Oh Saturday...a day ripe with potential and rotten with reality

Today's post is not really how I imagined returning to my little world of blogging.  I was hoping for something with a little more oomph -- if you know what I mean.  My last post was a few months back so you'd think I would have a real whammy for my big comeback.  You'll have to really scroll down a ways to get to paleo-relevant things. I think what will end up happening here, though, is more of a fill-in-the-gaps sort of thing.  Today is Saturday.  So full of ambition. So lacking in realistic perspective.  Here is a little picture journey of the day so far.

  insert: MAYHEM!

 insert: CHAOS!

 insert: DESPAIR!

 

 insert: REVOLT!

 NAPS!

Yep, we're still a mostly-paleo family. 

Yep, holiday-eating was a big de-railing event just like it was for most of America. 

 Nope, no New Year's resolutions this year.  Just tryin' to stay the course.

That pretty much brings you up to speed :-)

Like many of you, I am a working mom who is {unsuccessfully} trying to DO IT ALL.  This isn't a major psychological thing for me like it can be for many women and -- believe me -- I feel for them.  The weight of our burdens can be heavier than those last 10lbs will ever be.

For me, it's more of a tidal wave of ideas that trickles down to a few drops of actual getting-it-done.

I've taken on a lot more DIY types of things around the house this fall and winter. Food, skin care, and cleaning products have been the main areas of DIY-ness.

I have successfully made vapor rub, luxurious {that's what the recipe said, not me, although it is} lotion, no-(sham)poo concoctions, detox baths for the cave-kids, drinks for colds, and a cough medicine drink.  Most of this stuff I put on Pinterest so that's where you can find links {Trisha Gudeman is my Pinterest name. And my actual name}. 

Here's a glimpse into the glamorous life of making your own skincare products:
1. Wait till the kids go to bed.
2. Shower!
3. Clear a spot on the stove so the burners are available for use.
4. Melt stuff {in this case beeswax, shea butter, avocado oil, and coconut oil}.

 

We {by we, I mean me} are attempting to make more of our staple foods like mayonnaise, ketchup, bbq sauce...all of which we {meaning I} have done but we {I} can never keep them stocked so it is sort of a rotation of homemade-->storebought-->homemade-->storebought--> Presently, we have homemade mayo, organic storebought ketchup, and death-in-a-bottle bbq sauce.

We got a dehydrator for Christmas!  Yay!  Scary!  I am not really a small-kitchen-appliance type of girl.  I am pretty loyal to by stove/oven and refrigerator and dishwasher.  But in the name of reducing our consumption of storebought snack foods, this could be a great thing.  The cave kids love dried fruit, jerky, and I am hoping to bring them over the veggie-chip-loving-dark{bright}-side.  The cave-girl has big plans for fruit leather!  Our first dehydrating project was KIWI! It was cheap at Costco and it's full of vitamin C {more than an orange!} so it seemed like the right thing to do. At least that's what my dehydrator-moral-compass was telling me.  I'll see at 6pm if it was right. We filled that strange looking machine up with every tray full of kiwi slices, cranked it to 135*, and stared at it for a few minutes before normal life resumed.

We also made our own gummies last night and they are A.W.E.S.O.M.E.  I used the recipe from Balanced Bites and fiddled with it just a wee bit.  I used the blueberry variation which ended up being mixed berries because that's what was in the freezer.  It was going to be rather sour as far as the sweet/sour ratio was concerned so I reduced the lemon juice to about 3/4 c. and added 1 c. water.  I think the recipe calls for more gelatin than is necessary so I'll reduce that the next time {and YES, there will be a next time!} I make them.  The Great Lakes gelatin says 1 Tbs gelatin /pint of liquid.  After some inter-webs research I was reminded that a pint = 2 cups.  The recipe calls for more than this ratio so I am going to use the container recommendation as a guide next time. I got gelatin at Amazon.

So, that's how our paleo life continues.  Both kids have made hilarious paleo-related statements recently. Here's a sampling...

Me: We aren't going to eat the snacks they have there, we'll bring our own.
M (3yo)(hands on hips, disappointed-parent-face): Are they gonna have gwians?

Me: Ok, we are going to try making these gummies.  We'll see how it goes.
G (6yo): Are they paleo?
Me: Yup.
G: OH GOOD!!!! I LOVE PALEO!!!!
(displaying a completely inappropriate amount of excitement for the actual event taking place)(although the gummies were pretty fun to make)

We started a 21-Day Sugar Detox on 01/06/14 and it's been really terrible.  Not the detox program!!!

Us.

It's been a crazy/crappy/normal/wintery/gray week and routine never set in.  Christmas break hasn't really ended for the kids because THEY KEEP GETTING SNOW DAYS WHEN IT ISN'T SNOWING.  Since we already eat mostly-paleo this is not a great tragedy but it does seem to point to the fact that we really do need a reset. We have always been emotional eaters, especially in the winter {blerg}, so a reset can be really helpful after a particularly emtional {good or bad} time.  So, rather than quitting we'll keep on keepin' on. 

The nice thing is that we've eaten all the junky food in the house this past week.

Until next time {which hopefully won't be sooooooo long}!
Trisha