When life happens...

We have been running around like crazy people! I assume almost everyone else is too around this time of year. We had a swim meet for B this weekend and while it is hard for most people to hang out all day at these events, sometimes I feel it's even harder when you can't just garb a quick bite to eat. We are really trying to focus on our health right now and so junk food and eating out is not even an option. We find in our family that we have issues and troubles regulating our intake of junk even when we let ourselves have just a little. This includes "kid foods" like hot dogs, mac and cheese, etc. We have also found that the kids keep breaking out in rashes and hives when they have wheat, B gets a bit of ADHD type symptoms when he has ANY kind of sugar (I'm talking running around, unable to focus on anything, moody, yelling, uncontrollable behavior), and the baby cries and cries when she has dairy.

Thus, I pack a cooler fuuuulll of everything. Lunches, homemade healthy snacks, etc. It's like two darn days of prep just to feed these crazy kids for a day like that. I keep hoping that over  time will get easier. It hasn't yet... However, Elana over at Elana's Pantry is helping so much lately because she posts her oh-so-wonderful and crazy simple recipes on her blog. This past Saturday we enjoyed these brownies and they saved me from having to buy crap from machines or concession stands because kids have a hard time when they watch others walking around with sugar, sugar and more sugar. Just a note about the brownies, I cut them small, like super small, 64 to a square pan small. Just because it's dates and maple syrup instead of sugar doesn't make a difference. Sugar is sugar. 

Also happening now...we hit a deer with my new van! It's not even a year old so it is sad, BUT no one was hurt, the van is repairable, and so I'm choosing to walk away thankful of our good fortune. However, that means this whole week has been wonky trying to figure out how to schedule everything around one vehicle! We finally gave up this evening a rented an SUV that I can fit the kiddos in. 

Tomorrow is the start of our Christmas baking. I should have started today but was busy sewing this instead. It turned out alright and just in time because our negative windchill today would have been hard on Nova.