Together Counts. Seriously.

Life is definitely busier around here than it used to be… but the last several years spent home with my kids have helped me to keep everything in perspective. I’m working harder at my career than I have since before I had children, but I still consider my job as a mom to be a career in and of itself.

That means that watching an episode of “Little House on the Prairie” with my daughter, or going on a nature hike with my son, or making my kids a special pancake breakfast, or carefully mapping out healthy meals for them, or taking them to the zoo for the afternoon is every bit as important on my agenda as interviewing a presidential candidate or hosting a video series or writing a magazine essay. I often schedule time with my children on my calendar in the same way that I schedule conference calls, writing assignments, and interviews. It’s the only way I can be sure that they are getting as much of my time as they need.

Yesterday, for example, Bruiser and I went to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, where we  painted together at the art center…

And then walked Cheekwood’s Sculpture Trail through the woods.

Bruiser was delighted by the extra attention — and was inspired to walk the entire trail for the first time without once asking to turn around or be carried. Check out that smile — He was so proud of himself at the end, and I was so glad I’d taken the morning off to do this with him — even though it meant some things went undone. I could catch up. I always do.

I want to give my kids the best start to life that I can– physically, spiritually and emotionally. And I’ve had a chance to reflect on some of the ways I’m trying to make this happen as a guest blogger on the Together Counts blog. Together Counts is a nationwide program designed to inspire healthy, active living, particularly in families. Its partners include some big names like Kellogg’s, Unilever, Kraft, and many others. I’m a big believer in taking small steps toward healthier family eating and liaving each week, month, and year– I’ve been doing this since I became a wife and stepmother and can look back and see major progress in our eating habits and activeness– so I was pretty psyched to be part of the Together Counts blogging team. Here are the posts I wrote for the blog:

• Here, I wrote about the Ferrier Fitness Challenge— One of the most successful ideas we’ve ever had as a family trying to stay fit. We will definitely do this again when the younger ones get a little bit older.
• In this post, I detailed my struggle to get my little ones to eat vegetables, and shared some ideas (and recipes!) that have worked for us.
• I often try to mix in outdoor activity with a craft. Here’s a post on how to easily make a nature journal out of items you probably already have on hand– complete with a built-in pocket to hold the treasures we find on our nature walks.
• And finally, video games have come a LONG way from the days when we grew up and spent hours staring at the TV screen, trying to win at Pac-Man. The newest generation of video games has actually helped keep my kids active when it’s too cold to play outside. I wrote about some of our favorites here.

I hope you’ll check some of these posts out- They each contain some of my favorite ideas that have worked for my family. I’d love to hear in the comments what you do to keep your family active and healthy throughout the year.

Is something working particularly well for your children? Please share– I’m always looking for ways to improve!

And check out Together Counts on Facebook and Twitter. It really is a cool initiative.

*I was paid to blog for Together Counts, but clearly, I got to determine the content.