Many Happy Returns

I have noticed a theme of "returning" happening a lot in my life this week.  Fall always makes me feel nostalgic for past falls, so maybe that's why I am noticing returns more now than usual.  In any case, here are some things that have returned:


-Salads returned to my daily lunch menu!

Oh how I've missed you!

- I returned to baking

They don't look yummy, but they definitely are!

I haven't baked or made any treat-type things in over 3 months (!) because I completely lack control around unattended baked goods.  However I had some almond flour to use up and a GAPS almond cookie recipe, so I went ahead and made them today.  I still ate more than I probably should have, but plenty made it into the box to be put away for later which is a big accomplishment for me.

-This praying mantis, who lived on our porch glaring at me for awhile this summer, has returned.

I'm in your mums, biding my time

Now I have to pretend not to be afraid of it every time I walk by so as not to pass my ridiculous fear of bugs on to my children.

-My urge to garden and decorate returned, as it tends to do whenever the weather gets chillier.

I finally got around to weeding the garden and putting in bulbs, plus putting up fall window boxes and decor on the front porch!  I LOVE hyacinths and mums but I haven't ever planted them because I can never figure out THE perfect place to put them.  This time I just decided to plunk them wherever and move them if they annoy me.  At least I'll have flowers that come back every fall and spring!

-I returned to Ann Taylor Loft.  Several times.

Oh my.  I tried to convince myself not to buy a bunch of clothes (even though my current clothes had gotten unattractively baggy) because I have lots of clothes I will probably fit into in about 10 pounds, but Ann Taylor Loft got me.  I bought one of their 25% off savings cards which is stackable with their sales, and damned if they didn't start rolling out awesome sales every week.  At least I have some (many) clothes I feel good in now!

-Charlotte returned to gymnastics (over and over)

We are doing some makeup classes this week so I'll be at the gym 3 times total.  I know that this is but a taste of what's to come if my girls keep up with this activity, but it still seems like a lot for now!  However, the teacher of Charlotte's class today saw her hopping around doing her thing and said to me (in her impressive Romanian accent) "Do not walk away from this gym.  I want to train her."  True, Charlotte is at the very top of the age range for her class so naturally she's ahead of most of the other kids, and true, the woman probably says that to every mom just to get them to keep bringing their kid and paying the gym, but still, I couldn't help but be a little proud!

-Kale returned to dinner again tonight

I made the mistake of only making one bunch of kale chips for dinner last night, and my kids fought bitterly over them.  They fought over kale, y'all.  So I made copious quantities for dinner tonight so that no one had to walk away unsatisfied with their kale allotment.

-I returned to the psychiatrist.

 Prozac has done nothing for the hair-pulling, so the result of today's appointment was:

-I returned to the pharmacy to get some Zoloft.

We'll give that a try, then if that doesn't work he said I can try anti-psychotics (!) and/or anti-anxiety meds.  On the one hand they sound scary and I don't know if I'm willing to try either one of those classes of drugs, but on the other hand why not try everything out there to see if it will work?  I can always stop right away if I am seeing unpleasant side effects.  I am not a big fan of doping yourself up for the heck of it, and I honestly don't think I WILL find a drug that "fixes" my hair-pulling, but now is as good a time as any to experiment and see for myself.  If nothing else, it will give me information about how my body reacts to some of these drugs and that information might be useful in the future, for example if I need something to help me get through the yucky symptoms of menopause.

-Liver returned to my plate

Yes, I did.  Again.  I cooked a duck last night and I convinced myself to give its liver a shot since I had it laying right there anyway.  The consensus?  Duck liver is better than beef liver, but still gross.

-I returned to being dairy-free :-(

I thought I was in the clear and have been enjoying kefir, yogurt, cheese and butter without any digestive upset to speak of.  However, I have started having wicked postnasal drip that makes my throat feel like it's full of sandpaper when I wake up in the morning, and it has started heading into my lungs too, unfortunately.  I feel fine otherwise, so I chalked it up to allergies and made a couple snide remarks about how I thought the GAPS diet was supposed to fix all my problems forever and ever.  Then Will asked when I had reintroduced dairy, and when my symptoms had started.  Hmmm.  Right about the same time.  Apparently a doctor had told him before that dairy can exacerbate allergies, so that's my working theory now.  I'm cutting dairy back out (it was SO nice while it lasted) and seeing if that helps my stupid dripping sinuses.

-Modern Family and The Office returned with new seasons!

Now if only My Little Pony would return for its long-awaited third season, Emily (and to an embarrassing degree me too) will be super-happy.

-And this week, Will and I made the decision to return to Disney World again next year.

Not pictured....SO much barf

WHAT?!?!

Are we insane?  After barfapalooza 2012?  I can only say that yes, we probably are insane (and I might soon have the anti-psychotics to prove it).

We had planned to go on a cruise out of Baltimore sometime next year, because #1 how awesome is it that we could leave our house and be eating lunch on the cruise ship an hour and a half later without having to fly anywhere and #2 CRUISES INCLUDE ALL-DAY BABYSITTING!  Oh yeah, and the kids would love it and going somewhere warm in the winter is always nice.  The only cruise out of Baltimore that worked with Emily's school schedule is one that stops in Port Canaveral FL, Nassau and Freeport in the Bahamas.  I'm not too psyched about any of those stops, BUT, that's kind of a good thing because I won't feel pressured to go see and do everything there is to do and I can just hopefully relax and focus on making it fun for the kids (which by extension makes it fun for me).  When I saw that you could take a day trip from Port Canaveral to Disney World, I kind of felt like we HAD to do it.  What else is there to do in Port Canaveral?  And the cost of the entire cruise is not THAT much more than the cost of flying our family down to Orlando, so why not take advantage of a chance to surprise the girls with Disney World when they're not expecting it and BLOW THEIR FREAKIN' MINDS?

I'm hoping that by avoiding a flight on a plane we can avoid contracting virulent barf germs.  And I realize that I'm probably cursing myself by saying that and our cruise ship will end up being one of those you hear about where there's a Norovirus outbreak.

BUT, when you take a family vacation with kids that is always a risk.  We'll just have to bring our vitamins.

-And this one is cheating because it happens next week, but I AM RETURNING TO CHICAGO!!!

I was trying to figure out how many times I have been there...I'm not quite sure but I know it's at least 5.  I LOVE that place, and I haven't been in years so I'm super-excited for Will's and my (kidless!) trip next week!  I don't know how GAPS-style eating will work there, but I already know of a tasty raw-food vegan restaurant and I've scoped out a few juice bars (that I figure will have more local and health-conscious fare as well) so hopefully it won't be too difficult to stay pure of stomach while I'm there.

The Last Day of Summer

Emily's Kindergarten has a "staggered opening", which means that 1/3 of the kids in her class went to school on Monday, 1/3 on Tuesday, 1/3 on Wednesday, and then all of them start going together every day after that.  Therefore, I got my daughter back for one last day of summer yesterday before turning her over to the county!  Continuing in my pattern of shameless child-indulgence, I asked her what she wanted to do with her last day of summer, and she said "Go to Pump it Up AND Chuck E. Cheese!".  I told her I'm not THAT indulgent, so we just went to Pump it Up this morning.

Charlotte had a bit of trouble with the bouncy horse

The girls had a blast, and you know what?  I had a fantastic time too.  The girls actually played together practically the whole time, and that made things #1 adorable and #2 so much easier for me.  Sure, I crawled through the inflatables with them enough to get the obligatory friction burns on my elbows and knees, but I also got ample time to just sit outside of a particular bouncy thing and enjoy the giggles and calls of "Come on Emmy!" and "Here Charlotte, I'll help you climb up" floating out from its depths.  

Sisters conquering the world together

Time for a rest

There was calm playing...

...heart-melting snuggling...

...and voluntary sharing.

I was so high on motherly affection after playtime was over that I decided to tempt fate and take the girls to a SIT DOWN RESTAURANT.  I have been meaning to take them to Lunchbox, but last week when we were nearby Emily was NOT listening to me so I yanked having lunch out as a punishment.  The girls were disappointed, so I figured I could take them yesterday instead, as a reward for excellent behavior.  But then I decided that as long as I was considering one Voltaggio restaurant, why not go to the one that was directly on our way home and has free parking instead?  So with trepidation, we walked in.

The provided crayons and coloring sheets were appreciated.

And despite my girls tiredness and a fairly long wait for their food to come out, they were excellent at remembering to use their "lady manners".

I started with the Gazpacho.  

All Emily wanted were duck fat fries, because we had mentioned them to her before as a slightly (very slightly) healthier kind of fry.

I convinced her to get some macaroni and cheese too.

Charlotte ordered the kids cheeseburger and didn't touch it.  The fries and fruit were hit hard though.

I had the CLT sandwich (cucumber, lettuce and tomato plus avocado and goddess dressing), and I meant to order it on wheat bread but forgot.  I just made sure to leave most of my bread behind when I ate it.

Since the girls aren't watching their weight, and since this restaurant uses local/grass fed/organic ingredients whenever possible, I didn't feel TOO guilty about the fact that they both basically had fries for lunch.

They sure didn't feel guilty.

And hopefully they never will feel guilty about food.  One of my biggest wishes for my girls is that they don't inherit their mama's eating issues!

Chocolate-free day

Many thanks to Lyle for convincing Charlotte to sleep in her big girl bed last night!  Aside from some 5:30AM screaming because she couldn't find her pacifier (fuvvie) it went well and I actually had to wake her up at 8:20 so we wouldn't be late to Emily's preschool!  It must be the fact that she's sleeping on a BED and not a board in the bottom of the pack 'n play.

I wanted cereal this morning, but we were once again out of breakfast-appropriate nuts.  I found a couple pistachios hanging out at the bottom of our snack cabinet and they did well enough.

Nature's Path juice sweetened millet rice flakes, bananas, pistachios, skim milk

 Since Emily had her first "Lunch Bunch" day today, she ate lunch at school and it gave me an extra hour to finish Bodypump and take Charlotte to the playground to enjoy the BEAUTIFUL high 80's weather before pickup time.  ALL we did at the playground was swing on the swing.

Here she is, eating her lollipop WHILE swinging

Happy girl

After 20 minutes straight of pushing her as high as she could possibly go (and after an hour of Bodypump before that) my arms were falling off so I told her it was time to stop swinging.  I knew I pushed her for 20 minutes because we could see and hear the big clock at Westridge dinging out the hour.  Charlotte had no interest whatsoever in doing anything else at the playground, so we made our way back to the car.  I am very glad we did, because I had foolishly assumed that a big huge clock thousands of people see would be set to the right time, but when we got to the car I discovered it was 13 minutes slow!  We made it in perfect time to pick Emily up, but yeesh.  I'm glad we headed back to the car "early"!

Emily ate everything I packed her (1/2 PB&J on whole wheat, broccoli and cauliflower + hummus for dipping, 2 strawberries a juice box and a chocolate chip cookie) except for the non-chocolate chip portion of the cookie.  Not bad for her first experience eating with lots of friends and distractions around and no mom to remind her to keep at it!  It gives me hope for getting healthy lunches in her at Kindergarten next year!

I was FAMISHED when we got home because it was almost 1 and I had only had a Babybel light  (we're out of eggs!) to keep me going through the morning.  I threw together my salad really quickly from things we need to finish up with no regard for flavor combinations.  It kinda sucked, but I didn't care, I was too hungry to be picky!

Greens, teriyaki tofu, blueberry chevre, pumpkin seeds, REALLY acrid balsamic vinegar

 Back in October when I ordered my bridesmaid dress for Krista's wedding, it was tight, but I could at least get it zipped.  I really wanted to lose some weight but I figured I'd be ok as long as I didn't GAIN any.  Ideally I was thinking I'd drop a chunk of weight and have to get it taken in!

Well, I've lost about 17 pounds since then, and the dress fits like a glove.  It's great that I don't have to get alterations, but also kind of depressing that I haven't even gone down a dress size!

Anyway, since we're down to the wire I figure a bit of extra care with my eating would be a good thing to make sure I look and feel as good as I possibly can dancing in my sleeveless dress in front of hundreds of people.  So I had a lighter salad and instead of my usual huge smoothie I just had a chai tea latte for my snack.

chai tea, skim milk, 3 drops stevia

Later in the day I had some veggies, and I actually remembered to put some out for the girls too!  Whenever I prepare a plate of raw veggies and leave it out, they will eat them and it's one of the best ways to get more veggies into them.  It's just a matter of me remembering to do it!

My bowl - veggies with about 2 Tbsp hummus

 We are ALMOST through the massive amount of whole wheat couscous I cooked up the other day (I told you, I am incapable of making an appropriate amount of couscous!) and tonight I mixed it with chopped olives, sundried tomatoes, basil and some lemon juice/salt/pepper/garlic powder.  Yum!

Served with roasted lemon herb turkey breast and steamed broccoli + cauliflower

 We took a family walk around the block tonight that was actually a walk, not a jog!  Our walk slowed to a crawl though when I pointed out the outdoor rabbit hutch one of our neighbors has beside their garage. The girls desperately wanted to tromp across their yard to go see the bunny, and once I said no to that they decided we needed to just stand and stare at it for entirely too long instead.  One day we'll be able to maintain a reasonable pace on our family walks...for now it's either too fast or way too slow :-)

When we got back I intended to just have some tea and call it a night eating-wise, but the girls went NUTS over fruit and Will was in the kitchen chopping up a storm.  Once the girls were finally sated he brought me this nice little bowl of what are probably my 2 most favorite kinds of fruit so I decided it would be a lovely dessert.

1/2 peach frozen from last summer, some champagne mango

Yep.  I'm going to try not to eat any chocolate (or anything else period) for the rest of the night.  I may have to drink a couple cups of tea to do it but I'm hanging in there so far.  Those 240-calorie bowls of my little peanut raisin chocolate chip mix are delicious but not doing me any favors!

Epic Easter

Having the girls sleep together in one room went ok-ish.  It took them a little longer to fall asleep (Emily was very good though, we heard her over the monitor shushing Charlotte and explaining to her that it was time to sleep) and they woke up at 5:30AM and didn't really go back to sleep (and so neither did I) but overall, not bad.

All too early, it was time to get up.

Chocolate bunnies!

Acting out "Little Bunny Foo Foo"

 The girls opted to have mostly treats for breakfast, but I had Saturday morning breakfast (on Ezekiel toast instead of the english muffins) instead.  And a big cup of strong coffee.

After breakfast, we noticed some eggs outside, so we went out to investigate.  The Easter Bunny had hidden eggs along one of the trails in the woods, so we had a somewhat linear easter egg hunt that was fun and different.

We headed back to the house with the goodies....

...then we continued down the trail to take an Easter morning hike.

Approaching the cabin

We paused to enjoy the view down to the creek from the cabin's porch

The redbuds were beautiful!

Checking out an old well

 We did the whole mile-ish loop (with lots of kid-carrying after Charlotte hurt her finger on a thornbush and needed to be comforted for about half an hour afterward), and we of course ended up back down at the creek to throw more rocks in the water.

After that I started my all-morning cook-a-thon to get ready for our early Easter dinner.  

But before dinner we had to get Easter dresses on, and much twirling ensued.

 I had to get some pictures of the girls in their finery, but SOMEONE was not happy about posing for pictures.

No, I did not manage to get out to buy white dress shoes in time for Easter

I LOVE this picture

She was willing to make crazy faces for the camera though, so at least that was better than an angry pout.

I had a brie snack somewhere along the way.

Once the grandparents arrived we went on another short walk to give them time to hide the eggs and the baskets they brought for the girls.

 In my family the Easter bunny just places the baskets on the kitchen table for you to find when you wake up, but in Will's family the Easter bunny hides the baskets too (and usually in really jerky places).  I LOVE holiday traditions, and it's fun to compare different families' and to pick and choose which will become yours to continue for your kids.

One of the things I really like about The Farm is that there are A LOT of mature flowers up there so you can pick a bunch and the flowerbed still looks pretty.  I am STILL trying to establish some flowers at home so it's nice to be able to go on a walk and come back with a gorgeous bouquet!

More eggs and baskets were found.

 I had some veggies with 2 kinds of hummus plus some of the amazing 100% whole wheat bread my Father-in-Law is famous for (he grinds the grain fresh each time!).

After the second round of baskets and eggs my girls were ROLLING in food and toys (not much candy though, since my in-laws are very good about respecting how we feed the girls) so part of me wanted to just skip the piñata.  But damn it I went to Wal-Mart at 10:30PM the other night to get this thing because Emily had spotted it weeks ago and asked for one and Pump it Up won't let her have one for her birthday so I was going to use it, excessive or not.  I also kind of loved how random the idea of an Easter piñata is.  I guess the Easter bunny brings a piñata in our family now too.

Attack!

Bonk!

We let the girls thwack it for awhile, and of course they couldn't even dent it.  Then we let Daddy loose with the croquet mallet.

Here it comes....

Nope.

2nd time's a charm

 The girls were not at all interested in watching Daddy, so they were relaxing back in the shade when he cracked it.  We had to point out to them that there were now toys and (thanks to Daddy's lobbying) candy laying all over the ground.

Say WHAT?

Charlotte was like a seasoned pro, getting in there and scooping up goodies.

Emily was more interested in continuing to beat on the already-smashed piñata.

Poor guy's suffering isn't over yet

He kept seeming to fight back though, and she ended up on the ground as much as he did.

Pwned by a piñata

Revenge

Aunt Tina upcycled him into a hat until Emily tried to attack her too

 After that it was early dinner time!

My lamb with mint-pistachio filling, my parsley potatoes and my roasted asparagus, the in-laws' peas and brussels sprouts

And a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat

After that everyone was really flagging, so we packed up and headed home.

We have realized that the reason Charlotte doesn't nap in the car much anymore is because she's used to sleeping with a pacifier (we only let her have them in her bed these days) so we let her have one in the car today.

Conk

After seeing how well the pacifier worked for Charlotte, Emily asked for one too and I just happened to have an extra.  Apparently it worked.

When we got home I had a snack while I sat on the porch and waited for the still-napping girls to wake up and come out of the car.

Nonfat plain greek yogurt, juice-sweetened peach jelly, bananas and a generous dose of cinnamon to counteract all the ALLERGENS

 Then I fell asleep for a couple minutes in the guest bed while chillin' with Charlotte.  BOY was I tired after today!

I had had a large early dinner/lunch so I just had a bit more lamb for dinner.

I also tried the stevia and erythritol-sweetened chocolate bar my in-laws the Easter bunny brought Will and I.  It was really good!

AND I had a handful of the carob-covered raisins, grain-sweetened chocolate-covered raisins and chocolate-covered cacao nibs from the girls' eggs.  Yes I realize it is in somewhat poor taste to fill eggs supposedly left by a rabbit with something that looks so much like rabbit poop.  I'm ok with that.

Then, I'm sorry to say, I ate lots of stuff.  I walked by the table, saw the container of mini blueberry muffins I made a couple days ago and just snapped.  I guess I felt like I had been pretty virtuous even though I was at the farm (a place that just psychologically makes me want to eat because we always go there for eating-centered events) and it was a candy-laden holiday while everyone around me ate tons of tasty treats and I felt deprived.  I ate:

-3 mini blueberry muffins (guess I couldn't control myself around them after all)
-1 slice of my Father-in-Law's bread
-1 of my single serving goat cheeses
-a couple handfuls of whole wheat bunny crackers
-a Divine dark chocolate bunny from the girls' baskets (not a huge chocolate bunny...these things were 2-3 bites each)
-about 6 jellybeans

And I think that's it?  Ugh.  I've done well today though, so I'm going to forget it ever happened.  At least it happens less often now than it used to.  I used to graze like that practically ever night.

I think the girls had a pretty epic Easter.  I don't know if I can keep up this level of specialness, but it's only a few short years until Emily doesn't believe in the Easter bunny anymore, so I want to see that look of unrestrained wonder on her face as many times as I can before that happens!