Where has the time gone?

I am going to attempt to update while easing my way back to the blog. My husband had a heart attack month ago. Since then we have had a really tough time easing our way back into normal life. This is our busy season, with softball and soccer back to back. Add in dance competitions and a heart attack and that just makes for insanity.

Big Daddy is doing good. We have been clinging to him with all our strength.  Life just wouldn’t be the same without Big Daddy and we all feel like it was much to close a call. We have been off our schedule, off our diets, the house is destroyed and at moments feel like we want to pull out our hair but we have Big Daddy and that is what counts.

For most people summer is just beginning while ours is winding down. I am planning our curriculum out and we are excited to get started. I think we all are in need of some normalcy. Time to get back to the reality of life. Even my minimalist attitude has taken a backseat and I look like a hoarder you would see on TV. Ok, not really, but I feel like it. So I am in planning mode, pulling everything together. I am looking forward to starting school up. I look forward to eating better, having a routine, downtime and just time in general to get back to minimalism. I would really like to consider moving to a smaller house but my husband isn’t having any of it.

 

Quick Update

I wanted to take a few moments to explain that I have not abandoned my blog. I am still here and as usual very busy, but life took a bit of a turn on us and we are really needing to spend some good family time. My husband had a heart attack last week at the age of 37. He is doing very well and on the mend but after feeling so close to losing him we are really just trying to deal with everything as a family.

We have been given great support from friends, people from various activities and churches both of whom we know and people we don’t know. It was the most unexpected thing and the worst timing, but really there is not good time. However, we have been shown how Gods timing is always perfect. Our faith was strengthened not because of what God could do through prayer but because of what he did do and then some to bless our family. He knew what we needed and provided everything down to snacks in the pantry. Of course he used incredible people to provide that support for us but we are grateful.

Some days are good days right now and others, I feel that I am still dealing with it in my own way. Now that he is home and I can relax some it has really been hitting me how close I could have been to losing him. How close I was. l really just want to hibernate for a while. I don’t feel social. I am not depressed, my head just feels real cluttered and I am having to think 10 times harder to carry a conversation. I love everyone, but I am not a great friend at the moment. I am a bit moody and honestly, I just have to take time to love myself and allow myself to feel what I had to lock away to get through it all. Everyone else is well on the mend but I feel as though I am only just starting to treat it.

I will be back in time. It won’t be long, but until then there may be gaps between postings.

Hug your husbands tighter, kiss them more, love them like they won’t be here tomorrow and pray for them daily. I know I am not into sharing my time with anyone when my husband is around at this moment. I want him to myself and it may take time to get over that. If you have prayers to spare our family greatly appreciates any that go up….

 

Happy Mothers Day!

I want to wish all the mothers, grandmothers, and soon to be mothers out there a very Happy Mothers Day! I want to take the time to update the blog on our food challenge but to be honest life is a bit crazy right now, so I will update on that when things settle down just a tad.

This crazy thing we call life? It is fantastic! Here is the quick run down for this month. It is May right? Ok, good.

Beaner got braces. All 3 girls have had some dental work done. The normal cleaning, check-ups and even some fillings. BLA! Both girls are in softball 2 times a week providing we are not pushed to make up practice or games because of the rain. We have spent time enjoying the bits of sun when we can at the zoo, as it has been scares. Drought last year- wet this year. Balance Half- pint will have me on the run this weekend to a dance competition, along with both big girls having softball games in the morning. I am deep in the throws of lesson planning, cleaning the house, cooking and of course trying to take care of me. We took a short holiday home to MN last weekend to get some good home cooking and see the family. We are trying to get the house in order for our new puppy that will be coming at the end of the month. Yes, I did say puppy. We are getting a sweet little pug pup. We naturally have a very busy life we wanted to make sure that while the pup was in training and new to the house that we had all the “extra” appointments and stuff out of the way so we could be home more. That also included field trips and fun family outings. I know having a dog does not tie you to the house but we really want to be home for him until he is trained and can handle us being gone for longer periods. (Of course, the dog post is to come). Lil Bit is 3. I enjoy her and don’t want or wish her to grow any faster than she is but 3 can be a challenging season. They are so full of energy and so adventurous! I wish I could bottle that energy.

Okay, so I think I got most of it. The quick of it anyways.

 

Some balance

Our food challenge has been a difficult an interesting process! Let me tell you- day 4-7 is HE’LL when you remove sugar, aspartame, food dyes and anything else really not great for you. Attitudes and behaviors are really changing and leveling out. I have had to find some balance on what I was making. I’m trying to follow the KISS rule. (Keep it simple stupid). Rather, that make my own broth we are buying organic. It just takes too long for me to make it. I am continuing to make butter, jam, ketchup, and hopefully soon mustard. I still am making my own bread and making as much of everything we can as possible.
I was so busy trying to make these elaborate meals and snacks for my family all while balancing the house, school, chores and sports. This is where I got that brick with the KISS note attached to it. Sure felt like a dang brick wall because once I was hit, I was down. Seriously, I was so burnt out from bursting my behind in the kitchen I was resenting all the other responsibilities that I had. So I went back to keeping it simple. For meals, we are having simple soups, stews or meat with steamed veggies. Lunches is leftovers or healthy wraps. I am in the process of learning how to make my own mayo so I am using organic currently.
Okay, so before you start thinking I’m all suite homemaker and that I have a confession. I haven’t given up my iced tea, coffee or my wild rice in a bag. 1)Me without coffee is like a fish out if water. You know how when you smell something or see something it makes you thing of someone? Well, things associated with coffee remind my kids of me. We are not going to cross that line. Coffee stays! 2) Blue Diamond iced tea- it’s like my coffee. I go from coffee to my tea, every day. Some times I am double fisted.
3) wild rice in the bag- targets rice takes 90 seconds in the microwave and I don’t know how to make it any other way. For the record I haven’t tried. It’s 90 seconds. It’s stuff like this I have tell my self all the BAD,BAD,BAD things about these products.

So things got a little better with kiss. Just keep truckin……

 

Day 4

We have a really busy day planned, so I have to keep this short. Heck, it has been a busy week. Between softball, dance, homeschooling and constant cooking I am burning the stick on both ends. The biggest challenge is balancing everything. The girls are happily eating/ trying everything that I am putting out in front of them which is wonderful!

Yesterday we had some grouchy kids. They complained how much they were craving burgers and junk. In general they were going through withdrawls of everything they were used to having. It is amazing once you remove the processed foods, sugars, extra salts how much you crave it. I was able to satisfy the craving of chips by making sweet potato “chips”. I simply sliced sweet potatoes very fine, coated them with organic olive oil and fresh chopped rosemary. I baked them in the oven until they were on the crispy side flipping them half way through. They turned out great, and seemed to squash the want for chips. Everyone in the family was also dealing with headaches. If that isn’t enough to make you grouchy, I don’t know what is. We continued to stick it out, but day 3 was really tough.

Today we are doing a little better. Kids are in great moods. Their energy levels are even. I noticed with Beaner that her energy has been consistent each day.  She is less fidgety, doesn’t talk non- stop, and seems to be paying attention a little more. Non of these are drastic changes but they are changes. It could also be from lack of sleep. We seem to have overall more energy but that energy is traveling into the night making it hard for all of us to get any decent sleep. Last night Beaner was up reading until 3am because she just couldn’t fall asleep. Half- pint finally conked out around 1am. I am not sure I ever fell asleep.

Were not even a week into this experimental change and I don’t like what I see. Were on board for 90 days. I would like to find a happy medium. Our bodies feel like they are coming off some serious heavy drugs. It is really an incredible thing. I have heard what processed foods do and never doubted it but it never really clicked either. I feel sick. Day 4 sucks. We are not in la, la land anymore. I am going to attempt to take the girls to the zoo. Someone should have put a small note in all the research I was doing that it would feel like you need to be admitted to a rehab center to come off this junk they put in our food, and honestly we didn’t eat THAT bad before……..

 

 

 

 

Day one: no processed foods

Quick post for day one. Sorry no pictures. I spent what felt like the entire day in the kitchen. The girls and I made homemade butter, ketchup, applesauce, 5 loaves of bread, a dozen buns, oatmeal fruit muffins and broccoli soup for dinner. The girls were great sports at taste testing everything and were such a huge help.

I will post the recipes later. So far everything we made received 5 thumbs up! Because we are doing this to see if it will help our family, our oldest in particular we are keeping a long term journal. In our journal we are recording what we are eating, whether it was processed on a scale of 1-10 or homemade 100 %. Wait, I need to clarify on homemade 100%. When I say I made this from scratch it means that if the recipe calls for applesauce, I made the applesauce. If it calls for butter, I stop and make the butter. Also included in our journal is how many hours of sleep each person got, energy level, concentration level, hungry level and how they were feeling throughout the day.

One thing each noticed today is how little we wanted to munch. We ate healthy meals, felt consistent energy. I noticed with Beaner today she was much more focused. She was less impulsive and she reported her memory felt clearer. Half Pint said for once she didn’t feel like she was always hungry. We always joke her middle name is hungry because she is always eating. She is so tiny, yet she eats a ton of food. Lil Bit we found had less mood variations. Three year olds can be tricky little people at times yet today she had a real consistent mood.

Keep in mind this was only day 1 off processed foods. We went to bed late but all got around 8 hours of sleep. Time will tell. I was a bit concerned the girls would fight me on this transition, yet they have embraced it and are actually loving it. According to Lil Bit everything was  “delicious.” She even got mad at me for not letting her eat ketchup by the spoonful. Time will tell.

 

A Process

We are in the process of removing as much processed foods from our home as we can. I am learning to make everything I can from scratch. It is frustrating but it has been a fun family event. There are so many view points on nutrition it can be hard to keep it straight. Its food! Shouldn’t it be a little less complicated? Our society made it complicated the moment we went away from natural.

I feel very strongly about the changes we are making and I am not going to preach or tell anyone out there what they should or should not do. I have been upfront that my oldest struggles with ADD/ADHD. She isn’t ashamed of it and thinks more people should be educated. It is a real condition but is way over diagnosed. I am against medication for my family unless we felt every other option has been explored. She has really been struggling lately. We have kept a log of everything that seems to affect her. She doesn’t like the way food is affecting her, and she wants to change it as much as I feel it is necessary.

We have decided for the first 3 months we would begin making our own butter, mayo, ketchup, mustard, muffins and bread. Most of our meals will be soups packed with veggies and completely made from scratch and as much organic as possible. We are trying to switch over slowly while giving our digestive system more of a break by eating foods that are a little lighter. We plan on having shakes, smoothies and juices packed with vitamins along with whole raw oatmeal, fresh fruit or whole grain muffins. Lunches will be left over soup. It isn’t adventurous but nothing is processed or fake. The task of cooking completely from scratch is daunting yet, my girls see it at a fun challenge and an opportunity for learning to cook.

I am excited to see if this helps. We will be keeping a journal through the process, and at the end if we see no solution I promised Beaner I would consider allowing her to go on meds. I hope for her sake it works. I have been on meds for ADD/ADHD and am not a fan. I felt like a zombie. Sure I could focus, but I felt drained. I felt like while it was treating my ADD it was removing my personality. I really don’t want Beaner to go through it. I don’t to lose “her” but help her to find a place she feels is doable. Time will tell. Keep your fingers crossed please.