New Blog Post on Read Breathe

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First of all, I want to give a huge shout out “thank you” to Santa Cruz Organics for sending my kids and I applesauce, peanut butters and fruit spreads to try just in the week before school starts!

Next, I’d like to preface this post with the thought that at our school, all the elementary aged children are expected to make their own lunch. At age 6, they have been asked to make a list, go shopping, as well as do the actual making of the lunch. For me, this can become complicated as the requests come in from my kid that he wants a cheeseburger for lunch, ha ha ha!! Yes, he gets cheeseburgers in this fit family- just not very regularly! Anyway, he’s given me a list, that looks like this…

I hope you can read this!! Pickles, Chocolate Milk, Oranges, Carrots,and Meat (eggs)! We’ve since started working on making lunches daily (we are on day 2) and although it doesn’t completely look like his list, he does get a fruit, a vegetable, a drink and a main dish that he picks out daily.

Here’s where Santa Cruz Organics comes in. Or went out, so to speak! We received two boxes of applesauce last week. And, I would have saved them for their lunches except that my children loved them so much that they each ate 2 a day until they were gone!! As well as the peanut butters!

As a mother of two boys, I buy organic when it’s affordable and I’d definitely repurchase any product of Santa Cruz’s Organics because my children loved them so much!

For more info and photos on kids’ lunches, please read this post on Read Breathe today.

P.S. For purposes of the review, Santa Cruz Organics provided us with samples and we loved them. This is obviously my opinion and nobody is paying me to write this.

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In continuation with my last post, here are some examples of things we’ve seen on kids that we don’t recommend!

This helmet is situated too far back on the child’s head. It is not secure around his ears.

This helmet is on backwards!



This helmet is snug around his ears. The front of the helmet is going to protect the frontal part of his head, and it will not slip around his head.

I may be preaching to the choir with this post, but, I just see too many silly parents running after kids on bikes with no helmets! Let’s be responsible adults and suggest a helmet to the parent. And, I can honestly say that we have done this on more than one occasion…to the extent of donating our old ones so that heads can be safe!

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In my lifetime, I have climbed many mountains- both physically and personally.  I have climbed Mt. Whitney, San Gorgonio, Mt Baldy and many other local mountains with my dad.  These are experiences that are burned into my memory like tiny little photographs in the back of my head.  All of these mountains have elevations that are over 10,000.  Nowadays, I climb mountains in other ways- namely in some of the ridiculously hard cross fit workouts, in being a mother, a wife and a full time employee.  Sometimes, I feel sorry for myself.  Sometimes, it just feels like it’s SO MUCH that I just can’t handle another minute.  And, then there are days when I feel like I could climb any mountain no matter the height.

Recently, several of my very close friends have been given VERY LARGE MOUNTAINS to climb- not physically, but, emotionally.  Some are marital problems and some are incurable diseases of their loved ones.  Tonight, I am incredibly grateful for what I have and I am so sad for them.  My friends all are incredibly smart resilient people whom I know will climb their own mountains….just wishing they didn’t have to.

Let’s all be sincerely grateful for what we have!

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Instead of the boring old “globo gym” hit the park and try this workout with your kids in tow:

Challenge yourself and your kids to race you 50 meters!

Then, let one of the lighter children sit on your back while you perform as many push-ups as you can.

Sprint back to starting point and have one child sit on your feet while you perform as many sit-ups as possible in one minute.

Crab walk with children to a tree/stump/ approximately 10 meters away and then complete as many flutter kicks (lying on back and flutter your feet 1 inch above the ground) till you get to 50!

Bear Crawl 10 meters away and then perform either log rolls or forward rolls with your kids!

They’ll love it!!

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Going through the drive through at Starbucks with your kids?! How many of you buy chocolate milk for your kids?   Kids love chocolate milk!  Something about the brown cow and 50 grams (?!!) of sugar will make any kid jump in circles!

My kids and I have had the amazing pleasure of sampling X Balance Total Nutrition Drink Mix!! It’s quoted as saying “The Healthiest Chocolate Milk on Earth!”   After mixing 1 scoop of powder with 1-2 ounces of water and then adding 4-9 ounces of milk, this drink tastes AS GOOD AS CHOCOLATE MILK!!  The skeptic that I am (and after reading the long ingredient list) my workout buddy and I had to test it first.  Then, we gave it to our kids – all four of them under the age of 6.  Of the four, three loved it!  My youngest, who is the serious chocolate milk drinker,  in the family wasn’t fooled and didn’t like it.   However, when I mix it up and add it to sippy cup, it goes down just fine.  There is no chance that my children get 5-10 servings of fruits and veggies each day and this drink mix can do just that.

The ingredient list is quite lengthy but truly amazing especially since there is no added sugar in the drink...Read the ingredient list here. Bottom line is that this is a superfood drink containing things like carrot juice, spirulina, chlorella, organic grass juice powder, and organic beet juice powder…How many of you can say you’ve feed these superfoods to your kids lately?

I can honestly say this product rocks!  It’d be a great product to have on camping trips as a special after dinner treat instead of a s’more or in addition to…and I  highly recommend.

You can read more about X Balance and SGN Nutrition here.

X Balance retails for $38.95

P. S. This product was provided to us for purposes of review and the above opinions are my own.

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Fit Mommy’s “Rest Day” Play with Kids is now published!

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This has been a subject on my mind for the last few weeks particuarly with my kids.  I am not scared to put 100 pounds over my head – although it did scare the crap out of me months ago! Mostly, I am scared of what my kids MIGHT do when I’m watching or not.

Like the time my 4 year old ran across a busy parking lot…

Or when my oldest is out in the middle of a lake kayaking by himself…

Or just when they are riding their bikes on the streets..what if they swerve into traffic or miss a stopsign?

I have anxiety just thinking about these things! Do you? How do you handle it?  Does age have anything to do with it?  Is an older parent more protective or less?  What a about a younger parent in their 20’s- are they scared beyond belief when their kids do something ridiculous or am I just TOO OVERPROTECTIVE?!  Ugg…this subject haunts me and makes me a crabby mommy cause I’m always worrying about them.

How do other mother’s handle the scary stuff?

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This weekend we had the amazing pleasure of learning a new skill on Big Bear Lake.  It’s really simple, but tons of fun and family friendly…It’s called Stand up and paddle. These boards are 10 feet long and fairly wide. To learn how to paddle, we just got out there and made mistakes. It was a great way to spend time with the family, enjoy the outdoors and get a little exercise at the same time. (Note: could be LOTS of exercise if there is a wind issue!)

Amazing workout buddy, Penny. Check out those abs?!?!? You want those at almost 50?! I do.

Daddy and youngest son…..

Family friendly paddles hold two kids easily!

The dads are taking the kids out in this photo!

These boards were found at Costco for $429 each including the paddles (although this is not an ad for Costco or anything)!!

Again, it’s a great way to spend time with the family!

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is now published on Read Breathe!

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