Keeping it simple folks

Have you noticed that food labels are getting longer and longer? It seems like everyday we are getting futher and further from real food. Have you also noticed that behavior and illnesses in children seem to be on the rise? I think the two are connected.

I can give my children foods with different color dyes and watch a distinct change in personality within 30 minutes. Our party two days ago was a perfect example. The kids did great with their excitement and were able to remain orderely. However, within 30 minutes of the colored dessert foods coming out my kids got loud and started to climb the walls. One of my kids is highly emotional and prone to meltdowns. If I am giving her dyed and processed foods on a daily basis the girl doesn't have a fighting chance of getting ahold of herself. It doesn't seem fair to me to discipline her over and over when I am dispensing the very thing that causes the meltdowns to happen increasingly.

It's always better to eat as natural as possible and watch what goes into our bodies. Of course cooking at home is best on our bodies and our pocket books but you even have to be careful there. The dyes are in things you wouldn't even think of. Cake and muffin mixes, chips, crackers, macaroni and cheese and on and on. Boxed and processed foods are the culprit when we don't even realize it.

I have been trying to get off of the main snacks that we normally grab off the shelf to have available for snacktimes. Instead we have been purchasing things like nuts and popcorn(kernels) or making things like veggie plates, cornbread, boiled eggs and our own summer sausage. Snacks that quite honestly my kids like better and are more satisfied with until dinner.

We also are using things like vinegar and baking soda for cleaning. I still have other name brand cleaners in the cabinet for certain jobs but simple vinegar does the trick for so many things and it's so inexpensive.

When there is something within arms reach that I can do to make my daughter's life manageable I believe that I should do it. The occasional party with cupcakes and colored juice isn't going to harm her long term and we will still indulge in those times here and there. Everything in moderation, right? But what I am more concerned with is the day to day choices that we are making. Those choices that make my daughter have a horrible day or a good one that she really enjoyed (making it a day I enjoy as well).

And that's how we are living more naturally. This post was written for Parent Bloggers as part of a blog blast sponsored by SC Johnson's Natural Cleaners.