Food for thought, or really my tummy
Sugary foods. I love sugary snacks. I just have to have something sweet. I grew up and we always had something, at least for the first three days after mom went to the grocery store, after that it was usually gone. I have had times where I don’t need anything sweet for weeks, and I have times where I seem to need a daily fix. I’m in a fix a day mode right now. I went to the store for milk one day and also brought home rocky road ice cream. Then I went grocery shopping with Lilah and oreo’s were on sale, so I bought a package. Jon just looks at me as I say that I had a craving. His reply is that it will also tempt him. There was period of about a year that he didn’t eat any sugary food unless it was in a natural form, honey, fruit and juices. He did really well until we moved and had Eden. A women in the ward brought ice cream for a desert while they were bringing us dinner and it went out the door. Ice cream is his ultimate weakness.
I try to keep Lilah’s sugar intake small. She was a year old before she had any sugar, and that was her cake. Then she didn’t have a lot of sugar after that, or chocolate for a while. She seemed to have a reaction to chocolate. We often have our snacks after the girls go to bed, so she isn’t eating so much sugar, but we also give her some during the day at times. I guess I feel somewhat hypocritical not giving her snacks when I have them so often. I just hate that she’s always asking for them when she knows they’re around. Everyday after Halloween she wanted candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Whenever I make cookies she wants them too. It just seems to rule her life when it’s around. Some would say it because I don’t give her any, but I say it because if it’s around you want it, whether you’re a child or an adult. I want it, even when it’s not there.
This leads me to a thought I had this morning. Raisin Bran is the choice of cereal in our house right now. Lilah has never had a child’s cereal bought buy us. She had Cheerios, corn chex, rice chex, bran flakes, and corn flakes for the first two years of her life, at least once she started eating them. I don’t want her to get started on kids cereal because they are one, so sugary, and two, so dang expensive. The raisin bran is 9 cents an ounce if you buy in bulk and kids cereal is anywhere from 15-20 cents an ounce. We just can’t afford that… ever. I admit sometimes I have cravings for Cocoa Crispies and Lucky Charms. Someday we might buy a kids cereal as a treat, but I want my kids to value regular cereals and foods, also fruits and veggies. She loves fruit and she loves certain veggies. I have a pretty good eater, I contribute that to not giving her too much sugar, and the fact that we’re frugal. I don’t mind buying the cheap canned goods if we can get more fresh produce. I don’t mind having corn flakes with bananas and I love to hear that Lilah wants an orange, though I don’t always love peeling it. We’ve had strawberries this past week and since I cut them in half, she calls them heart valentines. She’s cute. I hope I don’t go soft on Eden and that she is a year old before she has any sugar. I think it helps them develop a taste for natures sugars and not manufactured sweets. I know I’m enslaved by their enticingly sweet goods. I want something different for my girls.