WILD THING

Yeah, wild with cuteness!

The other day Ruby thought her baby brother needed to be contained. I have to say, I've never thought caging children was cute or even an option, but this has changed my mind. He's cuter than a monkey at the zoo!

Bear In My Belly

growling like the bear in her belly

showing us the bear and where she planned to put the bunnies to get them to the bear...we convinced her that the bear would get bunnies if she put them in her mouth

eating like a hungry bear, too

Ruby: "Daddy! There's a bear in my belly!"

Alex: "What's that?"

Ruby (with a "duh" kind of look on her face): "There is a bear growling in my belly."

Alex: "Why? What does it want?"

Ruby: "Daddy, it is sooooo hungry."

Alex & me: "What does it want to eat?"

Ruby: "Bunnies. It wants bunnies."

Ruby got her Annie's bunny crackers and a big laugh!

DAY 8...The Fast is Broken

Days 6 and 7 were pretty mellow, except for me getting cold on day 6 and not warming up until tonight (After an extended lunch and shopping trip at WFM I was FREEZING for 3 days...me or WFM? We'll never know.) This morning Alex let me sleep in because I wasn't feeling so hot. I didn't wake up until nearly noon and all alone, Alex had taken the little ones to the YMCA (we are discontinuing our membership and of course now he finds time to go...typical). I hadn't had anything to drink, water or lemonade, since last night and I was in bad shape. I was so weak I could barely walk down the stairs. When I got to the bottom all I did was sit there for about 10 minutes. I then crawled to the front entry way and lay on the floor for another 10 minutes. By this time I was completely drenched in sweat, my heart was pounding, and I was FREEZING (not to mention crying...I'm very dramatic). I made it to the couch a few minutes before the family arrived back home (thank goodness they didn't make their planned lunch at McDonald's but came home to eat their leftovers from last night). Alex knew something was wrong, he told me later that I was as white as a ghost when they arrived. He set the kids up for lunch and ran to the corner store to get me some orange juice (what you are supposed to drink for a day to break the fast). So I had about 80 oz. of orange juice today and tried to eat half a can of organic vegan lentil soup for dinner (not the best idea, I should have waited until tomorrow for that). I think I'll be eating just cereal and soup for a few days, at least until the weekend. You would think that maybe after today and not making to 10 days I'd be down on myself and the Master Cleanse, but I'm not. I really think fasting for a week made significant changes in my life and breaking it early was just a sign that I know when to say when. If I didn't have my two beautiful children to look after tomorrow and the next day I might have soldiered on, but I could not see myself for two more days with them alone going through what I went through today. Alex told me that his days 8 and 9 were very similar, that he felt really weak and was good for nothing then (at the time he did it he literally had nothing to do but hang out around the house for the 10 days, much less have kids to pick up and run after). I had to make the right decision for me. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. So, I'll call the Master Cleanse a complete success...who knows if I'll ever do it again, but it has changed the way I look at food and myself.

xoxo

The Master Cleanse...DAY 4 & 5

You totally thought I bugged out on the Master Cleanse because I didn't blog yesterday, didn't you? Well, I'm so glad to say that I am on DAY 5 and feeling awesome! Yesterday was another story...my day just wasn't the best so I didn't feel like blogging or doing much at all. It think day 4 was the hump day that I had anticipated on day 3. Why do I feel so awesome today? Well, for one the eraser that was feared swallowed appeared yesterday afternoon...IN Elvis's after lunch poopie diaper! He DID swallow it and passed it like a CHAMP! I just hope I can keep this house free of little things he wants to swallow WHOLE (yep, the eraser was WHOLE). Anywho, today I'm completely jazzed because I am wearing a pair of shorts that I bought months ago and only wore once. I only wore them once because I very hopefully bought them a little tight thinking I would naturally lose some of my baby weight in the coming months...but didn't. That one time I wore them is probably burned in the minds of every person that saw me that day as one of the most frightening images of their lives! It was bad...I won't go into detail, but you can imagine someone at least 2 sizes too big for something squeezed in without the help of a single shaping garment...it ain't pretty! I am wearing those shorts today without any embarrassing jelly rolls spilling over the waistband and it is even comfortable sitting in them! HELLO MASTER CLEANSE!

So, today is my HALFWAY POINT! I am 1/2 finished with the Master Cleanse! I am so freaking excited that I am actually following through on something I've wanted to do for myself for so long that somehow it has gotten the ball rolling on my LIST. I've been cleaning, doing school with Ruby (that I started earlier in the Summer and just let being 'busy' take us away from it), getting organized! This Master Cleanse is more than a physical body cleanse but seems to be having a cleansing effect on my spiritual & mental body as well. It is really changing my outlook on so much! I think I'll go mostly veggie when I'm done, too...I said MOSTLY.

xoxo

The Master Cleanse...DAY 3 & the Green Eraser

The days keep on ticking by, but not quite quickly enough. I find myself planning what I'm going to have for my next meal not realizing (or all too aware of) that I'm not exactly eating right now. Still not physically hungry...well, that's not true. When I get hungry I just fix a lemonade and that takes care of it. I figured by today I'd be faint, but I have kept my energy. I am a little stressed but no more than on a usual day that my one year old swallows a foreign object. Yep, Elvis got a hold on one of my sister's pencils with one of those add on erasers on it. After a morning of complete insanity trying to coax the 3 year old into "helping" me find the eraser, I am at ease just waiting for it to show up in a dirty diaper or, better yet, randomly finding the eraser somewhere I hadn't thought to look earlier!

So, 1/3 through with the Master Cleanse and feeling pretty darn good...except for my obsessive thoughts of food. I can do this!!!

xoxo

The Master Cleanse...DAY 2

OK. I've made it through another day. By my calculations I am 1/5 through the Master Cleanse! Go me! Today I discovered my weakest point in my daytime eating rituals. . .the kids' naptime. I kept myself busy and upstairs today for naptime because the urge to stuff my face with anything slightly edible was near overwhelming. I'm still not physically hungry, though, and I strangely have tons of energy. We went to our what is now a tri-weekly (but we are shooting for weekly) walk around the lakes with Liz and Bree (ah yes, over 4 miles). I was smart and went to the bathroom before we headed off, but really should have gone when we reached our Church (about the halfway point). With about a mile left my stomach started cramping (yes, the warning before the "cleansing storm")...needless to say we skipped the last loop and headed straight for the park where our cars and the bathrooms are. Wish me luck...

xoxo

The Master Cleanse...DAY 1

This image of lemons makes me happy, something I need today. I'm not really all that hungry drinking only the Master Cleanse lemonade...I just can't get food out of my head. It seems like more of an obsession or addiction than actual hunger. I understand everything that is going on. I KNOW in a couple of days my extreme thoughts of gorging myself on Cheddar Bunnies or Big Macs will subside letting me focus on getting all the crap that has built up for years out of my system. I KNOW in a few days I'll not have any trouble keeping to the plan so I can reach my goal of at least 10 days on the cleanse (hopefully I can make more than that, though) making it possible for me to change my destructive eating habits (also known as having zero self control). So, one day down. This morning after breakfast I was 1/30 toward my goal, after lunch I was 1/15 towards my goal, and now I have completed 1/10 of the cleanse...that's not bad! At this point I'm looking forward to the end of day 3...I have a theory that the first 3 days is a primer...then I'll be looking forward to the halfway point...and if I make it halfway I'm sure all the way will be (I want to say "a piece of cake", but I won't) a glass of lemonade!