I put forth great effort to feed my family well. I feed and milk a dairy goat daily to be able to provide us fresh milk, cheese, and yogurt. I scramble up antobiotic-free backyard eggs for breakfast and serve them with fresh-squeezed juices. I try to avoid super-processed foods and grow what I can in the backyard.
That said . . . when there's a funnel cake within sniffing distance, all bets are off!
Apparently, it runs in our family. Here, Girl 1 is wolfing down the remaining powdered sugar.
Anyway, this funnel cake weakness actually got me thinking about something. We moms a lot of time suffer from something I call "Mom Guilt." We all want to be the best moms we can be, but we all have different gifts. I may do lots of things really well, but when I see other moms doing something "better," I suffer a twinge of guilt as I think, "why can't I be more like that?" Admit it, you know what I'm talking about. For you it may be that mom friend who possesses more patience than you think is humanly possible or the one who always squats down and speaks to her children on their level in a calm, even tone, or the one who's taught her 2-year-old to recognize all her letters and numbers, or the one who . . . I could go on and on.
I don't want to cause anyone any mom guilt. So, let it be known that while I post a lot about my successes when it comes to feeding my family better and eating locally produced food, there are maybe just as many failures that I'm not broadcasting for all to see.
In fact, learning to be more mindful about our food and where its coming from is a journey. I doubt anyone has ever just woken up one day and thrown out all their Doritos and frozen chicken nuggets before heading to the sale barn to purchase their own goats and chickens, completely trading in one lifestyle for another. It's a process. I may be further along the journey than some, but I still have days when I backslide . . . I just don't normally blog about them.
Just so that you don't think we're all wearing organic cotton clothing all the time and eating only foods generated in our own backyard for every meal, let me just recount today for you.
Our small town is celebrating its Watermelon Festival today, so we headed out to Main Street for the parade, at which my children caught approximately 5 pounds of candy that is now sitting on my kitchen counter. It will, of course, magically disappear overnight, but today, they all indulged.
Following the parade, we discovered that we'd parked in such a bad spot that there was no way in the world we were going to be moving our car anytime soon, and my kids bellies were telling them it was time to eat. Sonic was within walking distance. Yep, we did. We ate Sonic for lunch. Wait . . . it gets worse. Girl 2 took a big 'ole bite of her hot dog (made of who knows what), let out a big sigh, and proclaimed "Sonic makes the best food!" Ahhh!
Following Sonic, we headed to the park, where the festivities were taking place and the kiddos had icecream (not the homemade goats milk frozen yogurt from our freezer at home, but the lard-based soft-serve swirl).
I brought the two youngest kids home (they apparently came down off their sugar highs in the car and both fell asleep in the 2 miles we traveled to get home) where they had naps and dinner before we headed back to the park where the aforementioned funnel cake inhalation went down.
Yep, file this day under parental failure on the food front. So, go ahead and cross me off that list of moms who cause you Mom Guilt. It's not a list I'd want to be on anyway!
Whew! It feels good to get that off my chest. Now, tune back in later this week when I'll be posting, hopefully, about a food success rather than a failure!
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