Briefly Checking In

Once again, I've been incommunicado for a couple weeks. This seems to happen most often when I find myself super busy with other projects- my internet time drastically decreases and my blogging slows from a trickle to a sporadic drip.

I have about two more weeks of busyness (despite my efforts I did not finish all the painting before Christmas), and then I hope to be more regular with my posting.

On the upside, I will have lots of pictures to share from all the painting and remodeling work I've been doing, as well as Christmas photos, GAPS updates, goals accountability and updates, and Disney photos (parks and races).

In the meantime, here's a photo I took while running on a canal towpath Christmas Eve morning. Parts of it were covered with snow and ice, but a lot of it was fairly clear, so while it was colder than I'm used to (I've been doing a lot of treadmill running), I was able to go for a nice four mile run.

Easy Fall Neckerchief Slide

I made this for the month of November, but for a variety of reasons, we didn't have time to actually make them with the boys. I thought I'd share it anyway.

I started by cutting three sizes of the same leaf with my Silhouette, then tracing them onto three different colors of felt. The yellow is stiff, and added some structure to the whole thing. I layered the felt leaves, gluing them with my trusty low-temp glue gun, then added some googly eyes. The last step was to glue a section of conduit to the back.

Christmas Tree Neckerchief Slide

This was a fairly easy slide, though I need to find some slides that don't involve felt. The boys just aren't that adept at cutting felt. January's slide will be a miniature wood car in honor of the Pinewood Derby, but I haven't come up with anything for February yet.

This should be pretty easy to figure out, but here's what I did. I cut two identical trees out of green felt and stiff brown felt, cutting the trunk off the green tree so the brown trunk showed through. The stiff brown felt kept everything from flopping around. I used my low- temp glue gun and glued the layers together. Then I searched through my button collection for likely "ornaments" and cut some baker's twine for garland. Some more dabs of hot glue, and the tree was decorated. All that was left was gluing a piece of conduit to the back (go here for more details on the conduit).

I forgot to take pictures of the ones the boys made, but here's a picture of the one LMS made (with help from the other den leader).

And yes, I totally made a pink neckerchief for LMS :)

GAPS Intro Week 5

Read why we're doing GAPS here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 1 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 2 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 3 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 4 here.

I still struggled with eating enough, but since I didn't realize what was going on till the end of week 4/beginning of week 5 this wasn't surprising.

We added homemade applesauce (so yummy!), cucumbers, Boston lettuce, raw apples, and honey.

We did more juicing, adding beets, apples, pears, and celery to our carrot juice. I only add small amounts of beet though. I learned my lesson when we were newlyweds years ago and I was doing some juicing. I don't remember what else I put in, but I do know there was an entire beet in the mix. I drank the juice then got in my car to go to class. A few blocks later, I had to pull over and I puked all over the fence surrounding the soccer fields. Needless to say, I was scarred for life by that experience. I think I may have stopped juicing after that? Can't quite remember, but I wouldn't be surprised.

I've been roasting an organic pastured chicken each week, and it's so easy. Rinse the chicken, then sprinkle sea salt, pepper, and Herbamare on all sides. I cook it for about 2 hours at 350. I start it breast side down for half an hour, turn it over and cover with foil for another half hour, then uncover and cook for about 1 more hour (till the internal temperature is at 180. The skin gets nice and crispy and brown and tastes sooo good. Healthy fats, right? It's a big change from before, when just the thought of eating the skin was a bit icky. Even LMS, who has never liked skin and such before likes it.

After roasting, I deglaze the roasting pan and add the juices to the crockpot with the carcass, which makes the best tasting broth. Yum!

Adventures with Chainsaws

Back in August, a gust of wind proved to be too much for one of our oak trees. There was a damaged section of trunk, and the wood splintered. It took a while for the top half of the tree to fall down, so we left it alone till recently. I'm sad to lose this tree- it was a big tree at the end of our driveway and the branches gave great shade and coverage.

The tree started at this angle, about 45 degrees closer to the ground.

After a few weeks the weakened wood had splintered enough for the the top of the tree to be at a 90 degree angle.

A few weeks later, it finally gave in and broke off completely. Unfortunately the top half was still leaning against the trunk, which made it difficult to do anything with it. So we didn't. We just let it stay as it was.

Here's a view of the damaged part of the tree, right after it started splintering. Once I looked, it was quite obvious that that section was weakened and in trouble.

 Here's the other side of the tree, showing the bulging of the splinters.

The mangled ends after the tree finished breaking.

Here's what it's looked like since the leaves fell. Not very pretty.

A week ago our very kind neighbors came over and took the tree down for us. I'd asked one of them to show me how to use a chain saw so I could do it, but he expressed concern about the technicality of the job since the top part was leaning against the trunk. So he got together with our other neighbor, who's more experienced in such things, and they took it down.

They looped a rope around the top section of the still-standing trunk, attached it to the tow hitch of a Jeep, and ratcheted it tight before making the first cut.

Here you can see the fallen top part has slid down to where the rope is.

Tightening the rope before cutting a bit more.

Pulling the tree down.

And it landed right where it was supposed to. Yay!

Branches on the top part had to be cut then it lay on the ground as well.

Here's a section of the trunk where it splintered. It was just mangled. 

A few cuts and the trunk pieces were moved off the driveway. They'll finish cutting the trunks and take the wood home for seasoning and splitting. They both have wood fireplaces/heaters, and we don't, so giving them the wood was a no-brainer.

The chunk of trunk on the right hand side of the driveway, furthest up, is for us. We're going to let it season and then get it planed into a mantle beam by a local sawmill. We'll then hollow it out so we can attach it to the wall above our {gas} fireplace. 

I've always hated the minimalist mantle the previous owners installed, and thought the idea of a rough-hewn mantle made from a tree on our property was a great idea. I planned on using one of the other trees that need to be taken down, but since this one came down before we had a chance to take down any of them, we're using this tree.

{this is not what it looks like anymore- thank goodness!}

After they did the big stuff, I pulled out our {as-yet-unused} chainsaw and they walked me through the proper usage and safety precautions  of a chainsaw. I've been nervous about doing it myself (I kept having visions of accidentally chopping off part of a foot), but figured once I learned how to use it all would be fine. This proved to be true. It's fun to use! Though I do need to watch my body mechanics since I managed to get a migraine and trigger my sciatica because I was tensing up so bad while cutting the branches on an incline. Probably a flat cutting surface would be good.

Have you used a chainsaw?

Conversations with LMS

Posing on a newly cut-down tree- "Mommy, take a picture of me!"

Listening to Christmas carols in the car....

Mommy, what's mistletoe?

A plant that you hang on the ceiling or doorway, and if you stop under it, you kiss.

Who do you kiss?

Your husband or wife.

Ewww!

Next year I'm going to get lots of mistletoe and hang it all over the house and daddy and I are going to do lots of kissing.

No, I don't want you to do that.

Why not?

Mommies and daddies aren't supposed to kiss.

Oh? What are they supposed to do?

Um, they're supposed to take care of their kids.


---------------

Oh, kiddo. you make me laugh. You're a little young yet to understand that if mommies and daddies don't kiss, there's no kiddos for them to take care of :)

She's actually been in the anti-kissing phase for awhile now- anytime she catches us kissing, she yells "no kissing!", but we just kiss again, which prompts her to yell "no kissing!" again. Cheap entertainment :)

GAPS Intro Week 4

Read why we're doing GAPS here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 1 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 2 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 3 here.

This week we started juicing- carrot juice to begin with. We also added olive oil back in. Nut flour bread was on the list, but since we're not eating nuts or eggs, we skipped it. LMS loves the carrot juice, my reaction is more "meh". The earthy sweetness isn't really my thing. Once we tone it down with other juices, it'll be more acceptable.

All week I had bad cravings, which made life difficult. After a lot of thought, I decided I wasn't eating enough.

• I've increased my level of physical activity since I'm training for a half marathon in January.
• Taste bud fatigue. Or is it appetite fatigue?  Basically I'm getting tired of eating the same thing over and over, and I'm not fond of the taste of beef fat, which ends up in a lot of our food. As a result, I'm eating less overall, which isn't a good thing at this point in time. Adding more foods back in so we have a wider variety to choose from should help with this though.

Random thing:
I usually wash my hair every other day, only blow dry it on Sundays, and let it air dry the rest of the time. The last couple weeks I've noticed my hair isn't nearly as greasy as usual. Usually the morning I'm due to wash my hair, I can tell it needs it and there's no way to let it go another day.  Lately, I've been going 3 or 4 days in between washings, and my hair doesn't feel gross. I washed my hair Sunday morning, and it wasn't till Friday that I felt like it needed to be washed again. Now if I could get my face to clear up a bit more, I'd be happy. It's never been really bad, but I do have a problem with blackheads and blemishes on certain parts of my face.

November Goals Re-cap

four random broccoli (cauliflower?) plants that somehow survived the scorching summer and crappy soil- I found them when I cleaned out the garden and prepped it for winter.

Since I wrote down some new goals, I thought I should track my progress at the end of each month. So here's how I did in the month of November:
(October's progress report can be found here)
(September's progress report can be found here)
(August's progress report can be found here)
(July's progress report can be found here)
(June's progress report can be found here)

A few goals under Health:
1. keep strengthening my knee and start running for longer periods of time/distance
I'm running regularly and increasing my mileage. The next thing to do is be more diligent with my strength training.
2. train for and run at least 4 races by the end of 2012 (at least one half marathon)
I ran the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, giving me 5 races for the year, the first of which was a half marathon.
3. be more careful with my eating and lose some weight
We started following the GAPS diet at the beginning of November. We're feeling good and hopefully making progress with the health of our intestines. I lost the weight I gained last month plus some, and am now down 20 pounds from where I was in August. Yay!

A few goals under House:
1. finish painting all the rooms
I worked on the guest bedroom and master bath, but didn't finish them. I did finish the trim and doors in the entry way and living room. I also finally hung some art on the walls- pics to come.
2. do the family room ceiling
Paneling is up, spackled, sanded, primed, and painted. The crown is repainted and reinstalled, so I'm calling it good.
3. finish building built-in shelves in the library
I got the books sorted and organized and placed on the shelves, only to realize I underestimated how many shelves I'd need. I've made some more, but still need to paint them.

A few goals under Homeschool:
1. stick to the schedule I've worked out, as much as possible
We're still doing pretty good. I'm really liking the 3 weeks on/1 week off schedule that we've been doing- no time for boredom or burnout.
2. be more consistent with violin practicing
Since we started school we're doing better because it's in our school schedule. In thinking about this particular goal, I think I meant more consistency from LMS and myself. We've been really good about making sure LMS is practicing, but I still haven't been, so now I need to be more consistent with MY practicing. Like a lot of other things, though, it won't happen till after Christmas.

A few goals under Habits:
1. practice the piano more frequently
Still haven't had time. Realistically, with the schedule I've imposed on myself, I won't have time until after Christmas. I'm ok with that.
2. index several batches every week for FamilySearch
I only indexed once or twice this month- I need to be a bit more diligent with this.
3. have more meaningful daily scripture study (start journaling as I read)
I wasn't loving my topic journal that focused on people in the Book of Mormon, so I tweaked it so it would be more of a summary. I will probably end up buying a topical study guide (I've found one that I think will work out) and using that before attempting something on my own again. This is not a strongpoint for me, so I'm willing to take any help I can get.

How did you do with your goals this month?

GAPS Intro Week 3

Read why we're doing GAPS here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 1 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 2 here.

Since we're doing one stage each week, Week 3 = Stage 3.

This week we introduced egg whites, soaked and dehydrated pecans (crispy nuts), avocado, and cilantro.

The egg whites were a massive, but not unexpected, failure. Apparently the whites are the ones that usually cause problems for people, rather than the yolks. So, no egg whites. We tried some pancakes made of egg yolks, summer squash, and crispy pecans all blended together, but they were problematic. I'd eaten the nuts by themselves without too many problems, but after the pancakes I decided we needed to hold off on the eggs and nuts till after we've had more time to heal. Disappointing, but on par with where we were before.

Thankfully we were able to eat the avocado without problems, and LMS is liking avocados a lot more than she used to. She will actually eat them as a snack and ask for some at meals. I'm still not super-fond of the texture, but they're good for us, so I'll eat them.

Surprisingly, the cilantro did seem to give me a few problems. I'll need to try it again in a few days to make sure whether it's ok or not.

Thanksgiving was less than festive for us, but it wasn't terrible. It was nice to have a low-key holiday, even if we weren't able to eat traditional Thanksgiving foods.

Other thoughts:

1. During the healing process, symptoms sometimes get worse before they get better. This is certainly true for LMS, who has had more meltdowns than usual. I'm not at all surprised by this, though, given all that's going on.
2. It took several meltdowns and several conversations where I tried to figure out the reason for that specific meltdown, for me to finally realize a few things. LMS really likes the independence of being able to get her own breakfast together or her own snacks. She is really, really struggling with that right now. She doesn't like that I have to heat things up for her to eat and that there's nothing ready to grab out of the pantry.
3. We've found a couple solutions though. She now knows how to heat up a small dish of mashed butternut squash and some leftover meat from dinner in the microwave (we've always had over the stove models, which she can't reach, so she hasn't had any practice using one), so as long as there's a container with food in the frig, she can get that herself. We've had multiple discussions about snacks and what we can and can't eat, and she's decided that a Bubbie's pickle is an acceptable snack option. Right now I have to get them out of the jar for her, but I will be putting some into individual, reusable containers so she can get one herself.
4. I think I've decided to hold off on introducing foods that we've had problems with in the past. Rather than experience frustration at not being able to eat them yet, we'll just wait and let our intestines heal more. So even though GAPS says to introduce eggs, nuts, dairy, and so on at certain points, I think we'll just try to be patient.

I finally found my stride today

don't you wish you were this flexible?

I've been running regularly the last few weeks, doing my standard alternating 5 minutes walking/5 minutes running. I'd be watching the clock on the treadmill, just waiting for the 5 minutes to end so I could walk again.

Today, everything felt good. It felt right. When each 5 minute segment was finished, I wanted to keep running- it felt effortless.

I've been increasing my mileage faster than I should, though, so I decided not to push my luck by running more than 5 minutes at a time.

It's so nice to finally reach the point where running feels good again. It hasn't felt this good in years. I need to make sure I don't get over-zealous and push too hard, too fast, but with my next half marathon just 6 weeks away it is tempting.

 I also like how my workout clothes fit- the 20 pounds I've lost so far really shows. Female-cut technical shirts run a bit small, but now I can wear several race shirts that were too tight in the past. Yay!

Sunday Funny

Just a little something LMS came up with while I was painting the living room a couple weeks ago. She asked me to cut eye holes in the paper, but the decorations and attaching it to her glasses is all her. 

I love it!

Turkey Trot

terrible picture taken just before the race, but it's the only one I have

Thursday I ran the Turkey Trot that we did last year and the year before.

LMS decided not to run the kids' run this year, and I didn't push it. The kids' run is not easy- 1/4 mile down hill followed by 1/4 mile back up the hill to the finish. I'm hoping her energy levels will increase as her intestines heal so she'll feel up to doing more things.

Since Mr M is out of town, I pushed LMS in the jogger as I ran. I've decided this is the last year LMS gets to ride in the jogger :) It's still doable, but it's getting harder. The first two miles I managed about a 9 minute pace, but then I ruined it by taking almost 20 minutes to run the last mile. I had to stop and walk three times because of all the hills. That last mile is brutal! I ended up finishing in 37:58, and had a good strong kick at the end, which I was pleased with.

The weather was perfect for running too. It was about 32 degrees when we arrived, but it warmed up a few degrees while we waited to start. While we were waiting, it was chilly, but once we got going it was great. I never over-heated or got super sweaty, which would have happened in warmer weather since I pushing LMS up all those hills.

I've only been running on the treadmill, but I made sure to include some hill work since I knew the race contained hills. While there are some local races in December, I don't think I'll do any of them. I might do one on New Year's Day, but I haven't decided about that yet. My next race after that is the Disney World Half Marathon in January.

My training will now focus on distance (my mileage is not as high as it should be), with some speed work and hill work thrown in.

Gaps Intro Week 2

Read why we're doing GAPS here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 1 here.

For now, we're taking a week to go through each stage of Intro. It's very tempting to zoom through them all, but since we know we have significant damage to our intestines, it's going to take a while for them to heal. It's not going to happen overnight.

So, since last week was our second week, we worked on stage 2.

On day 7 of the first week we each had a ridiculously expensive organic pastured duck egg yolk mixed into our bowl of soup. There wasn't significant problems, so we continued to do the same each day.

However, I wasn't sure about the eggs- there were no digestive issues, but LMS has been super cranky lately. I haven't been able to pinpoint whether it's because of die-off, feelings of deprivation, or something else. She really wants her usual snacks and is having a hard time with the restrictions on food she can easily eat.

LMS couldn't stand not having a "snack", and Wednesday she managed to find an almost empty jar of sunbutter in the frig while I was doing some yardwork outside. Later that day she had some intestinal issues, and I couldn't figure out why. The next day, I discovered sunbutter smears on the drawers in the frig, and put two and two together. Needless to say, we had a long discussion about why we couldn't eat sunbutter yet, and we stopped eating eggs for a few days to give her intestines a chance to recover.

I had ordered fermented cod liver oil the previous week, so when it arrived, we started taking the FCLO. We're currently taking it in capsule form, but may switch to a flavored liquid form. There's no aftertaste with the capsules, but I think it's more cost-effective to do the liquid (need to double-check that).

I had read that GAPS cures kids of being picky eaters, and LMS is already less of a picky eater than she used to be. She's never liked pickles before, but now I have to stop her from eating too many at once since we're still adjusting to the probiotics in the fermented pickles. She now asks for a "healthy snack" when she wants a pickle.

LMS has decided she really likes mashed butternut squash, preferably with some duck fat and sea salt on top. I don't mind the duck fat, it seems to have a fairly neutral flavor, but neither of us likes the flavor of lamb or beef lard on our veggies. Hopefully the flavor will blend better with meat when we can cook our meat in other ways besides boiled in broth. Gotta come up with some way to use the tubs of tallow I purchased.....

Other thoughts:

1. We're currently alternating Bubbies pickles with Bubbies sauerkraut. I've ordered a Pickl-It jar and will start some sauerkraut when it arrives.
2. **Over-share coming up**  My period was way less painful than usual. I had some cramps, but nowhere near as bad as usual, and I was able to function without painkillers or curling up around my heating pad. Considering I've been taking a prescription pain killer specifically for menstrual cramps for the last year or so, that's saying a lot. I also wasn't as cranky and irrational as I usually am leading up to my period. I really hope this continues :)

Thankful

Mr M and I were talking today about what LMS and I are (and aren't) eating these days. He's currently out of the country for work, so he's missing out on the fun.  His Thanksgiving dinner wasn't that great, but he mentioned that he was sure it was better than what LMS and I ate.

Because of where we are in the GAPS Intro, the only "traditional" Thanksgiving dinner item we could eat was the turkey. I haven't really been in Thanksgiving meal mode this week, so I neglected to take our turkey out of the freezer in time for it to defrost. Oops.

Instead, I roasted an organic pastured chicken last night so it would be all ready for today. We added some mashed squash (LMS's current favorite) and cauliflower "fauxtatoes" with homemade gravy. We also had some chicken veggie noodle soup (zucchini and summer squash noodles with chunks of carrot, onion, and broccoli). While not the traditional meal, it was quite yummy.

I was realistic though: we turned down several invitations to friends' houses. We could have brought our food with us, but it would have been torture to see and smell all the food we can't eat. LMS would have had multiple meltdowns for sure. Why even go there?

Back to our unconventional meal.

While we ate, I realized that even though it might not be what we really wanted to eat, we are still very blessed.

We have plenty of food to eat. There may not be a lot of variety right now, but we have enough. So many people don't have that luxury. When I think of that, it's hard to complain about our food situation.

Sunday Funny

Since we made a wig for LMS's Princess Buttercup costume, the Little Miss decided that Nanny needed a wig also, and she got to work.

A few braids, some knots, and voila! A cute little wig for Nanny!

I love how creative the Little Miss is :)

GAPS Intro Week 1

Read why we're doing GAPS here.

So how'd the first week on GAPS go?

For me, pretty good. LMS required a lot of encouraging and cajoling, but she stuck with it.

We'd already started drinking bone broth every day and we'd started taking our probiotic supplement as well. When Monday came, I cooked up some squash and hamburger for breakfast instead of our usual bowl of rice crispies, and it wasn't as bad as I was afraid it would be.

LMS wasn't thrilled with the idea of eating veg and meat for all three meals, with no "real" snacks (raisins, applesauce, etc). She likes being able to eat snacks that she can get herself that she thinks are yummy.

The first few days my mental fog increased because of the die off reaction, but then it started to get better. I'm still not where I'd like to be, but I'm getting there.

Wednesday and Thursday we were both super tired, though LMS was more so, and Friday our energy levels were back up. I'm glad it was an off week from school- it made it easier to let things slide when we didn't feel up to doing them. The timing was unintentional, but fortuitous.

A few days into it, we both started fantasizing about all the food we wanted to eat but couldn't. I've been spending lots of time online, searching out new recipes, reading others' experiences on GAPS, and so on, and it became very tempting to just go eat all the things I haven't been eating but want to (no gluten, of course, I'm not stupid)- cake, cookies, pizza, etc. Not a good idea to be looking at all the things you might be able to eat sometime in the future, and you don't know when, especially when you're on a very restricted diet.

I could tell LMS was also fantasizing about all the things she'd eat because she pulled out a Japanese kids cookbook and started pointing out all the things she wanted to make. Only she wanted to make them now. She's having a hard time with the whole waiting thing- she wants to be able to eat them now.

Some of the food we ate:
hamburger cooked in broth (as hamburger patties and meatballs)
chicken (cooked when I put a whole chicken in the crockpot for broth)
butternut squash (cooked in broth, then mashed)
cauliflower (cooked in broth, then mashed)
broccoli (boiled till soft, not lightly steamed like I usually like)
onions (cooked in broth)
chicken soup (shredded crockpot chicken, grated onion, carrot, zucchini, summer squash, broccoli, and cauliflower, well cooked in broth)
summer squash soup (summer squash cooked in broth, then blended smooth)
teaspoons of Bubbie's sauerkraut juice (haven't quite gotten the courage to make my own, but soon)
teaspoonful of Bubbie's sauerkraut
chicken pieces and zucchini slices baked in broth

We only ate one egg each during the first week- on day 7, and it was just the yolk, mixed into a bowl of soup. I'm still undecided on whether it was ok or not. More on that next week.

One con: lots and lots of dishes. I used to be able to go 2 or 3 days between dishwasher loads and even then it might be a little sparse. Now I'm doing full loads every single day. Even though we pretty much eat the same thing throughout the day (so I only have to cook once) or leftovers from the day before, using the stove to reheat food rather than the microwave really increases the number of dirty dishes.

A few more thoughts:

1. I don't like the "diet" part of the name. "Diet" has such bad connotations, and I don't want it being applied to our 6 year old, since it's not like she needs to lose weight or anything. I think GAPS regimen sounds so much better than GAPS diet.
2. On the other hand, I have lost weight doing GAPS. I've always suspected that my wieght issues were related to the condition of my intestines, and so far this seems to be the case. Hopefully it'll hold true: I'm now a third of the way to my weight loss goal!
3. We're not restricted in the amount of food we eat- we actually end up eating more, because it can hover on low-carb (which is why we've been eating a lot of squash, to keep our carbs up), we're just restricted in the kinds of food.
4. I forgot to mention that GAPS is not long term. The intro phase usually is 4-6 weeks, but can be longer if needed. Once you're done with intro you move to full GAPS, where you continue to eat nutrient dense food while you continue to heal. Some can come off it in 6 months, others take 2 years, it just depends on your body. After that, you transition to including more foods that aren't GAPS legal. We'll transition to gluten free whole foods/nourishing traditions foods.

Sorting Books for our Library

Yes, we have lots of books. 

The other night I sat down and sorted these piles and placed them on the bookshelves I built. Unfortunately, I miscalculated how many shelves I would need, so now I need to make a few more shelves before I can show you how it all turned out. I can't wait- I love how it's turned out!

As I sorted and organized, I also culled. Turns out that when you can't see all the books you have, you sometimes end up with more than one copy of the same book. Who knew? 

In fact, there's one book that we have three copies of. I'm really not sure how that happened.

While I pulled out duplicates, I also pulled out books that, for one reason or another, we didn't need to keep. Some questions I asked myself:

When was the last time one of us read this book?

Will we read it again anytime soon?

Can we get it from the library?

If we hadn't read it in a long time, weren't likely to read it again, and we could easily get it from the library if we did want to read it, it went in the discard pile. As I sorted, I noticed a trend: the fiction books we did keep tended to be books written by the same authors (series or otherwise).  Some are contemporary authors, but I also have several favorite authors that are out of print and hard to find at our library, so over the years I've bought most of their books on ebay.

I kept most of our nonfiction books, with the notable exceptions being duplicate Japanese dictionaries from our time at language school, several cookbooks that I'll never be able to use given their gluten content, and my old vet tech books from college. Yes, I graduated more than 10 years ago and still had some of my textbooks.

About 300-odd books that we won't be keeping.

I listed about 200 books on paperbackswap.com. This is my first time using it, but I've heard really good things about it. Basically you list books you don't want, and others list books they do want. When those lists match up, you send your book to the person who wants it. You pay the shipping, and in return you get a credit to request a book from someone else (they pay the shipping to send it to you). Within 24 hours I had 36 books requested and 14 more books waiting to be confirmed by the people who had placed them on their lists.

I'm sure I'll only have sporadic match-ups from here on out, but it was nice to get rid of a bunch of books at once (even if it was a bit pricey to ship 36 books, even by media mail). Sending 36 books gives me 36 credits that I can use to get books (1 credit= 1 book, 2 credits= 1 audiobook), plus you get 2 credits when you list your first book, so I have 38 credits available. Now I just have to wait for the books I want to be listed. And make more room on the shelves....

Some of the books weren't in good enough condition to be listed on paperbackswap.com, so I'll be dropping them off at Goodwill.

Right now the shelves are pretty full, so I'm going to have to sort and cull again to make room for new books. I love buying new (or used) books, but it's hard to let them go.

I've also determined to be a bit more choosey about the books we purchase and keep, especially children's books. Some of our children's books had been purchased in bulk lots off ebay, so I didn't get a chance to vet them beforehand. As LMS has read them, though, I've realized that some of them were definitely twaddle and not worth keeping. And I'll be the first to admit that some of our novels are twaddle as well (don't judge me to harshly!). But it's easier to recognize that as an adult than as a child.

Do you somehow end up with twaddle on your shelves too?

This is a random post

I was searching through my stash of half-written posts, trying to find something to post. I've been working hard on various projects, and have made significant progress on them, but they're still not actually finished. So, do I show not-quite finished projects, or do I wait a bit longer?

decisions, decisions....

In the meantime, enjoy this photo of LMS getting ready to trick or treat with some friends on Halloween. They had so much fun!

Why did we decide to do the GAPS diet?

In a word, desperation.

A few months ago we had to cut out a few more foods, which was a bit depressing. The realization that there's not that many foods left that we can eat was even more depressing. And frustrating.

LMS and I had a conversation about baking and I realized that in our current state of affairs, she'd never be able to learn how to bake, let alone eat, cookies, cakes, candies, pies, bread, etc. What a sad state of affairs.

Out of desperation, I took to the internets to see if I could find something useful and helpful. The first thing I read up on was leaky gut syndrome, which sounded like it could be what was going on with our intestines. As usual, no real treatment, other than dietary changes and supplementation. As I did more reading, I kept running across the GAPS diet, which I'd seen mentioned before in my googling over the last couple years. Previously it never caught my interest, so I never investigated it.

This time, I was willing to look into anything and everything. I borrowed a book about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) from the library, then bought the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride (our library doesn't have it).

GAPS is related to SCD, but with more of an emphasis on nutrient-dense foods. Here's a good comparison of the two, stated much better than I ever could.

The intro phase starts out with lots of bone broth (drunk at each meal), boiled meats and veggies (for easy digestibility), probiotic supplements, and detox baths (alternating baking soda, epsom salts, and apple cider vinegar). You gradually add foods in: first fermented sauerkraut juice, then fermented sauerkraut- small amounts that are then gradually increased if they are well tolerated. Fermented sauerkraut contains probiotics, so you don't want to take too much right at the start, to reduce die-off reactions. The next food you add is the yolks of pastured eggs- they're rich in nutrients and are less problematic than the whites. You continue to add new foods in one at a time, making sure they don't cause problems, and giving time to step back and recover if there is a problem.

What caught my eye was the assertion that bone broth and highly digestible foods could heal the intestines. Since our intestines obviously need help, I decided it was worth a try.

I bought an e-book describing how to do the intro phase of GAPS (it's only briefly mentioned in the GAPS book I mentioned above), and then.... we waited.

We saved up and bought a quarter of a cow, since we'd need the meat and the bones and we're almost out of elk.
I started making and freezing bone broth.
I ordered some strong probiotics.
I started talking up GAPS to LMS.

The last item was the hard part. While our diet wasn't that far from the intro phase of GAPS, we would need to cut out fruit for awhile, completely eliminate rice (no more GF rice crispies for breakfast), and we wouldn't be able to "cheat" and buy M&Ms when we did the grocery shopping (we shouldn't eat M&Ms for various reasons, but sometimes you just need a chocolate fix). LMS wasn't thrilled with the idea of giving up applesauce, rice crispies, and M&Ms.

I tried to get her on board by explaining that if we could stick with it, we should be able to start eating things we haven't been able to eat for quite awhile, like eggs, dairy products, and nuts. This excited her, and she agreed to give it a try.

In an effort to keep the detoxing symptoms to a minimum, we eased into everything by first starting the probiotics, then two days later we started drinking broth once a day.

I originally decided to start November 1- new month, new start, and all that. But it was the middle of the week, Halloween was the night before, and I wasn't ready.  I took the next couple days to get rid of the Halloween candy, do a bit more shopping, get more bone broth cooking, and get lots of broccoli, cauliflower, and squash chopped and frozen, ready to cook. Last Monday we jumped into the first phase of GAPS intro.

to be continued...

Living Room Progress

It's almost time to move the furniture back into the living room. The tongue and groove paneling is up and painted, the walls are painted, the crown molding is back up, and all the trim has been re-painted. I even painted the front door and the patio door. All that's left is caulking the crown, touching up a few spots, putting new fan blades on the ceiling fan, and cleaning up the mess. 

Now if I could just figure out how to finish my projects faster....

October Goals Re-cap

LMS finished another soccer season- yay!

Since I wrote down some new goals, I thought I should track my progress at the end of each month. So here's how I did in the month of October:
(September's progress report can be found here)
(August's progress report can be found here)
(July's progress report can be found here)
(June's progress report can be found here)

A few goals under Health:
1. keep strengthening my knee and start running for longer periods of time/distance
I'm still struggling to exercise on a regular basis. I finally started getting my sleep schedule back on track at the end of the month, but I'm not prioritizing my running enough- I'm allowing the zillion other things going on to get in the way. With the Disney Half drawing nearer, I have to re-prioritize and get my rear (legs?) in gear.
2. train for and run at least 4 races by the end of 2012 (at least one half marathon)
LMS and I ran the Halloween 5k last weekend, though I can't say we trained properly for it. This was my fourth race of the year, and my fifth race will be the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving- and I will be better prepared for it.
3. be more careful with my eating and lose some weight
I didn't do so great this month. I allowed myself to indulge in Halloween candy and ended up gaining back the 4 pounds I lost last month :( The reason I allowed myself to indulge was because I knew it was going to be the last chance to do so for a long time- this weekend we're starting the GAPS diet in an effort to heal our intestines, and we won't be eating candy any time soon. I'll write a post soon about the GAPS diet and why we decided to do it.

A few goals under House:
1. finish painting all the rooms
I've painted the living room and entryway and am now working on the doors and trim in those areas. Up next: the guest bedroom, the master bath, and finishing the kitchen. My goal is to get all the painting done before Christmas.
2. do the family room ceiling
Paneling is up, spackled, sanded, primed, and painted. All that's left is to get the crown repainted and reinstalled.
3. finish building built-in shelves in the library
I FINALLY finished painting all the shelves. I really hope we don't need more shelves to fit all our books, because I really don't want to have to go through this again. The shelves have been curing the last few weeks and I hope to get the books on them this weekend.

A few goals under Homeschool:
1. stick to the schedule I've worked out, as much as possible
We're still doing pretty good. I'm really liking the 3 weeks on/1 week off schedule that we've been doing- no time for boredom or burnout.
2. be more consistent with violin practicing
Since we started school we're doing better because it's in our school schedule. In thinking about this particular goal, I think I meant more consistency from LMS and myself. We've been really good about making sure LMS is practicing, but I still haven't been, so now I need to be more consistent with MY practicing.

A few goals under Habits:
1. practice the piano more frequently
Still haven't had time. Realistically, with the schedule I've imposed on myself, I won't have time until after Christmas. I'm ok with that.
2. index several batches every week for FamilySearch
I finally got FamilySearch downloaded to my new computer (operator error, I'm sure) and was able to index several batches two weeks out of the month. Progress!
3. have more meaningful daily scripture study (start journaling as I read)
I've continued my topic journal, focusing on people in the Book of Mormon. I'll admit it's taken some getting used to- it's quite different from how I've read and studied the Book of Mormon in the past.

How did you do with your goals this month?

Halloween 5k

Saturday we ran the Halloween 5k that I ran last year. During the awards ceremony they gave a bag of Halloween candy to the kids who ran the race and LMS decided then and there that she had to run the race so she could get a bag of candy (yes, we know one of her motivators).

About a month ago I signed us both up and then tried to think of costumes to wear. I couldn't think of anything particular, so we just went the mini-me route and tried to find matching outfits, which isn't as easy as it sounds. I eventually found very similar tech shirts at Target and matching tutu-floofy skirts in the costume aisle at Walmart.

You can't see LMS's skirt in the pic above, but you can see it below. She's covering her face because she didn't want me to take a picture of her smiling.

Last year it was very cold and rained the whole race. This year the weather was perfect: a slight chill, but still warm enough to wear short sleeves, and no wind or rain to contend with.

We started training for the race this summer, but getting sick derailed our training program and we never quite got back on track. So I wasn't expecting LMS to run the whole 3.1 miles, and she didn't. I had to coax her along after the first mile, but we were able to finish in 46:33 (my slowest 5k ever, but it wasn't about me, it was about LMS).  I think that's a great time for our 6 year old's first 5k. I think I was 13 or 14 the first time I ran a 5k, so I'm super excited that she's starting so young.

During the awards ceremony after the race, kids 8 and under who finished the race were invited to come get a bag of treats. LMS was way more excited than this photo suggests. And it instantly erased the memory of all the complaints she'd had during the race. On the way home, I asked her if she wanted to do the race again next year, and she immediately replied "Sure!" in an excited voice.

crappy indoor photo

LMS's next race will be a lot shorter: the 1/2 mile Turkey Trot fun run on Thanksgiving day. 

And yes, we will be doing some training before then.

How old were you when you ran your first 5k?

Sunday Funny

having fun at the park

Earlier this week I looked over at LMS, who was quietly doing her Japanese- filling in the Hiragana chart. I noticed she'd written the characters very lightly, so I asked why she'd done that.

"Because it's invisible ink!"

Of course, why didn't I think of that?

Princess Buttercup Halloween Costume

A few months ago the Little Miss decided she wanted to be Princess Buttercup for Halloween. I figured she meant the wedding dress

source

but she meant the red riding dress

source

Ok, not a problem- the red dress would be easier and a lot less fiddly than all the trim on the wedding dress.
I started by using the pattern I made for her Princess Leia dress last year, but I added a lot to the sleeves to allow for the very full sleeves.  I also added a bit on the sides and to the length to bring the pattern up a size.

After cutting it out though, I realized the bodice needed to be four separate pieces, not one, so I modified my pattern and fiddled with it a bit before it finally fit LMS right. I lined the bodice (but not the skirt) by doubling the fabric, but I don't think it was necessary, and I think the seams would lay a little flatter without the extra bulk. This would really depend on the fabric used, though. I used a polyester fabric with a really nice drape. It seems pretty similar to the fabric I used for the Princess Leia dress- it had a nice drape, also.

After getting the bodice sewn together how I wanted it, I sewed in the sleeves, then did all those gathers in the cuffs. The costuming site I consulted called it cramming, and while I don't know if I used the proper technique, I can say that I definitely crammed a lot of gathers into a tiny cuff.

Has anyone else noticed how hard it is to photograph the color red? 

I ended up graying the photos to make it easier to see the details.

After getting the sleeves just right I pinned the skirt pieces on, inserting pleats in the front and back for fullness. Then it was just a matter of sewing the bodice to the skirt, and then sewing the the side seams starting at the cuffs and ending at the bottom of the skirt.

The finishing touches were the hem and the grommets in the cuffs- I used my Crop-o-dile for the grommets and it was super easy.

Buttercup also wears a belt and a hairnet thingy, so of course I needed to make them too. I used some gold trim, some lightweight fusible web, some ribbon, and a small piece of velcro for the belt. 

I ironed the trim to the ribbon, then sewed around the circles to make sure it stayed on. I then cut the belt to fit around LMS's waist and sewed some velcro to the ends. I sewed the leftover pieces so they'd hang down on the sides, just like in the movie.

And since the Little Miss now has short hair, I made a wig for her to wear. I used one of the sleeves from the white t-shirt I used for the candy corn ruffle skirt as the base, and made it the same way I made the Rapunzel wig I ended up not wearing in the Disney Half Marathon. I hot glued some bead trim in a grid pattern, then glued it to the wig along with some trim around the outer edge of the thingy (not quite a crown, is it a headdress, a fancy hair net?).

I also pulled the hair back in a knot, like Princess Buttercup's.

We had our ward trunk or treat last night, so we took most of these photos before the activity. It wasn't till I started writing this post at 10:30 pm that I realized I forgot all about the belt, and LMS went around all night without it. 

Ooops. 

So we had to do another round of photos this morning so we could get the full effect. I love how it turned out!