I'm tired. Tired of sacrificing health in the name of saving money. Does this make sense, really? I'll buy boxes of macaroni and cheese, cereal, hamburger helper, and pop-tarts, yet I have to think twice if I have flex in my grocery budget to allow us fresh vegetables and fruits? Ridiculous! You know Mark and I have always been the type to say "...somewhere down the road, when we have the money we'll buy organic..." or "that'd be nice to eat that way, but it's just not financially practical right now..." Well, I think it's kind of silly, we preach prevention and a healthy lifestyle yet we, ourselves, don't even do it.

We're now  heading into a different direction. My goal is to buy fresh produce twice a week. Spending $25-$30 each visit to ensure that we always have a healthy selection of snacks for our children and ourselves. Truth is, we could wait months, even years to be able to "afford" the privilege of providing our children snacks other than teddy grahams and animal crackers, but by the time we get to that hypothetical point, our children are going to be knee-deep in poor snacking habits. We just can't afford that, really, with the rise in childhood obesity and diabetes in this country. Not to mention, children look to us (parents) as role models in our eating behaviors. Every time I pull out a processed snack I think, "is this really what I want them thinking qualifies as wholesome food?" The answer is no, and we all should strive to set good examples for our children-the future of this nation.

I decided to chop up our fruits and vegetables as soon as I got home from the grocery store. The worst thing (and this has happened to us on many occasions) is to let healthy food spoil. When you get it out there and ready to go, it becomes just as easy to reach for instead of those pre-packaged foods. Yeah you heard me cheez-its, you're no longer top go-to-grab, so there!

Now doesn't that just look delicious?!

Another part of a healthy lifestyle...get out there, get active. So, we did. Just because Kansas likes to throw us those weather curve balls (grrr), doesn't mean we all can't bundle up and get moving.

With all that running around, we had to slow down (at some point). Had to get photographic evidence, my little girl is actually letting me paint her fingernails. First time was a few weeks ago, just out of the blue she asked me to "make my nails pretty" with polish. Of course I dropped everything and gave her a mini-mani right then and there. Well, today when we were getting groceries we happened to drop by the beauty aisle and I let her pick out her own nail polish. And, what do ya know, she let me paint them again, because of course the "pretty nails have disappeared"      

    

 ...we couldn't let that happen.

Caleb has been receiving an official "allowance" since he turned 7, earlier this year. Well, he actually decided to spend it today (phew, was starting to think he had absolutely lost any of my influence), he bought a scooter and a lego set. Here he is assembling his new police helicopter-all by himself!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic Friday!