AWOL

What does it mean when I don't 'find any time' to write on the blog for over two weeks?  Well, for one thing it means that the month of 'break' is over and now half my day is taken up with overseeing the boys' lessons.  We had gotten into some bad habits of doing very short days of lessons, and I was determined as we started this new 'school year' to nip that in the bud and get back to doing a good, solid morning...and in Primo's case, right on into the early afternoon, of book work.  It's going better than I anticipated, I know eventually I'll get some foot-dragging and complaint over the increase in their work, but for now it must feel novel and interesting to them, because they aren't complaining a bit.
Somehow, I can't remember ever feeling so uninspired creatively-- not even in the cold, grey tail end of winter!  I've been knitting a little, a very little, just enough that I can tell myself I haven't fallen down on my craft challenge.  I don't know what it is-- in this blooming, burgeoning season I ought to be buzzing with ideas.  Instead, I'm just biding my time, reading a lot about food (more on that in a minute) and wishing I could start my garden but instead having to wait until we trap and relocate the groundhog living under our shed.
I'd been thinking more about food and health than usual anyway, as I count calories and keep a food log (on the LoseIt! app, which I love and highly recommend) trying to lose the last 15 pounds of baby weight.  Then a chance conversation with my dear friend Ariel about the Paleo diet had me hitting up the interlibrary loan for the books It Starts With Food and Eat Like a Dinosaur, the first of those is more radical in terms of what is considered 'good' food-- no grains of any kind, no sugar, nothing that even mimics grain or sugar, only certain oils and fats, no dairy, and lots of high-quality (not factory raised) meat, and (mostly) organic vegetables and fruits.  Next I picked up Year of No Sugar, a memoir of a woman who (along with her husband and young daughters) spent a year eating very little sugar. 
At first I was convinced, and warned the family that I might ask them to radically change what we eat for a little while.  As the days passed, though, I calmed down and realized that we would never be able to stick to any really radical plan, we're just not that kind of family and I in particular am not that kind of mom.  However, I've started thinking more about what we eat, and just how many of our meals consist of a grain and some dairy.  Without cutting anything out of our diets at all, I've started making little tweaks to our meals and snacks to reduce the amount of sugar and flour that we're eating (somehow I can't wrap my head around giving up dairy, though).



(artichoke & spinach sandwich spread for Snorzy-- without the cream cheese, parmesan, and regular (sugar-containing) mayo, this wouldn't be so delicious!)


So, that is what's been going on for the past couple of weeks since I last wrote-- not a whole lot.  I hope my inspiration comes back soon, I know there is nothing I can do to force it-- one day I'll just wake up brimming with plans.