When I placed my last order for whole grains at www.breadbeckers.com , I noticed that I could also get one recipe's worth of grains for Ezekiel bread.  Years ago I tried the refrigerated version and found it . . .less than appealing, but I've heard that the homemade kind was quite good.  The website also mentioned that it was great as a "fasting bread," like Elijah ate for 200-some odd days during one period.  The recipe calls for honey as well as a great mixture of beans and grains.  So I bought a package of it and have been doing a natural-food diet this week.  Mmmmm!  I've lost 2 lbs in 2 days.  Had a pounding headache the first day and a half, but it's gone away now and I definitely feel better.  The funny thing is that I'm noticing that I'm *not* tired--I'm having trouble falling asleep and wake up quickly in the mornings!  Not a bad side effect!

For dinner Monday night, I went out to my garden and picked snow peas, and steamed them along with four baby potatoes from my friends' garden.  Added a smidge of butter and some sea salt . . .delicious!  Those were the best vegetables I've ever eaten.  Dh is joining me in this so we're having the same thing tonight since he'll be home.  There's something so . . .healthy feeling about eating food you just pulled from the front yard!  This is my first vegetable garden.  I'm loving it!  One of the kids took a picture of me picking peas that afternoon, so I'll try to get it up here sometime. 

I'm also taking part in the Clean Heart, Clean Home challenge put on by Amy at www.homeschoolblogger.com/DandelionSeeds  and loving it.  My house has been in bad shape this year especially, and every time I complete another room it makes me want to cry with relief!  I know my husband is appreciating it, too.  So far I've decluttered and cleaned my yard, master bathroom, living room, kitchen, master bedroom, entry area, and the kids' hall.  It makes me so happy to open those cupboards, my pantry, and closets and see them ORGANIZED!  Oh, I neglected to include the bathroom that belongs to my four boys, which I cleaned with a sponge, scrub brush, cleaning toothbrush, and putty knife (don't ask!)  I actually *used* that bathroom last week and lived to tell about it, LOL!  This week I'm plunging into my laundry room, which is actually the back 1/4 of our family room/former garage.  It's a disaster in there--I don't know if I dare to post a picture of that or not, but suffice to say it's the room I think I'm most looking forward to having FINISHED.  All of our books are in there (overflowing shelves onto the floor), the kids' toys (which they can't find or use at this point), and it's also home to a dead refrigerator, an unused air hockey table, and a rarely-used weight bench (I mean rarely with a capital "R"!)  I think I have the next 3 days to work on the "laundry room" section and then the first 3 of next week to do the "family room" part, so I'm hoping that will do it!

So if you haven't jumped into this cleaning thing yet, give it a try!  For some reason, having a schedule and lists and a deadline is REALLY helping me get these things completed.  I even hunted down some $3 -a -yard, super- discounted Thomas Kincade fabric to *finally* make living room curtains with!  I can sew a straight line, so I figure that's all it really calls for.  I'm sortof making it up as I go along.  How's that for daring??? 

Schoolwise I was burnt out, and so I talked with the woman in charge of our umbrella school and told her that I wanted to drop our curriculum, buy the Test Prep books for CAT tests (which our school does next week), and then if the kids test fine, call it QUITS for the year.  She said "go for it!"  So that's that.  I'm relieved, and desperately need the break to relax, enjoy my kids again, and get into  some serious prayer about what to do next year.  I just can't push myself as hard as I have been.  Time is catching up with me, apparently. 

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!  I really want to blog more often; every day I have at least three things come to mind that I'd love to talk about, but I just haven't made it happen.  Summer will find things  quite a flurry around here, I'll bet!