Updates

Gardening:
Our gardening project is going well! For the first time ever, I have tomatoes. I've tried repeatedly to grow tomatoes in the past but was never successful. I'd get one or two bug eaten tomatoes out of a plant before it died in ignominy; it was truly sad. For some reason, my losing streak has ended and we have tomatoes coming out our ears!

Actually, I think the biggest reason is I got the baby tomato plants from friends instead of Home Depot. They are also in a different location in our yard where they are getting more sun and I put compost in the soil when I was prepping the planting bed. The plants are HUGE and yielding more tomatoes than we can eat! We have some spiders out there too who are eating the bad buggies, much to the children's chagrin. (They HATE the spiders, even when I remind them they are probably protecting our tomatoes.)

We also got some beans from plants The Wild Child and Martha Jr. planted but never enough to rely on them alone for a side dish. We planted some seeds from a lettuce mix packet but the plants from that were too bitter and we finally pulled them all up. We put some strawberries in the upside down planter but they went in too late, plus they were the Home Depot variety so I'm not expecting much.

DH made me a worm bin for Valentine's Day but we haven't started using it yet. No worms; I need to get by a bait shop. (The kids are keeping an eye out for worms in our yard but no luck yet.)

Food:
DH and I are still sticking with a vegetarian diet. We eat eggs occasionally. We eat vegetarian cheese (as opposed to cheese made with rennet, which is NOT vegetarian) quite often and small amounts of butter now and again. We hardly ever drink milk. (I still use it in recipes on occasion, and I wouldn't turn down hot chocolate during cold weather.) I still avoid soy like the plague, but I miss recipes using soy sauce- stir fries and some raw recipes and so forth. I also miss the bread products I've had to give up that contain soy, like the whole wheat bread I used to get at the grocery store bakery.

The kids are perking along, dietarily speaking. The Eldest occasionally indulges in shrimp burritos but is otherwise vegetarian. I buy cold cuts from Whole Foods for The Wild Child (or he gets all peaked and cranky) every now and again; sometimes Martha Jr. will eat some of the cold cuts too, sometimes not. She's mainly veg except for that and eats the healthiest of the three overall. The Wild Child continues to be my biggest challenge. I have to feed the boy, but he won't eat much of anything healthy. As an example, if we have a pasta dish for dinner he'll skip the delicious sauce with veggies, beans, tomato sauce, etc. and put barbecue sauce directly on the pasta and eat only that. If we make whole wheat pasta he cries and won't eat anything. What do you do in that situation? He's gotta eat. Sigh.

Weight:
I've gained another couple of pounds but I'm fighting it. I know where I've gone wrong. I stopped measuring my carbs and I give in to grazing during dinner prep. If I can get that under control I'd get back down to where I want to be, so that's my short term goal- get out the measuring cups for pasta and rice, stop buying those darn tortilla chips (a MAJOR "red light" food), and control bread portions. (As in one slice, not 3.) To try to control my tendency to graze when I cook I made some hummus (from a mix from the Whole Foods bulk bins, which is super quick and easy) so I can dip carrot sticks and cucumber circles. That helps when I actually follow through!!

Fibromyalgia:
I'm still having a hard time with fibromyalgia but things are getting easier as my schedule calms down a bit. The Eldest found a ride part of the way home on two nights a week; YEAH!!! I still have to go get her, but it's a 20 minute round trip instead of an hour or more, which makes a big difference. We've had insane weekends with major Girl Scout field trips but that's calming down as well; no field trips in the immediate future. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Girl Scout field trips, they are just very tiring. I'm hoping we'll be able to start attending our home schooling group meetings again; I had to cut them out since I was so overwhelmed, especially by the end of the week (they meet on Fridays) but the kids miss their friends and I miss the other moms!! I've been sleeping well which is always an important component in keeping fibro under control. I'm still walking almost daily, which is important as well. When it comes to exercise balance is everything; just enough so I don't get "rusty", which makes things worse, and not too much so I don't get sore. (Since it takes FOREVER to get better when I get sore.) I collapse in bed for an hour or two when I get done with my walks, but I stick with it.

The key word to managing the fibro is that balance thing; it's an absolute necessity. I have to balance my schedule, exercise, sleep needs, weight, everything. I so need to take up meditation! (Which is supposed to help balance stress, or something.) If I can keep balance in my life, I can keep the fibro under control for the most part.

Strawberries:
I try to take the kids on a road trip to pick strawberries at least once a year. I had a date set up to go this year with some friends but the fields were closed that day so we haven't been at all yet. :( I've wanted to try again since then but there was just no way to get the free time! I am hopeful we'll be able to go next week. The Eldest will be on spring break so I won't have to worry about picking her up so there are 3 possible days. If I get to go, I'll post strawberry pictures!