Small Victories

It is time to celebrate some small victories in my life.  While there are many reasons to celebrate life, I would like to mention the ones related to this new diet.  For the past two days, Isaac (target son) has finished ALL his school work at school.  We haven't needed to spend an hour or more each night doing homework with my constant "focus- are you focusing?" plea to keep him on track.  (Huge sigh of relief and wipe the tear from my eye).  Annie (8yrs.) has come home with her work done too.  They have been more pleasant and cooperative with many things.  They are certainly not perfect yet, but I'm expecting in a few more days they will reach perfection. :)

Another small victory that merits mentioning: I actually survived grocery shopping with my two small children(3&4yrs.) in tow. We had a discussion in the car about not reciting their classic line of "mom, can I have this?"  My idle threat of  "If you ask for everything, then this is the last time you get to come shopping with me" worked.  Sounds harsh I know but if it works, it works; right?  A few reminders and they were great.  We even found an acceptable bag of treats like M&M's called SUN drops in the organic section of the store.  Sure they were $5 a bag but it was a big bag.

My final small victory was making homemade hamburger buns for dinner.  They were a huge hit.  Sheldon (husband) oohed and aahed  the whole time telling me the secret to a great burger was the bun.  I am planning on pulling out my bread maker today and experiment with the dough setting and baking the bread in the oven.  I'm not sure why I have such a fear of making bread.  But I must face my fears and expand my horizons.

We went huckleberry picking last night.  Huckleberries are in stage two of the diet, which means we can't eat them until after six weeks.  They are high in salicylate acid.  So we are supposed to phase them in and see if anyone has a reaction.  I'm sure my children ate a few as they picked but I was not about to tell them they couldn't eat any because this is a once a year family tradition.  We picked for two hours and came away with about 1/3 gallon of berries.  They are a precious commodity at my house.  We savor each berry-when and how we use them.  We are having a family party this Sat. with homemade ice cream. Sheldon and I have been debating whether or not the people coming are worthy of the honored berry as a topping.  Because it is mostly family I guess they make the cut.

"And Life is what you make it - Always has been- Always will be." Grandma Moses

Annie picking berries

our precious huckleberries