Could I Have Fed My Children in 10,000BC?

Always a spring of creativity, Stasha of The Good Life at northwestmommy, challenges us this week to come up with a list for her Monday Listicles on the topic of food and thinking!

Where to begin?
Grocery lists.
Recipes.
Ingredient labels.
Pinterest.

We see the normal, average foods piling up in our grocery cart, lining our pantries, gathering mold in our refrigerators, but how often do we see their origin, unless in our gardens out back?

So in order to make this into a teachable moment for my daughters, and a history lesson for me so I can sound impressive at the dinner table tonight, I've taken it upon myself to find 10 foods that make me think of the world when it first began, well, maybe when humans first started transitioning from being hunters and gatherers to farmers and cultivators.

10 Foods That Make Me Think Of Trying to Feed My Children Thousands of Years Ago 

(in case I climb aboard a time machine and plug in 10,000BC)

1. Insects - So I've eaten a chocolate-dipped cricket, once, a long time ago, but I think I'd have to crawl around in the muck, digging for grubs, and teach my girls how to swallow them whole.
2. Almonds - 10,000BC and I'd be identifying these, scaling mountains and crossing deserts, to get almonds if it means no more bugs.
3. Einkorn grain - Never heard of it, but supposedly it was one of the first cereals available in 16,000BC, right next to Lucky Charms I believe. Pass me the milk, please. But wait, cows weren't domesticated until 6,000BC.
4. Cherries - These may not take the place of chocolate, but if my 1 year old can eat a dozen maraschino cherries in less than a minute, I have to think these would be on our stone slab table for dinner every night.
5. Bread - Thank goodness this was invented in 10,000BC. In my family, "thunder thighs" are a sign we have ancestors who were champion bread consumers.
6. Wine and Beer - Who knew wine and beer count in the food pyramid of the world's oldest foods? As a mother in 7,000BC I wonder which my daughters would have preferred? 
7. Cucumbers - Jumping forward to 5,000 BC, because my middle daughter literally eats six or more cucumbers a day, and I'm not talking about the baby size ones.
8. Ice Cream - 3000BC and I'm dying to know how they made it without ice and our Snoopy snowcone maker and sugar, since sugar didn't appear until 1200BC.
9. Peas and Carrots - Now this is something I could have grown, harvested, cooked and consumed alongside my girls in 3000BC.
10. Blood as food - in the first century, in puddings and soups, and I'm about to barf as I type this, so let's add a #11 to sweeten this list.
11. Cheesecake - also a first century food, and I'm guessing they didn't have a springform pan, but I'd take this over blood pudding any day of the week.

 So maybe we would have been a little scrawny with a few cavities and sticky fingers, but I thank my ancestors from 10,000BC for finding food, cultivating it, cooking it, and providing for their children. I've always dreamed of going back in time to the dawn of Homo sapiens, but I don't know if I could stomach it.

A Newborn Series: Smell

My first two daughters were born in the up most sterile environments possible: the surgical room.

Prior to becoming a mother, I imagined warm scents of candles and fresh scents of flowers in a cocoon of a hospital room where I would give birth naturally. Instead, on the their birth days I inhaled the bleach of a freshly scrubbed floor, the rubbery plastic of latex gloves, and the disinfectant soup that cloaked my body from the hospital shower.

Today is my due date; however, I write this in advance of this important day as I prepare myself for a third c-section.  Despite the non-welcoming smells of the operating room, I anticipate the most incredible smell of life: that of my newborn baby held against my chest for the first time.

It is an honor today on this special day to host my blogging friend Germaine of Kiddothings here on my blog as she took on the challenge of the sense of smell for this newborn series, and what an amazing job she did with it!

Thank you Germaine for making my due date easier for me as I will be thinking of this post and all of the wonders of newborn smells as I welcome my baby girl into the world!

Parfum Le Bebe

By Germaine of Kiddothings

Today is Kim’s due date. She is going to be a new mother again the third time around. And to celebrate Motherhood for the third time, she’s starting a Newborn Series this week. I am so honoured to be here today to help her welcome her little one into our world.

Since it’s also Picnesday today, Kim is co-hosting Picnesday with me. To those who have dropped by from my blog, thank you and stay a while to get to know Kim and Zook Book Nook. She’s a wonderful writer and a very supportive bloggy friend.

As I write this, I’m reminded of the early days when my kids were newborns. As I sifted through my picture archives to do this post, I felt a tug at my heartstrings. I felt my eyes sting with tears. For I miss my babies. And today, I’m given the opportunity by Kim to also celebrate my ‘newborns’.  Kim has asked me to do a take on ‘Newborn Smell’. 

So here, I am going to share with you what goes into making  Parfum Le Bebe - a perfume that makes a mother fall in love with her baby instantly.

A whiff of soft baby fuzz

The peacefulness of a baby sleeping

The tenderness of a baby’s grip

The wonder in a baby’s gaze

The sweetness of a baby’s first smile

Having your baby lay down on your chest,

feeling his heart beat against yours

Taking in that magical feeling of being so close to a miracle that is

 Your baby.

And that my friends is Parfum Le Bebe, 

The Scent of Life.

Thank you Germaine! 

I have tears in my eyes as I read this and look at these breathtaking photos again! My world will soon be full of the Scent of Life!

The Wild Tree

Every woman needs a wild tree.

A tree she turns to in times of need: her shelter, her provider, her care giver.

Her wild tree is hers and hers alone.

She may find shelter in her lover's arms.
She may be provided a cup of comforting tea from a friend.
She may become a girl again in her mother's caring arms.

But her wild tree... it sets this woman free into the wilds of her spirit.

What is your wild tree?
Is it writing, your blog, a book, God, painting, water, walking, random acts of kindness, laughter...?

My wild tree is the wind moving through a tree's branches.
The fluttering of leaves, the whispers on my ears, the whiff of tree bark...
       it shelters my soul, provides me with new energy, and helps me to feel centered.

I abandon all of my mixed up thoughts and emotions when I witness the wind blowing through a tree.
It sets my mind free. I am given the gift to enter the wildness of being a woman.

What is your wild tree?