What I am currently Reading - Simplicity Parenting

As you may have gathered from reading my first post, I practise alternative parenting, that is alternative to mainstream parenting techniques advocated by the likes of Gina Ford and Jo Frost.  From the moment Boris (not his real name!) was born I felt compelled to be gentle towards him, respond immediately to his needs and generally act in a loving way, I scoured the Internet for parenting techniques that matched with the way I felt and came across Attachment Parenting.  I bought a few books and knew straight away that this was how I wanted to parent, reading the books gave me the confidence to follow my instincts rather than following the well meaning, though often misdirected advice of some family and friends.

I have continued to follow the parenting principles that I learnt at the beginning, adapting them to my feelings and my son's responses.

More recently I have been feeling overwhelmed with elements of chaos that have crept into our lives.  A messy, disorganised house, a weekly routine that goes from manic busyness one day to chronic boredom the next and chaotic mealtimes.  I felt like I needed some respite and a fresh insight into parenting (I need this every now and again to refresh my thinking and to remind me what I want from life and where I want our family to go).  For sometime I had had "Simplicity Parenting" by Kim John Payne on my Amazon wish list, I think I saw it somewhere or someone recommended it to me but I had never taken the plunge and actually bought it, until recently. So I took the plunge and downloaded it onto my Kindle.

I love it.  It is making me feel ok about wanting order and structure to our lives where before I felt like I was being a stuck-in-the-mud and oh so unspontaneous.  It is saying that it is ok to want less toys in the house, it is ok to get rid of books your child has that you don't like (even if they were a gift) it is ok to want the same meals week after week for the sake of routine and order.  It teaches how things like routine, order and structure help a child feel grounded, and I feel might just help my sanity a little!

Some of my favourite quotes from the book so far are:

"I've found that the simplest path to real and lasting change is through the imagination.  "Nothing happens unless first a dream..."  When you create a mental image of your hopes, you can chart a course.  You create a picture that you can step into.  Like a lasso thrown around a star your imagination navigates the surest path to your goal"

"Nature is a warm sensory bath that can counterbalance the cold overwhelm of too much activity, information, or "stuff".

"When your child seems to deserve affection least, that's when they need it most"

"As children reach school age, they can begin some simple crafts.  Whittling and knitting for example develop graphomotor skills just as children are beginning to write.  Beadwork and sewing, woodwork and candlemaking, papier-mache and ceramics.  Especially when schools are dedicating less time to art, parents can make sure that art, play and crafts are richly valued at home"

"By limiting choices in the early years you give children the time and freedom to develop their inner voice."

"Too many smells.  All of these competing, chemical perfumes get the amygdala firing, and cortisol and adrenaline pumping."

I could go on, I highlighted so many sentences and paragraphs throughout the book so far.  It is well worth a read to give you a contrast to the popular way of parenting by pushing children to do more and more, and working harder and harder to get more money to buy children more and mores stuff that they don't need.  The book is a relaxing, easy read, you can relate to the author who speaks on a level that an ordinary person can understand.

Have you read this book?  What did you think?  What parenting books are you reading?  What do you recommend?  I wan to know what to read next!!

Habas Fritas

As you know I am lucky enough to have rental of a 30 foot by 15 foot allotment 4 miles from my home, I go there as much as I can, though that is getting less and less with my expanding belly.  Recently we harvested our broad beans.  I love broad beans, I know some people hate them, but I am of the opinion that it is how you cook them that counts.  So whether they are young and tender or mature, fat and soft, broad beans make a great ingredient to many recipes and they also make a fantastic snack.

We first discovered Habas Fritas at a farm shop near us, they are baked and seasoned Broad beans from Spain, we loved their salty crunchiness, they are high in calories which is excellent for me being pregnant and breastfeeding, and a great dairy free snack for Boris (not his real name!).  I was convinced that I could make some myself with our over-abundant broad bean crop, so googled to find a recipe.  I found a couple of recipes saying how to make Habas Fritas from deep fried dried broad beans, but none for fresh broad beans, and none with a healthier alternative to deep frying, so I set about coming up with my own recipe.

I began by taking the beans out of their fluffy pods and boiling them for about 10 minutes till their skins started to wrinkle.  I left them to cool then peeled their skins off, (the skins can be tough on more mature broad beans and for this recipe you need them to split so you need the skins off).  Next I put the beans on a baking tray with a few tablespoons of organic unfiltered olive oil and baked them in a hot over for about 20 minutes till they were dried and crispy, yum!  After they had cooled I put a teaspoon of salt over them (you could take some out for you toddler before adding salt if you are worried about it), and we enjoyed them with our lunch as a delicious crunchy side and stored the rest in an air tight container.

On this occasion they were slightly (imperfectly) overcooked!!  But I can assure you that, in spite of their somewhat questionable colour, they were still delicious. 

Check out more of my delicious recipes by clicking on the Recipes tab at the top, or HERE

UPDATE:  I have made these again since and steamed the beans which works fine.

Hope you have a go at these, they really are a tasty treat, let me know how you get on, or what other home-made snacks you enjoy?

Wake up smoothie for mums (and busy people)

This post was first published on Serendipity Child on 13th March 2013

 I don't know about you but recently I have been finding it difficult to look after my one year old, and look after myself, the healthy eating has fallen by the wayside and I most definitely have not been getting my 5 a day.  I am not being funny but it takes ages to eat an apple.  So I thought an easy way to boost my fruit and veg intake would be to drink it rather than eat it (no chewing win!) So here is my smoothie recipe:

One peeled orange,
one peeled and chopped apple,
one peeled kiwi,
a handful of spinach,
a sprinkling of mixed seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, linseed etc)
twist of lemon,
tsp of honey,
1/2 cup of water,
BLEND!

Try to get organic if you can because it tastes better (in my opinion) and local is better for the environment and local economy, I try to avoid supermarkets.
I forgot to photograph it after but I can tell you it is a wonderful green colour and is really tasty.  This makes about a pint so you might want to share it with someone.  It's a great way to start the day knowing you are a good way through your five-a-day, plus the extra benefit of the seeds, you could also add a spring of mint or some ginger, I think that would make it even more tasty.   Don't add fresh oregano though, I did once and it made it tasted like grass.  Not good.
Hope you are all having a good week, how do you busy people manage to get in all those fruits and veggies with limited time for chewing?