The Keto Project - Day Three

I know, I know. Where is Day Two? I said I'd update daily, and I've already failed. But I had a good reason - promise.

My daughter flipped over a basketball and landed on her forehead. Why didn't she break her fall, you ask? Go ahead, because it won't offend me...I thought the same thing. Right after I thought, "Oh, God...what's wrong with her now." If you've ever parented a middle-school girl, you may know what I'm talking about. I mean..CRAMPS! HEADACHES! BRUISES (from gymnastics and cheering and dancing)! It's unending.

Anyway, I got off track. Why didn't she break her fall? She said she didn't want to break a wrist. Wrist...brain...hmmmm. Thank goodness for the healing power of the young body, as she's pretty much back to normal after a rough 24 hours.

Anyway, today is Day Three, and I have to say, this is probably the easiest diet I've ever tried. I'm not really hungry. No cravings. Heck, I get chocolate every night! The food is delicious...so delicious. Tonight's dinner was Cheesy Chili Spaghetti Squash Casserole, and oh. my. yum. And it's REAL FOOD. And...the scale has already moved!

More later, hopefully....until then:

Weight change: - 1.5 pounds (yippy!!)
Exercise: Zilch. I had to wake up my girl up every hour last night, so there was no way in tarnation I was going to climb on that bike this morning.


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She's been healed!

2:30 this morning I hear my princess get up for a drink of water. She went back to bed, but was thrashing around. A lot. "Mama? My tummy hurts and I think I'm going to pu_____." (Insert retching noises here).

That's how my day started. How about yours?

At 7:15, we left to take the boy to school. Princess was holding a bowl in her lap. Thankfully, it didn't get used in the car.

By 8:30, we were home again (I had to go by the post office and pick up the mail, then drop it to work). And she was fine. Six hours of gastritis, followed by a day of cheerfulness. Of course I couldn't take her to school at that point, because of the 24-hour rule all parents whose children go to school or daycare are familiar with.

So we watched a movie. Played Sorry. Played Hide & Seek. She took two baths. We read 7 books. Picked up the boy at 4 (school ends at 2:45, but he has Good News Club on Tuesdays and didn't want to miss).

I am exhausted.

But as I was putting her to bed tonight, reading Horton Hears a Who, she looked up at me and said, "Mama, I can't WAIT for school tomorrow!"

And neither can I.

The prince is in his second skating for hockey class. The first was over spring break (EASTER VACATION!!!!) and he didn't feel he was ready for the summer season of inline hockey. So now he's in this class each evening to prepare him for the fall season. It's awesome! While the earlier class had some high schools students working with them, this time they have a real coach. The class is made up from tiny guys (I'm guessing age 4 or 5) up to about 12. All the way from little ones who'd never skated before being towed along by grownups by a hockey stick to some kids a bit better than Jake. Not much though, because, of course, my son is the most active, agile, and cool kid out there. Ahem.

He's doing really well. They've learned (in two short days) pivot turns, skating backwards, speed skating, and stuff that I don't even know what it's called.

This is so much fun! I'm loving it. I always dreaded being the "soccer mom" because I don't really like a lot of sports. I like baseball and hockey. That's pretty much it. My stepdad grew up in Canada, and played ice hockey, so I grew up watching it, and I actually understand all the rules. Thanks to two patient ex-boyfriends, I have a good understanding of baseball, and really enjoy a live game, though I'm not crazy about watching it on TV. Soccer and football are mysteries to me. I've tried. I've read all the little cheat books for women. It just doesn't stick. They just don't make sense to me. Although there was one summer in my early 20s my girlfriend and I visited a few soccer games, JUST. BECAUSE. THE. HOT. GUYS. LOOKED. HOT. Sorry, about that - I was shallow then, okay? Give me a break.

But hockey is so much fun. It's fast. The rules are clear. And it's a great sport - they play indoors, they can play year round, and THEY WEAR A LOT OF PROTECTION! These things make a mom's heart swell.

Last night we're driving home, and discussing the upcoming season. He's got most of his equipment already, but not all. He needs a mouthguard, and a....I think it's called a cup. So, he knows what a mouthgard is - he's seen the bigger kids with them. But cup? What's that? Well, it's sort of a protective thing boys wear under their clothes... What does it protect? As I'm trying to gauge the most age-appropriate response (since his little sister is also in the car), he figures it out all on his own. His eyes grew huge. "You meant it covers my weiner?" Yes, son. "Why?" To protect it, so it doesn't get hurt." I could tell that he hadn't yet considered this monstrous possibility.

"Uh, mom?" "Yes?" "Can we get one tonight so I have it before I go back?"

We are Family

So, Sunday night Nate was talking about family. This hits me hard. Family has always been - well, foreign to me.

Both my parents came to this country before I was born....my mother with her parents and younger sister, all of whom died before I was born. My father came over with his first wife and daughter (his wife died when my half-sister Victoria was 15). His two brothers and a sister all joined him here - Uncle Costia in Los Angeles, where he was music director for RKO (not far from my dad's work at Columbia), Aunt Nadia taught voice in LA, and Uncle Vladya and Aunt Julia ended up in Pittsburgh, where he headed the symphony orchestra. But close they were not.

My father died when I was two. My mother remarried a man who was a wonderful father to me when I was four.

And then when I was ten, my mother died. I've dealt with the outcomes and emotions from this all my life. Hope Edelman even interviewed me for her book, "Motherless Mothers." If you're a woman, and you lost your mom during the years your personality is still forming, it effects you in profound ways.

Unfortunately, my stepfather didn't deal well with this loss, and drank himself to death in about three years. I ended up in foster care, as an OWNAO (pronounced O-NOW). Orphaned with no adult relatives. Not really true. I had two half-brothers from my mother's first marriage who were both adults, and my half-sister, Victoria. But due to strained relations between my stepfather and all of them, I hadn't seen any of them in years.

We did later reunite - but my brother Tony died in 1991 and my sister in 1994.

When I adopted my wonderful kids, I really had no idea if I knew how to be a mother. I know that lots of women feel this way, but it was almost paralyzing to me. Okay, maybe I could mother them when they are little, but what about after they are 10? I don't even have an example.

But I do.

The women that have mothered me along the way (even though some are younger than I) have taught me so much. And I am surrounded by friends that have become family to me. And God leads me, and comforts me, and loves me.

So maybe I can extend my arms and do some more mothering. I've mothered my stepdaughter Jeni since she was 14 (25 now, and on her own in San Francisco). But maybe there's a Life Group that needs a mother. I'm doing okay with the munchkins. And I still have time and love to mother more.....

Anyone at the Stirring need a good home-cooked meal????