April comes to an end

Just so Weston doesn't feel left out, here is a short music video of him too. He's so funny.

What happens when you try to eliminate refined sugar and flour and simple carbs from the menu in your household?  Everyone goes over your head and makes what they want! Even though I cook 3 meals a day, the kids and Jared are swarming the kitchen in between meals making bread, smoothies, nachos, waffles, and sneaking snacks, anything to curb their voracious simple carb addictions that they insist they don't have. I am not offended nor do I stop them, it will take time. Besides, they are learning how to cook.  Savanna has been trying out recipes in the bread maker, and she takes pictures of her bread after its done. Weston learned how to make waffles Saturday, he was quite nervous about it because he hasn't done much cooking in his life, but it was successful! His confidence has boosted since he did a pretty good job. Fiora has mastered the art of chocolate banana milk, and peanut butter banana milk.  Jared has done pretty good staying away from sweets, but he loves chips and bread, so he makes nachos and he loves dipping bread in oil and spices. Meanwhile I am on day 10 of my strict no carb sugar detox, and day 30 of my eliminate sugar from my diet, and I am feeling great! So I make such things as salad, tomato basil quiche, pork chops and brussles sprouts and cabbage, beef and broccoli in shallot marinade, lemon and olive squash noodles, cauliflower soup, and veggie root hash. In between I snack on non sweetened all natural yogurt and nuts, with an occasional green apple. Some new recipes are a big hit, and others are a learning curve. I'm grateful for the time and money I had in April to make this change happen.

The kids are excited to be done with their no-sugar contract, even though I'm going to do everything in my power to keep them as limited as possible on excessive sugar consumption. For Fiora and Weston, going to cousin Aeven's 1st birthday and not having the candy and cake there just about did them in on Monday. It was so funny to me to see all the little kids running around eating suckers, and trying to feed their suckers to Justin and Kali's dog, and all the adults saying "Don't give the dog candy, he'll get sick." LOL. Why are we giving to our kids what we won't feed animals? I was laughing inside, Holly said I was a little extreme. Probably right, I've always been peculiar (determined) once I set my mind to something.

Nail Art by Savvy

 Savanna has gotten into nail art. She changes her nails every day, sometimes twice a day, practicing her cute nail designs. She also practices on Fiora's nails, and if she can ever pin me down for 30 minutes together, she practices on me too. I had to banish her nail working station to the storage room because the bathrooms were getting overrun by her nail stuff, and mini splattered with various colors of paint. She has made many more designs than pictured here but you get a pretty good idea of her creativity with these shots.

Easter and other stuff

Here is whats been happening here:

Fiora is a 5th grader so she got to sing in Hope of America pageant this year.  Since she has a yellow shirt she was on the border of the flag.  Holly my sister took pictures for me since I don't like fighting crowds at the marriot center. Fiora went with her friend Kimee and said she had a fun experience.

getting ready for the big hunt

Kynsie and the colored eggs

Dad

Knightly and Jesse

Penny and Kynsie

Aeven

Penelope and Savanna

Trevan, Penny, Sylvan

We had a big Barrett family Easter egg hunt at our home this year, and Holly brought her fancy camera and took some beautiful pictures of the kids looking for eggs.  I like the one of Kynsie holding the colored boiled eggs and the one of Knightly and Jesse, but they are all great.  Everyone came, I made them some healthy sugar free dinner which ran out fast I didn't make enough, and we tried to fill plastic eggs with toys, notes, money, snacks, instead of candy this year. I thought it was marvelous!

Of course we had a little private egg hunt Sunday Morning for the kids, the girls got fingernail polish and Weston got money and chima legos. Twas fun! Sunday was very spiritually filled with the ward choir which I direct singing very well "My Shepherd Will Supply my Need," and an Orem Chorale concert that I sing in performing 9 Christian hymns of the Savior in the evening. My parents and several of Jared's family came to support and I very much felt loved by and love for all of them!

The Saturday before my 21 day Sugar Detox we took the kids one last time out to eat, we went to the wild zucchini which was very good. Jared took me to the temple prior to dinner so I could get spiritual strength to make it through the next 3 weeks. I started Monday and so far it has been a good experience for my health, but a little hard on the kids (I'm taking them with me and they aren't too keen on the new menu items). I spent the last week or so preparing; my fridge and pantry are transforming, the cupboards are bare but the fridge is stuffed!  Jared bought me a bread maker (mostly for the kids, to make whole wheat bread instead of store bought), a nice multi functioning food processor, a julienne slicer, and all the whole food ingredients I'll need which is no small price. My fridge is full of various nuts, vegetables, organic eggs and organic-no-sugar-added sauces, homemade snacks (i.e. beef jerky made with coconut aminos instead of soy or sugar), and the freezer is full of meat. I have to cook my breakfast lunch and dinner, and all my own sauces and dressings, so convenience is a thing of the past (I'm not even supposed to use a microwave!), so my fingers are cracked and sore, one is infected, and I feel like I run a restaurant I'm cleaning and cooking so much. I've been keeping a food diary and digestively speaking I've had the best 3 days of my life, thankfully I'd already stopped eating most sugar/simple carbs so most all the withdrawal symptoms are out of the way.  Once the detox is over I'll incorporate back into my diet things like homemade breads and fruit (the only fruits I can eat on the detox are lemon, limes, green apples, and green bananas) and dairy, but I can't dispute that I feel pretty great on the veggies, nuts, and proteins! Hopefully I can make it a lifestyle.

New bread maker, I made a gluten free bread with coconut flour and buckwheat and the kids grew to like it.

jalapeno, goat cheese, bacon crumbles, not on the detox list but a favorite snack when I was eliminating carbs

 

My new food processor, its a beauty! I can't believe how much nicer it is than my old one.

Milk for the kids, and we're still trying to get rid of some sugar filled sauces, but everything else is for detox week 1

No more processed foods are being bought, so the pantry is looking bare.Weston ate the last of the oatmeal yesterday

Music videos

The girls found this music video app on my iPad and spent a great deal of time during spring break making music videos. I think they did a pretty good job on the two I bothered saving and showing here, there are several other very silly ones. I even let them film one of me doing "We Can't Back Down", expressing my sentiments on the fight against refined sugar of course! :)

Spring Break

The first few days of spring break the kids did a lot of sitting around and drove me crazy with their lack of productivity. They made music videos on the ipad and watched their shows in abundance, and quarrelled and bickered with me and each other.  I went about my days as usual with work at home and the office, and Wednesday I tried to have some quality time with the kids shopping for clothes they need.
On our way home from clothes shopping Jared called and said his dad was at the office and how about Savanna go early down to Gunnison with him (we were planning on staying at Neil and Bonnies Thursday through Saturday and going to Bryce canyon). Savanna was up for it and since she is the hardest one for me to get along with, I drove her right over to Jared's office and gave her to Neil. Weston Fiora and I got a lot of house work done the next day before we left for our trip. Sav reported later that she went shopping with Grandma Bonnie, who bought her a swim suit, took her swimming the next morning, and played Phase 10 with her.  Thanks for entertaining Savanna!

We all arrived at Neil and Bonnie's on Thursday evening and they had dinner ready for us, they are always so nice to make sure we are fed, we saved over $200 on food and lodging by staying with them. The next morning we got up bright and early and headed for Bryce canyon and spent the day hiking and seeing the beautiful canyon. The kids didn't complain too much, but it was a little difficult for Fiora who hates exercise in all forms and guises, and for me who am detoxing from carbs and sugar, but still worth it. We were all worn out by 3:30 so we drove back to Gunnison and Grandpa showed off his new tractor. Saturday we spent the morning finding aluminum cans for recycling, goign to the park, and waiting around for the pool to open, the kids can't go to Gunnison without going to their local pool!  Jared and Weston did some pretty cool back flip dives off the diving board, the girls did some great dives too! Twas a fun getaway.