Welcome to the Party

Just a picture today of my boys partying like rock stars early in the AM. I hope you are all having a great morning (maybe not so early, though).

Day 3 & 4 - I Survived!

Oh, wow...am I ever glad you can't see me through this window to the world. If you could, I think you'd stop to give me a nudge and take my pulse. It has been an interesting couple of days (read here Ben has decided 4AM is a great time to wake up...after two feedings through the night...aaaaaahhhh!!!), so I decided to take a break from the Machine. I hope you understand. On to more interesting things...

I survived! I'm at the end of day four, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. On day three I woke up with the regular headache, but it faded by afternoon with no other symptoms. If I had known it would be this easy, I would have done this a lot sooner. The challenge now has been how to ensure I keep the sugar out of my diet (did you know there is sugar in toothpaste! That just doesn't seem right.). I've been eating fairly simply/rustically, but it has been sooo good. Remember those two pounds I lost? They've been donated back to the Amish butter I've been loving on my morning toast (you can buy a log at the Good Foods Co-op), the grilled pork chops, the roasted chicken with pan drippings, and the fantastic bread from Bluegrass Baking Company (did I mention I had the munchies?). Completely worth it, though.

Now that I've got all this cut out of my diet, I'm on a mission to make this new way of eating pleasurable. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not going to keep this up unless I can find a way to get a treat every once in a while. Life is too short not to love eating. So, I think I should start with ice cream. This could be a mess!

Day 2 - Not So Good

Yesterday was tougher! I woke up with some weird sinus pressure, muscle and joint pain, my kidneys hurt (weird, right?), and I had a wicked case of the munchies (I mean, I ate all day long). I've been drinking tons of water since day one because I knew my body was going to flush a lot of junk, but this is crazy. An unexpected perk of all this is I lost two pounds overnight and all this extra bloating has just disappeared. I'm a little worried about day three, though. It takes your body three days to flush out toxins and the third is always the toughest. I'm waiting anxiously.

Today's Sunday and we're off "church shopping". Wouldn't it be nice if our church home is the first one we visited? Oh, how I would love that! I'm praying you all have a wonderful, restful day at your church home.

Day 1 - Better than Expected

Thanks everyone for your emails/notes/comments of support and for the "What the heck are you doings?" It was great to read all those as the day progressed...and I started to need them.

Well, I can say yesterday went better than expected. I woke up with a killer headache (probably because I ate a ton of sugar and then jumped into bed) but a double espresso and some yummy steel cut oats helped to push me through. I'll have to admit, I didn't miss the sugar until about 2pm when I hit a wall. It was tough going there for a while. The real low point was when the BEM fell asleep in his car seat and I plopped on the kitchen floor (literally laid on the kitchen floor) with Jack Attack just yapping away. We needed a change of plans. Enter fighter jets!

Thankfully, yesterday two F-18 fighter jets landed at the Aviation Museum of Kentucky. Jack loves airplanes, so there was no question what we were going to do. We not only got to see them do a fly-by, but were allowed to go up next to the planes, talk the pilots, touch the planes, and just generally let Jack go crazy for them. It was awesome!

Now, let's see how today goes. I don't expect to see any more fighter jets so this could be tough...

Kicking it in the Tail

Good morning! Last night I enjoyed this wonderful carrot cake I made for my mom's birthday. It was sooo good. If I do say so myself, I'm pretty good at making carrot cakes. This was a particularly wonderful piece of cake because it is going to be the last piece of cake I eat made with sugar. That's right. You heard me. I'm giving it up. The more I'm reading about healthy food, the more bad things I read about refined sugar. So, I'm done. I'm hoping this won't be too hard given that we can't eat soy (allergies) and we don't eat high fructose corn syrup (choice). In case it's not (I can see you all nodding your heads), I'm going to blog about it. I think I'm going to need some accountability.

Even if you think I'm crazy (I think I'm crazy), I challenge you to buy anything made without sugar, or HFCS, in it. You can't find it! I'm serious. Bread? Sugar. Soup? Sugar. Hot dogs? Sugar. Check it out next time you're at the grocery. It's pretty scary how much we consume without even picking up the sugar bowl!

So, I'm off to figure out what I can eat (cardboard anyone?)! Let's see how this goes.

Happy Father's Day

We love you, Papa!

Waiting for Monday

OK...I didn't want to write about this, but what I started to write wasn't working. I stopped, prayed, and this is what came to me. Man, I've been holding this one back because if you didn't think I was off my rocker before, you're sure going to now. My only hope is that it will (again?) change your perspective about the rest you and others NEED. Here goes...

Remember when I mentioned starting with the basics, the Ten Commandments, in a previous post? Like I said before, there are some of those that I don't think I'm following as God intended them to be followed. I was really dropping the ball when it came to commandment #4. Can't remember which that one is? Don't worry, I had to Google it, too. It is:

"Remeber the sabbath day, to keep it holy."
Exodus 20:8

I remember the sabbath day. But keep it holy? Well, I go to church. But, again (like SO many things I read in the Bible), don't stop with what I call the "stuck-in-the-rut Bible verse" (I call it that because we mouth these verses off like they're the answer when there is SO much more). Keep reading:

"Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it
you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter,
your male or your female servant or your cattle or
your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days
the Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all
that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord
blessed the sabbath day and made it holy."
Exodus 20:9-11

I know some of you are saying, "Come on. Give me a break!" And, I have to admit I was just like that before I stopped to think about it. This isn't just a proverb, or an interesting interpretation by a disciple, IT IS A COMMANDMENT. It's up there with "Though shall not murder". That really stopped me in my tracks. This is serious.

Now, I can't define what work is for you (and I shouldn't try!). For some cooking a huge, tasty family meal requiring hours of your day is a joy and a break and for others it's a chore never to be touched on a day of rest. So you're going to have to figure that out for yourself. Be honest, though. This day was given to you to use for rest.

The second part is where I want to draw your attention. It tells us that our servant, family, and guest shouldn't do any work, either. I don't know about you, but I don't have a servant (although, what mom doesn't dream about having one!). What I do have are people that serve me when I'm out at stores, restaurants, etc. While times have changed since this was written, I don't think the message has. Don't make people that serve you work on the sabbath! Simple.

For the Maslowski Machine it means we don't eat out, go to the pool, go to the movies, go shopping, you name it, we're not doing it on Sunday. And, I've tried to break this a few times (after some amazing excuses, justified, of course) with horrible results. I feel that now that this has been shown to me, I no longer "get away" with picking up that one thing because it would be more convenient than waiting until Monday. On the other hand, it has given me the freedom to say, "I'm resting today! It can wait." And, I know it will all work out because this is how God has designed it for us. If we would just wait on Him...