Keep moving forward.  I think we all feel this is the most important thing to do, but why?  Is it because we believe there is something magical waiting for us at the end of our moving forward, or do we simply feel like anything is better than standing still?

Soooo we’re somewhere between Christmas and New Year, not quite sure what day it is or what we’re supposed to be doing.  Isn’t it crazy how much we become creatures of habit?  A few days out of the routine and we’re left feeling like an award winning novelist with writers block.

My baby food cook book Spoonfed – Real Food for Real Babies incorporates lots of ideas for baby food purees so I get asked a lot about where I stand on the method of baby-led weaning.  Baby-led weaning is essentially the practice of offering baby whole solid foods straight from the family table and chopping or mashing into pieces appropriately sized for baby’s stage of eating and letting them go to town and feed themselves rather than spoon feeding them.

Like it or not, I’m starting to realize in all my posts about baby food that I don’t have a baby at home anymore.  It has only taken me 7 years.

Whoa!  Are the holidays really over…that fast?  All that work, cooking, cleaning, buying, tree or other significant symbol of celebration assembly efforts, decorating inside and outside, holiday parties, holiday lunches, family get togethers, eggnog and peppermint flavoured everything…is all gone?  YES!!  IT’S ALL GONE…isn’t it bliss?!?  

Friends, Romans and countrymen (or women), I implore you…if the peaches in your fruit bowl are starting to over-ripen and are becoming a fruit fly’s fantasy, don’t throw them out.  Put them in the fridge.  

No recipe today…just a kick in the pants to tell you (and by “you” I also mean “me”) you can do this!  And by “this” I mean whatever you (and I) want to do!

Welcome to the year 2016 friends!  If you’re reading this I take it you’ve made it through the holidays and Santa’s fulfillment of your children’s dreams.  Or maybe you weren’t privy to the secret repartee Billy had with mall Santa so your good intentions fell a little short of the perfect Christmas morning?

It’s 3pm. on Sunday afternoon.  Do you feel like I do?  The weekend is almost over.  Another work week is knocking on the door but before you answer you must contemplate which out of the gazillion more things to do you should do.

My youngest son is just about 6 so we figured it was time to teach him the value and relationship of how work produces money and how money can buy stuff you want.  We wanted to demonstrate how much work it takes to collect enough money to buy that ever elusive Golden Ninjago Lego. 

I like taking an indulgent, baked goods recipe and experimenting with it to replace the usual un-healthy, un-heart friendly ingredients with other superfood ingredients with the goal of having them taste better than awful, or dare I say, great.

Do you have kids in daycare or school and at the end of each day you’re anxious to find out what they got up to?  They have been away for 8 or so hours to take on the world and navigate through their day without you.

Never do you realize quite so intensely that our existence is all about food until you have the dreaded pregnancy morning sickness. Actually, in my past experience a more appropriate name would be “every waking minute sickness”.

It begins with a beloved holiday craft.  The first one ever made with your little one’s own two hands and perhaps the hands of a slightly more adult helper who can hold a pen.  You swear you will cherish it and keep it forever more.

Well little old me, the one taking baby ant steps towards my goal, has just been nominated for the Starlight Blogger Award!!  A big thanks to Dawn and Rachel from Meals Our Kids Love for the nomination!  It has been a pleasure getting to know you and your fantastic website that takes the guess work out of what the heck to make the family to eat today…and every day for that matter!

It usually starts with Baby Einstein, Sesame Street or some other sweet little moving picture form of entertainment for our babies and toddlers.  Although the staring entertainers may leave us feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed at their antics and brain worm sing songs, the kids love them so we surrender.

I’m tired.  You know that feeling when you have so many things on deck to do and not enough hours in the week to do them all?  What’s that you say, “of course”!?

Exciting times!!

Is it Christmas?  Nope!  Is it Mardi Gras?  Nope!  Back to school time for the kids?  Nope…they’re still in there silly?! 

Do you still have baby paraphernalia strewn about the house that hasn’t been used in months or years that you’re not quite sure why you haven’t gotten rid of yet?

While taking in the pure bliss that the beach had to offer, my 5 yr. old handed me a cup full of wet sand and said, “here, this is for you.”  Playing along I said, “oh, thank you, is it a milkshake?” His response…”no, it’s a cup full of wet sand.

Does your toddler ever interrupt your morning grooming rituals by barging in to the washroom to observe your transformation from ok to one step closer to fabulous?  Mine does.  “What’s that you’re putting on your eyes?”  “Why do you do that”?  “Why is your hair curly some days and straight other days?”

I was caught off guard the other day with the excruciating fact that my youngest is becoming self-sufficient.  What is my purpose if not to draw his bath every evening?  Before I could say “get upstairs and I’ll get your bath going”, water was on, right temperature was applied, plug was in, bubble bath was in and he was in?!

Now that the baby of the household is in school I’m amazed by the number of pairs of shoes, extra clothes, snow pants, mitts, hats, scarves and everything we must have.  This one kid is giving the Smith quintuplets a run for their money in school wears required.  We need back-ups for everything “just in case”.

Good Friday?  More like GREAT FRIDAY!  It’s a free get out of your everyday grind card.  It’s an extra day that doesn’t count so the weight of what you “should” be doing is non-existent.  I would have been at the office all day so everything I do today is just a superfluous GREAT FRIDAY gift.

Do you often hear your kids say, “mom will do it” or “that’s mom’s job” when it comes to the domestic engineering of your home? Do you wonder why the heck they automatically think that every floor needing mopping, clothes needing washing, dinner needing cooking and toilet needing scrubbing is mom’s job?

There are countless ways to search for a name for your baby.  There are endless websites promising you the most popular, least popular, most loved, most hated, and most unusual names you could possibly imagine.

Now that I’m feverishly working away at getting Spoonfed up and running I must be very strategic about my time.  With a full-time work week in the mix it means I must be a Weekend Warrior! 

It only takes one person other than your mom, spouse or best friend to believe in you to make all the difference.

My son is no longer a baby.  He is a Senior in Kindergarten and walks the halls with the confidence that only comes from paying your dues as a Junior.

It’s been a while. So much so this space seems foreign to me and yet like home at the same time. Kind of like going back to sleep in your childhood bed after 30 years. Comforting, yet too small.