This Is How We Do It

Ahhh 8:15 and just put the babies in bed and crashed on the rocking chair (my favorite spot in the house) with a hot cup of coffee and very few sounds around me.  What a way to end a busy day!

Since this blog is about documenting our paleo journey, my main goal for posts is to keep track of what we're eating on a daily basis  and what our lives looked like that day (because Paleo is not just a diet, but its a lifestyle).

Here is how I have learned to function with the most sanity  as a housewife/stay at home mom, whom highly prioritizes feeding her family quality nutritious meals.  I typically fix one breakfast that will be enough to last the week, so every day is usually the same..  I would even venture to say that breakfast from week to week is very similar.  The mornings are always crazy and having very little prep for breakfast helps with the madness.  That said - check back tomorrow b/c I have big plans for a new and exciting breakfast that if I am able to prepare and feed the fam, I will post the recipe with it!

Lunch- I pick one meal a week that requires little to no preparation and that is what the kids and I eat every day that week.  Cave Daddy usually takes leftovers.  This week the kids are eating green beas (seriously usually 1-1.5 # each), a bit of bbq -as much as they want but sometimes they don't want much, (yall will see soon that they are almost vegetarians by choice), and lots of fruit - we do a lot of apples, clementines and bananas.  That is their lunch more often that not, and like breakfast, their lunch truly doesn't change much week to week.  I offer them salmon at lunch regularly, but as mentioned, they truly are more into fruits and vegetables and that is the bulk of what they eat.  (They would eat eggs at every meal if I let them but we try to limit that to breakfast!). My lunch this week has been an apple, half an avocado, and 2 brazil nuts.  I will eat a few bites of bbq if Im very hungry.  The apple cider vinegar helps a lot with appetite control and water retention (which I seriously struggle with!)

Supper is what changes at least every other day.  I honestly only repeat meals at supper a few times a year, at most every 3 months.  That is not by intention as much as happen-stance!  I try to make sure that I make enough at each meal for about 3 meals so that we have leftovers which I space out during the week.  I have recently been trying to make enough to freeze some, for those crazy "what in the world are we going to eat for supper tonight now since its 5:30, and I just got home from an unscheduled visit to the pediatrician because baby ___ woke up from their nap screaming, pulling at their ears, with a fever of 103" - kind of days. Prepared meals in the freezer are the best for those days.

 Supper today was leftovers!  You  won't believe me if I tell you what our son ate, but I will tell you anyways.  He ate 2 # of green beans, 5 clementines, one banana, and one cup of raisins.  He had bbq on his plate that he wasn't touching (though in recent meals he has devoured it).  Our daughter ate the same things as him, but in less amounts.  She's watching her figure.  Please note that I do offer them some form of protein at each meal; sometimes they eat it and sometimes they don't. They mostly get their protein at breakfast (they each eat 2 eggs every morning, and truthfully, 14 gm of protein alone is plenty for a 25# child for the day).

Today I  did my dreaded but necessary one big grocery trip for the month.  I go to Aldi once a month and buy about a billion of everything that will save for a month and enough of it to last a month.  The standards for our food that I have are no preservatives or artificial ingredients at all, no hormones/antibiotics, non GMO, no non organic "dirty dozen" fruits/veg.  There is enough at Aldi that meets that criteria and that is significantly lower in price that I go once a month kicking and screaming willingly to save the money.  By the time I have loaded it all in the cart then bagged it all myself and get it into the house and put away, that trip takes a few hours, but, its only once a month.... So seriously that was the only thing I got done while they were at school today.
After picking them up and eating lunch, they played really nicely and sweetly together (a true gift and blessing.... always favorite moments of mine to see them just playing quietly and sweetly together). I started prepping meals to take to friends tonight.  3 good friends have recently had babies and our dear neighbor and friend just unexpectedly lost her father.  Once the babies were down for naps, I had my devotional and prayer time, tried to work on getting some photos printed for the house, and finished getting the meals ready to deliver.
After naps we were able to walk on the street and visit with neighbors (another of my always favorite moments... really love our neighbors!!) then visit with 2 of our other friends when we took meals to them.  It is so refreshing to me to have even 15 minutes of conversation with a friend during the day!!  We were able to get in about thirty minutes at the park before it got dark, then headed home to eat supper, clean the kitchen, and bake brownies for Cave Daddy to take to work.  Not Paleo brownies.  His office does potluck lunches from time to time and I always have the pleasure of providing his contribution to the meal :>)  At this time I would like to ask you to please give me a hand and be very proud of me, because, for the first time in my entire life, I did not even lick the bowl/spatula from the batter.  This is serious folks.  But, I am serious about 30 days of Paleo!!
We enjoyed some quiet and calm time with the kids tonight after PJs and teeth brushing, to read some books.  Those are also always favorite moments of mine... snuggling on the couch with fleece footed PJ'd toddlers while we read fascinating stories.  It is so fun and I love to hear them read back to us :>)
Yall know  exactly what I did after they got in bed (see the 1st paragraph of this post)!  I love our quiet time in the evening after the kids are in bed that we just enjoy relaxing together in the stillness.  I considered picking up the toys/books scattered on the floor, but then opted out, because having their things spread across the house is something I will miss one day. 

Happy Thursday Yall!!  I am thankful for all the wonderful moments that make up a good life :>)