Healthy and Smart Kids?

I recently read a book from the library entitled In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. I'm not what you'd call a 'foodie'...far from it. The H family eats pretty well, we like our fruits and veggies, but we're no strangers to corn dogs, root beer, and Honeycomb.
This book interested me because it talks all about the history behind the 'Western Diet'...and how it is making us sick and fat. At the same time, it slams the science of 'nutritionism' and helps to explain why we are supposedly learning all about what we're supposed to be eating yet getting sicker and fatter.
I loved this book because it explains something I've often wondered every time I read how much of each nutrient I'm lacking. I wonder, what about those 100 year old people living poorly yet happily in villages all over the world...how can they do it when they're not getting their daily allowance of dairy and omega 3s?? How come Eskimos can live so well on whale meat alone....you know they're not getting enough grains.
Another aspect of nutrition that has bothered me and is addressed in the book is the 'long term studies' of who ate what for how many years and why they're better than us now....can anyone really keep an accurate tally of their vegetables for 10 years? C'mon.
Though I still recommend it, the down side to the book is now I'm all whole grains this and organic that. Store bought bread is poison..and the hydrogenated oil peanut butter, corn syrup jelly, and corn syrup plus chemicals fake whole wheat bread our son RTH has been eating every day for 6 years is basically poison. So, I've been making a conscious effort to have us all eating a lot better. We all want our kids to be healthy and smart, right? I mean, the good food is supposed to help your brain as much as your body.
I thought I had been doing well until said son came down for his morning 6 bowls of cereal-which is healthy now! Yes, he can eat almost as many bowls of cereal in one sitting as my brother could back in the day. So, he came down stairs and asked, "Mom, can I please have some Flakes Bran?"
Healthy AND smart, I tell ya....

Ash Wednesday

A few funnies from church. Today I decided to take the younger girls to the Ash Wednesday service at our church..this is the first time I've ever gone, but it was a nice service. Ok, gloomy, yes, but thought-provoking. It's a somber, quiet service. There weren't a whole lot of people there and definitely no kids besides my 3 and 5yos. They sitting quietly while the vicar discussed the meaning of the ashes.... and matters of life, death, love, and faith, when my littlest one calls out, "I NEED TO GO POOP!!"
Comic relief, I suppose.
Then it's time to get our ashes put on our foreheads in the sign of the cross. We are in a slow-moving, solemn line at the alter when little BBH sees the first lady get a black smudge on her forehead and says, (again, very loudly) "I DON'T WANT THAT ON MY HEAD!!"
ANH (5) was simply disappointed because she wanted her smudge to be darker. Do I think they got some meaning out of the service? Um, maybe. But I was glad I went.
Last week, they attended a Christian youth group which they go to a few times a month called GHG. I picked them up afterwards and all seemed well. The next day, ANH says out of the blue-"Mom, at GHG they said that if someone hits us on the cheek, we're supposed to turn the other cheek..(long pause)..but what if they hit the OTHER cheek??" Then she said, "I've been thinking about that a lot."
That had been troubling her little mind all day! Since I'm a great mom who always has just the right answer...I did what came naturally. Burst out into uncontrolled fits of laughter and finally told her, through tears from laughing, "That is a great question!"
Some ideas, and maybe some church services, are a little too abstract for small children. But I do understand why Jesus loves them best...