Friday, March 10, 2006

The Lake

FRIDAY – PART TWO 

Mike got two more estimates – the lowest being $375. He’s going to call the man in Midland about the van again. We’ll see. We’ve learned a lot. By NOT filing a report we are probably stuck this time….unless we want to go to small claims court. Live and learn.

When Mike got home we took the speed boat out to the Lake. It was a gorgeous day here. I know it’s snowing in EUGENE and SPOKANE but it was in the 80’s here. We had fun with Josiah’s boat and Nolan’s “stomp” rockets. Josiah had to get to work so we dropped him off at home and then we went on Lake. We fed the ducks, geese and other such birds. We tried to put bread on the boat and feed them…but the boat scared them. {g} We discovered that Stacia will steal the apple right out of your hand….that girl likes her food.

We came home and got a few more jobs done (baking, apple treats in the dryer, Mike checked smoke alarms, we switched out car seats because Stacia doesn’t WANT to recline…) and now we are going to veg out and watch an episode of Hogan’s Heroes.

I’ve begun reading “Dean and Me” and now I want to watch a Martin/Lewis movie.

We made Heather’s Sweet Potato Taco seasoning oven fries…and they were a HIT. That’s about it for today.

FEINGOLD UPDATE


 It’s been three weeks of Feingold for Zander (and all of us). The first two weeks went fairly easily. Last Saturday I decided that I’d treat us all and get a few “off program” add ins for our home made ice cream. Sunday Zander had a cookie or two at Sunday school, ½ a doughnut, ketchup (natural salcylates – not a stage 1 food), soda (full of everything bad I’m sure), and then the splurge Sunday night. All were in moderation. This was great progress. HOWEVER…it’s apparent that moderation isn’t going to work for Zander at this point.

Monday was bad, the first bad day since about day 4 of the program. Tuesday was better. Wednesday at the park I found him with a family who were eating happy meals. The father was feeding him handfuls of goldfish. I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to cry. I have thought it over and if this ever happens again I need to be sure the adult knows that it isn’t good to feed strangers children. Of course Zander was being a pest I’m quite SURE! He loves those…but really we were just recovering from Sunday. It’s obvious that those yellow little fishies are full of artificial color to say the least. Thursday was hard but we survived.

Today – Friday Zander found the countraband Oreos left over from Sunday night. I quickly told him we’d make “real cookies” for him. We discovered we were out of eggs. The older boys were doing school and I told the younger kids to load up and we’d go buy eggs so we could make some healthy cookies. Zander came out to the van with Oreo crumbs around his mouth. {Sigh} I learned from this that I will not be able to keep countraband food in the house….he finds it. {G}

We headed for HEB. I was hoping to find Rapadura. I didn’t. I then headed to a health food store. They had Turbinado. I bought it. The lady said that really Sucant, Turbinado and Rapadura are all the same…who knows…but it had to be better than refined white. I need to research this issue some more. While there I found Newman O’s – Oreo look-a-likes made with NO preservatives, artificial flavors or colors. I bought some. I also bought some licorice (that I loved and the three kids hated). They LIKED the strawberry fruit leather…then I realized that it may be organic but it had “strawberry flavor” added…..so definitely not good.

I finally finished baking the cookies tonight and was excited when Zander said, “Dad – come here – these are GOOD cookies”. I wasn’t sure they’d eat them. They had freshly ground wheat, turbinado, real chocolate (not the cheap stuff with vanillin) and oats in them. Thanks, Becky, from SHS for the recipe.

I also sliced up a bunch of apples, sprinkled them with cinnamon and started them in the dehydrator.

We are noticing that each time Zander goes off the program it takes about 2 – 3 days to regain the ground we’ve lost. It’s amazing to watch. He really, really does much better on the program. He is able to reason. He isn’t running to his room in anger. He’s wearing clothes. He isn’t chewing his clothes. He isn’t totally rebellious. He is self-controlled. He is potty trained (except for the bm part). He isn’t having melt-downs. He’s not even saying any of the mean things he’d begun to say to me. Ok, to be totally honest, it’s been 3 weeks since I’ve heard “I hate you” and I’ve got to tell you that any amount of extra work is worth the change in him.

It was so encouraging to me today to hear Mike and Jamin talking about the change they see in Zander when he is on the program. We are all determined to make this work for him. Mike even said that he wasn’t so sure about (well the gist I got was ) “my organic kick” but he had to admit it made a world of difference for Zander.

I'm training Zander and the other kids not to say "the food makes him bad" but the fake food makes it "hard for him to be good". He's still responsible but we are doing all we can to make it easy for him to respond.

We’re sold. We’re committed. I’m now trying to figure out what to order for the next co-op day. We order from Shop Natural. What makes it tough is that looking for “organic” isn’t enough…it has to be preservative free, artificial color and flavor free….and BHT and MSG free…..but things are much, much better. I’m wondering if it would be worth my effort to order direct from Shop Natural so that I don’t have to mess with driving to another town to pick up….but it is nice to be able to split big things with someone else….

Zander just came and found me and said, “Alright Mom, there’s something I have to tell you! I like your cookies.” Ah. A mommy moment.

Bird Watching at our House



Friday’s are Mike’s day off. He’s not usually home on Fridays but he is today. We try to arrange our school schedule so that we have flexibility on Fridays. The older three boys are all busily working with the goal of being done by lunch. The younger ones got a bit done.
We noticed this “bird” at our feeder during breakfast. He’s the funkiest looking bird in West TX. The boys have long since referred to this little guy as the “possessed squirrel”. He does act a bit “different”.

Zander had been promoting a game of Mouse Hunt all morning. His day was MADE when Mike suggested they play a game.

Not sure what else we’ll do today...probably get another estimate to get the van repaired. I’ll update later.