Learning to ice skate

At the ice arena where LMS is taking skating lessons, they teach the kiddos how to fall without hurting themselves (fall to the side), then how to get up.

Here they've all fallen, though I will say that LMS is always the last one down- she doesn't like falling, even for practice :)

Assume a puppy dog position:

Bring one leg up:

Try to push yourself to a standing position:

Try again:

Get help from the teacher :)

~~~~~~~~~

And here she's concentrating on skating:

A quick smile for mommy:

Look at her go!

She's only gone to 3 classes (2 more to go), but she's learned a lot already. She's more confident in her ability to stay upright, and she can skate frontwards and backwards. Not long smooth strokes, but she is moving. She mostly has fun, though I think she'll enjoy it a lot more once she feels more comfortable on the ice. I'm curious to see if she wants to stick with it. At this point, we're just introducing her to things she's expressed an interest in and seeing what happens.

Sunday Funny

Awhile ago we were in a parking lot that had a fairly steep slope. I stopped to put some stuff in the back of the car, then turned to open the side door for LMS. However, she had stopped right behind me and I ended up doing some flailing around, trying to keep my balance without falling on her. I wasn't successful, and neither of us were very happy.

After we got in the car I explained to her that that is why I always tell her not to stop right behind me- I could lose my balance. She then reached forward to give me something. I asked what she was giving me, and she said she was giving me my balance back :)

A couple weeks later, she was doing something and I warned her to be careful or she might lose her balance. She put her hand in one of my pockets, and I asked what she was doing. She said she was giving me her balance so she wouldn't lose it  :)

A few weeks after that, we were messing around and I lost my balance again (it's a frequent occurrence for me). She reached up and touched the neckline of my shirt. I thought she was going to hang on it, then realized she wasn't. I asked what she'd done, and she said she'd put my balance back :)

I love how in her mind balance is an object that can be lost, traded, held....

Playing in the inch or so of snow that we finally got this week. It's all melted off already, unfortunately. LMS had fun while the snow lasted, though.

So what DO we eat?

Lately we've been asked by a lot of people "So, what can you eat since you've eliminated so many foods?"

Let's see, the basics are: rice, quinoa, mung beans, adzuki beans, lentils, lots of veggies, some fruit, and some meat.

So how does that translate to our daily menus?

One of my favorite sites for recipes is The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen. Their cookbook (The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook) is also a great source for recipes and info.


Green smoothies
Cabbage quinoa soup
Broccoli soup  (from another of my favorite recipe sites)
Red Lentil Soup
Curried Cauliflower Carrot soup
Potato Leek soup
Chicken stew
Lentil and rice casserole
Lettuce wraps
Nori rolls  (we stuff these with whatever veggies we have in the frig- avocado, sprouts, spinach, cucumber, carrot, green onion, steamed sweet potato, cabbage, etc)
Quinoa salmon burgers (we really like these!)
burrito bowls
parsnip fries (quite good- kind of sweet)
sweet potato fries
steamed broccoli
sauteed zucchini and summer squash

Treats:
Mango coconut pudding  (I also made a peach version)
Date treats


Breakfast is usually a green smoothie with leftovers from dinner
Lunch is usually a burrito bowl, nori rolls, or a lettuce wrap and a piece of fruit
Dinner is one of the recipes mentioned above
Snacks are fruit, carrots (LMS will go to the frig and grab a carrot and start munching), or a date treat (LMS really likes them. I've fiddled with the recipe a bit, but the date taste is still very strong, and I'm not a huge fan of dates. I need to mess with the recipe some more)

So we have plenty of food we can eat. It's mostly a matter of changing up our menu and cooking completely from scratch. It takes more planning on my part, but some of the recipes come together very quickly. We're getting used to eating lots and lots of veggies and we're getting to try a lot of new recipes.  Changing my mindset about how I cook has been a bit of a hassle, but LMS and I are both feeling good (and LMS's intestines are finally healing) so it's worth it.

The only downside to changing up our menu this way is the increase in cost. Lots of veggies costs lots of money. I read an article recently that said something along the lines of the cost of 500 calories of vegetables costs a lot more than 500 calores of junk food or convenience food.

Eat a couple candy bars and you've eaten 500 calories and only spent a couple bucks and you'll be hungry again soon. I dare you to try eating 500 calories worth of broccoli at one sitting. I found this site that shows 200 calories of a food.

via

Hmmm. That's 200 calories worth, which means that 500 calories is another plate and a half full of broccoli. That'll stick around a lot longer than a couple candy bars. And it's a lot healthier. However, that much broccoli will cost a lot more than a couple candy bars.

Despite the increased costs, the health benefits are definitely worth it.

Somethings just don't go as planned

All week I've been meaning to finish several posts I've started and get them posted, but that hasn't happened. Today I'm finally feeling almost normal though. I can't believe a stupid cold knocked me out for two weeks. That's way longer than necessary, IMO.

I've been a bit stalled on projects since getting back after Christmas. I want to do some more building, but it makes a lot more sense to wait till after we move to do so. I have made some progress on one of the chairs I'm reupholstering (yay!), but that's about it. I realized today that I could sort through pics from the last year and a half so I can send them to the printers and get caught up on my scrapbooking. So that's on my list for next week.

In the meantime, I'm a bit perturbed about the housing situation. The house we want to buy is an approved short sale, which means someone had tried to buy the house before and the bank approved the price, but then the person's financing fell through. We were getting all the paperwork signed so it could be sent to the bank, and that person needed to sign the papers, releasing her claim on it. She wasn't willing to do that though, and today we found out that she's been still trying to get her financing to go through. We're next on the list if it falls through again, but at this point we're not holding our breath.

(yes, the shutters need to be put back on- it's been empty for a while now)

Grrrr. We really liked this house, the price was great (quite a bit less than our budget max), and even though it was a short sale, the bank was going to cover $7k in closing costs. It's a great deal. Which is of course why the other chick is so reluctant to let it go.

I spent the last couple hours combing through the local listings, trying to find something that's suitable yet within our budget. Not a lot of luck on that, unfortunately. Several houses have what we're looking for, but are at the very top of our budget. We really don't want to go that high, though. And the houses that are priced lower don't have the space we want.

I know it'll all work out in the end, but for now it's frustrating.

Last week

Last Saturday I got hit by a double whammy- cramps (the monthly variety) and a head cold. The last week has not been too fun. 

Luckily LMS didn't get sick, but she's been very whiney and cranky the last few weeks. (I think she's mad that daddy's gone so much with work and this is the only way she knows to express it)

We're still waiting to hear if we got the house or not. We signed the papers, the owners signed the papers, but the lady who was going to buy the house (her financing fell through) also has to sign the papers (giving up any claim to the house), and then they get sent to the bank to be given the ok (or not). Hopefully it doesn't take too much longer and the process will start moving ahead quickly.

We have to keep the house we're renting clean all the time so it can be shown to potential buyers. Not that we usually have a dirty house or anything, but when time is short clutter can take over a bit, and 4 year olds like to spread their toys all over. Kind of a pain to be constantly picking things up, but the house does look nice. We've looked at 6 or 7 houses so far, and only one of them was occupied, and it was a bit of a dump. Not clean and organized at all. Of course, it was a foreclosure, so it could have been worse. In any case, I don't want the house looking like a dump when people come by- it does not leave a favorable impression at all.

The elimination diet is definitely helping. LMS's diarhea is mostly gone and she's mostly having normal bowel movements. Yay!
I say mostly because we've started adding things back in and not everything agrees with her, which has resulted in a couple instances of very bad diarhea, which I'm really hoping won't ever happen again.
It was horrible.
I think I'm scarred for life.
And so is LMS.

The down side to the elimination diet is that our list of things we can't eat is growing. Either that or our bodies still need more time to heal before we add new foods back in. So we're going a lot slower than planned and are keeping our meals very simple and basic. And I'm still losing weight!

How was your week?

Sunday Funny

LMS talks very well these days, as would be expected for a 4 1/2 year old. However, there are still times when words don't come out quite right- like she confuses the syllables or something. The most recent instance came while she was reading a book that had a cartoon picture of a skeleton. She knows what one is, but when she mentioned it to me, she said, "Look at the teleskin, mommy". It took me a minute to figure out what she meant :)

LMS sprawled cross-wise on the bed, taking up as much space as possible and using daddy as a foot rest, just like she does any time she joins us in bed

Sunday Funny

While we were visiting family we went to the store to buy some last minute gifts. Mr M was talking to his brother about gift ideas for someone, then he turned to me and asked, "By the way, what did I get you for Christmas?"

We learned some time ago that it's easier if I buy the presents we give, and that includes my gift. Not that he's purposely slacking off in that department, but he is a clueless male sometimes and this is one of them. That and there have been many occasions when he's been gone (training, deployment, etc) during the time leading up to Christmas and has been unable to do any shopping. Since I wanted a present, I started buying my own. He likes not having to worry about it and I like getting exactly what I wanted :)


And this is what he got me:


He got an awesome deal on Cyber Monday!  :)

Now I've just got to figure out how to use it.

Winter running

ice on one of the ponds in our neighborhood

Despite weather in the mid-20s this week, I've actually gone on walks 4 times! Why didn't I manage this in previous winters? I blame it on the frigid arctic wind blowing across the open fields and right through me. All the trees around here block most of the wind, so while it's still cold, I'm not being blown all over and I don't have to deal with the wind chill factor.

Monday: 1.5 miles
Wednesday: 2 miles
Friday: 2.5 miles
Saturday: 3 miles

No running yet- I haven't run since the race on Thanksgiving, but the walks feel good.

How does LMS stay warm? I bundle her up, wrap a warm fleece blanket around her, then put the water proof rain/snow cover on the stroller which blocks any stray wind and keeps her body heat in. She stays nice and toasty :)

Things are moving super fast...

Last Thursday we went and looked at some houses with our real estate agent.

Then we gathered documents and information and sent them to our mortgage guy.

Wednesday we got the "you're qualified for a VA loan" message from the VA. When I researched it online awhile ago, it said to expect the process of getting your VA approval to take a couple months. Hmmm, yeah, we got it in a couple days.

Yesterday we looked at some more houses and we met with the mortgage guy to go over all the numbers- so glad we didn't have to worry about putting all that info together.

Today we looked at one more house and decided to put a bid on it (or whatever you call if for a short sale). It's an approved short sale, which means the price has already been approved (the previous people's funding fell through), so theoretically the whole process should be a lot faster than it sometimes is.

We have to get the ok from the seller's bank, and as long as the VA doesn't have any objections (they can be nitpicky about things) we're good to go.

No pics yet, because we're trying not to get too excited about it yet (since it could still fall through), but it's a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house on .75 acres with woods behind the house. Half the back yard is fenced. There's a two car garage in half the basement and the other half is partly finished- it needs a little more drywall, the roughed in bath needs to be finished, and flooring needs to be installed. Family room, kitchen, laundry room, half bath, formal dining, and living room on the main floor. 4 bedrooms and 2 full baths upstairs, plus lots of closets. And it's in good condition. We looked at a foreclosure yesterday that needed a lot of work. This one doesn't.

In all reality, it's more house than we need, but the price is great (instant equity!), the neighborhood is nice and quiet (and because of the bigger lots is less densely built up than our current neighborhood), and it's about 15 minutes from work. LMS has already claimed the pink and purple room with Disney Princess decals on the wall (I'll be painting over the pink and taking down the princesses, but don't tell her yet!).

The only real downside to the house? Let's just say the previous owners weren't afraid of color, and their favorite was a bright mustard yellow. Most of the house is mustard yellow or has hideous wall paper. If we get the house, we'll be pulling off wallpaper and buying gallons and gallons of primer and paint.

So, we're now playing the waiting game and we'll have to see what happens. Once we find out what's happening, even if we don't get the house, I'll post pics of the yellow and the wall paper. Some people definitely have way different decorating ideas than we do :)

The difficulties of multiple food allergies

There's nothing quite as heartbreaking as standing in the natural foods store, telling LMS we can't buy the animal cookies that we've bought in the past. She broke down and started crying- loudly. Not that I blame her, because there's definitely times I feel like crying about being so limited in our food options.

The animal cookies in question contain corn starch, which was added to our no-no list since the last time we bought them.

Luckily for us, an employee came by to help, as did a fellow customer- both of who (whom?) gave suggestions of cookies to try. The winner: Enjoy life  gingerbread cookies. They are free from all the allergens we have to avoid, and they taste fairly decent. In fact, LMS horked down most of the box while I wasn't looking :)  Like a lot of things we are able to eat, they are pricey, but for a once-in-a-while treat, that's ok.

I'm also a fan of Enjoy life semi-sweet chocolate chips. Unlike every other brand of chocolate chips I've checked, they don't contain soy lecithin- yay! I actually find them a bit sweet, but the flavor is pretty good. I've been doing some experiments with them, and we were able to make some yummy chocolates for Christmas.

Ice skating lessons

LMS has expressed an interest in ice skating, so when I realized we have an indoor ice arena that offers lessons, and there was a new 5 week session starting soon and it was a fairly reasonable price, I signed her up.

This afternoon we headed over to the arena, dressed warmly and toting LMS's pink bike helmet. They have all the kids wear helmets (their own or loaner ones), which I think is great. I don't remember seeing kids with helmets on the last time I went to an ice rink, which admittedly was a long time ago. I saw at least one kiddo crash and burn and hit her head on the ice, but her helmet saved her from any injury.

We picked up skates for LMS and got her laced in. They're single blade skates, which surprised me at first- I was expecting double blades for the little kids. But really, it makes more sense to start them out on the single blades so they get used to it from the beginning.

I didn't expect this, but if parents want, they'll let them skate along with the kids (the tot class anyway). Skate rentals are included in the lessons, so I grabbed a pair and went out on the ice with LMS.

Hmmm, yeah, it's only been about 15 years since I last went ice skating.  (I actually taught myself on the frozen 'lakes' that would form in the fields next to our house.)  Though I fully expected to land on my bum at least once, I managed not to disgrace myself and was feeling much more confident again by the end of the half hour lesson and 15 minute practice session.

LMS was really excited about the whole idea of skating, but once she got on the ice she wasn't too sure about it- it was a lot more slippery than she was expecting. She did pretty good though, and shook off the falls pretty quickly, though she didn't appreciate it when she fell because the kid next to her took her down with him.

I quickly realized that allowing parents to skate with their kids was purely in the instructor's interest. There was one instructor and a helper for ten to fifteen 3-5 year olds (I forgot to count how many kids were in the class). Any extra hands were more than welcome, and there were 3 or 4 parents who got on the ice.

It was quite funny to watch the kids. They were like dominoes- if one went down, it caused a chain reaction and the kids around him/her also went down. Luckily for them they're short and don't have too far to fall :)

By the time practice was over, LMS was upset because she wanted to stay and keep skating. So while the class was a bit of a roller coaster, we managed to end on a positive note and she's looking forward to the next class next week.

I forgot my camera, so no pics this week.

Elimination Diet

As I mentioned Saturday, we're doing an elimination diet. What does that mean? Well, we eliminate a whole bunch of stuff (anything that could cause a reaction) and eat a non-reactive diet for several weeks, allowing the body to heal. We then start adding in potential problem foods one at a time, with enough time in between each to make sure there's no reaction.

So where did we find this elimination diet? Awhile ago, when I first started searching for gluten free, vegan recipes, this is one of the sites I found that was an excellent resource for recipes and information: NourishingMeals.com. The couple who run the blog (they have a website also) are nutritionists who have also written a book, The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook.

I bought the book after Christmas, and I have to tell you, I love it! Not only are there recipes, there's also a lot of good nutrition information, including the elimination diet. I can prepare most of the recipes as written, though there are a few with tofu or eggs that I would have to adjust. I've prepared several of the recipes in the cookbook, as well as some from the website (there's some overlap, but not all recipes are in both places), and they've been very yummy.  I really like that the ingredients are whole foods: fresh fruits and veggies, herbs, spices, gluten free grains, legumes, lean meats, etc. It's a bit more work to cook completely from scratch, but the chances of cross-contamination are reduced to almost nil, it's healthier for us, and the food really does taste good.

We're a week into the elimination diet, and already I've lost 3 pounds, which is in addition to the 13 pounds I've lost since eliminating dairy, eggs, corn, and soy. Goal #37 is almost accomplished!

Admittedly, it hasn't all been fun and games. We had colds all week plus we had to deal with the detox die-off that makes you feel crappy. And we had to adjust to eating A LOT more vegetables than we're used to. In the past we tried, but never succeeded, in eating as many as we should. Though I can honestly say that we are now getting more than the recommended servings of veggies (not quite on fruit, because that's too much sugar).

The recipes from the book and website make it really easy to incorporate more veggies into your diet. And if you eat leftovers from dinner for breakfast or lunch the next day, that's more veggies for very little work. I balked at eating lots of veggies for breakfast, but it's not that bad (I really like being able to just re-heat leftovers, and then maybe whipping up a green smoothie to go with it), and it does stay with you. I made this broccoli soup (from another site I use a lot) a few days ago, but instead of serving it with rice, I served it with quinoa. We had leftovers for breakfast the next morning, and it stuck to my ribs very well.

Have you tried eating veggies for breakfast?

Sunday Funny

We were eating dinner the other day and LMS told me she didn't have room for any more broccoli. She then told me with a smile: "If I eat ice cream, I'll have room for more broccoli!"

Nice try kiddo, but I don't think it works that way :)

(if you remember, we can eat coconut and hemp milk ice cream- the ice cream in question was a chocolate coconut milk ice cream bar- very yummy)

I'm still alive

Hmmm, so it's been a month since I last posted.

So what have I been doing with my time? Let's see...

1. Finished Christmas presents for nieces and nephews
2. Finished LMS's toy cubby and my desk
3. Packed for a cross-country trip to visit family
4. Decided not to buy a truck as planned, meaning we had to fly back home at the end of our trip
5. Flew across the country to visit family (much quicker than driving)
6. Hung out with my hubby and daughter
7. Went elk hunting for the first time
8. Celebrated Christmas with our families
9. Managed to maintain our gluten, corn, oats, dairy, egg, and soy free diet (after much planning on my part)
10. Flew back home, but a missed connection made me question the decision to fly rather than drive
11. LMS and I caught colds almost immediately and we've spent the past week trying to recover
12. Started an elimination diet to determine once and for all what is bothering LMS and myself (progress already- she's finally had a solid bowel movement for the first time in 2 1/2 months- sorry for the possible TMI)
13. Unpacked the boxes of presents and cold weather gear that we had to ship home since we flew back instead of driving, and LMS had lots of fun playing with her new toys
14. Decided it was time to stop neglecting my blog

we also did a new family photo