The Food We Eat!

Phase II Results:

Oh, would it be nice if I had some good news and encouragement for this food/diet update! I have been putting this post off since I didn't really want to display my failures. But I know that one of my purposes in blogging this is to have a little accountability for myself and because this food issue is having a profound affect on our homeschooling life.

It's been 16 weeks since dh and I started our "no white flour/no white sugar" type weight loss program. Again, we aren't on any real program but are just using what we've already learned from Prism Weightloss program (2 years ago), The Maker's Diet, Nourishing Traditions (see this awesome blog for great posts along these lines -> Keeper of the Home is able to give great ideas and info), and my nutritionist friend (thanks soooo much Dorcas!). We have learned over these 2 years how to think differently about food and now are just in the depths of talking the talk and working towards what we know should be our goal (not just a number on a scale -but a lifestyle change).

As you may recall from my last progress post on our weightloss, the first 6 weeks of this plan went very well. We both lost 15 pounds, were eating well and holding each other accountable. Reagan (5) and Adam (2) were both doing well with their new allergen-free, rotation diet as well. However, this time the numerical results didn't turn out as well:

DH ->5 lbs

Me -> 2 lbs

(and a massive outbreak of guttate psoriasis)

So what happened this time, you might ask? Well, phase II (the 2nd six weeks) is always harder. Whole wheat bread and white potatoes are allowed again in small amounts. And momentum from phase I doesn't last as long. So I wasn't surprised at Dh results - 5 pounds is just great! But the last time I went through this process, I lost 13 pounds in phase II and know very well that this time I just plain FELL OFF THE WAGON!

I hate saying those words.... *sigh*

I've seen a certain family member struggle with weight their entire life and end up with diabetes. I know that heart disease hits women hard. I don't want to teach my kids poor eating habits. And yet, I struggle each and every day with food!

Not just food but anything with wheat in it seems to be my desire. I found out a couple years ago that I have a sensitivity to wheat. This was something I didn't want to hear and so I ignored for a while. Until I realized that I really did feel better and less tired - when I didn't eat it. And the small bit of plaque psoriasis that I had on my elbows and scalp almost cleared completely up for the first time in my life (I've had it since I was 6!). So I stopped eating most wheat products for awhile.

I failed at this at Christmas which lead to dh and I starting this diet in January.

So when I could have stuck with our plan for better health, I again lost control this March. I could have lost the last 10 pounds of baby weight and fit into my wardrobe by now. I could feel more energetic, be less crabby, and be a better example for the kids.

But instead I ate birthday cake, Chips Ahoy (one roll in a sitting - yes, really), Girl Scout cookies, and then moved to bread and on to the D&D doughnuts. I started hiding foods from dh (my accountability partner!) and started eating in the car. These are patterns that I thought I had dealt with 2 years ago (when I lost Adam's baby fat) with the help of Prism.

The poor weightloss results I could live with - after all, my BMI is fine and I'm a healthy weight/size. But one of the consequences of this "wheat binge" that I was on for 4 weeks is that I've broken out with a nasty case of guttate psoriasis. For those with a weak stomach, read no farther! LOL! In short, it's like the chicken pox rash - redish spots all over that itch and scab if scratched. It really is quite torturous - I can't wear shorts as the weather warms up, I dread the shower since it stings all over, and I had to get acrylic nails (so annoying and expensive) to keep my skin from getting scabby.

All this from eating (again, the better word would be 'binging on') junkfood containing wheat! And I know better! But really I know that it's even more than that - this time through I have been trying to do it on my own. No daily devotional time allotted to this journey (battle) with food and not even any prayer! Now since when can we do anything of our own strength in this life??

I thank God that my dh is determined to help me out here. As I write this post, it's been 2 weeks since I've buckled down to get back to better health.

I will admit that I think almost constantly about cookies and cake, etc. I can't be the only one who experiences this with food! It may be a non-matter for some of you, but for me this is one of my biggest life struggles! It isn't even really about food, but rather about control and dependence. I want control - but God should have it. I eat when I'm not feeling in control (and how often is that with 4 kids? Ha!). I eat to sooth my stress or anxiety - I should be depending on the Lord instead for His comfort. I eat for instant gratification - instead I should wait upon the Lord and enjoy the bountiful blessings that He provides in his good, whole foods!

I know that God has provided good food for us to eat. I enjoy healthy whole foods. So once again, I need to fall to my knees and allow God to help me with this daily struggle. I pray that he will bring health to my body (and to my family as a result) and will take this struggle on His shoulders. An update will be posted in a few weeks!

Wordless Wednesday - Jefferson (6.5yo)

Jefferson arrived 4 weeks early (9/01) and was large (7lbs 12oz) and healthy - not quite considered a preemie. However, his liver seemed to need a little kick to get working. Putting him back in the hospital at 5 days old just for light treatment for jaundice stressed me out terribly! I can't imagine how those moms of preemies get through their time in the hospital! Remembering this reminds me to be thankful for my kids' health and the opportunity to raise and homeschool them!

Week 27 (not so much a report as a play by play!)

Not our best week. Did we get things done this week? With the exception of 1 hour of history and 1 hour of science - yes. Was it a successful week? Not so sure.

Tuesday, my allergies and stress got the better of me and so we didn't do anything but read a little and enjoy the weather. This then stressed me out by leaving me with only Wedns and Fri (our homeschool co-op is on Thurs and that day is always shot) with dinner guests planned for Fri. Why do I let myself get stressed out? I don't know! I think that my personality has to get things done just so and in the right order. It borderlines on sickness, folks......

I wish that I could just learn to relax and go with the flow so that I didn't end up pressuring the kids in any way. I know that this is when I should go to the Lord in prayer but my body fights against the Spirit and says,"No time for that now! Go, go, go. Let's just push through this and get it done!" I'm sure you can all hear the pride in saying 'no' to prayer when I most need to head the Spirit. Oy!

So here is where my own planning, pushing, and stressing got us this week. I was left trying to get all the leftover school tasks finished, in addition to a full load of lessons, in addition to preparing for dinner guests, on Friday.

• Adam wakes up at 4:45 howling and soaked in pee (thanks so much for dh dealing with him for me)


• Lincoln wakes up at 5:30 for some strange reason. Thankfully he goes back to sleep - although I am now truly wide awake.


• I look over at the clock at 7:45 and realize that I did indeed fall back to sleep and am now an hour late in getting up! This means no peaceful prayer, breakfast, or quiet time for me.


• I forgot to thaw the chicken for the soup for dinner guests and have no bread for them. I run to the local grocery and break our grocery budget by buying another chicken (larger - I am nervous that there won't be enough for 5 adults and 3.5 kids) and the other things that you always end up buying when you make an extra trip to the store.


• I finally start breakfast at 8:30 (an hour later than usual) after getting the food put away and the leftover dishes dealt with (should have done this the night before). Thank goodness that dh slept late too and is helping with the 3 oldest kiddos.


• Nurse Lincoln at 8:45. This takes about 45 mins w/ diaper and clothes and helps me too loose any morning energy I might have had. I almost fall asleep in the chair.


• Adam has been throwing a tantrum for 15 minutes straight in his highchair while I refuse to help feed him until he calms down. This entire episode began when I touched my tongue to his cereal to make sure it wasn't too hot. Sheesh.


• Coffee at 10:00 (ahhhh...the blessed 'happy juice'). I feel like I've waited all morning for it. I lament in my mind that we haven't started any lessons and proceed to bark orders at Jefferson to at least get out his Friday folder and start "something, anything!" Adam has quinoa cereal all over him and is screeching about something else in the high chair. Who knows what Reagan is doing - trouble most likely. Lincoln is still being ignored while he lies under his playmat thingy.


• Gotta get the chicken in the pot so that I can have it cooked and picked apart by 3 or 4. It barely fits in my pot! Will I have enough broth for soup for all of us tonight? Jefferson wants more food (he always wants more food!). Adam is at my feet screaming about something else and saying "Up-uh, up-uh!"


• Finally, at 10:30, I just clean up Adam's snotty nose (for the millionth time), change his loose poopy diaper (I won't even go into the anxiety it causes me to see his diaper loose and burning his bum again - his g.i. issues are another story), and throw him back into his crib. There is nothing else I can do to meet his needs but to force him to get more sleep so his sick body can heal. Lincoln get plopped into the excersaucer.


• It's 10:45 in the morning before I can sit down with Jefferson to teach him. But at least it's quiet and we can focus - therefore math comes first. What's Reagan doing? Not sure - I think she's looking at books or a puzzle. Lincoln is quiet and happy, jumping up and down - as usual (this is why it's so easy to ignore the poor baby!).


• The quiet lets me breathe and we get some good lesson time in. But I won't give Jefferson the breaks that he usually gets since the time when both babies are asleep is priceless for lessons. I push him through math, phonics, grammar, and spelling. He is fidgety and distracted by the end and it's obvious that he needs a break. I keep breaking his focus by getting up to attend to another food prep for the lunch and/or dinner.


• Preparing lunch by 12:30. Babies are still asleep due to their colds and late start this morning. Jefferson works on his spelling list for 10 mins while I have to cut up and fry (olive oil and a little honey) 3 chicken breasts and 2 pounds of carrots for Adam and Reagan's lunch. Also have to make deli sandwiches for myself, Jefferson and dh (yes- the chick and carrots get gobbled up by A and R). Wash and cut up salad greens for dinner; pull out cooked chicken to cool before picking. Jefferson still has science and his own reading to get done as well as any leftover work from the week - maybe this afternoon I'll be able to sit down with him again?


• Nurse Lincoln at 1pm (an hour later than usual). 3 older kids are eating outside. I am breathing again - nursing is so relaxing. Even so, my mind is racing. There is so much food prep still to be done. Thank goodness that at least the house is clean enough!


• At 2 I'm cutting strawberries, beating the whip cream, cutting tomatoes, and cooking 2 more pounds of carrots to put into the soup (forgot to add them in the morning and the kids ate the last batch). Getting coffee serving items ready and cleaning all dishes as I go. Kids are actually quiet outside - Reagan isn't screaming at anyone! Lincoln is on the floor playmat again.


• Dh is home early to cut the grass and trim (and change the overflowing trash). The kids love being outside with him - the weather is beautiful! Thank goodness that we can eat outside tonight - no table setting needed. Still haven't stolen a minute for a shower - p.u.!


• At 3 I bring the kids in for a little break from running around (dh goes back into work). If they get too tired out, they'll be monsters for our guests in the evening. They are caked with dirt in every little crevice. Could they get any dirtier? Adam loves the fingernail brush because it tickles as I scrub away the mud. They watch 1 hour of tv while I continue with food prep by picking the chicken meat and making sure the kids' snacks are ready. Wait - did I eat lunch?


• Adam goes back down for another nap at 4 since he's sick and tired. I have 1/2 hour for history - not really enough time to do more than just read and narrate SOTW. I ask Jefferson to finish his copywork but it didn't get done. I am thankful that at least he is reading in bed in the mornings before I get him up since we didn't get that done either. I throw J and R back outside again.


• At 5 (yes - that's PM) I finally get a quick shower and am hoping the guests will be late as I nurse Lincoln in my bedroom. Then, I crazily decide that I can give him a quick bath too. But the guests aren't late and I take his clean, fat nak*edness downstairs to lotion and dress with the guests. It's always fun to show off his sumobaby fatness anyway!

I seriously don't know how Jefferson learns anything on days like this! And this week, every day felt like this - just packed to the brim. Reagan did not get a single hour of focused lesson or even reading time from me this week (except Tues)! I just don't think that I'm balancing this very well sometimes. I wish that I could do better.

I know that I'm not the only mom out there that is busy. After all, it's not like I have five or even seven kids. But days like this make me long for the days of PB&J lunches and relaxed play dates, where my biggest concern was that a baby had yellow poop up his back!

It was definitely good to hear Jefferson come in at 7pm as we were cleaning up some dishes and say,"Boy, it sure is nice to have people over and have dinner and stuff!" Despite the work, I know that too! Next week, I will try to get my prayer life together and hopefully Adam's cold (passed so nicely on to Lincoln already) won't pressure us too much.

Week 26

Spring break has done us well. We had a productive week and none of us felt so tired of the 'school' routine. The lovely weather has also helped to lift our spirits and give the kids someplace to burn off good energy. Nothing makes me happier than the breeze flowing through the drapes and the sounds of nature in our ears as we learn (makes a good motivator for getting the lessons finished also)!

Jefferson:

Phonics - worked on rules for 'decoding' longer words (CCC); using CCC to review vowel digraphs and suffixes this week

Spelling - SWB lessons (he likes these because he can do them on his own and they often have crossword puzzles) as well as 5-7 words from CCC (this week vowel digraphs & suffixes)

Reading - had trouble getting as much read-aloud in this week as I would like but at least some of it happened; on his own he enjoyed 3 Mary Pope Osbourne books (Hour of the Olympics, Tigers at Twilight, Lions at Lunchtime) to go with history and animal science, as well as an Encyclopedia Brown book

Grammar - 3 FLL lessons covering pronoun review, name initials, and an Aesop's Fable -The Crow and the Pitcher; he LOVED illustrating the fable - I couldn't figure out why he drew so many birds for a story with just one until he told me that each one was doing an action from the tale in sequence in order to show everything that happened (rather than just one part of the tale); reviewed definition and example of homonym

Math - Jefferson continues to get good practice at mentally adding double digit numbers, learning which methods work more easily depending on the addends given - he is thrilled at his success when he get the chance to do a worksheet with no mistakes and also loves to check his answers on the abacus (good practice also); looked at even/odd numerals again (into higher digits); beginning to understand concepts of rows/columns with games and charts

History - Alexander the Great was fun for Jefferson because he took over so much land in so little time; had to have him re-do the coloring page since it was obvious that he just scribbled it in to get it done - this is unusual behavior for him and I hope that I don't need to start watching him more closely to ensure that he's doing his best work; still reviewing the DK books on Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece - they are loaded with great pictures and info

Science - we began the study of the human body by drawing an outline of the kids' bodies on brown paper - they loved this due to how much the pen tickled as I traced around them; we learned about cells (not sure Reagan understood this but she'll get it again later), skin and hair; also learned about psoriasis since it is a skin disease that I have and am oh-so-eager to display right now (I've broken out terribly since starting to eat wheat again - the kids 'oooo and aaah' over it each day while I lament about it); outside the kids are discovering all kinds of things in the nice weather - Jefferson was thrilled to have this butterfly land right on his finger! He loved that it stayed there long enough for him to see it's 'straw' tongue and green eyes!

Reagan:

Reagan came home from pre-k Wedns with this Y sheet. I thought the rainbow pattern was pretty and asked her who helped her do it. She said,"I remembered it in my head from the balloons you had hanging {from her birthday party 4 weeks ago}!" I can't believe the memory that she has - the rainbow pattern of colors is rather long one to remember for a kid!

I learned a lot about Reagan's learning style this week with just one penmanship lesson. I wanted to give her a short phonics lesson from CCC since her workbook has arrived. The kindergarten lessons are short and easy so I thought that I could fit it in while Jefferson finished his grammar illustration and Adam played with play dough (his new favorite - thank goodness...something to occupy him). However, I soon figured out that my expectations of what we will accomplish in this next year need to be brought waaaaay down so that I can make sure she has a good foundation and that we can deal with her learning 'difference.'

The penmanship sheet has a verse on top and some capital and lowercase A's to trace and write. Now...this is not the first time she's picked up a pencil or written an A before. She has done so at preschool and when I worked with her this winter on pencil holding and tracing shapes and vowels.

But I felt as though I were showing her for the first time again. She could trace the letters fine enough but when she had to write them on the lines at the bottom, she struggled with directionality of them (left to right, top to bottom). When I asked her to color in the letters in the verse, she was all too happy to use rainbow colors again. I moved my attentions back to Jefferson's lesson but soon realized that, after the first line, she was starting her rainbow pattern on the right and moving left. After explaining to her (for the umpteenth time) that we always work from the left to the right, I left her go again. I soon noticed that she was coloring in each letter from the bottom up and corrected that as well.


Now this may not be a big deal to most kids, but it was a prime example of her 'mixed dominant' neurocognative processing that the psychologist informed us about. She may have a tendency to reverse sequences, letters, numbers, or patterns as well as having difficulty following directions so these are things I need to catch and help redirect early. I am so grateful for being lead to see this as just the way that her brain works rather than a disciplinary issue (which, believe me, I would have thought it to be prior to her evaluation due to her strong will). I just think that if she were in school, this 'little' difference would not have been noticed and may have ended up slowing her down in her education. I am thankfully praying that God will help me to be able to teach to her needs and personality so that kindergarten next year won't be a struggle for her.

So far she likes that things that we do for 'school' and she has not fought me on any of it (as I half expected her to do this year). I am learning to read her body language and help her to use words so that we don't end up frustrated and unable to learn. I truly thank God alone for this, as these lessons (for me) are growing me immensely as a teacher as well as mother!