Geneva has been quite engrossed in The Nutcracker ballet for probably a year and a half. She knows the story backwards and forwards and can readily recognize most of the music. This Christmas season I knew I wanted to take her to see the ballet, but knew she just wasn’t old enough to sit through the whole thing. (I mean, let’s be honest, I love the piece but the last third of it does seem to go on forever!) Every month in our library you can pick up a little magazine on what is going on in Colorado Springs for kids (it’s been an invaluable tool for us!), and in December I was thrilled to find an advertisement for a production of the Nutcracker put on by the Colorado Youth Ballet and the Colorado Springs Ballet Society and specifically for families. I decided to take Geneva for a mommy-daughter date and we had such a wonderful time I hope it will become a Christmas tradition. I also gave her this book to commemorate:

You might think that a production put on by youth and wonderful for children would be cheesy, but you would be mistaken. It was very well done and even featured a local magician as Herr Drosselmeyer – fun! Granted the dancing wasn’t the best I’d ever seen, but it enraptured Geneva. They edited it down to an hour (perfect!), although this did mean cutting some of the story which did NOT go unnoticed by Geneva. haha. It’s amazing how much kids absorb! I had to shush her and laugh together when she exclaimed to me during the performance “Mom, Clara did not throw her shoe at the rat king! She was supposed to take off her shoe!!” The place was packed and by some miracle we were able to get seats right in the middle front and by another miracle the one empty seat in the entire auditorium was right in front of Geneva’s seat, so when the show wore on she was able to stand up, lean on the chair in front of her, etc.

The best part by far of the experience was after the performance ended. The ballet was performed in a local high school auditorium and then afterward the gym was turned into a tea house of sorts. The lights were low and Christmas lights twinkled, tables and chairs were set up, you had your choice of hot teas or punch and treats from every country represented in the ballet (fun idea!). Delightful! And the best part was that all the performers came out and mingled for hours. I was so impressed with the dancers – so genuine and friendly. It was every little girls’ dream. Geneva took her picture with quite a few of the dancers (which surprised me, she’s so shy in situations like this!!) although she absolutely refused to take a picture with (or talk to, or hug, or basically acknowledge) the Prince and Fritz even though those sweet boys tried to persuade her multiple times. Funny girl. We found everyone she wanted to see, except the Chinese dancer. Here are some of the pics

It was quite the challenge to find “Clara” but after about 20 minutes we were able to locate her and Geneva mumbled a few words of awe and then we got a picture:

This next picture cracks me up – (we took a professional pic with the Sugarplum Fairy and there was a mishap with the printer so we were hanging out in this one area for quite some time and it just so happen so were the family of one of the girls who played one of the rats.) Now Geneva was very scared of the rats and crawled up in my lap for their part of the performance, but this little dancer took an interest in getting Geneva to overcome her fear and understand how her costume worked, etc. It took the full 30 minutes we were waiting around but somehow this little dancer got Geneva to take a picture with her, holding her tail. Look how big Geneva is smiling, so proud! haha. Love it!

And with her hero, the Sugarplum Fairy herself!

Parents are not allowed to sit in Geneva’s ballet classes. We are confined to the next room in the building that has a one way window into the classroom so we can peak but honestly it just looks like little girls running around. We were so excited when they had a “parent’s day” so we could come and actually see what goes on. WOW! I have to say, both Michael and I were super impressed. I could not believe how much real ballet the girls knew/were learning!! I was even more impressed and pleased with the teacher. She had created so many perfectly age-appropriate, fun ways to teach real ballet to these 3 & 4 year old girls. And not just as a proud parent, but objectively, I was very impressed with Geneva. Sure you might be chuckling to yourself that I think my daughter if of course the best, but truly, I was struck with how she watches, she absorbs, she learns, she performs, she just gets it. I of course don’t know if it’s more her personality and deep desire to please and do well, or if she really has a knack for music/dance, but regardless, I was very proud of her. Even just today she taught me how to “Fondu.” Sweet.

Dancing in the Minefields lyrics by Andrew Peterson

Well I was 19, you were 21
The year we got engaged
Everyone said we were much too young
But we did it anyway
We got the rings for 40 each from a pawnshop down the road
We said our vows and took the leap now 15 years ago

We went dancing in the minefields
We went sailing in the storms
And it was harder than we dreamed
But I believe that’s what the promise is for

Well “I do” are the two most famous last words
The beginning of the end
But to lose your life for another I’ve heard is a good place to begin
‘Cause the only way to find your life is to lay your own life down
And I believe it’s an easy price for the life that we have found

And we’re dancing in the minefields
We’re sailing in the storms
And it was harder than we dreamed
But I believe that’s what the promise is for
That’s what the promise is for

So when I lose my way, find me
When I lose loves chains, bind me
At the end of all my faith to the end of all my days
when I forget my name, remind me

‘Cause we bear the light of the Son of man
So there’s nothing left to fear
So I’ll walk with you in the shadow lands
Till the shadows disappear
‘Cause He promised not to leave us
And His promises are true
So in the face of this chaos baby,
I can dance with you

So lets go dancing in the minefields
Lets go sailing in the storms
Oh, lets go dancing in the minefields
And kicking down the doors
Oh, lets go dancing in the minefields
And sailing in the storms
Oh, this is harder than we dreamed
But I believe that’s what the promise is for
That’s what the promise is for

Thank you, dear Emily, for taking these beautiful pictures of my little ladies.

Geneva insisted on being part of every step of decorating the Christmas tree this year. It might have something to do with her favorite book at the moment that we read two to five times a day - Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree, in which seven different trees are “trimmed.” But whatever the reason, she was truly the little helper this year.

first the lights:

then the inaugural ornaments:

Every year our children get a new Christmas ornament, and those ornaments are the first ornaments that get to be hung on the tree. This year Geneva’s ornament is a mommy and baby Clydesdale from our stop this summer to Grant’s Farm in St. Louis.

Clara’s first ornament is a pink bassinet. We bought it at the largest Christmas store in the world, Katie Wolfhart, in Rothenburg, Germany. (seriously, check out that link!! This place is amazing!) Michael and I went there in 2006 while en route to our anniversary trip to Murren, Switzerland. We originally went to replace an ornament he broke our first Christmas , but also ended up buying a large stash of beautiful German glass ‘baby’s first Christmas’ ornaments for our future children. We found out a week later that we were pregnant with Geneva! fun fun.

Ta-da!

the things we do to delight our children…I have a horrible migraine, I just want to lie down in sweats, but Fancy Nancy, er, Geneva, asks so nicely that we all get fancy in our Christmas attire. Of course, sweet girl. Mama will always push for you. So here we are in our Sunday Christmas best, high heels and all, decorating the Christmas tree. She is thrilled, and my heart is happy, and that truly does make the pain, albeit slightly, less present.

“a merry heart is good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones” Prov. 17:22

Michael and I both grew up in an area of the country where tramping through the forest to cut down your own Christmas tree is normal and in families where this was a favorite tradition. This is one of the Christmas traditions that we want to continue in our family! This year we made a party out of it and dragged a bunch of our friends with us! Here we are with our friends the Shaws and their puppy Milner, their friend Carrie (who was amazing with Geneva and so sweet to walk a lot of the way with her and showed her such kindness. Thank you Carrie!!), and our friends the Kagamasters and their dog Lucky. Since our dear Liberty does not play nice with others, she was left at home.

Only two couples were looking for trees and that ended up being a good thing this year, as it was SLIM pickins!! After walking quite a fair distance….

…the Shaws found their tree!

Way to go, Rajeev!

Geneva and Milner were glad for the break from walking!

Although it had a major U joint in the middle of the trunk, it was perfect! It’s amazing how your standards shift the longer you walk through the woods. We’re not pointing fingers, though. Oh no, our tree was much worse! Do you see that gigantic gap right in the middle of the tree? yeah……. Haha! Oh well. Nothing a little surgery can’t fix.

Celebratory hot chocolate upon finding our trees, such as they were.

It was a great day with good friends.

A picture to leave you with of Milner who was evidently raring to go find even more trees and while tied up, pulled the entire stump out of the ground! haha.

My dear friend Emily graciously took pictures of my girls this week. I won’t be publishing them all for a couple weeks, but here is a sneak peak. THANK YOU EMILY!

We have so much to be thankful for this year!! Most especially, our sweet Clara. She is SO sweet. I can’t get over it sometimes. One of my favorite things about her is that she is an introvert – this comes out mostly in how she utterly exhausts around large groups of people. She doesn’t even have to be interacting with them, just being around them is enough. But get her one on one and she is the most engaged, smiling, happy person you’ve ever met. In fact most of the time I call her “smily face” or “happiness.” Honestly, this aspect of her personality has made me feel so loved. She knows those closest to her, Michael, me, Geneva, and feels so obviously safe and at ease around us. As soon as she sees one of us enter the room or talk to her she immediately smiles at length. It is so sweet. She feels the same way about her room, her bed, our home. You can visibly see her just relax into her safe zone. It fuels my passion to be more of a cultivator of our home. It’s like Sally Clarkson says all the time, “make your home to be your family’s favorite place in the world.” I think it’s just incredible that someone’s person is so developed from birth. It makes you just sit in awe of our personal, intimate Creator.

Clara’s made some pretty big leaps in her 3rd month of life. She can roll over, but doesn’t choose to most of the time. She’s settling into her personality and that’s fun to see. She “talks” like crazy!! If you are talking to her, she will be talking to you! It’s truly wonderful. She is laughing now too, mainly when you’re tickling her or when you’re playing a game with her, like clapping her hands together. She’s growing like a weed and is around 13lbs. I just bumped her up to 3-6month clothes last week. But the most important milestone is that SHE IS SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!! Seriously, we were beginning to think this day would never come. And we have no idea what clicked with her to make the change. She was going to bed around 8pm, we would dream feed her before we went to bed (around 11), and then she’d wake up once, sometimes even twice!, before getting up around 6am. Then one night we didn’t dream feed her and she slept from 8pm all the way to 6am without waking up once!! That’s 10 hours!! YES! She has done that consistently for almost 2 weeks now with the exception of two nights where she woke up once at 12. But overall I think she’s got it! HALLELUJAH!

Geneva, we do pray for your husband. We pray that loves the Lord with his whole being, is gracious, kind, wise, loving, purposeful, generous, pure, discerning, adventurous, worthy of his calling, and worthy of you. We love you, sweetie.

Our Thanksgiving was a quiet one this year. We invited probably 20 different people over, but most everyone has family close by or had previous plans, so we just spent it as the 4 of us. This worked out quite nicely since we arrived home from DC just a couple days before Thanksgiving. We had a really nice relaxing day of cooking, eating, playing, and just being together. Clara even took a nap right as our Thanksgiving meal was ready, so that was even nice and relaxed.

Since turkey is one of my no-no foods, we decided to cook individual cornish game hens this year and it was a great success! And so easy! We will definitely do it again! Other things on the menu: my dad’s mashed sweet potatoes, bacon wrapped green beans, southwest corn chowder, gf cornbread and sausage stuffing, and citrus cranberry sauce. YUM!

We are very blessed and have an abundance of things to be thankful to the Lord for this Thanksgiving. Most of all we are thankful for our sweet girls. What precious blessings of God they are to us!

And a very happy first Thanksgiving to our dear Clara!

Michael decided to attend the annual Federalist Society Convention this year, and since it was held in DC and the majority of Michael’s family had yet to meet Clara, we all jumped on a plane and went to Mimi’s for the week! My sister in law Deborah who lives and works in NYC graciously flew down for two days to see us as well! We realized that since Michael was gone every day from 6:30am to 10:30 pm that the only way he and Deborah were going to see each other was if we all went to the midnight showing of HP7! hehe. This was a brilliant plan, but Michael was so tired that although he was extremely social while we all waited in line for an hour and a half, as soon as the movie began…he was asleep. We only shook him awake when he would start to snore. ha! We aren’t in college anymore, Toto.

Michael’s parents recently moved into a new house, so we were excited to see the new place. It was so nice! Geneva’s favorite thing about it was the backyard, where the giant trees had lost a good amount of leaves for Mimi to rake up and for Geneva to jump in! We don’t have this experience living in CO, so Geneva was in autumn heaven!

Geneva also found great enjoyment of somersaulting into the leaves. Somehow she also convinces Auntie Bina AND Mimi to somersault into the leaves with her!!  WAY TO GO ladies for still being able to master the somersault! Unfortunately, I only managed to capture unflattering angles of the somersaulting, so instead I’ll show you this adorable pic:

Geneva loves her Aunts!

Clara also got a ton of love this trip!! She was such a good baby on the flight and I was pleased that she didn’t break down too much with all the change I was putting her through. She had to be sweet enough b/c I convinced her Aunts to watch her once so Mimi and I could run to McKays (an awesome used bookstore, I found probably 15-20 children’s books for G for $20!). Mimi also watched the girls so I could run to IKEA where I found some amazingly beautiful wrapping paper for super cheap, but I managed to leave it all in the overhead compartment of the airplane on the flight home. ::sigh:: Merry Christmas, flight attendants! But I digress. Back to Clara! She really is blessed to have such a loving family in her life. And it was so fun for them all to meet when she was old enough to smile and interact with everyone. Babies bring so much joy.

The girls got a lot of Papa time on this visit too! And on the weekend he also took a turn at the raking/leaf jumping with Geneva.

Papa meets Clara

Papa and Geneva play hockey:

playing in the leaves:

WE HAD A WONDERFUL TIME WITH YOU ALL! CAN’T WAIT TO COME BACK!!

oh, and just an aside – look at how Geneva’s hair behaves in humidity!! With all these curly hair genes from the Francisco side I often wonder if she’s going to turn into a curly sue…..

I found this on foodrenegade.com. Thoughts?

Agave nectar: Good or Bad

Is agave nectar good? Is agave nectar bad? Believe it or not, I thought I’d written a definitive post on this topic.

As it turns out, I hadn’t. Earlier this week a reader emailed me, seeking an answer to the classic question: Agave nectar — good or bad? She pointed out that she’d done a search for agave nectar on this site and only turned up two entries. In one, I’d said to avoid it. In another, I mentioned that I’d used agave nectar while experimenting with kombucha and didn’t enjoy the results.

So, she concluded: “Why, if agave nectar is a natural sweetener, should it not be used? What about it is bad? I’ve been preferring it to honey and maple syrup on my waffles, pancakes, and yogurt.”

I realized then that I needed to post a definitive guide to agave nectar, answering the question once and for all. This is it.

Agave Nectar: Good or Bad?

The short answer to that reader’s question is simple: agave nectar is not a “natural sweetener.” Plus, it has more concentrated fructose in it than high fructose corn syrup. Now, let’s get into the details.

Agave Nectar Is Not A Natural Sweetener

Once upon a time, I picked up a jar of “Organic Raw Blue Agave Nectar” at my grocery store. It was the first time I’d ever seen the stuff in real life, and the label looked promising. After all, words like “organic,” “raw,” and “all natural” should mean something. Sadly, agave nectar is neither truly raw, nor is it all natural.

Based on the labeling, I could picture native peoples creating their own agave nectar from the wild agave plants. Surely, this was a traditional food, eaten for thousands of years. Sadly, it is not.

Native Mexican peoples do make a sort of sweetener out of the agave plant. It’s called miel de agave, and it’s made by boiling the agave sap for a couple of hours. Think of it as the Mexican version of authentic Canadian maple syrup.

But this is not what agave nectar is. According to one popular agave nectar manufacturer, “Agave nectar is a newly created sweetener, having been developed in the 1990s.” In a recent article now posted on the Weston A. Price foundation’s website, Ramiel Nagel and Sally Fallon Morell write,

Agave “nectar” is not made from the sap of the yucca or agave plant but from the starch of the giant pineapple-like, root bulb. The principal constituent of the agave root is starch, similar to the starch in corn or rice, and a complex carbohydrate called inulin, which is made up of chains of fructose molecules.Technically a highly indigestible fiber, inulin, which does not taste sweet, comprises about half of the carbohydrate content of agave.

The process by which agave glucose and inulin are converted into “nectar” is similar to the process by which corn starch is converted into HFCS. The agave starch is subject to an enzymatic and chemical process that converts the starch into a fructose-rich syrup—anywhere from 70 percent fructose and higher according to the agave nectar chemical profiles posted on agave nectar websites.

Compare that to the typical fructose content of high fructose corn syrup (55%)!

In a different article, Rami Nagel quotes Russ Bianchi, managing director and CEO of Adept Solutions, Inc., a globally recognized food and beverage development company, on the similarities between agave nectar and high fructose corn syrup:

They are indeed made the same way, using a highly chemical process with genetically modified enzymes. They are also using caustic acids, clarifiers, filtration chemicals and so forth in the conversion of agave starches into highly refined fructose inulin that is even higher in fructose content than high fructose corn syrup.

So there you have it. Agave nectar is not traditional, is highly refined, and actually has more concentrated fructose than high-fructose corn syrup. It is not a “natural” sweetener. Thus far, the evidence definitely points toward the conclusion: Agave Nectar = Bad.

“But,” you ardent agave nectar enthusiasts say, “agave nectar has a low glycemic index. I’m a diabetic, and it’s the only sweetener I can use!”

What’s wrong with fructose?

First, we need to clarify something. Concentrated fructose is not found in fruit, or anywhere else in nature. When the sugar occurs in nature, it is often called “levulose” and is accompanied by naturally-occurring enzymes, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and fruit pectin.  Concentrated fructose, on the other hand, is a man-made sugar created by the refining process. To clarify:

Saying fructose is levulose is like saying that margarine is the same as butter. Refined fructose lacks amino acids, vitamins, minerals, pectin, and fiber. As a result, the body doesn’t recognize refined fructose. Levulose, on the other hand, is naturally occurring in fruits, and is not isolated but bound to other naturally occurring sugars. Unlike man-made fructose, levulose contains enzymes, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and fruit pectin. Refined fructose is processed in the body through the liver, rather than digested in the intestine. Levulose is digested in the intestine. (source)

I want you to pay special attention to those last two sentences, for they are a huge key that will help unlock the mystery of why fructose is bad for you.

Because fructose is digested in your liver, it is immediately turned into triglycerides or stored body fat. Since it doesn’t get converted to blood glucose like other sugars, it doesn’t raise or crash your blood sugar levels. Hence the claim that it is safe for diabetics.

But it isn’t.

That’s because fructose inhibits leptin levels — the hormone your body uses to tell you that you’re full. In other words, fructose makes you want to eat more. Besides contributing to weight gain, it also makes you gain the most dangerous kind of fat.

This has been verified in numerous studies. The most definitive one was released just this past year in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The full study is available online, but for the sake of space I’m including Stephan’s (of Whole Health Source fame) summary here:

The investigators divided 32 overweight men and women into two groups, and instructed each group to drink a sweetened beverage three times per day. They were told not to eat any other sugar. The drinks were designed to provide 25% of the participants’ caloric intake. That might sound like a lot, but the average American actually gets about 25% of her calories from sugar! That’s the average, so there are people who get a third or more of their calories from sugar. In one group, the drinks were sweetened with glucose, while in the other group they were sweetened with fructose.

After ten weeks, both groups had gained about three pounds. But they didn’t gain it in the same place. The fructose group gained a disproportionate amount of visceral fat, which increased by 14%! Visceral fat is the most dangerous type; it’s associated with and contributes to chronic disease, particularly metabolic syndrome, the quintessential modern metabolic disorder (see the end of the post for more information and references). You can bet their livers were fattening up too.

The good news doesn’t end there. The fructose group saw a worsening of blood glucose control and insulin sensitivity. They also saw an increase in small, dense LDL particles and oxidized LDL, both factors that associate strongly with the risk of heart attack and may in fact contribute to it. Liver synthesis of fat after meals increased by 75%. If you look at table 4, it’s clear that the fructose group experienced a major metabolic shift, and the glucose group didn’t. Practically every parameter they measured in the fructose group changed significantly over the course of the 9 weeks. It’s incredible.

Back to our original question — Agave Nectar: Good or Bad?

The conclusion is clear. Agave nectar is bad for you. It’s not traditional, not natural, highly refined, and contains more concentrated fructose than high fructose corn syrup.