DH and DS (internet-speak for Dear Husband and Dear Son) came home from visiting a family who just moved into our church congregation.
They reported at dinner that the wife said, “I heard your wife has this website, GreenSmoothieGirl.com, so I checked it out. That’s quite a hobby she has going!” You don’t have a photo of my 14-year old son Kincade. Just imagine him, shaggy hair, taller than me, trying unsuccessfully not to laugh. “Uh, no,” he said to the lady. “It’s WAAAAY more than a hobby!”
All my kids started sputtering and laughing, choking on their Flaxy Tomato-Basil Pasta (which will be in Ch. 4, wait for it!). None of us could stop laughing. Somebody making and remaking recipes (just ONE more time, and I’ll have it!) every day and hunching over the keyboard every spare minute of her life . . . a “hobby?” Maybe you’d have to live here to know why it’s funny.
So after DH and the kids laughed for a while, Kincade said, “Mom, have you ever thought, WHAT IF YOU’RE WRONG?”
Me: “You mean, what if I was really supposed to be feeding you hotdogs and sodas all this time?”
Just kill me now.
Kincade hasn’t learned, like you and I have, just how crappy you really feel eating that stuff. He’s spent a whole life eating whole plant foods, so he just has no clue. He has to take it on faith. But I’m not afraid I’m wrong. Thousands of studies don’t lie: the lowest calorie, highest micronutrient, most perfect foods on the planet are the ones in my recipes. They’re the foods in my grocery cart, my fridge, on my family’s plate and lunch box every day.
Someday he’ll probably go off to college and discover Cocoa Puffs. Maybe when he’s 24, he’ll call me and say, like my youngest brother’s wife just did. She said, “Okay, he’s sick of getting sick. Tell me what to fix and eat, and we’ll do it.”
Some of us have to learn things the hard way. But a great man named Joseph Smith once said, “Teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves.” Heaven forbid he goes nuts with Pepsi and Pop Tarts when he grows up and leaves home. But I’ll know that back when he was building bone mass and developing healthy organs, he had excellent nutrition. He’ll remember a time when he felt good, and eventually he’ll come back.
