Is it really mid-April already? I think I blinked and a month went by. This week is a special week for us…my “baby” girl turns 4!!! I think back to when this whole journey started in 2006 and everything we’ve been through. Now I have this smart, funny, healthy little girl that will be 4 on Tuesday. God is good.

Last week was pretty crazy with errands, Dr. appts., KM, MOPS, soccer, family visits, etc. This week will be busy too. More so in the house than out of the house, but still busy. Today is church, and Justin has an orchestra concert. Monday I have nursery cmt. Tuesday is Kindermusik and birthday. We aren’t going anywhere or having a party. We’ll be celebrating at home just the four of us. Wednesday Rebecca has her four year check up. Friday my in-laws are coming (they’ll be here until Sunday). Saturday we have soccer in the morning. In the afternoon Rebecca will be surprised by going to a Pinkalicious show with Daddy and Grandpa and Grandma. In the evening Justin and his parents are going to the Grand Rapids Symphony. Lots of fun stuff…although I’ll be home almost the whole day (aside from a half hour of soccer). There is a chance of a playdate. And a chance the energy audit people will come back (they had to cancel last week).

In the kitchen last week I made s’mores ice cream, sour cream, yogurt, breakfast cookies, Rebecca’s birthday cake (she helped…it’s in the freezer now ready for decoration!), and I finally started my sourdough. This week I have a lot to do with birthday and guests. I will continue to feed my sd starter. It should be ready on Thursday. I can’t wait to make some sd bread!! I will be decorating Rebecca’s cake. She requested a Lego Friends cake. We’ll see what I can come up with 🙂  I also want to make sour cream, ice cream, pesto, baked oatmeal and food for the weekend. I finally got out some patterns yesterday for stuff for Rebecca and her doll. The doll clothes look pretty simple. I know I won’t have time to work on them this week, but maybe next week.

So, last week I saw my colon surgeon. It’s been 3 1/2 years! He did confirm one pressing issue that I thought was going on. So I have some medication for that. And sadly he put me back on the miralax 🙁  After working so hard for so long to stop it. But I know that God is in control. For now I need to do this to get past certain problems. Maybe some day down the road I can try again. But for now I guess I need it. I go back in a month for another check. After that we’ll see about more testing to see if there are any other issues going on. In the mean time, I haven’t been feeling good at all lately. I think I’m still working through the die off phase. I think I’m on the upswing, but it’s hard to say. It usually lasts about 2 weeks. It’s been over a week already, so I hope it’s over soon. My weight continues to go up. And I don’t like it. It’s not so much where I’m at. It’s the fear of how long this will go on. When will it stop? Some days I feel hopeful. Other days I feel so worn out and totally lost. It seems like no matter what I do/eat I don’t feel good and I keep gaining weight. I know part of it is the die off and the issue I’m treating. Thankfully I’m in the process of dealing with those. But aside from that I get lost. As I think about my current diet the only major difference over last year is that I eat a fair amount of wheat now. Maybe too much? Maybe I don’t handle it as well as I thought? Maybe with my gut out of balance my body is not tolerating it that well at the moment? It’s an idea. So I think I’m going to scale back a little on wheat this week. Not eliminate it. But not go quite so bread crazy 😛  This is another reason I’m anxious to try my sourdough. I mostly eat soaked wheat, but even that is harder on your system than sourdough. I have also read some stuff about pork and how it can impact your system/health. I ate quite a bit of pork last week (not intentionally…that’s just how it went with meals and leftovers). So maybe I need to give both beef and pork a rest for a bit. Or at least really limit them. They are just so hard for me to digest. I also want to reintroduce more fiber. Because of the pain I’ve been in I haven’t been able to eat any raw food or much fiber of any kind lately. I’m hoping to add some back in this week and see how it goes. So for this week I want the bulk of my diet to be vegetables and healthy fats. Sufficient protein of course, but from easily digested sources like eggs, dairy, etc. I’m not going to eat low carb. That is not my goal. But I am going to be careful about going overboard with grains. I want to get my gut back in balance as quickly as possible, so I need to give it a break.

I think that’s it for this week. Here’s what’s on the menu.
——————-
S (prep breakfast, prep lunch, feed sd, church, CCS, prep smoothies, make pesto)
  B – banana walnut yogurt parfait
  L – cp sweet mustard roast w/ sweet potatoes, peppers and carrots / salad w/ beets, olives, avocado and cucumbers
  D – soaked veggie cheese cups (w/ salmon?), fruit, peas

M (make cake decorations, feed sd, crumb coat and frost cake, nursery cmt)
  B – smoothie, toast w/ pb
  D – (early/prep ahead) – leftover veggie cups / leftover hot dogs

T (decorate cake, skim cream, feed sd, KM, make ice cream, birthday, soak oats)
  B – pancakes w/ syrup, fresh fruit
  D – pizza balls (Rebecca’s request/idea…I will be experimenting), peas, cake/ice cream

W (prep breakfast, feed sd, make mayo, Dr. S., strain kefir)
  B – baked oatmeal w/ milk and bananas
  D – tacos bacon pesto panini, roasted asparagus, fruit / veggie cups

Th (feed sd, food prep – bake sd bread, make vanilla wafers, chop veggies, make muesli, make mud balls, soak beans , cleaning)
  B – baked oatmeal, smoothie
  D – roasted eggs or zucchini cakes,leftover pizza, broccoli

F (food prep – bake cinnamon raisin bread, cook beans, make caramel dip, make fruit salad, make pesto, make hummus, Voogts)
  B – roasted egg w/ toast or yogurt, fruit, baked oatmeal
  D – grilled burgers, roasted brussels sprouts and cauliflower, chips, fruit salad
  Des – birthday cake/ice cream

S (boil eggs, make yogurt, prep dinner, Voogts, soccer, Pinkalicious, GRSO)
  B – muesli w/ vanilla yogurt, fruit salad, cinnamon raisin swirl bread w/ pb
  L – egg salad sandwiches, tortilla chips, peppers, carrots and cucumbers w/ hummus, apples w/ caramel dip, mud balls, vanilla wafers
  D – pork roast, sweet potato wedges, beans, applesauce
  Des – cake/ice cream/mudballs/vanilla wafers

Happy Easter!! Christ is risen!!

Where do I begin today’s post? Last week we enjoyed a little break from all activities and got to stay home a lot. We did crafts, baking, played outside. It was nice. This week…it’s back to chaos. And I’m just praying my body is up for it.

I kept very busy in the kitchen last week making a meal and goodies for my grandparents (we visited them one afternoon). I also made two batches of bars, tapioca pudding and cherry pie for birthday treats for Justin (some for home, some for work). I did some recipe experimenting for my next GRNL post. I made soaked graham crackers, peach bread, sour cream, ice cream (strawberry, cherry, kiwi), pesto, mayo and we made Easter sugar cookies.

On to this week. Today we are visiting my family. We’ll be going to church and having lunch with them. So that means an early morning for us to get there on time. Hopefully Abram handles the trip ok. Monday is milk pick up and a meeting in the evening. Tuesday is Kindermusik. I also have an appt. with my colon surgeon in the afternoon, and Justin has orchestra rehearsal in the evening. Wednesday is groceries, and Justin has worship team rehearsal. Thursday we get the results from our energy audit (they will come to our house to discuss it). Friday is MOPS. Saturday is the first day of soccer! I don’t like weeks where we  have something going on every day. But that’s the way it goes sometimes. Sadly next week won’t slow down. So I’m trying to prepare for a couple crazy weeks.

I’m not sure I’ll have time for a whole lot in the kitchen this week. Mostly I’ll be focused on our meals. Four out of five weeknights I need some kind of prep ahead meal. Aside from that I’ll deal with our milk and make more sour cream. Possibly more ice cream. I would really like to start my sourdough, but we’ll see if I get around to it. We are low on breakfast items, so I could make cereal or breakfast cookies. I would also like to bake Rebecca’s birthday cake. Her birthday is next week. I want to get the cake done and in the freezer. Then I can focus on decorations.

I don’t have much good to say about my status. I’m feeling a bit lost right now. I’ve had some pretty bad days lately. And my weight keeps going up. I’ve gained almost 10 lbs. in the last 3 months. And I don’t like it! No matter how much or little I eat. No matter how much or little I exercise. It keeps going up. I just feel uncomfortable in my own skin. If I felt great the weight wouldn’t bother me so much. But when I feel heavy, plus my acne is worse, my belly is as bloated as ever and my digestion is bad it’s not a good situation. Sometimes I feel like I can hardly eat. But then I eat junk to relieve stress. I made an appt. with my colon surgeon. I am going for a particular issue. I’m hoping he can help with that (really hoping…I’m sick of being in pain and hardly being able to eat healthy food). But I’m also hoping maybe he can give some overall direction. Every time I seem to figure something out and feel good then a couple weeks later I’m back to where I started. It’s hard to keep up with a house and two very active little ones when you never feel good. I added wheat back into my diet in January. Maybe I’m not handling it as well as I had originally thought (one reason I really want to get my sd started…maybe I’ll handle that better)? I think I’ve been eating quite a bit more sweet stuff lately. I’m thinking I really need to take a break from sugar. I’ve been reading quite a bit about fructose. I’m going to try really limiting my fructose consumption – including honey, fruit, etc. See what that does for me. Maybe I need to go back to full GAPS for a few days or a week and give my gut a rest. I’m not really sure at this point. I’m doing a lot of praying for direction and clarity. I’m trying to trust that God has a plan and a purpose for all of this. I’m trying to not worry because I know God is in control no matter how out of control things feel. I’m trying to take things one day, one step at a time and not let my mind wander into all of the what-ifs down the road. Sometimes you have to hit the bottom to start moving up again. I’m hoping I’m on the way up soon. The weather is getting nicer. I want to be out and about and active with my kids. We’re planning our summer vacation. I want to feel good when we travel and be able to make it enjoyable for everyone. I don’t have time to feel sick. I want to be living life and giving my family my energy and attention instead of giving it all to my body. I’m praying that my appt. on Tuesday will be very helpful and that I can figure out what works for me so I can get on with life.

Anyway, on to the week. I hope I can manage our trip ok today. Trying to keep the anxiety down. No Easter feast for me. Here’s what’s on the menu for now.
—————————-
S (church, family dinner, Easter, prep smoothies)
  B – granola w/ milk, fruit
  L – at my parents’ house
  D – spaghetti / leftover crab cakes

M (make broth, prep dinner,  boil eggs, milk, meeting)
  B – smoothie, muffins
  D – (early/easy clean up) – cp honey mustard chicken breasts and veggies over rice

T (freeze broth, prep dinner, skim cream, make sour cream, KM, Dr. L, CCS, soak flour)
  B – hard boiled egg, toast
  D – (cp/prep ahead) – sausage and veggie soup

W (make breakfast cookies, clean, Meijer, WT)
  B – breakfast cookies, smoothie
  D – (early/easy clean up) – hot dogs, chips, peas

Th (make yogurt, bake cake, pick up Rx)
  B – yogurt, granola, fruit
  D – (prep ahead) – crockpot sweet and sour chicken meatballs, baked potatoes, beans spaghetti, beans, garlic toast

F (chop fruit, clean, start sd, MOPS, grind flour, soak flour)
  B – smoothie, breakfast cookies
  D – roasted eggs, scones, roasted veggies hot dogs, veggies, fruit

S (feed sd, soccer, bank)
  B – scones, fruit
  D – cheeseburger cups, beans, sweet potato wedges roasted eggs, soaked scones, roasted veggies

Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest! Happy Palm Sunday 🙂  And a special morning for me…Abram is still sleeping!

This week is spring break for most schools. So there isn’t much going on. It doesn’t mean much for us since we don’t have kids in school. But it does mean that we don’t have Kindermusik or MOPS. So we have absolutely nothing going on! Well, never nothing. But basically nothing. Today is church. Thursday evening we are going out for dinner for Justin’s birthday. Friday Justin has off of work for Good Friday. That’s pretty much it. I am going to use this week to make progress on Abram’s sleep training. Since we’ll be home every morning we can have a normal nap every day in his crib and have him put himself to sleep. He’s done it 3 days in a row now with less than 10 minutes of crying. And he’s sleeping a lot better at night. Hopefully a week of being home and taking normal naps will really help. We might try to have a park playdate this week. And I might try to visit my grandparents. That’s about it for us. That’s fine with me since last week was pretty busy with milk, Kindermusik, Meijer a park playdate, shopping and lunch with my SIL and nephew and birthday shopping.

Last week I made cookie dough ice cream, yogurt (2 batches), oatmeal muffins, pesto, sour cream, soaked granola (an experimental oat-free version made with wheat and buckwheat…turned out well), kefir, soaked bread, soaked buns and soaked pretzels.

This week I have a pretty long list of things I’d like to make. I’m out of soaked cereal and graham crackers, so I want to make more of both of those. I want to make more sour cream and ice cream (not sure yet what flavor to try this week). Justin often asks about tapioca pudding, but I’ve never made it (and don’t know if I like it or not). So I bought some tapioca pearls recently and want to try making it. I will also be making a cherry pie for Justin’s birthday treat. Rebecca wants to make and decorate Easter cookies (sugar cookies). I also need to make a new batch of mayo and possibly breakfast cookies. Justin would like some cookies to bring to work for his birthday. And I might bring my grandparents a meal/dessert. I could also start my sourdough, but that might wait a week or two yet. If that doesn’t keep me busy enough I can work on my sewing projects. I also would like to do more Easter projects with Rebecca (we did some coloring and made a bunny mask already).

For meals I will be doing some recipe experimenting for my next GRNL post. Rebecca picked out fennel at the store last week, so I still have to figure out how I want to use that. It’s a new veggie for us.

I guess Abram didn’t quite make it long enough for me to finish my post 😛  But I’ll take 6:45 over 3 am any day!

Not much to report on myself. Up and down, up and down. Still trying to figure things out. Some days I feel like I’m making good progress. Some days I feel like I’m back at square one. I’m trying to leave out oats again. And I know that I can’t eat nuts right now (hopefully at some point I can add them back). I’m enjoying lots of ice cream for breakfast 🙂

Here’s what’s on the menu.
———————
S (cook beans, prep lunch, chop veggies, make croutons, church, grind flour, prep smoothies)
  B – french toast
  L – cp rice and beans, applesauce / leftover pea soup
  D – leftover pizza burgers, mozz. sticks, corn / salad w/ mozz sticks, croutons, avocado and cucumber

M (roast beets, soak flour for graham crackers, bake peach bread, bake bars)
  B – smoothies, soaked date scones
  D – grilled “cheese”, roasted brussels sprouts, peaches

T (skim cream, make sour cream, prep dinners, make graham crackers, visit grandparents)
  B – smoothies, peach bread
  D – cp chicken breasts, potatoes, carrots and onions, roasted beet salad

W (make pudding, make ice cream)
  B – toast w/ pb, banana yogurt
  D – recipe experiment, coconut flour bread, pears, pudding

Th (out to eat/Justin’s birthday, make pie)
  B – yogurt, granola, mixed fruit
  D – out to eat – Ucello’s

F (clean, make/decorate cookies)
  B – TBD
  D – frittata, roasted brussels sprouts, recipe experiment

S (pack)
  B – leftover frittata
  D – tuna or crab cakes, roasted fennel