how things have changed!

Twelve years ago yesterday, I became a mama for the first time. It was the first time I nursed a baby. The first time I held a little being that had just moments before been inside of me. The first time I felt such incredible love for a person I had just met. The first time I had that feeling of "I am so strong...I am a mama who just gave birth to a wonderful baby!" The day I joined the club of mamas everywhere.

Nine years ago today I became a mama for the 3rd time. D and I were suddenly outnubered by our children. We had 2 kids in diapers again after about a 2 month stint of only having one in diapers. It was the beginning of a kind of chaos I had never known. And I began to love.

Happy day to Aleena who is now a beautiful 12 year old girl. Yesterday a boy hurt her feelings by saying he didn't know why a boy would like her. D failed in trying to explain to her that he was probably freaked out by how much there is to like about her.

And happy day to Clay-Clay. My sweet guy. I think he is finally getting the fact that school work is not a suggestion but really an expectation. And he hasn't cried since like Saturday!!! Actually.

Something else that has changed. This has nothing to do with our family, but with the area of food that is so important to me these days. For Clay's birthday, he wanted banana chocolate chip muffins to take to school. I have a recipe that I use that is from a scholastic cookbook from when I was a kid. It was published in 1977 in fact. When I compare this recipe to ones from today, one of the huge differences is the amount of sugar. Only 2 T of white sugar and 2 T of brown sugar. And it is supposed to make 24 muffins. Notice I say "supposed to" because I make this batch into 12 muffins. And they are just regular sized muffins then. It would 24 small muffins.

So what does that say about the way we have changed how we eat in the past 30 years? We add a lot more sugar...and our portions are much bigger. No big secrets there, but still just surprising when I see it in print like that.