Last week was fairly productive. I embroidered Abram’s stocking, mailed all of our Christmas cards, did some good cleaning and made some Christmas presents. We had our church Christmas program (Rebecca did great singing!) and went out last night to see the Nite Lights…a drive through Christmas light display. Rebecca really enjoyed that. In the kitchen I made our usual weekly dairy products plus lots of crispy nuts, breakfast cookies and Christmas cookies. Rebecca and I made a “gingerbread” nativity scene. I also made a third (yes third!) attempt at butter. Another flop 🙁  I let the milk set for an extra day before skimming the cream. But it still didn’t work. I think I give up on using our cream for butter. We are getting some cream from the co-op this week. I think I’ll make a final attempt using that. I tried some new recipes…some that won’t be posted until after Christmas I think. Not too bad considering both kids were sick. They both had colds plus Abram got a shot. He was not a happy baby. Thankfully both kids are feeling a lot better now.

This week we won’t be going many places. But we will be busy. I hope Rebecca is ready to do some baking 🙂  I’m going to try to do as much prep work for our Christmas parties as I can since I won’t have much time for actual work next week. We’ll have 3 parties in a row, plus travel, plus house guests. My to-do lists may be a bit more detailed than usual. I just don’t want to forget anything. On the list: mini pies, orange muffins (this week is the letter O), dairy products, brownies, hot fudge, chocolate pretzels, cookies, scones and fudge. I might also try to make a gingerbread cake with Rebecca. I have a cute shaped pan that I’ve never tried. In terms of meals I’m going for simple. I don’t need extra work and extra messes. Friday we’ll have a nice dinner. That will be our family celebration. Aside from food I need to wrap presents! Hopefully I can get started on that today. I have a lot of wrapping to do. I also need to clean before we have guests. Justin will be on vacation starting Wednesday this week. Maybe I need to make a to-do list for him 😉

So our week isn’t too crazy for once since I don’t have to do milk pick up, and Kindermusik is done. Today is church. Tuesday is Meijer. Wednesday is co-op pick up. Friday we are celebrating Christmas as a family. That’s about it.

My update…overall a much improved week from how things have been lately. No really bad days. I have been taking the magnesium daily. I think that is helping. But I still need a higher dose. There aren’t any significant change with the dose I am taking. I do feel like my eating was getting back on track last week. I was back to more regular consumption of broth/stock/soups. I was pleasantly surprised to have some days where I felt like my digestive system was actually kind of “working.” I could feel the normal movement/waves of my intestines…doing what it should be doing. Which hopefully means I’m starting to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. But my body still has to figure out how to properly absorb fluids. It’s been so dependant on miralax for so long. So even though my intestines are trying to function properly I still have trouble with how they take in fluid. I don’t think there is much I can do about that except wait and let my body adjust as I continue to lower the miralax. Which I have been able to do again. It varies between 1/8 and 1/3 dose. One other big thing in the last couple days is getting back on track with what I drink. I have been drinking one or two (or sometimes three!) big mugs of hot cocoa daily. It’s just hot water, cocoa powder and honey. Nothing horrible. And I use a very small amount of cocoa and honey. Just enough to barely taste it. I drink it because it helps me get down more fluids. Sometimes I just can’t stomach more water. Then I read a post on Cheeseslave about Wheat Belly. It’s basically saying that wheat is not the culprit behind belly bulge and tummy troubles. It may have more to do with cortisol levels. And you should be more concerned about caffeine, alcohol and sugar. Included in that list is cocoa/chocolate. I can really relate to the craving for sweets at night. A good read if you have a few minutes. Anyway, I decided to put an end to my hot cocoa habit (which I knew I should before reading this, but just didn’t). Hopefully that will help. I feel like I go through phases where my belly is flat even if I eat a lot. Then I’ll have phases where it feels like there is a bulge no matter how little I’m eating. I wonder now if it’s related to the cocoa (and snitches of food with refined sugars, etc.). I’m going to do my best to resist temptations, but I know it is very hard around the holidays. Especially in a week like this where I’m baking a ton. I know I won’t be perfect, but I’ll do my best. Finally I know that food is not the only factor. With two sick kids last week that were up a lot in the night I was seriously sleep deprived…even more than usual 😛  I felt like a walking zombie. That is really hard on your body. I’m sure I have adrenal fatigue as well. But that is something I’ll have to address some other time. And the biggie – stress. Me, stressed? Never 😛  Sick kids, long to-do list, Christmas parties…it is stressful. And my tummy does not like stress one bit. It all boils down to the fact that there are a lot of factors. I have to do my best and tackle one thing at a time. And try to be good to my body. Hopefully with the magnesium, a “little” more sleep and cutting out cocoa I’ll at least see some improvement. And hopefully by planning well and doing a lot of stuff ahead of time next week won’t be too stressful.

On to the menu for this week.
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S (prep lunch, make hot fudge, church, grind flour, make pies, wrap presents)
  L – cp pork and beans
  D – broccoli and cheese quiche, bacon, salad, fruit

M (make chocolate pretzels, make brownies, make cranberry bread, nursery cmt)
  D – separate – leftover quiche, cranberry bread, cauliflower, salad

T (skim cream, make yogurt, make sour cream, make kefir, bake muffins, Meijer)
  D – steak, baked potato, broccoli (Justin), steak salad (me)

W (make cookies, make scones, make breakfast bars, co-op)
  D – (separate/ready any time) – hobo dinner (Justin), meatball soup (me)

Th (make sausage, wrap presents)
  D – salad (me), ravioli, corn, garlic toast (Justin)

F (make baked oatmeal, make/decorate gingerbread cake, celebrate Christmas, make stock/broth)
  D – roasted chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, beans, applesauce, rolls

S (clean, laundry, prep for parties/travel, prep salad)
  D – chicken noodle soup