An Update on All the Plans (A 5-Minute-Post)

I'm feeling less overwhelmed than I was about a month ago, largely I think because there's a lull in committee work.  And I turned in my annual review materials (which took about the equivalent of a whole work day to fit in).  And we're down one major event.

I am frankly in denial about Feb 10-20, which includes, among other things, a child's birthday, a sleepover, a reading/workshop thing, a trip to see The Sound of Music, and President's Day which means MINIMAL CHILDCARE.  Plus probably some on campus interviews for that search committee.  But like I said, denial.

*

Here's where I am in terms of all the spectacular plans for 2016:

1. The plan to lose 5 pounds:  This is a moving target.  My weight went up around the holidays and then went back down.  But that was still higher than I'm comfortable with.  I am now eating salads every day for lunch, only letting myself have sweet things in the evening, and no sugar in any beverage other than morning coffee.  These changes are minimal.  But really at this point I only want to lose another 2-4 pounds total.  So minimal is fine.

2. The plan to exercise every day:  this has not happened, mostly because I got sick (ongoing) and didn't want to leave my bed, much less take a long walk.  Although I had a rocky start, I'm sticking with YogaGlo, though.  I don't know exactly why, other than the fact that I've paid for it, that I'm more likely to do even 5 minutes of yoga if I get to follow a teacher vs. coming up with it on my own.  But it's making me accountable in a small way.  I also realized it's helpful for me to have different kinds of exercise (walking, yoga, dance) for different kinds of days.  I need to do something about this realization.

[okay, that was 5 minutes....continued roughly 7 hours later]

3. The plan to spend quality time with the kids:  A work in progress, thwarted by them more than me (i.e. LG doesn't get her stuff done so our time is cut short).  But I do read to Tiny Boy every morning, and LG and I have been doing 1000-piece puzzles (we're on the third, with one repeat).  I think one day per week (Thursdays?) I'm going to start taking him for a bagel on the way to school.

4. The plan to read in the morning:  yes!  Now instead of opening my browser while I drink my coffee, I read.  Mostly poems.  Some memoir-type nonfiction.  Overall this has been a great switch for my morning routine.

5. The plan to limit email:  yes!  While I have gotten derailed on a few occasions (i.e. emailing back and forth with my former diss director about a project) I have mostly limited email to a couple times per day.  I could be even more regimented about this.

I feel like there's another plan in the works, but I'm not remembering what it is at the moment.  Oh, next step: fine-tuning my after-LG-goes-to-bed time.  Theoretically I read and then watch a short something on Netflix and go to bed.  In practical terms I am starting to watch multiple somethings before getting sleepy, which I think has to do with the timing of taking Lunesta (it doesn't hit me as fast as it used to) as well as being generally more well rested.  And that's a good thing indeed.

Ask the Readers!

We're in a food rut.

I like reading cookbooks and hunting for recipes online (but also get really overwhelmed).

What are your favorite cookbooks?

Or specific recipes you really like (preferably that fall in the 15 minutes category)?

LG will try almost anything.  Tiny Boy is also fairly adventurous (he eats cold brussels sprouts for lunch!) but doesn't like mixed food (i.e. if I make a stew, he'll only eat it if I dissemble it and he refuses soup, which makes me sad).

Back on the Growth Chart!

I don't think it's a coincidence that Tiny Boy is sleeping better now that he's BIG TWO.

Even when weighed naked (at my request!) he's up to 22 lbs 11 oz, which translates to roughly 6th percentile for weight.

Ginormous, right :)

His pediatrician is quite pleased.

Small Things

I. Knobs

Before LG was born one of the last things I did (it might even have been the day of my induction, I can't quite remember) was to paint drawer pulls for her dresser/changer.  The knobs have been there through her early childhood and until about twenty minutes ago, when I pulled them off to paint them the color of Tiny Boy's recently painted walls.  This, after an unproductive trip to Target to *buy* new knobs before it occurred to me I could just re-purpose these.  It bothered him when I pulled them off (he kept trying to stick them back on) but I don't think he'll really care once they function as they used to.  For me, though, it's the last thing I needed to do to make his room his, which seems all kinds of important when he is (a) the second child and (b) genetically unrelated to either of us.  The least he can have is his own nursery.

II.  The Bunny Clock

I recently purchased a toddler clock for Tiny Boy, as part of Operation Wean and Sleep.  While I don't know if the clock is actually helping, I can report that he likes seeing the bunny "in the sunshine" when he gets up...and he's been sleeping most days until 7:00, which is 30 minutes later than the bunny's wake-up time.  He's still waking in the night--I just haven't been able to bring myself cut him off entirely from the nursing as it will inevitably mean crying and less sleep and, well, right now he's getting more sleep, as am I--but things are better.

III.  Nutella

Someone tell me why it took me 40 years to try Nutella?  And when I bought it, as part of the plan to fatten up my girl child, she was like oh, that is the best stuff EVER and I was like, where did you eat Nutella?  (Which was almost as interesting a conversation as when she came home from aftercare insisting that they'd fed her a burrito in a chip form, which turns out to be DORITOS which I don't think I've ever purchased, ever.)  Anyway, that stuff is awesome.  We put it on waffles this morning.

IV.  Immersion Blenders

There's a whole predictable hullabaloo about Michael Pollan's Cooked over at Laura Vanderkam's place. ( I might write a whole post on things related, mostly because I have some kind of sado-masochistic interest in Vanderkam's work and its ability to make me want to rip my hair out on an almost daily basis.)  But the very small version is this:  immersion blenders rock.  Already today I have used mine to make two different kinds of hummus, both of which are incredibly yummy.  And since Tiny Boy is willing to eat hummus in literal spoonfuls, well, amen to that.  It's so easy that even LG can use it to make herself protein-packed smoothies in the morning.

V.  Naps

Sometime around late April/early May Tiny Boy started taking naps at home that match or even out-do his naps at daycare.  Even his "short" naps these days tend to go over an hour.  All I can say is YAY for that.  Naps will be especially awesome when I am teaching in the fall, but even right now I can count on an hour in which to work, to read, to clean something, to cook something, and all that is marvelous indeed.

Oh my that was nice

Things have been all over the place in terms of sleep lately, mostly because of the travel.  (And of course during the travel he came down with one of those inexplicable night fevers)  Also been nursing erratically (as in sometimes a whole lot [i.e. the return of all-night-suck-a-thon] and sometimes hardly at all).

Last night I put him down "late" (8:30), which wasn't really late, due to the time change thingie that happens when you travel east.  And the kid woke ONCE at 2:00, when I checked on him (oops) and then not again until after 7:00.  Huh?

More more, says the mommy.

*

In the meantime, he's down for a nap and I'm going to cook something.  (In the past week, in addition to usual stuff, I have made two batches of pesto (one of the kale variety), pumpkin pancakes, and four or five different varieties of muffins.  And my daughter, who describes herself as a potatovarian (that's sort of like a vegetarian, emphasis on POTATO), ate RED MEAT and said it was the best thing ever.  Weird week Chez Gwinne.

Muffins!

I don't know what possessed me to google "peach muffin recipes" earlier today, other than Tiny Boy loves canned peaches.  And my freezer stash of muffins is mostly depleted.

We took these to dinner at a friend's house.  LG ate 5 on her own.  More tomorrow:

http://www.food.com/recipe/peach-muffins-166416

Care to share your favorite muffin recipe, readers?  (Bonus if they can be made dairy-free)

Another Reason Why Eight is Great

Last night, in lieu of getting take-out (again) or having me come up with an interesting meal, LG proposed that we eat leftovers.  With a twist.  "What if, like, we were contestants on Chopped and we had to use six ingredients from the leftovers and then anything else we could find?"

Our leftover ingredients (4 of 5) were:  mango, romaine lettuce, pre-made pizza dough, barbecue chicken, and pasta shells in marinara sauce.

LG made a kid-friendly fruit salad that looked like a face and a "salad" of lettuce, chicken, pasta shells, with mozzarella and pizza "croutons" that, alas, her mother refused to eat.  I did try the fruit, which was tasty, even if she did use a large chef's knife (!!!!) without asking.

And I put together some bizarre white pizza with garlic, bleu cheese (have I mentioned dairy is IN for the moment?!) and mozzarella, and another one with the chicken.  My side dish was a salad with the lettuce, mango, the remnants of a container of blackberries, and a kiwi about to go bad.

The person not prepping her meal had the responsibility of entertaining the baby.

I think that's a dinner strategy we'll have to use again.  And again.  And again.

 

That Whole Solid Food Thing

I recently came across the term "baby-led weaning" to describe the process of introducing solid foods.  From what I can tell--correct me if I'm wrong, dear readers--those who advocate "baby-led weaning" let their babies feed themselves, in lieu of spoon-feeding them purees.  Now I don't want to talk about the pros and cons of this method.  Rather, I want to comment on the term itself.

See, it honestly never occurred to me that giving a baby solid foods had anything to do with weaning.

Let me back up about 50 steps.  Longterm readers might recall that LG didn't do the whole "solid food" thing as an infant.  There were a couple days--really bad days--of rice cereal in that 4-5 mo era.  But by the time she was actually eating solid food, well after her first birthday, she'd been weaned for quite a while.  She started part-time on Neocate (that's a REAL hypoallergenic, need-a-prescription-to-get-it, amino-acid based, nasty-ass formula) at 7 months and we stopped breastfeeding completely at 9.5 months.

For me, weaning has to do with the elimination of breastfeeding, and it was a medically necessary trauma.  There was nothing "baby-led" about it.

*

So I've been experimenting with "solid foods" with Tiny Boy.  He's had purees of mango, apple, pear, and peas.  And he's eaten avocado, banana, and watermelon in a mesh feeder.  (Yes, we tried rice cereal, but that resulted in screaming fits of belly pain in the middle of the night, on multiple occasions about a month apart.  NEVER AGAIN.)  He seems to like the idea of eating better than the reality of eating--doesn't take more than a few spoonfuls at a "meal"--except when it comes to watermelon.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  He couldn't cram enough into his chubby little face, and then he screamed bloody murder when he couldn't suck any more juice out of that little mesh bag.

Is that weaning?  I dunno.  Seems to me it's not if he's still nursing as much as he was, and he really is.  And from what I know, at six months, eating solids is supposed to be about play and experimentation and learning, not really about nutrition, anyway.  I suspect that by the time he goes to daycare--10 months to the day--he'll be eating more and nursing much less.  But I have no plans to wean him until he's good and ready.*  And hopefully that will be some time past his first birthday.

Right now, I'm sort of giddy with putting a spoon in his mouth, as I didn't get to do that the first time around.  And once he's taking more than three bites at a time, I'll start making his food, which will probably be mushed up versions of whatever LG and I are eating, within reason.  And if I manage to get a kid with no food allergies, well, that would be truly amazing and awesome, and I might actually have to keep milk in the house.


* Except I have no plans on nursing past toddler hood or being on the cover of a national magazine.  I'm guessing by somewhere in the 2 year era I'll want my breasts back, if they haven't already been returned.

Weight Watcher

I gained 33-34 pounds when I was pregnant with Tiny Boy.  I've lost half that, which brings me to 114 lbs.  A year ago I was 97.  Now, I don't really want to get back to 97--certainly not as a nursing mother and probably not ever.  My normal weight before all the ttc drama was 102, and those 5 lbs really make a difference in terms of how I feel and look (I'm just over 5 feet tall); that's where Dr. Gorgeous wanted to see me by transfer, and it just didn't happen.

Whether it's due to milk oversupply issues or my own hormonal wackiness or some combination, I lose weight easily while breastfeeding.  I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but by the time LG was 7 months, I was down a good 12 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight and gained it all back within a few weeks of discontinuing nursing.

I'm not really sure what the point of all this is except to say that I'm aware that I'm losing weight steadily.  I'm aware that I'm starving much of the time.  And I don't want to get back to that bad place in the low 90s again.  Having been on the verge of anorexia in high school, it freaks me out.  But even while adamantly not dieting--I mean, chocolate is a staple in my diet--it's hard for me to know what my body really needs to support breastfeeding, even as I'd really like to wear something other than maternity pants sometime soon.

And with that, I really need to figure out what to feed myself and LG tonight...

Breastfeeding, Epigenetics, and the Diet

I can't remember how much I've said about my experiences breastfeeding LG.  To make a very long story somewhat shorter:  she started demonstrating symptoms of multiple food protein intolerance very early (like, possibly from birth but I was a clueless first time mom), had chronic diarrhea within her first few weeks, was on reflux meds by 9 weeks, diagnosed with blood in her stool at 4 months, and was put on nasty hypoallergenic formula (Neocate) at 7 mo.  I switched her to formula full time at 9-10 mo, because I was literally starving trying to feed her and despite cutting pretty much everything from my diet (including rice!) she was still symptomatic.  Bottom line:  it sucked.  Neocate was her major source of nutrition until age 2; was off soy until 5-ish and milk until, well, last summer.  If she's having problems (i.e. diarrhea and belly aches), I'm not hearing about them.  Yay!

Now I know some folks with babies like LG start elim diets in the last 6 weeks or so of subsequent pregnancies (the theory being it takes some time to eliminate potential allergens from breastmilk).  And, well, here I am, with 5-6 weeks max left on my timeclock.  The burning question (you HAVE to know where this is going, right?) is whether eliminating my highly allergic genes from the equation will mean The Boy will be just fine.  Or if the problem was uterine environment or some fundamental problem with my milk, well, not so much.  I'd rather not put the proverbial cart before the horse here, and I'm not sure how much evidence there is that me cutting out milk now would help, but I do want to be prepared.  And if I can, I'd like to spare both of us the agony of LG's first year.  (Of course, I did keep her please don't feed me, I have food allergies t-shirt just in case.)  I'll likely cut dairy once he's born because I feel better off it; but there's a difference between the 100% elim diet I'd do if he needs me to, and the 90%-I-still-take-cream-in-my-coffee version I do for myself (when, of course, I'm not appeasing a crazy accupuncturist!).

Even in the food allergy community, this is fringey stuff, so I'm not imagining many of you have experience or advice, but if you do, feel free to send it my way.  I'm really hoping I can make it a full year breastfeeding this little guy.  Losing that time with LG is just one of the many ways I feel gypped by my body's various reproductive failures...but with a DE baby, it seems to matter even more.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get LG some breakfast...

Recipe Recs, Please!

One of my if-I-don't-give-birth-this-week projects is cleaning out the freezer and restocking it with things that LG and I will actually eat.  But, truth be told, I suck at determining what foods will freeze (and defrost) well enough for us to want to eat.  Suggestions, wise readers?

Just to make this game harder:  I can't eat soy or its many derivatives, operate best at about 90% wheat-free, and will in all likelihood be off dairy again once I start breastfeeding (and if I only need to eliminate those three things, well, it will be a hell of a lot better than it was for LG's first 9 months!).  LG's a good eater who prefers meat products that don't appear to be meat products (chicken=bad, bacon=most excellent); at present kale is her favorite vegetable, and she eats a whole sweet pepper at lunch every day.  (Weird kid, yes, but I'm not complaining.)

And if one of you would invent a valium-type product that is safe to take during pregnancy I would really appreciate it.  This waking up at 2 or 3 or 4 really sucks.  Thank you.

Middle-Aged Mama Hangover

I woke up this morning right around 7:00 to something that sounded vaguely like a guitar.  I thought, if LG is making music at 7:00 am I will not be pleased.  Kid was sound asleep.  Noise coming from the undergrad neighbors whose backyard backs up to mine.  It occurred to me I felt like I'd gone to a frat party, which actually I never did as an undergrad, and woke up hungover.  That same headache and godawful dry feeling in the mouth that I've rarely experienced as a result of drinking but have felt often as the aftermath of a migraine and/or taking benadryl at night.

But apparently when you plan an event that's really poorly attended and there's a lot of good food you end up eating it, even if you know you'll regret it the next day.  Yeah, so I had a major wheat binge.  And then I was keyed up and had trouble sleeping.  Now I feel ugh.

And LG said she didn't think it was a good idea for her to walk to the coffee shop and buy me some coffee.  Why not, I asked.  Because, she said, I'm not allowed to walk that far by myself.  Oh, yeah, I said.  And, Mom, I don't think coffee shops sell things to kids without grownups.

In Which I Ignore All Dietary Restrictions

Thanks to A, who is the ultimate kid party planner, we made these cupcakes for LG's party:

http://www.thepartyanimal-blog.org/zhu-zhu-pets-cupcakes/

Of course I had to sample one. I also needed to consume actual ice cream, with actual whipped cream, and sprinkles (because this was a party for a seven year old girl!). And I also ate a turkey sandwich. Then I chased it with some herbal tea (you'll notice I didn't drink large quantities of vodka) and an ambien.

This morning I am drinking my special tea from my neighbors (it's a slight variant on "free and easy wanderer" for liver qi stagnation) and gearing up for my fake cd 1 to start tomorrow. Gulp.

Consult # 5,000,032 or something

So after 2+ years and 21 cycles I am now on my third, yes, third chart at Dr. Gorgeous's office, as the other two (each about 3 inches thick) were held together by large amounts of packing tape. Look what they did to your chart! she exclaimed, noting that it's basically empty, except for my DE calendar. I might need to ask for more of it.

Anyway, I was pleased that Dr. Gorgeous did not insult me by remaining outwardly hopeful that I might actually conceive this cycle. (Although, for the record, my progesterone level is unusually high for a 1-follicle cycle [37]. Not sure what's up with that. Also, for the record, my progesterone level has always run low on my previous conception cycles.) She asked only when I was scheduled to test (yeah, that other chart would have been helpful), and we spent the bulk of the consult talking about the impending DE cycle.

Anxieties mostly mitigated: (1) she's not worried my lining will get out of control again (see early November 2009); (2) she said we could use prednisone but medrol is safer (?), and she corrected the calendar to reflect when I should take it (starting 2 days prior to transfer); (3) the donor's cycles involving freezing embryos prior to day 5 likely has to do with the practice she was at, not the quality of the embryos; (4) steroids + Lovenox is, from her perspective, about all we can do to improve likelihood of implantation.

Then we talked about The Diet. Apparently 97 lbs is the point at which weight loss becomes apparent to the outside observer. Let's just say she's not pleased with either the weight loss or how the acupuncturist is handling me (and she's the one who referred me to this particular acu.). The words preying on your vulnerability was used more than once. The upshot of this conversation was that she'd like me to make it back up to an absolute minimum of 100 lbs, hopefully by adding more healthy fat (avocado, walnuts, flax seed, etc). Her only other recommendation (thank you, Dr. Holistic Medicine) is to reduce stress (meditation, yoga, a different acupuncturist, etc), which she's been telling me for two years. I think I'd be a lot less stressed if I weren't spending $30K trying to get pregnant, but I do know what she means. And I'm trying. I really am.

It helps that the only things left on my DE to-do list are (1) transferring $$ from account to account and (2) figuring out which sprm donor to use. What will I worry about next?

And, more immediately, what will I eat next?!

Breakfast Recipes, Anyone?

LG and I are having company for brunch tomorrow. Usually we have eggs and bacon and potatoes, or occasionally pancakes or waffles. I'm bored with those staples. And none of them are currently permissable on my diet.

Even the thing I thought might work--baked oatmeal--requires both milk and eggs. I could probably substitute rice milk, which I do for most baked goods, but I'm not much inclined to experiment with guests.

Whatever I make needs to be dairy, soy, and wheat-free. Eggs are negotiable. Any thoughts?

Small Good Things (Hip City Edition)

1. LG and I took a trip to nearby Hip City, which I rarely do because I often go 3/4 of the way to Hip City (to Dr. Gorgeous's office) and really don't want to get back on the highway. So we took a day trip, and it was splendid.
2. Eating at our favorite restaurant in Hip City, with Best Professor Friend and Twin #1. (Unfortunately Twin #2 was sick and stayed home with her dad.) LG is still talking about her hot dog, which might be the most expensive, tasty hot dog in the state. Among other tasty things, I ate crusty buttered bread. I drank most excellent coffee, with cream and sugar. I cheated on my diet royally because, hey, I have my usual cd 1 headache and took ibuprofen (wicked cramps, too) so why not make the most of it.
3. A one-hour visit to the children's museum. LG has the capacity to stay at museums for hours, which is a trait I admire. But the quick trip was mighty nice. We saw all her favorites and a few new things, and then we were on our way.
4. A one-hour trip to my favorite grocery store in the whole world, which had all kinds of goodies, including a new tea (we'll see how that goes), royal jelly (someone should have told me how obscenely expensive that stuff is), and wild salmon on sale. In my strange fantasy world, I always imagine I run into Dr. Gorgeous at this grocery store (she lives in Hip City) and we have a nice friendly chat about organic produce instead of my ovaries. If that ever happens, I will, of course, let you know.
5. Freshly baked cookies and lemonade on the way home, accompanied by our favorite "chicks with guitars" CD. Dar Williams, anyone?

Really, I couldn't have asked for a better day. If only I didn't have to grade papers all night...

The Diet and Me (and Lentil Soup Recipe!)

So diets and I have a love-hate relationship. This anti-inflammatory diet might be the best thing I've ever done, or it might be the thing that pushes me over the edge. You'll have to stay tuned.

Backing up...I think of my high school/early college years as a time of "pseudo-anorexia." I never lost a ton of weight, but just based on being relatively skinny and only 5 feet tall, hovered around the 95 lb mark for that era. I read a lot about anorexia. I watched what I ate. I had my mother worried enough that she was getting self-help literature (the irony that my sister was ACTUALLY bulimic during this period, unbeknowst to my parents, is sort of hilarious, or pathetic, or something). The bottom line is that I have historically had food "issues" and probably shouldn't ever be on anything called a "diet."

In graduate school I started cooking and eating like a normal person, but one who has a serious carb fetish. I ate bagels and pasta, and more bagels and pasta. And then I started getting migraines. Debilitating. My doctor put me on a ton of drugs. I stopped taking the drugs because I wanted to get pregnant. I started fiddling with my diet and went wheat and dairy free (and cut out other major migraine triggers). And I felt moderately better. And I also lost five pounds in the first week or so I was on it, until I figured out that I could eat potatoes. Ah, potatoes.

I got sort of obsessive watching my diet when trying to conceive LG because I read about a connection between gluten intolerance and miscarriage and while I don't think I'm clinically gluten-sensitive, I certainly feel better, in all kinds of ways, when not eating wheat. Then I got pregnant and felt better eating ginger cookies, so I ate a lot of ginger cookies and a lot of cheese and a lot of things I wouldn't ordinarily eat. I gained 40 lbs and gave birth to a healthy kid, despite being APA+ which adds a substantial risk for IUGR (not to mention stillbirth).

But by 2 weeks or so, it seemed pretty clear to me (though not her ped) that LG wasn't tolerating breastmilk and had chronic diarrhea. I started cutting my diet obsessively. Top 8 allergens, tomatoes, and I can't remember what else. When we finally saw a peds GI (at 4 months), he forbade me to eat anything that came from a package or a restaurant. Things got a bit crazy. I spent most of that first summer eating, pumping, cooking, and carrying around a fussy baby. LG didn't get much better but I was literally starving, despite eating 4 meals + snacks. 93 pounds isn't great for a nursing mom, to put it mildly. When the allergist asked me to stop eating rice, I realized the diet couldn't go on for much longer. I gave up breastfeeding and put LG on wickedly expensive prescription-only formula; her GI system slowly recovered, I gained weight almost instantly and now, six years later, I've got a kid who can have trace amounts of dairy (possibly more, we haven't really experimented) without any noticeable difficulty. (Oh, to buy that girl a slice of cake at a pastry shop!) And courtesy of the diet, I figured out that soy is actually my major migraine trigger, not dairy. Thus began a life largely wheat/dairy/soy-free. I respected it, but I wasn't compulsive about it, and I knew with a reliable amount of certainty that I could have a splash of cream in my decaf without causing any major problems. Ditto eating an occasional slice of bread, or, heaven forbid, a piece of pizza.

So when the acupuncturist put me on this low inflammatory diet, my reaction was somewhat mixed. I can get obsessive. And the last thing I need is to think that if I have a single cup of decaf, or eat a piece of chocolate, I won't get pregnant. Infertility sucks. But don't put it on me for doing things wrong. Because really, if you're telling me that I've dealt with two years of fertility treatment and RPL because I've been cheating on my diet, well, I might go crazy. I've had periods I watched my diet obsessively (the IVF cycles, in particular) and it certainly hasn't made a damn bit of difference. I'm certainly feeling better. But am I feeling better because of this diet or because I'm at a point in my cycle I tend to feel okay, and (other than Lovenox and Prometrium) I'm pretty much drug-free? When the scale hit 99.2 the other day, I sort of wigged out. And, as A told me last night, adding stress and losing weight can't be good for any of this process. And to follow this diet strictly? It's hard core. I mean, I'm not even supposed to have soy lecithin; do you know how much crap has soy lecithin in it?! We'll see how long this lasts.

*

As I said, lentils are okay, and I happen to love them. Here is a Red Lentil and Rice soup recipe that I got from somewhere online but can't find again. I tinker with it; it's a very forgiving recipe. This is enough to feed LG and me one big meal plus multiple leftovers.

5 c. liquid (I use chicken stock, but you could probably use water or a mild veggie broth)
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/4 c. rice (I often use more)
1 and 1/4 c. red lentils
3/4 tsp. Arabic seven spice
1 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste
juice of one lemon

Saute onion until soft (~5 min). Add rice, lentils, and broth. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to simmer. Add spices after 10 min or s0. Let simmer for another 15-20 minutes, until lentils are very soft (they start to lose their shape). Add lemon juice and serve!

(I really like this with lamb chops. Or maybe spiced ground lamb, which we're having tonight. Mmmmm....)

Before LG's Party

Twenty-four hours from now I will be crashed on the couch, eating party leftovers while LG snoozes in her bed. Before that, I need to

• bake dairy-free cupcakes
• make frosting
• clean the bathroom
• clean the kitchen
• straighten up random kid crap around the house
• put together party bags
• hang decorations
• put food on table for guests to eat
• give LG breakfast, take her to swimming lessonss, and feed her lunch
• ignore the fact that I have a stack of papers to grade and annual review documents to assemble and focus on accomplishing all of the above

Yeah, about now is when LG's suggestion to have her party at the YMCA sounds pretty darn good! (Though I would still be baking and making frosting and assembling party bags.)

ETA: All done! Good times had by all. But there's really no way I'm grading papers tonight. Must clean up the aftermath. Eat some of the leftovers. And there's definitely a movie night in my future. Lessons learned: I really couldn't survive as a preschool teacher!

Yum!

I have this thing for the lentil and rice soup they make at a local restaurant. Under the influence of progesterone, I'll eat it several times per week. Well, I found this recipe:

http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/africa/middle-east/turkish/red-lentil-soup-rice1.html

modified it a little bit (less onion, more rice, skipped the paprika) and *wow* it's virtually identical to the restaurant version. Even LG--who has eaten alphabet soup almost nightly for months--said it was great. I have a feeling it will become one of our staples.