a-muse-ing
insightful (sometimes) commentary by rjlightI did it, though!
I made it to my goal of 30 days. Yes, there was a bit of cheating, but not that much. I was able to eat a few m&m’s and not the whole 1 pounder bag! I am not without all grains like I was in the 30 days, but I have decreased my grain consumption so much — especially white flour. I do have an occasional bowl of steeled cut oats (yum) and I made steel cut oat pancakes last night (extra yum) with the added almond flour for more protein.
As far as my love of ice cream, well, I haven’t given up ice cream. I have though made my own with only stevia as a sweetener. It was so good. I made it with blueberry, nectarine crisp. The crisp was great too. I had oats, flax, almond flour, pecans, and grapeseed oil in the topping and was very pleased with the result. My extreme low-carb life is now a low-carb life and I do feel much healthier.
With the decrease of carbs has come a decrease in my humor. Okay, I am kidding. I have been busy. I now have a 7th grader and well, it has been an adjustment. My business (the one that brings in money) has been going well and in turn keeps me busy, but my writing business has been stagnant. I haven’t been as disciplined in writing consistently. I seem to want to sleep more than I want to sleep. I have these grand dreams of waking up at 5:30 am and working out, then knocking out a few children stories in 30 minutes and then having my kids dressed and ready to go by 7:45 am. In reality, I am forcing myself out of bed at 7 am, and trying to get the kids fed, dressed, and with proper backpacks filled with books and lunches out the door by 7:48. How can people function on so little sleep? You are probably thinking that I should go to bed earlier, right? I go to bed by 10 pm most nights! So I must find a way to function on lest sleep I guess or do a better job scheduling my time…
No sugar, low carbs= no fun?
I have been on a low-carb diet these last 10 days. I love breads and pastries so giving them up has been so hard! But I knew it was something I needed to do for my health. I had gestational diabetes with my last two children so I have a greater chance of getting diabetes now. My numbers have been high — glucose and triglycerites so I knew that my body wasn’t handling the carbs well.
Most people lose weight when they go on this drastic change but I haven’t so far. I do feel better –more energy and I feel like my clothes are fitting better. I still have my moments of wanting to stuff 50 cream puffs in my mouth, or just have an almond-filled pastry. However, I am proud that I have gone this far. I am 1/3 of the way to my 30 day goal and I will do it!
Homemade Ice Cream
I have been wanting to get an ice cream maker for years now. I don’t know why it has taken me so long. I guess I thought I would eat more ice cream if I had one. Who was I kidding? I still eat ice cream without one. At least if I had one I could control what ingredients I would put in the ice cream — could even make it healthier? What a concept.
So I was walking around a large store looking for some more items for my daughter’s birthday party when my eye caught sight of an ice cream maker. It was a “gel” ice cream maker and looked quite efficient. I figured since the only ice cream maker I was familiar with was my dad’s old noisy one that this one would be much quieter and faster. I read over the box and noticed that this ice maker didn’t need rock salt–a nice perk. I mean, who wants to keep a supply of rock salt on hand? I looked over it and put it in my cart and started rolling down the aisle.
As I turned around the corner I noticed a whole stand of ice cream makers. These were the old-fashioned ones that used rock salt and made that churning sound. My mind immediately went back to when I was a little girl waiting for my dad’s ice cream to be ready. I can still hear the sound of the rock salt being poured into the machine, and taste that incredible smooth, cold ice cream going down my throat. I looked at the price and read the box. Then I put the gel one back on the shelf and put the old-fashioned ice cream maker in my cart and grabbed some bags of rock salt. How could I make “real” homemade ice cream without those familiar noises? I realized I needed an ice cream maker more like my dad’s. I couldn’t watch my dad make his ice cream anymore, but at least with this one I could remember those times I did have with him.
Isn’t oxygen necessary?
Okay, so the black widow is still alive. It is in a sealed jar–there are no air holes. Can someone tell me how it is still alive? It is really creepy. Yesterday I screamed because I saw a black spider. It didn’t have the red pattern on it so it wasn’t a black widow. It scares me a bit to think of how many of those creatures are around my home. The daddy long legs are everywhere, but they are harmless and I kind of like them. But any creature that is small and can kill you with one deadly bite…
Dog Poop
The other day my husband found a black widow in our backyard. He put it in a jar and showed the kids — they thought it was pretty cool. I, however, thought about what would have happened if one of the kids found it or my husband wasn’t looking and the spider leaped in the air and attacked his neck depositing deadly poison into his veins. But none of that happened and in the end the kids had a cool thing to look at. I suggested they take it to school and told them about the time I took a turantula that my dad found to school. The kids nodded and smiled which meant they probably wouldn’t do it.
When we were in Spain at Retiro Park (Madrid’s “central park”) there were some protesters handing out fake dog poop. Yes, they were protesting against dog owners who don’t faithfully bag up their dogs waste and leave it in the beautiful park for all to smell and walk in. Anyway, the protestors were dressed like elves dwarfs and handed my kids the fake poop. Of course my kids got a kick out of that and it was the joke for a few weeks.
The spider died in the jar. No one ever took it to school. My son however, snuck the fake poop into his backpack and took it to school. So there you have it. I suggest taking a rare (sorta) black widow to school for all the kids to see and the teacher to tie into a nature lesson, but my son chooses to take fake plastic dog poop. Great nature lesson that must have been.
