The last week of August. The last free days before school starts. Only two more weeks to have my “baby” girl home with me every day. We’re trying to make the most of it.

Last week ended up busier than we had expected. I had a psychologist appointment (doctor had to reschedule) and more nutritional testing (decided to change supplements). We did make it to the zoo and finally got to see the new area that will be the home of tigers in 2014. Can’t wait for that! I went to a more advanced yoga class. It was great! I also had some unexpected kitchen work. Rebecca decided she wanted to try making homemade oreos. And I forgot I had ordered a bunch of broccoli from our co-op. So I had to freeze that. I also froze a bunch of squash from the farmer’s market and more beans from our garden.

This week we have some errands and some fun stuff. Today is church. I’m not sure yet if Abram and I are going. We’ve all had colds the last few days, and Abram hasn’t been sleeping that well…which means I haven’t either. Monday is milk pick up. Tuesday is farmer’s market, and we might go to the library. Wednesday is groceries. Thursday we might go to the zoo again. This is the last week they are open until 6, and we want to make our membership worthwhile. No plans for the weekend yet. Maybe some shopping on Saturday.

We’ll see what I have time for in the kitchen this week. I might finally start some canning and do a batch of spaghetti sauce. I need to make more chicken broth. I’m not sure about other produce preservation. Some other potentials are yogurt, ice cream, cheesecake, sourdough brownies and funnel cakes or whatever else Rebecca comes up with. Really, we don’t live on sweets here 😛

Last week ended much better than it started for me. Going out for dinner and taking the wrong supplements (with soy and oats) just did me in. Thankfully I’ve gotten past that now (at least mostly). I did some more nutritional testing on Friday. So I’ve got a couple new supplements to help with my gall bladder and some general minerals. Last week I also finally tried coconut water. I think it’s my new obsession 😛  I mix it with a little bit of juice. It’s such a refreshing drink. It’s hydrating, and it’s packed with lots of potassium and magnesium. Plus other vitamins and minerals. I wish I had tried it sooner. I drink it throughout the day to keep a steady supply of minerals and keep myself hydrated. I’m still not ready for much fibrous foods. I tried a little this week…which just leads to pain. But on the plus side I did eat some navy beans without Abram having any problems. This is great news for me! I LOVE beans. But haven’t been able to eat them for about a year now. I’m already looking forward to trying some hummus 🙂

I mentioned earlier that I had another psychologist appointment. This one was a little more for Rebecca than for myself. It went well and gave us some good insight. I’m anxious for my next appointment when I can talk to the doctor one-on-one to discuss strategies about how to proceed from here. There may be more posts on this in the future, but not for now. At the moment we’re still trying to figure things out see how school goes.

So, on to another week. Here’s the menu. I’m not sure exactly how Rebecca’s recipe will go this week. She came up with “spaghetti buns.” Spaghetti (noodles and sauce) on hot dog buns. We’ll see.
———-
S (prep lunch, strain kefir, soak lentils, church, prep smoothies)
  B – leftover french toast casserole
  L – crockpot peppercorn steak, rice, carrots
  D – summer sausage, cheese, crackers, peas, fruit, milkshakes

M (cook lentils, bake brownies, milk)
  B – smoothie, TBD from freezer
  D – lentil burgers, roasted red potatoes, beans

T (skim cream, prep dinner, make sour cream, make yogurt, freeze beans, fm, library, make broth, chop fruit)
  B – granola bar, banana yogurt
  D – roast chicken, scalloped potatoes, broccoli

W (strain/freeze broth, make/can spaghetti sauce, freeze zucchini, Meijer, make scones)
  B – smoothie, TBD from freezer
  D – zucchini pesto quiche, squash white chocolate scones, peas

Th (soak flour, make chocolate cookies, freeze zucchini, chop veggies, zoo)
  B – scones, fruit
  D – “spaghetti buns”, corn

F (strain yogurt, make ice cream, make buster bars, soak flour)
  B – quiche
  D – soaked biscuits w/ gravy, leftover quiche, peas, fruit

S (bake bread, clean, make cheesecake)
  B – TBD
  D – BLTPs, squash, fruit OR grill tbd

I confess…I was scrambling to come up with this week’s meals at 9pm last night. I’m normally very on top of it, but last week was CRAZY busy. It was kind of a blur. I felt bad for Abram in and out of the car seat all day. Especially since he hates being in it. He was a good sport for the most part. But Rebecca sure enjoyed our week. We got a little taste of what it will be like when she starts school…much busier. I’ll have to be more organized with lunches and maybe cut back sometimes on some of the extras I do to lessen the chaos/mess. And hopefully we can continue working on getting meal times for Rebecca to be more efficient.

That being said Rebecca had so much fun. She went to two days of arts and crafts camp (M/T afternoon) and two days of gymnastics camp (Th/F morning). One thing we confirmed through this…Rebecca NEEDS her downtime/alone time. After camp she was on overdrive/in a state of hyperstimulation until she had some quiet time. By Friday afternoon she didn’t even want to play with anyone…for pretty much the rest of the day. She was in quiet time for two hours. When I told her it was over she said she was still playing. I asked if she wanted to help make ice cream…”Not today.” I let her stay in her room for a while longer. Every time I asked if she wanted to clean up and come down she said no. We had to force her to clean up and come down for dinner…after over 4 hours alone in her room! I think she played with practically every toy she has 😛  Life could get interesting once school starts.

We also had so much fun yesterday on our Mommy/daughter day. We got our hair cut. Rebecca’s hair looks so cute…although it’s a bit shorter than I expected. In the afternoon we had so much fun shopping with Grandma. Rebecca gave her a little fashion show in the dressing room. She picked out a few really cute things for school. Dinner out was the usual…Rebecca and I shared chicken strips, salad, beans and of course a milkshake 🙂  I’m sure I’ll be paying for that meal today.

I had a good appt. with my psychologist last week. I go back again next week…and Rebecca will be coming with me. We’ll see how it goes.

Abram had a good 15m check up, and Rebecca did well at the dentist.

Last week was too busy (for my taste). We even added on a trip to a second hand sale that I had forgotten about…until Thursday. This week…hardly anything going on 😛  Today is church. After lunch Justin and Rebecca are going to a Whitecaps baseball game. Rebecca got a free ticket from her library summer reading club prize. Tuesday is farmer’s market. Friday I’m going to yoga. My teacher is having a free community class! That’s it. Really. That’s all we have. Maybe we’ll try to go to the zoo this week. We had intended to go on Friday, but as I mentioned, by Friday afternoon we were all ready for some time at home. I think Rebecca might have burst from excitement/stimulation if we had tried to do the zoo in the afternoon.

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing in the kitchen this week. Like I said I didn’t have time to plan thoroughly. I just have a list of possibilities. I’ll try to fill them in on my schedule as I have time/as the week goes on. I could make cheesecake, sourdough blondies, sourdough cookies, sourdough brownies, chocolate swirl bread, fermented punch, pesto, ice cream and caramel. I’m not sure what preservation, if any, I’ll be doing this week.

We found out last week that the person we get our chickens from…and had already placed an order with…has NO chickens. So now I need to figure out when/where we can get some good chickens.

I’m in test/experiment mode right now. I’ve been taking my pituitary supplement for a couple weeks now. And I just got my gall bladder supplement on Friday. We’ll see if I notice any difference. So far nothing profound. I have been trying to cut back on miralax again…and again I’m now in quite a bit of pan 🙁  I’m already regretting eating salad last night. I know that won’t help. Back to strictly soft foods I guess.

I did make a batch of beet kvass last week. I tried it for a couple days. But then the next morning I had some major stomach pain. So I stopped drinking it. It is pretty strong stuff and helps with liver detox. So maybe I had too much to start. Maybe tonight or tomorrow I’ll try again…and start with less.

So, not doing my best right now. I’m waiting to see how this week goes/how the supplements help, if at all. I still think I would like to find a good magnesium supplement. Hopefully I can do that soon.

On a personal note, I got my first two paychecks for my writing last week! Pretty exciting. I guess I can  officially call myself a writer now.

On to the menu. I did it in a rush last night, so it could change as the week goes on.
———————–
S (prep lunch, clean kitchen, church, baseball game, prep smoothies)
  B – granola w/ milk, banana
  L – cp meatloaf, baked potatoes, broccoli
  D – hot dogs, sweet potato fries, watermelon

M (freeze beans, make punch, roast beets, organize office, make sd blondies)
  B – smoothie, soaked cereal bars
  D – hot taco rice (w/ ground turkey), fruit

T (skim cream, make “oreos”, FM, soak beans, make ice cream)
  B – peach w/ yogurt, honey and nuts
  D – zucchini cakes, roasted brussels sprouts, watermelon

W (prep dinner, soak lentils, zoo, Dr. V., co-op pick up)
  B – smoothie, zucchini bars
  D – cp pork and beans, roasted brussels sprouts, fruit

Th (make bread, bake squash, freeze broccoli, cook lentils, zoo)
  B – cookies n cream yogurt, banana
  D – lentil burgers, fresh beans, fruit squash soup, chocolate swirl bread, cinnamon swirl bread

F (prep dinner, make pesto, make mayo, soak lentils, nutr. testing, Meijer, yoga)
  B – cinnamon swirl bread, banana
  D – french toast bake, fresh fruit

S (cook lentils, clean)
  B – french toast bake
  D – TBD whitefish (RR?), lentils burgers

Brrr. It’s chilly this morning. We have finally gotten a break from the extreme summer heat. Now it’s really feeling like fall is on the way. It will be here before we know it. In the mean time, we’ve got a few weeks of summer fun and produce preservation to get through 🙂

Last week was pretty busy. I froze my last batch of corn (I ended up with 6 gallons this year!). Rebecca and I also made two batches of ice cream (chocolate and honey cinnamon), “oat honey milk cereal” (Rebecca’s recipe…basically granola), blueberry, peach, plum cobbler and blueberry zucchini bread. Plus a few other things. We were out and about plenty as well. We finally made it back to the library to stock up on books for Rebecca. Yesterday we read well over 100 pages! We read an entire 100+ page chapter book and the end of another chapter book. This girl loves to read 🙂  We had a blast with my SIL, nephew and niece at a science center. Justin and Rebecca also went raspberry picking yesterday…so dealing with raspberries is on my to-do list this week 🙂

This week will be a bit chaotic. I’m not sure how everything ended up in the same week, but it’ll be busy. Today is church. We are also going to the zoo in the afternoon and having a picnic dinner. Monday is milk pick up. Rebecca will be doing an arts and crafts camp all afternoon. I also have an appointment with my psychologist. Tuesday we have the farmer’s market. We’ll see how Rebecca likes camp on Monday. If she really enjoyed it will do another day on Tuesday (the camp is all week, but you can do just certain days). Wednesday morning Abram has his 15m check up. We might possibly do a gymnastics camp in the morning as well (Rebecca’s friend/our former neighbor will be in it). In the afternoon Rebecca and I both have dentist appts. Justin has a meeting at church in the evening. Thursday I will be bringing a meal to a MOPS friend that just had a baby. We also have to grocery shop, and I’ll be doing yoga. We don’t have anything set in stone for Friday. I was planning to go to the zoo, but now we’re going today. So we’ll see. We might just need a day to stay home and take it easy. Saturday morning Rebecca and I are getting our hair cut. In the afternoon my parents will be visiting. Rebecca, my mom and I will be going shopping for some school clothes for Rebecca. Then all of us will go out for dinner. I’m feeling worn out just seeing what we have going on 😛

In the kitchen I’ll be freezing more beans (I did one batch this morning). I have to freeze raspberries. I want to make something with them as well, but I’m not sure what yet. I will need to make more yogurt. I want to finally actually make a batch of sd breakfast cookies. I might make wheat crackers. I’ll probably make more ice cream. I would also like to try making beet kvaas (more on that to follow). Plus I need to make a meal for my friend.

Last week I went to a chiropractor for some nutritional testing. It’s muscle testing to see what parts of your body aren’t functioning well. It showed that I have issues with my pituitary gland and my gall bladder. Both make a lot of sense…but are two things I’ve never worked on. Pituitary controls things like fertility, thyroid, mood/mind…all things I struggle with. And the gall bladder deals with digestion, especially fats…which make up half of my diet! My mom has problems with her gall bladder, and my dad just had his removed. So it makes sense that I might have problems with mine. I have some supplements to help both systems. So far I’ve just started the pituitary supplement (which has magnesium in it :). They were out of the gall bladder ones (which contain some potassium). Hopefully I’ll get them this week…although I’m not sure when I’ll have time to get over there. My friend (the doctor) has really high hopes that they will help with  my digestion. I hope she’s right!! I can’t wait to start them. She also said that beet kvaas could be very helpful. I’ve heard it’s easy to make, so I’m hoping to try this week after I pick up some beets at the farmer’s market.

On to our busy week. Here’s what’s on the menu for now.
—————–
S (freeze beans, prep lunch, boil eggs, church, zoo, prep smoothies, freeze raspberries)
  B – zucchini bread, raspberry yogurt
  L – beef and veg in cp
  D – picnic – egg salad sandwich, fresh fruit, chips, cucumber slices, avocado

M (make raspberry topping, make breakfast cookies, milk, camp, Dr. V.)
  B – sd breakfast cookie, smoothie
  D – (light/early/easy clean up) – BLAT, broccoli, fruit

T (skim cream, make hot fudge, fm, camp)
  B – hard boiled egg, toast, fruit
  D – zucchini casserole, beans, fruit
W (prep dinner, chop fruit, bake squash, make hot fudge, Dr. S., dentist, music mtg)
  B – sd breakfast cookie, smoothie
  D – (prep ahead) – TBD cp chicken

Th (pre meal, make zucchini bread, make yogurt, make beet kvaas, bring meal, camp?, Meijer, yoga)
  B – apple w/ almond butter, yogurt
  D – (separate) – RR – TBD pasta

F (chop veggies, zoo?, make ice cream)
  B – yogurt, granola, fruit
  D – fried eggs, toast, roasted brussels sprouts

S (hair cut, shopping w/ grandma, dinner)
  B – tbd
  D – out to eat – Russ’s?

First full week in August. We still have a month before school, but I’m already getting nervous 😛  I’m not ready for my baby to be in school! Thankfully she is 🙂

Last week we kept busy…especially in the kitchen. I think I had baking withdrawal on vacation or something. Or I was just in the mood to be creative. Thanks to my husband for putting up with so many extra dishes 🙂

This week we have plenty going on. Today is church. Monday we need to go to Target and Heffron Farms. I realized yesterday we are almost out of meat! Aside from some beef we don’t have much in the freezer. I’ll get some at Heffron and order some from the co-op. Tuesday is farmer’s market and voting. I’m also going to do some nutritional testing. My friend Amy is a chiropractor. She told me they do some simple nutritional testing and can help me get the supplements my body needs. I’m so excited!! Wednesday and Friday we don’t have any set plans. We could go to the zoo or the library. Thursday we will probably meet my SIL and niece and nephew in Lansing. And we could potentially see them again on Saturday since they will be in town.

I’m not sure yet what all I’ll be doing in the kitchen. I’m sure there will be beans to freeze. I have to decide if I want to do one more round of corn or not. Maybe more zucchini. Soon I’ll start thinking about canning, starting with spaghetti sauce. I’ll need to make a new batch of pesto. I might make sd breakfast cookies. I also need to make a new batch of broth. I have my last jar in the fridge right now. Hopefully I can get some decent chicken tomorrow for that. Rebecca has some ideas of things she’d like to make as well. One of them being “blueberry bread cereal.” We’ll see if we can create something. She said we need to have it for breakfast 3 days this week…no more, no less 🙂

I’m doing ok. I’ve been craving salad lately…so I’ve been eating it. I normally eat mostly soft/easily digested foods. But sometimes my body tells me I need to change it up. I’ve been eating the same things over and over again lately…which leads to deficiencies. So I needed some variety. As long as I don’t go overboard. I’m a big fan of listening to your body. It really is quite a marvelous creation of God…and it knows just what it needs.

I’ve been having major issues with a tingling/burning tongue lately. I’ve read that it can be related to mineral deficiency, particularly magnesium. I get it periodically, but it’s been bad the last week, every day for a good portion of the day. I can’t pinpoint it to a certain food. So I don’t know if it’s a particular food that causes it, a deficiency, an allergy, hormones, yeast/thrush or what. As far as I know I have no allergies at all (food, seasonal, etc.). So I don’t think it’s that. We’ll see if adding some good vitamin/mineral supplements makes it go away. Whatever the case my body is definitely trying to tell me something.

I’m keeping a log of what Rebecca eats every day to see if I notice any correlation between food and behavior. So I might try to do some gluten free days here and there for her. We’ll see how it goes.

On to the menu.
—————–
S (prep lunch, prep smoothies, church, grind flour)
  B – breakfast bars, fruit
  L – cp pork chops, potatoes and carrots
  D – grilled brats, grilled mushrooms, sweet potato fries, beans

M (freeze beans, Target/Heffron)
  B – smoothie, sd blueberry muffins
  D – cheeseburger zucchini boats, fresh beans, applesauce

T (make pesto, freeze butter, skim cream, fm, vote, make ice cream, nutr. testing, freeze zucchini, cut up watermelon)
  B – yogurt, granola, fruit
  D – tacos, peas, applesauce

W (freeze corn, prep dinner, chop veggies, bake squash, make “cereal,” make ice cream, library, make broth)
  B – smoothie, english muffin
  D – cp roasted chicken, roasted brussels sprouts, roasted potatoes
Th (strain/freeze broth, boil eggs, Lansing)
  B – hard boiled egg, toast
  D – squash and sausage soup, cornbread

F (make breakfast cookies)
  B – sd breakfast cookie, smoothie
  D – cornbread french toast, fruit topping, mixed fruit, sausage

S (clean)
  B – leftovers or tbd
  D – fried fish, fresh beans, sweet potato fries