Remember That Sugar Fast Thing?

Remember when I said I was doing a sugar fast and that I'd blog through it for accountability? Like, at least two weeks ago? Yeah. The good news is that I'm doing it (have done it?), and knowing it was out here in public did keep me accountable. The bad news is that you have no way of knowing what a help your virtual presence has been. I'd like to thank you for being here, waiting with bated breath.

^Haha, I wrote that like a month ago. And the sugar fast thing was probably a month before that. The moment has, as they say, passed, but I thought I'd still come back and share what was learned.

1. I didn't notice much difference quitting sugar initially, but I've observed now a correlation between eating sugar, and getting cranky and tired and frankly kind of down. I'm not sure whether sugar itself makes me cranky and sluggish, or if it's the eventual crash and repeated detox out of sugar - like, the next few days after indulging. I ate a LOT of dessert on vacation last week, and this week has been a BEAR. Or rather, I have been a bear. And my children too. Awful. Not sure how much of it is sugar vs. general fatigue and getting back into routine, but it feels like a thing.

2. My husband has a legit condition known as "reactive hypoglycemia". I will forever abstain from dessert just to have him conscious and conversant in the evenings. The guy falls dead asleep, no joke, after consuming any sugar and most refined carbs. Ice cream and Oreos are the worst offenders. He's like a new man without sugar!

3. When I stop to think about it, I feel really good without sugar. I'm not 100% clean eating or anything, meaning I enjoy syrup on my pancakes and sneak a few (handfuls of) animal crackers from my kids' stash, but overall I don't consume much that is processed. The biggest thing for me to give up was desserts in the evening, and without those, I do actually notice a difference in energy and productivity throughout my days. Three young children notwithstanding.

4. The cravings are real. Oh my word. After vacation last week, it has been SO HARD to go back to no desserts. Joel's been feeling it, too. It's been a gradual weaning process this week but I think we're getting there. I actually feel like it's worth it to avoid dessert, to maintain energy and avoid cravings, which is saying something for me because I have the world's biggest sweet tooth. I feel like one of those people talking like this but I am seriously a normal old person who is probably a recovering sugar addict. I would always be like, you don't eat any sugar? You think fruits and veggies taste better than dessert? Who are you trying to convince there, partner? And I am for sure not in the "natural sugar for the win!" world just yet, but I've arrived safely at camp "I don't like how lots of sugar makes me feel".

There. Just in case you were curious. And so I don't feel like a total blogging failure with no follow-through and all that. I really did my sugar fast thingy, and I noticed results, and I'm finally recording it so there.

Bottomless Breakfast Buffet

Let's play a little game. (That feels like a line from a super creepy movie. Is it?) I'll list a breakfast menu, you guess which child ate which meal.

A) Two waffles, one apple, one clementine, one bowl of cheerios with milk, a partial pancake

B) Two pancakes

C) Three pancakes, one apple*, one clementine, one bowl of cheerios with milk

*Joel told me about the apple after I originally published this post.

Joel, do you see why I struggle with the grocery budget? I apparently started out with very little grasp of the quantity of food consumed by people under five years old. And still learning.

This also explains why breakfast takes a sweet hour and a half. If you ever roll up to our house at the crack of 10:00 and we are in pajamas, it's because people won't stop eating long enough to get dressed like civilized preschoolers.

I won't lie, though, there is something about filling your children's bellies full of delicious food that is the perfect mother's love language. The moods brighten, the laughter grows louder, and even if it takes all morning to get there, the "Thank you for breakfast, mommy!" and post-wipe-down smooches never get old.

Oh, the answers to the quiz are: A) Mikayla B) Oliver C) Isaac

Momma wolfed down two pancakes, two leftover clementine segments, and a cup of cool coffee in between refilling all the other plates and cups and peeling fruit. That caffeine is welcome to kick in aaaaany time!

Stay tuned, we've got some projecty goodness planned for you. A little painting, a little organization, some miscellaneous crafting. It's going to be a busy week, Lord-willing!

Blanket of Snow, Blanket of Cheese

Today, I made a very important discovery. Which was not so much a discovery as a finally getting around to doing something quite obvious. It's because of the snow. A blizzard basically requires hibernation-eating, which for me involves fat, calories, and probably loads of dairy. Those new yoga pants and jeggings notwithstanding.

My favorite combination of fat, calories, and loads of dairy is probably ice cream. But, #Blizzard2015. If there's one thing that looking out the window at the beginning of snowmageddon makes me not want to be, it's cold.

My second favorite dairy food is Tostitos medium salsa con queso. I've never counted the ingredients nor tried to pronounce them because denial is the best medicine. But last night I made a bold move. I bought tortilla chips and no queso. BOLD, I'm telling you. This is the stuff of going out in the middle of the snowpocalypse in northern New Jersey to get queso because I MUST EAT THE CHIPS.

However, it occurred to me that I make cheese sauce pretty often. For, you know, mac 'n cheese, loaded potatoes for dinner, tuna casserole, the list goes on. It's basically its own food group with the under-four crowd. Sooooooo why wouldn't it taste delicious on my nachos?

Well, my cheese sauce looks like this today because I'm a mom and, for at least 3/4 of the time I should have been stirring it, I was instead running around putting food in mouths and wiping peanut butter off of fingers and generally trying to decrease the decibel level. But it is still two things: warm and cheesy. Who doesn't like things that are warm and cheesy?

 Also, I am no dummie, and if there's one thing I've learned from Pinterest and Instagram it's to make sure your cozy fireplace is in the background of your "oh I just randomly snapped this photo" photo. So despite the lumpy cheese sauce, I am doing something right today.

By the way, nachos slide around on a plastic plate like a toddler off of a public restroom seat. This entire plate of queso almost landed in my lap as I photographed it, but for my cat-like reflexes. SAVE THE CHEESE. And the yoga pants.

So this is me, pretending all of my children are sleeping while I devour enough nachos and cheese to get me through the long, cold winter.

What are you eating doing today to keep you warm?

Momma's Back on the Blog!

So it turns out that having three kids under four years old keeps you kind of busy, especially during the first six weeks. Opening up a blog post at this point feels a bit like stepping tentatively into the creepy old house that's been abandoned for ten years. Cobwebs, creaky floors, and wondering if there's anyone still in here.

HELLO?? Hello....hello....

Great. Well, I just won't check out my Google analytics for awhile as you all look at each other wondering what that noise was from this decrepit corner of the internets.

Obviously I'm going to open with a Pinterest-style half-truth. This morning, I had peanut butter banana granola bars in the oven before 9:00 a.m. If I stopped there, you would be terribly impressed that I had gotten the baby back to sleep by 8:30 and was upstairs with coherent thoughts and even a GOAL. The kids stood on chairs to help add and mix ingredients, it was all very HGTV of me. Shoot, I could even count it as homeschool time.

I, however, am not one to do polished up half-truths. In addition to telling you that I added wheat bran, coconut, and chopped walnuts to my super healthy homemade treats, I'd like to also disclose that I sent my three year old to take care of the baby, who started screaming as I was spreading my granola bars into a perfectly even, aesthetically-pleasing layer in a skillfully parchment paper-lined pan. When that didn't work, the two year old took a turn offering the Nuk.

Also, my children at some point lost interest in stirring and began disagreeing loudly over possession of the new talking hamster toy Isaac received yesterday.

And when I returned to the living room after popping the granola bars into the oven, Mikayla was playing with little dogs and making them cower in their house, hiding from the big voice in the sky. I thought she was recreating Horton Hears a Who, which we watched recently, until she proceeded to inform me that I am the big scary voice of the mean monster coming from the sky. She either missed some significant plot points, or this is a sad commentary on my parenting style of late.

All that to say, I'm emerging from the newborn fog and starting to do actual things and have sequential thoughts. I hope to start sharing some of them with you, and record for my own sake some of the fun, exciting things that are going on at our house.

Birth story coming soon - only six weeks after the fact. Every time I sit down to work on it, my eyelids suddenly become so heavy...weird that the thought of labor and delivery makes me tired, eh? Spoiler: we had a really, really cute baby.

And a picture to reward all your patience and helping me dust off the blog:

I love this photo because nobody is crying, nobody is hitting or kicking, and nobody is even squashing the baby's head. We're happy! We love each other! Quick, take a picture! (They really are crazy about each other; even Oliver is starting to enjoy when his siblings get in his face to talk to him and give kisses.)

Totally unrelated, but I just deleted literally 105 photos from my phone courtesy of my youngest shutterbug (thanks, Isaac). There's something amusing about having seven identical screen shots of "iPhone is disabled, try again in 5 minutes". He knows how to take pictures and screen shots (and prevent me from surfing Facebook for a spell) but at least he can't unlock my phone.

And if you're interested, the granola bar recipe:
http://thechicbrulee.com/2012/02/07/the-best-homemade-granola-bars-ever/