As I expected January is flying by! But I feel like I’ve been accomplishing a lot of my goals and learning a ton! So, it’s fast but good 🙂  Last week was fairly busy. But since Rebecca had a cold we couldn’t do everything we wanted…like go to MOPS 🙁  I guess I have to wait a couple more weeks for some mommy down time/chat time. We did go to another preschool open house. Only one more to go. Rebecca also started swimming lessons yesterday. We weren’t sure what she would think (she’s not what I would call a little fish :P). But she loved it! In the afternoon Rebecca and I had our Mommy-daughter time and went to the fabric store. We picked out some patterns for doll clothes and clothes for Rebecca. I got stuff for a couple other projects as well. I have enough sewing projects to keep me busy for a LONG time now. I just have to find the time to work on them.

The kitchen was busy as usual. I made 2 batches of yogurt, sour cream, apple raisin cake, vanilla pudding, hot fudge, dried apples, almond butter and cream cheese. I also made another attempt at butter. It sort of worked. I tried making sure the cream was at the right temperature. Then I shook it in a mason jar for a while. It wasn’t getting there. So I put it in the Vitamix. That didn’t work either. I think it started getting too warm. I chilled it a bit. I tried the jar again. Then I tried my hand mixer. In the end I did get some solids to separate. I rinsed them and put them in the fridge…but they are still quite white. So it has the texture of butter, but not the look. It’s kind of not quite there butter 😛  I think I’m done with butter for now.

This week will be fairly busy getting into our winter activities. Swimming lessons just started, and now Kindermusik starts up again this week. It was nice to have a break from everything. Hopefully we are up for the busyness again. Today is church. Monday I think we’ll go to Harvest Health. Tuesday is Kindermusik. Wednesday we might go to the library, and it is co-op pick up. Thursday is another preschool open house. There is a chance there is a playdate with my MOPS group on Friday, but I never heard if that was finalized or not. Saturday is swimming, and we’re going to a basketball game and out to dinner with all of my family to celebrate my dad’s birthday and my grandma’s birthday. We’re entering the season of birthdays around here. And it won’t stop until May. I also need to set up some playdates that we had to cancel recently. They won’t happen this week, but I need to get them on the calendar…or they’ll never happen 😛

I have some projects planned in the kitchen this week. For sure I want to make mayo and pesto. I’ve been eating salads for breakfast (and some lunches) every day lately. And pesto is a great dressing to have on hand! It’s basically veggies and olive oil. I would also like to bake some bread. I haven’t decided what kind yet. I just got a free e-book from Kitchen Stewardship that is all soaked/sprouted/sourdough recipes. So I might try one of those. There are also a couple breads in my Vitamix cookbook I’d like to try. I might be making cupcakes for our celebration on Saturday. I haven’t gotten to do any cakes in a while so that will be fun. I also need to work on planning my nephew’s birthday cake that I’ll be doing in a few weeks. I want to bake some sourdough crackers (I still have some dough in the freezer). Rebecca is doing the letter S this week. She has been waiting for this week because Sister Bear starts with S. So I thought I’d make her some of Sister Bears favorite foods – cocoa and honey bread, carrot sticks, nuts and raisins and “possum” stew (we’ll do beef stew :). And for our meals I’ll do some Soups and Sandwiches. I need lots of simple, prep ahead meals this week. I’m sure I’ll be using the crockpot a lot. I’d like to get started on some sewing projects soon, but I’m not sure it will happen this week. We’ll see.

On the health front I’ve been reading and learning so much! I finished reading Change Your Brain Change Your Life. And I’m part way through The Mood Cure. So much great information. Especially in TMC. It seems that all of my reading on the brain and the gut is leading me down a similar path. I will do a separate post on it soon. I’ll just say that for now I need to focus on a good balance of protein, healthy fats and vegetables. And experiment with small amounts of other carbs like potatoes, rice and grains. The critical thing for me dealing with OCD is to increase the serotonin levels in my brain through food and supplements. One thing that I really need to focus on is eliminating sugar. I’m seeing just how much that impacts your mood and overall health. I am hoping to find some amino acids at Harvest Health and start on those. Last week I tried potatoes, rice, wheat and sweet potatoes. Overall I did ok. But Thursday I had steak and sweet potatoes…and I’m still trying to recover. I still don’t get it, but steak just doesn’t work for me. And in combo with potato was even worse. The odd thing is that I seem to do better with grains (like wheat) than I do with other starches like rice and potatoes.

I finally made some progress on money-making and more blog exposure this week. More to come on that next month.

Here’s what’s on the menu this week.
——————-
S (prep breakfast and lunch, church, make mayo, make pesto)
  L – rustic chicken stew
  D – taco dip w/ tortilla chips and veggies, blueberry milkshakes

M (HH)
  D – fish sticks, roasted brussels sprouts, chips w/ dip

T (skim cream, make sour cream, make cream cheese, KM, grind flour, soak flour)
  D – CA BLT, sweet potato fries, peas

W (bake breakfast, make yogurt, bake crackers, prep dinner, library, co-op, soak flour, make cream cheese)
  D – (prep ahead) – beef stew, sd crackers w/ raw cheese

Th (make granola bars, open house, bake biscuits or bread)
  D – (early/easy clean up) – split pea soup, soaked biscuits

F (clean, playdate, Dr. appt.)
  D – soaked pancakes w/ raw strawberry topping, bacon, smoothies

S (make yogurt, bake cupcakes, make ice cream, swimming, basketball game, party)
  D – out to eat (probably Arnie’s)

Home sweet home…Justin is home 🙂  It sure feels good to have Justin back after a week away in Japan! Last week was…interesting. It definitely had its share of challenges…car mishap, sick baby, power outage (brrr!), lots of sleepless nights, canceled plans (2 playdates and a trip to the library), plane delays. But we made it. And we are thankful Justin is home. Hopefully he can stay put for a while 🙂

We did do quite a few fun things last week. I’ll post more on that in our letter of the week post. In the kitchen I made beets, mayo, pesto, manna, breakfast cake, yogurt, sour cream and ice cream (experimented and made it with a combo of milk, yogurt and sour cream…pretty good). We also had a visit from my parents and went to a preschool open house.

It was kind of nice not having to go anywhere last week. Especially with all the snow we got! Just when we were starting to wonder if it was really winter we got a ton of snow the last 2 days. Schools were even closed on Friday. Maybe we’ll have to spend some time outside today. This week will definitely be busier than last week. Today is church. Monday Justin has off of work for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We have milk pick up, and I have a nursery cmt meeting. If time allows Rebecca and I might have some Mommy/daughter time. Possibly a trip to the library. Tuesday it’s back to normal routines and grocery shopping. Wednesday Rebecca and I both have dentist appts., and Justin has worship team. Friday is MOPS. My table is providing breakfast, so I’ll be doing some baking this week for that. Saturday I’d like to get to the fabric store. I think I’ve decided to skip our PERKS activity this month since it is painting pottery…we did that last month. We need to decide today if we’re doing swimming lessons and/or soccer lessons for Rebecca. I think the first session of swimming starts this Saturday! So we have to get that figured out.

The kitchen will be busier this week than last since I actually have to cook again 😛  Justin brought home some chop sticks from Japan, so maybe we’ll have a meal or two where we can use them. Since Justin wasn’t home last week we have quite a bit of milk yet to use up. So I’m trying to decide what to do with it. Maybe a batch of pudding? Or more farmer’s cheese? I might make another attempt at butter this week after getting more tips from Donielle. We’ll see how it goes. I also have to start thinking about cakes! I might be making a birthday cake for my dad next weekend. And I will be making my nephew’s cake again in a few weeks. Time to start brainstorming and planning!

I was a bit all over the place last week. I know it was mostly due to stress/anxiety and lack of sleep. The last couple days have been pretty good, though. I got my new order of magnesium drops (had a few days where I was out) and my magnesium oil spray. It’s hard to say if it’s helping after just a few days. I’ll have to report back on that. I do feel that overall the magnesium helps. I have continued to read and research about brain function, the nervous system, etc. And I’ve been reviewing my eating/health over the last decade. I have a lot of ideas in my head that I hope to put into a post very soon. But I did want to mention that over the last few days I have eaten a little bit of bread (fermented bread…I even ate a small sandwich!) and some potatoes. I have also been trying hard to increase my fruit and veggie intake while decreasing protein a little. I still make sure to eat plenty of healthy fat, but not go overboard. Only time will tell how the changes will impact me, but I can say that I tolerated the grains/starches a lot better than I had expected. So far no major issues. And on the positive side I feel like I’ve had a much better appetite the last few days. For the first time in a while I wake up to a growling stomach again 🙂  It feels like my tummy is digesting more effectively instead of feeling like there is a brick in my gut. It feels good to feel hungry! This week I will keep experimenting. I want to try sweet potato and rice. I also need to start baking some properly prepared grains so I have them on hand for myself…make sprouted flour, soak flour for breads, etc. Soon I’d like to make a new sourdough starter. I might also start more “juicing” this week. Not true juicing. But using my Vitamix to make smoothies that contain a larger variety of fruits and veggies than I normally use. And change the ratio of my smoothies. They are usually mostly protein (yolks, sour cream, etc.) and fat (coconut oil). I want to bump up the fruit/veggie portion in them. See if that helps. I know it will help in one way…making it easier to keep up with my little climber while I try to eat lunch 🙂

I did some experimenting with Rebecca last week. I still have more to do, though. Last week was not a normal week for us, so it’s hard to say what had the most impact on her. I hope to do a post on that soon as well.

Here’s what’s on the menu for the week.
—————————-
S (prep lunch, church, make vanilla pudding, make hot fudge)
  L – 7 layer dinner, peaches
  D – milkshakes/smoothies, pesto grilled cheese, chips, pudding

M (make yogurt, milk, MLK, grind flour, nursery cmt, soak rice, library)
  D – (early) – chx pesto pizzas, apple slices

T (skim cream, make sour cream, Meijer, make butter)
  D – sweet and sour chicken stir fry over soaked rice (w/ chop sticks)

W (dry apples, dentist, WT, marinate steak)
  D – (prep ahead) – pumpkin, squash, carrot soup, leftover pizza

Th (prep MOPS food, make almond butter, sprout wheat berries)
  D – marinated steak, baked sweet potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts

F (clean, bake casserole, MOPS?, soak lentils)
  D – soaked pancakes, homemade sausage links, veggies, pears

S (bake squash, cook lentils, laundry, swimming, fabric store?)
  D – stuffed squash w/ lentils, sausage, peas, onions, cheese; pears

Good morning. We’re getting back into the swing of things around here, trying to get used to Justin being back at work, getting back into preschool, etc. It was fun to go to MOPS again last week and have some adult chat time. And yesterday we went to our first Calvin basketball game of the season. Rebecca went with Grandpa and Grandma. We came at half time…after Abram’s nap. Rebecca had a blast as usual, wearing out Grandma 😛  Abram wasn’t so fond of it. He seemed a bit scared the whole time and did his share of crying. At least we got out of the house for a bit 🙂

This week is actually quite uneventful. Maybe that’s a good thing since Abram has not been sleeping well at all (major teething), and I have a cold. Today is church if I think we’re all up for it. Wednesday my parents will be visiting (still TBD if they’ll be eating dinner with us) before they go to another basketball game. I’d like to go to the library some day this week. We haven’t been there in  a long time. Saturday morning is an openhouse for one of the preschools we’re considering. I’m not sure yet about any playdates this week. I’ll see how we’re feeling/if the kids catch my cold.

We had fun in the kitchen last week. Rebecca and I made homemad butterscotch pudding pops, pita bread and pizza (for the letter P). I also made another attempt at butter. This time I used our raw cream and just my hand mixer…another failure 🙁  I even let it chill and tried more. I put it in the food processor and tried again. Nothing. I think I’ll give it one more try in the Vitamix. If that doesn’t work then I guess our milk just does not have high enough fat content (which is a bummer). I tried my Vitamix. Nothing major. I used it to grind flour (so fast and easy!!) and make smoothies. I have yet to look through my new cookbook that came with it and try more recipes. Of course I made my other usual weekly dairy products.

This week we’re doing the letter Q. So…my meal strategy…QUICK! I’m planning quick, simple meals that will give us plenty of time for all the other stuff we want to do. I don’t have any big plans for kitchen work. I will probably make pesto and maybe some mayo (if we run out). I’ll likely do my last butter attempt (unless it works…then it won’t be my last :). And I’ll see if Rebecca wants to do any baking. We just finished our breakfast cookie stash, so maybe we’ll make more of those.

I gave my big update yesterday about where I’m headed with my diet. So this week I will be focusing on changing my meals to be more focused on carbs. See how it goes. I also want to continue trying to cut back on sweets. I need to find some non-sweet, carb rich, grain free, nut free snacks. Any good ideas?? I did start adding a little bit of yogurt to my diet yesterday and this morning. We’ll see how it impacts me this week. I’ve been able to read more of Change Your Brain Change Your Life. And so far I still feel like I’m on the right track diet-wise for my mental state. Everything that correlates to my issues is helped by a high carb, lower protein/fat diet. Hopefully by getting out of the fight or flight state my whole body will relax and function properly. I also ordered more magnesium. This time I ordered the drops and magnesium oil spray. The topical stuff is supposed to be more effective/more easily absorbed. I’m anxious to try it and see how it goes. Maybe I’ll even have Justin try it. I’ve heard it can help with restless leg syndrome.

That’s about it for this week. I spend most of my day just trying to keep Abram out of trouble. I’m kind of anxious for him to start walking (which may not be far away!). Right now he ONLY wants to climb…on anything and everything. He does not care about toys at all (although he does like cords, outlets, paper and small objects he shouldn’t have…and getting into things in the bathroom). He just climbs (pulls himself to standing)…on chairs, tables, the bookshelf, the couch, stools, toyboxes, the exersaucer, the refrigerator, the stove, walls, doors, the stairs, trash cans, the computer, the bouncy seat…everything! And if nothing is near him…he climbs on me! He literally pulls himself up on my leg. Yesterday he almost pulled my pj pants down 😛  He does not want to be strapped into anything (high chair, car seat, etc.). So dinner time for me is either holding on to him, eating one handed while he climbs on my chair or sitting on the floor by him and putting my dinner on my chair to take ocassional bites. He can crawl so quickly now. You literally have about 3 seconds from the time you set him on the floor until he’s reached something to climb. Makes it tough to do pretty much anything. He needs constant supervison (we’ve already had too many tumbles/bumps :P). Anyway, life is busy to say the least. This little boy is going to keep us on our toes!

Here’s what’s on the menu. Wednesday’s meal could change depending on whether or not my parents will be here for dinner.
————————–
S (prep lunch, roast beets, church, fold laundry)
  L – roasted chx and veggies
  D – beets, cucumbers, beans, squash, crackers w/ cheese

M (fold laundry, bake)
  D – salad w/ chicken, cucumbers, avocado, beets, bacon; honey mustard dressing

T (skim cream, make yogurt, make sour cream, soak beans, make mayo, bake)
  D – salmon cakes, peas, beets

W (cook beans, soak breakfast cake, put away laundry, library)
  D – salmon cakes, pumpkin, beets, avocado

Th (make pesto, make breakfast cake, visit friends, parents visiting/over for dinner)
  D – mini broccoli cheese pesto quiche, beans, applesauce, pesto bread or pumpernickel bread

F (boil eggs, clean)
  D – egg salad, sauteed zucchini and onions

S (laundry, preschool open house?)
  D – pork steak, roasted potatoes, beans

Happy New Year!! It’s 2012. I’m trying to start out on the right foot and trying to get over the holiday splurging. I started my day today with baking, a jog and some nourishing food. Last night we went to a hockey game, so my dinner was less than ideal…probably the worst food I’ve eaten in a long time. So it’s really time to get back on track today. Last week was a lot of fun with family parties and spending time as a family with Justin home. We celebrated, we ate, we played. It was a nice break, but this week it’s back to normal. Justin goes back to work on Tuesday. It will feel much quieter around here.

This week will be somewhat busy. Today is church. Monday is milk pick up. Tuesday is Meijer. I might go to Harvest Health on Wednesday. Friday is MOPS.

There is plenty to do around the house and in the kitchen. We’re working on getting the house cleaned and organized after so many generous Christmas gifts. Maybe today I’ll finally get my new Vitamix cleaned and ready to go so I can try it out. I’m trying to think of a way to use up some milk. We didn’t use quite as much as usual last week. Our letter this week is P. Rebecca wants to make pita bread. There are several other things we could make – pie, soft pretzels, pasta. In order to do all this baking I need to grind flour.

I had a really good week last week…until I ate way too much baked spinach. Then it went down hill. I’m still struggling through that. So this week it’s time to get back on track. I need to focus on nourishing food, raw food and cutting out sweets. You can read more about my food goals and the direction I’m taking in my yearly goals post (posted soon). And I’ll be doing a separate post on some new ideas and directions I’m taking. Stay tuned.

Here’s what’s on the menu for this week.
—————-
S (bake muffins, prep smoothies, prep lunch, church)
  L – cp roast beef and carrots (make beef broth)
  D – salad (me), leftovers – broccoli noodle soup, spinach dip, cheese ball, milkshake or egg nog (Justin)

M (bake squash, roast beets, grind flour, milk, put away laundry)
  D – squash soup, muffins, crackers w/ cheese

T (Meijer)
  D – hot taco rice

W (bake squash, make pudding pops)
  D – spaghetti bake (w/ spaghetti squash), corn

Th (make pita bread)
  D – egg salad on pita, squash

F (clean, MOPS)
  D – bacon, scrambled eggs, roasted squash, pancakes

S (laundry, parents visiting?, basketball game?)
  D – cobb salad

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.
—————————–
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

Good morning. Another chilly Sunday in Michigan here. We finally got a little snow by us. I can’t say I’m excited. I’m not a cold weather person at all. But it does make it seem more like Christmas. Rebecca sure is excited 🙂  Christmas preparations are well under way. I’m done with my shopping now. And I’ve started addressing cards. There is still plenty to be done, though. Last week was quite busy. I ended up doing more shopping than I had expected. Yesterday alone we got our tree, stopped by my grandparents, went grocery shopping, went to the orchard and went to the mall. It was busy, but it’ll be nice this week not having to go to quite so many places.

The kitchen was busy with our usual weekly dairy products and some homemade Christmas goodies. I can’t say yet what all we made 😉  I did make my 2nd attempt at butter…another flop 🙁  I even used just the cream from the very top of the milk jars. I’m wondering if the fat content in our milk just isn’t high enough. If that’s the case I’m pretty bummed. Not so much for the butter, but for the health aspect. Oh well. Maybe someday we’ll be able to go back to our other cow share. That was the richest milk I’ve ever had. There was definitely never a shortage of cream from that. This time I cultured the butter flop. So it was kind of a whipped sour cream. And I used it to make a batch of ice cream for myself 🙂  I also made mayo, cherry muffins, lots of roasted beets and a meal for my grandparents.

I have a lot on my agenda for this week inbetween running here and there. Today is church. Tonight is our Christmas program. Rebecca will be singing a couple songs, and my parents will be there. Rebecca is so excited to wear her new dress today 🙂  She picked it out. Not exactly the dress I would have chosen, but she loves it. Monday is milk pick up. Tuesday is Kindermusik. It’s hard to believe that it’s our last class of the semester! We’ll miss it, but I am really looking forward to a break. We’ll have our Tuesdays free for a little while now. Next semester doesn’t start until the end of January. Wednesday we have to go to the pediatrician for a shot for Abram. Then he gets a 2 month break before his next visit. Justin also has worship team. Friday is MOPS. Saturday we might do a family outing. We don’t have things totally planned yet.

In the kitchen I want to get a lot done. I’ve been gradually using up our freezer supply of baked goods. Now the freezer is starting to look bare. That hasn’t happened in a long time. It means it’s time to start baking! Fun. I at least want to make breakfast cookies. I’m not totally sure what else yet. We might do our Christmas cookies this week. I’d also like to make “gingerbread” houses with Rebecca (using graham crackers, not gingerbread). I’ll do my usual dairy products. And possibly some pesto. Since we’re doing the letter N this week I thought I’d try doing some New meals this week. So be on the lookout for new recipes this week. I’m also doing Nuts. I stocked up yesterday since we’re almost out. They are all soaking now.

There is also a lot of Christmas prep to get done. I need to start planning my Christmas menus (going to two parties and hosting one), wrap presents, finish Christmas cards and embroider Abram’s stocking. I also need to work on more homemade gifts and possibly some baking for our parties.

Now time for my update. Thankfully it’s more positive than last week’s. Most of the week was still rough. But yesterday and so far today have been a bit better. My appetite is returning. I have more energy. I’m so thankful for that. So, what changed? I actually changed quite a few things in the past few days. Which means it’s impossible to know how each particular thing helped. I was able to get more beets. So I’ve been eating those daily. I got more good lemon juice. So back to my wonderful lemon water. My magnesium supplement came a couple days ago. I started taking that yesterday. I can’t say how it’s impacting me so far. It’s also hard to know how much to take. The dosage is 400 mg. But from what I’ve read when you are magnesium deficient you should take more like 1000 – 1200 mg a day to get back on track. I’ll start with the 400 and see how it goes. I may have to look into a 2nd supplement to increase my intake. The supplement I’m taking now is hard to take. It’s a liquid. It’s basically like drinking strong salty, minerally water. I mix it in juice to help, but there is no masking that taste 😛  I have also been eating lots of salads, raw foods and veggies this week. My meat and animal fat intake has been down. I don’t like that, but it does give my tummy a little break since I have a hard time digesting it. I’ll try to bump it back up gradually. I’ve been keeping my fat intake up with EVOO, coconut oil, egg yolks and sour cream. The other thing I did the last couple days was add more coconut oil back into my diet. For a while I was drinking smoothies daily that contained lots of coconut oil. Then the last few weeks I haven’t been making them. I got kind of burned out on smoothies. So I took a break. Which is fine. But then I didn’t get much coconut oil in my diet. So the last 2 days I had smoothies again and have been making a point of trying to eat a couple Tbsp. of coconut oil a day. I personally can’t eat it plain. But I like it in/on a lot of things. I mixed some into my custard this morning. Lots of little changes that add up to me feeling a bit better. And hopefully I’m past whatever I was going through. Maybe it was more die off. Maybe it was the lack of coconut oil. Maybe it was too much animal fat/meat. Maybe it was lack of magnesium. Maybe it was too much stress. My guess is it’s a little bit of everything combined. I also was having lots of sugar/starch cravings. And taking too many little tastes of sweet things. I was just having a hard time staying focused and doing what I knew I should. I feel like my gut flora somehow got way out of whack. I can just tell by my digestion and how I’m feeling. Not sure if I need to bump up my probiotic or just be very cautious with anything sweet (even fruit and honey). Hopefully this week I can get back on track. I’m too busy to not feel well 😛

On to a new week. Hopefully it’s a better one. Here’s what’s on the menu.
———————
S (freeze butter, soak nuts, church, prep dinner, Christmas program, soak flour)
  L – leftover pasta bake, garlic bread, broccoli (Justin), salad (me)
  D – (cp) – gumbo

M (dry nuts, make breakfast cookies, milk)
  D – ham, scalloped potatoes, beans

T (skim cream, make yogurt, make sour cream, make kefir, bake squash, KM)
  D – croque madame, squash

W (Christmas cards, embroider stocking, prep breakfast, Dr. S.)
  D – cp pork and beans, peas squash soup

Th (make cookie dough, make and decorate Christmas cookies)
  D – BLT spaghetti (Justin going out for dinner w/ work? then different menu) – salad or leftover soup (me), Justin (out to eat)

F (clean, MOPS, make butter)
  D – bacon wrapped dates, scrambled eggs w/ bacon, bacon popcorn, peas

S (laundry, family outing, make gifts, wrap presents, Christmas lights?)
  D – pan fried pork chops, roasted squash chunks, cauliflower w/ cheese

December is in full swing. Thankfully I’ve been able to get a good portion of my Christmas shopping done over the past week. Hopefully I can finish most of it this week. Around the house we were busy last week cleaning. I finally did some toy organizing. I also cleaned off my desk. We moved the pack and play to the office and got that area organized too. In the kitchen I made sour cream, yogurt, sour cream ice cream (recipe to follow), fermented veggies, caramel dip and kefir. I decided to wait on butter so I could skim our milk better.

This week will be fairly busy with errands. Plus there are a few Christmas events we might attend. Today is church. This afternoon there is a thing called Journey to Bethlehem at the church where I attend MOPS. We might stop by. Monday is milk pick up. There is also the Grandville tree lighting in the evening. We haven’t decided yet if we’re going. Tuesday is Kindermusik. Wednesday is Meijer. Thursday and Friday are open at the moment. There is a chance I could go shopping one of those days. We’re planning to get our tree on Saturday.

In the kitchen I’ll make my usual weekly dairy products, adding in another butter attempt. I should make more pesto and mayo. And I’d like to do a baking project with Rebecca if time allows. I have an idea for an “M” project. Or we could do some Christmas baking too.

Update on me…sigh. The week started out so well. I had a few really good days. I even had my miralax dose down so low I almost totally skipped it one afternoon. And then things started to take a turn. And today I’m really not doing well. Back to headaches. I drink a ton of fluid, but my mouth is always dry. My body is just not absorbing fluids the way it should. So, what happened? It’s always hard to tell. But I do know a few key things. First, I know that eating beets daily really helps me. And I ran out of beets mid week. Second, I was eating salads regularly, which was helping…and I ran out of lettuce. Third, I ate peanut butter bread…3 days in a row. Why? I really don’t know. All I can say is peanut butter and I do not mix well. I still haven’t figured out if it’s any peanut/peanut butter or if I’d be ok with homemade (crispy). Either way it really messed me up this week. I think it’s all still sitting in my gut :\  I’m sure eating the pb bread while decreasing the miralax so much didn’t help either. My other big help is warm lemon water. I had been drinking it throughout the day. But I’m almost out of lemon juice. So I can only do it first thing in the morning. And I’m not sure what I have will last me until I go to the store. So, where does that leave me now? Miserable. Trying to be patient. And this was the final push I needed to go for the magnesium. I ordered a magnesium supplement yesterday. I can’t wait for it to come! I hope that really helps. I won’t have time to get to Meijer until Wed. So I have to go without beets for a few days yet. It’s getting pretty hard to eat right now. And I never know what to eat. All I can do is wait and hope for some improvement soon. And remind myself…NO MORE PEANUT BUTTER!

I did read a very interesting post on Modern Alternative Mama about magnesium and grains. This was also mentioned on Cheeseslave recently. Grains are one of the best sources of magnesium. This is not to say I’m going to start adding grains back into my diet today. I think my gut needs more healing before I can do that. But I do know that I want to at some point. They must be properly prepared grains of course. It is an exciting thought, though. We’ll see what the mag supplement does and go from there. I’m not against grains for sure. But with a damaged gut I don’t think I’m quite ready to handle them yet.

So, on to this week. My meal plans seem to keep changing as our plans are made and depending on how I’m feeling/what I am able to eat. Today may have to be a mostly liquid diet for me. So here’s what’s on the menu at the moment.
—————————————–
S (cook beans, prep lunch, church, Journey to Bethlehem?)
  L -cp sausage and bean soup, bread
  D – avocado bean dip and salsa w/ tortilla chips, apple w/ caramel, cheese (Justin), broth (me)

M (prep smoothies, prep dinner, milk, tree lighting, roast beets)
  D – favorite casserole, peaches (Justin), salad (me)

T (skim cream, make sc, make yogurt, make butter, KM)
  D – sweet and sour meatballs, squash, corn, fruit

W (make sc, make kefir, make Christmas treats, Meijer)
  D – favorite casserole (Justin), salad (me)

Th (make Christmas treats/gifts, prep smoothies, make mayo)
  D – pan fried white fish, beans, baked potatoes

F (clean, shopping?)
  D – waffles, fruit (Justin), TBD (me)

S (laundry, prep meal for grandparents, Christmas tree, visit grandparents, shopping?)
  D – pasta bake, bread, veggies

Thanksgiving is over. I have mostly reclaimed my refrigerator. Almost all of the leftovers are gone. The house is cleaned up. Some Christmas decorations are up. And it’s finally Sunday. It feels like we had 3 Saturdays in a row 😛  Back to life as usual.

Last week was focused on Thanksgiving. I didn’t do a letter with Rebecca. We just did Thanksgiving crafts and got the house ready to host. We had a wonderful celebration with my family. It’s a lot of work, but I enjoy it. We also had lots of family time over the weekend. That sure was nice. Just time to relax and take it easy. We went swimming on Friday morning. And stayed home to decorate and play yesterday. I was even able to finally organize Rebecca’s closet a bit. You can actually see the floor now 😛  We all loved having Justin home for a few days.

I was busy in the kitchen with all of the Thanksgiving prep. And then busy afterwards being creative with leftovers 🙂  I’ll update my Thanksgiving post with some ideas of how I used leftovers. I don’t think anyone got sick of turkey…that means success. I also made a batch of turkey broth. And a couple batches of baby food. It’s nice to have a little stock of that in the freezer. And of course our weekly dairy products.

This week is a pretty normal week. Today is church. Monday I don’t think we’re going anywhere. There is a chance I’ll be doing milk pick up, but I don’t think so. Tuesday is Kindermusik. Friday is MOPS. That’s about it. Sounds nice! I might try to make a trip to Target. Both kids need winter boots and some other odds and ends. And it wouldn’t hurt to get going on Christmas shopping. We started a little online shopping yesterday. We have a ways to go. I also need to work on Christmas cards. The fun part…addressing them all 😛

Kitchen work will include our weekly dairy products – kefir, yogurt and sour cream. I might try butter again this week. We’ll see. I had issues with it last time. And I had a hard time making whipped cream last week. Not sure if our cream isn’t that heavy or if I’m just not skimming it very well. Since we’re doing the letter L I want to do some L foods/meals. Not sure about any baking projects. I might try finally making another GAPS ice cream recipe. I need to make a new batch of fermented vegetables. And possibly some mayo (we’re out, but not sure I’ll need it this week). I’m working my way through some of the baked goods in our freezer. Lots of stuff that either needs to be eaten or tossed. Then I can start some fresh baking! When I’m not working in the kitchen I’d like to do more organizing around the house. Rebecca’s closet is done, but I still need to work on her room. And Abram’s closet is still a disaster. The basement could use some work too. I’m in the mood to clean, organize and get rid of stuff! Good thing to do before the Christmas presents come.

On to my weekly update (beware…this is a long one). It’s been a long week of ups and downs. Lots of trial and error. I made a batch of sour cream using mostly yogurt (like usual) but a little kefir as well for more probiotics. Wow! That sure gives it a kick. Not sure I’ll be doing that regularly. I know it’s healthy. But I just don’t like it that much. I tried to increase my fat and vegetable intake (as I mentioned in my GAPS gravy post), but it didn’t seem to help me much. So I decided to add more raw/fibrous food to my diet. I’ve been eating lots of salads the last few days. Friday I had salad for breakfast, lunch and a bedtime snack! Before I would have noticed a reaction with just eating one salad. But even after eating lots of salads my gut did not seem any different than it did while eating pureed foods and mushy veggies. Kind of frustrating. It seems that I do need more raw food in my diet now, including juice (hoping for a juicer some day). My body seems to be tolerating it just fine. No major gas or bloating or anything. Which is a big change…and gives me hope that my gut is healing. One thing I did do this week was add carrot juice to my diet. Although I don’t have a juicer I did find some pure carrot juice at the store! It’s not quite as good as freshly pressed, but it’s better than nothing. I can’t say that it tastes good. But I hope it will help. I’ve been trying to drink some a couple times a day mixed with a little fruit juice to get it down. I can also tell I feel better when I eat beets regularly. So I’ve been eating roasted beets every day. Carrots and beets are the two vegetables the GAPS book mentions most often. So I’m trying to get those daily. I continue to debate about taking a magnesium supplement. And about trying the Betaine again for stomach acid production. I have not come to a conclusion yet. I’ve been eating lots of Russian custard…for breakfasts, lunches, snacks. A great way to get more egg yolks down. I mix it with berries, nuts and sour cream. My body seems to tolerate it well. And I’m drinking plenty of warm lemon water. I also made my first cup of ginger tea yesterday. It tasted fine. Not sure if it did anything for me, but it didn’t hurt. I’ll keep trying it. I did some more reading a couple places about needing to do what works for your body…and listening to your body. If you are really craving something (that is safe/legal)…you should just have it, even if you are not at that stage of the diet yet. Your body knows what it needs. I really think this is true. I noticed it this week. One day I would crave sweets/starches and want custard for every meal. The next day I would really want fresh, crunchy, raw foods and eat salad after salad. It seemed like my body wanted something different every few days. And normally I love turkey (or any meat) and picking stuff off the bones after cooking a bird. This week I really didn’t care much about it (of course Thanksgiving week :P). Not that I didn’t like it. I just didn’t crave it like usual. I actually had a hard time doing the deboning and clean up. It was kind of gross to me. Strange. In general my body was craving more fruits, veggies and dairy this week, not meat. Which is a big change for me. And I had days where I could not tolerate broth/stock. I just wanted fresh foods. I did really crave dairy. So I had raw cheese on my salads. And drank a little raw milk. I think I did pretty well listening to my body. It seems to rotate needs/cravings every few days. It knows how to keep everything balanced. In the end, though my gut functioned about the same all week…regardless of what I ate (which gets frustrating when you keep trying different things with no change). I think it all boils down to a couple things. First, my gut is healing! And I need to wait and see what my new normal is. Which is very difficult for me. It makes my OCD and anxiety really flare when there is change. It takes away my control. And then I start comparing and over analyzing everything. But I have been pleased with how I’ve handled it. No major anxiety attacks. I get frustrated and annoyed. But I don’t panic. I’m trying to be patient. And figure out what truly needs to be changed/healed yet and what is just mental. It seems my gut has really calmed down from how it has been for many many years now. So I’m not used to that. Now I need to figure out how to stimulate it again. It is exciting to be able to eat more raw food again at least! The other major factor is the miralax. This is probably the biggest one. After taking it for 5 years my body is definitely dependant on it. And doesn’t know how to function without it. So as I decrease it, my body doesn’t really know what to do. Regardless of what I eat, my gut doesn’t function. When I first started decreasing miralax I could tell, but I was still taking enough that my body worked. Now that I’m down to a 1/4 dose some days…closer to elminating it totally, my body is not sure what to do. Some days I want to give in and just go back to my full dose and say I guess I’ll take this forever. Not really what I want. Some days I want to just cut it out cold turkey and do one big adjustment and get it over with. I’m guessing that’s not too smart either. That could be painful and dangerous for me. I don’t want to undo my surgery. So I go back to what I’m doing…a little at a time. And do my best to be patient. My body will figure it out eventually. I know in the long run I will be happy I did this. But for now it’s tough. Especially as I get down to the really low doses. All I can do is wait. I do my best to eat right and drink a LOT of fluids to help out. Give my gut plenty to work with. And adjust to my changing needs. So that’s where I’m at. I will try to keep up with lemon water, carrot juice, beets and raw foods for simtulation. And fats, vegetbales and broth for healing. Plus my daily sour cream, sauerkraut and fermented vegetables for probiotics. And focus on eggs for protein. I still have a hard time with most meat (especially muscle meats). So I’ll try not to overdo with those. And try to be patient as my body figures this out. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep decreasing the miralax and continue this healing process. I’ll take it one day at a time and trust that God will guide my decisions and actions. He has a reason for this season of my life. I’m learning to be patient and trust in Him.

I’d better get on with the menu for the week. Trying to incorporate my needs with foods that we can all enjoy. And a few separate meals becuase of activities and trying to use up leftovers. Oddly enough Rebecca requested split pea soup the other day! Yes, my daughter that used to gag on it and literally almost puke when asked to eat one bite. She is now requesting it. I will very happily oblige 🙂  I’ll even let Abram try some.
————————-
S (church, nursery, separate dinner)
  L – cp maple dijon chicken (Justin), leftover squash and turkey soup (me)
  D – salad w/ cucumbers, beets, avocado, turkey, raw cheese, nuts, raisins and homemade dressing with egg yolks added (me), scrambled eggs, toast, fruit (Justin)

M (prep dinner, make fermented veggies)
  D – pea soup, whole wheat bread

T (skim cream, make sc, make yogurt, KM, soak lentils, make caramel dip)
  D – salad (me), tacos (Justin)

W (cook lentils, Target, make kefir)
  D – lentil burgers/hamburgers, roasted potoes, peas

Th (make sc)
  D – loaded baked potatoes

F (clean, MOPS)
  D – baked bacon and eggs, beans, bread

S (laundry, shopping, make ic)
  D – stuffed squash w/ lentils, bacon, chicken liver and vegetables

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.
———————
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