Family Vacation

Well we are home from Utah and had a wonderful time visiting Mark's family. Thanks to my awesome visiting teachers, we came home to a beautiful clean house. Thank you thank you thank you. It made my job of catching up so much easier. Cedar City, Utah was beautiful and cool. Everytime we go we say how nice it would be to live there. Mark and the two older boys spent most of Friday fishing on a little boat with Grandpa Loveland and Uncle Benny. Mark came back to me pretty sunburned, but he said they had a great time. Mark took this picture of Grandpa Loveland.

The boys were in heaven and caught these fish. They really wanted to take these beauties home to fry up but I was afraid they wouldn't keep too well in the back of the car for six hours.Grandma and Grandpa Loveland have the sweetest little garden and backyard, and I loved wandering around out there and taking pictures of my boys. Something about gardens and roses and fruit trees, just makes me feel at home. It was wonderful.Not long after we arrived Mark asked me why my nose was all yellow. Excuse me? I had already been around with Bryan smelling all the flowers and had gotten pollen all over myself. Oh well.

Strawberries growing like weeds! Harley kept sneaking outside to snack on them.
And here is Bryan playing in the sandbox. Getting good and dirty and loving it.

Mark is doing well. I know it did him good to get away and see all his family, even though it was tricky to remember all his vitamins and oils at the right times every day while we were traveling. I have to be honest though, he is getting tired of taking all the supplements and juices all the time. I really wish he could get everything he needs from the food he eats and not have to swallow a bunch of pills throughout the day. So I am trying to do more in the way of nourishing, healthy food, and trying new recipes. I have to say the family does not always appreciate my experiments. I win anyway though because the only snacks in the house are healthy ones. Do I sound like the food police or what? Oh well. That's ok with me.
I am also considering going gluten free for a while- although I know this is a big deal I think I can do it. I already miss homemade bread. Oh well. I was doing some research and found a website that described what one should eat to allow the body to heal itself. It is basically the paleolithic or "stone-age" diet. I generally stop paying attention at the word "diet" so I had never heard of this, but I am learning about it and I think with some tweaking it could fit my standards. You eat a lot of good proteins and fats, lots of fresh vegetables and fruits, and avoid any processed foods. You also avoid carbohydrates and dairy products. And here is where I would tweak it a bit. The website says this about dairy:

"Amazingly, many dairy products contain monosodium glutamate, or MSG. As you know by now, MSG is a potent neurotoxin. According to the Truth in Labeling Campaign, powdered milk contains MSG as a result of the way the product is manufactured.

"Ultra pasteurized" dairy products are processed with a higher heat, resulting in a break-down of more of the milk protein, which then contains free glutamic acid (MSG). Domestic cheeses that use pasteurized milk in place of raw milk are also a problem, as are any dairy products with carrageenan added to them, such as whipping cream, chocolate milk, buttermilk, cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, and ice cream.

This is a long and exhaustive list, those of you who do not have an actual allergy to casein (milk protein) and lactose (milk sugar), may be able to use raw unpasteurized dairy products. There are companies that sell these products on-line."

Yay for raw milk. We are so blessed to live so close to my sister Melissa, who has a few milk cows and a lot of extra raw milk. Maybe someday I will be brave enough to get my own cow, but for now I am so happy to send Bryce over on his bike to get a gallon jar of milk in his backpack whenever we run out. He loves having this "job".

Mark was feeling nauseous for a day last week after drinking the clay and hasn't been able to touch it since. Even when I cut the amount down to 1/8 teaspoon in a glass of water. I hate to not use it when I know it works, so we compromised and put some in the bathtub for him to soak in. It actually looked a lot like the ditch water I use to swim in as a kid. And he said it made him feel "a little bit nauseous". I think I was using too much too soon. So I'm trying to focus right now on detoxing at a pace that doesn't make him sick, and yet is still actually detoxing. The essential oils I am using are quite potent and are a priority, three times a day. There are a few good ways that I know of to use oils (and I am very new at this) but the easiest is for me to put the drops into an empty capsule for him to swallow. And sometimes I will rub them into his feet. I know this is probably the best way, and Mark would prefer it, obviously, but I can't make it part of the schedule yet- I am still in the phase of parenting where the evenings are chaotic. Dinner needs to be put away, bedrooms need to be tidied up, and everyone needs a drink and a snack, and there's always one who claims to be starving and hasn't eaten anything all day. Of course he waits until bedtime to tell anybody. Some nights I fall asleep putting the baby to bed and neglect everything else. When I get up in the morning to my messy house I just have to tell myself -I am doing my best, my kids are happy and know that I love them, and the Lord will make up for the rest.