Self Feeding: I didn't know there was a name for this...

My littlest girl has started solid foods. This was not at my determination. Well it was, but it wasn't. The way I grew up my mom did not use baby food. She just gave the baby little bits of whatever she was eating. I thought this was the way everyone did it. I had no idea what baby food was for.

When my first little guy was a brand new baby I asked my older, child vetted sisters, when should I start feeding him solids. They both told me around six months he would be interested in food. That's when he will start pulling it off the plate and putting it in his mouth. This is what I went with. I would often eat with him by my lap and as soon as he started grabbing food and putting it in his mouth, than I started letting him have little bits of whatever I had.

I have done this with each subsequent child. Now number four has done the same thing.  It's pretty easy. I love it. It works for my kids. It works for the way I parent. It may not be the 'scientific' way, but it is pretty natural. I believe this is how people introduced their kids to food before science got involved in child rearing. Not to say that all science is bad, I just think that when it comes to child rearing, instinct is more important than studies. We have successfully survived as a species for quite awhile, without statistics and clinical studies.

But not just that. Also the fact that science is always changing. The one day it is bad to give your kids salt. The next it is good. Then it's bad again. Then good again. Now fat is bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. But the fats like canola oil, aka rapeseed oil, which the USDA says is so good for you, turns out to be a contrived oil that is good for Canadian agriculture, not particularly good for you, http://www.naturalnews.com/034733_canola_oil_rapeseed_food_labels.html

Then the fats that were deemed evil, because they are saturated, (Boo!) like butter and Coconut oil, are actually good for you due to their high digestibility and vitamin solubility. Things that people have been eating, because they are real and not completely contrive from indigestible material, ie hydrogenated oil (http://agriculturesociety.com/politics-and-food/whats-the-truth-about-cottonseed-oil/)

My point is not that we all need to be purest to survive, or even to thrive, just that I think our ancestors knew a little bit more about raising children than science discovers. Basically it seems to me that modern 'scientists' are trying to reinvent the wheel. Rather than trying to discover new ways of feeding our kids, why don't they research why the old ways worked so well. Lets try to understand why things are the way they are not try to redefine what they are.

Steps to a Blissful Sunday

To day is Sunday. Sunday is a day of rest created by God for man. That's right God created this day of rest and worship because we need it. I know I do. The problem is as my family gets older and larger, the day has become less boring, and less restful. Now I appreciate a boring Sunday because we are now busy 2 out of four weekends a month. 

But this Sunday has the makings to be blissful. 

First I had to wake up way to early this morning, because my son received the Light of Christ medal for his cub scout uniform. The little modest ceremony took place at the 8:00 mass which meant we (husband and I go to bed at 2 am) had to get up at 6. We struggled out of bed. I struggled to get the kids ready, to go outside and warm up the car, we struggled to get there on time. We made it. We celebrated mass. We received Christ, then a blessing for our throats, and John received his award. 

Getting up early has given us the whole day to relax and reflect. We got donuts on the way home. I have dinner in a crock pot. I am simmering orange peels with cloves and cinnamon on the stove, and my house is trashed. It may never be clean again, while at least not today. 

Today I reflect on my choices and struggles. My struggle is keeping house. I stink at it, but I'd rather stink at that than at anything else. So I painfully offer my house to God today. I ask him to bless it. Bless those who dwell in it, and those who will visit it. I need today, without it my week wouldn't come close to standard.