Car Hostage, AKA When Your Kids Fall Asleep In The Car

As I sat outside my house today, in my car, with the engine running, windows open, radio off, phone on silent, willing myself not to slurp my get me through the afternoon coffee, so as not to disturb the three sleeping beauties that are my children, it dawned on me that I have in fact mastered all of the incredible skills of a stealth ninja.  Actually I take that back.  Stealth ninja's are difficult to find so that can't be me because my children manage to find me no matter how well I think I've covered my tracks! (They are in fact, as committed to the cause as Daniel Day Lewis was in The Last of the Mohicans - no matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I WILL FIND YOU"
 https://www.youtube.com/watch )

OK, so I don't meet the first of Urban Dictionary's stealth ninja criteria but I sure do excel at the second two:
1. Extremely mysterious
Spelling out words, talking reallllllyyy sllllloooooowwwwlllllyyyyy and/or in Irish, hand gestures, passing notes, morse code, subliminal messages, alter egos, nervous ticks have all become part of covert daily communications.  At times I reckon I'd give 007 a good run for his money.
2. Lightening fast
If you want to see faster than the speed of light in action, then look no further than me on the couch, with a cup of tea, happily about to enjoy my delicious, waited for all day chocolate mothering reward, when I hear a little voice calling me.  It is quite the skill to make an entire, under threat piece of cake disappear in zero point five seconds let me assure you.

See, ninja! And here's another few awesome talents I have - I know where every creaking floor board in the house is.  I know, exactly, down to the tinniest millimeter how high I can lift the duvet to read on my phone without causing sleep disturbance to which ever trespasser is in my bed.  I know that I can get three children dressed in the time it takes the porridge to cook - that's 2 minutes per child, pretty darn impressive.  I know I can smuggle chocolate eclairs into my mouth by pretending they are either beetroot or broccoli.  I know how to negotiate peace treaties better than any UN Diplomat.  I know that silence amongst children is nearly always deadly (often resulting in an unfortunate incident with the long suffering dog) and finally I know that whenever someone says "it wasn't me" it always, always, ALWAYS was them.

I think a role in Skylander awaits!!!

Sitting afraid to move in said car also reminded me of that time I got stuck in the car wash and had to Google the petrol station number so I could ring them to get someone to rescue me (admittedly not very ninja like) but that's a story for another day!!!

Discovering The Healthiest, Yummiest Ice Cream EVER

My daughters cows milk protein allergy and my own issues with gluten intolerance and leaky gut have taken me on a nutritional learning journey in recent times and there's one word that keeps coming up in the posts I read and on forum discussions, kefir.  Taken from the Turkish word "keif" which translates as "good feeling", Kefir has long been heralded in traditional cultures for its healing properties, but you know us modern folk love a good scientific study and currently kefir is the source of many which aim to determine its therapeutic value.

Kefir Grains 

In short kefir is a fermented milk product.  It is cultured from grains, jam packed with beneficial bacteria and yeasts.  It is said to deliver more probiotic power than any other probiotic product, including processed supplements.  So with all of this in mind, you can imagine my delight when I came across the magic, healthy deliciousness of Kefi - a simple pot of ice-cream, made right here in Ireland.

Kefi is the brainchild of Conor Saunders, a nutritional therapist, who began experimenting with adding juices and freezing when he couldn't get his kids to drink traditional kefir, which apparently is not to everyone's taste. (I'm trying to source some grains at the moment to start making my own but I fear I've rather spoiled us all now with yummy ice-cream).

After consulting with a nutritional therapist for myself and all three of my children, including my almost 8 month old we were all advised to build up our gut health and embarked on a regime of probiotics and digestive enzymes but since finding Kefi I really don't feel the need to supplement. Anything that makes my life easier is always a winner!

Two things concerned me however - the use of dairy as an ingredient for my dairy intolerant daughter and the sugar content for my wee man.  Thankfully Conor, being only a stone's throw away in Wicklow, didn't mind answering my questions.

Kefi is made from kefir-fermented dairy. Not dairy free then! No problem. Conor says there is every reason to believe that Kefi is tolerated by those who don't tolerate regular dairy.  He explains that the "good bugs" within the product make a range of naturally occuring enzymes that work to break up the proteins and lactose in dairy irrespective of whether the person eating the product has those enzymes. In other words Kefi "auto digests".  Pretty cool, eh?

Being a complete sugar addict - partly due to poor gut health and partly due to having zero will power I am trying really hard to cut refined and processed sugars from our diets. I'm very conscious that my littlest not be introduced to sugars so early in life.  Conor assures me that Kefi is sweetened only with grape juice and contains less sugar per serving than most typical servings of fruit - less than an average apple, orange, banana etc.  It is also 30 times as potent in terms of CFU score and contains many more strains than some of the leading brands of probiotics on our shelves and is fine for babies 6 months plus.

This news makes me both happy and sad.  Happy that my baby son gets to have all of the wonderful health benefits - sad that there's another mouth I need to share with!

Conor also adds that Kefi retains its probiotic power perfectly for up to a year in the freezer.  This however is completely irrelevant to me as there is no way in hell it'll be in my freezer for that length of time.

To find out more and for local stockists visit  http://www.kefi.ie/ 

Enjoy! 

Our Summer Fun Jar

It's week two of the summer holidays and the "What are we doing today Mom?" "Where are we going today Mom?" questions are pretty relentless.  At times it seems like an interrogation.  Good cop/bad cop. A tag team of little people hell bent on slowly driving me crazy.  This week I put the thinking cap on and "Our Summer Fun Jar" was born.  A whole summer of fun, in just one jar, you say? How is this possible?

Our summer fun jar 

Take two energetic children, several A4 pages, a scissors, some colouring pencils and a Kilner jar and let the magic happen.  (My little people need help with the big people scissors).  We sat down and each shouted out our favourite things to do - picnics at the beach, a visit to the zoo, exploring in the National History Museum, putting on sock puppet plays, water fights, taking train journeys, movie days with popcorn & jellies, reading Roald Dahl in the garden - the possibilities are truly endless.  

My son did the writing, while (after trying to decipher her hieroglyphics) my daughter was encouraged to decorate the slips of paper before folding them up and popping them into the jar.  This in itself proved to be a fun way to spend an hour and some of the more optimistic suggestions - such as a trip to the moon and asking Santa for our very own minion - raised lots of giggles.

The idea is that each day one of the children gets to choose the next days activity from the jar and that's how we spend the day.  It means that everyday there is something special planned, ranging from expensive days eating in fancy restaurants wearing a smart tie (courtesy of my eldest son) to toasting marshmallows by the fire pit in the garden before bed (thanks to a sugar addicted me) to painting rainbows on the paths around our house (from the fairy princess that is my 3 year old daughter).  

Obviously there will be days when we need to be flexible due to our "changeable" (ahem) Irish weather or pre existing arrangements but the kids understand that and again it teaches them new skills around planning and negotiating.  

So far this week we've had a rainy day cinema trip and a lot of splashing around in the local swimming pool.  Today it's feeding the ducks in the park.  It's taken the pressure off me to try and entertain and answer questions constantly and it's given the kids a real sense of involvement in how we choose to spend our precious free time together. 

Why I love being at home with my children

Before having my first child I was given lots of well meaning but sometimes utterly terrifying advice ­ sleep when they sleep, enjoy your free time now because you’ll never have it again, your body will never be the same, labour is ***** (insert expletive of choice here). What no one told me was that I might love becoming a mother so much that I would happily hang up my stilettoes, office job and perfectly coiffed hair in favour of a less glamorous but for me infinitely more rewarding career as Chief Executive Mom!

Here’s some of my favourite things about being at home with my kids:

Being there 100% for my children 
Although sometimes completely exhausting, not to mention a little overwhelming, this is one of the main reasons I chose to stay at home. I get to spend all day with these incredible people. I get to see them grow and develop everyday. Their first smiles were when our eyes met, funny faces at their first tastes of food, falling into my arms when taking faltering first steps. I kiss away sad tears and laugh outrageously at the chicken crossing the road for the 70th time. I’m there for first thing in the morning cuddles and last thing at night I love you’s and all that happens in between.

Lazy Days
Life gets a bit more restrictive as the children get older with school schedules and extracurricular activities but in those early days of being a Mommy the hours, days and weeks spent curled up on the couch or in bed with my newborns are some of my most precious memories. The smells, the skin­-to­skin, the breastfeeding, the gentle humming of lullabies.

New Interests
It turns out that chasing butterflies around the garden and explaining the life cycle of the earthworm has led me to develop interests I never in a gazillion years imagined I’d pursue. As well as growing our own veggies, we raise our own chicken (singular due to an unfortunate incident with the family dog). We compost! I’ve discovered I like to plant things and I take immense pleasure when little green buds emerge and I have somehow managed not to kill said herb / vegetable / flower /scrub. I even know how to make garden lasagne ­who knew!!  I make a mean chocolate cake too.

Friendships
I’ve been lucky enough to have the time to build long­lasting, close friendships with other mums. The kind of friendships that when the suppositories have run out and it's 2am and you have a screaming child on your hands you know they can come to your rescue. We share laughs and tears, struggles and joys as we move through our mothering journey together. They’ve got my back. They get it.

An Appreciation of My Body
My body is freaking awesome. There I've said it. My body grew three amazing people. Sadly it wasn't able to carry to birth the three more that grew within but in­spite of that it carried on working, even with it's heart broken it got me out of bed and kept me putting one foot in front of the other until I was eventually able to smile again and carry on, even with parts of me missing. My body nourished my babies with milk tailor made to suit their needs. My body has superpowers because a simple kiss from my lips can stop tears dead in their tracks.

Respect for other women
We laugh, we love, we cry, we hurt, we make tough decisions, we are hard on ourselves, we are hard on each other, we live, we lose, we birth, we bury. Women are incredible. We are a million different things rolled into one.

A Desire To Be Healthy
I want to be the best me that I can be for my children. I want to be around to see my grandchildren and maybe even their children. Being at home gives me time to learn about the foods we eat and their benefits to our health and well being. It gives me time to meal plan and to cook from scratch. I can bake cookies with my daughter whenever our greedy guts tell us we need them ­ which is a lot! I’m more conscious of taking my time reading labels and trying to steer us away from processed foods.

Me Time
O.k. so I love being with the kids but that doesn’t mean there aren’t days when my husband gets home that he literally doesn’t see me for dust I hightail it out of here so fast. We give so much of ourselves away and it is very easy for the children to become the sole focus of our energies. It’s so important to take time out to do the things we love and to remember the essence of who we are without having anyone demand anything of us. For me triathlon training gives me the time and space I need to recharge my batteries and come back to my family with my own spark in my eye.

Freedom
 I love creating my own schedule­ in the words of Princess Jasmine “No one to tell us no, or where to go lalalala”. Some days are jammie days just because someone hasn’t slept well or it’s cold and miserable outside or I just feel like snuggling my babies. Yes the school run gets in the way but sometimes a long coat and winter boots are all that’s needed to disguise a telltale onesie!! Being at home gives us the freedom to have an impromptu beach trip, a forest walk, a splash in the local pool, scones with jam and cream in a fancy cafe.

The Intensity Of Emotion
I never imagined that watching my eldest son score his first try at rugby training or my daughter skipping out of ballet practice or my littlest rolling over could make my heart swell with such immense pride. I never knew that seeing them cry would make my heart ache. I didn’t know that my last desire at night would be to creep into their rooms and plant one more kiss on their sleeping foreheads. I never dreamed that the ordinary could be so extraordinary. And I certainly never for one second believed that I deserved so much happiness.