{It's Time for a Change} & {My Weekend via Instagram}

I've been dancing around.  Toying with the idea.  Now it's time to commit.  I'm talking about my family's eating style.  I am very concerned about my health and weight.  I am afraid for my son.  I have decided to step away from processed foods.  I have been researching.  These are a couple of good sites to start with if you are interested:  100 Days of Real Food and The Blog of Bruce Bradley (A Food Industry Insider Talks About Food, Life and More).  The articles regarding food dyes and the truth behind Truvia are shocking to me.  I mean, I knew some of this stuff and just let it slide because I enjoy the convenience of processed foods.  But my son has been exhibiting behaviors lately that has me very concerned.  My husband has two family members with Autism and my husband exhibits symptoms of ADD, although he has never been diagnosed.  I am in the early stages of seeking help for my son and it seems that a healthy diet has got to be the beginning.  I have heard of "trigger" foods or ingredients that can cause behaviors in children with certain disorders.

This is going to be really hard.  I am not going to go through my cupboards and thrown out all the processed food.  I can't afford that.  I am going to let it get used and not buy anymore.  Will I slip up during this journey?  Yes.  Will I make mistakes?  Most assuredly.  Will I try my best?  Yes.  I'm a lot afraid of failure, but I really think eating whole foods and foods that are not highly processed will benefit my son and myself.

I'm at the early stages of this decision.  I do not have all the answers and continue to research.  If you know of more sites that would be helpful, please let me know in the comments.  I would appreciate it SO much.

Ok, enough with the serious.  Now on to my weekend via Instagram.

Silly faces contest.

Home-made alphabet soup.

Proper way to wear a tie.

Panini PB&J.

Marathon (I love Amazon Prime)

More snow? Really?

What's been on my menu this weekend.

You can follow me HERE.

I hope you have had a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by,

Natosha

p.s. Sorry for the crappy pics.  Anyone know how to post Instagram photos to Blogger with better quality.

{My Weekend in Instagrams}

I got a smartphone (Samsung GalaxyS III) about 2 months ago and I am having so much fun with Instagram. I thought I would share my weekend in Instagram photos:

For the shiitake soba noodles!

Jax and his great uncle Sidney plowing a garden.

Jax and Ada Grace (cousin) at my high school reunion.

Sign near my house.  Part of #fmsphotoaday for March.

Jax enjoying his "growing" stingray.

Yummy crawfish!  He was so fresh I swear he moved!!

So, do you love Instagram?  I need to find more people to follow.  If you want me to follow, comment with your username or add a link in the comments.  If you would like to follow me, my username is southerngrrrlnz.

Thanks for stopping by,

Natosha

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{Things I Love}

A Few of the {Things I Love}

I love that Jaxon calls sunflower seed "flower seeds."

I love when Blaine (my 13 yr old nephew) comes to my house just to hang out and talk about his favorite apps (and that he wants me to download them so we can enjoy them together).

I love getting up before anyone else, making coffee and getting the first cup.

I love that I have one more day of this crazy, wonderful, scary, blessed thing called life.

March Photo A Day

Ok, I finally own a smartphone and have an Instagram account.  Follow me HERE.  (Um, if anyone can tell me how to change my pic so it's not sideways, it would be much appreciated.)  So, I am planning on participating in Fat Mum Slim's March photo challenge:

Now for something I do not love.  I actually hate this.

Two days ago someone abandoned four darling puppies near our property.  We live out in a rural area, so from time to time when someone wants to get rid of an animal, they just drop it/them off out near where we live.  I guess it eases their guilt that there are several homes nearby and that maybe someone will adopt the animal(s).

They tried to lick my husband to death.

My son wanted to keep them all.

This one wagged it's tail the whole time my nephew was holding it.

You could see their ribs.

We just adopted a dog from the local animal shelter and a cat that showed up one day now resides with us.  

Meet Maddie and Dude.

We fed them and they wandered over to my mom and dad's house, where they were fed again.  If I can't find homes for them, I know what will happen.  Someone will "take care of them."  I called the animal shelter and you have to pay $25 per animal to "surrender" them.  Aaack!  $100!  Maybe I will adopt them all.  I don't know.  I'm just so stink'n mad at whoever did it.  I mean, get your animal spayed or neutered.

So, anyone want to adopt a puppy?

Thanks for stopping by,

Natosha

I am linking up here:

{Wordless Wednesday}

{The Vocabulary of a Three Year Old}

My son, Jaxon (pronounced Jackson), turned three on Thanksgiving.  He started talking late, but once he did - whew, that kid talks non-stop.  Lately he's been using words that we don't use at our house.  They aren't necessarily "bad" words.  We are just surprised to hear them.

Jaxon's new words:

Hate - He said "I hate (insert friend's name)."  This one got me a little upset.  I asked him where he learned that word.  He just kept saying it.  I told him that is a strong word.  Strong in a bad way and he shouldn't use it.  His response:  ignoring me.  I dropped it and just hope it doesn't come up again in the near future.

Girlfriend - He said something about someone having a girlfriend.  He's in preschool.  Do they talk about girlfriends?  Maybe one of his teachers is someone's girlfriend.  I don't know.

Little Lady - I was sitting in our bedroom floor waiting to play with him.  Jaxon walks up to me and hands me a toy, saying "Here you go little lady."  I just about fell over laughing.

Butt - He is obsessed with this word.  We try to say bottom or behind.  I know we slip every once in a while.  This past Sunday, we went to Quizno's to eat before doing our grocery shopping.  He stood up in his chair and started singing and dancing.  What was he singing?  "Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle your butt.  Butt. Butt.  Wiggle, wiggle."  All the while, he was wiggling his butt.  I have to admit I really did want to laugh, because he's pretty darn cute wiggling, but I'm not sure he should have been singing about his butt that loud in public.

What are your kids saying that makes you laugh or cringe?  I would love to hear your stories in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by,

Natosha

{Arkansas Blizzard}

We don't usually hear the words "Blizzard Advisory" when we listen to the weather in Arkansas.  However, we did, indeed, get a blizzard the day after Christmas.  It started snowing Christmas night and continued all through the night.  We woke up to a gorgeous blanket of snow.  It snowed once last year and my son played it it, but it doesn't remember.  He had a blast!




I know I'm late posting these pictures, but I wanted to share.













Mom volunteered to show Jaxon how to make snow angels.  He thought that was pretty fun.





The snow was deep enough in some spots to almost cover Jaxon's boots.



Our electricity went off early that morning, around 2am.  Everyone near us were without electricity.  We didn't want to get out on the road and were tired of eating cold sandwiches, so . . . . .



My husband started a campfire and we warmed up some vegetable-beef soup I had made the day before.  It had rained, then sleeted (is that a word?) before it snowed, so there was no kindling and our firewood was wet.  He dragged a semi-dry pallet out and used it for kindling.  That got some of our wood burning.  We were so happy to eat hot soup.  Plus, it was so dang cold.  We enjoyed sitting around the fire just to keep warm.

So, have you posted pictures of a recent blizzard/snowfall.  I would love to see them.  Post a link in the comments!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!
Natosha

Linking up here:

The Terrifying Threes

So if you have a 3 year old, you may have a clue as to what the title of this post is referring to.  My son turned 3 on November 24th.


He was such a good baby.  He slept through the night very early (although he was up most of the day and didn't go to sleep until 10 or 11p).

Then he hit the terrible twos at about 20 months.  We got through that.

But now he is three and can be quite a handful.

You can totally tell what words I use with him most frequently.  He tells me to "Hush"  all the time.  He says  screams "No" at me and generally ignores requests and rules.  (BTW, I never scream at him.  I think he believes if he screams it loud enough then he will convince me.)  Oh, and he has completely embraced the use of body function words.  If he says "poop"  once during the day, he says it one hundred.  Along with:  pee pee, fart, toot, and butt.  Boys, ya gotta love 'em.  I'm dreading the day he asks about his boy parts.

He drew this picture a couple of months ago and I feel it fits the way I have been feeling lately.

So, any advice?  Do you have a toddler who is going to assert his/her will no matter what?  Spill your secrets for handling them in the comments.  I would be ever so grateful.

Thanks for stopping by,

Natosha

Quality Time With My 2 1/2 Year Old

I have really been trying hard to spend quality time with my 2 1/2 year old son, Jax.  When I say "Quality", I mean actively doing something with him.  I scoured the internet for ideas and found some really neat things I want to try.

Over at Play At Home Mom LLC, she has a great post here for making Busy Boxes.
(All of these images belong to the site.)  Here are a few of the boxes:

Glue Box

Play-Doh Box

Cutting Box

Sticker Box

Another site for fun toddler activities is Toddler Toddler.  Here are some samples of what you can find there:

This game is SO simple, but my son loves it.

Send a hug in the mail.

I printed out some cute coloring pages over at NickJr.com just for toddlers.

Click on the above to go to the toddler page.

How about a scavenger hunt?

Alphabet scavenger hunt over at
I Am Momma-Hear Me Roar

I found a huge list of activities and projects on the blog Play Create Explore.  Here are a few (all images belong to Play Create Explore):

Colored Shaving Cream

Fly Swatter Painting!

Pretend cooking with real ingredients.

Googly eyes and magazines.

So, what are some of your favorite activities to do with your toddler?  Where do you get your ideas?  I would love for you to tell me in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by,

Natosha