpack our new First Aid Kit and give me an idea of all it contained:

“Let’s see. Here is a bandage to use when someone gets stabbed. Here is a pair of small scissors…to cut out bullets. Here is a handy little barf bag…” And on he went…

Yes. For all of our many bullet removal and stab wound needs, we are now prepared, thanks to the MacGill First Aid Kit. And in a less likely, practically unimaginable event that one of our kids falls off his bike or turns an ankle on the basketball court, I suppose we’ll be prepared for that too.

We were especially impressed that the MacGill First Aid Kit came with so many items we didn’t already have but really do need. Sure we’ve always had bandaids and ointmen in our cabinet. But this little kit holds such a variety of helpful items beyond bandaids. And the best is that it holds a simple but thorough instruction card so that in the case of an emergency, we can reference it to see how to properly proceed with treating a wound.

Definitely check out this First Aid Kit! What a great family tool to have on hand.

You can win a free one when you enter the Rafflecopter below! I’ll draw a random winner on Wednesday, July 26.

Special thanks to the folks at MacGill for sending this First Aid Kit my way!

Original article and pictures take heavenlyhomemakers.com site