Forgot to add...

Reagan is always asking for a pony tail (or piggy tails) "with lots of hair." Sorry, baby.

Ben and Killian went shoe shopping last night. Killian came home with size 8 shoes. That means that he and I have the same sized feet (yeah, and my feet aren't little, mind you). He is about up to my nose in height. Pretty hard to believe. I try not to notice his cousin Jeff 's(2 1/2 years older) height. Killian will be as tall as us (or taller) before we know it. (Jeff already is!) What has become of our little baby boys??!

Toad! Toad! Wake Up! It's Spring!

We've broken 40 degrees here and the snow is melting away.

Reagan is a silly girl. She is usually happy and cheerful, but she can put on a show if she's not happy about something. She will usually storm into another room and cry. She is also prone to kicking things around the room or throwing them. I honestly don't know where she got that idea, because no one else really does that here. She and Molly love to make up songs and sing. Reagan is always telling Molly, "You are my bestest friend in the whole world." This morning, she came down to the entryway, telling Molly, "Bye, my stister." And, she kept saying, "Bye, Molly!" out the door and to the bus.

Dressing girls is a completely new experience. The boys really usually would put on anything I set in front of them. Well, there are caveats. Killian hates jeans (though has recently started wearing them now and then) and will not wear long sleeves. Liam isn't a fan of button pants, and his t-shirts must fit properly; they cannot be too long. Molly, until the last year or so, probably, was willing to wear most things I gave her. Recently, she's become rather more particular. Some things have seams that don't feel right. She'll only wear certain kinds of socks. She's not a fan of jeans, but I think if they fit right, she's OK with them. Mostly, it has to be cute. And, I'm afraid, her definition of cute pretty much escapes me most of the time. It usually takes about 3 tries to find an outfit to which she will agree, and even then, it's usually not one of the three options I show her; it's the pants from this outfit and the shirt from this one. Reagan, on the other hand, is all about the pretty. Cute isn't good enough. She's all about the tights and dresses. I try to put leggings on under her dresses, and she won't have that. It must be tights. Or, today, she's wearing a leotard with an attached skirt and tights over the bottom of it (not under). I suggested that we get dressed to run errands, and she says she's wearing this. *sigh*

My dear, sweet boy

Liam stayed home today because he says his throat is sore. Liam is not a miserable sick person, so I never quite know whether he's really sick or not, unless he's running a fever or throwing up or something.

He wanted to ask me something, but couldn't bring himself to say the words, so he told me that he could write it down. He wrote the note, not wanting me to look at it, and then turning it over on the kitchen counter, running upstairs, and then telling me, "You can turn it over now."

This is what it said:

Mom i want to make a difference

i want to take away half my blood and restore it with birds blood i know it could make changes that i don't like but I just want to be able to fly and forfill my dreams.

I want to scan it, to save his precious handwriting, but I'm having trouble with that. Don't you just want to scoop him up and hold him tight? I hated to tell him it wouldn't do what he wanted to do such a thing.

If you have read this, please don't share it with him, as I know he would be devastated.

Oh, my precious boy. I love him so.

BTW...

My lack of weight loss should not be attributed to my following a traditional food diet. In fact, it should primarily be blamed for my not following one. In the past year, especially, there has been far too much junk in my diet. So, while I have strived for a traditional foods diet, I didn't really eat one...

Sickies

Liam and I are the only ones that have so far dodged the nasty cold that has taken hold in our house. Hopefully, we're not next. Killian just came down with it this morning. Reagan and Molly have been sick for a couple of days. Ben, sadly, has been sick for longer, but he just keeps plugging away.

Yup. I'm gonna do it..

I guess I'll just post this here and duck. I've handed out a lot of grief to others who have followed the Atkins diet over the years. I have often made comments, voiced concern over others' future health, and just plain proclaimed it as wrong. However, I'm about to change my tune.

I've decided to give it a run. Why? What would possess me? Well, let me tell you. There are a number of things that have led me to this point.

1) For the last few years, I have been working to follow traditional food guidelines (see Weston A. Price Foundation). Traditional Food is food raised and prepared according to traditional (slow food) methods. This is the way people ate prior to the modern food industry. Ideally, it includes grass-fed, pastured meats and eggs, raw dairy products, traditional fermented foods (yogurt, kefir, saurkraut to name a few examples), minimal traditionally prepared grains (like sourdough bread) and organically raised fruits and vegetables.

Lessons learned: fat is not evil; grains aren't all that; sugar is the debil.

2) The value of grains as a food source has come into question in my mind. A few years ago, you may know, we were on a gluten and casein free diet. I think a major problem with it is that we subbed a lot of starchy crap in place of things we missed--bread, pretzels, cakes, cookies. What was wrong with that? The problem was that the reason we were removing gluten was ultimately to deal with yeast and leaky gut syndrome. With further study and insight, I am pretty sure that the diet we were on, though it was without gluten and casein, was not one that would rid anyone of yeast. It's also kind of sad if you know the amount of thought and effort and tears from everyone involved that went into it. I think there is likely a place for properly prepared grains (soaked or sprouted) in a balanced diet. But, that probably doesn't include rice flour, potato starch and guar gum, LOL.

3)I haven't lost a single pound since Reagan was born. I'm still at full term pregnancy weight. I didn't even lose the 7 lbs. 12 oz. that was Regan. And, if you don't recall, Reagan is 37 1/2 months old.

4) I have a serious sugar problem. Serious.

So, I've been perusing eating plans. Low carb diets really appear to be what I need. I've dropped sugar outright for a good six weeks during the last year and not lost any weight. I presume I made up for it somewhere with carbs, and whether they were good or bad carbs, and I think they were "good," they apparently caused me some problem. I also didn't cut fruit.

So, I'm thinking that this diet is just what I need. I will be watching the cheese closely because I am not sure it's OK for me. It is a feeder of yeast, and I'm quite certain I have systemic yeast (reason #5). I will not use Splenda. Nope, not gonna do it. I may use some stevia. My hope is that the induction will help me get through sugar withdrawal. BTW, a high protien diet is recommended for people who are recovering alchohol and sugar addicts, so another reason why this makes sense. I will continue with taking cod liver oil daily and increasing my intake of coconut oil. I think both of these are very important, and certainly don't appear to be contraindicative on this plan.

Not quite sure when we're going to get started here, but within the next two weeks. Ben and I will be doing this together.

Teamwork

It's time, now, for some restructuring in our household. I've been thinking about it for awhile. About a week ago, I put together chore schedules and lists for each of the kids. I can't say they're totally up and running yet. I told them on Sunday that they were now in effect. So far, they seem to be going OK. There has been some balking and disbelief about what they have been asked to do--"I have to clean the bathroom?!" But, it has been done, and I think that they are seeing that the chores I have asked are not majorly time consuming. Killian did the weekly cleaning on the bathroom yesterday afternoon. I did come in and supervise and give some pointers (like mop the floor as you back out rather than all around you, LOL). Perfection? Probably not. But it's shiny, and cleaner than it was, and I didn't do it!

I am sure that in a week or two, I will need to refine the system, figuring out what might need to be done more often, better checklists to make sure everything is done, etc.

I also just read Have a New Kid by Friday. I have some mixed feelings on some of his advice and flat-out disagree with some, but it has given me some ideas and inspiration for working with the kids behavior-wise.

We placed our first seed order of the year to Totally Tomatoes. I will share that info in Remaking Suburbia.