Food, Inc.

Matt and I watched Food, Inc. last night. The movie basically shows where food comes from - the enormous slaughter houses, industrial farms and factories controlled by a handful of the world's largest corporations. It was eye-opening, alarming, and disturbing. Most of the food I eat is "genetically modified" - even the seemingly natural fruits, vegetables, and meats. And even worse - the animals that produce meat products are treated deplorably, and the employees are not treated much better (most of them immigrants). I understand that the directors had an agenda, but there isn't any denying many of their claims.

I admit, I was about as cynical as they come towards organic foods. To me it just seemed like a bunch of mumbo jumbo hype - the latest craze in the food world. I thought Whole Foods was for two types of people - yuppies who feel hip and cool shopping there, or granola eating weirdos. But after watching this movie, I feel differently. I don't want to support what I feel is detrimental to humans, animals, and the environment.

So, we are going to start buying more organic and more from our local farmer's market. Luckily, we have a Whole Foods a block from us. I'm not naive - I know it will be hard (for me!), and more expensive. But it's worth it. I'm sure we'll still go to the "normal" grocery store...just not as often. And I'm sure I haven't visited McDonalds for the last time in my life. But, I will be thinking about food differently.

I'll let you know how it goes;)

And just in case you need a little humor in your day...

Whoa Edna Mae

I'd already wanted to make Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes since I'd first seen them in the Pioneer Woman's cookbook, but after I saw that Smitten Kitchen, another food blog I read, made them this week, I just couldn't wait any longer!

So finally, on a cold, lazy, perfect Saturday morning, we made them!

They were excellent. Like so good that Matt and I both agreed they were the best pancakes we'd ever had. Have I convinced you to make them yet?

Our weekend has been good, except that Will has had a horrible cough for a few days and this morning it seemed worse, so we took him to the doctor and he has bronchiolitis. He is wheezing and having some trouble breathing. Apparently it is common in babies who are 3-6 months old, even more common in males, and even more common during cold winter months. And it is contagious among babies, so he most likely got it in either our church nursery or the nursery at our gym. And apparently there isn't a medicine for this...we just have to wait it out. Poor kid! I feel so bad for him!

A couple of links...

I thought I'd share a blog I read - Chronicles of a Babywise Mom. Matt and I both read Baby Wise a few weeks after Will was born, and we've followed the advice for the most part. The basic premise behind the philosophy is that there is a halfway point between being rigidly scheduled and completely at the whim of the baby. For us, it was mainly about teaching Will to eat full meals (not snacking every hour) and being able to put himself to sleep for good naps/bedtime. Anyway, there is a ton of helpful and fascinating (to me!) stuff on this site - I thought this article on child spacing was really interesting.

And on a completely different note, did you see the announcement for the new iPad today? It definitely looks cool. Matt was blown away and wants to get one tomorrow (he won't!), but I'm still trying to decide what I think. As I've said numerous times, I hate clutter, and I want to know exactly what this would replace - my laptop? No. My iphone? No. It's cool, but I'm just not convinced that I need an extra piece of technology to carry around. And at this point in my life, I'm not interested in the book application, which is similar to the Kindle. I'm just old-school and actually like holding a book and turning the pages when I read;) The verdict: iNot impressed...at least not yet.

Pasta

Matt got a pasta maker for Christmas and finally got a chance to use it this weekend! He made spaghetti carbonara for us Friday night - actually he made fettucini carbonara for us because the spaghetti didn't turn out too well. Carbonara sauce is made with eggs, grated parmesan, bacon, and peas. It was outstanding and Matt is really excited about using this machine often!

Our weekend was pretty uneventful, but relaxing. We impulsively asked over our neighbors across the hall for cinnamon rolls and coffee Saturday morning. We hadn't seen them since before the holidays and had a great time catching up with them. And Saturday night, just as Matt and I were deciding where to get take-out for dinner (we stayed in our pj's all day Saturday and were not up for going out!), our neighbors reciprocated and brought over some amazing beef stew they'd made!

Here's a couple of pictures of the little guy from the weekend:

A smattering of sorts

I gave Matt cooking classes at The Chopping Block for Christmas and he went to his class this past Saturday! I think he had a great time - they made sauce bordelaise with roasted filet mignon, sauteed pork with charcutiere sauce, and chicken chasseur (don't ask me what any of that means!).

Also, I'm sure your heart has been breaking like mine about what's going on in Haiti. It puts a completely different perspective on what I consider "hardships" in my life, which Ashley wrote a great post about. By the way, I liked Randy Alcorn's response to Pat Robertson's comments:

This is no time to declare that Haiti as a nation is being judged. We don’t know that, because God has not revealed it, and it is just speculation. We do know that we ALL deserve God’s judgment, and we all live by his mercy. Does Haiti deserve worse judgment than America does for our slaughter of 50 million unborn children and our exportation of glorified sexual immorality to every corner of the world? We should humbly and generously be the hands and feet of Jesus to serve and help the poor people of Haiti, in the name of our Savior, no stranger to poverty and suffering.

And finally, a few videos for your enjoyment. The first one is Will laughing - he's laughed a little before, but never this much. And it had already been going on awhile before I thought to tape it...

And Will trying sweet potatoes this afternoon. This may be one that only the grandparents will appreciate. That's ok. (And yes, he is wearing only a diaper and a rubber bib, and yes, I am feeding him with a measuring spoon. Surprisingly, we don't own a baby spoon...maybe one of these days I'll make it to Target to pick one up).

I filmed more but cut it so you wouldn't fall asleep. Basically though, he continues to take a bite and then put his thumb in his mouth for several more minutes. Finally, I got up to turn the camera off, and in the 1.2 seconds it took me to do that, he reached down, grabbed the bowl of sweet potatoes, and threw it on the floor. I'm sure this won't be the last time...

Six months!

Guess who is 6 months old today?

My favorite little boy!

My sweet Will,

• You have tried real food now! You didn't much care for rice cereal, but you tried peas tonight and thought it tasted a little better! I can't wait to watch you explore more and more foods!
• You roll onto your stomach while you are sleeping now! This is how we find you every morning. You won't do it in front of your parents though!
• You weigh 15 pounds and 8 ounces, which is the 16% percentile, so you are still on the small side. Your 6 month clothes fit you perfectly right now.
• You are very inquisitive and love to grasp things now. You like to have some sort of toy in your hand all the time.
• You sleep 11 hours at night, usually from 9pm to 8am.
• You are babbling and laughing more and more, and your daddy and I just love it!

Rice cereal

We've had a good week getting back into the swing of things. We started going to the gym again - Matt swims while I do the elliptical, and today my friend Courtney joined me so we could chat as we worked out! Earlier this week I went back to our Tuesday playgroup at Stephanie's - unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!) Will slept pretty much the whole time in his car seat. And then on Thursday I went to our church's morning Bible Study, which I've LOVED going to since we first came to Evanston last year. We are starting a study on Esther by Beth Moore, and I am really excited about it!

Tonight we gave Will rice cereal. I can tell he is ready to eat - he seems hungry all throughout the day, even after I feed him. He had NO IDEA what to do with a spoon though! Apparently babies are born with the instinct to suck and thrust their tongue outward, so they have to learn to eat with a spoon. I'm not sure if any of it made it into his mouth, but he seemed to enjoy it!

My two favorite men

Will LOVES hanging out with his daddy before bedtime...

"Dad, you won't believe what she did today!"

Home at last!

After SEVEN weeks of being gone, we are back home! We flew from Salt Lake to Chicago on Saturday. Will did great on the plane and slept in my lap, but the day wasn't without difficulty - he had a major blowout in the security line. We didn't realize it until we got him out of his car seat to walk through the metal detector. We saw that there was leakage on both the front and back of his outfit, so we had to hold him out away from us as we tried to put back on our shoes and jackets and get all of our stuff back together before breaking out in a run through the airport to find the nearest restroom. Poor Will went from being confused, to frightened, to screaming. Thankfully I'd packed a backup outfit (after last week's fiasco)!

By the way...one of my new favorite items? Praise Baby.

My mom gave this to Will for Christmas...it is basically like Baby Einstein but set to Christian praise music. Will LOVES it. If he is crying and fussy and we turn it on, he instantly becomes mesmerized. We took this and a portable dvd player on the plane and I am SO glad we did!

It hasn't been the easiest for me to adjust back to "normal" life. I'd been spoiled the last couple of months... having constant helpers with Will, not having to think about things like grocery shopping, cooking, or cleaning (we did help cook and clean but it wasn't the same!), going out to eat and having fun all the time, and living in relatively warm weather (even in Utah...it wasn't NEAR this cold!). I'm trying to have a good attitude, and I spent a good long while with God this morning asking for strength to get through the day. I think this is what God wants though...for us to be dependent on Him each and every day. Spending time with Him also gives me perspective...I have a WONDERFUL life, and I am SO thankful for it!

Our last day

Here are a few pictures from our last day out here!

Matt, mom, dad, Tricia, and MB

I took a couple of pictures through the windshield on the way down the mountain (I wasn't driving!)

We attempted a few more pictures outside with the kiddo this afternoon...

Tonight my mom watched Will while we went to dinner at Cafe Terigo (he hasn't been the best at restaurants lately!). This is probably my favorite restaurant out here, other than Cisero's, which we also ate at earlier this week!

Main Street at night

Mary Beth and Tricia

And here are a few short clips that Mary Beth did while skiing today. You won't want to miss Matt's wipeout at the end!!

Our week

We've had a great week in Park City! We've spent our time skiing (except for Will and I!), sitting by the fire, shopping (mom and I!), and watching a lot of football. Mom took Tuesday off of skiing and we went shopping for things that need updating or replacing out here - mainly kitchen stuff. On Wednesday there was a snowstorm and nobody wanted to go out in it, so in the morning we rearranged the living and dining rooms - it seems like we do this every year, but I think we have finally settled on a way to maximize the space (mom does this for a living and enjoys it)! And then in the afternoon we hit up the outlets until the men (Will and my dad) had had enough! Matt flew in this morning and then skied and snowshoed this afternoon.

Here are a few pictures from our week so far:

"Goooo Jackets!"

Enjoying the book my mom got him

And enjoying the Word

Will has loved having lots of time with his grandparents!

He got a nice spa treatment in the sink this morning after messing up his pj's and sheets

Matt was SO happy to see the little man when he got into town today!

At lunch up on the mountain

Our little snow bear!

Will and I hung out in the lodge while everyone skied this afternoon...this was our view!

Watching the Rose Bowl tonight

Tomorrow is our last day here and then we leave on Saturday. I'm not ready for the week to end!