I was an expert parent , and then I had a baby

18 years ago this morning , as I lay in a labor room instructing my OB and his side kick surgeon on exactly how I wished for my C Section incision to be done, I thought I knew what it was going to be like being a mom. I was never going to say most of the things my parents said- gems like "when you are living in your own home you can do ..... but not while you are under my roof" and "because I said so" and a million other things. I was going to be a hip, cool mom who put her son in preschool and then spent the next 14 or so years as a room mother, teachers assistant and so forth.I was going to nurse my son for the first year of life exclusively, then feed him only home made baby food and I would never, ever, EVER have an overweight child.

Then my son was born and the moment he entered the world, everything changed. The world had grown by 2 feet, 11 lbs 14 oz and 23 1/2 inches. My heart grew bigger than I could ever imagined and now seemed to be living outside of my body in a complex little package that was going to challenge everything I knew about virtually everything. In many ways I had given birth to my greatest teacher of all, who had a bag of lessons I had only head whispered about , and inaccurately so. It was indeed a red letter day.

And like any red letter day, it requires celebration. House rules are that when it is your birthday you can pick the meal and activity of your choice, so later today we will be eating some celebratory food and handing out gifts. One odd gift I will be giving is his collection of baby teeth. I saved every one of them with the intention of giving them to him on his 18th birthday. I never imagined how fast that day would come. I don't think anyone realizes when that day is out our windshelid. You blink , and then it is suddenly in your rear view mirror.

Meanwhile, yesterday was spent shopping , chopping, prepping and ...didn't I just finish these kind of tasks ????

Breakfast was fruity oatmeal- rolled oats cooked with pear, apple and blueberries.A morning of assorted household tasks and then off to the stores to shop. By lunchtime we were at our produce store and broke for lunch. I spotted an offering that made me feel nostalgic , and I decided that I would take a stroll down food memory lane with

a pepper and egg sandwich ! I grew up in Chicago and it's inner suburbs , and there were a billion corner hot dog stands. Every year during Lent on Fridays ( and some throughout the year) , all stands would offer pepper and egg sandwiches. It's simply scrambled eggs and sweet peppers served on a roll, but it is really good. Eggs are not the villains that they were wrongly painted to be a few years back. Eggs are a good source of protein, inexpensive and a lot less fat than a sausage sandwich, beef sandwich, burger or so on. There is little chance of running into chemical additives and so forth with an egg. It pretty much comes out of the chicken, is inspected to insure it is infertile and then sent to your market. It struck me as interesting that this was possibly the most unhealthy thing I have eaten in the last 6 weeks. The white bread roll and incredibly sparse vegetables made it unhealthy, but a lot better than some of the possible choices.

After an afternoon of chopping ( how many calories are burned from 4 hours of solid chopping ???) we had our current favorite Saturday Night meal. Roast veggie pizza on a high fiber tortilla ( roast broccoli, red pepper, mushrooms and onions at 350 for 30 minutes and then place on a high fiber tortilla with tomato sauce and a quarter cup mozzarella cheese and bake at 400 for 7 minutes or till the cheese melts). On the side was a salad of romaine and watercress with fresh pineapple cubes, sliced strawberries, blackberries and blueberries. Fruit salad on greens is DEE-liscious !

And thus begins Holy Week. While I am not christian, Bob is and a church music minister. Holy Week is high drama, complex music, extra rehearsals and a lot of frazzled nerves. He is taking some vacation time to cope with the onslaught and I have tried to plan nutrient rich foods to help fuel him through this. We also have plans for some get you to sweat activity to help in the process. May it be a good one for all !