Okay, I need to get serious about moving ahead with the stages. I actually misplaced both my books, and in the busy-ness of life haven't taken the time to review the intro at Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride's site.

I've been eating some fruit. I had citrus on the 29th and 30th and it gave me quite a rumbling tummy. My husband brought home these gorgeous looking navel oranges and I just couldn't stop myself from having some. On stage 5, I am supposed to be avoiding citrus. Whoops. My husband also has been buying strawberries, which are on sale $1 a carton. He has brought home eight cartons! They smell glorious and I ate two on Thursday, about five yesterday and eight today! I think berries are added in after stage six.

I haven't had cooked apple. Two evenings ago I couldn't stop myself from eating salad, which was made with iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, avocado, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar. I am glad to see adding lettuce is on stage 5. I tolerated the salad very well. The peeled cucumber went over well also. I had some raw carrot today. Now I need to add these vegetables raw: tomato, onion, cabbage.

I have all those on hand so will work those in over the next couple of days. So far I have tolerated all foods well. Except the citrus did affect me.

Tonight for dinner I had fresh steamed Swiss Chard from my garden, with steamed carrots, and I made my meatloaf burgers. I need to share that recipe soon, if only to keep from forgetting the recipe myself.

I was thinking a couple of nights ago that even though I don't feel like I have any excess of energy, it is noticeable that when I don't get enough sleep I am able to continue functioning, i.e. I can drive to work without falling asleep, and I can function at work without needing to drink coffee [affiliate link]. I have never been much of a coffee drinker, having learned how easily I become addicted to it when I was a teenager. But throughout my life, I have used it as a pick-me-up, never more than 8 ounces at a time.

It is amazing to think of how many days it has been since I have had certain foods, like pasta… it has actually and really been 119 days since I have had any. No soda, not that I was a big drinker, but I would have an occasional cream soda or root beer, or Dr. Pepper.

My water kefir is pretty tasty. I've been doing a second ferment with slices of fresh ginger [affiliate link] and it is delicious. This last time I dropped in about eight frozen cranberries so there is a bit of a cranberry taste.

My milk kefir grains are multiplying like mad. I have not had any dairy products at all for 31 days. My goal was 6 weeks, so I have 11 more days. After that, I hope to introduce dairy.

I should start with ghee… I still miss butter. I can just taste it.

I actually found myself looking forward to having a kefir smoothie made with fresh strawberries and my kefir made from our raw goat's milk! And I have never been a fan of kefir. Wouldn't it be fantastic, if like the many children on the list turn into such good eaters, my taste buds changed too and I will like sour kefir?

I do seem to notice the strawberries are causing me to eat more.

And I finally broke the seal on the almond butter [affiliate link] that my husband bought me a couple of weeks ago, inspired by Vanilla Almond Butter over at Elana's Pantry. This almond butter was $12.99 normally, on sale for $9.99 and my husband bought me a jar. I couldn't believe it, and wanted him to take it back, but he has not gotten around to it.

I wanted to take a nap today, but decided not to… instead I worked on our income taxes. I doubt that we will be ready to file on the 15th, I will need to file an extension. I just can't seem to make myself get down to business and work on our taxes!

I want to just sit and knit, and watch movies! And I rarely watch television! The last couple of months, it seems like every weekend I end up having to go somewhere, which really wears me out. I need to stay home each weekend, all the days if possible. I am probably needing to veg out and relax because Thursday was a very long day… my friend who has now been delivered of her triplet infants had hoped (and we had both been trying to find a time that worked for the three of us) that I could get photos of her and her husband together with her huge belly. She was put on bed rest for the last couple of weeks, and we decided to just take photos at the hospital! But her hubby couldn't make it for the first photo shoot. Then I emailed her and asked if I could come on Friday, and she wrote me back to let me know they were planning to deliver her at 8am. So… I had been up since 4:15am (thankfully I'd gotten a full eight hours of sleep) but I had to take my son to get his car out of the shop, go home, milk, eat dinner, then at 6:30pm (almost my bedtime!) head back into the big city about 70 miles away. Here is just one of the photos we were able to get. I just love it! 🙂 Anyway, I didn't get home until 11:30pm. It was a long day.

And on Wednesday evening, I found a fantastic surprise in my garden – my Sweet Pea flowers were blooming! These were planted from seeds I'd harvested from last year's flowers, obviously all the seeds that came up were the maroon and purple variety. They smell so amazing.

One evening soon I have to plant my squash and cucumber and tomato plants! Hopefully tomorrow evening. They need to get into the ground.