Baby your babies

I had a conversation yesterday that makes me wonder if I baby my babies too much.
Okay, I'm pretty sure I probably do, but is that really such a bad thing?
I know I'm too soft on them. Not that I at all think you should be hard, but it would be nice if they treated me with some respect or acknowledged that when mom says something they should at least consider it.
The conversation yesterday started with me telling my mother in law that Caius is extremely picky lately about the pants he wears. In fact, both kids, if I pick out clothes for them, won't wear what I pick so I've quit trying and just tell them to do it themselves. That's not bad right? Teaching independence?
 Her suggestion was to give them two choices. After all, who's the boss? I think it bothers her that we let our kids "control" so much of what goes on here and perhaps she is right. But...
Lately Caius goes into his drawer and usually has a particular pair of pants he's looking for. If it isn't there, nothing else will do. As frustrating as it can be when I just need him to get dressed, I actually think it's kind of cute that he knows what he wants and I'm sure there is a reason behind it. He also has worn the same shirt pretty much exclusively for the last week or more. And Rayne! Oh my. She will NOT let me comb her hair. She has allowed Daddy to do it at night but by morning it really needs to be done again. Sometimes I persuade her or I just do it anyway, but for the most part, I let her get away with it. Why? Because it really isn't that important to me that my kids' clothes match or their hair is nice and neat and styled. Sure, I don't like it much when they look like uncared for ragamuffins. But really, there are things I find more important.
So the question isn't really about letting them dress themselves but if letting them get away with not combing their hair is giving them too much power or something? Does this carry over into not being able to get them to do the important stuff?
As far as babying them, I also question if I do too much for them. I had thought that one of my new year resolutions would be to not do anything for them that they are capable of doing themselves. I know they are still little, but really? Suddenly my girl is almost five and I'm still putting on her shoes and socks, not because she can't but because she won't. Not to mention other things. When does it just get ridiculous and you have to put a stop to such things?
I guess I know I should be in charge more. Sometimes it drives me crazy. Why don't I have more authority and what damage am I doing by not? But sometimes when I stop and think about things and how I want to be as a mother, I understand why I do things the way I do.
Fittingly, I wanted to type as I thought so as to get some thoughts going as to what I DO think I should be doing as a mother. But I've been so interrupted, this is all I've managed to say.
To be continued... or something like that!

Food: My Final Answer?

The answer is the Word of Wisdom.

Of course it is. I've always known that and I actually think a lot about it when I'm talking about food and what I should be feeding my family.

I've never really been bothered by what we shouldn't have. The closest I've been to even temptation is that I think coffee smells good and it would be nice to have a soothing hot drink in the morning. Oh, and when I was pregnant the first time and working and so sick all the time, I would stand by the coffee pot in the office because the smell would purge any other smells or bad tastes in my mouth and help calm my nausea.

But, I've always been concerned about what we should be eating. It's bothered me that we avoid the "bad" stuff, but I've never really had lessons about what the good stuff is and what it means. I'm kind of a stickler for rules. I feel like an authority has to tell me what it means so I know for sure and I don't really trust my own instincts, thoughts, or feelings about things. We all know that's not right!
So today I had the thought, then later read someone saying it better than I could, if our body is a temple and you have to have a recommend to go into the temple, then what we put into our bodies should have to be worthy to enter. 

I read the Word of Wisdom this morning and it is what I've always thought. Fruits, vegetables, grains. Meat should be eaten sparingly. I don't know what this means about dairy, eggs and fish. But really, there is no need for an authority to tell me what or how. It's right there!!!

So now the question becomes, how do I get my family to eat this way? I really think my Rayne girl would let herself starve rather than eat something she thinks she doesn't like. Jeff, I'm pretty sure, will think he's starving if he doesn't have his convenience food. He actually told me the other day that vegetables aren't food when I was hungry not long after dinner because I had filled up on vegetables and not much meat.

There is also the question of canned food not being as good as fresh (some people think it's not worth anything! But I'm not so sure I agree). And all this talk about wheat being altered so it's not good for us anymore when right there not only does it say grain is the staff of life but that wheat is for man.

But it's a start. I think I need to quit reading all the other stuff that's out there. At least for a while so my brain settles. True or not, there is just so much fear in a lot of it, I don't think it's worth reading.

Fruits, vegetables and grains. Focus on that for now. That is enough.