1. First up, I downloaded yet another free book to my Kindle with plans to read it in, oh say the next five years. I realized that I have over 300 books now on there! While skimming through the titles, I found Raising Kids With Love and Limits by Julie Barnhill. A certain little someone has been making me question every "method" and "tactic" I have in my parenting arsenal lately; so I dug into this book. So far, it has been - funny, heartwarming, useful, blunt, and convicting. The honesty is refreshing. I love this quote: "So how to explain feeling (dare I admit, even looking) like a complete moron while standing in the middle of Target and trying to coerce a kid smaller than the circumference of our right thigh to listen and obey when we say no?" For mommas of young ones who are constantly overthinking their parenting skills, I highly recommend this book. And I've not even finished it yet!
2. Next, along the same lines as it seems my brain (and heart!) have been consumed with mommyhood lately, I happened across this thought-provoking post by Rachel at Finding Joy. "Where Did the Delight Go?" is a challenge to mothers everywhere to get back to enjoying their children instead of just viewing them as more work. I don't think any of us consciously would label our children as work, but it is incredibly easy to get caught up in all the doing that children cause - laundry, messes, discipline, teaching, feeding, etc. It becomes humdrum and ordinary and sometimes can make us resentful of the ones we were once so excited to mother and nuture. But, Rachel says it a whole lot better than I do; so go check out her post. I promise it's worth the read.
3. It has been over a month since our family embarked on the Feingold Elimination Diet. Since then, I have been researching and studying food dyes, artificial flavors, and the preservatives that mess with my autistic child's brain and cause him to have such terrible meltdowns and space-outs. The more information I uncover, the more I am appalled and ashamed that I allowed all of my children to ingest these terrible things for so long. I am thankful in a way that my son's issues forced us to consider this radical change to our diet, because quite honestly I don't think I would have done the research otherwise. Even if the elimination of petroleum food dyes and artificial flavors had not made a significant difference in the Beast's behavior, we cannot turn back now. I cannot give these poisons to my kids, knowing what I know now. Blogger Rebecca at Die, Food Dye devotes her energy to informing the public about these dangerous chemicals in hopes of making a change in America. Read her recent post on who's doing it right and who's not in the food and medical industry. I guarantee it will stop and make you think.
4. As always, I like to end on a light-hearted, not-so-much-deep-thinking note. This post had me laughing hysterically yesterday. The author's story and pictures resonated with me, as I have experienced something very similar with my boys. I will warn you that there are potty words and anatomy words involved; so if that kind of thing makes you uncomfortable or nervous, skip this one. Otherwise, read on, and may I recommend not reading it at work or lunch or anyplace you may be liable to distract everyone with your loud giggling.
Carry on, everyone! Have a great weekend!
