babysitting

James has a great babysitter and little friend, Lena, who is turning one soon. They are great friends!

Having Jennafer babysit has been perfect. She's close by. James loves her and Lena. I get to work more without having to worry about James and we're doing a trade. Couldn't be better...

Within half an hour of writing yesterday's post, I realized that I had completely stood up my client who I had planned on meeting earlier in the day. So much for less brain fog... I keep forgetting what day it is. Last Wednesday, I was sure it was Friday and made plans for the following day, thinking it was Saturday. Those plans had to be canceled of course because I work on Thursdays. Sleep deprivation will do that to you.

I left my sourdough bread overnight and it had risen a bit over the top of the pans by this morning. So it is in the oven. Fingers crossed! It would be great if this experiment was successful. I really enjoyed kneading the dough yesterday. Gemma and Oona helped me. It's neat for them to see how real food is made. I grew up with my Mom making 8-12 loaves of bread a week to feed a family of seven. I've never been a huge fan of bread - even home made. But maybe there will be something different with sourdough? I'll like it better? I'm wondering if it is just that I don't like bread that is sweet and that I might like the sour and salty taste better. I'll find out soon and let you know.

And I am very vainly ecstatic that the scale indicated that I've finally lost a few pounds. It makes me feel thinner. Must work on not measuring self worth by whether I feel thin or not...

I am enjoying homemade vanilla ice cream sweetened with agave and stevia. No potato, honey, or sugar involved.

My sourdough bread is in the bread pans but has not risen really. And it's been not-rising since this morning at roughly 9. It is now 6:30. Do I bake it as is? Or do I let it sit awhile longer? Was my start not good enough? This sourdough baking is a new adventure. Hmmmmm.....

Two weeks in, I think I am having less brain fog. That is a good thing. :)

the new diet

is overall going well. The hardest parts are the hidden sugars and wondering if the salt on the label is iodized (and thus has potato) or not. Goodness gracious! Eliminating just potato, honey and sugar ends up eliminating A LOT of foods! Why even try? Why do it?

Elimination diets are definitely, most definitely, not for everybody. I had several reasons for trying..

1) I've never had the strongest constitution but, in the three months I didn't blog, I was knocked down by three viruses. I am so tired of being sick all the time and whatever I can do to help my body is worth it.

2) I've been struggling with sugar issues for, if I'm honest with myself, a decade now. Maybe, just maybe, this will make it easier? When I eat sugar and start getting cravings, I feel really out of control. My life right now is pretty darn chaotic and feels at times out of control. One thing I can control, though, is what I put in my mouth. I've used that control in destructive anorexic type ways in the past. I would like to use that control in a nourishing way this time around.

3) I have failed to make a dent in the thirty post-pardom pounds I would like to lose. I don't at all mind losing it slowly, but am not liking the plateau, or actually gaining when I succumb to a sugar binge.

4) I like the individualized approach - what is your body sensitive too. In the past decade I've read that protein is bad for you, that fat is bad for you, that protein is good for you, that healthy fat is good for you, that grains are what we should all eat, that we should never eat grains. One sister found out recently that she doesn't do well with gluten or egg and was encouraging me to try giving up gluten. I decided I wanted to be tested to know what my own individual body didn't like.

5) I've been very sleep deprived for the last almost five years and my adrenals are depleted, my thyroid taxed. I have a lot of things I want to do in the next twenty, thirty, forty years and want to have energy to do them. Given my constitution and family history, cutting out things that are stressful for my body is probably a pretty good idea.

6) I've always thought endometriosis is an autoimmune condition. I need to do what I can to have a happy immune system. I have not restarted my cycle since James was born (can you believe he'll be seven months on Sunday???), but am dreading the pelvic pain and painful ovulation. If this can help with that, I will be ecstatic.

What is interesting about the potato, honey, and fruit and sugar in combination, is that I'm not actually allergic to any of it. Neither is it a sensitivity. How the naturopath described it is that it is more of an intolerance. Your body finds it stressful to try to break down these foods and your liver, kidneys and immune system end up doing a lot of the job instead of your stomach and intestines.

Of course, if after six months I don't feel better, potato chips sound awfully good... That or sweet potato fries...

Three months later...

And now it is three months since my last post... Mostly, we've been sleep deprived over here and just trying to keep up with the chaos of having five kids - two teenagers, one pre-k-er (I can't bring myself to call Gemma a toddler), a toddler (it's getting hard to call Oona a toddler, too. Is she a preschooler instead?) and a baby who is sitting and teething and nursing frequently all night long. Right now, Jack is on the couch reading. Patrick is working at our neighbor's print shop. Gemma is finding clothes to put on. Oona is whining because she wants me to help her find clothes - but is also very proud because she kept her underwear dry all night long. And James is on the floor crying. I read a facebook post the other day that exhorted parents to never let their children cry. I know this particular Mom to have only one kid and is pregnant with her second and I couldn't help thinking, "You just wait... When you have more than one, sometimes something has to get done before you pick up the fussing kid." For some reason, this blog post is qualifying as one of those things that needs to get done before I pick up the fussing baby. Part of that, though, is due to frustration because he's been popping on and off the nipple this morning and that hurts and my patience has run thin.

But, why I'm really back posting on the blog is to share a bit about a naturopath visit and the efforts of giving up potato, honey, and sugar... More about that later. I really should see if I can comfort the baby. He's turned from fussying to crying.

Happy Easter

I made some fairies for the girls for Easter. (They knew that I made them but didn't wonder where the Easter Bunny got them from...)



I'm in love with these little acorn dolls. More to come, I'm sure!

Also, can you tell this little boy has big sisters? A couple weeks ago, the girls had fun dressing him up in purple bunny ears. And of course, there is the non-gender neutral pink bouncy seat.



And a little tummy time...

one of jack's friends, ione, took this awesome picture of him skateboarding. i think i want to get it framed because it is just so jack.