Abby's Alley

According to the American Heart Association kids ages 4-6 should not consume more than 19 grams of added sugar a day. This does not include sugar from milk, fruit, or vegetables. It DOES include syrups, fruit juice, and any sugar added to foods. (Adult women should consume no more than 25 grams, men 37.5 grams.) I've been looking into this recently because I use dessert as a reward for my children doing three chores a day, and because my six-year-old son already has a mouth full of cavities. Genetics aside, we've decided to drastically cut back on sugar, but we still want to have a daily dessert. Here's what that looks like for us. Allowable breakfasts: plain Cheerios, plain Rice Crispies cereal, and plain Chex (either rice, wheat, or corn). These cereal's contain between 2-4 grams of sugar. Plain yogurt with raisins or unsweetened wheat germ, plain Cream of Wheat or plain oatmeal with raisins is also acceptable. Weekends are for pancakes with syrup. Allowable sn

I suppose this is like the opposite of New Year's resolutions, but it is what this busy mom needs right now. I shall fix a cold dinner once a week of things like cheese and crackers, peanut butter and apples, canned fish on toast, and carrot sticks. I shall prepare more hotdogs and mac and cheese and NOT get down on myself for leaving out a veggie. I shall let the dishes go unwashed after dinner once a week, and NOT feel guilty about the sight of them as I go to bed—unless Phil wants to do them, and then I shall not object for the sake of this goal. I shall allow myself two days to do all the laundry each week instead of trying to do it in one. And I shall not feel unorganized over the mess of it. I shall stop picking up the little pieces of paper, legos, teacups, dress-up clothes, balls, boxes, and tape until clean-up time when I shall have the children pick it all up. I will not stress out about keeping the plants alive, and I will blame no one when they die. I shall only

A new year has begun and like always I have made no resolutions. But I have enjoyed getting rid of things. I sort through the children's things in secret or else they object. Today Rose objected to me throwing away one of her socks with a hole in it. Last night Phil and I watched the first episode of a Netflix Show based on the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Maria Kondo. And I was inspired. I'm always inspired to throwing things out, but a show about it served as a little extra oomph. After all, doing much of anything with three children these days has felt challenging. Thank God school started back up. In the three week Christmas Break, Lee dumped a 1.5-liter-bottle of mouthwash down the drain. He stole my chocolate and Phil's chocolate and chocolate-covered granola bars and his own stash of chocolate that we thought we'd put out of reach. I've found food wrappers in the garage, under the bed, in the laundry room, and stuffed into the stroller. I

This December Rose had her first ballet performance at the Whittier Community Center theater. She was one of the Marzipan ballerinas in the Nutcracker, dancing with her 3-4-year-olds class. She relished the glittery sparkles in her costume, having her hair and make-up done, and admiring the older ballerinas in their elegant costumes. The whole family went to see her, including Mama Mina, and Grandma & Grandpa Stevens. I think Grandpa Stevens deserves a gold star for that. Rose is on the far right. This December we delayed the Christmas decorations for few weeks due to illnesses, and while the children waited for us to heal, they decorated our house themselves by taping bits of paper up around the house. Rose even wrapped a few "gifts" for each family member to put under a not-yet-purchased tree. She wrapped Phil's broken watch and one of Lee's toys, and she attempted to wrap my car keys. When it came time to decorate the tree, they stuffed tangl