December is in full swing. Thankfully I’ve been able to get a good portion of my Christmas shopping done over the past week. Hopefully I can finish most of it this week. Around the house we were busy last week cleaning. I finally did some toy organizing. I also cleaned off my desk. We moved the pack and play to the office and got that area organized too. In the kitchen I made sour cream, yogurt, sour cream ice cream (recipe to follow), fermented veggies, caramel dip and kefir. I decided to wait on butter so I could skim our milk better.

This week will be fairly busy with errands. Plus there are a few Christmas events we might attend. Today is church. This afternoon there is a thing called Journey to Bethlehem at the church where I attend MOPS. We might stop by. Monday is milk pick up. There is also the Grandville tree lighting in the evening. We haven’t decided yet if we’re going. Tuesday is Kindermusik. Wednesday is Meijer. Thursday and Friday are open at the moment. There is a chance I could go shopping one of those days. We’re planning to get our tree on Saturday.

In the kitchen I’ll make my usual weekly dairy products, adding in another butter attempt. I should make more pesto and mayo. And I’d like to do a baking project with Rebecca if time allows. I have an idea for an “M” project. Or we could do some Christmas baking too.

Update on me…sigh. The week started out so well. I had a few really good days. I even had my miralax dose down so low I almost totally skipped it one afternoon. And then things started to take a turn. And today I’m really not doing well. Back to headaches. I drink a ton of fluid, but my mouth is always dry. My body is just not absorbing fluids the way it should. So, what happened? It’s always hard to tell. But I do know a few key things. First, I know that eating beets daily really helps me. And I ran out of beets mid week. Second, I was eating salads regularly, which was helping…and I ran out of lettuce. Third, I ate peanut butter bread…3 days in a row. Why? I really don’t know. All I can say is peanut butter and I do not mix well. I still haven’t figured out if it’s any peanut/peanut butter or if I’d be ok with homemade (crispy). Either way it really messed me up this week. I think it’s all still sitting in my gut :\  I’m sure eating the pb bread while decreasing the miralax so much didn’t help either. My other big help is warm lemon water. I had been drinking it throughout the day. But I’m almost out of lemon juice. So I can only do it first thing in the morning. And I’m not sure what I have will last me until I go to the store. So, where does that leave me now? Miserable. Trying to be patient. And this was the final push I needed to go for the magnesium. I ordered a magnesium supplement yesterday. I can’t wait for it to come! I hope that really helps. I won’t have time to get to Meijer until Wed. So I have to go without beets for a few days yet. It’s getting pretty hard to eat right now. And I never know what to eat. All I can do is wait and hope for some improvement soon. And remind myself…NO MORE PEANUT BUTTER!

I did read a very interesting post on Modern Alternative Mama about magnesium and grains. This was also mentioned on Cheeseslave recently. Grains are one of the best sources of magnesium. This is not to say I’m going to start adding grains back into my diet today. I think my gut needs more healing before I can do that. But I do know that I want to at some point. They must be properly prepared grains of course. It is an exciting thought, though. We’ll see what the mag supplement does and go from there. I’m not against grains for sure. But with a damaged gut I don’t think I’m quite ready to handle them yet.

So, on to this week. My meal plans seem to keep changing as our plans are made and depending on how I’m feeling/what I am able to eat. Today may have to be a mostly liquid diet for me. So here’s what’s on the menu at the moment.
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S (cook beans, prep lunch, church, Journey to Bethlehem?)
  L -cp sausage and bean soup, bread
  D – avocado bean dip and salsa w/ tortilla chips, apple w/ caramel, cheese (Justin), broth (me)

M (prep smoothies, prep dinner, milk, tree lighting, roast beets)
  D – favorite casserole, peaches (Justin), salad (me)

T (skim cream, make sc, make yogurt, make butter, KM)
  D – sweet and sour meatballs, squash, corn, fruit

W (make sc, make kefir, make Christmas treats, Meijer)
  D – favorite casserole (Justin), salad (me)

Th (make Christmas treats/gifts, prep smoothies, make mayo)
  D – pan fried white fish, beans, baked potatoes

F (clean, shopping?)
  D – waffles, fruit (Justin), TBD (me)

S (laundry, prep meal for grandparents, Christmas tree, visit grandparents, shopping?)
  D – pasta bake, bread, veggies