Pot Roast

Just tried Candace's new concoction for pot roast tonight. SO easy and SO simple. I posted it to the recipe page, if anyone is interested. It hit the spot and I love that I can put dinner in the oven at 12 and not touch it again until we are ready to eat. I made a simple salad to go with it, but not too much work.

Hard week. Birthday was good. Week was hard. Cannot seem to pull myself out of the funk that I am in. Wondering if I need medicine. I haven't taken any "upper" meds this whole year, but this past week has pulled me down further than I have been and cannot seem get out of it.

Matt made some gluten-free cookies tonight. YUM! They are really yummy. Pamela's makes decent pre-made products for gluten-free eaters.

We are almost done organizing our house from top to bottom. There are definitely a few more places to sort and scour, but it is feeling tons better. Once we are done a huge weight is going to be lifted off. Not sure what I am going to do with my time--haha.

Matt makes pancakies with Lily every Saturday morning. Matt makes plain ones for her and blueberry ones for himself. She doesn't like blueberries in her pancakies. They were sitting at the kitchen table eating pancakies and Lily turns to Matt and says, "Dad, when you were a little gourl (girl) did you like blueberries in your pancakies?" Matt laughed and told her that he didn't like them in his pancakies til he was a daddy.

Love the moments when she makes us laugh no matter what we are doing.

Off to eat another cookie with my girl.

"eating lifestyle change"

In order to help my health, I am trying a new way of eating (notice I don't say DIET).

I am posting my new favorite blog as a link on my blog (at the bottom where I have a couple other favorite blogs listed). Most of the recipes are gluten and dairy free. nourishingmeals.com. She has other links to healthy, gluten free websites. I haven't explored those yet.

Gluten free--pretty easy once you get used to it

Dairy free--challenging

Soy free--more challenging than I thought. I am not a huge soy/asian/marinade person so I thought it would be easy, but there is soy in ALOT of foods....

Sugar free--ugh, need I say more?

Caffeine free--tormenting

Alcohol free--easier than expected, but decided to cheat on this one for the 20 days of Daisy's life.

Yeast free--easy

Egg free--hard at first, but easier now. I think it will be much easier when I add them back in.

I did this three weeks straight. The first week was horrible, but it got much easier. Since I cheated a little bit at Christmas, I have been allowing myself to cheat more often. Think after the next few days pass, I am going to go back to not cheating at all. Did I feel better? YES...However there are still some medical issues that I need to be concerned with, so I will try to combat them all with this lovely way of eating.

Many restaurants are accommodating, to an extent. AND, there are some restaurants that have gluten free menus.

My birthday and the anniversary of Daisy's life ending on earth is this week. Since Dec 23rd, I have been unstable emotionally. I guess that it is to be expected. I have trudged through most of it, but some of it I just had to not participate. I am dreading the next few days with every ounce of my being. I had been dreading Dec 23rd, but it turned out to be a good day and I realized that it was Daisy's birthday, so it was a celebration. January 12th, however, is going to be very sad. Yes, she got to go to HEAVEN on that day, but holding her as she died was one of the most painful days I will (hopefully) experience.

Not sure what I am doing that day....Not sure if I will be able to function, really. January 15th was the funeral. January 16th was the burial. Oh, the days ahead...I need to not think about the date itself.

Off to get ready for bed.

Jan 2--Organizing ourselves silly

The last week and a half has been a journey. Better than expected....Christmas and Matt being home made the time FLY. Matt and I have worked so hard at getting our house decluttered. We have not only gotten rid of random things we do not need, but tried to empty drawers and organize, pitch, and reevaluate. Some items are just hard to part with, but there comes a time when IT IS TIME! We still have three closets to go and half the basement that still needs our purging-crazed selves to go through. I am anxious to be finished, but it feels so good to get rid of stuff we do not need, want.

Several things have attributed to this desire, I think. One, my mom has been trying to simplify the lake cottage stuff. She is truly getting rid of TONS of stuff in order to simplify the lake. She is doing the same with the house, now that the lake stuff isn't in her house anymore.

Also, my in-laws are moving. They have a very large house now and are moving to a very small space until they find a house they love....And they are having to look at every possession and decide whether it stays or goes....

Thirdly, bringing so many Christmas items in, forces some stuff to be bygones. As gifts are received, the house is cluttered without a place. I cannot stand it and neither can Matt....So, all new items now have a place.

Lastly, Lily's toys accumulate and clutter and TAKE OVER very quickly. So, we created a playroom for her. Grandpa Zook made a table for her. It is getting painted (hopefully) this week. Then, I have a chalk board from when I was little and we are going to put that in the playroom. We got some organizational cubes from Target...Her playroom is going to be the cutest room in the house when we are completed. AND, it eliminates all the clutter of toys! All the toys now have a home upstairs. We did keep a few downstairs, but most are up, up, and away!

One thing I have not organized this week is the Daisy box. However, it is my goal to do so in the next 10 days. 10 more days of remembering day-by-day what we were doing last year at this time. It is torturous, but I am reading through the blog from last year. It is good to see notes from friends and remember daily what Daisy's life and our lives were last year.

Off to read a little bit, then to bed....All this organizing and Matt and I are exhausted every night. Too bad he has to go to work tomorrow!