New Journey Day 4

Today was definitely interesting! I woke up not doing very good. It seems not drinking/eating some of the meal items isn't a good idea! Whoops. My blood sugar got way too low so I felt pretty bad this morning. Once we figured out why I was feeling so bad and I ate some fruit, I felt much better. Of course, it took me til 2pm to figure it out! Ha. So from now on, I'll add a piece of fruit in between meals if I need to. Days 6-10 should be easier-we get "dessert" every evening! :) Aaron is amazing-he can stomach even the grossest juices!! I'm still glad we're doing this. We are getting so many more fruits and veggies than we could possibly eat in a day.
Tomorrow it's supposed to be cold and possibly snow!! :( So this evening we are enjoying the weather while we can!

New Journey Day 3

Whew...today has been the hardest. I spent half the day in Wichita at an appointment and getting loads of produce for the rest of the reboot. The other half of the day I spent prepping as much as I could. I'm hungry and the crazy thing is that I'm craving fruit. What I wouldn't give for a bowl of pineapple or blackberries! Or a grilled cheese. Isaac didn't eat his at supper and I was *really* tempted to eat it! ;) The fatigue and headache were worse today, so I'm leaving the disasters around the house and going to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be easier. Oh yes...Jacob was stealing the carrots for the soup before we could get them in the blender! That boy LOVES carrots!

New Journey Day 1

Aaron and I are embarking on another new health journey. We are doing a "Reboot" fast. It's from the documentary "Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead" that we watched a couple weeks ago. It's not a total juice fast, but the only thing we will eat and drink for 10 days is fruits and vegetables. Since neither of us have any health concerns, we were comfortable in trying this. Why are we doing this? To flush out all the toxins in our system and lose a little weight. We eat almost exclusively "real" food. The only exception being when we eat out, which is rarely. But we aren't able to eat 100% organic. If you go to www.fatsickandnearlydead.com you can see exactly what a Reboot is. For instance, today (the first day) the menu has for breakfast a berry/apple bake (apples and berries baked with some cinnamon and nutmeg), an apple, carrot, ginger juice for snacks (I couldn't stomach this one-too much ginger! Next time I'll use much less), a leafy green salad with vinegar and oil for lunch with carrot & sweet potato "fries", and a kale and avocado salad for supper. Some days it's just juice for a meal, other days it's some kind of salad. The hardest part? Fixing meals for the kids but not eating it ourselves!! :) They say days 2-4 are the hardest so we'll see!
I'm excited to see how this changes us and helps us get even healthier. I would highly recommend watching that documentary. It's very inspiring!!

New Journey Day 2

This afternoon has been harder. I'm very tired and the thought of not eating leftover lasagna or grilled cheese (what the kids are having) makes me grumpy! Even harder is finding the energy to make our meals. They're not fancy, but it just takes time to prep everything and put the salads and/or soups together. I think this would be much easier if it were just Aaron and I. But having to make meals for the kids is hard!! And it doesn't help when Aaron keeps talking about what he's going to eat when we're done with this reboot. Or smelling people's grills fired up! Haha! Since we can't go to church (Anna has chicken pox, still waiting to see if Jacob gets them), this morning we rode bikes up to the college again to run around the track. Anna is a competitive little runner!! She walked/ran 3 laps and then was too tired. I told her it was okay to go and play! The boys were playing in the sand pits. She did for a little bit and then next thing I knew she was off running another lap. She said it really bothered her that he hadn't been able to run that last lap and make it a mile! After all the cheering she got, Isaac decided he wanted to run. That little squirt ran half a mile!!! He absolutely loves bike rides and the last 2 days we've taken at least two a day! This afternoon he was tuckered out from his run and fell sound asleep in his bike seat!
I have no doubt this reboot is going to help us tremendously. The 2nd and 3rd days are the hardest to get through. I think I'll just ignore the laundry and go to bed early tonight!!!

Slow Down Busy Moms

It's spring (even though the weather is hardly showing it!) and that usually brings a certain rush to life. We're nearing the end of school, at least for a little break, and I always feel the guilt of "hurry up and finish" when it comes to school work. The Busy Homeschool Mom recently posted about this. I quickly forget one of the greatest assets to homeschooling...going at a pace that fits my child and focusing on the relationships. Is it really going to matter if Anna doesn't finish her science curriculum until June instead of May? I forget to have fun with learning sometimes! So we spend 2 weeks on a lesson instead of 1...that's okay! Today, instead of doing what I had planned for history (basically just "lecturing"), I found a documentary on the USS Dwight D Eisenhower. Im pretty sure we *both* learned more and enjoyed it more this way! And now, when there are dishes piled up (because I forgot to start the dishwasher last night), and laundry to fold, and a dozen other things I really need to get done, all Isaac wants to do is have me push him on the swing. Only me. Not Anna or Bubba, only Mama. And I'm reminded again, these days are flying by so quickly. I blinked and Anna is almost in 3rd grade! My baby is not a baby anymore...not even close. Jacob will be 6 this summer! Eeek!!! So this afternoon, the dishes are still in the sink, the laundry is still waiting, the house is still messy from a day of learning and playing. And that's okay because Isaac insists, "Ma, eww bush meee!!"

Read the Label

Why haven't I learned yet?! No matter what the product is, ALWAYS read the label! I picked up some throat drop a while back. I didn't even think to read the label. Ricola lemon drops, sugar free. The "sugar free" should have been a flashing red light. If something is sugar free, the sugar is usually replaced by a chemical sweetener. In this case, aspartame. When aspartame is ingested, it breaks down into numerous things, one of which is formaldehyde. I don't know about you, but I would prefer NOT to ingest formaldehyde!

Easter Blessings

We spent Easter weekend at Papa and Binga's this year...with all NINE cousins! It was crazy, but a lot of fun.

First up was an Easter egg hunt at their church. It had rained that morning, so it was more of a free-for-all than a hunt. The kids from the church put on a little presentation about Easter beforehand which was neat.

And of course we had to dye eggs, too! They made a bit of a mess, but not bad considering we had 8 kids around the table, two of them only 2!!

We had a couple days of beautiful weather, so the kids had a lot of fun playing in the backyard. I think they were playing freeze tag here. Isaac had to be right in there with the big kids!

Easter morning. Uncle Windell sent their outfits again. SO CUTE! This was before Isaac puked all over his new suit. Not fun. At least we had made it home from church and were in the driveway...What a mess to clean up, though. Let's just say there was a large amount of vomit and he was still in his carseat. Luckily it wasn't projectile but his carseat is toast. It was beyond its time limit by law anyway, so he needed a new one. So our plans changed...Aaron went home with Jamie and Cassie and got a ride from there, and the kids and I are staying until Isaac is better. He seems fine tonight, so hopefully we can leave in the morning before anyone else gets it! But aren't they so cute?!

Rhys!! She's such a good baby! She can make a mess, but she's mostly a very content baby. Her dimples will make anyone melt! :)

Alisha couldn't come this weekend, but we're glad Jeremy was brave enough to bring all 4 kids by himself! Notice that Bryce and Isaac have almost identical outfits?? And Kaedyn and Anna matched with their dress colors, too. Totally not planned.

And Cassie and the boys even matched the others with the turquoise! Not planned, either!

Dad's cousin Cherie even came, too! It's been a few years since we'd seen her so it was a lot of fun to catch up with her. And since Mom was sick, it was nice to have another pair of able hands to help with the meals.

My kids are growing up way too fast!

 All nine Stinemetz cousins! Tate wasn't having the couch-sitting-picture-taking. And of course there have to be a few that are making weird faces! :) I still can't imagine what Grandpa and Grandma felt like when all SEVENTEEN of their grandchildren were visiting at once!!! Craziness.

And here we all are, except for Mom and Alisha! What a crew.

Now....if we can just keep anyone else from getting the stomach bug....I'm pretty sure that's not going happen. Jamie came down with it when they got home tonight. Aaron is starting to feel sick.