The Cow

I'm having a bit of a challenge keeping myself to healthy foods. A lot of people would say, "Oh all things in moderation!" The problem is that moderation of white flour and sugar turns me into a munching maniac. Heck even a banana and pineapple will do that. Too much sugar, from healthy sources or not so healthy ones makes me want to just crunch and munch.

So I have been reading marksdailyapple.com and actually feel like much of what he has to offer goes along with what works in my body. I'm not completely sold on the fitness part as it sounds too easy. I also really like running and am not ready to ditch that yet. But his diet, the primal diet really would work for me if I would just stick to it.

He has these 30 day primal challenges where he tries to get people to change their eating habits for just 30 days. This time there is a cow as an incentive. He always gives away a bunch of prizes I guess but this time the big prize is an entire cow. DH laughed when I told him I was going to try to win us a cow. What's even more funny is that I have NO idea how one wins the thing. I don't know if it's random or if you have to have the best results or whatever. But I am going to try to win it with a bunch of other people. I figure anyone who sticks to the 30 day challenge is a winner cow or not! (But secretly I really would love to win the cow ;) ) If you are at all interested go to his website and click on about, then primal blueprint 101. The section on 'the basics' gives you what you need to know. Or do what I did and check out the book from the library. Anyway... I have no idea how this challenge thing will work but come Sept. 7th I am going to start it. Until then, the idea is just to work on clean eating anyway so I don't feel like crud. I know for me that it wasn't until I started eating really cleanly that I realized how horrible I felt when eating a regular diet. So cross your fingers that I win that cow because maybe I'll have a barbecue :)

Other things that have gone on in the past few days........


My good friend and I started painting my house on Thursday. Let's be honest. I started this project over a year ago but go a little overwhelmed by the height of my ceilings. And what's horrible is that the blue tape just didn't bother me like it should have. But the time had come to finish the project. So Thursday we painted together and then Friday I did most of it myself with my friend coming over to brave the heights for a second coat.

My two SILs, their friends, 3 of my friends, and I all did a midnight 5K this past weekend. It was really fun. It had a KILLER hill though. I had been warned but I wasn't ready for the thing. It was so fun to get decked out in glow sticks and run though the streets with 600 other people at midnight.

The next day, however, wasn't so grand. Boy was I a tired and cranky mama. DH and M went to a bowling activity for church. Then, that afternoon, we went to a festival at a park and the kids had a bunch of fun. I told DH I was thrilled with how the day turned out. I didn't get much done around the house. But the kids had a lot of fun and it was easy cheap fun. That's the best kind!

Sunday was exciting because I got a new church job. I no longer have to lead the choir. I get to work with the nursery aged kids. I had several people say to me, "I can't believe they did that to you." I thought it was kind of funny because I was thinking that it was totally okay. Someone has to do it and I think it'll be fine. Plus, it requires almost no prep work :)

Right before church I herded all the kids out to the car and C wasn't there. DH went to find her and she was zonked out in her bed. I stayed home for an hour and let her sleep while he took the other kids. I ended up waking her up because I had to be there as a judge of the pretend singing contest the kids were having. She was super irritable. Then she came home and slept more and was running a low grade fever. The poor kid had been sick. But today she is fine.

It's going to be quite a week trying to catch up from my lazy weekend. I did manage to bottle a few quarts of tomatoes and of course I did some wash but there is work to be done.

But heck, most of my upstairs is now painted and well, who knows, I may be soon on my way to being the winner of a COW!

School's In

Yeah for the kids. Yeah for me. It's a win no matter what!

They were happy campers going back to school. I am a happy camper letting them go back to school.

DH took yesterday off and did the traditional walk your kids to their classes for the first day thing. M and T both tried to pretend they were embarrassed.

One thing I thought was funny was that no one picked new clothes to wear. Madeleine didn't even pick new to her clothes. She wore a cute outfit she has had for over a year. I'm glad they don't feel like they have to impress people.

According to the kids, the first day was great except for grumbling about having to sit with their own classes during lunch.

I went to the running doc and ran errands since DH was home. Bad news on the running front. I not only have some tendon issues but I have a little friendly neighbor ligament that decided to get involved. This means that I most likely will have a to take a couple of months off of running, it's just a matter of when. Doesn't it figure that when the weather starts to change and my time finally gets more respectable that I have to stop. The doc even mentioned that a boot might be needed for a couple of months. YIKES! But he's letting me try to run this week with it taped :)

What else? C is almost potty trained. I thought she was and then had an accident last night. Both she and S learned to ride two wheelers yesterday. C did it and then S followed about ten minutes later.

T had a birthday party. He's 8 now. It was perhaps the most poorly planned party and the kids still really liked it. I'm thinking I have been trying too hard in the past. The kids don't need as much as moms think. He even made his very own cake. He put mint in the frosting and his friends said it tasted a bit like yummy toothpaste. He was thrilled!

DH and I went wakeboarding with friends. Actually, I should correct that. DH and friends went wakeboarding and I drug myself behind the boat. I guess if you don't have the flexibility to squat you can't really sit on the board enough to wakeboard. That explains my issues with snowboarding and skiing too. The doc had to laugh at me when I told him. When I walked into his office I said that my tendon was hurting and that "I would love to say it's because I went wakeboarding but I never got up." He said maybe they could fix me enough by next year so I could get up.

Today S had her K assessment. C and I went outside and did hopscotch. I think S did fine. She's a little smartie pants. I'm sure she is going to love K.

Random Thoughts

My good friend is having brain surgery tomorrow. We have joked about it. She's hoping for a little extra memory to inserted in before they close things up. She has a great well known surgeon.

But still I worry.

So we laugh. It's the same laugh we have when we talk about dead kids. (She has one little boy and I have my two.) What else can you do but kind of laugh things off?

But still I worry.

My mind will be heavy with prayers tomorrow as I do mundane and somewhat important things. I'll be watching another friend's children in the morning. I'll be trying to get my house picked up. I'll be hosting a birthday party for T in the afternoon for him and a bunch of friends. (He made his own cake and is so thrilled with it.)

But still I will worry until I hear from her mum that things are looking good.

And then hopefully, one day, we'll totally joke around about the week she can't really remember.

But for now, I am just left with worry.

Am I Barefoot Ken Bob?

Barefoot Ken Bob or Kenbob I can't remember is the guy who beat DH in his first marathon. We didn't know who he was the first time.

Today I understood him a little better. He went from that crazy guy I saw beat my DH (darling or dear today) to a super sensible guy.

Let me go back.

The running doc told me to buy a pair of neutral shoes to have zeroed. That I already went over. So last night after I dropped the kids off to dance I jetted over to the running store to find some cheap shoes. I figured I would go cheap because I have to pay to zero the puppies out so why pay for fancy insides that I am going to have scooped away.

I ended up loving the Saucony Kinvara. They weren't cheap but not overly spendy (90 buckaroos) but they are LIGHT! The guy who sold them to me had me try on a bunch of shoes and these were the best. I think they only came out a little over a month ago. The saleskid said he wears them and loves them. Then, the guy who rang me up said that he had a pair of them zeroed out and loved them. (Supposedly they only have to be zeroed by about 5 mm.)

Then the cheap side of me surfaced. Did I want to pay 20 bucks to have them zeroed if they were almost zeroed by the makers?

So this morning I took them for a run. They felt good when I left the house. I was striking a little hard. And now and then I would catch my feet. And then about a mile and a half out I got that stupid your missing cartilage knee pain.

Big flashing lights went off in my head. That means bad knee tracking. TAKE OFF THE SHOES!

I asked my friends to stop and sat down on the curb and took off the shoes. I carried them as I ran the next two miles in my socks.

Knee pain disappeared.

I'll be getting them zeroed. Obviously it does make a difference. And if I get them zeroed, put in the pricey orthotics and my knees hurt I am going to have to ditch both of them for the flat mangled marvels that God gave me because even my less than perfect feet are pretty much better than what any man can create.

See, when I said I took them 'for a run' I really meant it.

(Oh, and I won't be telling the boys that I decimated a pair of socks this morning. They don't have to know that.)

What to do?

I'm working on trying to figure out what to feed DH. He finally went to have a blood test to see what foods he is intolerant to. We sort of had things figured out before but had the test done to make sure we weren't missing things.

We were.

He came up abnormal for cow's milk, gluten, eggs, soy, almonds (which most likely means many other tree nuts too... the test was only on one type of tree nut), peanuts (highest thing), and oats. We were left with rice and corn pretty much that didn't bother him. The doctor did advise him, however, that as he has eaten almost no corn in the last year he could still have problems with it but it wouldn't show up. More importantly, corn turns to sugar in the body and adds to inflammation. So I need to figure out what to feed the guy. Not only do I need to figure out how to feed him, I need to figure out how to do it for a good deal. I'm also going to do a little research because I thought I remembered reading that part of the egg was more problematic than the other. I just need to know if it's the yolk or the white. It's kind of important to find out as eggs are key in using coconut flour for baking.

And I need to figure this out because T is DH but younger. We know he has some of the same problems and most likely has a chunk of them. So I need to figure out how to feed his little body too.

Oy vay!

In other news, school starts in LESS than two weeks. We are all ready :)

What else? I went to the running doctor guy. I felt kind of silly going in there. Someone came in before the doctor to work on my 'injury'. I told her I wasn't injured really but that I had peroneal tendon issues recently. So she worked on that a little. I felt dumb. What was I doing there?

Then the doctor guy came in. He had me stand up facing him so he could look at my remarkable feet. he made me turn them at an angle because they were too much for him to handle straight on. They really are so super flat and with my hips turned out it just exacerbates the whole thing. Then he started feeling around my ankles and found that yes, my peroneal tendon is still inflamed. He said it's probably often hurt with feet like mine. It killed as he worked on it. He asked me a few questions, told me I underestimate myself.

Then lucky me got to go to another room to walk and then job across this pad hooked to his computer. I did it and he asked me to do it again. I thought I had done something wrong so I asked about it. He said, "No, I just don't usually see numbers like this and so it's kind of cool." Luckily, he said my feet weren't the worst he had ever seen. I guess one woman's feet were so bad the computer couldn't tell which was her right and which was her left. It could read mine. One point for the crappy feet!

He said wearing Vibrams was the best thing I have done. He said he could tell I was really trying to use what I have. That being said, for long runs I need zeroed out shoes with a big spendy orthotic. You know, this doc doesn't like orthotics. He's a big fan of Vibrams instead according to my other friends, but my feet are so flat he thinks I need them for the support on those 8-12 milers. So now I need to buy a new pair of shoes, have the insides scooped out and put custom orthotics in them. (These orthotics had better work better than the ones I had as a teen.)

Then he did some acupuncture. That kind of freaked me out.

When I got home I tried to impress the kids with the fact that they stuck me with a bunch of needles. Instead of being impressed D asked me if the needles were to help me not be fat.

Can you feel the love?

Then S added in, "Because you are fat mom."

Nice.

My heart is going pitter patter.

There is nothing like a couple of kids to keep things honest.

Swimsuit Issues

With a blog title like that one would assume I was talking about chunky monkeyness. But for once I am not.

Yesterday we had a busy day. I went to breakfast with friends to celebrate a birthday. Then a friend and I took all our kids (so 8 total) to a very small dance store to torture ourselves while we got M and her friend new pointe shoes. They had to try on about 15 pairs of the things and it took a very long time. An hour and a 106 dollars later we left with some Grishkos that look stunning on M's feet.

I came home and got the kids ready to go to dance. S had her first day of ballet. I also gathered up all of our swimming stuff because I was going to take the kids swimming after M and S were finished with their classes. We were also taking a neighbor friend.

We grabbed dinner and went to the pool. The boys went their way and I took the girls. Everyone had to change into suits. Of course I supervised first and then changed.

And then I realized that instead of a swimsuit top and bottom (and shorts of course) I took a regular swimsuit bottom and a swimsuit skirt. Note to anyone who didn't figure it out yet. I had NO top. I had no top and SIX kids 10 and under all dressed to swim.

So I sat on the side of the pool in a swimsuit bottom, shorts, and my regular old shirt. It was a long night.

Then some old grouchy guy told T he couldn't swim laps. For the most part, Mr. Grouchy was swim walking in the lap lane. So I went down to what appeared to be two nice younger (20 somethingish) guys in the next lane who were chatting it up and asked if T could swim a 100 there and that we had permission for him to use the lap lanes. They were more than nice and I think Mr. Grouchy heard since he was listening next door and then finally decided to take off in a slow swim. One of the nice kids asked how old T was and thought he did really well for a seven year old.

The kids were all happy to swim I was happy to have tired little kids who went straight to bed when we got home :)

As for today, S has had a rough day. Maybe she can't handle going swimming at night with the late bedtime. T dropped his piggy bank and it broke. Tears ensued. He's so big I forget that he's still a little kid. He loves pigs though and would take this little plastic bank everywhere.

We also got invited for a fun trip to Lake Powell yesterday. I hate to say that I actually had conflict in saying no. It would have been so fun. The conflict was T's baptism. And I really wanted to say, "Ah, we'll just move the baptism." But what kind of example would that have been to a kid who is excited for HIS special day. So we said no. In the end I know it's the right decision but it would have been so dang fun to go to Powell with a bunch of friends for the weekend.

Oh and in other news, I finally paid my library fines and checked out some books. Let's hope I can get my good citizen act together.

That's where we are at. DH's workload should decrease starting this weekend. It'll be nice to have him around. Between his trip to Alaska and his job demands, he pretty much hasn't been around for 3 weeks. It'll be nice to get back to 'normal'. (Whatever normal is ;) )

Good Quality Time

DH and I don't watch a bunch of television. In fact, it has probably been about a month and a half since we sat down to watch anything on our tv. (I have, however, watched So You Think You Can Dance over at a friend's house most weeks using the DVR... so much faster.)

Last night we were both wiped out. I had taken 4 of the kids plus a friend to the pool. (S couldn't go because she spent a good chunk of her time before we were going to leave screaming at the top of her lungs at me.) DH worked all day except for the time he took S on her date to see Beezus and Ramona and to get an ice cream.

So after dinner I told the kids we would take the scriptures to dad because he was working anyway. I parked my behind on the couch and just didn't want to move it. After scriptures and prayers I started mindlessly going through the channels.

I, of course, checked out TVLand. I love that channel. But I kept going. I found something kind of like Spanish Language Station's Got Talented Kids. I paused there and watched for a while. DH laughed because he thinks I am crazy when I watch Spanish tv. But it's close enough to French that I can usually figure out what is happening. Then I found the show that captivated me. It was called "Tuna" on the history channel. Yep, I spent a chunk of my night watching a show about the tuna fish. When a commercial (or commercianal as D calls them) would come I would go back and watch the Spanish speaking talented kids but they just couldn't outdo the tuna. So that's how I spent my night.

As for other things yesterday..... I took 4 of the kids (C missing this time) to my friend's little girl's baptism. She was the cutest little (or not so little) thing. I french braided her into a nice crown before it started and she looked like a little princess. And being the sappy person that I am I shed a few little tears.

After, DH took S on her date and the kids and I stayed home. A while later, after the huge crowd had died down at my friend's house I took them down to get a treat. I knew if there were extras D and T would try to clean them up and make it easier for them to not have leftovers. The kids were thrilled to have a whole bunch of things I don't ever keep around. They had cake, cookies, Doritoes, grapes.... the works... oh and more dessert.

The kids had fun at the pool. T does laps to earn diving board time. Earlier this week he managed a 1 1/2 off the board. It was an accident. Usually he just does flips. S managed to float for 24 seconds on Thursday. We said D floated for 1 second but really he just didn't sink until then. I think swimming might be good for him because maybe he'll learn to relax. He'll think he's relaxing and he just can't. And with swimming if you can't relax you are going to sink like a heavy weight. He tries really hard but it just doesn't work out of you are tense. So I'm wondering if going a few times a week (membership until Dec. at a rec center) will help him learn to calm down in the water and maybe that will transfer to land.

August is here and school starts this month :) I found out who M's teacher is and it's KILLING her. But I'm not telling her. It's not fair to her friends.

Ballet starts this month. So we are back to 5 days a week there. It'll be something to break up each evening a little bit. S is especially excited to start.

Summer is going to end and life will get super busy. And I'll probably start wishing we were back in summer. Nah, I don't think so.