Life Lately (and Why I Quit Keto)

I had planned to do a life update last week, and I never got around to it.

After staying healthy through all of the Christmas season, we have had someone sick with something ever since the beginning of January. Somehow it makes everything seem just a bit more overwhelming when there’s constant sickness.

March has been a little difficult for me because my dad died last year around this time. He actually died on February 29th, but since last year was leap year, that day didn’t even happen this year.

I’ve noticed that ever since my dad died, I’ve been incredibly busy. And I think that’s one of the ways I managed to handle the pain of losing him. I kept myself so busy that there wasn’t really time to think.

Before you worry that I didn’t allow myself to properly grieve, believe me when I say that I did. Last year around this time was very hard for me. I cried a lot. It was the worst at night when everyone else was in bed. I would find myself standing at the kitchen counter, thinking about Dad and crying over the realization that I would never see him here again.

But I didn’t want to live in that place of grief, so I filled my days with productive activity. It honestly really helped me get through that time in a healthy way, I think. It has been hard, but I’m glad for the busyness of home and family and work.

Looking Forward to Slowing Down

But in general, I prefer a slower pace in life, and I feel happiest when I have plenty of down-time. (In true INFJ fashion. 🙂 )

I’m really anticipating the end of the extracurricular lessons my children have been involved in this year. We decided to do piano for our four oldest children, and our two younger daughters are in gymnastics.

I have loved all that my kids have learned in both piano and gymnastics, and I’m so thankful we were able to do that this year!

My older girls are now able to play beautiful piano pieces, and the younger girls have learned so much in their gymnastics class. It has all been good.

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Everything has been beautiful where we live. The trees are blooming and the daffodils in the woods have pushed through the soil and we’re enjoying their cheerful yellowness immensely.

This weekend the cold weather returned, so my girls brought in an armload of daffodils to save them from getting frozen. I love the way they look in my white Ikea pitcher!

Why I Gave Up On Keto

As you probably guessed by the title of this post, I quit the ketogenic diet I was trying. As I mentioned in my last life update post, after starting keto I was really struggling with my blood sugar. On Trim Healthy Mama, I’ve never had any blood sugar issues, but keto really messed me up.

I just couldn’t sleep at all, and I was waking up in the middle of the night with severely low blood sugar. I was also dealing with insomnia for the first time ever (which I believe was also related to the extremely low blood sugar situation). There didn’t seem to be any point in continuing on, so I’ve just given up and gone back to THM.

My husband, on the other hand, has been doing great with keto, and he’s lost 9 pounds! I’m so proud of him for continuing on and being so self-disciplined. He’s really motivated to gain greater health, and since keto is working for him, I’m happy he’s able to keep it up.

What I’ve Been Reading

I finished reading this book last week, and I really loved it. I feel like I say that about all of Sally’s books, but this one was just really good. I highly recommend it to all moms.

Now I’m reading this book during my devotional time, and I’m starting on this one.

What’s On My Heart

I’ve been feeling really stretched lately as the mom of three teenagers who are all taller than me. Everything is so different now that I have teens!

My three older kids begged me to go to a Christian concert with them, but we knew the younger ones wouldn’t really enjoy it. So, I went with my older ones to the concert, and my husband took the younger two to the zoo. This was the first time they had been to the zoo without me, and I felt a bit emotional about missing the experience with them!

I did ask my husband to take lots of pictures though, and I was really thankful he did that for me. 🙂 It was a fun day for the three of them.

Next week is spring break for our local schools, so we don’t have piano or gymnastics. Yay! I plan to use this time to REST and recharge. I’m also hoping to work on a couple of home projects. Hopefully I’ll be able to share those with you in the coming weeks!

What have you been up to lately?

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