Plenty of Water

I've been an exclusive water drinking since I was in college. I stopped drinking sodas (except for Sprite) when I was 16, but eventually the carbonation started tasting bad and I gave Sprite up too. So, I've been caffeine free (in regards to drink) for almost 20 years. Although I LIVED on sweet sweet tea and sodas when I was younger I can't imagine my lifestyle any other way than with refreshing water. My body actually craves it. I don't have to have lemons or any flavoring. Water is good enough. Since last week I've been more diligent about how much I drink and have worked hard to increase my water intake. The hardest part for me was finding a cup that was big enough to hold enough for me for when I was out and about all day. I work from home, but I'm not home often so there are days when I'm gone from 7:45 AM until 9 PM... It's those days I have to be very diligent about preparing and making sure I have enough with me.
After breaking almost every tumbler that I have, I finally remembered this beauty that was GIVEN to me when I had my children. I got one at the birth of each child, but I must have left my last one at the hospital because I only have 2 now... but 2 is good since I can only drink out of one at time. It's great to have a back up when I wash one.

I'm up to 3 of these cups a day... That's 90 oz of water. Eight 8 oz glasses are recommended. I drink a full cup before I take my kids to school in the morning and before I leave I fill it back up to drink throughout the day. Then fill up again when I get home and have a 3rd before going to bed.

How is your water intake? If you're getting ready to change your lifestyle through diet and heal from the inside out, I would suggest first starting with replacing at least one drink a day with water and gradually work your way to replace it all. Not only is it better for you, but it will save you a LOT of $$$. Click here for other benefits to drinking water.

Being Prepared

I knew Thursday was going to be a busy day and I wouldn't be home to cook dinner so after kids got ready for school I started dinner in the crockpot. I found a great GAPS recipe from pinterest that seemed pretty easy so I thought I would try it. It's Stage 3 GAPS, but since we don't have Bone Broth yet, I figured it wouldn't hurt to eat something that was GAPS approved.

When starting a new food lifestyle it's important to be prepared. As I put everything in the crockpot I realized I didn't have cilantro or broth so I had to run to store before taking kids to school because that was the only time I had to get it. I put everything in crockpot and it was done by 12:30 and family was able to eat a delicious dinner that EVERYONE loved without me being there.

Here's the recipe we used.

When I got home that night my husband said the kids LOVED it and actually raved about it... Adding this to our regular menu. It was SO easy and would have been easier had I had everything I needed when I started cooking. ;-)



It's a process

Day 2 & 3

 

In trying to heal from the inside, we found a healthy breakfast my youngest likes.... my husband's smoothies. It's not completely compliant with what I want him to have, it's a LOT better than the pancakes and syrup full of corn syrup he was getting.

This smoothie contains protein powder (which does contain milk) peanut butter, honey (needs to be replaced with local honey) and a banana. The only way he eats fruit is in smoothies. My youngest is was a milk drinking, chocolate eating kid. The change hasn't been as bad as I expected though because he can SEE and FEEL the changes. Now that he's no longer drinking milk, his nose isn't constantly running. When he does eat a lot of food with milk in it during the day, he coughs throughout the night. Changes... they don't have to be sudden. It's a process. Start slowly.

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner

I found a great recipe on pinterest that called for chicken, pizza sauce (we didn't have ingredients to make homemade) and cheese. I cooked the chicken in coconut oil, which in itself is healthy and healing, chopped it up, put in a 9 x 13 pan, covered it in pizza sauce (will use homemade next time) and then covered only 1/2 (the 1/2 my husband and oldest ate) with  and served with green beans.

Everyone enjoyed it and my youngest like it. It was a hit.

Healing from the Inside

WOW! It's been a while! OVER 3 years... that's a life time in the eyes of my child. Since then, there have been LOTS of challenges and BIG victories, some that I hope to share on here and some that will be saved for 1-1 conversations on an as needed basis. Nonetheless, I'm back for at least now. ;-)
My kids are now 9, 6 and 4 and will be 10, 7, and 5 in just a few short months. I'm back to journal our journey into eating clean and the lifestyle changes we are getting ready to embark on.
About 1.5 months ago, I went to a local Dr who specialized in homeopathic and he was amazing. He actually deactivated my allergies to pollen and trees. It was fabulous being able to breath again. I also discovered that I had a yeast build up in my system... often referred to as candida and my 4 year old although has no allergies is sensitive to milk. During very recent days I also found out that eczema can actually be caused by what is termed as "leaky gut" and can best be healed from the inside out... So starts our journey of healing from the inside out.
As we approach this new lifestyle, I am going to take it day by day so I won't get anymore overwhelmed than I already am over all of the changes that will happen.

Today is day 1:
I found a friend that makes her own Kambucha tea so when she gets back from Disney, we will start on that. For today, I made our own dairy free, gluten free ranch dressing. My youngest is SO excited because now he can eat ranch with ANYTHING!!! More like eat anything with ranch. That boy LOVES him some ranch dressing.

click here for the recipe.

Clean Up Time

Almost every night (that I remember) before bed time, I ask the kids to help clean up. K is amazingly wonderful at doing it while I'm putting his sister to bed when I forget to ask them. Tonight, I told them it was time to clean and as I sat in L's bedroom helping her clean her room, K cleaned the living room. After the living room was spotless, K asked me to wet a washcloth and wring it out so he could wipe down the walls. I agreed. A few minutes later as I turned a corner I smelled something delightfully refreshing. K was directing his sister to spray dirt spots on the wall. She sprayed and he wiped. After they finished the walls, they did the doors, then the floors, and as I type they are doing the double glass doors. I don't have the heart to tell them it's not glass cleaner because they're working so hard. They just switched roles. L is now wiping down and K is spraying. T is just following them around not really sure what's going on. I guess teaching responsibilites can't start too young. It won't be too much longer before I'm out of a "job".

Lost Tooth

K woke me up one day last week to tell me that his brother was awake and that he had a loose tooth. A few days later, it had become looser, but I decided it was time for it to come out. So, we attached a string of dental floss to the tooth and attached the other end to a door. When I closed the door, the string came off and the tooth was still in K's mouth. I tried again and before I could finish knotting it, T closed the door, but again the string came off and the tooth didn't. I decided to take more extreme measures so I double knotted the string to the tooth. As soon as the knot was tightened and before I could turn, T slammed the door and K started screaming. As I looked at K I saw a mouth full of blood. T had been successful in pulling his big brother's loose tooth.

That night he put it in his "Tooth Pillow" that he got this past Christmas and when he woke up the "tooth fairy" had forgotten to pick it up. He was a little disappointed, but when he went in his room hours later and found 4 quarters in his pillow in place of his tooth, he exclaimed, "Look, Mommy! God turned my tooth into 4 quarters! That was so nice of Him." I asked him why he thought God had done it and he said it couldn't have been the Tooth Fairy because he hadn't seen anyone go in or come out of his room.... it HAD to have been God! Love the mind and faith of a child.

Back to School

I know it's been a while, but honestly, with business taking off like it has and trying to get school started, it's been a crazy time. In July, I had planned on starting school and taking a week off for a business trip to Ohio, but ended up taking almost the entire summer off. After I got back from my trip, my grandfather passed away and we spent a couple of days in Waco, TX for the funeral. Things are finally starting to settle and get on a schedule. I'm not sure how long it'll last, but hopefully at least a few weeks.

Even though we didn't start school as I had planned, we're ahead of schedule. We just did our 10th day and K is on his 4th week of Astronomy and History, his 22nd week of Math (so we're taking a short break) and his 6th week of English. Mars (full of craters)

Volcano Replica from Venus

L has actually become interested and has started to ask to write. This week, we are focusing on her A's and she's doing great!