Health in the season of flu

I'm not even going to touch the buzz about the swine flu. Or the vaccines. Or why we or you should or shouldn't get them. Do your research. Make your best decision.

We are a healthy bunch. I think we have brought the kids to the doctor for a sick visit maybe 4 times total and that includes two visits for diaper rash (don't laugh - I'd never dealt with rashes until Pumpkin - Peanut never had any!). So when we go down, it is serious. This morning seemed fine enough; I was tired as usual (we've had a run of 2+ hour bedtime routines which is really taking it's toll) but we all got up, ate, got dressed and went to play downstairs for a while before heading out to school at the farm. At some point, I realized that Peanut was really lethargic and I suggested we all lay down. The three of us went up to the big bed and lounged - that's when it hit me how tired I was, and how my head felt kind of funny... when I snuggled up to Peanut, she felt a bit warm and she was still kind of out of it. Well she did have a little fever, so we bagged school and turned on the TV and totally vegged all day. She ate very little, but did take some homeopathics and fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. She went down for a nap and down to bed tonight without so much as a peep. Pumpkin has a little sniffle but has stayed in good spirits all day, so we will keep our fingers crossed. I'm feeling much better already, and if I can get a good sleep I'm sure it will make a world of difference. Peanut seemed a little more lively this afternoon so hopefully we have beat it.

In other health news, our family has embarked on a new eating adventure. We are making a slow transition onto the GAPS diet. Basically, this is a plan designed to kill off candida (yeast) and heal the gut which is where most of one's immune system "lives". The idea is that in some (most, actually) people there is an overabundance of yeast which interferes with the body's ability to digest certain foods, focus attention, and fight disease. So you cut out anything that yeast are likely to feed on - sugar, breads, grains - and be sure to eat meat, eggs and veggies, and lots of broth and probiotics.

Since this is a pretty intense plan, we are starting slowly, incorporating what is already in our pantry into the "approved" foods. Once the offending foods are gone from the house, we will do the real deal and add in the broth and probiotic foods that are recommended. When you read the diet, it seems restrictive but I am looking at it as a healing path with an end point. We won't stay on the full diet forever, we will at some point be able to add in things we miss in moderation. I think we will be able to benefit from doing this for several months, and like others we may determine that overall this is the best way for us to eat. But I do think it will be our choice rather than our need to continue. There are some situations that warrant this eating plan being a forever step. We have decided to do this primarily to see if it helps the boys in the family, but I suspect Peanut and I will have unexpected outcomes as well. Our doctor has taken Honey off grains, corn, sugar, and nightshade veggies (tomato, peppers, eggplant) and I'm off soy, most dairy, artificial colors, and white sugar because of Pumpkin's reflux. Pumpkin has had an ongoing yeast infection that we cannot shake, and the only thing he is eating is breastmilk, so by changing my diet, I can change his.

So we will see how this all works out. It is a lot of cooking, which I am used to, but some of the convenience foods I am accustomed to using need to disappear. So far, I am finding that we are using an awful lot of dishes and need to run the dishwasher almost every day. If that is my biggest complaint, then so be it!

Sunshine!

We had solatubes installed yesterday in our kitchen and bathroom. OMG they are awesome! The guy who is working on our bathroom said "there is no excuse to not be clean!" when he saw how brightly lit our shower stall would be without a single light bulb on. My goal was to make the bathroom less cave-like and boy did it work!



























In the kitchen, we have all these fancy can lights - four sets of lights on dimmers to light different work areas - because we chose not to take on the expense and headache of removing the load bearing wall between the kitchen and living room to get more light in there. The lights are wonderful, but we needed to use them all the time. There was honestly not a time of day that we could just leave them off and still see to make food. We have two tubes now in the kitchen and I have not turned on a light yet today, and last night I only turned on the under cabinet lights halfway through dinner prep as it started to get dark outside. What a huge difference!

The long road to...nowhere?

Peanut woke up in a foul mood. It was before 6 am when she started to whine; Honey went in and got her and plunked her into the bed with us. She continued to whine and I told her she could be quiet and stay or go back to her bed. So she went back to bed and I took a shower. By the time I turned the water off, she was wailing. Turns out she woke up again and her dad was advocating for using the potty before doing anything else, which she did not want to do. Now of course, she had to pee. Honestly, who doesn't have to pee when they wake up in the morning? So she pees under duress, and I think we are on our way out of crabbyville. But no. Over the next 15-30 minutes, she cries that she wants to eat then does not eat. She cries that she wants her vitamins, wants a nap, wants a tissue, wants her baby, wants to be held, wants new pants. And we end up going back to bed again. Her nose was snotty, her eyes were watery, she is either teething or sink, and so we call and cancel our playdate for this morning at Frying Pan Park. I was looking forward to catching up a bit with my girlfriend before Peanuts "farm school" tot class today, but it was not to be. So, of course, she has a tremendous temper tantrum right after Honey leaves for work. Sigh.

OK, so I want her to rest and stay still and warm today. When you are given a lemon, you make lemonade. I had a few errands to run closeby, and since we weren't driving to school, I decided to bundle the kids up and walk. This seems reasonable - the two places I need to go are probably two miles or so from the house and it is a beautiful day. We head out and all is well, until at about a mile and a half I am reminded why we do not often walk to run errands. Who the hell is in charge of the sidewalks??? They randomly end, or disintegrate into a mess of asphalt and pebble trails. In order to stay on a sidewalk and get where I am going, I would have to add at least another mile or two to my trip. If I go the shortest route, I am met with a cliff off the edge of a perfectly good sidewalk on one side of the road with no discernible trail for a good 1/4 mile on the other side of the road. I think this is one of the reasons we Americans are so unhealthy (of course our food is a huge problem, but I will let blogger Laura tell you more about that - she can take the hit for telling you what you don't want to hear). We are forced to drive lots of places that we could easily walk because there is no safe passage for pedestrians and no solid ground for strollers. How hard can it really be to have one sidewalk meet another? I have seen spots where there are maybe 10 feet of grass in between sidewalks. Why can't the people responsible for each side get their acts together and build the middle? It seems like a really great thing we could do to help encourage folks to move more. In fact, there has been lots of talk about creating "Walkable Communities" in order to increase health, decrease pollution, and increase economic growth. I actually found the page to request a new sidewalk or trail in Fairfax County. If you are facing similar challenges in your neighborhood, send them a request!

In the end, we did make it over hill and dale to the post office, paint store and stopped for a snack along the way. I returned home feeling accomplished and energetic, both kids had stayed warm and happy, and Peanut was on the road to recovery.

Oh the fall!

What a gorgeous day! Cool, crisp, breezy and sunshiny! I love the fall, and wish I could be outside through all of it. Yesterday, we were able to get out for a long walk and see the beginnings of the changing leaves. I started to think about the trees in front of our house and the show of orange leaves that is soon to come.

This morning, we had playgroup here and before the kids arrived I went out in the yard with Peanut and Pumpkin and raked leaves into a few small piles. My original goal was to get the leaves into the composter. Once the kids got to the leaves though I realized that playing in piles of leaves is really a treat for two year olds, so all my work paid off in an unexpected way! They rolled and jumped in them and each wanted a turn raking. At one point, there were so many hands on the rake that it looked a little like the flag at Iwo Jima. There were some tussles and we had to pull out another rake, but they mostly worked through it and all had a good time. I did eventually get the leaves into the composter during afternoon naps, so all was not lost!

A little less musty

At the end of day one of bathroom demo, the tile and fixtures were gone and we were down to the studs in the shower stall and some of the wall. It was already an improvement! We learned that there was water inside the shower floor, which is crazy since we have NEVER used this shower so it had to be either from a leak or from a shower taken over a year ago. Gross.

The subfloor had to come up as it was totally waterlogged. I can't begin to tell you how yucky that was. Sadly for this bathroom there was little to be salvaged. I am all for passing on usable things but really, everything in here was well damaged.

You can see in this picture the curb between the bathroom and shower - it is totally rotten. We knew we'd find these kinds of things in here, so we are not surprised - it is just nasty to see (and smell!)

What a huge difference a little piece of wall makes! At the end of day two, the shower lost it's cave-like appearance as the header was removed. It opens up the shower significantly.

The wall next to the vanity was taken out as well. We will lose a few feet of closet space in the bedroom, and gain some cabinet and counter space in the bathroom. It is well worth it. The room seems twice the size when it has really only grown by 6 square feet or so.

So next up, the new wall gets framed in, the plumbing gets set right, and the new subfloor goes in!

Little Big Man

Since bathroom demo begins tomorrow at 8am, it seemed prudent to try to have Pumpkin sleep in his crib in his room today for a nap, just to be sure it would go over well tomorrow when it was a necessity. He has been sleeping at night and naps in his cosleeper next to our bed. It's super easy to feed him at night and I love that I can hear him so close to me and know that he is safe. With Peanut, we started naps in her crib around the same time - 3-4 months or so - and that seemed to work nicely as the beginning of transitioning to the crib for night as well. So I put him down for his nap and he is happy as a clam - why would I think otherwise? He is really a great easygoing guy. Here he is looking so tiny in that big crib!My little man is getting big! He is now enraptured by watching people eat, and I suspect he would make a valiant attempt to wolf down anything he was offered! We'll hold off on solid food a bit longer though. He's also working so hard on rolling over. He has surprised himself a few times by rolling tummy to back, but this week he has been trying back to tummy and almost making it. He looks so proud of himself too!





Here he is pleased as punch about getting to his side -

And here's a short clip of him working at it. He is determined to flip and I think once he figures it out I am in for some trouble!

It's for real...

We moved into this sad foreclosed house knowing it wanted the chance to be happy. Over the past year, we have cleansed it of demons and dirt, painted every surface, knocked down walls, installed new floors, fixed major plumbing and electrical issues...we have done everything except our master bathroom. We have three bathrooms but have lived like we only have two. The master was/is so bad that we have never even used it and we basically just keep the door closed.

On Thursday all that will change! Demolition begins and we will have the most awesome master bathroom ever, hopefully by Thanksgiving. It is amazing how badly I want this done, now that we have decided to actuially do it, when we have lived without it for the past year. We ordered all of our tile and fixtures on Saturday and I cannot wait to see it all come together.