St. Patty's Day!!!

If you have read any of my Baby Keyes blog contributions before, you know that I am super into the holidays. I enjoy baking holiday-themed treats, and I love to do arts & crafts with my son. With my maiden name being Murphy, I decided to surf the net for some St. Patrick’s Day holiday fun! Side note: my other requirement is that the craft or recipe needs to be “easy.” Many web sites even rate their projects.

Never have I cooked or baked something special for St. Patrick’s Day. As I perused the internet, I quickly realized that I didn’t want to make corned beef and cabbage – all of it would surely go to waste. But next to that recipe, I saw one for a simple Irish Soda Bread. Considering that my 4-year old son’s favorite thing is carbs, I decided to try it.

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons sweet butter, softened
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1½ cups buttermilk
• 1 cup currants or substitute raisins

Cooking Instructions

1. Butter a cookie sheet. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl beat butter and sugar together to combine. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
2. In a medium bowl whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to combine.
3. Beginning and ending with flour mixture, alternately add flour and buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Stir in currants or raisins.
4. On a generously floured hard surface knead the dough about 4 minutes until smooth and not sticky, adding flour as needed.
5. Form into 7½-inch round. Transfer to prepared cookie sheet. Etch an X in the top of the loaf.
6. Bake about 1 hour 10 minutes or until it sounds hollow when tapped on. Move to a rack to cool completely before slicing.

Then, it was on to a simple craft project. I didn’t want to make a Rainbow handprint mobile or an edible pot of gold. But the thought of “tie-dye shamrocks” seemed appealing. It would be easy enough for my 4-year old, and would make a good lesson in color mixing.

What you'll need:

• Coffee filters
• Water
• Bowl
• Blue and yellow food coloring
• Eyedroppers

How to make it:

1. Precut shamrock shapes out of coffee filters.
2. Mix water and yellow food coloring and place this into a container. Do the same with blue. Keep the colors rich and dark.
3. Invite the kids to use eyedroppers to drip colors onto the filter shape. The colors will run together and make beautiful decorations.

Interested in more holiday craft ideas and family-friendly recipes? These ideas were all found on www.kaboose.com.

To read other blogs by Christina Ramon, founder of Mommy Wisdom, please visit http://mommywisdomblog.blogspot.com/

Here is the link if you need that instead.

http://recipes.kaboose.com/irish-soda-bread.html

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! ALREADY?

Another year has come and gone, and once again, I find myself saying “where did the year go?”

Even though it is already mid-January, I am just now pondering my New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve decided I am not going to make a resolution, because a “new year” isn’t enough to get me to change. So instead, I am thinking about the big picture. What are my life goals? What will I strive towards this year and the rest of the decade?

To help answer this question, I took a very informal poll of a handful of my friends. I asked them to tell me their most important life goals. Below is the summation of the list in order of importance, in my opinion.

1. Health for me and my family

2. A happy marriage

3. Children (however many you are blessed with)

4. Healthy lifestyle (eat right and exercise, maintain a healthy weight)

5. Make enough money

6. Fulfilling career

I am very satisfied with this list. I think these six things could be life goals for many of us – men, women, young, old.

When my son starts whining, or when my husband leaves his shoes in my way, I will try to remember this list, and what matters most.

To read other blogs by Christina Ramon, founder of Mommy Wisdom, please visit http://mommywisdomblog.blogspot.com/

Christina's Top 10 Decorating Tips for the Holidays

Ho, ho, ho, the Christmas season is upon us! Are you in the holiday mode yet? Currently, I am attempting to create the perfect Christmas card, complete all of my Christmas shopping and I am DECORATING!

Here are 10 fun and easy ideas for decorating your house this holiday season.

1. Fill a huge clear vase with silver Hershey’s kisses

2. Check out these cool chalk board place mats : http://www.thestoragestore.com/search.html?q=chalk+board+place+mat

3. On a budget? Purchase holiday-themed 12x12 scrapbook paper and use for the kid’s place mats

4. Spray paint branches or leaves with white or gold/silver metallic spray paint for a beautiful centerpiece

5. Purchase plaint white ceramic mugs and markers that are safe for ceramics and have guests decorate their own mugs. www.markersupply.com

6. If you purchase a real Christmas tree, ask the guys that cut off the bottom to include the extra branches. Then, cut them up and use them for mantle decoration.

7. Fill a shallow dish with lemons, limes, and Clementine oranges. Add small pine branches and mini ornaments for a bright and happy centerpiece.

8. Buy a simple wall frame in a large size (like 8x10), then put a piece of vintage inspired scrapbook paper as the mat and put your favorite holiday photo on top of the paper (even better if the photo is B&W!)

9. Hang ornaments from your dining room chandelier. Use the same ornaments for a glamorous feel or different colorful ornaments for a casual feel.

10. Want to have more than one tree? Purchase a small faux tree (I bought a 2-3 foot tree at Target for $8.) Decorate in all one color. For example, spray paint faux pears and apples in gold or silver. Or, purchase inexpensive snowflake ornaments (Hobby Lobby has great sales) and spray paint them all one color. Or, buy gold leaf and use on real pine cones from your yard.

Hopefully these ideas will get your holiday decorating juices flowing and help get you in the Christmas spirit! Happy Holidays everyone!

To read other blogs by Christina Ramon, founder of Mommy Wisdom, please visit http://mommywisdomblog.blogspot.com/

Christina's Take on Turkey (Day)

I love tradition, party planning and holidays, but Thanksgiving is probably my fourth favorite holiday. It’s not that I dislike it, because of course I love getting together with family to give thanks, eating green bean casserole and having a “holiday weekend,” but it ranks below Halloween, Christmas and Easter. Why is that? Maybe because I don’t like the color brown. Or maybe because I am not a fan of pumpkin pie.

So when writing this article, I decided to look back into history and see how the tradition of Thanksgiving dinner began. In the back of my mind, I remembered hearing that the Pilgrims and Indians didn’t actually eat turkey, cranberries and sweet potatoes. What’s the deal then? I need to be accurate in my knowledge before my 4-year old starts asking questions.

The first Thanksgiving was actual called a “harvest celebration” and was between the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag. Although wild turkey was in their diet, there was never any mention of it in history, when referring to the “big day.” And there also would have been cranberries in both the settlers and the Wampanoag’s meal, but certainly not as sauce with added sugar. Spices (sugar included) were very expensive at this time in England, so the odds that a settler would have access to it would be slim to none. I could continue to explain how both white and sweet potatoes were also not introduced at that time, but I think you get the picture.

I naturally then wondered how we all came to eat the exact same meal the last Thursday in November every year? It is agreed by historians that the term “Thanksgiving” came to be 200 years after that 1621 celebration. The day refers to the Separatists of colonial New England that celebrated three holy days, one of which was a feast of thanks. This was celebrated after continued hardships were solved (like not receiving supplies from England for many months.) It actually would have been a day with lengthy church services and a day of fasting!

Over the years, as new colonists and new faiths came to America, the holiday became more secular and eventually was established by the government. Surely this must have been when the menu was created?

I searched high and low and I found very little that explains the origin of our current Thanksgiving menu. It is generally agreed that turkey is served as a nod to the Pilgrims – who ate wild turkey. Otherwise, it is believed that the side dishes were chosen around the same time that Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every Thanksgiving, in 1863. And finally, it makes sense to believe that the menu was chosen to go with the Autumn season and the coming Christmas holiday.

But who created my favorite – the green bean casserole? It remains a mystery, at least to me. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

To read other blogs by Christina Ramon, founder of Mommy Wisdom, please visit http://mommywisdomblog.blogspot.com/

Tara's Tips!

Plyometrics add Strength

Adding plyometrics to your workout is a great way to add strength and power. Plyometrics are exercises designed to produce fast, powerful movements. They are primarily meant to improve performance in athletes and add speed in sports. But aren’t we all athletes? We each can use a small change to our routine and add some power!! Try adding these following exercises to your workout.

Plyo Lunges

Stand with legs in lunge position, knees over ankles, abs tight. Jump in the air and switch feet. Continue for either 30 seconds or 10-15 reps.

Medicine Ball Pushups

Start with one hand on the floor in pushup position, the other on top of a medicine ball. Walk hands over the ball, switching position side to side after each pushup. Moving quickly, complete 10-15 pushups.

Box Jack

Start straddling an aerobic step or small bench. Jump up on top of the step in jumping jack form and back down to floor. Do the jumps with light feet and move quickly up and down. Continue for 30 seconds or 10-15 reps.

Similarities between golf and motherhood...

There are few places I'd rather be than on a golf course playing a round with Chris. I love it for a variety of reasons; the scenery, the relaxed atmosphere, the hours of uninterrupted adult conversation (possibly with a beer or two) and then of course, there is the actual game. Now mind you, if you know me, I say I can enjoy golf still because I am not that good. I put no pressure on myself other than to enjoy the round. I can also enjoy it because it hardly ever happens anymore; since kids, I think I've played once, maybe twice a year.

That is the big picture of why I like it; however, in a round of golf there are frustrating aspects, I do not like every shot I take, there are few times that I feel 100% confident in my swing but overall, I love it. This is why I think it is a lot like being a mom. I do not feel confident in 100% of the things I do with my kids, I wish I could take mulligans on a daily (if not hourly) basis; but overall, I LOVE what I do.

This metaphor is what "drives" this story home. My family was sitting around the dinner table tonight and I felt like I had just hit a great shot (the kind that kind of makes me want to pack it in, because I know there isn't going to be another one like it for a while :). I had told the older kids earlier this week that they had to give me ideas for dinner that didn't come out of a box or a bag. We're attempting to eat a little healthier in our house and this was idea one for me. Anyway, they did; Ryan picked swordfish and Ainsley picked salmon (be careful what you ask for I guess -- when they said they wanted lobster, I did decline that one). Well, I found simple recipes and they each "cooked" dinner for the family. Tonight I also made them put lettuce on their plates and had a tray of "toppings" (fruit, veggies, cheese), they each had to pile it on to make their own salads. Well, it worked, everyone had a really healthy meal and really enjoyed it. There was no whining, no complaining, no nothing. On top of that, we had great family dinner conversation (probably because we could because of the lack of whining and complaining).

So, I share this story with you for two reasons: 1. it could be an interesting way to engage your kids in your menu/meal planning and 2. know that I will probably be asking for a mulligan before 8 am tomorrow. That was my great shot for the round!

Lindsay's Latest Contribution

Are you making your kid fat?

A lot of moms (without realizing it) enable poor eating habits that can plague their children for a lifetime. As the research is now teaching us, we can influence our children’s weight as early as the first 9 months of their life – in the womb! We can do this by being over-weight to start with, overeating during pregnancy or by getting too many of our calories from junk food during pregnancy. All of these things can influence our child’s genetic predisposition toward obesity. In addition, multiple studies now show a link between over-feeding infants and obesity. According to a recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, children fed enriched formulas develop about 30% more body fat than their breastfed counterparts and babies fed standard formula. While chubby babies are certainly cute, a baby weighing in near or above 100 percentile on the weight chart should probably elicit more concern than praise. As a result of this and other studies, most doctors are now reversing recommendations to supplement with nutrient-rich formula for any baby who is not premature. As the doctor said to me when my son came in at just under 30 percentile on the chart, “he certainly looks okay to me.” It’s sounds simple, but you can use common sense (and your eyes) to see if your child is eating enough, too little or too much. You don’t need a chart to tell you whether or not he or she is healthy.

Many parents are also guilty of overfeeding their children by demanding a clean plate, an especially grievous offense when these parents are serving portions too large for small tummies. I have seen parents offer their children ridiculously huge portions of spaghetti or mac & cheese and then insist they clean their plates despite protests from the child that he or she is full. It is also critical not to offer dessert as a reward for cleaning one’s plate. Studies show that because we have different taste buds for salty and sweet foods, we can actually magically open up more room for dessert even when we are truly full. So by insisting your child eat a large plate of food in order to then consume a load of empty calories is doubly irresponsible. It is critical to remember that unlike most adults, young children do not eat emotionally. They know when they are hungry and when they are full. Of course some kids fib about being full to avoid eating unappealing foods, but again, you just have to use common sense. If they eat some and then stop, they are probably genuinely not hungry. And since you can’t actually give their leftovers to a starving child in Africa, try not to bring moral dilemmas to the dinner table.

It is also important that as mothers we do not encourage our children to either fear food or worship it as a panacea for all ills. I have certainly done this and I am not proud of it, but we should not offer sweets or junk food as a reward for good behavior or as cure for tears. Try not to make too many references to “good” and “bad” foods; rather explain that some foods are better to eat every day and as much as possible whereas others are better to have as treats or on special occasions because some foods make you stronger and give you energy while others just taste good.

Of course, the best way to encourage your children to have a healthy relationship with food is to lead by example. Try to let your children see you enjoying food and spending time on it (shopping for it, cooking it and eating it), and try not to let them see you eat mindlessly (like snacking on candy in the carpool line). Studies show that cultures (like France) where food is more respected, prepared more lovingly and consumed more leisurely actually have much lower rates of obesity. Most of all, don’t stress it too much. As any of us have ever been on a strict diet know, the thing that will make you want to overeat the most is being too strict with yourself. In this respect, kids are no different. The less food and weight are discussed, the less they are likely to become big problems.

Lindsay Hill is a nutrition counselor and board-certified health coach. To find out more about private health coaching, visit www.inhabithealth.com or to learn more about Lindsay’s personal nutrition philosophy, visit her blog http://inhabithealth.blogspot.com.