Where Purple_Kangaroo is From

I am from the teakettle simmering on the back of the stove, from homemade Butterfinger ice cream, and tea parties with Holly Hobbie and Raggedy Ann.

I am from the brown two-story house my father built, wrapped in a broad porch and shadowed by the hill, with frogs croaking at night and Ramblin' Creek bubbling and laughing below.

I am from blackberry vines, wild roses, evergreen trees; tall grass, gerilliums, and koi eating duckweed in the pond.

I am from potlucks at the park and softspoken people who are small spitfires; from Jennie Squires and a Moravian prince who eloped with the milkmaid, and the seven Swift brothers who came on a ship when the land was new.

I am from strongwilled and stubborn, deeply loving and fiercely protective.

From "Don't let that stop you!" and "Your sisters are your best friends;" from Dad taking us fishing and chanting "They're Coming to Take me Away, HaHa" and mom showing us how to do the Charleston and saying, "Look, girls! Isn't the mountain pretty?"

I am from non-denominational evangelical faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior; a relationship not a religion; asking questions and searching the Scriptures, solid on the basics but knowing that there are some things we can't know and it's OK to disagree.

I'm from lumberjacks in the Pacific Northwestern USA; from immigrants and pioneers; from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, The Netherlands and Czechoslovakia, but adopted Latin America; oven pancake and lemon meringue pie; poppyseed kolache and roast beef empanadas; pan-fried grasshoppers and oven-fried chicken.

From the little green man under the stairs, Uncle Ned's Fox and Coyote stories, Grandpa smiling and saying "Yes, Yes" in Spanish while revolutionaries waved weapons and threatened to kill him, the beaver trap we almost stepped in, and the time Sis ate dirt cookies that I made.

I am from yellowed photo albums, pictures lined up on the shelf in the old farmhouse, the scrapbook of letters from loved ones, the hand-knitted hats and mittens tucked away in the closet, the opal earrings in the treasure box, and the framed picture of the bridge over Multnomah Falls where my grandparents got engaged.

I am from roots run deep in generations of grit, spunk, perseverance in hardship, and love.

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I got this from MysteryMommy, who got it from Magpie and Crunchy Granola.

This exercise is based on a poem by George Ella Lyon called "Where I'm From."

The template is here if you'd like to join in. Schmutzie is compiling a list of links to different bloggers' versions of the meme.

Dietary/Health Update

In my last post, I invited requests for topics to cover as I (hopefully) start blogging regularly again. Liz requested an update on our family's food issues. I'm going to broaden it a bit to make it more of a general health update. :)

Warning: This may be a long, boring post.

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In a nutshell, we're all doing pretty well.

Ebee is doing great, and seems to have completely grown out of all her food intolerance issues. She still isn't having reactions to corn or soy derivatives, and it's so nice not to have to worry about that any more. Her dietary fructose intolerance has also improved. She can even eat moderate amounts of apple and pear now without getting diarrhea and a tummyache.

She's really growing up, and is reading fluently now. I love watching kids get to the stage where they devour pretty much any book they can get their hands on. She's even reading chapter books now, and is very excited about that. She'll be 6 next month--can you believe it?!

M&M just turned 9, and is such an active, happy kid. She and Ebee are both in gymnastics and loving it, but M&M is really gifted at it. They're taking a break at the moment as all three kids are taking swimming lessons this summer instead of their regular activities.

M&M still avoids eating large amounts of milk, but doesn't seem to have much of a problem with lactose intolerance these days.

She does still have days where she hurts all over and is very tired, especially for several days after a greater-than-usual exertion, which concerns me a bit given the family history, but the pediatrician isn't worried about it. She has very flexible joints (can bend her elbows partially backwards and has mad skillz with her finger joints, etc.) and is more prone to sprains and things like that than the other kids, but she hasn't subluxated (popped out of joint) either elbow again recently, after having it happen about 3 times when she was younger. I think the flexibility really helps her in gymnastics. :)

AJ at 10 is still her quirky, unique, wonderful self. She really loves to sing and has been in a children's choir for the past 3 years, and has gotten to sing solos at their recitals. The teacher said that she feels AJ is ready to move on/up to more focused training and has probably outgrown this particular choir, so we're looking into doing either private voice lessons and/or letting her join a drama team or children's theater.

She's doing much better with her anxiety/OCD-type issues, but still struggles with reading social signals and sometimes knowing how to determine appropriate interactions for a given situation or level of relationship.

We're working with her to help her learn things like choosing to put a hot pack on her head for the heat and pressure she craves rather than trying to push her head under a person or dog when she's overwhelmed or overstimulated. She's working on learning how to learn to read facial expressions and body language better, understanding and respecting others' personal space, and that sort of thing. Lots of coaching and practice, mostly.

She is still seeing a therapist occasionally (although much less frequently now) who helps us with ideas for things like that, and helps her brainstorm things to do to calm herself when she's upset and work through issues she's worried about so she isn't as likely to dissolve into full-scale meltdowns or long-term panic. She has really improved dramatically, and is enjoying life a lot these days.

AJ still sleeps poorly, is having recurrent intestinal issues (diarrhea, stomachaches, gagging sensations and occasional vomiting), and has been sleeping sitting up in bed lately due to how much her reflux is bothering her. The pediatrician said she probably has IBS, but since he didn't really do anything to rule out other causes, I'm wondering if we should pursue that further or not. With her, it's really hard to know how much is actually a physical issue and how much might be related to her tendency to overstress and worry about things.

We've tried a few different reflux medications that the pediatrician prescribed, and he's ready to prescribe something different if the current one doesn't help more than the others have. We've tried taking her off gluten for a few weeks to see if that helps, but it hasn't really seemed to make a difference. She is still lactose-intolerant and avoids most dairy products, but will occasionally make exceptions for small amounts of foods she feels are worth the discomfort. :)

At the advice of the research scientist from the study I was in (on the effects of excitotoxins on fibromyalgia and IBS symptoms) and with the approval of the pediatrician, we are trialing all 3 kids on going off excitotoxins for a few weeks, to see if it makes any difference particularly in AJ's IBS symptoms and M&M's aches and pains.

Since there is such a strong history of people in our family having trouble with excitotoxins and getting intestinal and/or fibromyalgia-type symptoms from them, it seemed wise to try to figure out whether the kids are sensitive to them or not. So we're making sure they don't eat any excitotoxins for at least 4 weeks, and then we'll try giving them something with MSG in it (ick!) 3 days in a row while closely monitoring the effects on them. I was able to get copies of the symptom-charting forms that were used in the study to use in evaluating data for the kids. This should give us a pretty good idea whether they have an adequate blood-brain barrier to tolerate normal amounts of excitotoxins, or if they have inherited the family difficulty in processing them.

Other than that, the last few years we've just basically tried to eat a well-rounded, healthy diet at home with as many whole fresh unprocessed foods as possible, avoid excessive amounts of things like lactose for those we know don't digest it well, and not stress out about what the kids eat otherwise. :)

DH eats whatever he wants, but he is trying to work on eating/drinking a bit healthier and getting more exercise.

For myself, I'm still avoiding excitotoxins. It really makes a big difference in my symptoms and functionality, and whenever I've cheated it has made me so sick that I've decided cheating isn't worth it for me.

I recently had a couple of months of feeling a lot worse, and finally figured out that it seemed to be correlated with eating xylitol. I'm feeling much better after having cut that out.

With having our college student helper move out and life getting considerably busier this year, I haven't been able to pace myself as well or rest as much. A somewhat constant level of "overdoing it" built up over the course of the year to the point where I was struggling quite a lot physically again.

Now that the pace has slowed for the summer (and I figured out the xylitol thing), I am starting to feel better. I'm happy about that. :) We're brainstorming ways to help me pace myself better on a continual basis, including maybe hiring more help with household tasks and changing what we're doing for schooling the kids.

We are still trying to get our house decluttered and organized, get non-essentials packed and put into storage, and get some minor repairs and sprucing-up done so that we can hopefully put our house on the market soon. Our hope is to move to a place slightly farther out in the country with some acreage, a barn, and hopefully a second residence or apartment in case a parent or sibling needs a place to live, since our parents are getting older, DH's mom has early stage alzheimer's, and both of my siblings have disabling health issues.

We've also been researching schooling options, and have finally decided what we're going to do about school next year. But this is already long enough, so I'll leave that for another post.

At a Blogging Crossroads

I haven't blogged much recently. Part of that is because my energy levels and mental liveliness have been so low lately. I have come to the blog numerous times only to open a new post, stare blankly at the screen wondering what to write about, and then decide I'm too tired and give up.

Another part has been that it often seems redundant. I have a Facebook account now, and post status updates and links fairly frequently.

But I miss the blog. I have spent quite a bit of time recently going back and re-reading old blog posts, often laughing at my kids' antics or shaking my head at the craziness of life. I like having those moments chronicled here, where I can go back and read them easily.

It's very interesting to see the change and growth that has taken place since I first started blogging.

(click below to continue reading)

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I first started keeping a blog on Xanga in July 2004, almost exactly 7 years ago.

It started out as very much a personal journal, read by only a few family and friends.

Then, especially when I was having to take it easy and spend time on bedrest during my pregnancy with Ebee, I became very interested and active in political and social issues, especially Terri Schiavo. For a long time, my blog was basically about that. I gained some regular readers who were also highly involved in discussing and researching that and similar topics.

When I switched to Blogger in May 2005, I was pregnant with Ebee, and my posts became more eclectic again.

I actually started getting involved in the blogosphere, on blogs that were more personal blogs and not geared toward discussion and debate of specific issues. I had some trial and error learning blogging etiquette, and committed some rather huge social faux pas such as posting links to my own blog in comments on someone else's blog, and posting comments vehemently disagreeing with a post the author hadn't intended as an opening to a discussion or debate. :) I've learned a lot over the years, I hope.

My blog became mostly a chronicle of our daily life--cute things the kids said, our struggles with life, kids and health issues, and just random stuff.

While Ebee was young, I wrote most of my posts while she was nursing. Once she was weaned and I no longer had that excuse to sit at the computer so often, and especially after we added the rabbits and some other new activities to our lives, my blogging dropped off significantly.

I did start a food blog called Restricted Gourmet to stash all my recipes on. That's been fun. And, there are a couple of other blogs I've contributed to occasionally as one of multiple authors.

Here on the Purple Puzzle Place, I've written a bit about parenting, a bit about political issues, a few posts that were book or product reviews, and a few updates on daily life. There hasn't really been any consistent theme or consistent anything, really. :)

In the past year or more, I've posted very little. I'd like to get back to writing more. I feel I've gotten rusty, and I miss it. But I'm not sure what to write about, and finding the time and energy is always a challenge. I'm a little afraid I've lost my mental edge, my way with words, and my sense of humor. :)

I'm also not sure what to write about. It seems most of my writing energy gets used up by posting on Facebook and online communities I participate in, and then anything I think to write about is redundant because I've already posted about it elsewhere. Facebook updates are perfect for chronicling those cute and funny things the kids say. But they are much harder to go back to and read again later.

I've thought about dropping the blog completely, but I'm not sure I'm ready to do that. I think maybe I'd like to start up with it again; give it another try. Maybe if I start blogging regularly, I'll find my groove and the creative juices will get flowing again.

I think there are about 3 or 4 faithful readers who still actually have me in their newsfeed; I'm grateful for the undeserved loyalty from these precious people.

I'm curious: If I were to start blogging regularly again, what sorts of things would you particularly enjoy reading about? Do you have any favorite posts or types of posts from the past that come to mind, that you'd enjoy reading more of?

Independence Day 2011

I've felt better the last few days than I've felt in weeks (maybe months). Had a fabulous, memorable day with the girls today. I'm praying that I didn't overdo it too much and won't end up in Post Exertional Malaise tomorrow.

Meanwhile, DH is absolutely miserable with the flu (respiratory/aches/fever version). Poor guy. I hope he feels better soon!

Here's what the girls and I did today:


• We rested and took care of DH (the girls love playing nurse); cleaned up the kitchen and took care of the animals; did laundry (Ebee asked me to teach her how to wash her own load, and M&M folded and put away a load of towels along with my running a couple of loads today);


• Went shopping for fireworks (I gave the kids a $20 budget and picked out one other thing myself) and marked-down 4th-of-July outfits ($2.50 total for each top/shorts set at half off the clearance price);


• Had yummy spaghetti squash with meat sauce, fresh green beans and watermelon;


• Discussed (and used the globe to visualize) how the tilt of the earth in conjunction with its rotation around the sun affects the length of days in summer vs. winter, and why it wouldn't get dark early today in honor of the 4th of July to make the fireworks visible earlier;


• Set off our fireworks; hooted and hollered and cheered; shared our sparklers with the neighbors;


• Walked up to the top of the hill and sat under the water tower to watch fireworks going off for miles around; sang the national anthem and talked about the story of its writing;


• Made a vinegar pie with a recipe from an audiobook we're listening to (The Wonder of Charlie Ann, set in the depression era) and ate it (it was delicious!).

The girls said it was "the best day ever." I was so happy to be well enough to really engage and enjoy the day with them, and not have to spend most of the day in bed and/or walking around in a fog of pain and fatigue fighting an uphill battle just to function and keep everyone fed and basic needs cared for.

It was a day full of the types of moments I wish I could bottle up and keep forever. May there be many more of these kinds of days in our future!