To Mothers of Young Children

I often get the question from mothers of young children, "How do you do it?" and I often wonder myself how I DID it. You see, my life now is very different from the way it was just 8 or so years ago. I don't really remember how I did it when I had so many little children and no big helpers, except that it wasn't perfect and, only by God's grace, did I make it through to the current season I'm in.

I think that particular season of mothering, when absolutely everything is on your shoulders, when life is nothing more than waking and serving others all day long, is the most difficult and the most bone-weary time. And as you totally give of yourself and die to yourself when they are so little, you grow personally and are then able to deal with patience as they enter young adulthood. God knows what He is doing and He is preparing you now for future battles.

The frustrations and constant interruptions of our daily rhythm during this season of life serves to break our will. Our entire life becomes a prayer and a penance. When St. Paul states that women will be saved by childbearing, he is talking about the whole package deal. Midnight prayers with nursing babies. Imposed fasting while helping young children eat instead of feeding yourself. All of it!

We enter this thing called Motherhood as very, very selfish people. And we very quickly realize that life is no longer all about us. And then we realize that we need to give much, much more than we have and that is when God steps in and makes up for what we humans lack.

And what you put in now is what will come back to you when they are adolescents and young adults. Your time and effort, your patience, your prayers, your suffering, will all be rewarded when those babies are just a little bit older and are laughing while washing all the dishes you used to have to wash. When they are folding the mountains of laundry that you had to do yourself. When they are taking the babies for a walk so that you can have a bit of quiet. It is a happy, close family when everyone realizes they play a part in making a house a home.

So, the point. HANG IN THERE! It gets easier. Really, it does. Pray hard. Laugh alot. Train the children.  Have patience with them. Have patience with yourself. And LOVE THEM every minute... because it goes fast.

CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)

Yesterday was my first pick-up for the CSA I joined this year. This is my first time trying this method of supporting my local farmers. The basic premise is that you pay up-front for a share of the farmer's harvest. It is really a win-win situation. I get fresh, local foods every week for my family and the farmer gets paid during the planting season.

So, yesterday I picked up my bag of bok choy (which they called pak choy), lettuce, radishes, peas and chard. The farmer was also nice enough to give me a discount on some more peas since the amount in the share was not enough to feed a family of 13.

All in all, it should be great fun seeing what comes in each week.

Basic Sourdough Sandwich Bread

As part of The Real Food Challenge by The Nourished Kitchen, I ordered a sourdough starter, fed it, watered it and now it is returning the favor by supplying my family with really good, all natural bread.

For the benefit of some of my Real Food friends, I'm posting pictures of my basic sourdough sandwich bread. I followed the recipe from The Nourishing Gourmet and it turned out great the very first time I made it.

Starting GNOWFGLINS e-course

Tomorrow begins Wardeh's e-course on real food fundamentals. I hadn't planned on signing up for the course because I'm a little beyond the "fundamentals" when it comes to real food. However, it was just too tempting for me. She will be covering some material that I have stayed away from, so I'm looking forward to learning some things there.

I plan on taking the lessons very seriously and hopefully improving some of my planning and implementing in the kitchen over the next 5 months. At the end of the 5 months, my goal is to be completely following the Nourishing Traditions way of eating. It also puts me into the summer months here, in which I hope to begin eating as much local as possible.

Defining Real Food

Real food is making a come-back. There is a movement to bring back to our tables food that is nourishing to the body, not just filling for the stomach. A movement to give our families that food that God has provided to create healthy individuals.

It is a renaissance, a revival of old customs, such as soaking grains, sourdough breads, fermented milk products.

I'm proud to be part of this renaissance and look forward to journaling what I've learned and what I am learning about feeding my family "real food."