It's the Little Things

So, today I picked up Evan and Trevor for my weekend.  And to my wonderful surprise, Reed said he was going to come up too because he didn't have to work until Sunday and wanted me to cook some good food for him :)    I was so happy.  Once I got home with the boys, I made dinner for all of us and Reed arrived about 10 minutes after I got home.  I tried eating dinner too, but my tooth is still hurting too bad to eat solid foods, so Reed said he wanted to help make me a smoothie to drink.  We had so much fun.  I showed him how to use my new juicer and we made fresh orange juice, spinach juice and green apple juice for the smoothie.  Then Reed combined the juices with strawberries, banana, Rice Protein and Ground Flax seed.  All that got blended in the blender, and it was delicious.  It was so much fun talking nutrition with Reed and Trevor and seeing how interested they were.  And they both loved the smoothie that I shared with them and could really tell the difference in using fresh, organic produce and fruits to make amazingly nutritious and delicious meals. 
Ever since my babies were born, I have tried to feed them the best, most healthy food I could.  I breast fed each of them for about the first 24 months of their lives, and made homemade baby food for them or fed the Earth's Best Organic baby food if I was somewhere that I was not able to make their food.  As they grew, I tried my best to make healthy meals for them but I was usually met with the question of why they couldn't just have chicken nuggets like their friends or fish sticks.  But I didn't give up, I continued to try and introduce them to different things.  I am pretty sure my kids were the first kids in Loudoun County schools to bring Hummus for a snack at snack time.  Sure, they were asked what the heck they were eating, but they loved it and I loved that they loved it.  In the summer's,  I would plant veggie gardens as organically as I could, berry plants of all types and the boys would be right beside me helping out.  The first year I planted a green bean tee pee, I don't think a single green bean made it in the house because they loved sitting in that tee pee of beans and picking them off the vines and eating them raw right there.  What a great feeling. 
Of course, as time went on, I lost out some to Taco Bell, happy meals, pizza hut and other fast food dynasties.  And I won't lie, being a soccer mom with 4 kids playing and trying to find a way to get food in them quickly on the road, I succumbed to the dynasties and pulled right up to those drive thrus.  I wasn't happy about it, but also could not get myself organized at all times to pack healthy snacks and make fresh sandwiches to take with us.  Luckily, my kids have always been extremely active and that quick food did not stay in their bodies for long, but still longer than it should have been.  Shame on me.
Now that my boys are all turning into young men, it warms my heart that they once again want me to make meals for them from scratch, can't wait for my husband and I to put our garden in, enjoy picking fresh figs off our fig tree and eating them and love that there are so many wild edible berries and fruits growing on our property.  It would seem that the value of fresh, local food that I started to instill in them at birth, has stayed with them all these years, and now is almost as important to them as it is to me.  Sure they are going to stray and go for the easy, greasy foods that all teenage boys crave at times.  But maybe, with enough delicious fresh smoothies and juices and home grown veggies, fruits and meats, they will choose the easy, greasy route less often. 

I know the Italians have always been known for their love of cooking for their families and loved ones because it was their way of showing love.  I don't have any proof at all that I am Italian, but I most certainly have that trait.  It is truly the little things in life that make me my happiest, and providing healthy, nourishing meals and foods for my family is certainly one of those little things.  Now if I could just get them all to do yoga with me, hahahaha.