Monday, December 20, 2010 at 07:22 AM
I had a pretty rough week last week. On Wednesday morning, I woke up and I could not turn over to switch off my alarm clock. I couldn’t turn my head at all. Yup, I was in a neck spasm. Big Time. This happens to me, oh about once every two years. It’s not pretty.
Thankfully, with help from my doctor, my chiropractor, a deep tissue massage, muscle relaxers, stretches, rest, heat, and ice, I now have a little more range of motion. But it was very slow going for a couple of days. And it meant that some of the things that I normally would have control over were no longer in my control.
For example, my husband gallantly jumped in and offered to do a late night run to Kohl’s for a birthday gift, wrapping paper, a blanket for our bed and some Christmas gifts for our son (we realized that our daughter has more and we need to even the playing field). These are things that normally go on my To Do List, not his. So how did he do?
- Birthday Gift: 2 thumbs up (a radio controlled Jeep for an 8 year old) with gift receipt – Perfect
- Wrapping Paper: 1 thumb up, 1 thumb down (kind of ugly, perhaps he likes paper that is reminiscent of a 1975 Christmas?)
- Blanket For Our Bed: 2 thumbs down (we’ve had off-white bedding for 13 years, and he buys a grey blanket? It’s being returned)
- Christmas Gift For Our Son: 2 thumbs up (same radio controlled Jeep as mentioned above) – Score!
Believe me, if I had to do something on my husband’s To Do List because he was injured (like Snow Blow the driveway), it would be a disaster.
Next, my daughter decided to help Injured Mommy by choosing her own clothes so that I wouldn’t have to bend over and crane my neck to look in her drawers. Actually, she probably saw this as a fabulous opportunity to choose her own outfit. “Forget the muted and matching Gymboree clothes that Mommy picks out,” she thought. “Pink, sparkles and glitter can all be mine!”
She also chose to wear her sparkliest shoes to school.
Because I wasn’t moving so fast, I was late in getting snacks together for school. When I went to transfer lunches and snacks to Eileen, as I was leaving for work, we realized that I had not yet packed snacks. Not to worry – my daughter was willing to jump right in! She chose her own snack. And do you know what she chose? A baggie of mixed cereal.
In her mix was:
- Regular Cheerios: NuVal score of 37
- Shredded Wheat: NuVal score of 91
- Honeynut Cheerios: NuVal score of 27
That’s right, she chose to add Shredded Wheat to her mix. Not Frosted Shredded Wheat, but the plain kind. The kind that scores a 91 on the NuVal scale! I was so happy, I almost gave myself whiplash again!! Because, this, to me, is the ultimate goal of parenting: to raise children who make good choices on their own. I don’t want to sneak good nutrition into my kids food. I want them to learn to love it, come to appreciate good, nourishing food, and choose it for themselves.
As for my husband, I did not complain about the grey blanket. Fortunately, he saw the error of his ways once he got it home. “Wow! In the store, this looked kind of like that green color that you like so much.” And as for the wrapping paper, I know that my husband’s childhood Christmases took on more of a traditional, Currier and Ives feel. The paper he chose reminds me of his German Grandmother (Oma) who lived in rural Vermont, whereas my grandmother wore leopard, took ballet and read Vogue like it was the Bible. My grandmother worked in the floral and decorating business, so every gift was wrapped in chic gold or silver papers. Our “Christmas Upbringing” is different. So, maybe I’ll use the paper my husband bought to wrap his gifts this Christmas. After all, it’s what he chose.
Question of the Day
What Choice does your spouse/partner/child make that surprises you?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Christmas
Tags: Cheerios, Choices, Christmas, Honey Nut Cheerios, Shredded Wheat
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 05:00 AM
How do you like my new place? Pretty spiffy, huh? I packed up all my NuVal scores, my kids, my recipes, and all my old blogposts and moved on over here over the weekend. Many thanks to Blain Smith of 13-infinite for designing my new space and to all my friends at NuVal who put up with me helped me as we planned a new name and design.
New here? Let me catch you up. My name is Melissa and I’m a working mom to 2 kids: a boy, age 6 and a girl, age 4. Oh, sorry, that’s 4 1/2, she reminds me. I also happen to work for a great new company called NuVal. NuVal is a nutritional scoring system that rates foods from 1-100 (100 is best) based on their nutritional value. NuVal scores are on the shelf in Price Chopper, Hy-Vee and Meijer stores and they are coming to United Texas Markets in early 2010. I work with these supermarkets to implement NuVal in their stores. NuVal may not be in your neck of the woods yet, but here on my blog, you can learn about some scores. I love my job and I love being a mom too. Oh, and I love food and cooking and all things healthy, so it was only natural for me to start blogging about how NuVal has helped me to make better choices about what I’m putting on my kitchen table.
What’s Nu?
My new blog gives me a great opportunity to introduce some new things!
First, get ready for Trade-Up Tuesdays. That’s right, I want to hear from you about how you’re trading up for better nutrition. There will be fun prizes, so get ready to share some ideas.
Then, there’s Incredible Vegetables. One thing that I’ve learned since working at NuVal is that vegetables are Rock Stars. They are so packed with nutrients, that they almost all score between 91-100. So, every week, look to see my featured Incredible Vegetable along with a favorite recipe.
Don’t miss the BBG Awards. I’ve bestowed this honor on my favorite high-scoring foods. NuVal inspires me to try new things all the time, so there will be more awards to come.
And finally, Field Trips. I love finding new healthy and/or family-oriented places to visit. It might be a restaurant, a farm, a vacation spot, or maybe just one of my foodie friends’ homes so that we can get in the kitchen and cook together. The possibilities are endless.
So let’s get going! Here’s my First Trade-Up Tuesday Blog Entry:
The Ultimate Breakfast Cereal Trade-Up
I did it. I finally made the big Trade Up. The huge one. The Big Kahuna. That’s right. I’m eating Shredded Wheat. It is the almost perfect breakfast cereal with a score of 91. Now, let me tell you that I did not leap from Cheerios (34) to Shredded Wheat (91). No, it was more like I climbed the ladder of more nutritious cereal until I got to the top, stopping at Kashi Go Lean with Protein (47) and Special K with Protein (60) along the way. In the morning, I need something filling that I can eat quickly as I juggle getting the kids off to school and myself to work, hopefully with dry hair and at least a little make-up on. Shredded Wheat is doing the trick and I’ve given it a BBG Award. And this afternoon, my 4 (and a Half!) year old asked for some!?! We’ll see if she wants it instead of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the morning.
So, here’s where you come in. This Housewarming Party of mine is Pot Luck. I want you to bring me your Trading Up Stories. Now that you’ve learned about NuVal, how have you traded up for better nutrition? There’s a Door Prize involved. One lucky A Better Bag of Groceries reader is going to WIN my fabulous NuVal Breakfast Trade Up Bag.
Included in the prize is a NuVal shopping bag, a NuVal water bottle, a box of Shredded Wheat, a container of Quaker Steel Cut Oats and some roasted unsalted almonds. To enter the drawing, tell me one trade up you’ve made for a better NuVal score (or one that you plan to make) in the comments below. The contest will close Tuesday, November 17th at 11:59 P.M. and the winner will be announced on Wednesday.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like my new home as much as I do!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tags: Shredded Wheat, Trade-Up Tuesdays, Uncategorized
