Two, and three.

The Orclette has a voracious thirst for learning. Yes she is wearing makeup. We had a special event to go to. Doesn't she look darling? "Can we do school momma?" "When are we going to do school?" "Momma I haven't done school today!" are heard frequently in our household. Do I love this attitude? Yes I do. I love  learning; I love buying shiny new notebooks and writing notes in them. I love connecting data and coming to conclusions. I love delving deeper into subjects and finding out if the teacher knows what he's (or she, that was a random choice) talking about. Now my daughter is following in my footsteps; she loves notebooks and pencils, she likes doing workbooks and projects equally and she has frequently asked me "Why don't you know that momma?" When I informed her that my area was history, she asked "Can you tell me about history?" Hehe. Where to start. A couple mornings ago she found a book about bug...

I suspect, although I don't know for certain, that I'm currently gluten-sensitive. Not intolerant, because I can still eat the stuff, but I definitely notice a difference in how I feel and what my skin looks like when I do indulge in foods with gluten. And that's pretty much as deep as I'm willing to delve into the whole gluten issue; I wore myself out researching the Paleo lifestyle and I don't like the feeling of jumping on and then jumping off a bandwagon. I don't even mention, usually, that I'm eating gluten-free because if I do choose to eat pizza I don't want people thinking that people with Celiac disease or an intolerance to gluten can handle it like I do. I first looked at the whole gluten issue when I had my pizza encounter after one week of eating Paleo (it was interesting to note that Damm had a very similar experience, even though he was eating more carbs and more variety than I was). Apparently the alleviation of symptoms, in some cases,...

What? Who gets to have lazy days of summer? Definitely not us. It's been crazy . Then again, for the past four years it's been crazy. We look back on our Missouri days and marvel that we could have been discontented with the amazing lack of stress or anything to do, and then we remember how bored  we were. Not bored now, I can assure you. Damm and I have been getting up at 5 a.m. every morning, he to work out and me to work out/prepare food for Damm and myself (kiddos don't require extensive prep time at the moment) and get ready for work. I'm gone for eight hours at a very physically taxing job and then I catapult myself back into the current chaos that is our house (we're rearranging, always fun). School will start in a few weeks and Damm is working when I'm not since his job is project-dependent and they don't always have hours but they have plenty right now. The good thing, though? I don't have homework. I'll still have dreams occasionally ...

It is time to reduce my coffee intake. I think I shared a picture of my coffee mug but I'll do it again: The coffee mug is the green one in the middle (blue is for water, red for my protein shakes). 64 ounces of yummy iced coffee. It was actually a decrease  for me, which is a bit scary. It's what I was drinking at the end of the spring semester. Usually my body would tell me, a week or two after finals ended, that it was done with coffee for a while. I would get sick if I tried to drink more than two cups or so. I didn't get that feeling this time around, probably because I started a new job, Damm was called up for National Guard (local, not deployment) and then he went away for LDAC training while my parents moved to the area and began babysitting the kids. Not the worst kind of stress but it was still stressful. Now Damm is back, my parents settled in with the kids wonderfully and the job is going swimmingly. My need for coffee has diminished and my body is ...

I had that epic pizza night . I also had ice cream. It tasted awesome . Funny thing was that I felt like throwing up. I never feel like throwing up unless I'm actually sick (which doesn't happen often). I have, or thought I had, a cast-iron stomach. Turns I out I don't. Without going into too much gross detail, the next day the pizza was gone from my system. Painfully . It freaked me out because, as I said, I have never reacted like that. So I googled my problem to see if it had happened to anyone else who was Paleo and yes, yes it had. I didn't like that. I like pizza, I like going out to eat. More importantly, though, was that the reaction I had cannot happen to Damm. He doesn't always have control over his environment. In fact, right now he's enjoying some tasty MRE's. So-strict Paleo is out. I began to rethink our diet and what it should look like, if we were going to veer away a bit from the Paleo lifestye. I also began to listen to what my body was...

I had previously written about my experience with honey  and what life was like after concluding my honey experiment. I have since switched from Burt's Bees to Dr. Bronner's and I think it's working well. Burt's Bees just wasn't clearing up my face the way I thought it should be and  it was only partly natural. Dr. Bronner's is natural and cheap so it was a logical next step. I also bought a witch hazel toner with lavender. Here's the routine: #1 Wash face with Dr. Bronner's Tea Tree bar soap. #2 Use Lavender Witch Hazel Toner #3 Tea Tree oil on any problem areas. Let dry. #4 Burt's Bees Royal Jelly moisturizer for the day and jojoba oil at night #5 Honey overnight on any problem areas I have omitted the baking soda mask because I felt like it was too harsh for my skin. I still concoct a baking soda scrub once a week and I feel that works much better (1 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. tea tree oil and 1/2 tsp. water) than subjecting my skin to it ...

So I have completed three whole days of eating primally or, as I like to think of it, Noahifically . I wasn't sure I'd have a transition period given that I already was eating low-carb, high-fat and protein, but guess what? I'm in one. Basically I feel icky until 11 a.m. and then BAM I have energy through the roof. And that's it. Other people have headaches, constipation issues etc. but I seem to have avoided that. And now that I've shared the negative let's get on to the positive stuff: #1 My face looks better. Not sure if this has anything to do with cutting out refined sugar but hey, I'll take it. #2 Energy, at least after 11 a.m. I even managed to return our Redbox movie on time (Clash of the Titans; don't rent it, it was worse than I thought it would be) and  try on clothes after a full day of work. Go me. #3 I feel lean. Haven't had many issues with feeling like I'm bloated and, when I have, I haven't actually been bloated. My jea...