No Turning Back

Three and a half weeks ago we cleaned out our refrigerator  and our cabinets and embarked on a journey that we had never taken as a family.  We were about to change everything about how we ate. From the ground up. With 7 children I can honestly tell you that I was ready for battle that first week. I was sure that my older children (14, 13, and 11) would fight me every step of the way and that my younger ones (9, 6, and 3) would whine and cry for their favorite foods. So I woke up that first morning and had a little talk with myself, "You are the Mom. You are in charge and you can handle whatever they throw at yourself."  Breakfast went very well. Who doesn't like eggs, bacon and fresh fruit? I made the kids Lara bar knock offs, hamburger patties, and gave them fruit and baby carrots for their lunches and sent them off.  About 9:00 my 3 yr old, Stephanie, opened her snack cupboard and looked at me with horror in her baby blues, "Who took my snacks?!" she screamed. So, I calmly handed her some carrots and went about my chores.  When the kids got home from school I could see them wandering around the kitchen like lost puppies. Now my oldest has never met a carb she didn't like but she has met plenty of fruits and veggies that she detests so I knew she would have a hard time.  But here's what I hadn't counted on.  All of my older kids (they're all girls) knew how important this was to me.  My second (Abigail) and third (Rebekah) children are two of the ones with health problems.  Abigail has type 1 diabetes and Rebekah has severe allergies accompanied by asthma. My oldest (Esther) is like a "mini me". She loves to help me out and she is very sensitive to my feelings and moods. So, even though I know it was hard for them, they didn't let on.  They looked in the cupboards and fridge and threw together snacks for themselves and their younger brother and sisters. And that is how it has gone for the past 31/2 weeks.  Oddly enough it is my 3 yr old who had the most difficulty. At about day three she threw herself against my legs and wailed, "I just need a piece of bread!" I walked over to the fridge and grabbed her a Paleo Pumpkin muffin. I also discovered that she loves almond butter on a spoon with honey drizzled over it. This is where my compulsive disorder comes in handy. I'm a planner. I have notes on my notes. I do the same thing at the same time almost everyday. If my schedule gets messed up I go catatonic.  My adherence to the schedule is what allows me to function. I even schedule time for "unplanned events". Yup, I schedule spontaneity. My husband, who is the definition of spontaneous, makes fun of this but, hey, it works for me. Anyway, I knew the way to win the battle in the early days of Paleo was to be prepared, so the weekend before the "big Monday" I baked all kinds of goodies for the kids. I made muffins and pancakes and Lara bars (my good friend Sheilla figured out how to make them and it has saved me lots of money), I made the chocolate chocolate chip ones and didn't tell the kids what was in them. They love them! I had fruits of every shape and size and lots of turkey and ham cut up. I made trail mixes. I was prepared and you know what it helped, a lot. The other thing that helped was some advice I got from Sarah Fragoso. If you don't have it, they can't eat it.  Basically, children are resilient and they won't starve. If they get hungry they will eat. So for the first 2 weeks I had this conversation with Stephanie (my three yr old) everyday. "I'm hungry!", "Have some baby carrots.", "I don't want baby carrots, I want goldfish.", "Well, then you're not hungry.", "But I am!", "Then have some carrots." Now, sometimes she would walk away pouting, but, oh, well no skin off my back. I can handle pouting. But amazingly some days she would go get  the carrots. And now, she doesn't even ask for goldfish, she asks for carrots.