Snowman

I am so "behind" on my blog that I don't even know where to start....January was a rough month emotionally, but IT IS OVER. And, I am feeling much better now that it is over. I am feeling much more like myself; more than I have in a long time. I know this is partially due to the year being over and partially due to my health improving. I still have my moments, but I am definitely on the uphill slope of life, I think.

Lily is SO MUCH FUN right now. I wish I could remember all the funny things she has done or said in the past few days/weeks. She is hysterical. A couple of stories that I would love to share for my own sake so I don't forget them.

1. She didn't want to eat her broccoli one night. So, Matt told her to plug her nose like Pinkalicious does. She didn't really get the concept, but she put a couple of her fingers on her nose and pretended to plug her nose. The next morning, I was doing her hair. She is daily a grouch while I am doing her hair. I look down and she is "plugging" her nose. I knew what she was doing, but asked her anyway. She said, "I pushing my nose so my hair doesn't hurt." Inventive!

2. In her book, "Fancy Nancy," Nancy is carrying a tray of parfaits and trips and the tray of parfaits does a "double flip." All of the ice cream ends up all over her and the floor. Well, one morning, we were eating breakfast. Lily was having cereal. She somehow does the splits on her chair. In trying to catch herself, she smashes her hand on her cereal bowl. The milk and cereal go all over the table and her legs end up behind her, stuck. I race over to her and pull her up, she says, "My ceweal did a double-fip." I started laughing and she, said, "Yeah, my ceweal did a double-fip, just like Fancy Nancy does!" I could not believe how quickly she put that story in an application of her experience....

Today Matt and Lily made a snowman. I attached a picture because she is beside herself with excitement about the snowman. I hope it doesn't melt in the next few days. Hopefully it will stay put for awhile, so she can enjoy it. I made them hot chocolate after they were finished. I posted the recipe, if anyone wants it. DELICIOUS!

Matt is watching superbowl, so I am catching up on magazines and emails. I had 670 emails in my inbox that I needed to clean up. Many of them are about Daisy or from last January and February. I am grateful to have all email-support, and cannot make myself delete those emails quite yet. I ended up making a folder for them, but need to get rid of the rest of the emails that I just have never deleted. I just haven't had the gumption to do much this last year....But I am getting some pep in my step back!

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.