Real Food with Kids

hey strangers!

just thought i'd share our family's latest adventure!

We've had a snow ball of health concerns come up in the last year and it's caused me to put an even higher priority on the level of nutrition i provide for my family. Emery has developed problems with gluten, dairy, and all grains. She's handled it well for the most part, but i can see an even greater need for me, as her mom, to teach her the importance of healthy eating!

A few months ago, i started an Instagram account called RealFoodwithKids. I've been documenting my time with my little ones in the kitchen - posting recipes, activities, and discussions we've had. It's been so much fun to watch her grow in knowledge and skill!

I just wanted to share some of my favorite images and invite you to check out our IG feed if you're interested in including your little ones in a real food kitchen. I'm in the beginning stages of creating a blog to expand on the topics i've touched on, but for now, feel free to check out IG and/or our Facebook page!

We work together:

I teach her a skill and then she works alone:

Cooper is involved:

Daddy is involved:

We talk about purees and Baby Led Weaning:

We ferment, soak, sprout, render, pickle, clabber, and culture:

But most of all, we have FUN:

feel free to join our journey! 

IG name: RealFoodwithKids 
Facebook: Real Food with Kids

love and intentional parenting,
amber

color & shape theme for toddlers: beads and pipe cleaners.

sometimes i make blogging complicated.

i follow tons of bloggers that i love and admire, who do fairly elaborate posts 5 days a week and i wonder when they ever get sleep. or when they play with their kids. they must be way more efficient that i am!

i always want to post, but have been telling myself i can't right now because i have 2 kids that take up 90% of my day. They will ALWAYS be a priority over blogging, but i do love blogging. the 5 days a week of elaborate posting is not what's best for me and my family. it's not what works for me, but for some reason i've had it in my head that it's what i wanted to strive for.

silly me.

epiphany of the week: do what i have time for. this doesn't need to be an all or nothing thing. if i don't have time for an 80 page tutorial, blog anyway. 

+  +  +  +  +

so here's a little something emery loves to do every few days:

color bead sorting. she sorts them onto pipe cleaners, she sorts them in muffin tins, she sorts them in piles on the floor. the girl has found a way to combine her OCD personality with her love colors.

// i kid you not, she really is OCD. when she cleans her toys and puts her 2 baskets away on the shelf, the baskets have to be lined up evenly. the shelf we use has no back to it, so last night she went back and forth between the two baskets, pushing them a little to get them even with the other one, until the baskets finally hit the wall and were perfectly lined up. she would push one, start to run off, and then realize they still weren't even and come back to push the other one a little. it took her 5 tries. i love her. //

{she normally sorts them by color...
i think this was the very first time
she did beads with a mini muffin tin,
so she didn't care what color went where}

so that's that. super simple, super easy, super fun for the toddler in your life.

love and OCD two year olds, 

amber.

terra cotta: 3 ways.

my pots needed help. in a bad, bad way. i had painted them for an event several years ago with leftover paint from our old town home walls and the rain had started peeling it away.

*hangs head in shame* 
yes, this was sitting on my deck.

thankfully, after a massive pinterest hunt for DiY flower pot ideas, i transformed my sad herb garden into something a lot more perky!

#1 - hemp and hot glue

idea from http://pinterest.com/pin/280912095480196871/ {exact link is broken}. this is pretty self explanatory. the original idea kept the terra cotta unfinished on the top, but clearly i didn't have that option. plus, i like the pop of color! 

#2 - toddler art

i used to be obsessed with everything in my house matching perfectly. if something was going to be on display, it had to coordinate with my decor. mommyhood gave me a radical change of heart - emery's creations are like gold to me - there's no way it has to match my house for me to want to set it out to be seen everyday! she made a flower pot for each of her grandma's for mother's day and i was so sad to see them leave our house that i quickly ran to the store and got a pot for her to paint for me!

can anyone tell me why my dill
 is dying at the bottom but
continuing to grow at the top?
i'm a newbie and confused..

#3 - free-hand stripes
this one is original...i  liked the bright colors combined with neutrals of the color blocked pots i was finding on pinterest, but i didn't want it to look too similar to pot #1. i only wish i had fewer stripes, more spaced out, but i'm too busy with 2 kiddos now to even day dream about redoing it!

i'm loving using fresh herbs in my cooking! i just started culturing some pickles with our dill a few days ago and can't wait to make pesto with my 2 basil plants! i'm also going to try my second attempt at mint extract...i tried it once with store bought mint, right before all the hospital stuff happened, but it smelled weird. hope it works this time around!

emery loves helping in the garden &
is great at watering the plants everyday!

i have to tell her to stop stealing herbs
 from the garden - she could eat them all day!

love and fresh picked deliciousness,
amber.