Things We Did Today 7/15/13

It's not like we did anything fantastical, but Entegra and Bracken were very excited so we wanted to write it down.

Entegra practicing her sewing skills, Bracken distracting her, and Inara making funny faces at Mommy.  Braddock was taking a nap.

Entegra was sooo happy to have an opportunity to sew, especially after Grandma Kathy brought her a few homemade outfits.

Concentrating hard. 

Helping Sissy stuff her project.

The finished project, a soft, squishy pillow.  She's so proud.

Bracken is super excited about his new bed.  A neighbor down the street was kind enough to let us have it.  

He was sweetly reading a book in bed, calmly and quietly.  The boys now share a room.

Our Family Vegan-ish (Nutritarian)

Recently on Facebook I posted a question about lunch, specifically, When you make lunch for your at home kids, do you make one thing and say, "Here it is, eat or starve." Or do you let them have say? Anyone have yummy vegan kid friendly meal ideas?

I think the Vegan part threw a lot of friends and maybe some family.  No, we are not "tried and true" Vegan's (Ben would never go for that).  We are Vegan-ish.  It would be more correct to say we're Nutritarian at home.  What in the world is a Nutritarian?

Nutritarian is a word coined by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.  It is a nutrional way of eating.  I read a book by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, which was referred to me by a friend whom suddenly looked healthy thin and great after having a baby the same time as me, 2 1/2 years ago.  The book was Eat to Live.  I tried the plan for a day and nearly passed out and was horribly sick.  I tried again 2 years later after having Braddock and it has mostly stuck.

Basic idea:  
*Eat all the veggies you want (especially greens with limited sweet potatoes and white potatoes)at least up to one lb of raw veggies a day- wow that's a lot.
*Eat at LEAST 3-4 fruits a day
*Beans at least 1-2 cups per day
*Limited grains about one cup per day (I only do this when I'm on the diet part.  I don't limit whole grains regularly, just breads or processed grains.  On top of that, the scriptures tell us "Grain is the staff of life".)
*Next to no oil (your veins need oil though, so we sub with ground flax seeds, chia seeds, and nuts).
*No added sugar or processed foods (I have not succeeded with this one yet, sugar is my...there aren't even words to describe it)
*Little to no animal products about 1-2 servings per week (the book says eggs are okay because they're the least polluted but poultry if you must)
This is basically a nutritarian way of eating, yet very similar to vegan-ism.

Source

Sorry, I'm not the vegan that is changing the way I eat to save the animals.  Good for those that are, but for me and mine, I see things a little differently.  Anatomically, we have canine teeth not meant for plants.  Physiologically, we need a B12 vitamin that plants are lacking, but animal products are not.  Religiously, Heavenly Father asked that the best ram be sacrificed, that lamb's blood be smeared on the door posts, and that man have dominion over the beasts.  I don't think He has a problem with animals being killed but EVERYTHING IN MODERATION.  I'm not a big fan of how most butchered animals are raised but I am not about to raise my own cow and I don't want to deal with chickens.  :)

So, at home, we try to avoid bringing home sweets, processed foods, meat, and dairy.
When we go to a friend or family's home, we enjoy the beef tacos or pepperoni pizza.  I'll enjoy the 3 different small slices of cake at the Relief Society event (church), and practice self control all day with other sugary temptations.

Has it actually done anything positive for our family or do we feel wanting of cheesy goodness?
I'll be the first to admit cheese and sugar have been the hardest to let go of at home.
I wish we were more strict, honestly.

Ben and I lost 10 lbs the first 3 weeks and haven't gained it back several months later (that was back when we were being more strict with the plan above, we need to do that again).  I have more energy and I don't need a nap in the middle of the day.  I was barely able to go 3 hours with out eating.  I was shaking, cranky, and would eat the first easiest thing I saw a.k.a. a candy bar while in line at the grocery store.  Now I have 3 meals a day and one green smoothie between lunch and dinner.

Entegra has been a pretty good eater since she kindergarten.  She loves broccoli, oranges, strawberries, and blackberries and just about any smoothie we put in front of her.

Inara, whom was previously eating mainly bread, milk, cheese, and chicken, now eats apples, carrots, bread, and oatmeal.  Previously, she hated PB&J sandwiches, now she'll eat it but only wants the PB on her sandwich.  Also, she'll drink water a lot more often then before when she only wanted milk.  She's like me and has a major sugar tooth that we're working on together.  A few medical things are much better for her, too.

Inara drinking a fruit smoothie and eating a Peanut butter sandwich on whole white wheat bread
(is that bread actually healthy?)

  
Bracken wanted milk all the time.  He still would love to drink tons of Almond or Soy milk but is content with water.  He's more willing to try other foods and recently has decided to like grapes, raisins and broccoli.

I'm hoping to feed Braddock right.  I would love to be able to convice at least one of my children to eat salads.  I'm feeding him fruits and veggies as often as I can once he's old enough.  He, so far, is the first to actually enjoy learning to eat solid foods.  He's tried and liked, oatmeal, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes.  

Back to Benjamin.  He is NOT thrilled with the lack of cheese or red meats in the house.  I'm able to make up for it with different kinds of meals, the more spicy and flavorful the better- however, that makes it harder for the kids to like.  There's no winning.

So, we still eat meat on occasion.  Eggs are the main animal product in the home but still not consumed more than 2-3 times per week.  We love cheese on our pizza, but soy milk is so tasty.  We try to avoid red 32 or yellow 98 (made up but you get the idea), and have found turmeric turns food SUPER yellow if you need that color.   Basically, we went Vegan-ish to add more veggies to our plates and live a healthier lifestyle.

The more veggies I can get into my kids, the better I feel about doing my mommy job.

New Year's Resolutions 2013

Many people make new goals for the New Year.  This year I decided to give it a try.  I usually don't participate because there are ALWAYS things I have goals for throughout the year.  This year, however, Ben really wanted designated goals and steps on how we were going to achieve those goals (he went to a seminar and came home really pumped about the lecture, something about attainable goals).

#1- Like everyone else in the USA we want to lose weight, but more than that, I want my kids to eat healthfully also.

1. Read Eat to Live and Disease Proof Your Child By Dr. Joel Furhman and follow it.  (This new eating plan is basically vegan and more fully a veggie and fruit based diet.  I'll explain more fully in a different post.)
2.  No junk in the house, if we're going to not follow the plan, it'll only be outside of the home
3.  Always have sliced veggies available for after nap (when the kids just can't wait until dinner).  At that point, who cares if they don't eat dinner, they've likely just eaten carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, celery, radishes, or whatever else I've put out.
4. One smoothie per day.  I can add spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, or whatever else so long as we add          fruits it tastes delicious and we drink it up, most the time you can't even taste the greens.  It ensures   we get at least some greens and berries (both of which Inara claims to hate) into our bodies.

#2 - Attend Church Meetings on time.

1. Thankfully, church is now at 11AM.  We eat a late breakfast, get dressed right after and leave 10-15 minutes early.  
2. Make sure kids are fed a filling breakfast before church.  Keep TV off (works a whole lot better now that it's down stairs).  Make sure church bag is ready to go.  (Church bag:  Living Scriptures coloring books, crayons, maybe a little doll or car, mini hymnal, all class literature, tiny notebooks with a pen. -That's it.  We're not there to play around, we're there to listen and learn.)

#3 - Aside from special details- finish left side of basement.

1. Put TV downstairs so as to have nothing keeping us upstairs during evening hours (the only time to work on basement).
2. Clean right side of basement so kids can be watched easily while we build on the other side...and just so it's clean.
3. Builders permit- by end of February
4. Install electrical- by end of April
5. Put up walls and finish building the closet wall- by end of May
6. Install insulation in ceiling (walls already have insulation) and put up ceiling drywall (or whatever it is)- by end of July
7.  Put in flooring- by end of October

 (This does not include trim, painting, or other special details, although I hope to have it painted before flooring, and trimming shortly after flooring.)

#4 - Garden

     This one will be a little more difficult.  We've always wanted a garden but we have many trees and very   few spots of full sun that are not on our drain field.  There is a space out back that we believe will work (I watched it all last summer) so we will try there.

1. Determine which fruits or vegetables to grow.
2. Green house or fenced in or convertible green house.
3. Build short raised beds, maybe one 2x4 high.
4. Constantly read up how to grow my garden and tend to it.
5. Involve kids or they will be bored to tears and I'll accomplish nothing.  :)

    

Oh Forget it.

I keep trying to do new things, which is not a bad thing but it can cause a lot of confusion, stress, and then I have the whole- other people think I'm crazy because I start and stop whatever that thing is fairly quickly.  I've noticed that I'll tell someone in my family, "Oh we're trying this new thing because of all these great reasons," and then a month later I've stopped.

Now, I just need to put it out there that it isn't always because I'm lazy, although that has been a reason, I won't deny. :)  A fair amount of the time I stop because it didn't work for us.  It took too much time, energy, money...whatever.  Other times, it just failed.  I tried, it failed.  Other times, it's too hot, too cold, something came up (like becoming pregnant and having a new baby).

So, now I'll attempt to do what everyone is always saying.  Don't worry about everyone else's opinions. How are you going to know if you never try?  Just because one way works for one family, doesn't mean it'll work for mine.

Some fails:
http://heinerhullabaloo.blogspot.com/2011/08/35-challenge-redo.html
   *yeah right, who can manage $35 per week with 5 people, well good for them!

http://heinerhullabaloo.blogspot.com/2011/07/evening-schedule.html
    *Chore lists and evening schedules are constantly changing now we have a new one that is a little more            permanent only because it's screwed into the wall and not falling down and getting lost.

http://heinerhullabaloo.blogspot.com/2011/05/great-cloth-diaper-change-for-our.html
    * We still use cloth diapers but it's an on/off thing and we've learned so much about what works and doesn't work for us.

Some successes:
http://heinerhouseholdhappenings.blogspot.com/2011/09/dinning-room-chair-project.html
    * This was a fail and success.  The table cloth covers easily tore but I've since recovered the chairs with a more sturdy wipe off-able fabric.

http://heinerhouseholdhappenings.blogspot.com/2011/09/home-made-baby-food-pears.html
    * I make most of the baby food and it is always successful.

http://heinerhullabaloo.blogspot.com/search/label/Family%20Outings
    * Our family outings are always a success, because we have fun.  Just because someone fell down or was super cranky from being tired, does not make it a failure.

With all this in mind, I plan on shutting down the Heiner Household Happenings because why shouldn't I put all my stuff on one blog as though it's a family journal of all or most things that go on.  I enjoy hearing peoples responses to things we've done and tried.  I like a visual place for me to see what we've done.  It's so much easier than having a million journals lying around or printing out pictures, cutting, pasting...blah, blah, blah.

Alright, now I'm babbling.  So, in honor of our favorite book The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales...you can stop reading this now.  Really, there isn't anything left here but a bunch of filler.  I'm just writing more to make me look smart.  I only had 2 paragraphs and that is hardly worth a post.  Besides I didn't say anything more than what I've already said (you know, the links, because I already wrote those).  So, stop reading now.  Seriously.  There isn't anything else to see here folks. :)

Home Made Bread

I have NEVER been able to make any semblance of bread.  It's always gooey, flat, or hard as a rock.
Well, I finally managed decent homemade bread!!!  I'm so excited!  It's not a loaf bread for sandwiches but more of a soup bread, the kind you what to dip into your delicious soup and soak up the yummy broth.

I think I didn't horribly screw up this time because there weren't a lot of ingredients or instructions.

I found the recipe here at the original site (Thank you so much Moneywise Moms for posting!!) or you can find it down below the pictures.

Here's how it turned out.

Recipe for Homemade Soup Bread

makes 3 loaves

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

1 tablespoon salt

6 1/2 cups all purpose flour

cormeal for bottom of bread (optional)

1. In a very large bowl, add your flour, yeast, and salt.
2. Pour in the water and stir until combined, be gentle with it.
3. Cover your bowl with foil or greased plastic wrap and leave for 2-5 hours (I did 3 hours).
4. Divide your dough into 3 loaves with a knife.  Cover each loaf with a little flour and form into ball.
5. Sprinkle cornmeal on baking sheet and place dough rounds onto sheet.  Let dough rest about 35 mins, give or take.
6. With a sharp knife, slash top of each loaf 3 times.
7. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and add a small pan filled with 1 cup of water on a lower rack for a water bath.  Bake for 30-35 mins.
8. When finished, place on cooling rack.  Slice and eat with delicious brothy soup!

Evening Schedule

I'm writing out this "Evening Schedule" in hopes of it lasting longer than 2 weeks.  So, this is mostly for us but your welcome to look it over and leave any suggestions you may have.

In our parental opinion, Entegra and Inara both need chores (most children do.)  Try not to get the wrong impression.  The girls have had specific chores off and on for years now and they always help around the house, even when kicking and screaming ensue.  We just want a more structured plan.  It's helps Bracken to sleep better, and eventually the girls get used to it and come to expect it.  Which means they won't fight as hard to get out of them.

So...our plan

1)  Toys put away before dinner
                       This should also help with the "no toys at the dinner table" rule

2)  After our nice family dinner together, either Benjamin or I will do the dishes while the other helps the girls with their chores.  Only helping if necessary.

     For the specific chores, we have a NEW chore wheel, Ta-Da!

3)  Now it's time for everyone to pitch in with the 5 MINUTE SUPER CLEAN.  Everyone pitches in and runs around for 5 mins. looking for things to clean up in any room, starting with the front room.  Not 5 mins. in every room, just 5 mins. total.

4) If there is time, we can now relax.  Watch TV, play a game, go for a walk, etc.  Or if it's Monday, this is the perfect time for Family Home Evening.

5)  At 7 p.m. my watch is set to go off, telling me it's time for all kids to get ready for bed.

    -All kids brush their teeth
    -Potty training Inara uses restroom
    -Girls get jammies on while Bracken gets diaper change and jammies
    -Story time= Entegra and Inara get to choose one story each
    -Family prayer
    -Tuck girls into bed with goodnight hugs and kisses
   
     Bracken's turn
    -Sit in rocking chair and read short story or lift-the-flap book (because of short attention span)
    -Sing his lullaby while rocking for a few seconds then get up
    -Let him turn off light, continue singing
    -Hugs and kisses, lay him down in crib with blankie

Good Night Kiddly Dinks!

It shouldn't be any later then 8 p.m. and I can go about my blogging, couponing, dinner scheduling, TV watching, Xbox playing, School time prep...ME time!!!  Oh, and maybe I'll be able to have an uninterrupted conversation with my darling husband :) wouldn't that be somethin'.

Here are a couple of pictures with the girls doing their chores tonight.  Only a little kicking and screaming.  Really Entegra just complained the whole time, but she did it anyway and Inara threw herself on the floor but got back up and did it anyway.  :)

Yummy Pancakes

We recently made pancakes...I know, how exciting.  Well it was actually quite fun!  The girls really enjoy the different shapes and especially the different colored foods.  We just used the old type ketchup and mustard bottles and food coloring.  We tried coloring the pancake batter naturally the first time we did this with blended strawberries for pink, and blueberries for a purplish-blue but we didn't blend well enough and kept clogging the bottles, plus food coloring is tons easier.  

Other natural color ideas: brown- chocolate powder; green-spinach (but let it cool before you take a bite or it'll taste like syrup covered spinach eeewwwwww!); orange- canned pumpkin puree; and yellow-an extra egg yoke.

We made a crown, girl, palm tree, peace sign, yin-yang, deformed star, hot dog, turtle, and a whale.  I hope to get better as we go along and do more than 2 colors at a time.

And another thing.  Entegra doesn't like regular eggs but when they made green eggs and ham at preschool, she loved the green eggs.  So, at home we tried the green egg thing as well, crossing our fingers the whole time, and... she liked them!!!  Thank goodness!  Something we ALL like. Amazing.
-Taryn

During the whole time, Bracken enjoyed just sitting there watching and eating his fingers :)