day 24, stage 6

Today wasn't as bad as the other days. Breakfast was hamburgers and eggs. Everyone ate nicely. Girls were more focused today. I ended up with a handful of nuts this morning. Badly, they were not soaked. Lunch I made a kinda curry, beef, carrots, chard and brocoli. It was also good and ended up being dinner also. But for dinner we did add in some soaked cashews. It was really good. Soaked nuts taste so much better. They really do. I felt a little bit better today. It wasn't horrible. I have a feeling that it is going to be hard to blog while we are at the conference. And I have a feeling it is going to be a cheat three days. It is hard being at those things without cheating. They are also feeding us a meal each day. I don't know we will see. I hope that at least most of it isn't gluten. I think I have finally lost my taste for that nasty stuff. When we went to Ruby Tuesdays they gave us biscuits. I saw Jack try a bite and he said they were gross. Coated his mouth and felt so gross. So I put a tiny bite in my mouth and sure enough, GROSS. The last few times I have tried things, I even tried a belgium waffle and it was gross. This was like something I totally loved before. I have to wonder if there is anything that would taste good to me. Biscuits and gravy, glutenwise, not gf, gf still tasted good to me, but the gluten version, bad. Interesting, isn't it? I mean if it were good for me then it would probably still taste good, right? But it doesn't. Okay, maybe girl scout cookies. Sigh. Somoas.... Okay, maybe I am craving something indulegent. I think that is what it is. I want something creamy. I really want to start kefir. Sigh. Summary Me: not as bad, craving and I have a bit of a stuffy nose. I am not sure if this is because Oreo has been all over me today, the warm weather or something else. We will see. Jack: Good amount of food, no cravings, energy level good till afternoon then tired, picked up after eating dinner. Irritable. No problem with nuts so far. Natalie: Good. Tiny bit of problems with nuts. Stomach issues. Okay energy, not a whole lot. Worked for a long time int he garden. Layla: Okay energy, slight problem with unsoaked nuts. Gwendy: good. No problems.

Day 23, stage 5

Today has not been great either, can I have a good day again? Please? Breakfast, I made them sausage, spinach and eggs. I did a scramble hoping that it would be something a little different. I thought it would be nice. Gwendy didn't go for it. In fact she didn't finish her food until right before we ate lunch. Everyone was getting on everyone elses nerves. Being mean to each other and just not fun. School hasn't been going that great. Natalie got very upset with herself after starting to do something without making sure that was what she was supposed to do. Little things that they just keep doing. It has been a really hard day. It was helped at all by having everything here a mess since we really haven't cleaned or done anything since Wednesday. sigh. Lunch was good. I made roast. I went out and picked some mustard greens from the green house. I made mustard chips. Kind of like kale chips. I wasn't as happy with them. I was also trying to make the roast so they burned a little. Still good. I will try again later. So we had roast, mustard chips and sauerkraut. Oh my goodness, the sauerkraut was good. So good. It is like perfect. It was really good with the roast too. I think that maybe they are happier now. Layla still has a lot of work to do. It is after 3:00. Usually we are doing better than this. We are not doing good. It is frustrating. I'm still sore from Saturday too. Mostly my forearms. Well, not a half hour after eating I ended up in severe pain. I think I overdid it on the sauerkraut. I still hurt. I feel weak and crappy. It was so good though. So crazy what this diet can do. You think you are alright. I have been drinking lots of kombucha, but it doesn't matter each ferment is different. Whooo. I took some vit C. If that doesn't help I might take some magnesium. That is the problem with not having a bath tub. No detox baths. Those really did help last time. Damn, I feel like crap. Took the rest of the roast and put it in pork stock with carrots, beets and mustard greens. The stock had a lot of fat on top. I am not hungry, though I am feeling better. I am drinking some buchy and some water. It isn't that I am not hungry. I just feel like done. The girls have been all over today. Can tomorrow be better please? Please? Not sure why everything is nuts today. I am hoping however for happy kids for the conference. That would be nice Summary Me: sauerkraut kicked my ass today. Not hungry still. Upset, snippy, pissy. Can I call myself anymore negative things? Jack: Lots of cravings, not terribly hungry. Energy level fine. Productive day. Natalie: Good. I think I had a tiny bit of stomach ache today. I really like broth and I really want cashews. I kinda want raisins. Layla: Good. craving broth, broth tastes so good. My tummy hurt, maybe because of spinach. Not having any cravings. Soup I'm fine with now, as long we don't have it every meal every day. Gwendy: good. I'm about to feed on the broth. Because it is so good. Yum. I find it funny that they have all said that they are doing good. They sure don't act like it. Or maybe it is just me. I think Jack needs more fat, I think that is why he has been craving things. I am also starting to wonder if pork is causing the stomach aches.

Day 22, stage 5

Okay, going to try and get this done today. We had the rest of the pork this morning. As barbque style. It was good. I did end up adding a little bit of honey in it. No one had eggs this morning. Even though the auction stuff is mostly done, we still have to organize some piles of wood and such, our life hasn't slowed yet. Gwendy peed in our bed the night before and we needed to do laundry. We also needed to wash the comforter that Kali spent her last days on, she peed a lot on it. We also needed chick and dog food. So off to Kirksville we went. Because we also needed to get back in time since Joan needed to borrow the car, we didn't have time to prepare food to go. Everyone was going well though. Until this small moment when I looked at my children and saw that it was going to go downhill really quick if they didn't get food soon. Jack was also craving milkshakes and cheese fries. I told him he needed more fat in his diet. Good fat. The girls asked if we could go to Ruby Tuesday's. We have like never really been there. So we went and they actually have some decently good choices for us. First they have a salad bar. And they have this awesome option where you can get three sides and the salad bar. So Jack and I got that. I got some steamed broccoli, steamed snap peas and roasted spaghetti squash. Jack got mashed cauliflower, I am pretty sure this had cream and or butter in it, green beans and broccoli. The girls all got the salad bar but Layla and Natalie split some tillapia with snap peas and broccoli. I think the waitress was insanely impressed at my daughters abilities to eat veggies. She was so amazed to see them all eating such wonderful food. Everyone stuffed themselves full. It was great. Moods seem pretty good today also. We roasted a chicken and steamed/boiled some broccoli and carrots with some tomatoes and itailian herbs. It was rather tasty. However, I am not so hungry. Probably good since Jack needs to bring something to work with him tomorrow. You know, it is interesting that moods seem much more even now. They still obviously have moods, but it isn't so extreme. Except for Gwendy. Most of that is hunger and I think her ability to recognize it early enough. By the time she realizes it she is so hungry that she doesn't know what to do. I think it will get better. If not in time then when she grows up a little bit more. All in all, a fine day. We have been doing really bad on ferments the past two days and on coconut oil the past well 4 days? And we are out of fclo. Really need to order more. It is really easy to start to get off track. So, hopefully I can get back on track. I have a feeling that the conference is not going to help.

Day 21, stage 5

So Jack stayed the night at DR. The girls ended up in my bed. We all slept well though. Gwendy however peed in my bed. That should have given me a thought as to how my morning was going to go. I started making a lot of hamburgers, beef and pork. We have food to bring with us today. The girls were eating well until Gwendy got upset that Layla had more mustard than she did. That is where we are now. Gwendy is freaking out on her bed. Really freaking out. She just came back to the table and is trying to eat. But the damage is already done to me at least. I am done for the day. But we have to go back to the auction, meeting Jack and DR people there, to pick up more stuff. I still can't eat. I just don't feel up to it. But life must go on. We have things we need to do today. It just totally sucks. Again posting on the day after. You know, life is decently slow here. It really is. But when life goes fast, it goes fast. I left shortly after writing that. We did have enough food with the hamburgers for the girls. However, I did not eat again. Even though we were gone from 10:30 and didn't get back until after 8. We ended up eating at Main Street AGAIN! Uggg! This weekend has kinda sucked. I feel like we haven't had a chance to breath. We ate well though. Though we did end up with sweet potato fries and regular ones. We just split them across the table. So no one got that many. No one seemed to have any issues. Jack was given a 6 pack of beer from someone. He drank 3 and gave away the rest. We did a lot of physical work though. It was hard, really hard. But I have to say that I had much more energy than I would have had before gaps. I didn't feel like I was going though jello. I don't know. I need to get caught up and write todays blog post.

Day 20, stage 5?

So it is a day late. Yesterday was fun. We went back to the auction. We thought we would only be there again until lunch. Not so. I didn't get anything to eat for breakfast because Jack went to work and I was in charge of getting everyone ready and out the door. Gwendy left the rest of her breakfast at home. We thought she brought it with her, but she didn't. So at lunch when we thought we were going to leave, and then we weren't, well the girls were hungry. In fact Gwendy was hungry, not surprisingly, at like 10. All in all yesterday the girls ate I think five hamburger patties from the food cart thingie. By the way, they look really weird at you when you ask for a hamburger without the bun. So 4:00 came and the auction was done, but we still needed to load. The people from DR have a really nice trailer. The issue was that the people who could drive it needed to get back in a half hour. So after a lot of thinking I ended up driving them back and Jack stayed and loaded up the trailer, he can drive the DR truck. So then it starts snowing on the way home. Bad. By the time I got to DR we had a good bit of snow. The girls were hungry, Gwendy was sleeping. After calling Jack I found that they hadn't even started to load the truck. We were going to stay at DR and wait for Jack. But decided that with no food, and not knowing when Jack would actually make it there that we would just go home. So we did. It took me twice as long as the roads were crappy. I hate driving in the snow. It also didn't help that Jack had loaded the truck in such a way that I was worried to turn fast. We did make it home in one piece though. The girls, even though they were hungry were really great yesterday. Well, Gwendy had moments. Quite a few, but to be expected. It was a long day with tons of people and mommy and daddy telling her not now, they were trying to bid. Jack ended up staying the night at DR, rather than try and brave the roads again. Ziggy and April I guess made him dinner. I have no idea what they had, but I am pretty sure it wasn't quite legal. We had kalua pork again when we got home. Yesterday was very meat heavy. I was so worried though about Jack driving I could not eat. After I heard that he got safely to DR, I made myself some hot water with brandy and honey. It helped a lot. I had a massive headache and could not get warm. I was really stressed. The brandy helped though. I did have a few bites of food, but really could not eat. It was a day. Not really a fun one, but we survived.

Day 19, stage 5?

So we went to an auction today. Yep. I was prepared for breakfast. I made so much food. Everyone had a heaping bowl of sausage, avocado and eggs. Well, except for me. I really have not been into eating until lunch. I know you are supposed to eat and get good protein in the morning, but it just hasn't been for me. So we went. I brought some tea, outdoor auction and a jar of kombucha. While trying to bid Gwendy kept bugging me, she was thirsty. I ended up giving her the buchy and begged her to not drink all of it. She did. I was a little upset about that. Oh well. Anyway, Jack needed to go back to work and I did not pull out any other meat. Yep. So there was nothing at home. Be prepared, that is like what everyone says on gaps, and they mean it. Be prepared. I wasn't. We were going to do raw veggies tomorrow, but figured no one is having issues so we did them today. We went to Main Street and had plain salads with chicken breast and oil and vinegar dressing. It was good but not as good as I remember it being last time we were on intro. Gwendy got upset about halfway through the meal. She wanted stock in her salad. That made me really happy. However, the girls have all been acting weird. I am not sure if we should be eating raw veggies now. I'm really not sure. I don't think anyone has had any digestive issues but acting weird. I don't know, we will see. I don't plan on it being an everyday thing for awhile. Really the only thing we have had every day since starting this has been eggs. I still am not having eggs. I am not sure when I want to start them. Really not sure. Oh and I drank some of Jack's coffee today at Main Street, they have good coffee. I usually want tons of cream and sugar in my coffee. I tried it and it was good!!! I have never liked black coffee. It was good!!! We got some, decaf for me, so that might help some of my coffee craving. I might get some coconut milk and see if I can do that. I'm making kalua pork for tonight, pork shoulder alea sea salt and cabbage. Very plain. Obviously we won't be having it with two scoop rice. We will live. It still tastes amazing. So Jack feels bad. He says that it is very similar to how some of the people at work started to feel right before they got really sick. Problems with working in a hospital, lots of sick people in there. BUT the girls are all complaining that their heads hurt. So maybe it is sickness, maybe we shouldn't be eating raw veggies. Kalua pork was a win. The girls miss the rice. I didn't. Sometimes it is really hard to eat pretty much just meat. Oh well. Summary Me: No real problem. Today was decent. My stomach has hurt a little bit, did I mention I had some honey again? This is an issue for me. I need help. I haven't been sleeping really well. Joan's dog has been waking up needing to go out in the middle of the night. As a mommy, I tend to wake up when doors open. I have been having a slightly easier time falling back asleep, well as long as it isn't after 330, then I am up for the rest of the day. I just can't seem to fall back asleep. It kinda sucks. I won't call it insomnia since I am not just waking up, something is waking me up, but oh well, right? One day I will sleep. I just thought that after my kids weren't waking me up constantly then I would start sleeping. Jack: breakfast started well. Lunch was fantastic, massive headache in afternoon, really didn't cheat at dinner(he had a meeting and they served meatloaf that was meat and eggs and green beans) energy level fine until headache, now slight nauseous and fatigued. Natalie: okay. really hungry. Pork doesn't taste good anymore. It has this taste that isn't very good. Headache Layla: sleepy. raw vegetables so good... headache Gwendy: good. slight tummy ache. headache

Day 18, stage 4

Again, I am still at stage 3. We had hamburgers and eggs. We need to go shopping. Out of eggs and avocados. I didn't eat. My stomach is still fermenting, or at least that is what it feels like. I am also very emotional right now. Life sucks, in case you didn't know. It doesn't really have anything to do with the diet, it is all just life. I am roasting a chicken now and hoping I can get around my emotions and fermenting stomach and eat lunch. Well, I ate. We actually ate/drank a half gallon of stock today. Just plain chicken with carrots and broccoli. It wasn't great, so I made up for it by making again the most awesome dinner ever. I cut up some butternut squashes and coated them in olive oil and roasted them until they were all nice and brown, seriously marshmallow yumminess. And then I made pizza burgers. Hamburgers with pizza seasonings and tomato sauce. Yummy stuff. Gaps can be very tasty. The girls are licking the cast iron skillet clean. I don't know. I won't say that today was great. I felt overwhelmed, but I think that is more circumstances than diet. I did feel better after drinking some buchy. Jack cleaned the kitchen, though there is still a sink full of dishes. I fermented 2 pounds of carrots. I think I may start two more gallons of kombucha tomorrow. I have to get some going. We can go through a lot of ferments. I am really looking forward to kefir. I think I just want dairy though. It can be tough. Summary: Me: alright, not great though. My stomach was fine after awhile. Jack: skipped lunch, bad idea. short tempered hungry poor focus. Natalie: good. pizza burger so good!! with squash marshmellows. Craving broth(yea!!!) Layla: good, high energy, very high energy. no headaches, no tummy aches. liking broth(yea!!!) I was actually craving it. Gwendy: good. no tummy aches. The stuff was good