SATURDAY SUMMARY

The day began early with Mike and the older 3 boys heading out for the paint ball fields on base. (See Story below). The younger kids and I picked up around the house a bit. We then all drove out to the paint ball field to visit with spectators and snap a couple of shots. We had the field reserved from 9-11 a.m. and a couple of squadrons had the place after us. Mike was the chaplain for one of the squadrons and was invited to stay so the boys and he stayed and played a few more hours of paint ball. They were sore on Sunday. {G}

Meanwhile, the younger four and I ran to the commissary. We were armed with a healthy recipe for Minestrone from the La Leache League cookbook. Our goal was to buy ingredients and rush home to start it simmering. We made enough to have some for us, a gallon to take to a friend who just had a baby and another meal’s worth in the freezer. We found all but the barley at the commissary. This meant we needed to visit another store. Albertson’s had red grapes on sale for .88 a lb…so we tried there.

I realized that taking Zander into a grocery store makes the Feingold program much more difficult. He’s been without lots of overtly “bad” foods for two weeks, and is doing fairly good on the program. We’ve noticed changes. He’s more in control of himself. He’s 90% potty trained. However, seeing the chips and Oreos and such reawakened his desire to EAT them. I did buy a package of Oreos for our ice cream.

By the time we arrived at Albertons I was tired, grouchy and ready to be home. We pulled into the parking lot and I began to unload children. Zander immediately noticed a big red motorcycle in the parking lot. I told him to stay right by the van and went to get Stacia into the sling. Turned around and he was ON the cool motorcycle. Ugh. We DID buy our grapes and find barley.

We arrived home and were unloading groceries when Mike and the boys showed up. Jamin and Mike helped chop veggies for the soup, Cy got ready for work and we progressed. With the soup simmering we began to make some “healthy ice cream”. (See story below). We delivered the soup, ate our own, ran four little ones through the bath, ironed clothes for Sunday, finished lesson prep for Sunday and wearily called it a day around 11:30 p.m.

We did let Zander have one Oreo. This was off the program but certainly better than his former habit of sneaking the whole BAG of Oreos for himself. He seemed satisfied with one. I’m not sure how he’ll handle Sunday treats now that he’s been so deprived all week. {G}