• About Us
  • Rules for Comments

The Nelson Chronicles

~ Family, Marriage, Adoption

The Nelson Chronicles

Category Archives: Family Life

Diets and Doggies

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by Dan Nelson in Adoption, Dogs, Family Life, Paleo

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Adoption, Dog Adoption, Paleo

We did the paleo thing, and to moderate success. It was great… while it lasted. I lost weight, I felt better, but once the holidays hit, I couldn’t stick with it. There’s just too much good food laying around. Food that only comes once a year. So come Christmas Eve, we had great food, and some left. The with Christmas Day, we had great food, and even more left. So I extended the paleoless period until after the new year, and after four false restarts, remain paleoless to this day.
The biggest reason is the problem with my brain feeding me lies and the rest of my brain me agreeing with it. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind something whispers… “It’s so hard…”  and the new the rest of my brain, in the voice of Forrest Gump says, “Oka-ay.” and I give up on the paleo plan. Then the one part if my brain (we’ll call it the Lie Center of the brain- everybody has one) says, “We’ll start this over tomorrow.”

The rest of my brain knows this is a lie, of course, but unfortunately doesn’t care enough to do anything about it. But I’m trying. I’m rallying the rest of my brain to overcome the Lie Center. (Yes, there is a sermon in there somewhere.)
I’ve decided to follow a simpler eating plan. Shannon will keep on a more paleolike plan. Benny will stick with the low color low wheat low dairy plan we have been doing.

Now. Dogs. We have a dog. We always said well never have two dogs again. So 1 dog, 2 rabbits, and a cat later, we’re going to get another dog.
Now let’s be clear. I do not adopt animals. I understand the idea behind this. I get to the whole Take Care of Your Animals thing and I Love My Schnauzer concept. But I don’t adopt animals. I’ll play along, and signed “adoption papers”  when I got the cat, but there is a serious problem when we equate animals with humanity. I adopt children. They become a part of my family. They become a part of my inheritance. My dogs, love them as I do, get nothing when I die.
For the majority of human history, we had dogs for reasons beyond just a friend to hug. We used them for working, for security, for pest control control. We still do. We used police dogs because should something bad happen, it is better that a dog should fall rather than a man.
Ultimately, adopting animals does more than raise the level of dogs, it lowers  humanity. I can’t go there.
But we got us a dog. We’ve got to wait 3 agonizing weeks while the “little” thing gets weaned from its mama.
We chose it for its size, for its gentleness and personality. So be looking for lots of pictures soon, probably of it sleeping in our bed, or in the middle of other family activities.
Out task now is to come up with a name. Oh, the options for names!  We’ve got a list of names on the chalkboard trying to decide. Nutmeg? Olive? Ginger? (Are those paleo foods?) Lucy, Maggie, or Olga? Stay tuned.
As Nafe would say, “We’re sikey.” (That’s “excited,” for those not in the know.)
image

image

Spread the Word:

  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Like Loading...

Yeah… About That Paleo Thing

13 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by Dan Nelson in Family Life

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Adoption, Mexican Cheese Dip, Paleo Diet, RAD, Reactive Attachment Disorder, Russian adoption

It has been thirteen harrowing days since we embarked on our Paleo diet, and I think I owe an update.
Since November 30, We the Parents have not had any sugar, grain, or dairy.  Well, almost.  Our ancient ancestors had some Mexican hunter and gatherer friends- who had hunted and gathered their way north.  They weren’t actually Mexicans, of course, since Mexico hadn’t been invented yet.  But they had already mastered cheese dip, and so my ancestors made a weekly trip (some would call it a pilgrimage) to get some pre-Mexican cheese dip.  We, of course, have to keep up that tradition. It’s in our DNA.
Anyway, the past thirteen days have been great.  It has gone very well.  For the adults, we feel better.  I’ve lost 10 pounds.  I can think clearly.  I can look at a plate of cookies and just walk on by.  Remember, freedom isn’t the ability to do whatever we feel like doing.  Many an alcoholic, and sugar-holic (and, yes, Dew-aholic…there’s no freedom there for me yet) have fallen into that trap.  Freedom is the ability to not do things that cause us harm.  So I am FREE when I am not compulsively required (by the constraints of my sugar-intoxicated brain) to do certain things.  Like eat a plate of Christmas cookies just because they exist.
I have had a wonderful 13 days.  I hope to continue this.
Now for the children. After the initial anger and not getting Our Daily Ration of two bowls of Lucky Charms, the kids are fine.  Seriously, they’ll eat whatever we put in front of them. (Except one).  So their transition wasn’t too bad.  They aren’t really on the same diet as us (except one), so they get grains and a little (make that a LITTLE) sugar.  They also get lots of stuff like fruit and fresh vegetables. They are doing just fine.
Now, for the other one. How is he doing?  Well, we (the parents) have  a way of not actually trying one thing at a time.  We usually go and try 2 or 3 or 11 changes all at once, so when something helps we aren’t quite sure what was behind it.  We took him to the chiropractor, and we did the diet, and we changed medicine around.  And we have, for the first time since that day back in September 2010… a pretty normal child.  A child who plays with siblings.  A child who cries when sad.  A child who does not threaten to kill us and take out all our blood.  Everyday.
We have tried Many Things (Occupational Therapy, Medicine, Eating Special Cheese, Trying to Go to Special Preschool, Going to See the Psychiatrist, Behavior Therapy, Music Therapy…I’m sure there’s more I have forgotten). And everything has helped…um, not much. There have been certain things that have been more helpful than others, but it has been a difficult 2 years. But. For the last week, he has woken up with an alarm clock, stopped spitting at random (well, less so), responds to threat appropriately, garnered calls from school about how good things are. Really, we finally have four children, rather than 3 children and that little boy living with us. Life is different.
It isn’t perfect. Its not like the planets haven’t aligned…more… they have sort of organized themselves. But we like this a lot. We just can’t help thinking, is this real? Did I just scold Sam and Nate for roaming the room while Ben sat in his chair the entire meal? Did I just ask him to put his coat away with a response of “Yes Sir” rather than being screamed at? (Note-that’s still an exception, but up until now that-no hyperbole here- never happened.) Yeah. I like this.

That being said, I’m looking forward to the Christmas season. I get sugar at (and only AT) Christmas parties. Its the allowance I’ve given myself (apart from dew and homemade cappuccino). I’ll update again soon.

Spread the Word:

  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Like Loading...

Ooh! Ooh! Here We Are!

01 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by Dan Nelson in Family, Family Life, Odds & Ends

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Adoption, Belarussian, New House, School

I recently made a startling discovery.  As I was out perusing the rarely explored corners of the internet I found a few things.  Some old cassette tapes, a couple of mismatched socks, an adaptor that doesn’t fit anything, and hey, what do you know?  Our blog!  It’s still here!  I expected as I typed in the web address that I might get some sort of error message, but wow.  It still works.

It has been a goal of mine to blog for a while.  It gets lost in things like, a child who is causing some troubles, or a piano lesson, or a Cub Scout meeting, or work, or a dozen other things.  So it is my goal to write each day this month.
Strike that.
It is not my goal to write each day this month.  I’ve found that if I make a goal, and I fail that goal in some way, I’ll give up.  So if I make it a goal and miss a couple of days, I’ll just stop.   Or if I make it a goal and post at 12:03 am (thereby not actually posting on that particular day), I’ll just stop.  That doesn’t make sense, I know, but… wow.  That really doesn’t make sense.  But rather than make a goal, let’s say I’ll write more often.  All I have to do to accomplish that is repeat this process sometime before next May.

So life has moved on in the Nelson household.  Some big changes.  Three pretty big changes.

Change 1:
We have a visitor living with us.  Valya the Belarussian.  She lives in our basement.  She washes our dishes.  Sometimes she watches the children while We The Parents go Outside The House Without Children.  It’s great.  I hope she stays a long long time.

Change 2:
We (that is not We The Parents but We The Some Of Us Whom We Will Refer To As The Collective Whole) started kindergarten!  Benny and Nate both started kindergarten.  “How is it?”,  everyone asks.  “How are the boys doing in kindergarten?” The answer is: They both love it.  One is doing excellent, and one is doing… as we expected.   We get lots of phone calls from the school to tell us how one of them is doing.  We’ve mentioned this before, in other posts, like all of them.  So it is as expected.  Learning lots and having fun doing it.  And drawing others into our lives. One. Teacher. At. A. Time.

Change 3:
New house.  Yay!  We hadn’t expected to move.  We had no plans to ever ever ever move again in our lives, but then someone decided we should buy their house.  We looked at it and decided it cost too much, but they insisted we buy it.  So we put our house on the market.  And, shockingly, it sold.  Everything worked out.  It was amazing.  So we moved into a nice house, that is much larger, and has more land.  One of us had lots of trouble adjusting to it.  (Sometimes taking 5 minutes to find the bathroom… but we got that down) (It’s not that big).  We moved in late September, and after about a month and a half, it began to feel like we were moved in.  That was the point it felt like we could start to relax from getting things out of boxes.  We aren’t perfectly there yet.  We still have a few stray  boxes lying about, and not really any pictures on the wall.  And that playset looks pretty sad out in the back yard.  But we’re in the house.

So that is the very uttermost basics of what has been going on over the past few months.  I didn’t get a video made for our two year anniversary of the boys joining the family, but we were in the middle of our move.  It was my goal, but I didn’t get done before the anniversary date, so I gave up.

Here are some pictures from over the last weekend.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner in our new house and decorated for Christmas.  Oh, and before I go, keep in mind that just because I haven’t blogged, doesn’t mean I haven’t been around.  I post on twitter (@erphed) (that’s different from last time) and Facebook, and Streamzoo (@capedan),and we are both (We The Parents) are both on Instagram (@erphed and @pharmacist39).  So here. are some pics for you!

image

The first day of school. That would have been a good blog post.

image

Moving out of the old house. Probably would have been a good blog post, too.

image

Benny's birthday. Hmm. That could have been a nice post, too.

image

The carving of the pumpkins. Mostly done by children. Minimal injuries.

image

Decorating for Christmas

image

Our Christmas Tree

Spread the Word:

  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Like Loading...

A Few Summer Pictures

16 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by Dan Nelson in Family Life, Photos

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

4th of July, Camping, Family, Fireworks, Pictures, Silly

I have not been good at posting on a regular routine basis.  I had a great post written out about our first camping trip of the year.  That was in May.  So, maybe I’ll have a nice one for our second trip?

Things around our house have been hectic lately.  We put our house up for sale and a lot has been going on.  The primary category event that has been taking place has been Cleaning the House.  But we do get to other things like Take Copper for a Walk (That’s a new change, too… new dog!), Swim in Neighbor’s Pool, Cleaning the House, Go to Work (only one of us there in that category), Play Wii, Take Pictures, Cleaning the House.  So you can see we have been really very occupied!

Here are some pictures of some goings on.  Check out our family’s channel on YouTube or my page on Streamzoo or Instagram.  I update youtube less than this blog, but the other two I’m on almost every day.  Enjoy!

Nathan after swimming. And complaining that he’s cold. At Sam A. Baker.

Sammy and the Dragonfly. Camping at Sam A. Baker

Hanging out at the Campersite.

Benny Got Spiffied up for Church

Awww. Baby Bunny.

Some wounds need a Big Daddy band aid. This one didn’t, but it sure made him proud.

Smoke Bombs are "very sy-kee"

SMOKE BOMBS ARE FUN!

Watching the smoke bombs.

Can I do the Popper, Dad?

My Little Pyro

Happy 4th of July! From our Silly Girl.

Spread the Word:

  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Like Loading...

Surgery Over, All is Well

11 Friday May 2012

Posted by Dan Nelson in Family Life

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Nate, Surgery

Nate is the kid that sort of gets left out of a lot in our family. He is a middle kid, and we missed the first four years of his existence. He also causes few problems. Most of our attention, as I may have mentioned one or more times, focuses (or must be focused, more accurately) on another. Nate doesn’t really cause problems. He survived the first four years by laying low, batting his eyes for attention, and screaming like his leg was broken for protection. But that doesn’t work here.

Since we met him, Nathan has had issues with breathing. Difficulty breathing, difficulty with runny noses. We have never known him without a runny nose. As far as we can tell, he has never really slept because of his nose issues. Anyway, yesterday Nathan got a lot of attention. He had his adenoid removed. It was a pretty good experience. The procedure was short. On the way to the hospital yesterday morning, I texted my family that “Nate is having his adenoids removed this morning. He doesn’t know yet.”  Because we knew if we told him, he would freak out and be a basket case until it was over and he realized he didn’t die. So we told him we were going to have a special doctor’s appointment. Which was entirely true.

He was his usual sweet self, and was all cute leading up to the time he got his medicine. Once that first dose of medicine was in him, he started to point at the TV like he was trying to say something, but only managing to giggle. That was fun to watch. Post procedure, he had the unfortunate experience of waking up to find an IV in his foot. We knew he was coming because we heard him yelling at the nurses all the way across the recovery area. If he knew more words, I’m pretty sure they would have been obscenities. It was, despite the circumstance, extremely entertaining. The thing is, it didn’t hurt. He didn’t hurt. It was just the fact of the matter that someone had done this thing to him when he wasn’t looking.

Leading up to the procedure, this idea of having something done to him when he wasn’t looking, was the thing Sam thought was absolutely hilarious. He kept coming to me, and he would laugh and say, “It’s so funny (hee hee) that they’re going to give Nate medicine to go to sleep (hee hee) and then while he’s asleep, they’re going to cut on his neck. (Hee hee).” I never understood the humor of it, but his humorous view of it definitely made our day.

As for Nathan, though, he is doing well. He says he doesn’t hurt today. He slept, as best we can tell, really well last night. He is talking a bit differently, though, which the doctor’s office says is normal for this procedure. On the way home, it was a bit like David After Dentist, and he said many random things. But the one thing that was most pertinent was, “I sound rearry srange.” And that “rearry srange” voice he heard got stranger and stranger as the evening wore on. Today when he speaks he sounds deaf. But we’re doing really well.

image

image

Spread the Word:

  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Like Loading...
← Older posts
Newer posts →

Archives

January 2026
S M T W T F S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Mar    

Blogroll

  • Called to Worship
  • Following the Will of God to Russia
  • One Peaceful Place
  • Ordinary Pastor
  • Pavement Ends
  • Team Pyro
  • Tim Challies

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 266 other subscribers

RSS Feed

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

Top Posts

  • None

Tags

4th of July Adoption Adoption after one year Adoption help Adoption language Alone Arbat Street Attachment disorder Birthday Camping Child of God Children Chocolate Bunny Christ and Bride Christian Christmas Cocooning Deeper Conference Depravity Digital Journaling Discernment Dye allergies Easter Eng-russky Engrussky Ephesians 5 Extreme Strollering Family Fireworks Gospel Gotcha day Halloween Holiness Home Humanity International Adoption Jesus Journaling Journaling 101 Jumpoline Koopatsah Marriage Mispronunciation Mocow Moscow Nate New Website New Words Paleo Parenting Pekin Perekhod Photos Pictures Playground Russian Post adoption Psalm Psalm 2 Pumpkin Patch Red Square Russia Russian adoption Russian Drivers School Sea of Japan Silly Six Months of Adoption Sovereignty of God Spurgeon Surgery Tempation Unmommy time Vladivostok Vocabulary Welcome

Categories

Adoption Bible Study Book Review Books Christianity Christmas Dogs Family Family Life Journal 27 Journaling Odds & Ends Paleo Photos Prayer Reading Classics Together Russia Sermon Uncategorized

Twitter Updates

Tweets by erphed

Archives

  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • April 2015
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • December 2013
  • July 2013
  • March 2013
  • December 2012
  • July 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • February 2012
  • September 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • December 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • May 2009

Helpful Websites

  • Deeper Conference
  • Lifehacker
  • Sovereign Grace Baptist Church
  • The Lord's Table
  • Together for the Gospel
  • Way of Purity

Recent Posts

  • Book Review: Do More Better
  • Book Review: God’s Battle Plan for the Mind
  • I Have a Blog?
  • My Favorite Place 
  • On Journaling, Part 2: Digital versus Paper

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 266 other subscribers

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • The Nelson Chronicles
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Nelson Chronicles
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d