The Overzealous Patient

Back to the allergist's office I went today for my first round of shots. The nurse inquired about how I was feeling with the diet changes.
I talked for minute and then she exclaimed "You didn't cut out everything that came back positive at once did you?!"

Me: "Uhhh, yeah...I thought it was a 'don't eat any of this'/'only eat this' situation so I've been cold turkey on the whole deal."

Nurse: "Oh, no! Drop ONE food at a time for 7-10 days and then add the next highest offender."

Me (to myself): "Now how in the world did I miss this little tidbit of information?"

Me (outloud): "Oh, okay, that makes life a little better."

Now, I'm still a little befuddled at how the rotary diet works into this...I need to call them tomorrow for clarification. I think I can eat everything on my daily list, plus some of my offenders but minus the ones I have eliminated? That doesn't make much sense. Ugh! This is so confusing. However, I quickly determined that since cheese and milk were my #1's, I'd keep those at bay and went ahead and drove through Wendy's for a burger. Ahhhhh. Yum. I just should have had them add bacon (pork is on my no-no list too). The adventure continues.

Day 15...And DYING for one bite...

One bite of ANY kind of baked good, that is. After an agonizing evening at a seminar where I calmly sat munching on raw pistachios watching a roomful of comrades devour towers of gourmet, filled and frosted cupcakes, I woke up this morning desperate to create some kind of goodie to enjoy.

This is the 15 day mark of my new venture into life lived with a dairy-free, gluten-free, egg-free, soy-free, yeast-free, sugar-free diet. Aaack! On top of that, I must rotate the foods I CAN eat on a 4 day schedule.

So my grains for today seemed promising: millet, rice, corn and teff. I searched through some of my newly-checked-out cookbooks and found it! A recipe of Millet or Teff Apple Cookies. I can have apples today too...so all I was missing was the correct flour. After a quick trip to two stores, I was still missing the correct flour so I had to get resourceful. I had a bit of millet, so I ground it up with my blender, but was still short 1 cup...dang! In the back of my freezer I found some (old) brown rice flour so I tried adding it...and...drum roll....I just consumed at least a dozen little, golden-brown num-nums!!!!

They are certainly not "sweet"...applesauce and apple juice concentrate are the only sweeteners, but I cannot describe how heavenly it was to bite into that soft but crisp little goodie laced with chopped pecans.

I guess that's all I have to say for now...my business of trying to feed myself and the rest of my family without going crazy in the meantime is certainly reducing my blog-flow....which is typically my outlet for fun ;) . Ah, oh well. Enjoy the summertime friends and blessings to you!

Simply Charlotte Mason Conference in KC

Since school days are right around the corner I've been having fun shopping and setting up shop for our first official year of having two kiddos in our homeschool. We've adopted the Charlotte Mason methodology/approach and it is working very well for our family.

Charlotte Mason Method: A method of education popular with homeschoolers in which children are taught as whole persons through a wide range of interesting living books, firsthand experiences and good habits. (from Simply Charlotte Mason)

I've found most of my info on "doing school" the CM way in books or online....so you can imagine my excitement when I ran across a CM Conference scheduled in Kansas City next month! It's a 2-day seminar, Friday, August 20 and Saturday, August 21. In my opinion, a lot of the CM method can or could be adapted to any homeschool, regardless of your curriculum choice. So, if you'd like to join me, click here to go to the registration page--the deadline is August 16. I'd love your company!

And a bench too!

Sheesh! I almost forgot...Eric made a bench too! This is also in the office and has three deep cubbies that each hold an under-the-bed storage box full of what else? SHOES! Each kiddo has their own and we're going to make "pretty" name tags for the clear plastic ends as a craft project here soon.


You really don't see the boxes when you look at it since you have a view from the top so that's nice. I found the brand new Pier1 cushions on craigslist and then bought and made a few throw pillows to make one cozy reading spot in our office. Since I found the cushions first, Eric made the bench to fit them exactly. Perfect for family reading during school...or whenever!

Little House-Pa's Project

At our little house, Eric may not be one for assisting with dishes, vacuuming or laundry (at least not too often), but he IS the go-to guy for anything "handy"! My wishes for a couple shelves for the office to store all our school books and supplies came true after a well-timed arrival of the Dec/Jan issue of The Family Handyman magazine.

Since recouping from knee surgery was going to keep Eric out of his usual winter basketball league, the man needed something to do. And, in true form, if he was going to build one shelf, why not build three? Yay for me!

After a lot of planning and purchasing of a ton of lumber, our garage was suddenly a full-scale wood shop, assistant included.


Before I knew it, there were recognizable pieces of cabinetry!

Piles and piles of them:

He LOVES it when I take his picture while working!


There we go! Hidden hinges and functioning drawers, whee!


The stain was tricky. I finally found an awesome paint guy at Lowe's in Lee's Summit who custom matched the shade of our office armoire. We tried using brushable lacquer as the finish for this project, and though it was stinky, the results were fab! Before trying it, I got an outlandish quote from a place in Overland Park to spray the finish on...can't remember exactly, but it was a 4-digit number...we decided to do it ourselves, to say the least, and it wasn't that difficult.


The first one in, still w/o hardware.

Woodworker of the year around here:

My shelves, partially loaded and oh, so wonderful! Those are my awesomely fun turquoise-satin-peacock feather window panels. They make me smile.


And the one in the living room all set to go:

It even holds all our family games, guitar music and etc.


I really am thrilled and very proud of Eric for undertaking such a huge project. Having a nice place to store all my beloved books and family "stuff" makes organizing all such stuff so much more pleasant! Thank you my love, you're my Dr. Awesome (and I'm so glad to have my parking space back)!

New Fun & Not-So-Fun News

First the new FUN! Our bookshelves/cabinets are in! Ooooh, they are purrrty too! Eric is attaching the magnetic latches as I type. After several unsuccessful trips to the big box hardware stores looking for door and drawer hardware, I found EXACTLY what I wanted in about 30 seconds at Locks & Pulls over in Overland Park this afternoon. Woot! Plus I got my rockin' peacock feather turquoise curtains from Pier 1 for the office window. Love them! I will post a photo once everything is in place. I have a few more books and do-dahs to add to the shelves.

Now the not-so-fun news...I got my test results back from the allergist today. No more cinnamon rolls for this woman. No more nothin' pretty much. You ready for this bad-boy list of foods that are to be off limits?

1. Cheese, ALL kinds
2. Milk
3. Gluten-which includes all wheat, oats etc.
4. Oranges
5. Yeast
6. Sugar
7. Eggs
8. Soybeans

How 'bout them apples? Go ahead and feel sorry for me...I am currently accepting all forms of sympathy. Believe me, the tears have flown more than once today. So, I really don't have that much to say right now. My heart is heavy, though I'm sure it will feel good to be healthy...and who knows, maybe I'll gain 20 pounds...considering I've lost 5 in the last 6 weeks it will be good for me...plus...new clothes!

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. ~Phil. 4:13

Swimsuit Shopping Anyone?

Did that title strike fear into anyone else's heart? Yikes. Swimsuit shopping with little ones is no fun. Okay, swimsuit shopping is no fun even withOUT little ones along. I was blog surfing a few weeks back and finally was intrigued enough by all the product review/giveaway posts to actually make some comments to enter to win. I spent the evening happily commenting, signing up to follow and otherwise enjoying the time in front of the laptop. Whee! I hope I win this, or this, or this!

The big fish? The swimsuit!! I was comment number 300-something and there ended up being over 600 by the time the contest closed. And I WON!!!! YEEEEEE!

So, no need to go shopping, I simply emailed the sweet gal over at Canadian Natural Mama my choice from the Essential Swimwear online catalog and a few days later my lovely new tankini arrived! It fits nicely, is comfortable and well made, not to mention cute. (That's not me in the picture by the way...just in case you thought I had a sleek and tan model's body--HA). So thanks so much CNM and ES gals...you made my day, and I'm really glad I didn't win the cloth baby wipes instead (like I really needed those)!

Crown Center Summer!

First, good news! We have yet another new niece, Mariah Nicole Eastwood! She was born early this morning to Travis and Kim. That's 4 girls in 5 years. Awesome. My good friend Christi also had her fourth bambino today...a precious little girl named Lucy. Congratulations to both the Hays and the Eastwoods!

The kids and I headed out for a day of adventure yesterday morning. Our annual summer trip to Crown Center! We usually try to go with all our Vox friends but we already have a commitment the day they have set so off we went!

We're practicing picnicking all we can this summer, so our stop at Fritz's was just to get CLA's at the counter. Yum!


The free kiddo exhibit for the next couple months is a Clifford theme-land.

There was something for all of them...Kai liked the bone conveyor, Elena the color-a-picture and mail it station and Zane the baby play-area.

They all had lots of fun! It was time for our picnic and running through the fountains!!!

Wheeeee! What a gorgeous day...85 or so, light breeze and SUNNY.

I mistakenly thought Zane baby would want to get wet, but he was pleased as punch to toddle around exploring the square and inspecting everyone else's stroller.

And speaking of strollers, here's the "new" one we picked up for him early in the morning. We drove up to Liberty to make a craiglist momma happy as we drove off with her old rig. It's not lightweight, but it's very similar to my old one that I love...EXCEPT it sits straight up!! Yay! Zane didn't want to get out of it. Plus, he can't kick off the tray, excellent.

I can fit it in the back-back of the van almost as easy as the old one, so for $20, I'm one happy momma. Oh, it's a '07 Graco Quattro Tour...and aqua (yeeee!).

Oh yes, can't forget my own souveinier: