Wallowing

This was going to be a letter but is turning into a post...

Things have not been good.  I had been circling the drain a few weeks ago for several reasons.  One, first and foremost, my husband works too much.  People say they understand what it's like to have a husband who is never there, but they don't.  When he leaves before we wake up and misses dinner for five consecutive nights in a row, you really don't get it, do you?  No, you don't.  I am starting to be convinced that wives of chefs are either gluttons for punishment or were raised by single parents, so are assured that they can go it alone.  I think I fall into the latter group.  I had a wonderful role model in my mother so I know for sure I can do this alone, I just don't want to have to.

Autumn

So the last update was May I think?  A lot has happened since then!  Of course, we moved to Orlando.  We miss our Iowa peeps dearly.  I think we had gotten so used to the way life is so different there, that it is hard to get back into a Southern state of mind!  Not that Orlando is slow paced by any means, just the plain talk in Iowa was a breath of fresh air, and now we are back to the niceities of the South.  Blech!

Miles is doing phenomenal, I can't believe how well he is growing up!  Too fast if you ask me.  He'll be 23 months today.  Our eight month battle with yeast finally ended when we moved down here, perhaps because of the humidity, perhaps because our new diet was such a shock to the system, who knows?  We were in the hotel for six weeks, eating out all the time.  Anyway, he is talking in four word sentences and his fine motor skills are unbelievable, he can catch baby lizards!  Just picks them up like it's nothing.

Kicking and Screaming

Well, maybe not that dramatic.  But it felt that way.  Leaving Iowa was one of the hardest things I have ever done, even though it didn't seem real until we did it.  The date was just there, a few months away, then a few weeks, then a week, and all of a sudden we were gone.  That's kind of how my life goes, with three kids I really don't have time to prepare for anything, life just comes at me.

So when we left, we drove down to New Orleans.  Through many, many states, including Illinois this time.  When I think Illinois, I think Chicago.  I didn't know that the majority of it is farmland.  Anyway, by the time we left Iowa I was on a real high, energy kick, and driving down to the South was like being sucked into the Pit of Despair.  That is the only way I can describe it, because there is a negative energy vortex around New Orleans (note I didn't say bad or wrong, it's just negative), which is the complete opposite of places like Iowa or Sedona, Arizona, or Portland, Oregon, or places you have heard of that have very positive energy.

My, how things change

Just in the past year, things have shifted so much.  Today I took my first cold shower of the summer.  I don't remember ever feeling this hot in 89 degree, 64% humidity weather.  I also never lived where it got down to zero degrees, either.  The last truly cold shower I remember taking was at Camp when I was 12.  I guess I got used to the cold, fast.

I make fun of Eric a lot because he basically gets in his car in the garage, drives to work, parks in a garage, and works in 72 degree bliss all day long, gets back in his car in the garage, drives home, and parks in the garage.  Basically he doesn't have to deal with cold unless I haven't finished shoveling the driveway, or I need to come inside and Miles isn't ready to stop playing in the snow.

I, on the other hand, get three kids in the car, drive to school and drop off, and I prefer to walk Elle to the door, but don't always get to, so I usually get out of the car to say goodbye.  Then I drive to preschool, drop Justin off, drive to run errands, and yes grocery loading is a pain in freezing weather and so is pumping gas.  Then I pick Justin up, and so I don't use gas I park and walk to get Elle.  Then we spend time outside in the afternoon either walking in the snow, playing on the ice, or shoveling.

A Louisiana Girl's Iowa Observations

First of all, everyone here is blonde.  Everyone.  It is uncanny how many blonde haired, blue eyed adults and children live here.  Someone said they are of scandinavian descent, but I'm not sure.

Snow does not kill weeds.  I thought for sure it would.  It does not kill grass, either.  It melts and the grass is just as green as it was in Autumn, and the weeds you left in the Fall are still there.

Snow also doesn't melt like I thought it would, into rivers of water.  It melts slowly, from the top of the pile, like your snowball does.  It also retreats from the edge of the curb like the waves at the beach.  Curb to sidewalk.  For some reason I didn't think it would go that way.

Avatar's Pain

I have been thinking about writing this since the Super Bowl, but it wasn't until I saw the movie Avatar that it was clear why.  If you haven't seen it, it is about people who transform themselves into another life form, and live on a distant planet much like Earth, to learn about the native's culture, so that they can excavate their energy source and bring it back to Earth.  The main character goes through a process of becoming more and more like the natives, and eventually decides to stay.

But that is not the pain part I am talking about, the pain of learning a new language, and culture, and way of life.  I'm talking about the pain of seeing your hometown on TV when your reality is something completely different.

May!

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all well, time for an update...

Miles is doing ok, he is talking a lot more now. He says "ready, swing, peek a boo, mommy, daddy, elle belle, apple, nana (banana), monkey, quack (when I sign duck), finished, fish, water, flower, shoe, sock, eat, stop...", and he signs finished, fish, claps for more, doggie,

So his speech is improving, I started using coconut oil for the yeast we still have (no it did not go away), which is antifungal. It seems that the antibiotics just tipped his system in the direction of the yeast over good bacteria in his gut, because he is still only pooping twice a week, and is very uncomfortable when he does, and I'm not sure what else to do. We did 7 weeks of grapefruit seed extract and cranberry juice in our smoothies, oregano oil occasionally (which is fungicidal and bactericidal), I quit eating chocolate, we have cut down on the white rice flour products, and we are on our second round of two weeks of Diflucan (which is about the third line medicine for yeast).

What happens with yeast is that sometimes it gains a foothold in the gut and converts from its spore form to an aggressive hyphal form, which can attach to things, and is the yeast responsible for punching holes in the gut. So to say I'm concerned about his little system is an understatement. I finally found however a very strong probiotic from Klaire labs that I have been giving him and Justin, and it seems to be helping a lot. I didn't realize until my current chiropractor pointed out that the probiotic I have been using for months for Justin only has 1 billion viable cells, which is fine for a kid with a normal gut, but for our family it doesn't even cut it. 5 billion is the minimum for Miles, and 50 is the minimum for Justin. Right now I'm taking 200 billion to try to get my gut in the right direction- away from the yeast.

Spring Updates

Hello everyone!

We are finally thawing out after a record winter with 90 days of more than 5 inches of snow on the ground. It is nice to see the sun again and for the snow to melt, although after it melted we had another storm which dropped about 4 inches in our backyard, and that is almost gone, only one heap of snow left in our front yard. Did you know you can take a paint roller to the snow and make it stick? I had no idea and it is the coolest thing next to snowball fights!

It is cold here. I am kind of tired of being cold, tired of long sleeves, tired of my forearms constantly itching due to the seams on my long shirts. Now I understand how kids with sensory issues feel about tags on the back of their necks! After 34 years of short sleeves I am feeling oppressed by wearing so many clothes for so many months of the year. Not to mention the laundry that five people create when everyone wears at least three layers!! I tell my friends that it is crazy that I moved from a place where we wore winter clothes for three months out of the year, to a place where we wear summer clothes for only three months out of the year!

Elle wants to wear dresses every day and I still haven't figured out how to do that- I know she could wear tights but those drive her up the wall. She is doing very well in school, with her writing. Math not so much, they started a program called Everyday Math which introduces math concepts at a very early age, and we are having trouble finding the time to do the take-home exercises after school. She is so spent after 7 hours at school I would rather that she just play when she gets home. She is 5! I think anything beyond counting to 100 in Kindergarten is a bit ridiculous, but it is the curriculum, so we'll do it somehow.

Ten Years

Hello all!

So I skipped Nov and Dec. It has been busy, to say the least. I'm going to try to get up to speed but I am really not sure what I missed. I realized the other day that I have been writing this log for ten years now, and I think it's time to put it all in one place, I just can't decide how to go about doing that. I thought about separating out Justin's story but I think that would just be more work... I have all of the emails compiled into a binder but now I can't find any of my email files older than my cox.net account (which is like four years worth). So if anyone has by chance saved those old old emails could you send them to me? I don't mind rewriting them, that is just a pain.

I have a few blogs started, but none of which I want to keep doing. I think I am going to go over to WordPress and see if that is any better. Suggestions are welcome. I quit doing my M2M blog when Rob (Susan's husband) offered to set up a website for my business, and we migrated it over to m2mbfs.com. Unfortunately or not I haven't had the time to even fool with it so it is still under construction. I have nothing but time on my hands, though, so I think it's time to get the story out there and give myself an outlet to write- because it is my stress reliever and helps me cope with this crazy life with three kids!

Miles is doing *great*. He is running, and falling down a lot, but doing very well. He is trying to talk, which is so cute. He has said "hi", "yeah", "NO", and "daddy", and "mama" when he is mad. He is a very intense baby who is determined to do what he wants to do, but not very difficult when limits are imposed (unlike his older brother)! He climbs up the stairs and down a few, climbs off the sofa, likes to stand on top of the little desk Elle has, and loves to walk around outside in the snow. Not necessarily walk in deep snow, but along the sidewalk where it has been shoveled, so he can play with the snow on the sides.