Happy Valentine’s Day (on Tuesday:)! We’re really not that big into this holiday. But it’s fun to do some little things with kids. And coincidentally Rebecca’s letter this week is V! So we’ll try to incorporate a few Valentine’s Day activities…amidst a fairly busy week.

Last week was fairly low key, which was good since Abram had a cold. Thankfully he’s on the mend. And he now has both of his top front teeth in. Two steps in the right direction 🙂  No pun intended…but he is on the verge of walking. He can walk while pushing something. He cruises all over. And he’s starting to stand without holding anything. Back to the point, we didn’t do a whole lot last week. But we did make it to the library one day. And yesterday Justin and Rebecca had a daddy/daughter date – they went to a show (A Little Princess), followed by a daddy/daughter tea party. I was pretty busy in the kitchen. I made pesto, 2 batches of yogurt, ice cream (I called this week’s flavor totally nutty – pb ice cream with 4 kinds of nuts), soaked granola, butterscotch pudding, baked oatmeal, breakfast pudding, donuts, biscuits, mayo, and I baked my nephew’s birthday cake. I managed to get a batch of cloth wipes cut out…but that’s all the project work I had time for since Abram was up so much and so early.

This week will be pretty busy. Today is church. Monday is milk pick up. Tuesday is Kindermusik. Wednesday is groceries. There is a MOPS playdate on Friday, but I don’t think I’m going. Saturday we are going to my nephew’s birthday party.

My main food item this week is decorating the birthday cake. I’m making a Lego cake for my nephew. Aside from that I might make a Valentine’s Day dessert with Rebecca. I will be doing more grain soaking/baking. I’ll probably make a new batch of pesto. I’m sure I’ll be making some dairy products. I’m still trying to do my plan ahead/prep ahead breakfasts. So far it’s working well.

As always I’m learning new things each week as I experiment and listen to my body. I’m finding that I do ok with wheat (gluten doesn’t seem to be an issue for me so far) and even soaked oats. But I don’t do so well with really high starch foods like corn, potatoes, rice, carrots and bananas (oh, the bananas…they hate me :P). And when you think about it, it kind of makes sense. What is starch? SUGAR! I’m realizing that sugar seems to be my #1 culprit. Even some natural sugars. Considering my genes/family history of hypoglycemia and diabetes this seems logical. So I’m working hard to avoid sugar as much as possible. I’m still eating honey and fruit and occasionally some maple syrup or cane sugar. But even those I try to limit. I feel so much better without them. Adding grains back into my diet has also helped stabilize blood sugar for me. I’ve noticed two major things in the last week. First, my daily (hourly :P) cravings for chocolate and sugar have almost vanished completely! I used to want chocolate all the time. I used to immediately want sugar whenever I was anxious or stressed. If I was a bit frazzled I would reach for a bag of chocolate chips. But not anymore. I was starting to wonder if I would ever be able to curb my cravings. Adding back grains has made a huge difference. I don’t have the big blood sugar and mood swings. Second, some of my obsessive thoughts are vanishing as well! This has been pretty crazy for me to experience. I read about people balancing hormones, minerals, brain chemicals, etc. and just “forgetting” about their obsessions, worries, etc. And I’m like, there’s no way I could forget this stuff. I think about it non stop! But lo and behold I have been “forgetting” some things. I’ll have a long period where I don’t have the thoughts going over and over in my head. Then all of a sudden I realize that I haven’t thought about it for an hour or whatever. And I’m shocked. How did I just forget? Times of the day where I normally obsess/compulse I’ll now have an “I don’t really care” attitude about the compulsions. Not that I don’t think about them at all, but the anxiety is a lot less. And the need to compulse is a lot less. I have a pretty rigid daily schedule. I do the same things at the same times. Every afternoon I drink a big mug of some kind of hot beverage – tea or whatever. Not that that’s a bad thing. I know my body needs lots of water. I always drink something shortly after nap time (3:30ish), when I’m getting Rebecca’s snack, etc. The other day it was about 5:00 and all of a sudden I realized I hadn’t had anything to drink all afternoon! The thought never even crossed my mind. It’s not a major thing…not like that is some big obsession that I have. But that fact the I’m “forgetting” even some of the small stuff is huge for me. And the times when I do have the obsessive thoughts and anxiety goes up…I don’t even think about turning to food/sweets/cravings. I can use other methods (mostly just logical reasoning) to calm myself pretty quickly. I honestly don’t even think about turning to food. Obviously I still have a long way to go, but the improvements I’m seeing already are pretty big to me. I still have to be very conscious of my diet and making sure I’m getting enough carbohydrates (specifically grains). It will take a while to get rid of my mentality that grains are bad (just like it took a long time to get rid of the mentality that low fat is healthy). Bring on the bread. Stay away from the sugar 🙂

Here’s what’s on the menu this week.
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S (church, make kefir, make hot fudge, grind flour, soak grains)
  B – soaked donuts, smoothie (Justin), toast w/ almond butter, apple (me)
  L – ham, roasted potatoes, carrots and onions
  D – leftover biscuits and gravy, veggies, milkshakes

M (bake cookies, milk, soak beans, prep smoothies)
  B – breakfast cookies, smoothies
  D – fish sticks, onion rings, beans

T (soak flour, cook beans, prep dinner, skim cream, make sc, KM, bake, Valentine’s Day)
  B – pink smoothies, gf breakfast bars
  D – beef, veggie and bean chili, heart shaped grilled cheese

W (prep crust, Meijer, WT)
  B – apple w/ almond butter, smoothie
  D – (early) – ham and cheese quiche, roasted veggies, fruit

Th (crumb coat cake, prep smoothies)
  B – english muffin w/ pb, yogurt
  D – hot dogs, chips, beans, fruit (Justin), salad (me)

F (clean, MOPS playdate?, frost and decorate cake, pack)
  B – smoothies, maple pecan scones
  D – leftover quiche

S (laundry, swimming, birthday party)
  B – eggs (leftover quiche or scrambled), toast
  D – at party (tacos)