No Veggies for Me: Guide to Children and Vegetables

As a health coach for families and mothers, I hear one common problem that appears in most families and at most dinner tables.  Aversion to vegetables.

“No Mommy!!!  I won’t eat my ________!!!”  Fill-in-the-blank with your choice of vegetable.

It’s always the vegetables, rarely the mashed potatoes, the macaroni and cheese, or the cookie.  If it is colorful and vibrant in flavor naturally, an alarm goes of in their little brains with a warning, “WARNING:  This item is a vegetable!!!  Avoid at all costs!!!”  And so they do.  They kick up a fuss.  They start crying.  They refuse.  The broccoli ends up in the floor.  The carrots swished in unnatural ways.  Spinach . . . well that’s in your hair.  It’s a new look.

Is all this pain necessary?  Is there some better way to do vegetables?  Why do children identify vegetables as “bad?”

I have some answers for you.  Vegetables do not have to be alien invaders and strange food groups that your children are forced to consume.  In fact, if you consider the guiding principles below, you may find that veggies are welcome into the house as a friend.

Getting Children to Eat Vegetables

Why your children hate their vegetables

This is really the point isn’t it?  Your children have learned to hate their vegetables.  At the early age of 1-3, something has taught them that vegetables are less preferable.  Why?  I will provide four reasons that children learn to hate their vegetables.

Reason #1: Baby food

When we first introduce vegetables to our children, we often give them baby food that we have bought in a grocery store.  Some parents buy organic, some buy regular, but the problem is the same.  Have you […]

By |January 8th, 2018|Brooke S., Food or Foe, Mom, Real Food Recipes|0 Comments
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What Does the Bible Say about Modesty?

This post is actually a troubleshooting post for my post titled “What Does the Bible Say about Boobs? over at Blissful Moments Doula.  You can find that post >here<.  I know many ladies will have so many questions about the assertions that I made, but many of those have to do with modesty rather than the Biblical passages on breasts.  So I decided I would continue the discussion here on my blog.

What Does the Bible Say about Modesty?

I’m sure many of you have read the post on “What Does the Bible Say About Boobs?” and have come up with many rebuttals.  I will attempt to address the most frequently asked questions here.

Modesty and the Bible

Modesty in I Timothy 2:9

In the New Testament, we often see I Timothy 2:9 as the ultimate verse relating to modestly.  Why is this verse used so often?  Because the Greek word for modesty is only used twice in the New Testament.  Both times they appear in Timothy and the other one is most often interpreted as ‘respectable’ or ‘good behavior.’  The Hebrew word for modesty is also less about external appearance and dress, but rather about humility.  Tsana (or צָנַע) is to be humble, be modest, be lowly.  Biblical modesty had to do with being humble and modest in heart (Proverbs 11:2).

It isn’t just the word modesty that has been used mistakenly throughout the years of our Biblical heritage.  The entire verse is most often pulled out of context.  Read I Timothy 2:1-10 for the full context, I’ll summarize below.

In the first verse, we are talking about the four basic kinds of prayers that we are called to pray for all people.  […]

By |October 16th, 2016|Bohemian Style, Brooke S., Faith: Heart, Mind, Body, & Spirit, Mom|5 Comments
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Should You Go See Vaxxed? Click to see.

Excerpt from a review about VAXXED that I wrote for Blissful Moments Doula blog today:

“First of all, why would we cover a movie review of VAXXED: From Cover Up to Catastrophe on a doula blog?  Because every single mother has to make the decision about vaccinations for their child: whether they want them all, whether they want to space them out, whether they want the particular ingredients, and, most importantly, mothers need to know their options.  This movie is vital information for every mother who wants more information about the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine and more understanding of the vaccine industry that creates the vaccines.

The Premise of VAXXED

VAXXED is an expose regarding the CDC and the MMR vaccination . . .”

Read more at Blissful Moments.  Read below for more information from Boholistic Mom about VAXXED at the Mississippi State Capitol.

 

Mississippi State Capitol and VaxxedVAXXED at the Capitol

I was able to go to the Mississippi State Capitol this week and rally with the VAXXED van and other amazing Mississippi mothers and dads whose lives have been forever affected by vaccine injury.  Many of my social media friends have asked how I know that the van is full of vaccine injured children.  Do you as a parent know your child?  Did you know them when they were younger, did you see them grow over the years?  What if at one moment in your child’s development everything stopped.  They stopped mentally developing.  They regressed.  They had been walking and now they are falling on the ground and cannot speak at all.  Would you notice?  Would you immediately look at what had changed in your child’s life?

These parents did […]

By |September 15th, 2016|Brooke S., Mom, Natural Lifestyle, Vaccines|0 Comments
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Redeeming My Birth Story After Trauma

my birth story

In June of 2014, I shared my birth story with my Boholistic Mom readers.  My post called Modern Childbirth: My Story detailed my story of pregnancy and labor for my child.  Writing out my story was both healing for me and liberating.  I wasn’t hiding the pain, the fear, and the disappointment anymore.

Now, two years later, I need to write a new story.  Did you know that you can actually rewrite your own birth story?  We can’t undo the past, but we have the power to change how we viewed what happened.  By God’s grace, our minds are capable of looking at our birth in a new way.

Today, I’m going to write my story from the view of a doula.  If I were a doula, what would I have been telling myself during this pregnancy and childbirth?  How would I have been encouraging myself?  How would I have been keeping myself informed and empowered?  How can I now take back my birth in light of all that I now know about childbirth?

Rewriting My Birth

Join me as I rewrite my birth.

Preggo me: “Childbirth is pretty straightforward.  You do the deed, you grow a big belly, and you have a baby 9 months later.  I know childbirth is painful, but women have been having babies forever, how could it go wrong?”

Doula me: “While we hope that every pregnancy will go as planned and be as easy as possible, every birth is unique.  Each delivery is a new experience.”

Preggo me: “Oh my word!  My water broke while I was going to the bathroom!  I don’t know what to do!  I was supposed to go into work and my husband is away at a class.  It’s […]

By |July 15th, 2016|Brooke S., Mom, Natural Lifestyle|1 Comment
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How to Discipline Your Child

Last week, I had the opportunity to go to a Mommy’s Drop-In with my church and hear a seasoned mother speak on discipline.  Can I just tell you that before this point I had never been taught specifically how to discipline my child by a mother who has children who are grown up and have chosen to continue their walk with the Lord?

I had been given tips.  Oh, so many tips.  By new mothers, by mothers with young kids, by mothers with teenagers, by mothers with older kids, and finally, I’d been given a few tips from seasoned mothers who emulated Christ to their children and their children chose to follow after Christ.  How do we make sense of all these tips?

Then there are books.  Oh, so many books.  Some books say to spank your children, some books say not to spank your children.  Some books say give your children choices in order to avoid conflict, some books say your job is to be their parent not their friend, so bring on the conflict!  I’m not sure about you, but I get some mixed messages from both Christian parenting books and the rest of the parenting books.  Why can’t they agree?

After hearing this amazing woman of Christ teach about discipline, I don’t feel confused any more.  I feel that the Bible is clear on how we are to raise up our children.  We too often look to momma tips or to books for the answers of how to discipline and we don’t go to God’s Word.  Let me spend some time taking you through what my new wise friend, Toma, shared last week.

How to Discipline Your Child

Discipline Is Training

Discipline is consistent and continual. […]

By |July 29th, 2015|Brooke S., Mom, Natural Lifestyle|1 Comment
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Cloth Diapers 101: Prefolds

Cloth Diapers 101: Prefolds

Though the world of cloth diapers can seem overwhelming, I’ll try to make my explanation as simple as possible.  Tons of information exists about diapering with prefold cloth diapers, but I am going to cover the basics that will help you to get started.  Still, I will try not to miss anything helpful!  Please post a comment asking questions if I missed something.

Keep reading in this post to discover:

diaper sites, when to start, which prefold to use, how many prefold to buy, how to hold prefold together, what diaper covers to buy, and more!

Diaper Sites

I like two cloth diaper sites in general.

The green mountain diapers have prefolds that are color coded by size with shipping at $4.95 for orders up to $75.00. Abby’s Lane has free shipping.

When to Start

Starting to use cloth diapers right after a baby’s preemie stage is ideal.  Newborn diapers are used for a short time, but using the newborn size is a real money saver since they go through so many diapers.  This is also an investment if you will be having more children in the future.

Cloth Diapers 101: Prefolds | Boholistic Mom

Which Prefolds to Use

We used the orange prefolded cloth diapers (sold by Green Mountain Diapers) for our son as a newborn, then we transitioned to the yellow striped cloth diapers.  We decided on the unbleached Indian prefolds, the unbleached absorb more than bleached and the Indian are softer than the Chinese.

How Many?

Newborn Prefolds

Starting out with the orange prefolds, I went through plenty of diapers a day.  You will be able to diaper with 24 cloth diapers, but having up to 30 would be convenient. […]

By |June 10th, 2015|Brooke S., Mom, Natural Lifestyle|0 Comments
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The Unsettled Mom

The Unsettled Mom | Boholistic Mom

Settling.  What an interesting word, right?  Settling down, to settle, unsettling, or settling up.  As American’s we are even familiar with the term “settler”; the American pioneers who settled in the land west of the original colonies.  The original German work setle was literally a place to sit, a seat.  Yet with all these perfectly adequate definitions of the word settle, we have a definite malaise when we think of someone settling for something.  Such as a women settling for a guy who doesn’t treat her right or someone settling for second best.  It appears that taking a seat and settling can be a bad thing.

I think that we need to become unsettled moms.  Not because settling down is bad, but rather because we’ve been settling so long for things that are not God’s best that we do not even recognize what his best is.  The reason that I bring this up is not to forcibly upset your norm . . . but because I realize that my norm needs to change.  I need to become unsettled to follow God’s will for my life.

I want to talk with you about a trend in parenting that I’ve been seeing lately.  It’s parenting by excuses.  Not only that, it’s parenting by excuses and other mothers helping you feel excused by offering their own failures as examples to ease your conscience.  So really, you end up deciding that you are doing a good enough job because you’ve heard all the ways other people have done worse.

What a load of CRAP!  Do we really want to parent […]

By |May 29th, 2014|Brooke S., Home, Mom, Spirit|0 Comments
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