2020 Goals

You can find my 2019 mileage totals in this post, and my 2019 goals in this post, back in January 2019.

I set a lot of goals because they help me accomplish things. In the past I've set some unrealistic goals, but I'm getting better at pinpointing things that are both important to me and achievable. Having something to work towards motivates me to keep moving and not turn into a vegetable on the couch, even when it's really tempting because I'm so dang tired all the time.

Thoughts about how things went in 2019

My mileage totals were half what they were in 2019, but I still hit my goals of 52 hikes and 365 miles.

I spent a lot of time working on my businesses and that tended to take precedence over getting as many miles in as I could have. I also worked to find a good balanced schedule of enough sleep, a good bedtime, a good wake time, the right supplements, and the right food.

Mileage
I'd hoped to hit 365 foot miles and 365 bike miles, but I only managed 366 total miles. Honestly, all things considered, I'm happy I hit that many.

Hiking
Despite my intentions otherwise, I spent the last couple months of the year squeezing as many hikes in as I could. It wasn't as bad as in 2018, but it was still more than it should have been if I'd been just a little more diligent.

A lot of the hikes were solo hikes as I went after a trail run or squeezed one in while out running errands. Sometimes it's just easier to knock out a couple miles when it's just me, who moves a lot faster than the kiddos. Not that I didn't still take the kids with me on some hikes.

Running
I didn't do a lot of running in 2019. Partly because I was letting my foot fully heal, partly because it just wasn't a priority; working on my businesses was. That said, I did start trail running when Ocean went back to preschool in the fall. I haven't had great experiences with trail running in the past (this race and this race were both a bit on the traumatic side), but I'd read somewhere that trail running was great for strengthening your core muscles. I don't have good spatial awareness so I was concerned I'd fall a lot, but the opposite is happening. I'm being forced to pay more attention to where I am and where my feet are going, and I've only fallen once. And I'm really enjoying the challenge of running on hilly trails.

Business
I had a lot of successes on the business side of things, but I also had some setbacks. I made some pretty drastic changes and I'm feeling confident about where I'm going with my businesses.

Goals for the coming year

Yearly Mileage
In 2019, my goal was to do 365 bike miles, 365 foot miles, and 20+ kayak miles. I didn't hit any of those numbers, only doing 366 miles total.

In 2020, my goal is 370 bike miles (I like to ride in 10 mile stints, so I've rounded up), 365 foot miles, and 5+ kayak miles. More would be great, but just in case things don't go well (always a possibility when dealing with chronic illness), I'm keeping the numbers on the lower side.

I'm also going to work on staying on track with my mileage throughout the year so I'm not cramming it into the last couple months. So I need to hit 185 bike miles and 185 foot miles by the end of June. The kayak miles are more flexible.

Hiking 
In 2019, my goal was to complete 52 hikes and continue working on increasing the average length of our hikes. I planned to do this by doing more solo hikes, as the kiddos don't really enjoy hikes longer than 2 miles. I did a lot more solo hikes, but my average length decreased. Mostly because I always felt pressed for time.

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In 2020, my goal is to complete the first 21 hikes by the end of June and the second 21 hikes by the end of December. I also want to increase the average length of my hikes to at least 2.25 miles.

Races
My goal for 2019 was to start slowing running again and build my mileage base back to where it should be. I did some running, but not much. I also wanted to figure out my fueling needs while sticking to the ketogenic diet. I didn't do enough running for that to come up and I only stuck to the keto diet for the first half of the year.

This year I'll do a few local races, mostly ones I've done before. If I can make the scheduling work, I'd like to do some local trail races. I don't have a specific goal for number of races, I'll just do them as they fit in my schedule.

I do plan on running a half marathon the first weekend in June and will possibly do my first Ragnar trail run this spring or summer. The Ragnar race will depend on scheduling- Jeremy, me, my sister, and my brother. Jeremy to watch the kids, my brother and sister to run the race with me if they can work it out. If they can't, I won't do the race this year. I've got my plan to train for the half marathon after building up my running mileage, so hopefully all will go well. I am concerned because my stamina has taken a huge hit since my narcolepsy got bad a year and a half ago, but I'm hopeful that with the gradual approach I'll be ok. If not, I'll defer the half marathon a bit longer and just do a 5k instead.

Training for the half marathon will give me the opportunity to figure out how to fuel properly while doing keto (more on the keto in a minute).

Business
2019 was a year of growth for my businesses. I worked on my existing companies and didn't start anything new.

1. I had a slow start with my Etsy shop, but I had several items listed by November. I sold several notebooks earlier in the year. But December was super busy, with lots of music notebooks selling. They were by far my most popular item.

2. I finished one e-book for my travel blog and it was included in a travel bundle in July, which brought new traffic to my site. I didn't increase my page views enough to get in with one of the big advertising networks yet, unfortunately.

3. Early in the year I decided not to continue selling on Amazon, so I stopped sending items in. I sold out my last item in December. I haven't closed the business quite yet (I need to figure out the paperwork), but that's in the works. It was a relief to make the decision to close the Amazon business. I don't enjoy shopping and it took a lot of time to source products, so quitting this venture has opened up my schedule a bit.

4. I built up my personal finance blog and hired my Pinterest VA to work on that blog as well. Despite both our efforts, this blog really never gathered much of an audience. I transferred site hosts in November/December and lost 2/3 of my content. I thought I'd backed up my site, but after the transfer completed, I found out I hadn't. I was able to find 1/3 of my content by searching for cached pages, but the rest had never been cached. I decided not to rebuild the site just yet.

In 2020, I plan on a lot more growth in my businesses.

1. I'll continue to add products to my Etsy shop. I'll also build out my Shopify site, which will allow me to have a shop with my Oak Hollow Cottage website. I want to get my notebooks into 1 or 2 local shops. I will be more diligent with my social media posting to drive traffic to my shops.

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2. I'm combining my personal finance site content with my travel site. I decided it was too much work to rebuild my personal finance site and I realized I could pivot that content to apply to my travel site. I'm currently working on transferring and reconstructing the info for that. I'm still working on increasing my page views and will also start focusing on SEO (search engine optimization- so I show up in Google and other searches). I'll also learn how to use Facebook and Instagram advertising.

3. I will officially close my Amazon business.

4. I may start my personal finance site again in the future, but I haven't decided what I want to do with it yet, so I'm holding off. Focusing on just my handmade business and my travel site are keeping me plenty busy, so I'm good leaving it alone for now.

Cub Scouts/Scouts BSA
In 2019 I completed the other four ticket items for Wood Badge. My goal was to have them all done by April at the latest, but it was the end of May before I finished the last one. I was officially beaded in October. I was released from my Primary calling in April or May and am now working with the Young Women, so no more Cub Scouts.

As a kindergartener, River is old enough to enter Cub Scouts as a Lion. We've decided to hold off on signing up the boys until they're in second grade and old enough to be Wolves. Lion and Tiger rank require a parent to be by the boy's side at all times, and we just don't have the time for that right now. We don't mind being involved, but that's a bit much for us currently.

Sunshine is in Scouts BSA, currently at second class rank. We'd like her to earn her Eagle in the next two years, so we're focusing on merit badges and rank advancement. I'm registered as a merit badge counselor and am helping the troops (we have a boys troop and a girls troop) as the health form coordinator. At some point I might take a larger role, but I don't have the time right now. I do go on as many campouts as possible, since they are usually looking for a trained female leader so the girls can attend.

Health
In 2019, I continued to take Plexus products, and they've helped a lot. I credit them as the reason my blood work looked so good when we were trying to figure out what was going on. I continue to enjoy the lack of PMS and painful cramping that used to come every month, as well as increased energy (just think how fantastic I'd feel if I didn't have narcolepsy!).

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I was able to go low carb/almost keto for the first half of the year and even managed to lose some weight. Unfortunately, I fell off the wagon when we went on vacation and have not been able to get back on track.

I've tried a variety of supplements and other things and have a fairly good routine going. Amino acids in the AM, don't sleep in, eat as close to keto as possible (the higher fat content makes it much easier than just low carb), judicious use of low doses of caffeine as needed, Plexus supplements, 7 hours of sleep, Frankincense essential oil, a weighted blanket, and regular moderate exercise. I'm much more functional than I used to be, though there's still room for improvement.

This year I'm getting back to keto, training for my half marathon, and getting to bed on time (sooo hard for me) so I can be as productive and functional as possible. If I can also lose some weight along the way, that would be great.

Family
In 2019, we were going to work very hard at fully using the new study manual the Church put out. We weren't super successful. Between my super busy schedule and Jeremy's overtime hours and our super energetic little boys, it's proven very difficult to make this actually happen.

We're trying again this year, and our later church schedule should help for at least our Sunday study time. Jeremy should only have a few more months of overtime left, and hopefully we can get back on track once his schedule opens up.

We're also working hard to get our finances in order and are hoping to start our adoption paperwork within the next few months.

what are some goals you've set for yourself for 2020?

Homemade Butter from Grass-fed Cows

my first pat of butter

A few months ago we started buying our milk from a local grass-fed dairy farm. It’s illegal in our state to sell raw milk, but it’s not illegal to drink raw milk from cows you own. Herdshares allow you to buy into a herd of cows, thereby giving you ownership. We pay a monthly fee towards the feed and board of our cow and receive a gallon of milk each week in return.

Since starting the herdshare I’ve experimented with making raw yogurt and have now experimented with making butter. When we lived in NY when I was in first grade we got milk straight from the tank at the dairy down the road. I remember mom had a butter churn paddle setup in a large jar (something like this, if I remember correctly, though I think mom's was larger). This one and this one look interesting, as well.

I thought about getting a butter churn, then I found this tutorial that uses a food processor. Since we have a food processor, I opted to give this method a try before investing in a butter churn. 

cream at the top, waiting to be made into fresh butter

a quart of cream poured off, with some still in the jug

Using the food processor is super easy and only takes a few minutes. I’ve been pouring off a quart of cream from each gallon and churning it in two batches in the food processor.

after churning, butter floating in the buttermilk  

buttermilk poured off into the jar, butter waiting to be washed

Washing all the buttermilk from the butter is the hardest part, but this last batch I used the food processor to wash the butter. After pouring off the buttermilk, I added cold water to the food processor, whizzed it around a bit, then poured off the water. I added cold water and repeated the process several times until the water was clear after whizzing the butter around. Easier than doing it by hand with a wooden spoon, but still the most time-consuming part of the process.

In any case, it’s easy to make butter when you're not churning it by hand for hours and hours :) And it’s fun to do something we’ve read about in the Little House books, just like maple sugaring and making maple candy, both of which are in mentioned in Little House in the Big Woods and which we’ve done as well.

my most recent pat of butter

GAPS v.2017 Week 4 Intro

the crazy weather this winter has kept the maple sap from running, but our black walnuts are producing lots of sap

I've completed four weeks of GAPS Intro and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm still hanging out mostly in phase 1. I've tried adding egg yolks and they were problematic. I've tried a little plain yogurt, but that was also problematic. Avocado was fine, so I've added that in, but that's the only thing I've really added in.

In 4 weeks I've lost 11 pounds! It's so nice to see the scale ticking down instead of up, like it had been doing for the last year or so.

I've read the Whole 30 book and it talks about changing how you eat and your relationship with food. As I've thought about what I'm eating and why I'm still having food issues I've realized a few things.

1. Snacking doesn't work for me. Habit-wise, if I start eating a snack I have a hard time stopping. Despite that, I still like to have a little something in the evening after dinner. At this point, that means a spoonful of natural peanut butter or a couple apple chips. Peanut butter is a gray area- almond butter is allowed, but I prefer the flavor of peanut butter. I shouldn't really be eating the apple chips- I should be doing applesauce instead, as it's much more digestible. I'm trying to eliminate snacking altogether, but am being hindered by the next issue:

2. Increasing my mileage while doing GAPS makes it harder to not look for snacky foods. More running means more calories needed, which triggers the urge to eat more. Since I want to lose weight, I have to be even more careful with my eating.

3. Food temptations will be my downfall if I'm not careful. I'm getting better about staying away from things I shouldn't eat, but meal times can be tricky. It was too easy to eat some of the boys' grain free bread at lunch or dinner since I was hungry and it was there. I've realized that having grain free bread in the house for the boys was too much temptation for me. So I've switched the boys to gluten free bread since the gluten free bread is not a temptation for me.

GAPS v.2017 Week 3 Intro

My view of the track at our recent pinewood derby. I ran the computer again, but I think I'm handing those duties off next year. We combine four packs and always have a crowd. Despite the numbers, we keep things moving and finished all the races in less than two hours.

I struggled last week.

The kids aren't on GAPS, so there's food in the house that's not allowed in the Intro phases. I've been avoiding squash (it's not my favorite food) and I've ended up lower carb than I should, which makes it way too easy to snitch bits of the boys' grain free bread.

I gotta get over my squash issue and make sure I'm eating enough carbs that I'm not tempted to eat things I shouldn't. And I have to re-think the foods that are in the house. Some foods aren't a temptation, but there are couple that have proven to be an issue. Not that they're unhealthy or anything, they're just not GAPS-approved.

So I took advantage of fasting on Sunday to re-set my mind and my eating. Cheating on GAPS is not going to heal my body, so I have to be committed to eating properly if I want to feel better. Thinking about GAPS as a long term prospect has been overwhelming. I need to step back and take it a day at a time, not a week or month at a time.

GAPS v.2017 Week 2 Intro

River looking down at a stream on a recent hike

In preparing to start GAPS, I reviewed my GAPS books (Gut and Psychology Syndrome and GAPS Guide). The Intro phase is temporary, lasting from a week to 6 months or so, depending on how fast or slow you go through it. It's not meant to be long term. Full GAPS can last up to two years, but generally not longer.

Last time we took 6 weeks to get through the Intro phase and then took a break because we took a trip to Disney World. We did what we could while there, but didn't stress about eating non-GAPS food. When we returned, we moved to full GAPS, but it didn't last long because morning sickness hit me hard and I couldn't handle the smell of food. When you cook all your food from scratch there's lots of food smells.

This time I won't be getting pregnant 6 weeks in, so I've been contemplating how long I'll stay on full GAPS. Part of me is ok staying on it for two years. I can see the huge health benefits from doing so, but I'm not sure it's possible.

We have a long road trip planned for this summer, but we'll be in an RV, so I can make our food and stay on GAPS. However, we'll be eating communal meals at family reunions, some of which we will be preparing. I'm already the weird one who won't let anyone else's food near hers, now I get to take it even further? No, it's the prospect of giving up s'mores. I'm really not sure about that. And I'm running a half marathon on my birthday and another Labor Day weekend. Am I going to try to find GAPS friendly fueling options that also agree with me, or stick with my non-GAPS approved Shot Blox?

And what about when we go to China to adopt? We have to spend two weeks in country. I know with planning I can eat gluten free for two weeks, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do GAPS. That won't be for another year probably, but it's still in the near future.

I will probably stick to GAPS as much as possible, try to keep cheat foods as close to GAPS as possible, and not worry too much about it all. In all reality, last time I made massive progress just in six weeks, so anything more than that is a win. I should be able to stay on GAPS cheat-free for close to five months, which will be hugely beneficial to my body.

The two books I mentioned at the top of this post have recipes, but they're pretty basic. In recent years several GAPS-specific cookbooks have been published. This is great because they contain a wider variety of recipes along with personal anecdotes from those who wrote the cookbooks based on their experiences. I found The Heal Your Gut Cookbook to be particularly helpful. It would have been nice to have four years ago, but at least I've got it now.

In phase 2 of Intro I was supposed to add in egg yolks, which I did. But I reacted to them, which surprised me, so I had to stop eating them. This made me decide to take things nice and slow and not speed through the Intro phase of GAPS. So that's what I'm doing.

GAPS v.2017, Week 1 Intro

we're a bit waterlogged from all the rain we got over the weekend

I've known for months that I needed to get back on GAPS, but I've been putting it off. First there was Halloween coming up, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas and New Years. All involve chocolate and yummy food that I didn't want to give up.

And I was still breastfeeding Ocean, and didn't want to mess with that. But lately he's been losing interest, and my milk supply has been drying up. He turned 18 months old last week, which is 6 months longer than Sunshine nursed and 2.5 months longer than River nursed. So I'm ok with him being done. This puts me at just over four straight years of being pregnant and/or nursing- not something I would have predicted happening even two and a half years ago.

I've also been gradually removing one food after another from my diet over the last few months: potatoes, rice, corn... Even chocolate had to fall by the wayside. I was becoming so sensitive to it that if I ate any after 3 pm I couldn't sleep that night :(

Having to give up chocolate was the last straw.

I was already so close to GAPS, that it wasn't that hard to start. The hardest part was talking myself into just starting. I only had to cut out sweet potatoes, my grain free bread (which was starting to be problematic as well), and dairy. I do miss cheese and yogurt, but I'll be able to add homemade cheese and yogurt back in soon.

I was reviewing my notes from the first time Sunshine and I did GAPS, more than four years ago, and it was a very different experience from this time around.

It's a lot easier this time.

Part of why I put it off so long was because I knew it wouldn't be easy and I wasn't looking forward to all the side effects: brain fog, crankiness, feeling crummy, food cravings, and so on.

So it was a pleasant surprise to realize that's not the case this time. I had a touch of brain fog early on, but nothing bad, which is really good since I've got lots of work to get done and need my brain working properly. I haven't had any real cravings, though I got close Sunday night when we got home late from church. I made the perfect grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids' dinner before starting on my soup, and I was so hungry that I was seriously tempted to snitch half of Ocean's sandwich. I restrained myself and made sure there was lots of fat in my soup, and I was fine.

Another thing that struck me when I reviewed my notes was that I didn't mention weight loss. I have no idea if I lost weight then. I must have since GAPS can be low carb and I mention at one point that I was struggling with the effects of being too low carb, but I didn't track that weight loss.

This time I am, since a major goal of doing GAPS is to finally lose weight. That will only happen if I heal the damage to my intestines and get my PCOS under control. GAPS will help with the first and should also help with the second.

In my first week of GAPS, doing Phase 1 of the Intro diet, I lost 5.8 pounds. Woohoo! I don't expect that to be the case every week, but it was definitely a good start. I'm sure most of that weight loss came from drastically lowering my carb intake.

I originally planned on just spending three days per phase of the Intro diet, but two days in I decided to stay on the first phase for a full week. I was feeling good and felt like it would be a good decision, so I did it. Last time we spent a full week on each phase, but I'm not sure that will be the case this time. I'll decide during each phase how long I want to spend on it; a minimum of three days but probably not more than a week.

The Corn Maze 5k Non-Report

misty spiderwebs

I had planned on running the corn maze 5k that I mentioned last week, but it got postponed a few weeks because of all the rain we've gotten this week. So I hit the treadmill instead - I wanted to run outside, but it rained most of the day and I just wasn't feeling like getting soaked.

Last week I ran and walked 7.31 miles between my time on the treadmill and the 5k I ran. This past week I ran and walked 5.63 miles on the treadmill. The main issue I had was that I ended up on the treadmill Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. By Saturday my muscles were definitely feeling fatigued, so this week I will try to space out my workouts a bit better.

Oh, and I managed to get poison ivy on my right ankle at the race last week. I'm quite disgusted since I managed to go all spring and summer without getting it, even with all my work on the treehouse (which has poison ivy growing near it). I didn't see the poison ivy during the race, but it sure saw me. I've managed to keep it from spreading too much though and it's almost out of the itchy stage.

I've hit my postpartum food issue point. It happened with River and it's happening again. At least I expected it this time around, though that doesn't make it any more welcome. Now it's time to figure out what my body can tolerate while still giving me enough energy to breastfeed Ocean, walk/run on a regular basis, keep up with all the usual mommy tasks that go along with having three kiddos, sew elaborate Halloween costumes (they're turning out great and I can't wait to share them!), and finish up random projects around the house. I was able to do those things and more while pregnant, so not being able to do fewer things while not pregnant can be discouraging at times.

Energy levels are huge for me- not having energy takes me back to the years I spent barely scraping through each day, doing just the minimum that needed to get done. That's not somewhere I want to go back to, and it's difficult trying to balance everything when I'm not feeling well. I know everything will balance out eventually and I'll figure out what foods work for me now, but it's frustrating in the meantime.

I remember reading some time ago that pregnancy changes/turns off your autoimmune system- hence the reason life is easier in the food department for me when I'm pregnant. My over-active autoimmune system calms down and I can almost be normal. Not that I'm stupid enough to eat gluten or anything, but I do tolerate more starches than when I'm not pregnant and I feel better in general. My sister was in a study that involved tricking the body into thinking it's pregnant to see if it helped with her MS symptoms - I believe it did help her, but the study ended and she wasn't able to continue with the meds.

I will admit that I enjoy the hiatus in food issues (or at least the lessening of them) that occurs while I'm pregnant and for the first two months or so after giving birth. I don't think staying pregnant for the rest of my life is a good way (or a practical one) to manage my food issues though :)

Pregnancy Update

The picture is from last week, at 34 weeks pregnant. Tomorrow I hit 35 weeks. I haven't been taking pictures this time around like I did with River, but I realized I should be taking at least some. With Mr M home again it's a bit easier to make sure I get in some of the pictures. For comparison, here's the 32 and 36 week pics from River's pregnancy.

At this point, I'm done with my major building projects (the patio and the treehouse) and now just have a couple smaller projects left. I'll see how many of them I finish before the little guy makes his appearance, and finish them up when I have the time and energy after he's born.

My building projects have been keeping me physically active. Sunshine's pregnancy and delivery were such a bad experience and River's was so much better because of my increased and consistent activity levels, that it's important to me to stay active. I think this time around I've been over-compensating a bit. If being active is good, then being more active, is better, right? Not necessarily.

Not running the half was a good decision, as has backing off on my running. It's not been easy, but avoiding the treadmill has left me with the time and energy to build the patio and treehouse. Though running is my preferred exercise, there are other ways for me to get my exercise in, and construction is a good substitute.

My building projects haven't been part of my over-compensation- those have been because Mr M was out of town so I was the one who had to get them done, and they needed to get done before the baby was born so we could actually use them before we possibly sell the house next spring, though that's now up in the air as we move up our job hunt.

At 34 weeks, I'd only gained 8 pounds, which is awesome. Of course, my starting weight was heavier than with Sunshine or River, so I didn't need to gain a lot anyway. I gained about 25 when pregnant with Sunshine, but only 15 with River (I started heavier with him than with her). I'm curious to see what happens with my weight in the next 6 weeks.

My food issues have been fairly stable, though I still have to be careful about what I eat. I can eat small amounts of corn, rice, and potatoes, but too much of any of them causes problems. Dairy and eggs in small amounts are also ok. I experienced similar lessening of symptoms when I was pregnant with River, but the issues all came back once he was born, so I'm preparing myself for a similar situation when this little guy is born.

I feel like this pregnancy has sped by. I'm not sure if it's because I've been so busy (the other kiddos, projects, scouts, etc) or what, but it's hard to believe that I'm only 5 weeks from my due date. Maybe it's the sense of "so much to do, so little time" that has cropped up surrounding the job hunt/potential house sale and all that's entailed with those events.

Thoughts on My Ongoing Food Issues

Random Cuteness: He's going to be pulling himself up on furniture soon!

I've been trying to figure out why I'm struggling so much with my food issues.

I persist in thinking it's cut and dried and since I've been gluten free for more than five years now I'm "better", even when the evidence says otherwise.

But I managed to get (and stay) pregnant, so doesn't that mean I'm OK now?

* The weight piling on, the dismal energy levels, and the mental mind games say I'm not OK.

Yes, I lost all the baby weight right away, but it has since come back.

* How I ate while pregnant is definitely not working for my postpartum body.

I want to exercise more, but am too tired to wake up early enough to exercise in the morning. I haven't been able to fit in afternoon workouts because there's always something else that needs to be done in town during that time. 

* Regular exercise would help me lose weight again and feel better physically and mentally.

Not eating right makes me feel crummy physically and also makes it harder for me to deal with things mentally and emotionally. I get stressed and overwhelmed very easily, which makes me frustrated and also causes increased anxiety levels. 

* Feeling stressed makes it even harder to eat right because it becomes so much more difficult to think things through and plan and prepare nutritious meals that won't adversely affect me.

So how to fix this never-ending loop of frustration? I know and accept that it won't be a quick and easy fix. None of the steps I've made along the way so far have been quick and easy. They've involved time, preparation, thought, and changing deeply ingrained habits. I have to remember that I'm still on the journey and have not yet reached the end, and must continue changing and learning new things. 

I read a good discussion here about the connection between our gut and our mental health. It resonated with me and spelled things out that I've known for awhile but haven't been able to articulate nearly as well.

The bottom line is that I have to continue moving towards a better place with my health. I can't afford to allow myself to stagnate.

Changes:
I've recently switched up my vitamin regimen and that seems to be helping my energy levels, though there's still a ways to go.

I've tightened up my diet a bit and am working back towards being grain free. I eat mostly a paleo diet, but with some dairy and very little nuts and coconut. I'm strongly considering the autoimmune protocol, but I'm not looking forward to it since it's even more restrictive (short-term to enable the body to heal itself) and I'm not sure how it would work with my current energy demands:

breastfeeding

running

homeschooling

taking care of my family's needs

church responsibilities

projects around the house, which is my creative outlet and something that I need

Sunday morning session of General Conference Pres. Uchtdorf  gave a talk about having gratitude in our circumstances. That got me thinking and I realized that despite my current frustration with how I'm feeling, I really am so much healthier than I was in the past. I've managed to give birth to two miracle babies and I have an understanding hubby who puts up with a lot while I try to get to a point where I feel good and can do all the different things I need (and want) to do.

More Snow Treats

We got more snow yesterday, so we took the opportunity to make another batch of snow ice cream.

Mr M found a can of blueberries when he went down to the basement for a can of sweetened condensed milk and he had an aha! moment.

Blueberries + sweetened condensed milk + clean snow = yummy blueberry snow ice cream.

I'm thinking some canned peaches or mandarin oranges would taste good too. Hope it snows again soon!

LMS is totally posing for this pic

Ranch-less Salads or How I Finally Discovered that Vinaigrettes can be Yummy

I've always been a big fan of ranch dressing: on salads, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, dip for pizza or veggies, you name it. But it had to be Hidden Valley Ranch. Or the ranch dressing from the BYU Creamery (yum!).  However, I recognize that ranch dressing is not the healthiest condiment around and since it's not allowed on GAPS or Paleo I needed to find a substitute.

I've tried vinaigrette dressings before, but always been underwhelmed by them. The sharp, overly acidic flavors didn't complement the salad and didn't entice me to want to keep eating salads that were not topped with ranch.

That all changed last week when Mr M brought home some peach and pear elderflower vinegar from a guy he works with. He mixed it with some olive oil and drizzled it on some salad, and Yum! What a difference! We tasted the vinaigrette by itself and it even tasted good alone.

Mr M's co-worker also told him about a store (Oil & Vinegar) nearby that sells a wide variety of vinegars and olive oils. After realizing that vinaigrettes can actually taste good and would help us in our quest to eat healthier, we decided we had to stop by and see what they had to offer.

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They have a wall with large glass flasks full of vinegars and oils. The guy who helped us was super helpful and let us taste different combinations to see which ones we liked. The problem was that we liked them all :) We had a hard time narrowing down our choices.

LMS was partial to the strawberry balsam vinegar and the chocolate vinegar. The chocolate vinegar was interesting: very reminiscent of a chocolate tootsie pop. This wasn't a bad thing, just a bit… different.

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We ended up picking the blood orange olive oil and strawberry balsam vinegar and cranberry balsam vinegar. If they weren't on the pricey side, we'd have brought home some of each- they were that good! When we finish these, we'll go back and choose some different flavors.

We've actually been eating salads every night, something we've struggled with in the past, and we're all enjoying them, even LMS, who was also a firm believer in the tastiness of ranch dressing.

Even though the oils and vinegars are more expensive than the standard options available in the grocery store, we feel they are well worth it. The higher quality and wider variety of choices makes such a difference in taste and nicely complement the flavor of the veggies in out salads.

What are your thoughts on vinaigrettes?

Mr M's New Favorite Toy

What is it? It's not a black mini-frig, it's a smoker.

Mr M has been as giddy as a school boy with a new toy :)

He started out by making a couple batches of jerky.

The first he left in a little long so it was a bit dry and a little crunchy, but it tasted good.

He used a really good cut of meat for the second batch of jerky. Oops. We didn't realize what a good cut it was, but it made really good jerky :)

the color is off because of crappy lighting. it wasn't really this pink.

After trying the jerky, he decided to get adventurous and smoke some bacon. We can buy pork bellies from local forested pigs from our online grocery service, so we ordered a pound of pork belly and got started. It takes a few days, but the results are totally worth it.

Mr M brined the pork bellies for 48 hours, then drained and rinsed the meat. Next, he patted the meat dry and sprinkled it with a peppercorn seasoning. He let it sit for 24 hours, then put it in the smoker at 180* for about 5 hours, using a 50/50 mixture of apple and hickory chips.

Once the meat was smoked, it was finally time to slice it, fry it up, and eat it!

 brined, peppered, and smoked pork belly 

slicing the meat (we don't own a meat slicer, so Mr M had to do it by hand)

frying the bacon

ready to eat with eggs fried in the yummy bacon grease

The bacon goes from frying to burnt in no time flat, so you have to watch it closely as it gets close to being finished.

This bacon was SO GOOD! Seriously, Mr M and I have never tasted bacon with so much flavor. Store bought stuff just doesn't compare. 

I don't think we'll be able to go back to store bought bacon. When I placed our online grocery service order this week, I ordered 5 pounds of pork belly. We'll smoke it all up at once, then slice it, portion it out, and freeze it for later. My mouth is watering just thinking about it as I type :)

Have you ever smoked your own meat?