Don't Put That In Your Mouth

Apologies for the extended lapse in posting, but life has been running away with me. Most of the time, that's a good thing. Lately, the best thing I can say about it is it sure isn't boring!

Hopefully I'll get around (eventually) to describing our December comings and goings, maybe even some details about our trip back to the Northwest last summer (some day) or even get organized enough to post my niece's wedding photos (yeah, right). All things that are on my list, but not in the top ten. Luckily, my knitting adventures are still available on Ravelry.

This last week we've been having to adjust to a new family diet. No, this isn't some New Year's Resolution to get healthier. This is all my husband's fault, really. He had been dealing with a skin irritation thing for months (if not over a year) but unwilling to go have it checked. I went to the pharmacy to have his symptoms diagnosed as best as they were able and we got some pills, but the doctor suggested that a blood test for allergies would be the best (and easiest) way to find the cause rather than continue to treat the symptoms. Hubby wouldn't go for it. Fine, no problem, doesn't affect me, so what do I care, right?

Then comes the day when our daughter, N, has a similar rash on her cheeks and what came to be lovingly called 'orange peel' skin on her forehead. Well, hubby can stick his head in the proverbial sand as long as he chooses, but nothing's harming my daughter. So, I take her into the doc and he says the quickest and easiest thing would be to have the entire family go on a gluten-free and dairy-free diet for two months. Hubby doesn't want to have the entire family's diet turned upside down "on a whim", but does actually agree on getting her blood tested for allergies and food sensitivities since he feels more willing to follow restrictions if there's a medical necessity for them. (He just wanted something definite on paper.)

So we do that. Luckily for us, the two weeks while we're waiting for the results were filled with visiting family, holiday feasts, and lots of good cheer. Come the first week in January, we've got the results. She's sensitive to 26 things including milk (but not cheese), flax, soy, almonds, eggs, garlic, yogurt, and gluten. A few will, most likely, be permanent though the majority of them should subside as we deal with a major systematic Candida issue.

Now it's two months without any of the offending foods. That would have been totally do-able, no sweat. Enter Candida. With this bad boy, we also must cut out ALL fruit, sweeteners, fermented or cultured foods (like cheese, pickles, and vinegar), molds and fungi (mushrooms, peanuts, pistachios, dried herbs) and high-carb starches like corn, potatoes, squash, oats, carrots, etc.

I immediately went through our fridge and pantry and had a friend come take everything away (in two car loads!). Our first day's breakfast? Tea, sliced green bell pepper, and rice crackers (which did have garlic, but it was all we had). Yum. The kids were, shall we say, less than thrilled. That was the day, however, we went to the library and bookstores to scour cookbooks for appropriate recipes. Then it was off to the store(s) for disheartening trips where I simultaneously hunt for elusive items uncontaminated with the offending foods and gently repeat a dozen versions of "no" to my kids as they ask for samples and/or other foods that we no longer can have.

After two days, I've reached my limit and put a moritorium on complaining about everything we can't have. It felt at times that I was the big mean mommy and the other three members of our family were victims of my stinginess. Enough, I said. We're doing this to help N and we just have to deal with it. We can only talk about the things we CAN have, face forward, stay positive.

It became obvious very quickly that there are still lots of food choices available to us, but in order to avoid the NOs, we're going to have to make a lot of our own foods. Our own salsa, spaghetti sauce, and salad dressing. So I need to plan ahead, spend more time on preparation, and buy even more food fresh, but those are all good things, right?

Once we had our fridge and pantry restocked with the good stuff, things got a lot easier. Fresh salsa and guacamole were a big hit. (Yes, I know avocados and tomatoes are fruits, but I made exceptions due to their lower sugar content and versatility. Don't take away my tomatoes!) Last night we had coconut chicken and rice with broccoli and almost felt "normal".

Our son has had the hardest time, I think, because he puts up a lot of self-inflicted restrictions himself. "I don't like that, That looks weird, I'll have something else" was all we heard for a while. It's hard for us too, because we know he's growing and needs his protein, but the main sources are either unavailable or unappealing. My mother has offered to pay for his own blood test so that we can stop restricting food unnecessarily. It'll add another layer of complexity to our meal planning, but could be better in the long run. Of course, then hubby and I'll want to have our own tests done. Won't dinner be exciting then!

Now I'm researching wherever I can to locate acceptable substitutions. It's amazing how excited we all get to find some little tidbit of information that allows us to have a previously denied food. Like ghee. Oh my goodness. You should have heard the squeals of delight when I found that was allowed within our restrictions. I immediately started to make some and that night we had plain popcorn with ghee and, again, the kids felt "normal". (The high-carb starches turned out to be acceptable "in moderation".)

What to use to make tunafish when all the condiments are restricted? Hummus! And the kids actually like it!

The egg issue had been a stickler as all the usual substitutions for eggs were also unacceptable. Yet, I just found that salba seeds can be used as you would flaxseed as a substitution, so I'm anxious to try that! Yeah! Salba are chia seeds and it's nice to think that they're good for something other than obnoxious holiday gifts from the 1970s.

This first week of New Food has been quite a rollercoaster. At least for now, we're still enjoying the ride.

November in Review

Starting the month off we have a bunch of these in our garden. They were evidently confused by the unusually warm autumn we were having. I don't remove plants that volunteer to grow, so these are everywhere in our garden. Considering that we haven't done anything with our garden for months, it's just nice to say that something is growing!

By Veterans' Day, we were off to Mexico. The weather was lovely though the natives thought it was too cold. This is the cathedral in Morelia which is always a lovely site to see.

The main reason for this particular visit was our niece's wedding. The kids sure clean up nice, eh?

The bride, of course, was beautiful (as always) and one of the calmest people in the entire group.

Mr. A made quite an impression on all the senoritas. Evidently, when you dress him up in a tux with 'grown up' shoes, he suddenly learns how to tap dance. Despite the language barrier, he was in the middle of the dance floor the entire night rocking out. Some sort of cute cross between Michael Flatley and Michael Jackson.

Here's all the cousins (except Mr. A) in one place which rarely happens. Strange group, but they're family, so what can you do. Gotta love 'em.

We came back home just in time for Thanksgiving. Warm house, lots of food, loving family. What are we most thankful for? Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake with Maple Cream, of course.

On Black Friday, we avoided the malls and headed out to the Homestead to make new friends.

We met big, busy, tough friends . . .
and we met small, sleepy, soft friends.

We learned how to twist string into rope . . .

and we learned how to weave string into cloth.

We even learned where the string comes from.

And as the sun began to set, we hurried for home.

All in all a lovely month. There was lots of yarning going on as well, but you'll have to check me out on Ravelry to see all that.

The End (That's Only The Beginning)

Here's our youngest reading the 100th (last) lesson of his reading book. He is very excited to be at the end of it! He's never had much of a desire to read, but it's sure sneaking up on him now. He's reading cereal boxes, screen shots on his Nintendo DS, even my emails over my shoulder (which I'm torn over - when his sister does the same thing, I go ballistic, but I don't want to put a damper on his reading - big dilema)!

With all the celebrating today, we thought it'd be nice to bring out the first book that our oldest read. Of course she had to pick a book from the library that was out of print, so getting a copy became a ginormous feat! She taught herself to read when she was five years old, so our son is technically the first child I've had to instruct.

In the same memory box was a book from my childhood, so I read that to them as well. Oh, for the love of books, it was an awesome night!

Now if only I could locate the book that my father read to me so often I had the entire thing memorized (I was two or three at the time.) Unfortunately, I don't remember the title, but it was about a ghost and a mouse and all the foods they ate - everything cheese. Cheese crackers, cheese souffle, cheese bread, cheese cake, cheese this and cheese that. It went on forever and I loved it to pieces. If only I could ever find it again . . .

Happy Birthday, My Not-So-Little Girl

Twelve years ago today we welcomed our first bundle of joy into our world. Miss N has grown into quite a remarkable young lady during her dozen years on this planet. She is, in a word, amazing.

Quick-minded (when she chooses to be), thoughtful of her younger brother (when she's made to be), but most importantly, a loving and loved member of our family. She's the first to laugh, the last to cry, and has a deep, burning need to be in the middle of the action.

We love you, Miss N, and wish you the most wonderful of days as you continue on this glorious journey of life. We're grateful for every day we get to experience with you!

Well-Rounded Lunacy

Lest you think we live a strictly earthy existence 24/7 outside amongst the chickens, water barrels, and garden beds, I wanted to offer a peek inside our life and the wide range of activities in which we engage.

Here are the results of some downtime I had to create handles for the kids' new water bottles. Of course, my youngest wears his almost constantly, which is fine except when his taekwondo instructor objects.

This picture was taken at our Science Co-op when the kids were learning how to un-mix mixtures. That'll make you think!

My daughter's turned out great with the spiral stripes. She now calls it her watermelon bottle. Now I want to make her a hat to match, but that would break the rules. This year I'm attempting to finish ALL of my on-going, in-progress, started-with-no-end-in-sight projects BEFORE I start any new ones. I was down to two knitting, four quilting, and two beading projects when these two mini crochet projects just showed up out of nowhere. They're not my fault, really.

See how flexible I can be? This is the recent result of our daughter's hair highlighting session. We try to tread lightly on the earth, but it seems to get more difficult the older the kids become. Unfortunately, trying to talk a pre-teen (she wanted me to tell you she was 12, but she's really only 11 and 354/365ths years old) out of something that helps pollute the earth when all her friends are doing it is difficult indeed. And since we recycle our greywater (well, most of it) we had the hardest time admitting there was no useful way we could reuse her rinse water. Nasty stuff.

She had to earn school credits to pay for it, which wasn't difficult with such an incentive as this. These credits have been established because they're an easy way to trade schoolwork for "funwork" which usually translates into time on the computer, phone and/or watching television (realizing we don't have cable or even local channels - only VHS tapes and DVDs, mostly from the library). In this instance, she chose haircolor in, luckily for me, a very "natural" color which even Daddy can live with.

And here's one of the coolest things we've seen in a long time. We were the lucky guests of a friend as she celebrated her birthday at the World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions show. What a special day. Very nice.