As I expected January is flying by! But I feel like I’ve been accomplishing a lot of my goals and learning a ton! So, it’s fast but good 🙂  Last week was fairly busy. But since Rebecca had a cold we couldn’t do everything we wanted…like go to MOPS 🙁  I guess I have to wait a couple more weeks for some mommy down time/chat time. We did go to another preschool open house. Only one more to go. Rebecca also started swimming lessons yesterday. We weren’t sure what she would think (she’s not what I would call a little fish :P). But she loved it! In the afternoon Rebecca and I had our Mommy-daughter time and went to the fabric store. We picked out some patterns for doll clothes and clothes for Rebecca. I got stuff for a couple other projects as well. I have enough sewing projects to keep me busy for a LONG time now. I just have to find the time to work on them.

The kitchen was busy as usual. I made 2 batches of yogurt, sour cream, apple raisin cake, vanilla pudding, hot fudge, dried apples, almond butter and cream cheese. I also made another attempt at butter. It sort of worked. I tried making sure the cream was at the right temperature. Then I shook it in a mason jar for a while. It wasn’t getting there. So I put it in the Vitamix. That didn’t work either. I think it started getting too warm. I chilled it a bit. I tried the jar again. Then I tried my hand mixer. In the end I did get some solids to separate. I rinsed them and put them in the fridge…but they are still quite white. So it has the texture of butter, but not the look. It’s kind of not quite there butter 😛  I think I’m done with butter for now.

This week will be fairly busy getting into our winter activities. Swimming lessons just started, and now Kindermusik starts up again this week. It was nice to have a break from everything. Hopefully we are up for the busyness again. Today is church. Monday I think we’ll go to Harvest Health. Tuesday is Kindermusik. Wednesday we might go to the library, and it is co-op pick up. Thursday is another preschool open house. There is a chance there is a playdate with my MOPS group on Friday, but I never heard if that was finalized or not. Saturday is swimming, and we’re going to a basketball game and out to dinner with all of my family to celebrate my dad’s birthday and my grandma’s birthday. We’re entering the season of birthdays around here. And it won’t stop until May. I also need to set up some playdates that we had to cancel recently. They won’t happen this week, but I need to get them on the calendar…or they’ll never happen 😛

I have some projects planned in the kitchen this week. For sure I want to make mayo and pesto. I’ve been eating salads for breakfast (and some lunches) every day lately. And pesto is a great dressing to have on hand! It’s basically veggies and olive oil. I would also like to bake some bread. I haven’t decided what kind yet. I just got a free e-book from Kitchen Stewardship that is all soaked/sprouted/sourdough recipes. So I might try one of those. There are also a couple breads in my Vitamix cookbook I’d like to try. I might be making cupcakes for our celebration on Saturday. I haven’t gotten to do any cakes in a while so that will be fun. I also need to work on planning my nephew’s birthday cake that I’ll be doing in a few weeks. I want to bake some sourdough crackers (I still have some dough in the freezer). Rebecca is doing the letter S this week. She has been waiting for this week because Sister Bear starts with S. So I thought I’d make her some of Sister Bears favorite foods – cocoa and honey bread, carrot sticks, nuts and raisins and “possum” stew (we’ll do beef stew :). And for our meals I’ll do some Soups and Sandwiches. I need lots of simple, prep ahead meals this week. I’m sure I’ll be using the crockpot a lot. I’d like to get started on some sewing projects soon, but I’m not sure it will happen this week. We’ll see.

On the health front I’ve been reading and learning so much! I finished reading Change Your Brain Change Your Life. And I’m part way through The Mood Cure. So much great information. Especially in TMC. It seems that all of my reading on the brain and the gut is leading me down a similar path. I will do a separate post on it soon. I’ll just say that for now I need to focus on a good balance of protein, healthy fats and vegetables. And experiment with small amounts of other carbs like potatoes, rice and grains. The critical thing for me dealing with OCD is to increase the serotonin levels in my brain through food and supplements. One thing that I really need to focus on is eliminating sugar. I’m seeing just how much that impacts your mood and overall health. I am hoping to find some amino acids at Harvest Health and start on those. Last week I tried potatoes, rice, wheat and sweet potatoes. Overall I did ok. But Thursday I had steak and sweet potatoes…and I’m still trying to recover. I still don’t get it, but steak just doesn’t work for me. And in combo with potato was even worse. The odd thing is that I seem to do better with grains (like wheat) than I do with other starches like rice and potatoes.

I finally made some progress on money-making and more blog exposure this week. More to come on that next month.

Here’s what’s on the menu this week.
——————-
S (prep breakfast and lunch, church, make mayo, make pesto)
  L – rustic chicken stew
  D – taco dip w/ tortilla chips and veggies, blueberry milkshakes

M (HH)
  D – fish sticks, roasted brussels sprouts, chips w/ dip

T (skim cream, make sour cream, make cream cheese, KM, grind flour, soak flour)
  D – CA BLT, sweet potato fries, peas

W (bake breakfast, make yogurt, bake crackers, prep dinner, library, co-op, soak flour, make cream cheese)
  D – (prep ahead) – beef stew, sd crackers w/ raw cheese

Th (make granola bars, open house, bake biscuits or bread)
  D – (early/easy clean up) – split pea soup, soaked biscuits

F (clean, playdate, Dr. appt.)
  D – soaked pancakes w/ raw strawberry topping, bacon, smoothies

S (make yogurt, bake cupcakes, make ice cream, swimming, basketball game, party)
  D – out to eat (probably Arnie’s)