Happy Thanksgiving! (a few days early:). The holidays are here…and I’m not ready. I have barely even started thinking about Christmas (makes me nervous when I hear about others that almost have their shopping done!). My focus is on Thanksgiving first. Especially since I’m hosting. So that’s what this week is all about…cooking, cleaning, baking…prep for Thursday.

Last week had its share of challenges. I had some flops in the kitchen. I tried making butter…did not work. No idea what happened. I’ll try again soon. At least I was able to salvage my cream and used it (along with my too thick hot fudge) to make fudge ripple ice cream that turned out quite well. I made root beer bread. It worked. But Justin and Rebecca weren’t crazy about it. I cooked some pumpkins. Took much longer than I had expected because I had issues cutting the pumpkin. The end product was fine at least. I made a spaghetti and meatballs meal with spaghetti squash, pesto and pork meatballs. I thought it was awesome! But Rebecca would hardly touch it. I did at least manage to make a new batch of lard, yogurt, sour cream, graham crackers, mayo, nut butter, stock, broth and whole wheat bagels (my best batch of bagels to date!). I also made a small batch of cream cheese with my homemade yogurt. I wanted to see how it would turn out before using it in recipes. I was very pleasantly surprised with how thick it is. I should definitely be able to use homemade cream cheese for my dessert this week. I was going to make cheesecake with it. But now I’m not sure…that would take a lot of cream cheese…which would take a LOT of yogurt…which would take a lot of our milk. So I’m thinking I might make pumpkin cheese pie instead. It only needs 8 oz. of cream cheese instead of 24. If I do I’ll still make a graham cracker crust with our homemade grahams. And make some homemade whipped cream to go with it. I did try making Russian custard again…turned out great!! I updated my blog post. What a great, healthy snack. I made more last night for myself. Such a treat. Aside from the kitchen chaos Rebecca has been quite a handful this week with meltdowns, tantrums, crying fits, disobedience. Not sure what is going on. But we’re running out of toys to take away. She doesn’t seem to care. Last night instead of taking a bath and having her usual snack she opted to go right to bed. She was so beyond tired and just losing it. I think that was a good decision for all of us 😛  She’s trying to get attention…and she’s refusing to nap lately. Not a good combo.

On top of that I have not been feeling very good the last week. Not sure if I bumped up dairy too quickly or if it’s hormones or stress from a chaotic week or something I ate or die off or what. Probably a combo of all of it that leads to a totally whammy for my gut. I’m trying my best to eat right and be patient. But it’s tough. Still struggling today. I hope I’m on the upswing soon. For now I’ll hold off on yogurt (I had been eating a little in my smoothies). I had been adding whey to my soup every  morning. Realized that is another high protein dairy…not good for constipation. Oops. Won’t be doing that anymore. I had also been eating a lot of squash, which is healthy but also a high starch/sugar veggie. The GAPS sight says to avoid squash for a bit if constipation is an issue. Again, oops. I had also been using a lot of honey in my food and drinks. Probably too much. So the last couple of days I have cut back a lot. I’m learning each day. I really wish I had a juicer so I could make fresh juices. I think that would be a huge help. I’m learning that the real issue with constipation is not so much what you are eating (i.e. dairy does NOT cause constipation). It’s with the balance of the intestinal nervous system. I need to calm the sympathetic system and activate the parasympathetic system. How do I do that? With plenty of good gut flora (probiotic foods), raw juices rich in magnesium and potasium, more animal fats, gelatinous meats and veggies and less muscle meat (think I may have been eating too much ground meat lately). Another trick that I already do is to drink warm water with lemon first thing in the morning. I’ve been trying to eat beets regularly again…a veggie high in magnesium. I’m hoping a few days of avoiding my mistakes and doing the right things will help resolve issues. In the mean time I just have to wait it out. Not fun. I started my morning today with chicken broth, butter, avocado, 1 egg, fermented veggies and raw sour cream. I hope that helps. I did buy some ginger last week so I can try making ginger tea. I haven’t been a fan of ginger in the past, so we’ll see how it goes. If none of this seems to help I may have to start supplementing magnesium. I hear lots of good things about that. I think overall I do well with the probiotic and calming foods. I just need to add more of the stimulating foods…like more veggies! That will be my goal this week. Maybe I’ll make a big batch of split pea soup just for me to snack on and have for breakfast/lunch. I always seem to feel better when I eat that…now I know why. Maybe I’ll try some softer raw veggies too (lettuce, cucumber). Here’s hoping!

One other thing that happened last week is that we started a few solids for Abram. He had some squash with chicken broth and some banana. Just a few little bites. He seemed to do fine with them. Not sure what’s on the menu for him this week…peas, avocado, egg yolk. Guess I’ll start doing a little baby food making here and there. Basically just blend cooked veggies with homemade broth.

Finally on to this week. Of course it will be busy with Thanksgiving. At least I don’t have to go anywhere tomorrow. We are starting to share our milk pick up…and I don’t have to do it this week. Today is church. Monday I have nursery cmt. Tuesday is Kindermusik and co-op pick up (turkey!!). Wednesday is Meijer. Thursday is Thanksgiving. Either Friday or Saturday we might go to the Holland Aquatic Center. It’s our PERKS activity this month. Rebecca and Justin would swim. Abram and I would probably be observers 🙂  I’m not buying him a new swimming suit for one trip to the pool.

In the kitchen I’ll be trying to stay on top of healthy, healing foods for myself and my family (sour cream, yogurt) plus getting everything ready for Thanksgiving. I’m providing the hot food and one dessert. My family is bringing the rest. I’m trying to do simple meals so that I can have plenty of time for other stuff. Here’s what’s on the menu.
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S (prep lunch, church, soak beans)
  L – cp pork chops w/ potatoes and carrots and onions
  D – hot dogs, corn (Justin), veggies w/ fried egg (me)

M (cook beans, prep dinner, make smoothies, dry apples, nursery cmt)
  D – chili, tortilla chips (Justin), salmon avocado salad, mixed veggies (me)

T (make cream cheese, skim cream, make sour cream, make yogurt, KM, co-op, put away laundry)
  D – leftover chili, grilled cheese (Justin), salmon avocado salad, mixed veggies (me)

W (bake pumpkin, bake squash, make potatoes, make pie, make whipped cream, chop veggies, Meijer)
  D – everything salmon, baked sweet potatoes, peas

Th (clean, prep stuffing, Thanksgiving, make broth)
  D – turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes w/ gravy, peas, fruit w/ dip, applesauce, layer salad, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin cheese pie w/ whipped cream, pumpkin pie, apple pie

F (HAC, deal with leftovers, make baby food)
  D – turkey in broth, peas, mashed potato cakes

S (laundry, clean, make kefir, strain/freeze turkey broth)
  D – squash and turkey soup, stuffing cakes

Mid November already. And it finally feels like it. We had our first snow last week. I don’t think I’m ready for that yet. Although I don’t think I’m ever ready for snow 😛  Rebecca sure was excited. We had a fun, but interesting week last week. Justin was out of town two days, which always makes for some challenges. And this time was no exception. It seems we always have a storm/bad weather when Justin is gone. So of course he left Tueday morning…and that afternoon our power went out. Thankfully it came on fairly quickly (only about an hour w/o power), but it was still un-nerving. No power, husband out of town…and my cell phone battery was dead. We were totally cut off. Then Wednesday morning as I was flossing one of my fillings fell out! One that I had just gotten in August. So I made some phone calls and was able to get into the dentist that morning. And thankfully my Aunt Marcia was willing to watch the kids (it helps that she lives 60 seconds down the road from our dentist :). We learned something new on Wednesday…Abram’s fear of strangers/separation anxiety is in full swing. He was crying when I dropped him off…and still crying when I came back. Poor guy. We were all thankful when Justin came home Wednesday night 🙂  Aside from that we did our usual errands. Plus we had nursery duty for MOPS. So Rebecca got to play with lots of other kids while I got a little Mommy social time 🙂  And yesterday we had one of Justin’s co-workers over. Rebecca had a blast with his 2 kids.

Since we were having people over I was plenty busy around the house and in the kitchen last week. Lots of deeper cleaning (always good to have some motivation for that). I also made ice cream, two batches of sour cream, two batches of yogurt, pesto, two batches of hot fudge, caramel, roasted beets, cheesecake and homemade rolls. I didn’t intend to do two batches of fudge, but the first one got so thick. So I tried it again…still very thick. It’s the same recipe I always use. I’m wondering if a stainless steel pan vs. a non-stick pan can cause that. It was fun to make cheesecake. I haven’t done that in a while. As usual everyone loved it. Especially with homemade chocolate, caramel, crispy pecans and blueberry topping. I am planning to make cheesecake again in a couple weeks for Thanksgiving. But this time I want to try making it completely from scratch…homemade graham crackers for the crust (I did half homemade and half boughten this time), homemade cream cheese (from our homemade yogurt), etc. I hope it turns out well. We’ve really been enjoying our homemade yogurt. So far I’ve made strawberry, blueberry, banana, vanilla, chocolate chip, apple cinnamon and caramel apple. I haven’t heard any complaints 🙂

So on to this week. Busy as usual. Today is church. Monday is milk pick up and Abram’s 6 month check up. Hard to believe he’s 6 months old already. But he sure is looking like it. I’m guessing he’s over 20 lbs. now. He’s very mobile. And his 2nd tooth finally poked through. Tuesday is Kindermusik. Wednesday is Harvest Health. I like that I only have to go there once in a while now to stock up on some staples. Probably only once a month at most. Friday is MOPS. Not sure about Saturday yet. I might make a trip to the fabric store to get some projects.

In the kitchen I plan to make more sour cream and yogurt. I might try butter this week too. We’ll see. Since I’m eating a lot of sour cream right now I use most of our cream for that. I need to make a new batch of graham crackers. I want to make some homemade cream cheese to see what the texture is like/see if it will be possible to make cheesecake with it. I want to bake/freeze pumpkin. I’d like to make a new batch of lard. And we’re getting low on nut butter (and the more crispy nuts I use for nut butter the fewer there will be to tempt me :P). Finally I want to make bagels. Since I’m making cream cheese and Rebecca loves bagels I thought that would be a fun baking project. I haven’t made them in a while. My other food adventure will be starting solids for Abram either this week or next week. I haven’t planned it out yet. And I forgot to mention last week that I threw away my sourdough. I haven’t been feeding it lately. I just don’t use it very often. And our fridge space is limited these days with so much milk and other dairy products/large glass jars. So I tossed it. Maybe some day I’ll start a new one. But for now we’re without sourdough.

Update on me…I’m doing pretty well. I think I’m finally past the die off from introducing cultured dairy. Praise the Lord! That was not fun. I’ve been eating quite a bit of sour cream. And even a little bit of yogurt the last 2 days. What a treat to make a smoothie yesterday with sour cream and yogurt! As far as I can tell it’s going ok so far. We’ll see how I feel today (especially after snitching a little cheesecake :P). I can tell that dairy is making a difference in my health. I think my milk supply has been up since introducing dairy. Not that I was looking (just look at Abram :P). But I think it’s up now from what it was. I’m learning that I need a LOT of fat in my diet. It really helps my digestion. Whenever I make soup I put 1 or 2 Tbsp. of butter in it. Plus some sour cream. And sometimes other fats as well. That works well. I still use plenty of coconut oil in my smoothies. And I still try to eat as many egg yolks as possible. As you can see from my recent posts I’m coming up with new snack ideas and new ways to eat eggs (russian custard, creme caramel, berries w/ sour cream and honey). I’m trying to get more variety in my diet. I think that helps too. I tend to find one thing that works well and then eat it day after day. But I find my body does better if I get a little more variety. Still trying not to eat too many nuts. I’ve been doing pretty well this week. No major splurges. I usually let myself have a few here and there. Finally I think my hormones are a big factor right now. I think it’s the 6 months post partum trying to get back to normal shift 😛  I think that’s part of the cause of all the headaches I’m having lately. My hair loss finally seems to be slowing down. I’ve been having lots of metal mouth (something I get with a big hormone shift). And lots of little things that point to hormones. So hopefully that adjustment will taper off soon.

Well, I think that’s long enough for today. I’ve got a noisy, growly boy here that I should try to get back to sleep. He’s been up playing since 6 am. And if he doesn’t get his rest he is not pleasant to be around 😛  Here’s what’s on the menu.
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S (prep breakfast and lunch, church, make mayo)
  L – meatloaf, baked potato, squash (all in cp)
  D – soaked squash pancakes w/ blueberry topping and homemade whipped cream, scrambled eggs or hashbrown egg bake, smoothies/shakes (cheesecake for dessert)

M (Dr. S., GF, strain/freeze chicken stock, cook pumpkin, make chicken broth)
  D – roasted chicken, roasted brussels sprouts, roasted sweet potatoes

T (KM, skim cream, make sour cream, make yogurt, strain/freeze chicken broth, make bread)
  D – pumpkin soup, root beer bread

W (HH, make butter, make lard, WT)
  D – spaghetti squash with porkk meatballs and pesto, peas

Th (make graham crackers, make nut butter, make ice cream)
  D – gf chicken nuggets w/ honey mustard, roasted squash

F (clean, MOPS, make cream cheese)
  D – pancake and sausage muffins, sweet potato hash browns, russian custard w/ bluberries

S (fabric store?, make bagels)
  D – bagels w/ cream cheese and nut butter, fried eggs, veggies, fruit