My friend . . The Chocolate Chip

I have become friends with the chocolate chip! It seems that a well placed chocolate chip can get my children to eat zucchini muffins, squash cookies and spinach brownies . . . really!!

I have learned that if I mix in a cup of chocolate chips into the batter they see only zucchini muffins and may get more chips then zucchini, but if I place the chocolate chips on TOP before baking then all they see is chocolate chips and they think I am the best mom evah!! Look at the finished product below . . would you believe I made these with 2 zucchini's, 2 banana's, a cup of apple sauce, whole wheat flour, and ground flax seed!

I do the same with cookies - I start with oatmeal because its good for them and they like it, then add flax, veggies, apples, pineapples and maybe I'll put 3 smarties on top of each cookie! They get so excited by the smarties they dig in!! Now granted if the cookie doesn't taste any good the kids wise up and the smartie gets eaten and the cookie gets tossed, so there is some skill in making a healthy great tasting cookie. But I tell ya, tossing in a few chocolate chips can go a long way to helping them enjoy healthy food !!

I have also started to tell my kids that I put all these crazy vegetables in their school snacks . . I want them to know healthy can taste good (and besides, they are catching on to my tricks!). I've also learned I have to change it up a lot . . squash cookies might work this week, but they need something more enticing next week. I am curious too see what happens when they get older. Now they eat what I pack them for school mostly because I tell them they have too!! Hoping these good habits I am instilling in them now carry over to their tween years?? Will let you know!!

What works at your house to get the kids eating healthy snacks?

Focus Lost . . . Reward if Found!!

I used to be so efficient! A time management professional. I could squeeze a million things into a day and get everything crossed off my list! My house was in order and my day was a well executed plan. THEN I HAD KIDS.

The first child was a blur as we moved when she was 7 months old. Enough said. Second child born not long after and the crazy that is my new normal began. Staying home & having three babies in three years and I totally lost the ability to Focus. I began Managing . . .going from fire to fire . . diapers, bottles, dressing, feeding, story reading, driving, shopping, doctors, cleaning up puke - never actually completing anything. THEN I DISCOVERED the iPHONE.

Fast forward 5 years and now I have mostly self sufficient kids but I have fallen victim to the iPhone, and twitter, and Facebook, and my never ending email. I can't circle the grocery store without "checking" my iPhone for something, anything, from anyone, that must be responded to STAT. Can't finish making dinner without picking up stuff on the stairs, organizing the mail, recycling the paper, Tweeting something hilarious, putting in a load of laundry, checking Facebook again, helping a kid with homework, getting a snack, getting a drink, paying a bill, breaking up an argument, putting in a DVD. Dinner used to take 20 minutes . . now I start at 4pm and we eat at 7pm . . .and its Spaghetti!!

Where did my Focus go? I need it back. I am getting dizzy. I literally stand in my house sometimes and am overwhelmed by the 300 unfinished projects that face me and I don't know where to start. So how do I cope? I check Twitter. See my problem!!

How do you Focus and ignore tempting distraction? Looking for useful tools to get my groove back!

Happy New Day !

So many wonderful changes happened in 2010 that I can not possibly predict what 2011 will bring! I am going to take it one fabulous healthy & thankful day at a time.

In 2010 KidsGummyMum was born, I found so many incredible friends on line, and I found just how amazing women entrepreneurs can be. In 2010 I found my voice, started a blog, created a Facebook Fan Page, quit my job, went to work for my husband, and discovered I really care about making sure IronKids Gummy Vitamins touch as many children as possible, all over the world!

What started as my husbands vision has turned into a family business. My kids can often be found drawing on the boardroom white board at IronKids HQ while I am in a meeting about our Iron-Kids.com web site re design. New flavours and colours are discussed at the dinner table and taste tested from bottles without labels in our home. Those Vitamin D sunshine shapes are thanks to the kids and I !! My husband may have the vision & Masters Degree in Exercise Physiology, Metabolism and Nutrition, but the kids and I are taking an active role in making sure IronKids appeals to kids & Moms in more ways than just being a great tasting all natural vitamin !!

And we have so many idea's! The first is Happy New Day ! I am challenging you all to simply being the best you can toDAY! Yesterday is in the past, and tomorrow we can plan, but today we get to enjoy! Cherish your kids smiles, acknowledge their frowns and comfort those tears. Eat one healthy new food, eat one less chocolate, go for a walk with the kids, give out your smiles to everyone you see, hug someone who doesn't expect it . . .live today to the fullest. Each day I will post a new challenge, play along with us, and make 2011 the best year yet, one day at a time! Check in tomorrow for Happy New Day #1!

Follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/IronKids.Health and watch for the launch of our new website at www.iron-kids.com and if you are ever on twitter, be sure to look me up @KidsGummyMum !

Wishing you all the best in health & happiness in 2011 and, more importantly, toDAY!
Stuart, Deb, Julia, Brooke & Amy

Traditions in Food

Does Christmas time mean family traditions at your house? It sure does at mine. Although I'm betting not the way you think it would for a mom who blogs about Raising Healthy Kids!!

I have blogged about fun with food before. I have three girls and am determined to foster in them a healthy relationship with food . . . and sometimes that means covering the healthy bit in icing!!

At Christmas we go all out and have fun with our food. We start with baking totally unhealthy gingerbread cookies and decorating with disturbing amounts of coloured royal icing, sprinkles and decorations. My kids do all the artwork . . . I am just the baker. We then give away plates of our creations to everyone we visit at Christmas time.

Next up is the required Gingerbread house from the grocery store with our own unique twist! That means more candy, more marshmallows, more icing and more colourful decorations! Its a work of art that is our kitchen table center piece for weeks leading up to Christmas!

Then there are the parties! Each of my kids (that means 3) gets to host their own Christmas party with their friends from school and we get crazy with . . .you guessed it, more sweets !!! I have bottles of coloured icing at the ready, 10 kids at a time around the table, dozens of candy dishes and pre made graham cracker gingerbread houses and Rice Krispie's in the shape of candy canes, snowmen, Christmas tree's and stockings. The kids then get creative and decorate like crazy! Anything sugary is glued down with brightly coloured icing! The more candy, the better it looks!! They love it. And they take it all home !!

Notice how there really isn't any eating going on here? The fun for us is the decorating. The 'being allowed' to stick your hand in the candy dish as many times as you like and use as much hot pink icing as you can.

And the best part of all this fun with food is that its shared with our family and friends!

May all your Traditions in Food be this fun! I'd love to hear what you do this time of year !!

Simple Start to Healthy Kids

Imagine if your kids were as excited as you were to prepare some amazing meals with this gorgeous display of fruits and veggies? For most of us, the reality is our kids may think the colours here look pretty, but don't you dare put that stuff on their plate!

A few weeks ago I embarked on a new journey of healthy eating and I bought into shares of a local Organic farm. They send me a full or half bushel (pictured) of amazing organic fruits and veggies either every week or every other week depending on what you choose. Stay tuned for future blogs on just how I incorporated all these wonderful colours into meals my kids would eat . . . well, at least try!!

Today I want to share how I started raising healthy kids. We as parents start making decisions the minute our children are born that will affect how and what they will eat for the rest of their lives. I believe there are some simple steps we can take right from the beginning to give them a healthy start, and besides, we only have a few years before they start to "catch on"!!

Making your own baby food . . . I know I know - blah. Why make your own when there are inexpensive jars of "all natural" baby food on store shelves? Most of those jars are on store shelves because they have preservatives in them so they don't go bad. There are so many benefits to making your own - I realized that when I cook & puree my own veggies I can control the salt, the sugar & the consistency - add more or less water for thicker or thiner baby food . . hint, thicker food is less messy!!

ONLY whole wheat bread . . . my children have never had white bread. Well, not in my house! My oldest was 6 years old before she figured out there even was another kind of bread. Had it at a friends house and thought it was the greatest tasting invention ever! Still none in my house!

Pureed vegetables . . . my kids have long out grown baby food, but I still cook and puree tons of veggies. I am not above hiding vegetables in my spaghetti sauces, macaroni & cheese, hamburger helper meals and even in muffins, cookies and brownies. Why not? They get all the nutrients and I get none of the grief . .they don't even know its in there!! My latest sauce had so much spinach and cauliflower I thought I was caught . .you could see the green bits, but it was a huge hit here.

Healthy cereal . . . No, Fruit Loops are not a healthy cereal! I only buy low sugar, simple cereals for our cupboard which my kids can help themselves to anytime. I offer 4 different cereals but none of them have chocolate or marshmallow thingys in them! I do buy treat cereals for just that, a treat . . but that treat is a dessert or a car snack for long trips. It is never the food they start their day with!

Juice . . . once a day. I'd rather they have real fruit and yes, I know juice from concentrate can be good for you in moderation. I think that is the key. There are good vitamins in juice but also a lot of sugar (26grams in a cup of apple juice!). My kids have always only been allowed 1 juice a day. Once thats done, your other choices are milk or water. And those drinks pretending to be juice? Those crystals and drink blends and juice hidden behind a label that says 'cocktail' . . . they are not juice!! If you do buy juice, make sure it's 100% real juice!

Lastly . . . vitamins, because really I can't talk about healthy kids without talking about vitamins!! Even though my husband formulates, manufactures and sells (amazing!) vitamins, we still make sure our kids eat fruit, grain, vegetable, protein and drink their milk. The vitamins are the extra . . .our girls are not big eaters so we know they need a bit more to get their daily requirements. Once your children reach two years of age, find a vitamin they like to take . . make it a fun and enjoyable experience. These days there are chewables, liquids and gummies on the market, have your child help you pick them out at the store, hand them out at home and take your own vitamins and set a good example. Of course, watch your ingredient lists here too . . .all vitamins are not created equal! Look for ones without sugar fillers, sugar coating, aspartame, coloured dyes or ingredients you can't pronounce or recognize!

I know I can only make the decisions about what my kids eat for a few more years and then they will decide what choices to make at the cafeteria and the grocery store. I can only hope I have given them a few simple lessons to make informed & healthy decisions . . .most of the time! Do you have any simple tricks you use at home?

Who Is This Mom?

How did I get here? Who is this person these 3 little blonde girls call "Mom". I'm a Mom?! Wait a minute . . .no . . .she can't be turning 5, you can't be turning 9 and how are you 7 already. . . I haven't done all that cool stuff I was gonna do with my kids 'when I became a mom'! Waaaaaaaaait!!

Anyone else find themselves in a bit of disbelief after the fog of diapers, sea of formula and never ending cycle of crying, sleepless nights, sickness, feeding, changing, holding, exhaustion, depression, loneliness and just the round the clock full tilt survival mode slowly fades away? You all of a sudden realize I am being a Mom NOW . .but not the Mom I thought I was going to be. . . .

The Mom I was going to be "when I became a mom" was a freakin awesome Mom!!! She was going to wake her children gently from their slumber in their clean matching sheets and guide them downstairs where the table is set, the juice poured and the french toast still steaming beneath the fresh maple syrup. The Mom I was going to be "when I became a mom" was going to spend the day while the children are at school baking cookies and making dinner from scratch, was going to be home with the younger children and do colour matching charts and work on reading and spelling together. After school all my children and I were going to enjoy cold milk and warm cookies and scrapbook all our awesome times together. We were going to have quality family time after dinner and play board games and be a cozy warm family in front of the roaring fire.

Not sure if I should laugh or cry !! 3 kids in 3 years, a husband who first travelled a TON and then started his own company when I had my 3rd baby means I was on my own and covered in vomit or poop for the first 5 years of motherhood. I barely remember it - except that it was hard and I was overwhelmed pretty much all the time!! No colour charts, no cosy by the fire. The last 3 years of motherhood I have tried to reclaim me. I sleep in as much as possible so every morning is a horse race to beat the school bell, kids fend for themselves for breakfast (see previous blog post!), I sometimes remember to read their agenda let alone homework, the younger kids at home get ignored in front of a princess movie while Mommy works all day on her computer trying to catch up. Laundry sits washed and folded in baskets for weeks waiting to be put away. Scrapbooks haven't been started EVER for for one child and barely touched since 2006 for the other 2. After school we shove down a banana and race to activities, dinner is created in under 20 minutes from something frozen deep in the freezer and after dinner we are too busy doing dishes and making a big deal about all the toys everywhere that no one sits down to enjoy anything! Even weekends get filed up with other kids birthday parties, play dates (cause they never see their friends from school-huh?) and running in circles to accomplish the tiniest home repair.

This is reality now. This is motherhood now. This is my family now. And I am being a mom now. Not the Mom I thought I was going to be, but my kids think I am awesome and I am loving who they have turned out to be. I must be doing OK.

Perhaps somewhere between the race to school, the friends on weekends and the mess of toys everywhere in my house we will get to bake cookies, to scrapbook and to sit by that fire as a family. Until then, I am happy being this Mom. And so thankful I have tomorrow to be my kids mom again, horse race and all!

Are you the Mom you always wanted to be? Or are you even better?!!!

Self Serve Always Open!

I quickly learned that to be a stay at home mom of 3 small children I would need some help . . but with a husband that travelled and grandparents that worked, that help was going to have to come from the kids themselves!! Inspired by how smart my cheeky 3 year old was at the time, I wondered if I gave them the tools (and cupboard space) to help themselves would it cause mayhem or create self serve kids?

Have a peak inside my pantry. Sturdy easy pour Ikea containers full of cereal, big & small bowls for cereal, soup, ice cream, apple slices or as many grapes as they can fit. There are milk cups, straw cups, travel cups, hot chocolate mugs and a supply of fun straws for their drinking pleasure. There is also their very own set of kids size spoons, forks and little spreaders for that morning peanut butter & toast or icing a cupcake. My kids have everything within their reach that they need to set the table, help them selves to a glass of milk, bowl of crackers or make their breakfast all on their own!

It is not only a time saver for me, but my kids learned early how to be self sufficient. . . from the age of 3 they are not only setting tables and pouring their own drink, but since it is "their" cupboard and "their" dishes, they even empty the dishwasher and put all their dishes away! The benefits just keep on coming !!

Now that the girls are older (4, 7 & 8), I can say that raising self serve kids has been a positive - even the milk poured on the floor instead of the hitting the cup has been a good learning experience for them. Next on this moms agenda is teaching them how to bake & make their own school lunches ! Any tips for me???