I'm right 'cause you're wrong

In one blogger's quest to get more than 3 hours sleep at night, she turned to the internet for ideas on sleep solutions and came across this article. In it, the author details the 10 reasons that you should not utilize the cry it out method. This portion of her argument has me particularly disturbed:

I worry that if I leave my children to cry it out, then they will not see the point in reaching out to us if they have problems later in life and could try to deal with serious issues like bullying, drug addictions, teenage pregnancy, gambling problems, or flunking out of school on their own or turn to peers. Unfortunately, those problems are often too big for a teenager to be left to deal with alone or with peers and it can have disastrous results ranging from making poor decisions all the way to committing suicide out of a feeling of hopelessness.

Whaaaaaat? Seriously, what? Wow.

The author has every right as a mother to choose the technique that works best for her children. But this tactic of proving she is right by detailing how others are wrong has me seriously peeved. What is it about making someone feel terrible about their choices that make you feel better about yours? If you would rather get up with your kids every night as many times as they get up, good for you! Make a list of all the reasons that this is fabulous parenting and how studies show your kids will be little geniuses. But don't make a list of how I'm ruining my child because I choose to take a different path. This self righteous and completely arrogant way of thinking serves no purpose. Why can't moms just put their arms over another mom's shoulder and assure her that she's making the best choices for her kids. Parents are forever second guessing their decisions - should I keep breastfeeding, should I put them in daycare, should I vaccinate, should I only feed organic, should I put them in special classes, should I force them to stop using their pacifier - why not make lists about the benefits of the reasons you made your choice, not a list of reasons that woman who don't agree with you totally suck. Can't we just agree that what may be working for my kid most likely won't work for yours? Why do you think there are a hundred different books on baby sleep solutions? There is no one size fits all with kids. If you encounter a solution for any part of your life that's working for you - for your children, for your diet, for organizing your wallet, whatever! - I want to see the list about all the reasons it rocks. But a list about all the reasons I am making the wrong decision if I don't agree with you? No thanks.

Going green

So I read this post by this amazing girl. In it, she gives the recipe and a weird compelling argument for making a smoothie with spinach in it. Waitwaitwait, don't leave. I know, spinach. I'm not really in to it either. But here goes nothing:

Honest Fare Green Smoothie
Original recipe here.

2 big handfuls of fresh, raw spinach
½ pink lady apple, chopped
1 tbsp fresh parsley
1 coin fresh ginger root, minced
1 c vanilla soy milk
4 strawberries, frozen
½ banana, frozen
½ peach, frozen
¼ c plain low-fat yogurt (optional)

Blend all ingredients. Serve chilled.

But see, there's nothing like a seemingly simple recipe to freak me the fuck out. There are 4 items on that list I've never bought, and the idea of putting parsley in the blender was seriously wigging me out. But hey, I love a challenge:

Challenge 1: Find all the items in my grocery store. This wasn't too complex, except for the parsley and the ginger root. The produce dude pointed me in the general direction of a bunch of green leafy items, and when he noticed that I was still staring at everything 5 minutes later, he came up and handed me the parsley. Also, I couldn't find any pink lady apples, so I got the most pinkish apples I could find, I think they were Galas. I also opted for vanilla yogurt, because I've never had a tasty experience with plain yogurt, and I can only be SO experimental in one day.

Can you really trust a vegetable that looks like a weapon? Or wait, is it a fruit?

Challenge #2/3: What the fuck is a coin of ginger? And how do you mince? Okay, so I used my common sense with a coin, although the fact that some of the circles were dime shaped and some were half dollar shaped kinda threw me. And then I realized I was supposed to have taken the skin off before I started cutting. I trudged on.

I almost stopped here. This kinda gives me the creeps to look at even now. I mean, hairy? REALLY? Plus, the smell of it reminds me of the first trimester of my last pregnancy when everyone tried to shove ginger-flavored shit down my throat to ease my nausea. I trudged forward.

I'm not sure if this is a good mince or not, but my knives suck, so this was the best I was gonna do.

I took all the stems off the parsley before I chopped it. Nope, I don't eat the stalks of broccoli, either.

Then, at the genius suggestion of Laurie, I portioned the servings of ginger and parsley in an ice cube tray.

Added a little water, then stuck it in the freezer. After it froze, I popped out one cube for each serving of smoothie.

Cut up and froze all the bananas and peaches.

I chopped up the apples tiny too, because my blender suckkkkkkks and I wanted to make it as painless as possible.

I really went for it with the handfuls of spinach - go green or go home, right?

I threw everything in, making sure to add the soy milk and yogurt in first so it was closest to the blades for my finicky blender.

I doubled the recipe, and it made a HUGE amount - not pictured: another HUGE cup of this stuff

The verdict: A serious and surprising success. In the words of Laurie, "This recipe isn't 'good for a green smoothie'. It isn't 'ok except for the spinach'. It is delightful, addictive, ohmygod delicious. It tastes like heaven." I couldn't have said it better myself. It's gritty, yet perfectly smooth. Sweet, but perfectly flavored. Earthy, but insanely delicious. My husband LICKED THE GLASS. My 3 year old begged for more.

Make it. Now.

p.s....for those who are conscious of price, all the ingredients cost me about $15, and I was able to make around 7 (BIG) servings before I ran out of some of the ingredients. I still have more than half the parsley/ginger cubes and half a carton of the soy milk. At around $2 a serving, that's pretty awesome.

p.p.s....seriously, make it now.

Reason #476

We had friends over for dinner tonight and they brought pie for dessert. Can you guess which plate is my husband's? Hint: He doesn't believe in crumbs.

Yet another reason that I love him.