The Saturday 7

1. I survived a whole week of Keto!! (Feel free to scroll past this very long recap if you're not interested.) I absolutely despise it, but I'm sticking with it. 💪 I started on Sunday and immediately had my resolve tested with lunch at Justin's parents' after church. Justin's mom made my absolutely favorite cheese bread, plus hash brown casserole, and two different chocolate cakes!! I ate my meat and veggies and drank water like a good little peasant. The rest of the week has been eggs, meat, cheese, more cheese, almonds, avocados, and a treat of 4 strawberries a day.

We did have some good dinners thanks to Hip2Keto and Pinterest. Monday was chicken cordon bleu casserole. Tuesday was Pull-Apart Pizza Bites made with fathead dough (it wasn't my favorite, but I also messed up the fathead dough recipe, so hopefully it'll be better next time). On Wednesday, I made Mongolian beef and broccoli with cauliflower rice. That was my first foray into cauliflower rice and I was pleasantly surprised! The beef and broccoli was delicious too, but steak is so expensive, and the whole meal was sooo much work. On Thursday Justin had a late game and I was sick of cooking, so he ate the beef and broccoli leftovers. I had a Keto protein bar. Yesterday, I slaved away again and made shredded pork carnitas. It was a ton of work again, but was probably my favorite meal of the week. I ate the meat again for lunch and dinner today!

Honestly, the hardest part has been no sugar. I've spent big bucks on all the various alternatives: Stevia, Swerve, erythritol, and monk fruit, but they all leave that gross "aftertaste" film on the roof of my mouth. I'm already sick of it.

I found a decent alternative for my coffee creamer: a splash of heavy whipping cream, 2 tablespoons of Zero Sugar Hazelnut Coffeemate (I literally measure 2 tb every morning), and 1 tablespoon of sugar free vanilla syrup. I still get the aftertaste, but at least it's sweet and creamy going down.

I don't miss Dr Pepper nearly as much as chocolate. I'm counting down the days until I can eat chocolate again.

But do you know what the worst part of this whole shebang is? Birthday month!!! Birthday month starts Friday and I won't be able to indulge! I'll still be doing Keto on my birthday! The travesty!!! I guess birthday month will have to go from October 16-November 16 this year.

P.S. I haven't weighed myself yet, but I don't look or feel any different. Actually, I do feel ornery and irritable, have struggled through headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. But that's all supposed to get better once all of the ~~joy~~ toxins have left my body and I adjust to eating like Ron Swanson.

2. I started my fall college classes this week. I wasn't going to write about this, because I avoid conflict like the plague (pun - you'll get it in a minute), but I can't help myself. Before I could start my classes, I had to sign a vaccine attestation with details about my vaccination status. Apparently the governor of Washington (where my school is) made a mandate that all college students must be vaccinated. I reached out to my advisor, wondering if the attestation applied to me since I'm attending 100% online ACROSS THE FREAKING COUNTRY, and she said that I do. Unbelievable.

Ok, aside from that, classes are going well for the most part. I'm taking two introductory library classes, Microsoft Word 2, and American history. My history class is going to be intense. The professor sent out a message on Monday with his bio, and then he literally went on to say, "I have been teaching for 23 years. I never wanted to do online classes, but now I have to. I have macular degeneration and can hardly see. This is going to be hard on all of us." Then he proceeded to include a detailed syllabus and 4 page document outlining his pet peeves. 🤦 So he's going to be a real peach, I'm sure. Lol. He also requires a lot. In the first week, we had to read 29 pages from the textbook, go through 4 different power presentations that he uses in physical classes, and watch two videos. I watched the shorter of the two yesterday because it was only 20 minutes. Fortunately I was watching on my phone wearing earbuds because there was a lot of nudity and violence. The second video I'm supposed to watch by tomorrow is an hour and 20 minutes long! When do I ever have that kind of time without my kids around?? Oy.

3. I finally got a new phone this week, and none too soon. On Thursday I kept getting facebook messages from people saying, "I tried to text you, but got a message that you blocked me." First of all, I didn't realize I was that popular. Secondly, what the heck phone?? I could hardly take pictures anymore - usually only in selfie mode - and I had zero service all over the place. So I bit the bullet, switched to Visible, and ordered a new phone. It's some random Chinese brand, but it has good battery life, lots of storage, and takes great pictures. Plus, I finally have service! And this plan has unlimited data, so I don't have to ration my data whenever I'm not on Wi-Fi. #welcometothe21stcentury

4. Levi had a field trip on Wednesday - before my new phone came, so I only took a couple grainy pictures. It was our first real taste of fall, with temps in the 50s. I had to break out the winter coats and hats! Levi was excited to ride the bus, and I met him at the apple orchard.

Of course, apples are on the restricted fruits list for Keto, so I didn't even get to enjoy one. There was also cider and donuts that I resisted. I might just have to stay in my house until I'm done with this dumb diet. Temptation is everywhere!

5. Lena had a much better week of school this week. Thank you so much for your prayers and suggestions. I bought her a gummy version of Gaba/L-theanine. I don't know if it's actually helping or if it's just a placebo effect, but having something tangible that is supposed to take away her anxiety is doing just that for Lena. I've also been more consistent about making her drink her Plexus drink. And we worked through a couple of her main fears. She was finally able to articulate that they have snack before gym class, and when she has to run around and do physical activity immediately after eating she feels like she has to puke - and that starts the whole anxiety spiral. So we decided that since she has gym in the morning, she should just eat a big breakfast on those days and skip her morning snack. So far, it has worked like a charm, and she's not getting too hungry before lunch. Another sure sign that she's overcoming her anxiety is that she went to a friend's house today without me. I honestly don't think she's ever done that before, with the exception of Presley and Harper - who are lifelong friends. But even that was hard for her. She and her friend at school, Leah, have really hit it off this year. And they've been video chatting every day after school. When Leah's mom texted me about having a playdate, I didn't think Lena would go for that. And I had to stay home with Levi today because Justin had an all-day tournament in Holt. But when I asked Lena, she immediately said "yes!" Of course, last night and this morning, she was beside herself with nerves, but she was also so excited. Leah and her mom came to pick Lena up at 11. I could tell she was nervous. She gave me two lingering hugs, but then went on her merry way. And, holy cow, she's going to want to go to Leah's house every weekend from now on. This is what they did:

1. Went to Olive Garden for lunch
2. Went to Claire's where Leah's mom bought Lena a mini backpack keychain and 3 pairs of earrings!
3. Stopped at a pumpkin patch where Leah's mom let Lena buy six pumpkins.
4. Went to Leah's house to paint two of the pumpkins and carve a third (the other three she just sent home with Lena to decorate my porch!)
5. Went for a paddle-boat ride on the lake in the backyard
6. Ate leftover Olive Garden for dinner
7. Stopped at Culver's for a shake on the way home!

Leah's mom is way nicer than Lena's mom. Lol.

6. On Thursday while the girls were at school, Levi begged me all day to do crafts with him. I used to be a good mom who did crafts with my kids, but I'm too old and stressed for that these days. So when he asked to go to the craft store to buy craft stuff, I was feeling guilty and gave in. Of course, I didn't actually take him to Hobby Lobby. We went to Dollar Tree. I figured he could find some little painting kits or something. But while we were driving there, he kept talking about the Halloween crafts he was going to get. I'm not the biggest fan of Halloween. Don't get me wrong, I love the costumes and the candy. But I'm a little wary of the ghosts, witches, skeletons, and spooky stuff. So I don't do Halloween decorations. I decided I'd be fine with him buying a Halloween inspired craft kit. But when we got in the store, he started grabbing all kinds of Halloween decorations and telling me about all his elaborate plans for them. I blame the sugar withdrawals for my fuzzy thinking, but I just went along with it. Lol. Justin and the girls both asked me at separate times what I was thinking. They know I don't like Halloween decor, and they know I don't usually let Levi buy whatever he wants. Haha. I seriously don't know what came over me, but we came home with quite the haul. It was worth it, though, for the hour of peace I got while Levi elaborately decorated outside our house. When I went to take a few pictures today for the blog, he insisted on being in each one. Haha. Enjoy.

He attached glowsticks to the web. They were cool for one night. 🤷

Spider on the mailbox. (He didn't think to cut off the tags, and I don't care enough to do it myself!)

My fave. Lol. Glow in the dark skeleton right on the sidewalk. I'm actually amazed the teens who walk by every day on their way to school haven't stolen it yet!

Trying to imitate this skeleton's contortionist movements in the tree.

He also made a few homemade decorations - like this happy ghost (in a baggie to protect it from rain) with a glow stick.

7. A few more pictures:

Keto lunch: 2 slices of gouda, salami, ham, bacon, avocado, and some ranch to cover the taste of the avocado. (I was pleasantly surprised to learn that ranch is one of the more keto-friendly dressings!)