Sunday, May 30, 2010

What I've Done This Weekend

First of all Happy Memorial Day. Are you having a nice long weekend? I hope so. I was so excited to have a long weekend all to myself to get some stuff done. Jake is at his dad's house, and I wanted to clean and sew and finish up some things on my very long to do list.

But nope. This is what I have done almost the entire weekend.
Sleep, sleep, sleep, get up, eat, read, rest, rest, sleep, sleep, sleep, and over again.

But I didn't look this pretty.

More like this:

Among other things, I'm doing a treatment called NAET to see if it helps me, and it has wiped me out. Not to mention, I am having extreme bladder issues. The good thing is that I CAN sleep and don't have to worry about getting Jake places or homework, etc!

I hope you're able to relax this weekend.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Some Fun

It's no secret that my favorite times are when my family all gets together, and the more in town the better. My sister came with her kids last week, including my new PRECIOUS niece Gracie. That girl is a charmer! She smiles and goos constantly.
We had sooo much fun! The kids always have a blast together and I adore playing with them.

This little girl is growing up! She loved feeling like she was one of the big kids and "drawing" with them.

My favorite time bar none with the kids, is lying down with them when they are going to sleep. They snuggle right in to me, and they aren't going anywhere, they're stuck with me. We tell or read stories and talk about stuff, and it seriously doesn't get much better than that. I think it is heaven. Jo doesn't, because I am not good about making them go to sleep and after playing hard all day long and waking up early, they need to. (Sorry Jo. Sometimes I can be good, I promise.) But seriously, I don't get to have this much fun very often!

Jake is proving to be a great cousin to all these little ones. He made lots of grilled cheeses and made Gracie smile by kissing her tummy, even when she wasn't in the mood to smile. Having little brothers (his dad's) has been so good for him! Here's his hand holding little Gracie's.
Jo is moving to Pennsylvania, so we had the best time picking out decor for her new place.

On a completely unrelated note, I loved American Idol this season and don't want to see its demise. I loved Lee all throughout, liked Casey a lot and then fell head over heels for Casey about a week before he went off, and now I can't get enough of him. He is such a good guy! AGH those long legs. That ready smile. Those eyes. That voice. Swoon. (Oh, and the AI judges? I've grown to really like and value Simon, but now that he is going, can he just take the others with him?)

Friday, May 14, 2010

Mad

I have to admit, I'm mad. I don't eat any grains. Zip, zilch, nada, not even a grain of rice. (I did cheat for my book club and Mother's Day, but that is very rare.) I don't drink milk, can't use buttermilk, cream or sour cream in recipes. Cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, cream cheese (am I making you hungry?) are all no nos for me due to allergies. No refined sugar, I stay away from most anything sweet, except to use a low glycemic natural sweetener for certain recipes in small amounts. I found I could live with this. It was hard but with a lot of searching the internet, low carb books, etc. I have found a good bunch of recipes I can live on quite well when I have the energy to cook them.

Enter extreme and constant bladder pressure, sometimes excruciating pain. This has been going on for years, and is really, really bad at times, and others it is bearable but always uncomfortable. Nope, no infection. Yep, I've had it checked and even x-rayed by doctors. Another super fun mystery in my life. I've been told this may be caused or exacerbated by a food allergy. According to a natural doctor, I am allergic to hot peppers, as well as grapes, olives and a couple other things. No olive oil? Fine. Grapes are too sweet for me right now anyway. But these babies?

I am not huge on really spicy food, but I had no idea how much this little fruit/vegetable/spice was used in things, including my own cooking. I didn't realize how much I relied on it and loved it.... from the scrambled eggs my dad taught me to make with a couple dashes of hot sauce for flavor, (it doesn't make them spicy!) barbecue sauce, worcestershire sauce, or the delicious pork made so easily in the crockpot with salsa and enchilada sauce... (OK I did realize that had it in there, but seriously? That is one of our most favorite and easiest dinners.) I would not have guessed that 8 out of 10 dinners I am drawn to has some kind of hot pepper ingredient in it. I wasn't mad about grains. I coped. I wasn't mad about getting rid of most dairy. I coped. But this, I can't seem to live with.

Silly, huh?

Thursday, May 6, 2010

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

I just love the book I found for the book club at my house this month. William Kamkwamba is a humble African with such an inspiring story. In his home in Malawi, his family went from being poor, to suffering through a terrible famine. He wanted so badly to attend school so that he would have a chance to make something of himself, but they couldn't afford the $80 per year it would take and he had to drop out. Only about 2% of people where he lives have electricity and even that is spotty. William is resourceful though, and well, he and Jon Stewart will do a better job telling his story than I could, so I'll let them tell you. He has a sense of humor and enjoys Jon.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
William Kamkwamba
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorTea Party

Here is William's website. This is a MUST read book in my opinion! If you want to watch more, there are a few good videos linked on his website. Here are two more of my favorite videos: 1. Soon after people found out about his windmill and was just learning to speak English 2. His own presentation 2 years later

Monday, May 3, 2010

Modeled photos!

I get SO excited to see my nieces and nephews in things I make them!! I love seeing pictures of them period, so with them in something I made is just the crème de la crème. I made matching outfits last Summer for my niece Sarah and her best friend. Here is a picture of them together in them!
How sweet are these two? My sister's friend is an amazing photographer and she took these pictures of the bffs for posterity!

And here are photos of Sarah in the butterfly dress I made a while ago! Sarah had a butterfly show-and-tell day at school and was excited to wear it.


It was a windy day. She's the cutest thing!