Produc-its and Solutions

Yesterday my friend Morning came over for lunch. We had chicken vegetable soup, which everyone enjoyed. I can't believe how much all three kids are eating lately. The five of us ate every last bit of the large pot of soup I made.

While I had the food processor out I decided to go ahead and do the task I had planned for the day. I washed, peeled and chopped vegetables while we visited. All the carrots and celery that were left in the bags, a bunch of bok choy, a cassava (yuca) root, and a bag of onions are now chopped and sitting in the refrigerator waiting to be dumped into a recipe. Since I had already cubed a couple of cauliflower heads the night before, that should give me a good head-start on meal preparation for the week.

Morning had a suggestion to make.

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I've been wanting to hire someone to come and clean my house at least once, after we get the clutter under control enough that someone wouldn't have to be moving piles of things to clean around them. Morning used to have a job cleaning houses, and has been thinking about picking it up again. So she wanted to know if I would consider hiring her.

She had already thought through some of the details, including how much she would charge, which was immensely helpful. The price she suggested was something quite reasonable that we could afford to pay for a few hours per week or month, but seemed fair to her also.

Since I know her well and she's been in my house at its worst, I don't feel that I have to get the whole house tidy before she can clean.

I know she's not going to think worse of me because I haven't kept up better on the housework, or make comments like "I found the broom . . . did you even know that you owned one?" or "You know, if you would just wipe out your bathtub every time you use it, then you wouldn't have a ring around the tub."

I really like this solution.

I don't mind letting someone help me with the dishes after I feed them a meal, or trading time helping each other chop vegetables or care for children, but the situations are very far and few between where I can bring myself to let someone else do something like clean my bathroom. It's difficult--I know people care and want to help, but I don't want them (or me) to feel like I'm using them.

Yesterday after we visited for a while and had lunch, Morning vaccuumed and cleaned bathrooms while I put vegetables away, did the dishes, took care of the kids and made telephone calls. My bathrooms are so shiny now!

In addition to the conversations with the compounding pharmacist yesterday, I had another real winner of a conversation. This one was with the company that makes the supposedly hypoallergenic probiotics I found.

They did tell me that the FOS in the product is from chicory root, but I could not get them to tell me what the magnesium stearate was derived from. The most common sources are beef and palm kernel oil, or sometimes cottonseed oil. Obviously the palm kernel derived product could be problematic for me.

The man I finally spoke with (after being transferred several times) had a heavy accent and didn't seem to easily understand English, which of course complicated matters.

His answers to my questions took a format I've run into many times: Repeatedly reading to me the label on the bottle.

"We have severe allergies to corn, soy and about 10 other foods. I was wondering if you could tell me what the magnesium sterate in this product is made from."

"Uh, eet say on de label, 'Dis pro-dukit is fr-ree of cor-un, soeey and day-ree'."

"I know, but we have a number of other allergies, and also it's legal to put 'free of corn' on the label when there are actually corn-derived ingredients that are supposed to contain no protein in the product. Can you tell me what the magnesium stearate is derived from, please?"

"Dis pro-dukit is fr-ree of cor-un, soeey and day-ree. If it say it free of dose things, it not have it in dere."

"Yes, thank you, but we're not allergic to dairy. We are allergic to apples, bananas, coconut, and a number of other foods. Magnesium stearate can be made from several of these things. Do you know what it's made from?"

"No, de manufacturer do not tell us dat. We do not know what maybe in it. We only know dis pro-dukit is fr-ree of cor-un, soeey and day-ree. Dey tell us what iss not in it."

"I was just reading that magnesium stearate, if it's not made from beef, is usually made from palm kernel oil. I am extremely allergic to coconut. Palm kernel oil would cause me problems as well. Do you know if it might be made from coconut or palm kernel oil? Or is that something you can find out?"

"Dis pro-dukit is fr-ree of cor-un, soeey and day-ree. No coconut, neither. It do not say it have coconut in it."

We went around in circles for ages. At some point I gave up. "Well, thanks anyway."

I looked at the package again. It didn't make any claims of being vegetarian or not containing animal-derived products, so most likely the magnesium stearate was derived from beef. I decided to risk it.

I didn't have a reaction.