Mindless Monday

• Some bloggers do a "Mindless Monday" and then have really interesting, dynamic and thought provoking material. This is not what this is. This blog is seriously "mindless". You're welcome.

 

• A few people had follow up questions about my vegetarian post.

Do you pack the kids's lunches? Yes we do. It looks the same pretty much everyday. A PB&J (with my grandma's delicious homemade jelly!), a fruit (strawberries, grapes, blueberries and blackberries), veggie straws or apple straws (each kid likes one or the other so they get their choice), and then a piece or two of chocolate if we have it (around holidays usually) or my homemade granola bars. For a drink it's usually water or chrystal lite. They love it and are bummed if we run out of supplies before grocery day.

 

Do you make the kids eat vegetarian/vegan? When we're at home I'm cooking so yes, they eat what we're eating. When we're out to eat they can order whatever they want. I feel good about the fact that they are eating with us the majority of the time and are thus eating mostly a whole foods diet.

 

Do your kids really eat that stuff? Mine wouldn't get near it! A few of my kids (Tomas and Tariku) are terrific about eating whatever I put in front of them. The other 3 don't eat quite so quickly with certain things. ;) The reality is, though, they know there aren't any options. So they eat enough to satisfy themselves and then they are done. My hubs used to only eat meat and cheese. He hated vegetables and/or anything remotely healthy for you. Now he doesn't eat meat and cheese and loves veggies. We really don't want our kids to wait until they're 30 to discover a beautiful taste palate.

 

What do you eat?!?!? We eat really well! For the most part I take advantage of our library system and rent new cookbooks all of the time. There are great ones for both vegetarian cooking and vegan cooking. That would be my best recommendation. There are good ones and bad ones. The good ones I put on a list of ones to buy and when I have enough that I'll be able to get free shipping then I'll just buy them at once. ;) Also, there are REALLY great blogs devoted entirely to whole foods living. Google it, prepare to salivate!

 

• Semi-Feral Mama wanted an update on our kitty, Mitigu. If you're a texting friend of mine, you're super annoyed about my Mitigu updates. I seriously text people pictures of him all of the time. It's getting a little ridiculous. He is cute and funny and feisty and playful. He also thinks he is a dog which is kind of awesome. My 2 favorite things about him is that he loves snuggling on my chest, particularly when I'm blogging and that as soon as Tariku goes to bed, Mitigu crawls up the ladder and goes to sleep with him. So freaking cute. I will post pictures of him as soon as I can figure out how to do it on the iPad.
• We are in the thick of sports central around here. The big 3 are on one baseball team again. Trysten is on a seperate under 9 AAU team. Then the 4 littles are all playing soccer (Tomas/Tariku on one team and Dailah/Binyam on another). Dailah is finishing her dance class with a recital on May 18th. The best part about having them so close in age (ok, there are many things) is that they all double up on teams. This means the amount of running around is decreased exponentially, which I love. It is so fun watching them play and love being involved in sports.
• Binyam, because of his club feet, didn't walk until he was almost 3. Saturday was his first soccer game (or really any athletic endeavor). He was smiling and laughing and sprinting. It was magic. He is magic.
• My women's league outdoor soccer season starts tonight. I am seriously nervous that I might die.
• Tariku has decided he wants to tell "his story" at school. More on that later. One note: it's weeks away and I'm already nervous about it. He is so brave.
• The theme of our family lately has been "responsibility". "Please be responsible and wash your little brother's dish out for him", etc. Some days they totally get it and I pat myself on the back before going to bed. Other days they fail miserably and I consider drinking at noon. C'est la vie.
• Life is beautiful and complicated and wonderful and best served with friends.