Life is changing so quickly. We only have a week left in our little home now. It is less of a home at this point than a cardboard box maze. The boys are loving it, Frankie especially. He loves to find a cozy spot amongst the piles of boxes waiting to be filled. I am constantly worried that I will accidentally tape up a box with him in it. Who knew that packing could be so complicated?

To be honest though, I really do love moving. I find it cleansing, especially the part where I get rid of things. I suppose I enjoy it because we moved so much when I was young. Now that I am the adult and responsible for packing more than just my teddy bear, it does seem a bit more daunting. However, I do find joy in it. This morning for example I stumbled upon all of the ticket stubs and photographs I had saved from my very first trip to South Africa. The trip where I met and fell in love with my husband. I had so many good intentions of putting them into my little scrap book. One day they will make it there, but for now they are safely packed... right next to our sleeping fur ball.

 

Nona and Riley having a look at the waves. Riley has a tough wrap. He is known in our family as Cryley. He is, sensitive. Just about everything makes him cry, but this weekend he was a complete joy to be around. Sure, there was the occasional fuss. But, for the most part he was all smiles.

My my travels are so exciting, it is true. The one down side is that when I am gone I miss all of the little adventures that my little Riley and Priya experience. So, for now I will just soak everything up. Who knows, we may end up back at Davis!

I ask her why she thinks her mom wants a portrait of her. What does she want to capture? She tells me it is because her mom wants to torture her. I tell her I totally get where she is coming from, but that I spoke to her mom and it was something quite different. You see, her mom doesn't have any pictures of herself when she was a little girl, and is unable to show her what she looked like when she was little. Her mom adores her little girl. In fact, this little girl reminds her so much of herself that she wanted to be able to hold onto these moments forever. Just as she is now. So when she is a mom and she takes her little girl for a portrait, she can show her these images and tell her all about why it is so important to capture the precious memories of youth.

And those are the images that she will show her own children one day and remember how much she loved their grandma.

Monica is so little she is always on her tippy toes. So cute.

Monica and Ben will be getting married in June, a sweet little wedding and reception at their new home.

My new years resolution this year was to purchase Peter Reinhart's book 'The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Master the Art of Extraordinary Bread' and cook my way through it. I think New Years resolutions get a bad wrap. People say they don't like resolutions for one reason or another, but me, I love them. They give me a chance to come up with all of the things I have been wanting to do but putting off. I pick my favorite 'thing' and go with it. I usually get pretty far. It is fun to look back and see how well I have done. Well, this year I made it all the way until January 3rd. Pretty good right?

You see, I have suffered my entire life with GERD. You can look it up HERE. Basically, I don't remember a time in my life when I didn't have a horrible burning in my chest. Heartburn plagued me day and night, sometimes it was so bad that I couldn't sleep. I have gone to numerous doctors who put me through numerous tests and have tried every medication possible, but there was never any relief.

Good news though, I have been cured! Bad news, my new years resolution is kaput. My darling husband was looking through various resources and came across a discussion on the Paleo diet and GERD sufferers. As it turns out, there are many many people who have lived their lives with GERD and after switching to this diet all of their symptoms have gone away. So, if figured I would try it. I would try ANYTHING. You are probably wondering what this diet is. Well let me tell you:

None of these foods
grains
dairy
legumes
processed food
artificial foods
soy
sugar

Lots of these foods
meat (try to keep it lean)
nuts and seeds
fruit
vegetables

Minimal amounts of these foods
alcohol (no beer or grain base alcohol)
honey and maple syrup
dark chocolate

Basically they say, anything that a cave man would have had access to is free game. It looks like fun right? No. But, since nothing else has worked I thought I would give this a try. At first I was pretty sure I was going to die without a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. However, after the initial pity party was over, I did not feel like I was missing much. After two weeks my heartburn had lessened quite dramatically. And now, it has been a month and I have been heartburn free for about a week and a half. It is so strange, I am so used to always having that burning in my chest, and it is just gone. I spoke to my doctor and she said that I am probably intolerant to gluten. I am not sure why they did not think of that to begin with, but there it is.

So, here I am with no more New Years resolution, but I am healthier for it. If you know me, you know that I LOVE to cook. And I have a bit of a sweet tooth. So, I thought I would share my new favorite snack that is gluten, dairy, legume, sugar and soy free. It is a-mazing.

Lemon Coconut Balls

Put one cup of raw almonds through a food processor. Do the same with 1 1/2 cup of dates. Put the dates and the nuts in a bowl along with the seeds of one vanilla bean, 1/4 tsp salt, the zest and juice of 1 lemon and 1 cup of unsweetened coconut. Mix it all up really well and form into balls and keep in the fridge.

Scrumptious.

It looks like life has decided make a mockery of my resolution. But, I am ok with that. I will take a gluten free life to esophogeal cancer any day!