January Random

Thanks for the Christmas wishes everyone!

BTW, I haven't taken down my Christmas decorations yet.  How about you? Are yours all packed away until next year? If so, please call and come on over....I need help. Family was here until last weekend and darn it....I am just not inspired to do it yet!  At this rate it might just be February before I am ashamed enough to tackle the mess.

Speaking of family, since we aren't often all together I made sure we took photos of ourselves the Sunday after Christmas.  That is my mother and father in the middle. Three of the kids belong to my oldest son, seven belong to my next son and two belong to my daughter. My youngest son's girlfriend joined us this year.

I just started shopping for a new sofa last weekend. I want something like this in a soft gray.

I'm so in the mood to re-do everything. 

Do you Pinterest yet?   I love browsing though everyone's boards. I get so much inspiration from all the photos, recipes and projects pinned.  If you would like to see what I'm pinning you can find me here http://pinterest.com/steviewren/ .

I found this sweet outdoor space on Pinterest yesterday. I'll probably never have the opportunity to build something like this in my backyard....but a girl can dream can't she?

Have you seen this movie?  If you haven't do yourself a favor and go. I love Victor Hugo's story of mercy and redemption. I admit it. I sniffled through the last 15 minutes.

Tomorrow night Rachel (daughter) and I are going to see the Hobbit. Can't wait!

Last summer, I found a new doctor who uses diet as well as traditional medicine to heal. After some tests, it was determined that I had a number of markers pointing towards a Candida Yeast overgrowth.  The reason I made the appointment with this doctor was because I felt so bad....so, so bad. I'd been getting continually worse for a couple of years. Fibromyalgia, pain in my legs, arthritis, lethargy, not able to think as clearly as I had a few years earlier....I typed up a whole page of symptoms I had.

I started the diet which is the only real way to get the overgrowth in check. For those of you who have never done it, the diet is brutal until you get used to it. And getting used to it took about 2 1/2 months for me. It is a very low carbohydrate diet. You are allowed to eat meat, fish, some nuts, eggs, some variaties of beans, anything green, any low carb veggies, lemons, unsweetened cranberries, cold pressed oils and coconut. Drinks are restricted to water and herbal tea. No condiments, no sugar, no grains, no potatoes corn or rice, no coffee, no cokes, no dairy except plain yogurt are allowed.

Here is a link to a site that lists the symptoms. http://www.candidamd.com/candida/symptoms.html You can find many other online sites that might help you understand it, if you think you might have it.

So here I am 5 months later and 60 lbs. smaller. This is the upside of the diet....besides feeling SO much better. The recommendation for the diet is to adhere to it strictly for 3 months. I'm trying to stay on it until the summer. I still have a ways to go on the weight loss. I want to lose at least 40 more lbs., maybe more.

I would show off a photo of the newer and improved me...but the best one I have is the family photo at the beginning of this post.

Creative wise I'm not doing so good, the exception being the granny square afghan I work on while watching television. Between work and having to cook all my meals, thanks to the diet,  I can't find enough time to accomplish much.  That is another reason I love Pinterest. I browse and dream about all the projects I'd like to be working on.

Since this has been a long and random post anyway, I think I'll add a few more random images that I like from Pinterest before I close.

I think this sums up why I'm on a diet. 

No explanation needed. 

You know how I love a face!

Happy New Year from A Little Birdie!