Enlightened and Loving It

Most of you know that for the past few months, our family has changed our eating habits to a high-protein, low-carb diet. For us, that means cutting out virtually all grains and starches (Jason has cut them completely, and the kids and I are eating them significantly less) and eating mostly meats, cheese, veggies, & fruit. If you're interested in all the health benefits, check out The Protein Power LifePlan or any of the books by Michael & Mary Dan Eades.

But what I really wanted to show you is this:

Before


After


That's just since April folks.

Our diet change spawned an interesting conversation from Bryn the other day:

B: How will I ever find a boy who doesn't rely on grains?
Me: A what?
B: A boy. Who doesn't rely on grains.
Me: *looks at Jason, who is biting his lip real hard to keep from laughing* Well, I guess you'll just have to teach the boy all about it.
Jason: Yeah, you just bring him around and we'll indoctrinate him. We'll tell him all about it.
B: Yeah. Or we could just show him the pictures of fat daddy and thin daddy!

. . . .

My dad and I took the kids to New York City last week. We wanted to take Jaron to see Yankee Stadium in its last year before they tear it down.

We had a wonderful time! I was a bit worried about walking to our hotel from the stadium in the Bronx after the game, but it worked out alright. And I was so glad to be able to show the kids the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan.

( Here are some pictures )

. . . .

My dad is a WWII buff, and has just finished a big project. Back in Warren, PA (my hometown), there was a young man who knew my grandparents in the early 1940s. He was shipped off to the war, where he died after crashing his plane over enemy lines in Europe.

My dad has spent many months researching what happened to this boy, Vernon, that his family knew. He's just finished writing an extensive article about it, part of which will be published in the Warren, PA newspaper this weekend for Veteran's Day. He did such a great job of telling Vernon's story. There has been volumes written about the War over the years, of course, but I think very few in-depth histories of the individual soldiers who actually fought and what their background and home life was like.

We've put up the whole article with pictures, notes, and original source letters at a new blog, The Vernon Lindberg Story.

If you're interested, please check it out and leave my dad a comment. Great job, dad!

. . . .

The kids and I are off to Pennsylvania for a couple of days with my dad to help my grandmother pack up her house and move to St. Louis. She's been managing by herself so well for years, but now it's time to go. She's going to live with my aunt.

The past few months have been a steady cleaning-out process, with all the grandchildren claiming their pieces of furniture and whatnot (I'm taking the vanity with the round mirror). Some elderly people are very possessive of their things when they come to the point of selling their houses and moving in with relatives or into an old folks home. But not my grandmother. She's never been one to care much about material things. And much to the chagrin of some of my family, she has already given away many heirlooms and sentimental items to friends or just thrown them away. That's just how she is. I'll admit it would be nice to have a little bit of that outlook on life myself sometimes. People hang on to too many things that they don't need.

My grandmother is the last of my family to still live in Warren, the small town where I grew up. I feel a little sad knowing that this will probably be the last time I go there (or the last time before her funeral, if she is buried there). I thought I should probably go around and visit all the old haunts one last time, see my old house, visit my old schools, that kind of thing. But then I thought, why? Why would I want to replace all the memories in my head with pictures of how differently the places look now?

But I'm taking my camera anyway. I haven't decided what I'll do yet.

. . . .

No, none of these things took 10 seconds to do. If they had, everyone involved would have been much happier. It's just a random list of significant things.

1. Babies! Jason's sister gave birth to Gracey, the first cousin to be born on his side of the family, on Aug. 20. Fifty hours of labor followed by an emergency C-section. (See? Not 10 seconds)

2. Babies! My brother and his wife gave birth this morning to Josiah by scheduled C-section (more than 10 seconds, less than 50 hours). He is the third cousin on my side of the family.

Both babies were 8 lbs. 10 oz. (cool, huh?) and all are doing fine.

3. Drugs! I stopped at Eckerd on my way home to get some Sudafed (see yesterday's morning post). When I got to the Sudafed aisle, there was a little tear-off pad for all the different types of Sudafed that said "take this slip to the pharmacy to purchase this product". So, I took the slip to the pharmacy to purchase the product, where I had to show my driver's license, write down my address, and sign for it! Seriously? For Sudafed? What's up?

4. No kids! My parents have whisked the kids off to some kind of Scouting/Caravan program at the church near their house for the evening, which is lucky for me because I'm about to keel over from exhaustion. Time for some homemade Mulligatawny Stew (which is one of the 22 freezer meals I made last weekend, and which also took more than 10 seconds) and a movie.

. . . .

Did you know that the post offices and the banks are closed today? Grumble. Though I am enjoying my last day of vacation.

When I was a teenager, my dad controlled the television. We had one very large console television in the living room and a small, 7" black & white set in the kitchen. I distinctly remember one Sunday evening, my dad saying that it didn't matter that the four of us wanted to watch a show because he was watching the game on the big tv. I remember my mother, my two brothers, and I crowded around the kitchen table, craning our necks to see that little 7" tv. I can't remember which show we were trying to watch, but it must have been good.

My husband has a laptop. He is a classic multi-tasker, so he's usually working, surfing, watching, listening, and/or chatting, several hours a day. That thing goes with him everywhere. He even brings it to the dinner table sometimes, which drives me bonkers. I have a desktop computer that I share with the kids. They use it mostly to play games, but during the day (especially vacation days like today) I have to sandwich myself in between them to update my blog or enter some receipts or check my flist. Today Jaron played for a couple hours, now I'm on for an hour or so, then Bryn has called it after me.

And people wonder why I'm always on the computer between 10pm - 2am. No competition! Gotta go, Bryn wants to play My Little Pony.

ETA: the good news is that Jason bought me a new battery for my iPaq for Christmas, so now I can write on that with the little foldout keyboard. It's so cool.

. . . .

In my last post, I neglected to mention a couple people, and would be remiss if I didn't rectify the situation post haste!

gmsieling: I forgot that Gary has an LJ login, even though he really blogs here. Gary is a computer-science major who has also attended my church for a couple years. He is the quietest, most unassuming guy you'll ever meet, but if you look beneath the surface, there's this whole fascinating world that he's created for himself. He builds castles, spins his own yarn, and a host of other things that can be found at his blog aptly titled "The Secret Life of Gary."

Daddy Jim, or more often, "Anonymous": This is my dad. He doesn't have a blog and hasn't quite gotten the hang of signing his comments, but he's getting better. He is retiring from 38 years of teaching public school music this year and my parents are building a house and moving to Rochester this summer. We're looking forward to having them closeby!

. . . .

Ah, camping in the Maine woods. Well… camping in an RV in the driveway of my mother-in-law’s house somewhere near the Maine woods. That’s the same thing, isn’t it?

We stopped for two days in Mapleton, ME, where Jason grew up. For those who don’t know, Mapleton is very far north, about ½ hour from the Canadian border. Thus our trek through Canada to get there. Total driving time from Rochester, about 14 hours.

Unfortunately, Jason’s mother did not happen to be home during our visit, which we found out via cell phone about 10 min. before we arrived. But that is another story for another day. Nevertheless, we had a great time visiting with her boyfriend, Jim, and riding his 4-wheeler through potato fields. The kids even got to steer by themselves! Jaron proclaimed it the coolest vacation ever.

Surreal moment of the day:
Yesterday we had lunch with some old friends at their house. Afterwards, the kids were outside and noticed that the neighbors had a trampoline in their yard. There were two boys playing on it, and we asked if we could join them. One of the boys, a about 8 yrs old named Michael, was very nice and let the kids have a turn.

After we left, we stopped at a local park to let the kids play at the playground. After a while, I noticed that the boy with the trampoline was also there with his family. “Hey look,” I said, “there’s that Michael kid we played with.” Jason noticed that the older woman that Michael was with, a short stout woman with black hair drawn up into a bun, looked kind of familiar, but couldn’t place her.

As we were leaving the playground later, Jason noticed a man with a large camera talking to another man, apparently getting ready to do some photographing. Jason said, “Oh my gosh, that’s my Uncle Kevin!”

Uncle Kevin is Jason’s dad’s youngest brother. He still lives in Presque Isle, but we haven’t seen him probably since our wedding. Jason went up and said hello to a very surprised Uncle Kevin. Kevin said, “Did you see Mary? She’s over there with the grandkids.”

That’s right. Mary was the stout woman Jason had seen and Michael was one of the grandkids. To everyone’s surprise and delight, we were able to have a little family reunion there in the middle of the park, and introduce the kids to their great aunt and uncle, and second cousins. Jaron kept saying, “I was playing with my cousin and I didn’t even know it!”

Such is life in Northern Maine.

This morning, Jason preached at church where he grew up, State Road Advent Christian. It was great to see lots of old friends and worship with them. Though I’d forgotten that drowsy feeling you get during a 20 min. testimony time and pastoral prayer, and the headache you get from trying to follow a transparency that keeps moving up and down because the 12 yr old running it wants to make sure that whatever line you’re singing is at the very top of the screen. I definitely prefer the kind of worship we do at Artisan.