Gluten free and the holidays

A couple of friends have recently been told to eat gluten free or that a child needs to eat gluten free. When you are diagnosed with Celiac Sprue, it is good to know that you can control the pain, bloating, diarrhea, wasting away, what ever the symptom, with a diet change instead of having to take drugs,  surgery, or give yourself shots. THere are worse things out there to deal with. But changing your diet when the rest of the family doesn't have to change....

Cross contamination is everywhere in the kitchen from all the previous cooking with gluten = wheat, rye, barley, oats (are on the list because they can easily be contaminated out in the field) Finally, there are farms that don't switch crops.

 Back to the kitchen, condiments are contaminated with malt flavoring, natural and artifical flavorings, smoke flavorings, caramel coloring, stabilizers, emulsifiers, white vinegar (doctors say it okay, but ask a celiac who is sick afterwards)certain dyes are even made from glutenous grains, and it depends on what country the maltodextrin comes from.
Go try to clear all that out of your kitchen and still cook "normal" food for the rest of your family.

I feel for my friends, it is hard. Then there comes the holidays when almost everything about the holidays centers around food.  The best thing for a Celiac -  is to bring their own food. THink of yourself trasping up to the door of a friends house with a plate of food for one, even if you are bringing something else to the party. It used to make me feel like I was saying, "I can't trust you to not contaminate me." The diet can make you feel self-conscious, if you tend to already be self-conscious and who isnt.

THen there are the people who knowingly pass you something with gluten and they say, "Just try a little bit. A little bit won't hurt you."  The best answer I've heard from other celiacs is to ask the person if they want to try a spoonful of arsenic. Then we will see who feels better in the morning. They would still win.

The kicker was the person that told me to leave my gluten free stuff at home, they didn't want to mess with it. I could just eat the vegetables as my Thanksgiving meal - the turkey was stuffed, therefore contaminated. I love you too. He meant well, it just came out wrong. We all do that.

THings have changed greatly over the last 20 years that I have dealt with Celiac Sprue. It has become a multi--million dollar business. I started off having to grind rice in a grinder to have a flour to make 'hockey pucks'. Today you can by gluten free bread at the store. There are companies like www.Chebe.com and www.glutenfreepizza.com that make the best flour and pizza hands down. www.Glutino.com  makes 'oreo' type cookies. WOW!

Two years after I was diagnosed, it was the middle of winter in Carlisle, PA, when I found out that Wendy's frosties were gluten free. Commander and I bundled up, put on our boots, and sloshed through the snow for a round trip over a mile just to get a frosty.

To be truely GF you must read the ingredients on everything. Thank goodness for companies that now mark their products, and stores like Dillon's that tag the shelf with gluten free markers to show you the GF item. I am thrilled with how much easier it is to get items GF. Even restaurants are trying to have GF menus. Be cautious about this, though, it doesn't always happen. One anniversary night, the Commander and I went straight from the restaurant to a large furniture-everything store across the street, because I wouldn't be able to make the ride home. Cross contamination.  I spent 30- 40 minutes walking from one bathroom to the other. Really felt sorry for the ladies going in after me.

If you have a family member or friend coming to your party that you know is gluten free, keep a few things set aside that you know are clean. Put vegetables or salad in a container for them before you pour on the sauce. Keep the croutons separate. Check the sauces that you plan to use, if your not sure, they appreciate a call from you asking if it is okay to use. If it's not, that will at least clue them in to what they need to bring.
Our church does Wednesday night meals for all that come. It is so awesome to get a text or email telling us that the whole meal or parts of it is gluten free. That is such a special feeling of love, especially when your insides make you feel like such an alien.

To my new gluten free friends. Hugs. Hang in there and stay Gluten Free, your gut will love you in the morning.

still kicking and laughing

It's November!!! The portfolios for the boys class credits are done and turned in. I'm hoping the school will accept all of them.  They are suppose to call me soon and let me know. Soon is the magic word. My soon is Monday morning. Their soon might be day before class starts in January.

The boys are still excited about the changes ahead. I'm excited for them too. After ten years of homeschooling, they will learn a lot about life from a different perspective. I know they are both grounded firmly in Christ. I know there will be things that I don't want them to experience, but they need to build their walls against the ways of the world and they can't do that without the testing. We will work through this new experience together, just like we worked through all of our curriculum these past years. Gluten will still be at home finishing 8th grade, and helping me 'kidsit' our hopping 4 year old.

Happenings....

Gluten wanted to bleach a shirt with "question authority, not me." on the back of it.
I gave him the evil eye and smirk, then gave him the lecture about where authority comes from - God. He agreed to find something else. I suggested, "Blond, explains it." For quite a while he kept saying 'no' to this. Then he finally stated," I don't want that on the shirt because I don't know what it means." Hmmmm. "Blond, explains it." He did end up with "You can't spell AWESOME with out "ME"."  He also made his Mema a sleep shirt for her birthday. "I'm not short, I'm Fun Size."

Herogian had his last hunt with the post rod and gun club this past weekend. He limited out in 30 minutes. 2 pheasants, 4 quail. Penny was allowed to hunt with him and the guide's dog. She did really well. Penny only backed off when the other dog started to attack her,when she came in to check out the first pheasant the dog had fetched. She collected quail after that, but left the second pheasant where it landed. Mom even got to retrieve her ipod she dropped with the checkcord while chasing down the wounded pheasant. I realized the cord was missing from my hoodie pouch, but didn't know the ipod was missing until I found it.

This afternoon, Commander and I came home with a new 4 foot Christmas tree with lights already on it. Its place is on the small secretary desk in the corner of the living room. Below it, on the desk, was placed the first present. (unwrapped) a 3 foot pair of pruning shears. Later, while Commander and I were in the TV room, Hawk showed up at the door with the shears in hand.
"Why is this under the Christmas tree?"
Commander looked at him, and replied, "If you and your brother don't behave at school, we'll use those to nutor you."
The shock on Hawk's face was worth it.

Herogian and Hawk have hit growth sputs. 3/4  inch in less than 2 months for Hawk. Herogian is there also. The cool part is that Herogian has finally decided to start working out to 'beef up' this includes doing TKD with Commander. He also went to the gym to workout with Commander yesterday before Boy Scouts left for camping. I have also found out that when it is bedtime, (his room is downstairs) that he uses what equipment we have to workout. Anybody have some free weights gathering dust?

Have a great week. Please pray for my uncles - yes, plural. Two are about to leave this world due to cancer. They are my father's younger brothers.

T shirts -trying to get rid of them

I bought 72 shirts for a Track/XC fund raising idea. I'm "official team fund raiser" - I take the title because I croke at being a recruiter. Anyhew, the idea was for "Create your own USM Spirit Shirt". I went to the trouble of cutting out 72 block letters to spell U-S-M  S-P-I-R-E-S for each shirt. Cut out large numbers for team sports, skull candy designs, bought stars, flowers and a bunch of foam letters to write names on the shirts and anything else the buyer could think of, along with rolls of contact paper to create their own design.

After two days of sitting in the hot afternoon sun with my boys at campus, we realized this idea wasn't going to work. The kids came by, said it was a great idea and then walked off. One who wanted to make a shirt, then questioned why I asked for money when we finished it. Oh bother.

Thank goodness the ladies from church are going to the Women of Faith Convention in KC. They helped me out by letting me make shirts for them.

Now I'm making a few more to get rid of the last 2 dozen shirts. Here they are.

We are Ambassadors for CHRIST.    II Cor. 5:20

 To God be the Glory   Great Things He Hath Done

 For God so Loves Me   - I Run   (with footprints)

THe shirts are $8.00  if interested. Give me a shout. Or let me know if you have a design you would like on a shirt. I'll see what I can do.

Stickers are sprayed over with bleach to bring out the design.

Have a great weekend.

Changes

Thanks for your prayers on our school situation. I feel like they have been answered. Today, we met with the school counselor at the local public school. Yeah! Can you believe it? After 10 years of homeschooling, we will be sending the two oldest to LHS.  Hawk wants to go back into 9th so that he'll be with his original class, and  next year as a sophmore he will have a chance to try football. He is the one that made the thoughts and prayers start looking like answers to our problems. He has always said (like me) that he wouldn't go to public school. In the last year, he has developed a desire to play football. I was shocked, but glad to see his eyes light up over somethings besides XBOX.
Herogian hasn't been as thrilled with the idea, but after the visit to the school today, I think he is more on board. He realized he will be able to do more in science lab than I can give him, and woodshop - made his eyes light up. The higher sciences and math will be easier for me with the schools help.
So, come January it will be Gluten and I at home with our four-year-old charge NC. I think Gluten will enjoy the time - it should take us less time to get his work done, he will be able help kidsit more (making $$). He is also looking forward to high school at LHS so he can try out for the soccer team.
For someone who knows not to say NEVER. I've definitely have had enough lessons on it.... plus here's another.

You don't know your missing something until it is gone. I'm missing the stress and worry that was building up over the boys educational path when I thought I was in charge of it. Letting God brings relief in so many ways. I'm looking forward to the future now. Sometimes it is hard to let go when you see the release as being failure, turning it over and looking at it differently (God's way) makes a big difference.

Here's a pic from today's activities around the house. Mr. Matt is giving lessons on plumbing to NC under our kitchen sink.

It's been so long since I was here

Physically and mentally.  I would think about posting and then go to bed.

We have been working around the house trying to get ready for winter. Two weekends ago, I decided to tackle the chicken coop door. A friend had given us a metal house door that would do a much better job than the 'cut out of siding door' that was the original on the lean-to. I yanked, hammered, cut and kicked, stomped and did whatever it took to get the wall out where the door needs to go. The concrete was crumbling on both ends and I wasn't sure just how I was going to get the door in, hold it in place and use the screwdriver at the same time. My neighbor came to my rescue. I asked her for a placement suggestion, since she had built her own coop. She then asked if I'd like some help. We had a fun time building the wall around where the larger door needed to go to fit under the slanted roof. we did a bit of framing and then stopped there.
We have to have the patio room jacked up on one corner due to settling with the dry summer. When the crew comes out, Mr. Wendtz said he would gable the chicken coop roof over the door for me. Yahoo. He is also going to fix a permanent doggie door down stairs so we can use the patio door again. THENNNNN hope I still have the picture for this. We are getting a bid on a reading nook for under the stairway. Here we go. He has the whole wal down stairs to use. The return air vent will just be moved to the top of the wall allowing the nook to be as long as we want it - 7 feet at least - I have tall relatives that I'd like to come visit. Each person in the family has already claimed this area as theirs, and we haven't even decided if it is in budget. Praying. Praying. Praying. I could so cuddle up in this area with my computer and get carried away writing.

Other stuff going on is planting 21 junipers, 4 fire bushes on the east hill out front, filling it in with mulch and outlining it with rocks. On the west side I put in a pallet pathway, a few different plants and flowers, mulched it this weekend and lined the edge with rocks. 5 truck loads of mulch were moved this weekend. Can you say 'my body is sore!'

The four year old that stays with us in the morning has become my digging partner for dandelions and chickweed. I jab the digging stick in, he powers it down and pops the weed loose. We do about 30 minutes outside each morning playing and digging as we wait for Dad to show up. He's been a great help in helping me find the time to do the weed pulling.

Would ask for your prayers on a school matter. Will let you in on it later, but afraid to jinks it if I mention it too much too soon. You know what I mean?

Calling Safety, shelves, and haircuts

"Come on, move your feet out of the way so I can sit beside you."
Gluten was homeschooling on the sofa and had stretched out to take up as much of it as he could. He pulled his feet back giving me just enough room to sit between his feet and the pillow. He tossed me his history book.
"I've got mine. You might need yours". I spun the book back through the air quick enough to land it on his bare belly.
It was review time of chapter three. Gluten does better if history and science are verbally reviewed daily. We started through the questions with only names of people getting him twisted. He'd flip through the pages checking bold face words and then give me the name. I'd ask if he was sure, causing him to actually read the passage to me to prove that he had the right one.
"What was the New England Confederation? Why was it formed?" I asked.
He thought for a moment, " uhmmm....safety!" 
"Yeah, defense, as in a military defense." I started to explain a bit more so it would stick with him. BUT, He was laughing.
"What?"
"I said, SAFETY, because I farted. I didn't want you to slug me. I didn't know I'd get a history question right with it." He was grabbing his stomach he was laughing so hard.
I just hung my head.

******
Pinterest is where I go to relax for a few minutes to an hour in the evening. Black shelves over the toilet in a small bathroom interested me. A trip to H.D. just happened to land into the errand schedule the other day for shelves and black supports.
Our master bedroom toilet is in a room by itself. A small room - actually 35 1/8 inches wide.

I thought I chose things to put on the shelves due to the memories, but I can't remember where two of the things came from. Geezuh! My dad made the wishing well out of walnut shells, the glass piggy bank beside it is from childhood, Commander likes marbles, and Spooners. The pictures on top were on the table at our wedding, the frame on the left is from a friend at church given to me during chemo, the green glass basket is from an aunt, and the picture of the boys was when we first moved to Kansas in 2000. We were stuck in Hoge Barracks for 1 month.

*****
Herogian asked for a haircut the other day since it has been so hot. He agreed to let me do it with the dog shears. Yeah - save that money! As the hair was falling, Hawk came around the corner to see what we were doing out on the patio. "Oh stop right there!" I was working across the top of Herogian's head. "Dad would freak if you left that part," said Hawk. Herogian felt the strip of long bangs and agreed. We left it. I wasn't going to be home when Commander came in, thank goodness. I did show Herogian where the clippers would be incase he decided to lose the bangs before Dad came home. I guess he didn't. This is his "School is driving me insane look" and it is what he greeted Dad with at the door.

The hair disappeared that night into a nice buzz cut.

Have a great Labor Day weekend. Thank the Lord for the blessing of rain. Pray for the relief for those suffering from too much of it at once.

Altrazerodrop shoes - Awesome

In '08-09 when Commander was deployed my feet started giving me pain while working in the back yard. Wearing muck boots without my orthotics in them - I thought was the problem. But fixing that issue didn't help.

It just kept getting worse to the point that I quit running in our neighborhood. It was embarrassing to run to the church 1/4 a mile down the road  and then have to walk back home because my feet were burning.

Later it was kneeling down on bent toes digging, or building the walkway would cause both feet to burn. The picture's date is July 2011, I just finished

this path to the back patio 2 weeks ago.

THen you probably remember in May - foot surgery on both feet to cut out nerves from between the 3rd and 4th toes that were the size of pencils stuck inbetween the tendons and doubling back on themselves. Oh and the allergic reaction. Oh Bother.

Well, we have made it to the end of August only after a wait of 4 1/2 weeks for these to arrive. They were on backorder.

Altra zero drop running shoes. As you can see from the side edge there isn't a big build up(inches) of cushion under the heels. That's why they are called zero drop. You actually run in a barefoot style of gait. Does it ever feel good! THe toe box is also larger so your toezies have room to spread out. This is super for Morton's toes and neuroma's - give 'em some room! My long old toes can now wiggle dance.

I started running again at the end of July and joined my friend Shannon on some of her runs. I wanted to stay up with her. My ego really didn't want to accept being at square one again with training, and tried to jump ahead. Well, I paid for that leap in the workouts. THe hills in her neighborhood are killers for knees and beginners at that. Then with the hard packed soccer field with clumps of grass sporadically growing - running strides down the middle of the field didn't help with tweaking the knee. IT Band tenderness, bursitis swelling, and pain sent me to the doctor. I took a week off, started back slow with a knee brace, walking most the time, and saving the jogging for races that I had already paid to enter. Tonight, my lookout on running has a smile again. It is because of these shoes. Just walking to the port -a- pot from the car convinced me to take off the knee brace. Walking a mile felt like I was holding the horses back. Picking up the pace on the straight aways at the track felt good -even though I was slow as molasses the foot strike was straight, balanced, no pronation to fight against, the knee felt great for the next mile. There was no clicking, catching, collapsy feeling from the knee for the first time in three weeks. I don't want to take the shoes off. My favorite workout is repeat 200's. They don't feel like a thing of the past, they are now in the future waiting for me.

Want to come run?