10 on Tuesday - what we've been up to

1.  Wow.  It's been a looooong time since I last blogged.  I'm not even sure where to start.  I'll try to get caught up with what we've been up to but this post might be all over the place.  Just a warning.

2.  One thing we have spent quite a bit of time on this month has been disciplining Aliyah.  Getting her behavior back on track.  I mentioned on here at the beginning of the month (at least I think I did) about how bad her behavior had gotten.  Unfortunately, it got really, really bad and we had to work really, really hard to get our sweet girl back.  Hard work and lots and lots of consistincy and love paid off.  She's been soooo much better the last week.  Hopefully it continues. 

3.  I've also worked really hard at changing our diet.  We all need to eat better, healthier foods but my main focus has been on Kinsley.  I've known for a long time that I needed to cut sugar and junk out of her diet.  Sugar effects her big time.  She is a high energy child to begin with but give her sugar and its a million times worse.  I knew this wasn't going to be easy.  I mean, I LOVE sweets myself so cutting them out is torture for me but it needed to be done.  Don't worry, I'm not going completely crazy.  We still have some sugar, just occasionally and not on a daily basis.  We had Kinsley off sugar and artificial dyes and all the other bad junk for a whole week.  She was a totally different kid.  She was calm.  She listened to us.  She didn't bounce off the walls.  She could sit and focus when I tried to teach her colors, shapes, etc.  Then Easter came and candy was coming from every direction possible and all our hard work went right out the window.  Her reaction to the candy was even worse.  She was just downright hyper crazy.  I'm not going to lie...I was completely and utterly frustrated.  I was stressed all weekend.  I didn't even really enjoy Easter.  Brandon made a really good point.  Easter is a religious holiday, yet candy totally dominates it.  There's something wrong with that picture.  We ended up with a Walmart sack completely stuffed with candy and I had already thrown some away.  Ridiculous.  It's going to take another week to get all that sugar out of her system.  I plan to give her a detox bath and hopefully that helps. 

4.  The hardest part about all the candy at Easter was all the comments from people about how crazy Kinsley is.  Brandon and I keep our mouths shut but there are plenty of times we'd like to snap back at people.  It's frustrating enough to have to deal with the hyperness but people's comments just make it that much harder.  Especially when people make it clear that they don't want to deal with her.  We love her and we want other people to love her as well.  She can't help that her body reacts to sugar and junk the way it does.  And I think a lot of people think her behavior is a lack of parenting, which is also frustrating. 

5.  I've held these feelings in about my sweet middle girl for a looooong time and it feels good to just get it all out there.  I've cried to my sister more than once about all this but have never said anything to anyone else.  Some days I just feel like noone else loves Kinsley or wants anything to do with her :(  She's getting to the age where she's going to start noticing people's actions and comments and it breaks my heart :'(

6.  I have lots and lots of pictures to share from the last month but I don't think I will ever get caught up.  Maybe, but probably not. 

7.  I haven't taken near as many pictures as I would like recently.  Focusing on our diet changes and working on Aliyah's behavior and spring cleaning the house, among other things have taken precedent over my camera.  I'm hoping to change that and get my groove back now that things are calming down around here.  Ha! If there is such a thing as calm....lol.

8.  Aliyah started softball practice today.  I'm excited to watch her play some games.  However, I'm not excited about traveling to other towns for games.  Oh well...

9.  I started a new Mommy-N-Me group at our church.  Today was our 2nd meeting and we had an awesome turnout!!  We had 5 mommies, 1 grandma, and 8 kiddos.  I've got lots of neat stuff planned and I'm excited to get it all going =)

10.  Brandon likes to watch Poker on TV lately.  Totally boring to me, like put-me-to-sleep kind of boring.  He says I wouldn't be so bored if I actually knew how to play Poker.  Maybe he's right but I'm thinking not-so-much.  I mean, where's the drama in Poker?  Really?  I'd much rather watch Biggest Loser or American Idol or Secret Life ;-) 

Ha.  How's #10 for a completely random way to end a 10 on Tuesday post?  Maybe I'll be back with pictures tomorrow.