Carbonation?

Earlier today, Baby E finished nursing and smiled up at me, saying, "All done!"

Then she said excitedly, "Bubbles!" She giggled and pointed at my chest. "Bubbles, Mommy. Bubbles milk."

"There are bubbles in the milk????"

"Yeah! Bubbles ih milk. Bubbles milk!" She smacked her lips.
"Nummy. Bubbles milk, mmmm."

"You like the bubbles in the milk?"

"Yeah!"

If she wasn't old enough to talk, I'd never know. LOL.

End of July

Our county fair starts this weekend, and they're accepting entries over the next few days. AJ and M&M have been working hard drawing pictures to enter in the fair. It will be their first year making entries, and I'm excited for them.

Baby E will be two on Friday. It's hard to believe, isn't it?

Everyone seems to be quite healthy at the moment. And, we have exciting news on the food front!

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Last week we reintroduced the Trader Joe's brand plain yogurt, which is made from grass-fed cow's milk with no additives other than the yogurt cultures. She had seemed to tolerate it before, but after the GI specialist decided she was lactose intolerant, she advised that we not give E dairy products.

Then I started doing some reading on lactose intolerance, and discovered that if E was truly lactose intolerant, she wouldn't be able to tolerate breastmilk. Uh, yeah. Not only can she tolerate it, but the tests showed that breastmilk was not causing her to have sugars in her stools. So I decided there was no reason to withold the yogurt she loves so much if she can tolerate it fine.

E has been eating increasing quantities of yogurt for the past week with no issues whatsoever.

Yesterday, we trialed her on oats. I came up with a recipe using soaked oats and sourdough starter, which the kids loved. Baby E ate several pancakes and had no reaction whatsoever. Eating a muffin made from the same batter today had no ill effects, either.

For lunch today, she had half a banana. She was so excited and wanted more, We're wanting to trial her on as many things as possible before her allergist appointment later this week, so we're moving more quickly than usual with adding things. I'm going to retry the yogurt made with milk from corn-fed goats in a couple of days if all goes well.

I'm so thrilled that all of this is going so well. I suspect that the bananas may give her issues (even if not an allergic-type reaction) just because she tends to have issues with most fruits.

****Update: she had diarrhea within 20 minutes of eating half a banana, after having beautifully normal BMs yesterday and this morning. It's a more severe and immediate reaction than she normally gets from similar quantities of other fruits, but no rash or anything so far, so who knows? We'll see what the allergist says.****

A doctor friend told me that, despite the GI specialist's assertions, the reducing substances test is not specific for lactose--it could also be positive because of fructose or some other sugars.

Since the test was positive when Baby E was eating fruit and negative when she was completely off all sugars, then positive again when we started giving her fruit and unrefined sugars again, it could certainly be a sugar in fruits that is causing her issues. I really doubt that the few spoonfuls of yogurt she had a day or three before the third test would be enough to create a positive result when large quantities of breastmilk didn't.

Most fruits do seem to go right through her and give her abnormal, sweet-smelling stools. That, of course, would be an intolerance rather than an allergy--probably her body just doesn't produce enough of the enzyme that breaks down fructose.

I've been doing quite a bit of reading about lactose intolerance vs. milk allergy.

I'm thinking that what I have is lactose intolerance rather than a milk protein allergy, because of the symptoms and patterns of my symptoms. I'm guessing that because I went completely off dairy products for so long, my body stopped producing what little lactase enzyme it was making. It was to the point where even one tablespoon of kefir gave me uncomfortable intestinal symtpoms.

I recently read a study that found that people with lactose intolerance could gradually increase their lactase production (and tolerance of dairy products) by starting with very small amounts of dairy and eating it regularly, gradually increasing the amount. I've been trying that approach for about a week now. I started with just a very tiny amount of Baby E's yogurt and worked my way up to a teaspoon a day. Yogurt is very low in lactose, but even that small amount was enough to give me mild to moderate discomfort. I kept doing that until I stopped getting intestinal discomfort from a teaspoon of yogurt, then gradually increased the amount. I'm up to a tablespoon or two of yogurt per day without significant discomfort now. That's encouraging.

We're still making progress on the house, and on decisions regarding curriculum and meat purchases. The garden is producing enough now that we need only buy a few things here and there at the store (potatoes, onions, etc.) and are getting most of our veggies from our own back yard.

Overall, life is pretty good.

Family

This is Baby E next to the blanket I'm making for Annika. I'm finally almost done with it--just working on the border now!



The kids are feeling much better . . . their illness was quite mild and short-lived. Baby E is feeling better, too, although she's still waking up at least once in the night most nights. I'll be glad when she starts sleeping through the night again.

DH and I have been putting in a lot of time working on the house--cleaning, decluttering and organizing. I'm encouraged to see the progress we're making, and I so appreciate his help. We've been staying up far too late working on it, though . . . especially considering that E is getting us up during the night. :)

We've (well, mostly I've) also been spending quite a bit of time reading about and discussing parenting methods, vaccinations, healthy living, and next year's school curriculum. I've also learned how to make yogurt and started a new sourdough culture this week.

The next several days I'm going to be spending most of my spare time trying to get some information compiled to take to the allergist appointment. I want to have documentation of as many of Baby E's adverse reactions and symptoms as possible, and information about what has happened each time a particular food was consumed. We'll be doing another round of allergy testing. If it seems indicated, I plan to ask about an in-office food challenge as well.

DH's father is still very weak and tired. Just saying a few words seems to be an effort that exhausts him, and getting dressed in the morning completely drains him. Hopefully things will improve when he gets over the pneumonia.

We had a family gathering at their house on Thursday evening, which is when the above photo was taken. Tonight DH went over to his parents' house to fix their toilet.

More photos below the fold . . .

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DH talking with a couple of his nephews and his mom.


DH's nephew's son, who is about 6 months younger than Baby E. (What relation would that make him to Baby E, anyway?)


Baby E with "O-cle Nin" and "Ba-paw"


Two of DH's brothers with their dad.


AJ and M&M on the trampoline.

Tire Swing

Eight Years

Today is our anniversary. I still feel that marrying DH is one of the best things I've ever done. I love being married to him, and can't imagine life without him.

The kids are sick. Baby E is still having GI and sleeping issues (which kept me up until almost 6am last night), though we're not sure if/what she's reacting to. We haven't gotten much sleep since Friday night. AJ was up in the night too last night with a headache and fever. Today the two older girls both have low-grade fevers and are mildly ill with headaches and sore throats.

So, instead of going out to dinner as we had planned, we ate dinner with the kids at home. I gave DH an anniversary card I made for him, which he liked. After the kids were in bed, DH and I spent the evening working on housework together and talking. Honestly, having him spend some time working on the house and talking with me and is one of the best anniversary gifts I can think of.

My mom let us borrow her new floor-cleaning robot, so we used that on the kitchen floor. It was fun to see the little guy work, and it did a great job on most of the floor. There are only a few places I'll have to go over again manually. It takes me a good two hours or so to scrub that floor by hand, so having the robot to do most of the work was another great gift of the day.

But the best gift is just being married to my Beloved--my best friend.

We're Home

Tonight's dinner was a mild masoor dal that turned out very tasty. Baby E seems to be doing all right with lentils, which is encouraging.

The lettuce and green onions in the meal came from my garden. I'm really enjoying being able to just go out and pick fresh delicious food in the back yard. The two older girls especially like the sweet peas. Now if I can just figure out what to do with all those yellow zucchini that are ready to pick . . .

We got back last night from our family reunions. It was a very full week, with a family reunion for my dad's family (that I was sort of in charge of) here in town on Monday, then leaving for DH's family reunion a few hours South on Thursday, then leaving THAT reunion early to travel to my mom's family's reunion about an hour North of us on Saturday. I'm glad we got to attend them all, even though it was tiring.

Baby E has been having mild reactions to something (probably just ambient food from all the communal meals, even though we brought our own food along). As a result we haven't been getting much sleep for the last several nights, so DH, Baby E and I are tired. She went to sleep much more easily tonight, so that's a good sign.

Right now I'm trying to catch up on basic houshold chores, but will try to catch up on responding to e-mails and blog comments soon.

DH's dad is out of the hospital, but still weak and tired. He turned out to have both pneumonia and heart issues going on. It was touch and go that night, but the medicine they gave him shocked his heart back into a more regular heartbeat.

We've been calling to check in on him. Today DH's mom said he got up and got ready to go to church (he is the pastor), but then was so pale and weak that he ended up needing to stay home and rest instead. Someone else has been able to fill in for his pastoral duties, so he's been able to concentrate on resting and conserving his strength for the last few months.

Prayers Needed

DH's dad is in the hospital again.

They thought he was having a heart attack when he was rushed to the hospital this morning. Then the doctors were saying pneumonia, but now it appears to be something with his heart. Apparently he's having fibrilliations or tachychardia. I don't know if this is related to the problem with his heart valve not opening enough or not.

His last round of chemotherapy for the multiple myeloma seemed to go well, but now this. I'm not sure exactly what's going on, actually, or how serious it is. I'm hoping we'll get more information tomorrow when we go by to see him.

FIL and MIL will have to miss the big family reunion this week, which is quite a disappointment.

Obviously we're all quite concerned about FIL. Please keep him, MIL and the rest of the family in your thoughts and prayers.

Gardening Questions

Okay, so I planted my first garden this year. I bought compost to mix in, and some organic fertilizer, and followed the directions on the packages about how much to add. I'm wondering if I should have tested the soil PH or added something else like dolomite, lime, rock dust or epsom salts. But I really don't know what I'm doing.

Some things seem to be doing really well, others aren't, and others I just don't know what to do with.

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My cauliflower and swiss chard took off and were doing really well at first, but now the edges of the leaves are curling up and the chard has quite a few brown spots and some of the leaves are dying.

I planted quite a few root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, radishes), and they all seem to have huge tops but not much going on in the root department. Some of them are bolting, but still have teeny tiny, thin roots--we're talking inches of roots and feet of tops. Does that mean there's too much nitrogen in the soil? Is the temperature wrong? Or do I just need to wait for them to grow more?

My daikon radishes all bolted, and the itty bitty roots were completely infested with little white worms that look a lot like maggots. Even if they had been big enough to eat, they wouldn't have been edible--they were all tunneled through and crawling with grubs. The red radishes a few feet away are much less affected by the worms, and the carrots and parsnips inches away seem to be untouched. The spinach and bok choy are thickly coated with aphids in spots.

I planted several different varieties of cauliflower and broccoli. One kind came up much more profusely than the rest, and the leaves look very different--more similar to my oriental greens or to some of my weeds (lol) than to the rest of the cruciferous vegetables. They never got a head that looked at all like broccoli, and before I knew it they were all rocketing up into stalks of yellow flowers. Now I'm wondering if I labeled it wrong on my chart, and maybe that plot isn't actually broccoli at all? The rest of the broccoli aren't even close to blooming yet.

I have a lot of dumb questions. For instance:

Which plants do you eat what part of, and how do you know when they're ready? For example, can I eat the leaves of the broccoli and cauliflower plants? How about parsnips, radishes, and rutabaga? I know turnip, kohlrabi and beet greens can be eaten. What about the outer leaves on the cabbage plants? And how do I know when to harvest the heads?

I planted Brussels sprouts, six starts I bought. Will I get more than one sprout off each plant, or just one per plant? How do I know when to harvest them?

What about when things bolt? My bok choy and spinach are bolting, and so is the Swiss Chard, but the lettuce hasn't started bolting yet. What exactly does bolting do to the plant. It doesn't make it so it's bad to eat, does it? Is it okay to eat the blossoms?

Since some of the things I planted didn't come up, and I pulled up all the daikon radishes, I have some empty space. Is there something that's good to plant in July and August (I'm in the Pacific NW)?

My zucchini are doing fabulously. I picked 3 good-sized green zucchini and 2 small yellow ones today, and have at least a dozen more of each color coming on. The cucumbers aren't blooming yet, but the pumpkins and watermelon are.

The tomatoes and peppers seem to be quite prolific--none are ripe yet, but there are lots of little green fruits growing. The kohlrabi are doing well (wow, are they good cooked fresh from the garden!). The potatoes seem to be going to town with lots of foliage, and they're blooming, but I can't tell whether they're actually growing potatoes. I haven't added more soil on top--is it too late to do that since they're already blooming now?

My bunching onions are doing okay, but the rest of them only a very few came up and they're looking really piddly.

At this point, mainly I'm just watering and trying to catch up on weeding, pinching off the heads of things to try to keep them from bolting (not keeping up on that very well) and trying to figure out how to use up this stuff.

What else should I be doing?

Fine

Baby E's virus or whatever it was turned out to be no big deal. She had frequent, severe watery diarrhea for just over 24 hours and then she was fine.

I'm still having to limit the amount of fiber, fruit, etc. she's getting, and make sure she's getting a little extra salt, but other than things being a little soft she's pretty much back to normal.

It makes me feel really good that her immune system is strong enough to take a bug that was lasting a week or two for other kids and make it a non-issue within a day, as long as we fed her sensibly.

She has had a few reactions from accidental exposure to citric acid the last week or two, but they were limited to GI discomfort, behavioral and sleep issues--no rashes or potentially dangerous symptoms. We are using renewed caution about exposure.

Baby E has an appointment with the allergist in a couple of weeks. I asked about using the actual foods to do a prick-to-prick tesst instead of using commercial extracts, and was told that was fine--just to bring the foods along to the test. I also found out that an in-office challenge is definitely a possibility with this allergist, so I feel good about that.

She has to be off the reflux medicine (ranitidine--generic compounded version of Zant@c) for at least 5 days before the appointment, so it will be interesting to see how she does with that.

Virus?

Baby E apparently has a virus. Her symptoms are mostly severe watery diarrhea and general miserableness; no fever, rash or vomiting. She was up most of the night, being really uncomfortable.

At first I thought it was just a reaction to something she or I ate. It's really hard to tell the difference between an illness and an adverse food reaction. But this is too severe and lasting too long to be a reaction to something consumed one time, so unless she's suddenly developed an allergy to something like chicken or rice, I think it's a virus.

Especially considering that another child she's been in close contact with has had exactly the same symptoms for a week or more. Her doctor told her mother that the severe diarrhea from this particular bug is lasting up to 2 weeks.

So, no biggie. Just a virus. Keep her hydrated and feed her the BRAT diet, and she'll be fine. Right?

Except that she can't have any of the things that are normally recommended for toddlers with diarrhea.

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I called the pediatrician's nurse, who went through the list of things they usually recommend. There were two things on the list she could have. Two. Potatoes, which she won't eat, and rice, which we only have in the whole-grain version (not recommended).

We can't give her Pedialyte or anything like that, of course, because they're all corn-based. Can't even do plain water, because of the aspiration issue. It's a real challenge trying to get her to drink thickened water with no flavoring even when she's feeling well, and the juice we usually add in small amounts will, the Dr. said, make the diarrhea worse.

Finally, the ped's nurse said she didn't know what to recommend. She suggested we call the GI specialist or the dietician.

I left messages for both.

A few minutes ago the GI specialist on-call phoned us. He said to continue giving her small amounts of whatever is the most bland and low in sugar/fat that she normally eats, and as much breastmilk as she wants (although he said breastmilk wouldn't be enough to keep her from getting dehydrated). He said not to give her plain water or any juice at all, since that can worsen the situation.

He said, "Since she can't have Pedialyte, you'll almost certainly have to take her in to the ER for IV fluids."

At first he was leaning toward having me take her in right now, as a preventative measure. But since she's not presently showing signs of dehydration he asked several questions about how quickly we could get to an ER if we needed to, and what the care is like at our nearest hospital. The fact that we live near the newest hospital in the area with an excellent dedicated pediatrics ER helps.

So he said to keep a very close eye on her for signs of dehydration, and not to hesitate at all if we saw any, even if it didn't seem bad. He seemed to think she was likely to go downhill very fast if she started getting dehydrated at all, given her symptoms and situation.

I really hope that won't happen. If it does, we may be in for a challenge just trying to get corn-free IV fluids for her. I do have some recipes for homemade electrolyte replacement drinks that I could try (made of things like sugar, molasses, or orange juice combined with salt and/or baking soda). But since E doesn't tolerate sugars particularly well even when she doesn't have a virus, I don't know how that will go.

Meanwhile, AJ and M&M have their concert for the end of VBS (Vacation Bible School) this evening, and I really don't want to miss it. Also, our friend Dr. A was supposed to come over for dinner and then join us for the kids' performance. We have three different events we're supposed to attend tomorrow, church on Sunday, and another big family gathering on Monday.

Baby E is napping now. I'm still hoping it will turn out to be an allergic reaction and she'll wake up feeling fine, but I think the chances are pretty slim at this point.

Mainly, I'm just praying she won't get dehydrated. We've never had to deal with this particular issue before, so it's a new situation for us to learn how to manage.

Oh, just as I was about to hit post the nutritionist called. She was much more enouraging than the GI specialist was, and didn't seem nearly as worried. She said we may not even need to use a Pedialyte substitute, but gave me the electrolyte replacement drink recipe she recommends, and said we could even mix that in with Baby E's normal juice.

Otherwise, she said to pretty much give her whatever we can get her to eat and drink (within reason, of course), and try to get something with some sodium content into her along with the breastmilk and (watered-down thickened) juice she normally drinks to balance out the electrolytes. E has been asking for potato chips, so that shouldn't be too difficult. :)

Shampooless

I've always had thick, curly, hair with a tendency to get frizzy, and a scalp prone to flaking and itching. After I had kids, my hair got thinner and flatter, but it was still frizzy a lot.

I've tried tons of different shampoos and conditioners over the years, and even expensive special frizz-control treatments. Some hair products and dyes caused hives on my scalp. Others just irritated my skin or didn't do a good job balancing the moisture and control in my hair.

Even when I found a product that worked, it would only work well for a while. I eventually ended up keeping at least 2 or 3 brands of shampoo and conditioner in the shower. I'd have to rotate them to keep my hair looking relatively decent and keep my head from itching so much.

When we discovered the severity of Baby E's corn and soy intolerances, I decided to try finding a shampoo with no corn or soy in it. I had trouble finding one, so I started out trying a baking soda and vinegar treatment, then switched to just using our corn-free bar soap on my hair.

My hair was awful for the first week or so of using bar soap to wash it. After that, my hair seemed to adjust and now it looks and feels better than it ever did when using shampoo. Adding a few drops of essential oils to my vinegar rinse makes a huge difference for me.

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I wet my hair and shampoo with Kiss my Face Olive Oil bar soap. I just rub the bar on my head or rub it on my hands to get a lather and then work that into my hair.

Then I rinse with water.

Then I put about a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar in the bottom of a drinking glass. I add several drops of essential oils (maybe 5 drops lavendar and 3 drops sweet orange) and fill up the glass with about 6 oz. water. I rinse this lightly with water.

For some reason, the essential oils make a big difference. My hair not only smells good (not like vinegar!) but the texture is much better. It doesn't feel dry, soap-scummy or greasy.

I had to experiment with the correct amounts of essential oils for my head, and I'm still playing around with the proportions, but so far I'm very happy with the results. My hair is looking thicker, silkier and less frizzy than ever. My scalp isn't itchy or flaky (unless I eat foods that cause these symptoms for me). There are no split ends (a first for me, with hair this length). It starts out smooth and then curls into these amazing waves and little riglets at the ends, and sweeps when I move my head. I love it. (So does DH.)

All without shampoo.

It makes me wonder how all these shampoo and conditioner manufacturers convinced us that we really needed those expensive products with a gazillion unpronounceable ingredients.

(BTW, I have noticed that adding a few drops of the same essential oils makes a big difference in my homemade laundry soap, too--it's almost like it homogenizes it and keeps it from separating. I hear EOs can eat away at plastic, though, so I'm wondering if I should store the soap in a glass container when I add the oils.)

Wordless Wednesday: In the Field

(These photos were taken today.)

Another Random Thing

The day after I did the 7 Random Things About Me meme, Laura at OpinionMom tagged me for 8 Random Things About Me. Since I think they're probably both versions of the same meme, I'm just going to add one more fact and tag one more person in this post.

Rules and Stuff (stolen from Laura's blog:

The object of the game is to blog “8 Random Facts About Myself.” Here are the rules:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.

2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.

4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

The Facts

See here for 1-7.

Fact #8 (this is also Eleventy-One Things #48).

I really like making things. Cooking, sewing, crafts, etc. are all fun. But there's something special about wood. Maybe it's because I'm the daughter of a woodworker/carpenter/contractor, but I love wood. I love the feel, the smell, the look of wood.




I'd like to learn more about woodworking, and learn how to do more complicated things like making dovetail joinings and turning spindles. But I enjoy even simple little things like building raised flowerbeds and making shelves.

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Yesterday SIL The Mentor came over and installed supports for built-in shelves in the cubby in our office. Basically, it's an indentation 2 feet deep and 3 feet wide from when the house was built. The wall had to be indented on this side to make the shower fit correctly in the bathroom on the other side.

We'd had a big ugly old bookcase stuck into the cubby sideways, so there was a lot of wasted space. These built-in bookshelves are much nicer. I'm so glad SIL helped me get them up. I haven't decided yet whether I'll cover them with a curtain or just leave them open.

SIL made the shelves big enough to accommodate large plastic storage bins. I'll be able to store at least 12 of them on the shelves, filled with things like fabric and craft supplies.

We also moved a couple of bookcases upstairs from the dining room and filled them with books. All the books that had been on the ugly bookshelf, plus many of the books from downstairs, fit on them. (No, this isn't all our books--we are definitely a book-loving family.)

Tonight I went to Big Home Improvement Store and bought shelves to install. I needed 5 shelves 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep. The store carried 2' shelving, but only in 4' lengths. So I bought a 4'X8' piece of 18mm agathis and had a store employee cut it for me.

I told him that he would need to cut 4 pieces the long way and one the wide way to get 5 shelves with 2'x3' dimensions out of the board. But he didn't listen to me. He cut the board all the way down the middle along the length of the board first. Then he tried to tell me I could use the two 2' by 2' pieces left over to make the third shelf, before he realized that what he was saying didn't make sense. At all.

So he cut off the end of another board to make the 5th shelf, without charging me extra. Finally I had my 5 2'x3' shelves with a 1'x2' piece left over.

I bought some oak-look edging for the exposed edges of the shelves. It was actually iron-on laminate edging--gotta love that. When I got home I ironed it on to the exposed edge of each board, then trimmed it. I don't seem to have any sandpaper in the house right now, so I'll have to smooth it out more later. It looks pretty good, anyway.



DH helped me set the shelves onto the braces. They were a snug fit, but they worked.

SIL did most of the work building the set of shelves, of course, but my little bitty part was fun too. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to put on them, and how to arrange it. I can hardly wait to get started. ############
Tags:

I was going to tag Rain Garden, but she just moved and doesn't have internet access at home yet, so I'll tag Waldorf Our Way also. Both blogs are worth pointing out as enjoyable reads.

On Fireworks

AJ: My favorite ones say, "Rrrrr-boom! Rrrr-boom!" Like exploding kittens.

M&M: Kittens don't explode.

AJ: But my favorite firework says, "Mmmmm-puh. Mmmmmm-puh." It sounds like a kitten. Exploding.



Uh, yeah. I have to admit, that high-pitched sound just before the bang does sound a bit like a kitten mewing.

I may never be able to view fireworks in quite the same way again. Not with that image in my head.

Wordless Wednesday: Independence Day 2007

I just realized

Baby E will be two years old in exactly one month. Today is her 23-month birthday. Whew. It's flying by now. In another month, she'll have reached the age where people stop counting in months and talk only in terms of years and half-years.

Wow.

Where did my baby go?

Delivering Chocolate

Me: "Here, M&M . . . " I hand her two small pieces of chocolate-covered matzo.

M&M: Oh, TWO pieces! Are they both for me?

Me: No, one is for AJ. Could you give it to her, please?

M&M: Oh. [pause] I don't think AJ wants it.

Me: Why? Didn't she like the piece I gave her earlier?

M&M: Yeah, she did, but I just don't think she wants another one. Can I eat it?

Me: No, silly girl. You need to give AJ her piece. I think she really does want it, and you're just saying that because you want to eat it yourself. :) You can both have another piece later.

A few minutes later I notice that M&M is standing beside AJ, savoring the last of her own piece. She is cradling the second piece in her hand, hesitating.

Me: AJ, look! M&M has a surprise for you.

M&M hands AJ the chocolate-covered cracker.

AJ: Wow, thanks, M&M! Yummy.

Me to M&M: So she did want it, huh?

M&M: [sigh] Yeah.

I sympathize, I do. It's hard to let go of chocolate.

Quick Notes

• My friend from college, Dr. A the pediatric endocrinologist, is here! She and her dad drove halfway across the USA and got here Friday night with the moving van. They stayed with us that night, and we moved them in on Saturday with help from some friends. It's so great to have her here. I've been having fun helping her unpack.



• We let the frog go this morning. Between the expense of buying crickets and the fact that it was obvious the frog missed her freedom, it seemed the best thing to do. I caught her in the front yard originally, but we released her in the garden. She hopped onto a big cauliflower leaf and seemed happy to be free.



• Still looking for a home for the hamster. Her corn-containing food spilled in the pantry and got all in the plastic food storage containers. That's exactly why I'd prefer not to have it in the house.



• The girls are playing with dolls right now, dressing them in various outfits. Baby E just came in wanting me to help, and said "Baby hat on, pease?"



• Today is going to be a crazy day. I'm trying to get a few specific tasks done before SIL comes to help with decluttering tomorrow. I'm supposed to get the bookcases and the desk area done so we can move furniture. In a few minutes I have a chiropractor appointment, then I have to run another errand, and then a friend I haven't seen for a year or more is coming to visit. Then I'm watching another friend's two kids and possibly a neighbor's child also in the afternoon, and tonight we have a church meeting. I have a feeling I'll be glad when bedtime comes! My days aren't usually this hectic, I promise. :)



• I have been getting together with friends more, though . . . usually at least twice a week the last few weeks. It's so much easier to have people over now that my house is starting to look better again.



• Decluttering and organizing with SIL went much better last week. I opened windows in the rooms we were working on, which seemed to help a lot with the allergies. Also, we weren't sorting through a lot of old clothes this time. The old clothing and fabric somehow seems to get to me the worst.