MK1615

My family and I will going to this conference, and will be in Texas visiting family the last two weeks of July. So I will not be posting for those two weeks.
If you do not know, please go to MK1615.org for more information. Its an awesome conference, and life changing. Limited seating so act fast.

Eat yo veggies!

I used to think that kids only liked bland food, or that they could only handle bland. When I had Jo, I started making my own baby food, and one mom mentioned that her baby loved hummus. I love Arabic food, and had hummus on hand often, so I tried it with my little one and he loved it! Then I thought, I bet kids in Asia eat spicy, interesting and a variety of foods that are more nutritional than pizza and french fries (not that we had those a lot). I make lunches relatively simple since its just me and the boys all day, but dinners I take chances and my kids are always willing to try. This is amazing since my boys are 2 and 4 (peak picky eater season). Jo has a longer list of foods he will eat than Mo who was raised on bland food. When we go out to eat, I tend to buy off the sides menu for the kids and I have fun watching the waitress's surprised face that my boys are eating broccoli with gusto!
Another thing I have learned to getting the kids to eat more veggies, is to offer more veggies. A few nights ago I made a meal where the main dish had lots and lots of vegetables, so there were less sides because the main was so awesome. Jo asked, where are my veggies? My 2 year old was concerned that his plate did not have enough vegetables on it. Awesome. It must be working. I also put out some chopped raw vegetables, like carrots or cucumbers, etc in a bowl on the table while I am working on dinner. This cuts down on hungry visitors hovering while I try to finish making the meal, and adds more vegetables to the kids daily intake. They tend to have fruit for snacks and dessert, so I try to keep the bowl full of vegetables. On occasion, if its the day before shopping day, and we are low on vegetables, I will put out peanuts. They do not eat very many, and the little bit of protein helps keep the whine away. I have always offered a few vegetables, but as my tastes have grown, so has my offering to my children. They will eat a variety of veggies now, but a couple years ago it was slim pickings on what Mo would eat at all. I just kept trying, and offered often. Now he does not even think twice when he sees a pile of broccoli or beans. In fact, for a long time, Mo would not eat pizza, but eat a very leafy green salad instead. We would have to almost beg him to eat one small slice. I make the pizza we eat most often from scratch, and I found out recently he really likes whole wheat dough. I still have to offer a lot of side veggies when we have pizza, otherwise he does not get enough to eat. I guess that is not a bad thing. Just inconvenient and awkward when others want to bless our family with pizza and Mo refuses to eat it. This may not be a very interesting or entertaining post, but its something I want to remember about my boys. They love vegetables and fruit.

A year ago

A year ago this week, was a busy and exciting time for our family. After a few weeks of meeting at Five Guys Burgers and Fries in downtown Detroit for bible study, we rented our first space to meet as Deliverance Bible Church Detroit. Our first service was just Shea, me and the kids, but we did not mind. We knew that Detroit was where we were meant to be, planting this church was part of the vision and we planted ourselves on the third floor. Yeah, stairs. Besides the stairs, our first challenge was to tackle the interesting paint job the previous tenant left behind. The room was a lovely shade of red, yellow, orange, green, purple and grey with maroon carpet. So in one kid free night we primed the entire room and one coat of paint on the walls. It was a very long night and I think we went to bed at 4 am. Shea went back to the space a couple more times to finish the job while I stayed home with the kids. Shea played guitar while Manoah, Jaelon and I danced around the room worshiping the Most High. Shea preached, shared scripture and then we went down to the river walk to pass out invites.

 

 Jaelon's imagination blossomed at the play ground. He was only 18 months old but already learning how to run and jump. On one of these jumping days, he caught his foot and face planted on the hard wood floor of our friends home. His lip began to bleed and it was difficult to get it to stop long enough to see the damage. Since it felt like forever that his lip was gushing blood, I took him to the nearest ER. There the security guard gave Jaelon a peek-a-boo book that had characters hidden behind flaps for him to enjoy while we waited to see the doctor. His lip was still going strong but something in me started to say, "he will not need stitches, so just leave." I did not listen, and we went through the whole process only to hear the doctor say that he will be fine, and does not need stitches. Wasted time, wasted money. Grrr. The doctor prescribed antibiotics, because it was an open wound and remain wide open for a while. Jo was fighting what I think was an ear infection that week, so I guess it worked out that we got some medicine.  

 I gave Manoah a hair cut, and I thought he looked so very handsome. Shea did not like it, and prefers Manoah's hair long. Which is ironic since Shea shaved Mo's hair every month for over a year when he was a baby. Oh well. Manoah's imagination blossomed as well that year. Pictured below is Mo's very thirsty horse. I fear if that was a real horse, it would have been in trouble. Mo successfully led that horse to water and made it drink. Ha!
  Both the boys became more daring on the playground. Lapeer is full of really nice, newly renovated playgrounds, all within a short distance from the house. Jaelon would take on equipment that was designed for 5 and 6 year old children, and very successfully conquering them. I could not bare to watch my 18 month old climb ladders to great heights. I was always very close with my arms out stretched, sweat beads forming on my brow and heart racing. After numerous times of triumphal climbing, I began to relax, but still stayed close just in case. The slide pictured was a feat that Manoah took on that took my breath away.  The shadow at the top of the slide is Mo's excited body about to fling it's self down the 12 foot high tube. He went down this slide many times, and was the youngest one at the park to go down it. The little girl in pink at the bottom, 2 years his elder, was afraid to go down it, and she did not try while we were there. Jaelon did not go down the slide, the stairs leading up were too narrow and too steep for his taste. I was a happy momma at Jo's choice.

 

 Last year was a very busy, life changing year, but more on that later.