happy weekend

Does anyone read blogs during the summer? Or ever anymore? Sometimes I wonder. But I realized long, long ago, that recording my life here was for me and not for anyone else. And so, two weeks into our summer vacation, I thought it was time for a little update.

Last week, I babysat my four nieces and nephews (for a few days by myself, even, while Mike was away at a youth conference), and which included a baby and a three year old. So this week, naturally, has been about recovery. :) We've napped, we've read, we've gone to the pool, we've reveled in the quiet. And as per usual after something stressful, I got sick. Head colds in the summer are so uncalled for.

But I wanted to tell you about two things.

One: Mike, Oliver, and I are in the middle of a 30 day sugar and white flour fast. We're not eating any added sugar. No honey, no syrup, no fruit juice, no artificial sweeteners, etc. After the first couple of really bad headaches (although that could have been attributed to minding 8 children), I started to feel fantastic. I have more energy, I am never bloated, and food has never tasted so good. Honestly, Oliver and I ate some strawberries the other day that I swear were the sweetest, most delicious things we'd ever put in our mouths. I'd like to keep this up. I'd like this to be how I eat for the rest of my life (with some special occasion sweets thrown in from time to time, of course). It feels right to me. For the past year or so, I've had some really weird digestion issues, and they have totally cleared up since I removed sugar from my diet. Now I'm not a doctor, obviously, so I'm not saying that giving up sugar has cured me, or anything. But I can tell you that I feel terrific when I eat this way.

Two: If you are a parent, please read Leonard Sax's new book, The Collapse of Parenting. It probably deserves it's own post, but I'll quickly tell you why I feel it is so important. Before I started the book, I felt pretty confident in my ability to parent. I knew I would agree with a lot of what Dr. Sax had to say, and I did. But Mike and I are about to enter a new world in parenting: the high school years, and I felt completely unprepared for them. This book reminded me that the most important things I can teach my children are to have humility and self-control, that family time should be held above all else, that I need to have fun with my kids and help steer their interests, and that it's ok to maintain high standards even if they are unpopular. And to turn of the devices, for goodness sake! I'm not exaggerating when I say that it brought me to tears more than once. It resonated deeply with me, and Mike and I have made some course corrections since we read it.

I hope your summer is going well. Have a happy weekend!