Soap shopping!

 

I gave up a chance to go swimming the other day because we needed groceries very bad! I measure when we need groceries by the amount of fruit and vegetables left in our fridge. :)

While I was at the store, my kids mentioned that they needed more bath soap, so we headed over to that direction.  I have been avoiding food dyes in my kids' foods for awhile and I know there are dyes in shampoo/ body wash, so I wanted to see if I could find any dye-free soap. Guess what? I found ONE bottle of dye-free body wash for my girls, so I bought it! They had a problem with it because it had a Smurf on it because you know the picture really does matter! Especially if it is a penguin.:)



I then went to find myself some more bath soap. Again, same problem! Everything is either colored or has a scent to it! I don't want pretty smelling soap, I want plain as can be! I remember my doctor saying that some of my intolerances could be caused by what I was putting ON my skin. There was oatmeal in quite a few of the products and that could all have gluten in it! I couldn't find anything in a bottle, so I just bought plain white Ivory soap to use on myself.

I may need to go to a natural food/ whole food grocery store next time to find better soap for all of us!

 

 

 

Study of Joints

We have been studying bones in science class and today, we are moving onto joints.

This may look very advanced, but I am going to only use the picture and descriptions of joints at the bottom.

http://cnx.org/content/m44786/latest/

I have not studied joints AT ALL, so I have spent a lot of time learning about them myself in the last 24 hours!

This is how we rolled today...

I am not the only one getting the itch to get done with school, especially now that many of the districts around town are done. Our girls are getting the itch too.  But there is no way we can quit now! I WILL finish my books OR get to a good stopping point!  But in the meantime, summer is starting whether we are done with school or not!

Today was case in point.  We had school all morning and then we went outside for "recess." I realized that it was actually warm out and that maybe today would be a good day to go swimming. We joined a local gym and the outdoor pool opened last Saturday.  I asked the girls if they were interested in going swimming and of course they said, "YES!!!"  We only had science, Megan's math, and Courtney's spelling to get done in the afternoon.  We were also supposed to have piano lessons at 4:30, but those got moved to tomorrow, so technically once we were done, we were free until dinner time.

I thought it was an opportunity we couldn't pass by, so we did science and went over Megan's math assignment.  It was about 2:30 at this time and I thought we needed to get going by 3 because we needed to be home by 5 or so.  I still had Courtney's spelling to do and our first assignment of a new week usually takes a little bit longer.  I didn't think we had time to do it, so I made an executive decision. Spelling could be done later. :)

All the kids got their suits on and we headed to the pool for two hours!!  Once we got home, we had dinner and taught one piano student (1 of the 3 came for lessons tonight), and once that was over, I had intended to do spelling.  But that didn't happen. We talked to our neighbor for awhile, rescued a baby bird that fell out of its nest, and got Courtney through the shower. By the time this was done, it was bedtime. I guess spelling is going to have to wait until tomorrow!

By the way, Courtney was complaining to me today because she thinks that we need to be done with school too! She says it is no fair that the public school kids get out, but she doesn't. She said she wants to go to public school so she can be done earlier.  I kind of laughed at her!! I sometimes have to remind her that she didn't go to school in the fall for about 6 weeks while they were in school  and that she only goes to school 2-3 hours a day, if that. I think she has NOTHING to complain about!!!

Memorial Day

I am beginning to think about what to do for Memorial Day tomorrow. We're not camping this year and we don't really have any plans, so that means we will probably do a little bit of school and do something about Memorial Day.

As I was searching online, I found this short video that gives a brief history of the holiday.

http://3boysandadog.com/2014/05/memorial-day-educational-activities-for-kids/

I am going to use this for conversation after the video.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/hunt/images/hunt036.pdf

And wouldn't this be a nice and messy craft to make!

http://www.tipjunkie.com/post/hand-and-footprint-flag-flag-day-activity/

Not much sugar lately

Yesterday I met with a few moms to plan some summer activities for our homeschooling group.  We met at bowling alley, so the kids could bowl while we could chat and plan. It worked well!

While the kids were bowling, one of the moms bought two pitchers of Sprite for everyone to share.  She offered me some, but I declined because I KNOW I cannot have sugar.  All three of my kids looked at my and pretty much said, "Are you going to let me have some?" They have not had straight sugar/artificial sugar for at least a couple of weeks either (and they really haven't complained!).  I said yes, they could have some, but not so much. I didn't want a sugar overload! They each got a cup and their faces were priceless when they took a drink- I think they all thought it was so sweet! They all cringed at first! I could tell they hadn't had sugar in awhile!! 

I think pop is fine once in awhile and I don't want to deprive them of sweets here and there, I just really want to get it out of their diets on a daily basis and we seem to be doing that!

For awhile, I had told Courtney that she could only have one wheat product a day and if she didn't get that one wheat product, she would say, "I need to eat something with wheat in it today!"  Now, she doesn't even complain about it. I have a chart on the fridge and she can have wheat every 4th day, just like every other food. She is great about going over to the fridge and counting back her days. She doesn't seem to be craving it as much as she used to! Hurray!

School is out?

I have to admit. I am a little jealous. I keep seeing pictures of the "last day of school" or hearing how people are already done with school and I want to be done too!!

But I can't.  I just can't be done yet.

Megan has a research paper to write, we have more human body to learn about, we are in the middle of learning about World War I, oh and don't forget perimeter in 4th grade math and we are still working on our facts in 2nd grade math!  We must keep pushing forward in spelling and learning about prefixes and suffixes in 2nd grade phonics! We can't stop now when we are in the middle of a biography of William Booth- the founder of the Salvation Army!

Wait, do I really want to stop for the summer? YES!

Almond Banana Muffins for Breakfast?

http://minimalistbaker.com/banana-almond-meal-muffins-gluten-free-vegan-optional/

Summer Treats

I have been thinking lately about how we are going to make homemade "ice cream treats" this summer. I told the kids that once the ice cream is gone in the freezer (if I ever let them eat it!), we are making our own. I want to continue to keep them off sugar and any fake sugar this summer. I found this and thought this was a great alternative!! It is gluten and sugar free!

http://tasty-yummies.com/2013/05/02/strawberry-coconut-frozen-fruit-pops-smoothie-gluten-free-vegan-sugar-free/



I will definitely need to buy some more popsicle molds and be on the search for more recipes like this one!

Food Article

I saw this come across Facebook and it caught my eye. Many of you know that we have cut out all sugar at my house. Well, I have cut it ALL out and I am trying my best with my children. We have eliminated breakfast cereals and any other sugary items.  I am pretty sure that Courtney and Christian have a yeast problem like I do (actually yeast came up on both of their tests, but those were over a year ago), but I am pretty sure they still have a problem.  Eventually, I would like to get other yeast related foods cut out of their diets! One of those foods is vinegar, which is in ketchup, mustard, and all salad dressings. 

We are almost all gluten free too.  I let the girls have wheat every four days, Matt eats it whenever he wants because "he is dad and can do whatever he wants."

I saw this article and it talks about the eleven things  (with charts) that are wrong with our modern diets.

http://www.businessinsider.com/whats-wrong-with-the-modern-diet-charts-2014-2#!I0sFR

I found it quite fascinating  because we have addressed EVERY SINGLE one of these problems in our house within the last two years.  I have learned about a couple of them in just the last few weeks, such as why I should lower my use of oils with omega 6 fatty acid. I have learned which oils are good to use and which are not!

I have also been using real butter instead of  margarine and not feeling bad when I eat bacon! (low msg of course!)

I am constantly trying to get my kids to eat whole foods and we are gradually getting there!

Skin and Nails

http://www.livestrong.com/article/181963-what-makes-your-hair-nails-grow/

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5749599_hair-nails-grow_.html

http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/fingernail.asp

This is what we are going to be studying tomorrow in science class!

I think this is a great excuse to paint our nails!

New foods again at our house!

I tried two new things here at the Ruwe house yesterday. 

1.  zucchini bread
2. split pea soup

I have not had these for years, but I had a leftover zucchini and I had some split peas and these recipes kept coming up.

We also have a new rule in our house, you must try it AND I will not be insulted if you don't like it! Everything is also gluten free and sugar free, if at all possible.

Courtney and Christian loved the zucchini bread. Megan, Matt and I were not so impressed. I think it needed more sugar. :)  Maybe that is why many recipes I found called for a CUP of sugar. I used 5-6 drops of stevia and applesauce instead of the honey.

I loved the split pea soup.  Matt said it was "pretty good," Megan thought it was disgusting, Courtney and Christian had some, but not a lot.

We also had tuna to eat for lunch yesterday, this was the first time in a couple of years because tuna came up really high on Courtney's allergy test two years ago.  Now that I need to rotate everything every four days, I need to have enough different food to get through four days! I thought this would be something I could add in.  I made tuna salad for the rest of the family and since I cannot have mayo (vinegar), I just put some tuna on a salad and it worked great!  I told the kids to eat just a little bit to get it back into their systems.

I think my family either tried too many new foods yesterday or ate too much of a new food because a couple of my kids had upset stomachs last night. :(

It's that time of year again!

It's that time of year again...everybody is getting out of school for the year! While it's fun and exciting, I can't say that the we are finishing anytime soon! When I say this to people, their jaws drop like I am being mean to my children or something. :) Honestly, I am getting tired of the question!

We will finish school up, but not this week and not next week,  it may be about the middle of June! Does anybody remember that trip we took last September? And because we were gone for 5 weeks, we are about 5 weeks behind in school?? Plus not all of my subjects line up to end at the same time, so it is a quite complicated question for me to answer!

I do have some goals though.

Megan:
Math: She has about 30 lessons left in her math book. People keep telling me that I don't "have" to finish her math book, but I am going to! Why shouldn't I finish it?? We're homeschooling and don't have a set day that I need to be done! I also know that she will still be learning new concepts up until the end. I need her to know those for 5th grade! And yes, I know they do a lot of reviewing the first few weeks of school next year, but we are going to finish her book anyway! I think she has 3 chapters left.  30 lessons at 5 lessons a week= 6 more weeks of math

English:  We have about 40 less lessons in this book than we do in her math book and I think we are down to about 15 lessons left.  She has two chapters left. Again 15 lessons at 4-5 lessons a week= 3-4 weeks of English

Spelling: We just finished week 16 of her spelling book, we are going to do week 17 next week and then week 18 is a review week. I feel that is a good place to stop until next fall. :)

Sonlight Language arts:  We just started week 20 (out of 36) on this and all her other Sonlight curriculum.  I realized that from week 19-22, Megan gets to write a research paper on her state, so we are going to keep plugging away at this curriculum until we finish week 22, so give or take 2-4 weeks.

History/ Geography/ Read-alouds- Again, this is Sonlight, so we will keep going until we get to week 22. Then we will break for the summer and finish up again next fall.

Courtney:
Math: She also has about 30 lessons left in her book.  Again, at least 6 weeks.

Phonics: We are in the middle of 2nd grade phonics, so my goal is to get to the end of the unit. Each unit has 30 lessons and I think we completed lesson 8 yesterday, so about 22 more. Again, 4-5 lessons a week and we are going for about 5 weeks yet.  We will finish units 4 and 5 next fall.

Spelling: I think we just completed week 32 this week and there are 36 weeks in her spelling book, we will finish this book within 4 weeks.

Sonlight reading/ writing: Again, I am going to keep her on the same schedule as Megan, so we just started week 20, so we will go to week 22 and stop.

Both children:
Bible: We came to a good stopping point in our Bible Curriculum last week, so I just called it good for the year! We are going to be reading some Heroes of the Faith books for the rest of the year. Right now, I am reading William Booth, the man who started the Salvation Army (plus it takes place about the same time that we are in history, so it works for both subjects!

Science: We just started out unit on the human body. This is also Sonlight, so we will go another three weeks and put everything away for the summer.

There, so now when anybody asks me "When are you going to be done with school?" I can send them to this blog post!!! It's not just a one-word simple answer!!!

Missing remote!

We have had a problem here the last week. The TV remote went missing!!  I think it was last Thursday or Friday that I tossed it at Matt while he was sitting in the recliner playing a game with Courtney on his phone and we haven't seen it since!

We have looked EVERYWHERE in the living room, We have looked underneath and between all the cushions in the couch and recliner and have even taken the recliner apart looking for it! We have looked in all the toy boxes, behind the piano, in the cupboard, downstairs, upstairs, etc. and still no remote!

The bad part is that we have cable now, so we are paying for cable we are not even watching. It has also been weird around the lunch hour. Matt always sits down and watches an episode of COPS. Honestly, I have not missed this at all!

Last night I saw a post on facebook that said, "My husband is a centurylink rep, if you need any services, give him a call" and she posted his phone number. I immediately commented, "Can he get us a new remote control? We lost ours and can't seem to find it anywhere." She messaged me back and said that he could get me one. Wow! I guess her husband said that he can have a tech bring one by our house and it would be free of charge!

Around noon today, I told Matt he should go look outside for the new remote and there it was, hanging on our front door!

Guess what Matt is doing right now? He is back to enjoying COPS!

Poor Afghanimals!

We have watched every episode of this season's "The Amazing Race" and Courtney has cheered on her team- the Afghanimals- during every single episode.

We missed the airing of it last night due to the storm coverage, so tonight we pulled it up on the Internet and watched last night's episode.  I had learned via Facebook which team was eliminated and I did not want to tell Courtney because it was her favorite team. I wanted to watch it right along with her and cheer them on like usual.

There were four teams left at the beginning of the episode and one team was going to get eliminated at the end.  Towards the end, she saw that her team was coming in last (4th place) and when the third team stepped onto the mat, she burst into tears! Her team hadn't even made it to the mat yet, but she knew they were the last team and they were going to get eliminated! This poor girl cried and cried for at least twenty minutes over her team losing!!

Poor thing! She was heart-broken! Matt and I didn't quite know what to say to her!

Tornado Warning!

There was some major drama at our house tonight!

We were gone all day and we knew there was a storm coming, so we hurried home about 5 pm. 
As we were watching the news, it was looking a lot worse than normal. They were talking about tornadoes, hail, and lots and lots of rain.  I fed my kids a couple of hot dogs and then we started getting ready to go downstairs in case we got hit by a tornado.

Here is where my children got a little stressed out.  Here are some of the things I heard:

1.  Courtney: What are we going to do about James?? (he's Courtney's fish.  Matt did go upstairs and put James in a jar and we took him downstairs with us.).

2.  Christian: Can we take the legos downstairs too?

3.  Courtney: What is the first part of the house to get ruined by a tornado? The upstairs or the downstairs?

4.  Courtney: What about my money? Will you pay me back? Wait, what if the bank gets ruined in a tornado too??

5.  Christian: Will the tornado ruin "The Amazing Pizza Machine?"  (We went there about a month ago for a birthday party and he wants to go back.)

6.  Christian: I found my headlamp, will that save us??

7.  Christian: What about my bed? What will happen to it?

8. Courtney: I have my penguin flashlight and my blanket, that is all I need!

9.  Christian: Will I get to play with my toys again? What will happen to my trains? I reassured him that if they got destroyed, I will buy him new toys.

By the time we needed to go downstairs, all three children were in tears! They had watched the TV and heard Matt and I talk about how we needed to get downstairs.  Megan didn't say much, but I know she was worried. She hid out in her room writing in her journal until we told her we had to get down there.  Courtney kept talking about it with Christian and I honestly think she was scaring him.  They were all crying when we headed downstairs!

Once we got downstairs with our shoes on, blankets, weather radio, and our cell phones and other electronic devices, we settled into the kitchen area for awhile.  Matt had turned all the computers off and also the air conditioner off, so it was sooo quiet.  The kids continued to ask questions until we handed them the electronic to play until the storm passed.  I kept telling them that anything they have upstairs can be replaced if we have a tornado, I reassured them that I wanted them to be safe most of all. :) 

Once it did pass, they didn't want to come upstairs! They were enjoying their time on the electronics! They eventually left the basement and we continued to watch the TV and see where the storms were headed. Once we got upstairs, Christian was thrilled that his toys didn't get destroyed and that he could still play with them!

He also seemed a little concerned yet about the storm and started to get scared every time there was lightning outside; I had to tell him that storms are not a big deal.  He thought we had to head back to the basement every time it flashed outside! I really hope this doesn't bother him, he did go to bed without a problem, so that is good!

 

Are you bored?

I love this!!  Matt tells our kids that if they are bored, then they are not being creative enough!!

"Real" food!

I thought this was appropriate for my life right now!!

Oh how our eating habits have changed at this house over the last couple of years! (And even more so the last two weeks!)

Library Lesson

I swear, I could come up with a lesson for about anything. :)

Tomorrow, we are having a lesson on the library.  We are at the library EVERY SINGLE week and my kids know where everything they need is located, but do they really know how a library is set up?? I'm speaking of the Dewey Decimal System.  Now if my kids were in public school, they would probably have gotten this lesson by now, but they're not, so it's up to me to teach them. :)

 

Until now, I probably would not have thought about teaching them this. They know how to get on the library website and look up books, but what if they need to write a research report on something and they do not know where the book is located in the library??  They know where the nonfiction section is and they could find a book according to the call number, but I don't think they know that they are actually classified in a certain way.

For the next four weeks, Megan has to write a research paper on her state.  I'm going to count this as Nebraska history. :)  And because I don't want her getting all her research off the Internet, I am going to make her check books out from the library. I also don't want to just show her where the Nebraska history books are located and pick them out for her. I want her to learn how to find them on the computer and how the nonfiction books are categorized on the shelves. 

I have a couple worksheets we are going to work through tomorrow and then I copied off some charts of how the Dewey Decimal system is arranged. I think we just talk about it a little bit and then head to the library and really see it and look at the shelves more closely.

By the way, do you think it is important that I teach my kids about card catalogues?? We will probably never go back to them as a society, so is there a need to discuss them?? Do they just need to be aware of them??

Something new for breakfast!

I tried this recipe this morning for breakfast. I am determined to get everybody off of cereal...everyone except Matt, he can eat what he wants. :)

http://www.satisfyingeats.com/uncategorized/frosted-corn-flakes-cereal/

I got up early, put it together, and put it in the oven while the kids sat in front of the TV. It smelled wonderful, but when the kids tasted it, I got, "Yuk! This is gross." I liked it though! I think I am kind of losing my sweet tooth...

Unfortunately, they ended up with a bowl of cereal because I didn't have another option. I think I am going to try again tomorrow to see if they like it again.

Breakfast is the hardest meal to find something without grains or sugar and I don't want to eat eggs everyday (remember, just got back from being off eggs for two years!). If you have any good options, let me know!!

Nutrition Lesson!

Since I have been trying to cut out sugar and eat not as many carbs these last couple of weeks, I have decided to restrict my kids on some of those foods too.  The problem is that I didn't pay much attention to nutrition before this and I find myself telling my kids that they can't eat as many starches or carbs and they respond with, "What is a starch?? What is a carb??" They do know what sugar is though!!

To counter this, we are going to have a nutrition lesson at our house THIS MORNING!

Our first step is to learn about the different food groups! I am going to take (how many food groups are there exactly??) 11 X 14 sheets of construction paper and label each one with a different food group. Then, as a group, we are going to draw/ write the different foods on them.  I might split up vegetables and fruits though. I also want to know what they get from each of these food groups, so we are going to write down what minerals and vitamins we get too. I thought this website would be helpful for that.

http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetailsKids.aspx?p=335&np=284&id=1443#2

We are also going to use this site if we need to come up with more ideas.

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/

Difference between a vegetable and a fruit:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/difference-between-fruit-and-vegetable.html

I am having trouble in one certain area.  My doctor told me to not eat so many grains, starches, rice, flour, etc, but on everything I see, it is saying to eat equal amount or more of grains to everything else.  She also told me that we need fat (good fat), but that isn't even on any chart!  She told me to buy a certain kind of milk because it had more fat in it!  I was also supposed to up my protein and fiber, and that is again not emphasized. I may need to call her or make a chart of my own!

Honestly, we are probably only going to get one or two food groups done today, so this will be an on-going lesson.

I have also decided that this will take place of our Bible lesson time for the week, I am going to name it "Food that God Provides For Us!" We are at a good stopping point in our Bible curriculum and we won't get through the next unit within the next month, so I was looking for something anyway to fill in the gap until the end of the school year. :)  We will only spend about a week on this and then I will have to find something else to finish the next couple of weeks!

Winner, winner!!

When I was at the store last Thursday, I took some of the new food suggestions my doctor gave me and purchased a few new items.  These included a zucchini and a cucumber.  I have never bought these and honestly, the last time I tried a cucumber, I didn't really like it and I don't think I have ever had a zucchini!

Last night, I cut both of them up and offered them to the family. Guess what? They were both gone by the end of our meal!! They all loved them! I did too! Winner!!

This morning I told myself that my children were not going to eat cereal breakfast and I knew that I had to beat them to the kitchen before they hit the cereal so I could stop them. :)  I got downstairs first and pulled out a gluten free cookbook and started looking for something to make. I found a recipe for waffles and it called for eggs, milk, yogurt, and gluten free flour. I can have all of these now!! I made them and they were gone instantly! I made a gluten-free four batch and a gluten-filled batch (I used wheat flour). These are definitely a keeper!

Another food item we had for the first time this week was pistachios.  I had bought these awhile ago, but didn't what they tasted like or how you were supposed to eat them, so they just sat in the cupboard.  I pulled them out the other day and asked Matt if he knew how to eat them or what they tasted like. He said, "You have pistachios? Those are soooo good. All you do is take off the shell and eat the inside." Needless to say, that bag is almost gone too!

Did I ever mention that I made pizza for the first time last Monday night? It had a crust made out of rice flour and tapioca starch and it had eggs and rice in it. The kids also loved it, except for Courtney.  Unfortunately, I could not put cheese on mine, but it was still good! I bought some feta cheese at the store Thursday, so we will try that here shortly and see how that goes.

I wonder what I can come up with for lunch!

Fix the doorbell!!

Our doorbell has been broken for awhile. Well, broken on purpose. We were having trouble with "somebody" ringing our doorbell at 1-2 am, so Matt rigged it into his computer and he made it so the doorbell would only ring between 8 am and 10 pm.  This worked for awhile until he got a new computer or a new server, or something! Since then, our doorbell is no longer hooked up through the computer and it does not work at all!

Oftentimes, we don't know there is anybody at our door. This has been great at times (solicitors), but not so great at others.  Usually when we know somebody is coming, we open the door and watch for them!

Yesterday was a day when it would've been nice to have the doorbell working! In the past, we have received May Day  baskets, but we hadn't in a couple of years, so I didn't even think about it. One person delivered them in person and we knew they were coming (Thanks Holly!! Super cute!), but last night, Matt stepped out the front door and stepped right into a cup of popcorn! He said he spilled it all over! Along with the cup of popcorn, there was a different cup filled with more popcorn and candy PLUS three more paper baskets with chocolate chip cookies!! And he didn't go outside until 8 pm!

We had three different people deliver us May Day baskets and we didn't know about any of them because our doorbell doesn't work!!! How long would it had taken us to discover them if Matt hadn't went out the front door last night??

And of course, Matt said last night after this happened, "I should really fix the doorbell!" I can't tell you how many times I have heard this!

Today he was talking about it again and Christian said, "Does the doorbell need new batteries?? That will fix it!"

Grocery Shopping

Today I went and got groceries for the first time since I had to change what I eat! It is frustrating because I had everything figured out already;I knew exactly what I could buy and I didn't have to read labels anymore.  Until today!!! I felt like I had to start completely over!!!

We were in the store for about an hour and Megan looked at the few items in my cart and said, "We have been here almost an hour and we only have these groceries!" I think she was getting frustrated at me, I got the last few items on my list and we left. Poor thing!

I was told yesterday that I still eat too many starches and I need to incorporate more good fats and protein into my diet! I have got the sugar completely out and even everything made with vinegar.  I think that is a good start! My doctor gave me quite a few ideas about what to eat for "good" fats and proteins and gave me a limit of only eating one starch food item a day. I think that is a great goal!

I also mentioned that I would like to get the kids tested and put them all on sugar restriction too! I was telling her about Courtney and how she loves her sugar and block cheese.  My doctor replied, "By what you are telling me, I almost guarantee that she has a yeast problem too!"  As I look at what the kids are eating, I tend to agree with her. Yeast came up on both Courtney's and Christian's tests, but like mine, the doctor didn't seem too worried and I just took away yeast from bread baked items. I had NO IDEA that there was so much more involved, like all the sugar and starches! I think I am going to work gradually to get them to eat what I do, it would sure make life easier (or harder!)

I told them the other day that as soon as our cereal is gone, I wasn't going to buy anymore and their jaws dropped. "You can't do that!" I responded with, "Yes, I can. You guys need to eat something besides sugar for breakfast." But that's the problem, what else can we eat quickly in the morning?? I am constantly looking for something for breakfast that does not include sugar and starches.  I need to keep going through cookbooks!

I was also told I need to rotate my food more. I try, but it doesn't always work out so well. I just need to get enough food options that I can rotate every four days.  This is such a lot of work, but I know it will work in the end!!

What IS your name??

Tonight at supper we were talking about names and Megan said, "Christian, what is daddy's name?"

He replied, "Matt!"

Matt said, "What is mommy's name?"

Christian looked at me with this questionable look and said, "What IS your name??"

Apparently we never use my first name around the house because he had NO clue what my name was!! I can't decide if that's kind of sad or if that makes me happy!

(As I was writing this, I asked him again what my name was and he responded, "MOMMY!")