Scheduled Day

Day one (again) of trying to have a more planned-out schedule for the entire day, both for myself and the kids. So far it seems to be going pretty well, actually.

We just finished spending 30 minutes on chores, and now the kids are exercising (walking the dog and going up to the end of the driveway to meet our neighbor at the school bus stop and get the mail) while I take a bit of a rest break. I've been sick for the last several weeks with a respiratory and sinus infection that's been sapping my energy and putting me into a flare-up, but after 26 days it finally seems to be in the process of getting better, hopefully.

We had a hot breakfast (side pork, home-grown fried eggs, and bananas) and the kids are mostly done with school (7yo still has some to do later during her scheduled free time, because she wasn't diligent during school time, but AJ and M&M got done early enough to have an hour of extra free time).

Dinner is well underway--soup is put together and simmering on the stove, and I'll probably make biscuits or muffins to go with it. The main part of the soup is legumes--quinoa and a variety of split legumes--red lentils, matpe beans and pigeon peas. I added homemade broth (from simmering the bones from a chicken and a rabbit we raised and butchered and had for dinner earlier in the week); some fresh carrots, tomatoes, onions, garlic, sweet potato and a tomato; celery, chickweed, dandelions and deadnettle from our garden and fields; and some Himalayan pink salt and black pepper. So far it's looking and smelling very flavorful. I have some additive-free country-style breakfast sausage that I may cook up and add for flavor, perhaps--or maybe I'll just add a pat of butter and garnish with sour cream. If I don't add the meat, I may try blending up the soup with an immersion blender before adding some frozen sweet white corn just before serving (yes, we can have fresh corn now!). We'll have a green salad alongside, with some more wild greens added to the store-bought salad mix to add interest and nutritional density.

Now it's time for the next thing on our list--working on caring for the animals, cleaning out cages, etc. We'll have about an hour of family fun time together after dinner.

I'm using The Confident Mom Weekly Household Planner, a system my mom discovered and started using, that I decided to try too . . . it incorporates elements from Sidetracked Home Executives, Flylady and similar systems in a way that seems to be a really good fit for me. The lady who wrote it has chronic health issues (lupus) and it is designed in a way that seems so much less overwhelming and easier to do than other ways of organizing household tasks I've tried.

The tasks are divided up in a really incremental, manageable way, and I can just tell the kids to pick a job off the page posted on the refrigerator when it comes time to assign chores. It's pretty flexible, and at this point I'm just doing what I can and not worrying too much if it doesn't quite all get done.

* Full disclosure: After writing this post, I decided to look at see if TCM happened to have an affiliate program. They do, so I set up an account and edited the post to include my affiliate link. The link above will give me a kickback of any sales initiated through that link.

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.

#####################

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.

Animal husbandry and farming threatened

There is currently a bill on the books in California that could have a huge impact on farmers and breeders of any animal in California, and could potentially impact the availability of meat also.

It would criminalize any sale or transfer (including giving away or exchanging transport) of most animals on public property or in any public place (including at rabbit shows, transfer of animals in relays to get them to their new homes, etc.) within the state of California, and also is written vaguely enough that any dispatch of animals, including humane dispatch for food, could be criminalized as well.

What happens in any one state can affect the entire nation, so it's important to speak out even if you're not from CA.

There are many other organizations besides the ARBA opposing this bill--I just happen to have this info. from the ARBA because I am a member. :)

Read below for more info . . .

######################################

I've made some minor corrections to typos.

Official Call to Action from ARBA (American Rabbit Breeders Association)

Below is an official plan of action released this evening by the president of ARBA- Mike Avesing. He has sent out the following information (see below) and has urged every single member of ARBA to take action immediately to oppose SB 917.

Please do the following:

1.) Cross post this official ARBA call to action alert to every single rabbit owner and raiser you know. There are over 1,700 members of ARBA. They all need to see this message as soon as possible. Encourage cross posting to as many concerned citizens as possible nation wide. This message needs to go viral within the next 24 hours to be effective. It is up to each and every single person receiving this email to step up and to send it on to as many folks as they can. We all need to do this if we care about the future of rabbit raising and preserving animal farming interests in California and Nationally.

2.) Please either fax or send your opposition letter as soon as possible to Senator Ted Lieu, Governor Jerry Brown, and all members of the California Assembly Appropriations Committee. All of the necessary contact information is contained within the ARBA action plan below. Also attached and embedded below is a sample letter that can be used. Just fill in your information as appropriate. Please feel free to edit to better convey your opposition message. Remember to include this phrase at the top of your letter: (name of organization or individual) strongly oppose SB 917 as amended and in any an all forms. This is so your opposition to this bill will not be dropped should it be changed or amended.

3.) Next, get as many people as you can to likewise fax or send in their opposition letters. Remember that simply calling or emailing will NOT assure that your opposition will be heard and added to the official file. Have every single member of your family, your friends, co-workers, fellow farmers, etc. fax in their opposition individually. All animal husbandry will be ended in California should this bill pass. We want to literally melt down their fax machines and make it difficult for them to conduct their business as usual. Past experience has taught us that this is the only way to get their attention so they will hear us.

4.) Please, all of you from out of state, please join our opposition effort and fax in your opposition letters ASAP. As the saying goes “So goes California , so goes the nation”. The animal rights operatives behind this monstrous bill will replicate it across the nation if they are successful in passing it in California . This is their tried and true mode of operandus. YOU CAN BANK ON IT!

We all should extend a big thank you to Mike Aversing for his invaluable help in this effort.

ARBA Action Plan ” CA Senate Bill 917″

The ARBA is very concerned with the potential impacts of SB 917 on our hobby and our members in CA. With that in mind, we are urging that every one of our 1731 California members contact their elected state officials to express their concern about the negative impacts of SB 917. Target the elected officials that represent you. Encourage your family and friends fax letters of opposition to the bill. 4H or FFA groups would also be impacted by this bill and would also we a great place to get additional support.

To make it easier for everyone to do that, we are providing the following to as many members as we can:

*
A sample letter that can be sent to your elected state officials. (Separate email attachment) The letter should be useable by anyone. If you raise cavies, just substitute “cavies” for rabbits in the letter. Opposition letters can be faxed to 916-319-2181 to be reviewed by the individual who will be writing the analysis for the Appropriations Committee. Additionally, it is a good idea to fax opposition letters to each Assembly person on the appropriations committee to convey your position and how this bill will adversely affect you, your organization, and animal husbandry in general.

Faxing letters is preferred to calling since the fax is a hard copy of your opposition and must be included in the file. Calls are not recorded as such.

Contact information for the members of the Appropriations Committee is also included in this document.

*
Contact information for CA State Assemblymen (Separate email attachment)

*
Talking points that you can use in discussions on the bill (See below)

Melting down the fax machines at the capitol was a very successful tactic we have used in the past to defeat other bad animal rights bills. WE NEED LARGE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE sending in their opposition. At the bottom of this email is the contact list for the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

When you have completed your opposition effort then it is imperative that we get others to do the same. These can be family members, neighbors, friends, fellow farmers and rabbit breeders, co-workers, etc. Please have those who reside out of state that you know do the same.

SPREAD THE WORD QUICKLY. It is especially important to fax opposition letters to Governor Brown’s office and Senator Ted Lieu’s office.

Here is their contact information:

Governor Jerry Brown
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento , CA 95814

Phone: (916) 445-2841
Fax: (916) 558-3160

Senator Ted Lieu

Capitol Office

State Capitol, Room 4090

Sacramento , CA
95814
Phone: (916) 651-4028
Fax: (916) 323-6056

The information we are providing has been supplied by many individuals within our membership. I don’t want to mention names for fear of forgetting someone. I’d sincerely like to thank them for their assistance and support.

Mike Avesing

Talking Points:

BENEFITS of the rabbit and cavy fancies:

*
the productive contribution the hobby makes in the lives of young people
*
community service
*
wholesome food
*
the green movement/sustainable agriculture
*
agribusiness/retail economy
*
promotion of responsible rabbit ownership that ARBA members support

Committee Members District FAX E-mail

Felipe Fuentes – Chair Dem-39 (916) 319-2139

Assemblymember.Fuentes@assembly.ca.gov

Diane L. Harkey – Vice Chair Rep-73 916) 319-2173

Assemblymember.Harkey@assembly.ca.gov

Bob Blumenfield

Dem-40 (916) 319-2140 Assemblymember.Blumenfield@assembly.ca.gov

Steven Bradford

Dem-51 (916) 319-2151 Assemblymember.Bradford@assembly.ca.gov

Charles M. Calderon

Dem-58 (916) 319-2158 Assemblymember.Calderon@assembly.ca.gov

Nora Campos

Dem-23 (916) 319-2123 Assemblymember.Campos@assembly.ca.gov

Mike Davis

Dem-48 (916) 319-2148 Assemblymember.Davis@assembly.ca.gov

Tim Donnelly

Rep-59 (916) 319-2159 Assemblymember.Donnelly@assembly.ca.gov

Mike Gatto

Dem-43 (916) 319-2143 Assemblymember.Gatto@assembly.ca.gov

Isadore Hall III

Dem-52 (916) 319-2152 Assemblymember.Hall@assembly.ca.gov

Jerry Hill

Dem-19 (916) 319-2119 Assemblymember.Hill@assembly.ca.gov

Ricardo Lara

Dem-50 (916) 319-2150 Assemblymember.Lara@assembly.ca.gov

Holly J. Mitchell

Dem-47 (916) 319-2147 Assemblymember.Mitchell@assembly.ca.gov

Jim Nielsen

Rep-2 (916) 319-2102 Assemblymember.Nielsen@assembly.ca.gov

Chris Norby

Rep-72 (916) 319-2172 Assemblymember.Norby@assembly.ca.gov

Jose Solorio

Dem-69 (916) 319-2069 Assemblymember.Solorio@assembly.ca.gov

Donald P. Wagner

Rep-70 (916) 319-2070 Assemblymember.Wagner@assembly.ca.gov

Sample Letter :

I (name of organization or individual) strongly oppose SB 917 as amended and in any and all forms.

Dear Esteemed Assemblyman: ,

I would like to convey my strong opposition to bill SB 917 pertaining to the topic of “animal abuse”. I ask to be included in the count for the opposition to SB917.

This proposed law is a direct assault on animal husbandry in the state of California including, but not limited to, those who raise rabbits. SB 917 constitutes a direct assault on small farmers and intends to criminalize them simply for their responsible and ethical pursuit of animal raising. Those who raise rabbits and other animals will be forbidden to sell them anywhere except on private property. This requirement will inevitably impede both interstate commerce as well as live animal trade within California ‘s borders. Selling at shows and on public property, giving away animals as pets, and transporting them to be picked up anywhere on public property will be considered an act of “animal cruelty” complete with fines, seizure of private property (animals), and arrest as a misdemeanor offense. Furthermore, the natural and time honored farming practice of harvesting animals for food will be now be criminalized and potentially be classified as “cruel and intentional killing”, an act of animal cruelty, and, according to this law, a felonious crime.

The terms cruelty, abuse, and neglect are not well defined by this bill. As written, they are ambiguous terms subject to the conjecture and whims of the enforcer. Who is to determine what is cruel, neglectful, and/or abusive and what is not? What criterion will be used? None are set forth in this bill. Normal farming practices may seem cruel to someone who has always resided in a city and has only owned pets that live with them inside their homes as many animal control investigators have. Because this law is so badly written and poorly defined, its enforcement will cause the inevitable abuse of power by those who choose to do so.

Clearly, this bill will unavoidably lead to the criminalization of innocent farming and animal raising California citizens.

Families will be prohibited from raising rabbits and other animals for food. Children participating in 4H and FFA will become instant criminals upon their 18th birthday simply because they raise animals. Small farmers, under the weight of such a draconian and ill-conceived law, will be forced to abandon farming in California and flee the state resulting in a massive loss of tax revenue and a vital food supply.

All wrongly convicted farmers and animal raisers caught in this ill-conceived dragnet will be incarcerated in California‘s already over-populated penal system. Rest assured, there will be legal challenges to this law which again will be borne by the California taxpayer. Additionally, this is an unfunded mandate whose implementation will be paid for by already critically cash-strapped local governments. .

During these fiscally challenging economic times, California simply can not afford to make SB 917 a law. Please stand with our innocent farmers and animal raisers of California by opposing this draconian legislation.

The last thought I would like to leave you with is- what will happen to California‘s meat supply should this bill go into effect? We are one of the largest food producing regions in the world. How many people will be adversely affected by this law when the cost of meat escalates beyond affordability? Already cash-strapped families will no longer be able to provide their children with meat-based protein which is absolutely essential for normal human development. The ultimate costs of SB 917 are grave and far reaching.

Thank you so much for your time and attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

(Your name/ position and/or organization here)

Milk Nutritional Comparison

This chart detailing the nutritional content of different mammals' milk is fascinating. I wonder what kangaroo or polar bear milk tastes like, and how they harvested it for testing.

http://classes.ansci.illinois.edu/ansc438/milkcompsynth/milkcomp_table.html

What We Eat

I've had quite a few people ask me what we eat, since I avoid excitotoxins and we don't eat much in the way of dairy products, gluten or processed foods.

I've recently started posting again on my food blog, Restricted Gourmet. When I can remember to pay attention to how much of what ingredients I put into what I cook, I like to post the recipes that turn out well on the blog where I can find them again. I'm going to try posting some entire menu plans, or maybe even entire days' worth of meals, over the next few weeks.

Tonight we had Almond Crusted Tilapia with Garlic and Dill. The fish-lovers in the family pronounced it "absolutely amazing" while even my 5-year-old fish-hater found it edible.

Too bad I didn't actually measure the ingredients. :) I tend to cook on the fly, with "a little of this and a little of that" and seldom measure anything, so putting it into a form that will work on the food blog is a bit of a challenge.

Project Success

Our beans and rice project went well. Our goal had been to raise enough money for one well, which with a matching grant would dig two wells in Nicaragua. Instead, we were able to raise enough money for 4 wells, which with the matching grant will be 8! Praise the Lord!

We learned a lot during the week about how people in poverty live, about the people group we're helping with the wells, and about the Lord. The kids did really well with it, and it was a great experience.

Playing with Kombucha

I've been having fun experimenting with making my own kombucha cultures from purchased kombucha.

I have used only the plain flavor--no flavored tea or tea with juice added, etc. because I don't want to contaminate my culture. You can grow a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast--the stuff that makes the good probiotics and vitamins in the cultured black tea) quite easily from a purchased bottle of fresh raw kombucha.

###############################

A lot of people seem to be using mostly the sediment left at the bottom of the bottle, and that works. I've grown a couple of SCOBYs now by just leaving the last half or third of the kombucha in the bottom of the bottle and leaving it out, covered, at room temperature for a few days. The thin little SCOBYs that grew had no trouble coming out when I poured them through the neck of the bottle into a larger container.

Many bottles of the GT's kombucha have a pretty good start at a SCOBY in them already. Look in the bottoms and try to find a bottle with a pretty good chunk of almost transparent cloudy stuff--it looks like sediment at first, but the difference is that it stays all in one piece when you swirl the tea around in the bottle.

When you take off the lid, the rising bubbles will carry the little SCOBY right to the top. Wait a few minutes, and you can watch it rise slowly to float as a little film or clump of cloudy stuff at the top. If it doesn't float up, put the lid back on and gently turn the bottle upside down a couple of times, and then try again. Or you can just shake the bottle very gently a bit before you open in in the first place. Just don't shake it too hard, or you'll have an exploding bottle on your hands when you open it.

I've had success with pouring the top half of the tea, complete with the little SCOBY, into a sterilized quart jar. I then cover the jar with a natural (brown) coffee filter secured with the metal band that comes with the jars (I take out the flat metal lid, of course, and replace it with the coffee filter).

The first time I tried making kombucha from a jar of purchased kombucha, it didn't work very well. I added the baby SCOBYs from two jars of kombucha along with a cup or two of kombucha into a full-sized batch (2-3 quarts) of sweet tea in a gallon-sized jar. But the ratio of tea to kombucha and SCOBY was too much. The tea went bad before the SCOBYs grew enough to really start turning it into kombucha.

What has worked really well for me is just leaving the purchased kombucha with nothing added at room temperature for a few days. This way the SCOBY really starts to develop within 2-4 days. I've let it culture this way for a week with a few of my experiments, and the tea was pretty sour but it made a good-looking SCOBY.

I start out with about a cup of kombucha in a quart jar and just let it work for a few days, and then tilt the jar to the side and add about a cup of cooled sweet tea. I pour it down the side of the jar to try to avoid disturbing the SCOBY too much, but the SCOBYs I've been really rough with, jostled around, played with and poured stuff on top of seem to be surviving also--they seem to be pretty sturdy little critters.

I made a new batch of sweet tea last night with 6 tea bags and 1.5 cups of sugar to 3.5 quarts of water (I boiled a little more than 2 quarts of filtered water for 10 minutes, steeped the tea for 10 minutes, dissolved the sugar in it, then added bottled spring water to cool it to room temperature more quickly--enough to make 3.5 quarts total tea).

I started a new batch with part of a fresh bottle of GTs tea, but this time I added about 1/4 of the amount of my cooled sweet tea to the prepared kombucha and the baby SCOBY from the jar. I am thinking that might give the SCOBY some extra food to give it a good start without over-diluting the culture.

The other cultures, I have had going for a week or two. To these I added new tea so that the uncultured tea was about half to three-quarters of the liquid in the jars. I'll be interested to see how quickly the various proportions work, and how they taste and look. Right now I have 5 quart jars and 1 gallon jar culturing, all at different stages, started from 5 different bottles of kombucha.

I did end up using the very old bottle of High Country Kombucha that I'd had sitting in my refrigerator for months. It worked, but I think that it has a much higher proportion of yeast in it. There is a lot of dark cloudy stuff hanging down from the SCOBY and sinking or floating suspended in the tea, and a much more yeasty smell and taste than in my GT cultures.

I've been writing notes on the edges of my coffee filters so I can keep track of which culture is which. Here are the cultures I have at the moment:

1: The culture from the SCOBY on top of the really old bottle of High Country tea.

2. Another culture from the dregs at the bottom of that same bottle. It's now in its 3rd batch of tea.

3. A culture from the last bit of tea in a bottle of GTs kombucha.

4. A hybrid baby SCOBY that grew from adding culture #2 to a GT culture that had been going slowly because I put the baby GT SCOBY in too much sweet tea.

5. A new culture from a fresh bottle of High Country.

6. A new culture from a fresh bottle of GTs.

After culture #2 got going, I added it to a slow-going GTs kombucha in a gallon-sized jar to make culture #4.

Culture #1 had TONS of yeast in it, and I tried to gently scrape off and fish out as much of the yeasty stuff as I could with a spoon when I transferred it to a new container yesterday. The kombucha from this was pretty much undrinkable, so I'll try it on my hair.

When I switched things around yesterday, I peeled the gallon-sized baby SCOBY (#4) off the quart-sized #2 SCOBY and put the smaller one into a fresh quart jar filled about 1/3 of the way with the resulting kombucha. Then I filled it almost up to the shoulders of the jar (before the narrowing) with fresh sweet tea.

I put the #4 SCOBY back into the gallon jar with a good share of the kombucha it had made and filled it up the rest of the way (slightly more than half of the total) with sweet tea.

The #3 culture has made the best kombucha tea so far, I think. I took out about half the tea it had made and replaced the amount with fresh sweet tea.

With the two new cultures I just added about 1/4 the amount of fresh tea. I put the remainder of my sweet tea in the refrigerator and plan to add it to these two new cultures in a few days once the SCOBYs get a little bigger.

Once my SCOBYs get more established, I plan to use a higher proportion of fresh tea to the cultured kombucha in some of the jars. But I also want to try at least one gallon-sized jar as a continuous-ferment kombucha culture.

I bought a glass jar with a plastic spigot at a thrift store yesterday. It didn't look like it had been used much if at all, but once I took the spigot apart there was some gunk inside it that wasn't all that easy to get off. I took it completely apart scrubbed it well and then sterilized all the parts and the jar, but I'm still not sure I trust it.

I can buy a gallon glass jar with a plastic spigot new for about $6, or one with a metal spigot for about $22. I'm trying to figure out which would be better to use for my continuous ferment.

I like the idea of a spout at the bottom of the jar so I would have to disturb the culture a little less often. But both plastic and metal spouts are going to have plastic or rubber washers, anyway, and I'm worried about the metal corroding or the plastic leaching chemicals into the kombucha. So I may just end up using a gallon-sized jar and using a spoon to hold back the SCOBY while I pour some out the top, and then gently pouring in enough fresh tea to replace what I took out.

If the continuous fermentation system works well, I'll probably end up choosing the best culture to keep in that, and going down to just one culture and maybe a backup.

But for now I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with the different cultures. Each one has its own completely unique personality, flavor and look so far. The High Country kombucha does seem to maybe have a higher yeast content than the GTs kombucha even in the fresh cultures, from what I can tell so far. But neither has cultured enough to really tell yet.

Eating Well

I'm finally feeling a bit better. This was probably the worst FM/CFS flare-up I've had that wasn't triggered by something like a car accident since we got married.

I've been enjoying cooking again lately. For a while I felt like I was getting tired of cooking from scratch all the time. When we found out Baby E's allergies were gone I had a harder time making myself do it, since alternatives were available.

Last night the older kids had an activity we had to take them to, so DH and I couldn't go out for Valentine's Day. So, while DH dropped them off, I cooked a special meal at home.

########################

I simmered some boneless skinless chicken thighs and a handful of baby carrots in a mixture of water and mango-papaya salsa, with a little orange juice and a drizzle of honey, a splash of white wine and a sprinkling of salt for flavor.

I made a delicious salad out of mixed baby lettuces and micro-greens (things like tiny kale, cabbage, bok choy and broccoli leaves), garnished with raw sunflower seeds, grape tomatoes, tangerine slices and shredded raw milk sharp provolone cheese. (For some reason--probably because of the living enzymes--I'm able to tolerate a small amount of raw or cultured dairy products.) With a little lemon-chive dressing, the salad was extraordinarily tasty. I'm going to make more for lunch with the kids today.

I served the chicken and sauce over rice with a little more of the salsa spooned over the top, and a side of broccoli. DH and I really enjoyed our dinner. Since Baby E had already eaten dinner earlier, she was mostly content to play or watch a video while we ate.

Right now I have beef bones roasting in the oven to make bone broth, and a large beef roast thawed in the refrigerator. I'm going to put the roast in the crock pot to cook ahead for meals this weekend.

Tonight we will be preparing an Indian meal to finish off our study of India, and my parents and sister will be joining us. That will be fun. I haven't decided for sure what all I'm going to make yet--something with chicken. We did buy some whole wheat Naan yesterday, and I have Garam Masala in my cupboard. If anyone has any great (not-too-terribly-spicy) Indian recipes to recommend, let me know.

As for school, it's going well. I was going to let M&M go ahead and start the next math book, but as we started learning to count by 5s I realized that she needed some remedial work on counting over 20. She understands things like addition, subtraction, comparisons, weights and measures but she gets a bit mixed up in her counting after she gets to 29. So we're taking a break from the math book to just work with her daily on counting to 100 by ones, tens and fives. That's one of the wonderful things about homeschooling: if she were in regular school she wouldn't be able to take a week out and work on filling in a gap instead of continuing to move ahead when she was being hampered by needing more work on a foundational concept.

The kids are enjoying their new phonics and vocabulary workbooks. They are buzzing through multipe lessons at a time, but seem to be retaining what they learn.

Baby E is fully potty trained now, even at night, though we still have her wear a Pull-Up when we're going out somewhere and might not be near a restroom. She was weaned for about a week, but was still so miserable at that point that I decided to go back to the coin system and let her nurse about twice a day, while still offering incentives for her to choose not to nurse.

I've finally discovered something Baby E will drink that's not thickened juice: kefir. She really likes kefir, and it's even already thickened. So she's getting that 2-3 times a day. M&M likes it, too. AJ is still avoiding dairy products (although she does eat sheep's milk cheese), so I make her "kefir" out of rice milk with probiotics added.

I really think that getting so much good bacteria in things like kefir, yogurt, kombucha, etc. has been instumental in her growing out of her allergies and her current growing tolerance for sugars in things like fruits. We're still trying to avoid refined sugars and other highly-refined/processed foods as much as possible for the whole family, just because they're so unhealthy.

We all went to the dentist yesterday, and the news was not so good. Baby E's teeth looked good, thankfully, but I had 5 cavities, AJ had 3, and M&M had one. I don't know if DH had any or not--I forgot to ask him.

We are going to continue working with the kids on good flossing and brushing habits, and I'm also trying to add more mineral-dense foods like bone broth, organ meats, microgreens, etc. to our diet.

It's a good thing that healthy food tastes good!

Weaning . . . or not

I've been attempting to gradually wean Baby E from nursing for several months now. It's not going very well.

####################

I've got her down to nursing only 2-4 times per day, but only by flat-out refusing to nurse her more than that. Her preference would be to still be nursing every 2-4 hours. The few times a day I'm willing to nurse her, she happily settles in for the long haul and nurses as long as I'll let her. Then she goes into huge tantrums when I decide she's had enough.

She acts like she'd just prefer to stay latched on all day. The longest I've made it in a nursing session is about an hour before I make her stop, and she hasn't been ready to stop even those times. Usually I lose patience after more like 20-40 minutes, especially when she's biting me because my milk supply isn't very plentiful.

She hasn't been willing to end a nursing session on her own unless she falls asleep, and then usually she wakes up as soon as I detach her and/or lay her down, and immediately demands more milk. Once she's awake after once dozing off, she won't fall asleep again no matter how long I nurse her. I think she knows that once she's asleep the spigot will be cut off, so she tries her hardest to stay awake.

She's been missing naps lately because of that--she won't go to sleep without nursing, but if I nurse her she falls asleep nursing and then wakes up, and there's no getting her to go to sleep again. It ends up deteriorating into a colossal battle just to get her to stay in her room for the duration of quiet time.

The rest of the day she's grumpy, whiny and short-fused, spending much of the day following me around clinging to me and begging for milk until both of us are going crazy, or growling at anyone who gets in her way.

Both of my other kids really liked the formula we switched them to when I weaned them, and they were quite happy to have that instead. Weaning was quite easy with them.

With Baby E, not so much.

The main problem is that I haven't yet found anything she's willing to drink as a substitute. She can't drink plain water--she still aspirates thin liquids. Even I agree that thickened water with no flavoring tastes pretty disgusting. She will drink thickened orange juice (very diluted), but too much of that seems to make her reflux worse. Most other juices seem to give her issues with diarrhea and stomachaches if she has more than a very small amount.

We've tried cow's milk, rice milk, soy milk, formula, and even a potato-based milk substitute. I've tried adding vanilla-flavored non-dairy creamer and various other flavorings and sweeteners to all of the above options. Nothing gets more than a taste--even if she says she likes it, she won't drink much of it. Certainly not enough to meet her nutritional or liquid intake needs.

DH is picking up some chocolate syrup today to try mixing in, but given her response to chocolate-flavored rice milk I have little hope for that. Even if I do get her drinking chocolate milk, what then? I certainly don't want to be giving her chocolate milk several times a day on a regular basis.

Today I did get her to drink some of a cherry-banana smoothie with baby formula mixed in, but although she drank more of it than she normally drinks, I can still tell from her urine output that she's not really getting enough fluids. At this point she's reluctant to accept even the thickened orange juice she normally enjoys, just because she's mad that I'm not letting her nurse more.

My milk supply has been waning for quite some time, anyway, and I am so ready to be done with nursing. She's 2 and 1/2. She can eat just about anything now, and I've already nursed her much longer than I nursed either of my other two. I really don't want to do it any more.

Meanwhile, Baby E spends much of her day clinging to me screaming, trying to tear my shirt open, and acting like she fully believes the end of the world is imminent because MILK is not immediately forthcoming.

I've been talking to her a lot lately about how only babies drink milk from their mommies, and big kids drink other milk. She's completely unimpressed by that.

Today I even offered her a doll she's really been wanting. I told her that she could have it when she doesn't drink milk from Mommy any more and learns to drink other milk instead. She wanted the doll, but not enough to dry drinking cow's milk.

Maybe I'll call the pediatrician and see what he has to say.

Still floating

Baby E is still doing fabulously after the in-office corn trial yesterday. Still no sign of any reaction more than 24 hours later.

She got to eat her snack in the room with all the other little kids at the homeschool co-op today.

For me, I stood there and stared at the food table with snacks for the moms and tried to get my head around the fact that I could eat anything I wanted without worrying about traces in my milk making Baby E sick. Then I did. I had coffee with non-dairy flavored creamer in it, some fruit, and instant oatmeal from a little package. LOL. The little joys of life.

On tonight's menu . . . popcorn!

It still all feels rather surreal to me. Surreal and wonderful.

Miracles

Baby E had her in-office food challenge today.

They started out by taking her blood pressure and everything, then did a skin-prick test with the fresh-cooked corn we brought and smeared some corn flour mixed with water on one cheek. 15-20 minutes later, so far so good.

########################

Then they started feeding her corn. They started with half a kernel and gradually increased the amount, feeding her another dose every 20 minutes until finally they just gave her a little cup of corn and let her eat as much as she wanted. She liked it.

By the time all was said and done we had been at the allergist's office for over 4 and 1/2 hours, feeding her corn and watching her. She had no reaction whatsoever. None. Maybe a slight tummy-ache, which is fairly normal for her anyway. Nothing that looked like an allergy.

Sometime this afternoon DH said she had a soft BM that looked like it may have had some corn in it. But she does the same thing with other fruits and vegetables high in starch and/or sugar, so that's nothing unusual for her.

It's now been about 14 hours and still no sign of any kind of reaction. Not even a mood change, difficulty napping or red cheeks. Nothing.

We've been praying so much that she would grow out of her allergies. At this point it looks like she's gone from having a bunch of food allergies to having NONE. We still have to figure out the sugar issue, but Baby E has no food allergies.

Wow. Wow.

We are going to keep an eye on her over the next few days to see how she tolerates it over the long-term, but if that goes well we're going to buy a popcorn popper! And go out to dinner in a real restaurant! And basically eat whatever we want.

It hasn't even really sunk in yet, but wow.

We also got word yesterday that the 4-year-old in Malamute Rescue family had an amazing thing happen this week.

About a year ago he had to have a lump in his neck surgically removed, along with the salivary gland that was causing it.

This year he developed the same kind of problem in another gland, farther down in his neck. The location would be much more difficult and dangerous to operate on, so after verifying the issue the surgeon referred them to another more experienced expert. We all started praying.

About 3 or 4 days ago the Malamute Rescuers noticed that they could no longer see the lump in his neck. Yesterday he had his ultrasound.

There was nothing there. The lump was completely gone.

"I don't know what happened," the renowned surgeon said. "These things don't normally go away on their own. But there's nothing there. Nothing wrong in his neck at all."

We're all praising the Lord for answered prayers. It's almost beyond words at the moment.

10 Little Jars and 3 Little Girls

Well, I finally finished the last batch of grape jam last night. 5 batches yielded 10 little half-pint jars of jam, plus an extra half-jar that we've mostly eaten already. It was really a lot of work for a little bit of jam, but it sure tastes good. I learned a lot about jam-making in the process.

###############



I think making pectin- and sugar-free jam out of Concord grapes was a rather challenging task to choose for my first major canning project. But, as DH said, "We don't know anyone who tends to learn to swim by jumping in at the deep end, do we?" :)

I'll post instructions on my food blog when I get a chance.

Now I just have the grape juice to can. I think it will be much easier, since I don't have to cook it down to the jelling point. I'll just have to let it sit for another day or so, then strain out the tartrate crystals (a.k.a. cream of tartar) and then heat it to 180 degrees and can it. Then I'll start working on the apples.

DH and I have also been making some progress on getting the house and yard clean and organized. This weekend DH raked up leaves and I hired a neighbor boy to mow the lawn, and this afternoon I'm having a teenage girl come over to help with some housework (my kitchen floor definitely needs mopping after making jam!).

My hope is to get things all squared away in time to decorate for Christmas. Last year things were so crazy that we didn't even do that. I'm looking forward to making a doll nativity scene again with the girls. We really loved doing that the two years we put one up.

Here are photos of the two previous Nativity scenes. I'm hoping to find another boy doll to play Joseph this year, to better match the 37" Pamela Erff "Kerri" doll who plays Mary.





Marie Claire by Monica Levenig, who played Joseph the first year, is 27" tall. Sebastian by Pamela Erff, who played Joseph the second year, is actually an inch or so taller than Marie Claire, but he is thinner and has skinnier arms and legs, so a doll built like Marie actually looks bigger (and more proportional with Kerri) than Sebastian does.



I keep wondering if one of the Peter-Leicht big girls that I like so much would work redressed as a boy. :) I've been watching this cute little (big) Levenig guy, but DH doesn't like the idea of a blonde-blue-eyed Joseph. :)

Meanwhile, Baby E has been wanting to nurse a lot today after having waned down to about 3 times a day the last several days. She's been in full-out tantrum/fussy/clingy/whiny mode. Hopefully we won't have too much trouble getting the rest of school done today.

Grapes

My friend Morning, the kids and I went out to my dad's property again this week and picked grapes. Most of them were gone, but in the section of vines that was still unpicked the grapes were at least as thick as the leaves. Amazing.

##########################

The grapes were starting to mold on the vine, so we picked as many of the good ones as we could. We filled the turkey roaster, my big stock pot, a huge soup toureen, and a few other containers. We also filled a couple of big tupperware containers with apples.

I've been spending every spare moment the last few days sorting and washing grapes. I made one batch of jam, but had to refrigerate it uncanned since my old canner turned out to be too corroded to use. Another batch of grapes I cooked and put through the food mill, but haven't cooked down into jam yet. I'll be making one more batch of jam out of the cracked-but-still-good grapes, and then the rest of the perfect grapes I'm going to can as just plain juice.

Making jam without sugar or pectin takes a lot more cooking and gives a smaller yield, but the flavor is rich and the jam is eventually thickening beautifully. I think that, technically, what I'm making is grape butter. It's satisfying to know that I did it myself and that there's absolutely nothing but grapes in it.

I spent most of today driving from store to store trying to find a flat-bottomed hot water canner to buy. I finally found one at the 6th or 7th store I tried--in the clearance section at about 75% off the original price. :) I'd bought a food mill, the Ball Blue book, and some other canning supplies earlier in the week, so I think I'm finally all set now.

Once the jam is done, I'll be making applesauce. We'll probably go back and pick more apples and can some apple juice and apple jelly or jam as well. I think the apples will be a lot easier because they're much easier to skin and de-seed.

I had no idea this would be so labor-intensive, but hopefully we'll get some good canned goods out of it. The jam will certainly be cheaper than the expensive corn-free fruit preserves we usually buy. :)

Now I must get back to work.

Sugar Intolerance Information

[To skip the technical stuff and go straight to the update about Baby E, click here.]

I've gotten a number of comments and e-mails from people who have or suspect some sort of sugar intolerance or malabsorption in themselves or their children.

I thought I'd put up a post sharing some of the best resources I've come across and what little I've learned so far on the topic. If anyone reading knows of other good resources, please feel free to post them in the comments.

Obviously, I'm no expert, so if you see any errors in this post please let me know. I'm just sharing what little I've learned by reading articles posted on the internet and talking with people who have been diagnosed with various conditions.

One thing to know is that there are many different types of sugar intolerance. These can vary drastically in severity of symptoms, as well as in the foods tolerated.

#####################

The various sugar malabsorptions or intolerances can coexist with each other, can be affected by each other, can be secondary to (caused by) other issues (such as food allergies, celiac disease or anything that damages the digestive system), or can be misdiagnosed as each other (for instance, other sugar intolerances are fairly frequently initially suspected or diagnosed as lactose intolerance). Problems digesting sugars can be either inherited or acquired later in life, and depending on the cause they can be temporary or permanent. They can be caused by multiple factors--possibly including an imbalance of intestinal flora, a genetic defect, lack of certain digestive enzymes, intestinal damage, various diseases, or a number of other causes.

Problems with sugars can include lactose intolerance, hereditary fructose intolerance, fructose malabsorption, trehalose intolerance, glucose-galactose malabsorption, congenital sucrase-isomaltase deficiency (a.k.a. disaccharide intolerance I), and more. According to this article, "There are more than 30 less-common human diseases which cause malabsorption of one or more nutrients" [including sugars].

Some notes to be aware of:


• Sugar malabsorption can be linked to or misdiganosed as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or other functional bowel diseases.



• People with fructose malabsorption can usually tolerate sucrose or other foods with equal amounts of glucose (a.k.a. dextrose) and fructose. (Sucrose is equal parts glucose and fructose bonded together.) Apparently somehow the presence of glucose assists in fructose absorption for people with fructose malabsorption.



• People with hereditary fructose intolerance cannot tolerate fructose in any form, whether glucose is present along with it or not. This means that they also cannot tolerate sucrose, since it breaks down into fructose and glucose.



• For many people with a fructose issue, fructans are also a problem. Fructans are not technically a sugar, but they are long chains of fructose molecules and therefore cause problems for many who cannot tolerate fructose. Some of the foods high in fructans include onions, leeks, artichokes, asparagus, green beans, and a number of other foods.



• People with CSID cannot tolerate sucrose, but many can handle foods with 1 gram or less sucrose per 100 grams. There is a supplemental enzyme that helps some CSID patients to digest small amounts of sucrose. CSID involves the digestion of starches and maltose (the sugar found in grains) as well as sucrose. There are various groups of people with CSID--some can't handle starch at all, while others can tolerate various amounts. The tolerance of things like honey can vary, too.



• Some people with problems tolerating various sugars may also have issues with artificial sugar substitutes, sugar alcohols (anything ending in -itol), oligosaccharides (fructo-oligosaccharides [FOS], inulin, chicory, etc.) and polysaccharides (fructans, gums, etc.). Many of those substances are difficult to digest anyway, so they can cause increased discomfort in someone with digestive problems.

Here are a few resources I've found that might be helpful:

Dietary Carbohydrate Consumption. This page explains some of the chemistry behind the different types of sugars and starches, as well as giving some examples of foods which contain each type of saccharide.

Fructose Malabsorption Australia Yahoo! group--these people are very helpful and nice. They have a bunch of information in the "files" section on recommended diets, and can answer questions too. They can give lots of information about fructans and how they affect people with fructose malabsorption.

USDA food database--you can search for a food here, and in many cases it will tell you the amounts of each type of sugar in that food, along with other nutritional information.

Chart of sugar content of various foods (PDF).

CSID information site--this is about sucrose-isomaltose intolerance, but is helpful for general sugar intolerance information as well. They a lot of helpful information about sugar intolerance and also some charts of the sugar and starch content of various foods.

I would not recommend embarking on a diet of trying to exclude sugars without help and advice from a doctor and/or nutritionist or dietician. With the possible exception of lactose (milk sugar) intolerance and maybe trehalose (mushroom sugar) intolerance, these conditions are not easy to self-diagnose and the required diets can be difficult or impossible to follow without becoming nutritionally compromised. You need help from people who know what they are doing.

***********

[The rest of this post is an update on Baby E's possible sugar intolerance issues.]

We still haven't figured out yet exactly what's going on with Baby E with regards to a possible sugar intolerance of some sort.

Initially our GI specialist (the nurse practitioner) diagnosed Baby E with lactose intolerance. This was based on a postive reducing substances test she had while consuming fruits and small amounts of other sugars, but very little dairy (she'd had a small amount of yogurt one to three days earlier). The GI specialist diagnosed lactose intolerance even though E had no symptoms and a negative reducing substances test when consuming breastmilk and removing fruits and added sugars from her diet.

After we had added and removed dairy products several times, it seemed clear that lactose was not the sugar causing Baby E's issues. So I called the GI specialist to tell her (yet again) that lactose did not seem to be the issue. We felt that fruits and possibly other natural sugar sources were triggering E's symptoms.

At that point the GI specialist told us to try removing "all sugars" from Baby E's diet for several weeks to see if that helped with her malabsorption symptoms, and then reintroduce foods one at a time to try to figure out which sugar was causing the symptoms. But she didn't tell us how strict we needed to be about this or what to feed Baby E instead. Since we had already removed added sugars and knew that Baby E's symptoms were being caused by things like small amounts of whole fruit, the initial recommendation of just taking out things like table sugar and corn syrup (which she wasn't eating anyway) obviously wasn't going to do the trick.

Since essentially everything that grows out of the ground contains sugars of some kind, eliminating all sugars is next to impossible. We could probably eliminate fructose, sucrose and lactose completely by giving Baby E nothing but meat and eggs. But I would never try this without a really compelling reason, very specific instructions and good follow-up from a doctor.

I have called the GI specialist several times to ask exactly what we should feed Baby E, and whether we should try to keep the amounts of various sugars below a certain number of grams per dose (for instance, 2 grams or less of sucrose per 100 grams of food) or whether we actually needed to completely remove all sugars from her diet. I said that if we were going to remove sugars, I would need a list of exactly what to avoid and/or what to feed her for the duration of the trial.

At this point I've left a number of messages over a period of many weeks, and still haven't heard back. Meanwhile Baby E is still having intermittent GI symptoms, but these seem to be mostly mild as long as we limit the quantities of sugars in her diet and avoid corn. Thankfully the extreme watery diarrhea and huge amounts of mucous she was having a few weeks ago has not returned. We're still not sure if there was a sulfite issue, virus or something else causing the extreme symptoms, but I'm happy that she's back to just intermittent diarrhea and mostly mild to moderate discomfort similar to what the rest of the family has.

The GI specialist's nurse did finally tell me, when I happened to catch her with one phone call, that the GI specialist we see (the nurse practitioner) is doing research to try to figure out the answer to my question. She hasn't forgotten about me; she just doesn't know what to tell me.

It's rather frustrating that the GI specialist would recommend making specific dietary modifications but be unable (even weeks or months later) to give guidance or answer questions about how to do that.

Meanwhile, months go by while we make little to no progress in figuring out what is causing the symptoms and why Baby E's reducing substances tests were positive.

Confusing

Just to put another twist in things: We found some organic bananas that have not been treated with any pesticides or fertilizers and, most importantly, have not been fumigated with corn-derived gasses.

Baby E seems to be able to tolerate them just fine. She had half a banana twice yesterday, and it certainly didn't give her diarrhea.

She's also been eating pears bars fairly frequently with no obvious problems.

I'm actually wondering if, as can happen with lactose intolerance, her tolerance to fruit fluctuates with the state of her digestive system. It seems that when she's had a recent reaction, is fighting a virus, etc. she can tolerate almost no fruit at all. But when she's doing well she can digest fruit much better.

########################

I've been keeping really detailed records of her eating and her symptoms again for about a week now. The biggest thing I've realized is that she nurses a lot. She's still nursing at least 5 to 8 times per day, usually every 2-3 hours during the day. She does sleep through the night most nights, but otherwise she nurses almost as much as an infant does. With a few exceptions (meat, potato chips, occasional fruit, kohlrabi, yogurt and scrambled eggs) she eats only a few nibbles of whatever solid food she is offered (even if she hasn't nursed recently). She almost never eats more than a nibble of anything containing a grain--even rice, lately. Some days she doesn't eat much at all of any solid food, even her favorites. [Edit: Of course, I keep thinking that eating little nibbles of this and that is pretty typical for a 2-year-old. I may be making myself crazy trying to find patterns where none exist. :)]

She's also learned this past week how to say "My tummy hurts" (sounds more like "My ummy uhts"). It's a huge milestone for her to be able to communicate this in words reliably and on her own initiative. She says it fairly frequently--and often it's times when there's little or no other indication that she's uncomfortable. She might be a bit quieter than normal, or she may be pulling at her shirt a bit or chewing on her hand, but she's not being fussy or having diarrhea. The times she complains of her tummy hurting correlate well with the times she doesn't want to eat much of anything.

I'm glad she's becoming more able to communicate such things.

M&M complains often of her tummy hurting, too, and gets some of the same symptoms. So I wonder if part of this is some issue they share. We haven't been able to pinpoint a clear pattern for either of them, yet. I want to keep detailed records for M&M, too, but it's much more difficult for an older child who can help herself to food at family gatherings and who takes herself to the potty without help. Even though I ask her to tell me when she has diarrhea, etc. or when her tummy hurts, she doesn't necessarily remember to do so. I'm not really sure how to make the record-keeping work well for her.

AJ, we've recently realized, seems to have hypoglycemic tendencies. Her most severe emotional meltdowns almost always coincide with being hungry, and are quickly mitigated by a healthy snack.

I hope we can figure out how to best feed our kids soon.

End of July

Our county fair starts this weekend, and they're accepting entries over the next few days. AJ and M&M have been working hard drawing pictures to enter in the fair. It will be their first year making entries, and I'm excited for them.

Baby E will be two on Friday. It's hard to believe, isn't it?

Everyone seems to be quite healthy at the moment. And, we have exciting news on the food front!

##################

Last week we reintroduced the Trader Joe's brand plain yogurt, which is made from grass-fed cow's milk with no additives other than the yogurt cultures. She had seemed to tolerate it before, but after the GI specialist decided she was lactose intolerant, she advised that we not give E dairy products.

Then I started doing some reading on lactose intolerance, and discovered that if E was truly lactose intolerant, she wouldn't be able to tolerate breastmilk. Uh, yeah. Not only can she tolerate it, but the tests showed that breastmilk was not causing her to have sugars in her stools. So I decided there was no reason to withold the yogurt she loves so much if she can tolerate it fine.

E has been eating increasing quantities of yogurt for the past week with no issues whatsoever.

Yesterday, we trialed her on oats. I came up with a recipe using soaked oats and sourdough starter, which the kids loved. Baby E ate several pancakes and had no reaction whatsoever. Eating a muffin made from the same batter today had no ill effects, either.

For lunch today, she had half a banana. She was so excited and wanted more, We're wanting to trial her on as many things as possible before her allergist appointment later this week, so we're moving more quickly than usual with adding things. I'm going to retry the yogurt made with milk from corn-fed goats in a couple of days if all goes well.

I'm so thrilled that all of this is going so well. I suspect that the bananas may give her issues (even if not an allergic-type reaction) just because she tends to have issues with most fruits.

****Update: she had diarrhea within 20 minutes of eating half a banana, after having beautifully normal BMs yesterday and this morning. It's a more severe and immediate reaction than she normally gets from similar quantities of other fruits, but no rash or anything so far, so who knows? We'll see what the allergist says.****

A doctor friend told me that, despite the GI specialist's assertions, the reducing substances test is not specific for lactose--it could also be positive because of fructose or some other sugars.

Since the test was positive when Baby E was eating fruit and negative when she was completely off all sugars, then positive again when we started giving her fruit and unrefined sugars again, it could certainly be a sugar in fruits that is causing her issues. I really doubt that the few spoonfuls of yogurt she had a day or three before the third test would be enough to create a positive result when large quantities of breastmilk didn't.

Most fruits do seem to go right through her and give her abnormal, sweet-smelling stools. That, of course, would be an intolerance rather than an allergy--probably her body just doesn't produce enough of the enzyme that breaks down fructose.

I've been doing quite a bit of reading about lactose intolerance vs. milk allergy.

I'm thinking that what I have is lactose intolerance rather than a milk protein allergy, because of the symptoms and patterns of my symptoms. I'm guessing that because I went completely off dairy products for so long, my body stopped producing what little lactase enzyme it was making. It was to the point where even one tablespoon of kefir gave me uncomfortable intestinal symtpoms.

I recently read a study that found that people with lactose intolerance could gradually increase their lactase production (and tolerance of dairy products) by starting with very small amounts of dairy and eating it regularly, gradually increasing the amount. I've been trying that approach for about a week now. I started with just a very tiny amount of Baby E's yogurt and worked my way up to a teaspoon a day. Yogurt is very low in lactose, but even that small amount was enough to give me mild to moderate discomfort. I kept doing that until I stopped getting intestinal discomfort from a teaspoon of yogurt, then gradually increased the amount. I'm up to a tablespoon or two of yogurt per day without significant discomfort now. That's encouraging.

We're still making progress on the house, and on decisions regarding curriculum and meat purchases. The garden is producing enough now that we need only buy a few things here and there at the store (potatoes, onions, etc.) and are getting most of our veggies from our own back yard.

Overall, life is pretty good.

Gardening Questions

Okay, so I planted my first garden this year. I bought compost to mix in, and some organic fertilizer, and followed the directions on the packages about how much to add. I'm wondering if I should have tested the soil PH or added something else like dolomite, lime, rock dust or epsom salts. But I really don't know what I'm doing.

Some things seem to be doing really well, others aren't, and others I just don't know what to do with.

###################

My cauliflower and swiss chard took off and were doing really well at first, but now the edges of the leaves are curling up and the chard has quite a few brown spots and some of the leaves are dying.

I planted quite a few root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, radishes), and they all seem to have huge tops but not much going on in the root department. Some of them are bolting, but still have teeny tiny, thin roots--we're talking inches of roots and feet of tops. Does that mean there's too much nitrogen in the soil? Is the temperature wrong? Or do I just need to wait for them to grow more?

My daikon radishes all bolted, and the itty bitty roots were completely infested with little white worms that look a lot like maggots. Even if they had been big enough to eat, they wouldn't have been edible--they were all tunneled through and crawling with grubs. The red radishes a few feet away are much less affected by the worms, and the carrots and parsnips inches away seem to be untouched. The spinach and bok choy are thickly coated with aphids in spots.

I planted several different varieties of cauliflower and broccoli. One kind came up much more profusely than the rest, and the leaves look very different--more similar to my oriental greens or to some of my weeds (lol) than to the rest of the cruciferous vegetables. They never got a head that looked at all like broccoli, and before I knew it they were all rocketing up into stalks of yellow flowers. Now I'm wondering if I labeled it wrong on my chart, and maybe that plot isn't actually broccoli at all? The rest of the broccoli aren't even close to blooming yet.

I have a lot of dumb questions. For instance:

Which plants do you eat what part of, and how do you know when they're ready? For example, can I eat the leaves of the broccoli and cauliflower plants? How about parsnips, radishes, and rutabaga? I know turnip, kohlrabi and beet greens can be eaten. What about the outer leaves on the cabbage plants? And how do I know when to harvest the heads?

I planted Brussels sprouts, six starts I bought. Will I get more than one sprout off each plant, or just one per plant? How do I know when to harvest them?

What about when things bolt? My bok choy and spinach are bolting, and so is the Swiss Chard, but the lettuce hasn't started bolting yet. What exactly does bolting do to the plant. It doesn't make it so it's bad to eat, does it? Is it okay to eat the blossoms?

Since some of the things I planted didn't come up, and I pulled up all the daikon radishes, I have some empty space. Is there something that's good to plant in July and August (I'm in the Pacific NW)?

My zucchini are doing fabulously. I picked 3 good-sized green zucchini and 2 small yellow ones today, and have at least a dozen more of each color coming on. The cucumbers aren't blooming yet, but the pumpkins and watermelon are.

The tomatoes and peppers seem to be quite prolific--none are ripe yet, but there are lots of little green fruits growing. The kohlrabi are doing well (wow, are they good cooked fresh from the garden!). The potatoes seem to be going to town with lots of foliage, and they're blooming, but I can't tell whether they're actually growing potatoes. I haven't added more soil on top--is it too late to do that since they're already blooming now?

My bunching onions are doing okay, but the rest of them only a very few came up and they're looking really piddly.

At this point, mainly I'm just watering and trying to catch up on weeding, pinching off the heads of things to try to keep them from bolting (not keeping up on that very well) and trying to figure out how to use up this stuff.

What else should I be doing?

How to delight three little girls:

Feed them crispy waffles with Cinderella's carriage on them. The waffle iron made the side with the picture on it look a bit burnt every time, but they tasted fine.

Raising Dust

Yesterday SIL The Mentor came over to help me start sorting through the clutter in my house. Before she got here I fixed breakfast, fed the kids and animals, did a load of dishes, watered the garden and did several loads of laundry, sorting out some things to give away and sell and helping the kids put their clothes away.

When SIL arrived we were just finishing lunch. I'd made a smoothie out of frozen berries, orange juice, rice milk, calcium/magnesium powder and acidophilus, with a handful of fresh greens. Even with 2 or 3 turnip leaves, a leaf each of kholrabi, collard, lettuce and cabbage, and a few Swiss chard leaves blended in, the smoothie was quite sweet and delicious. I was surprised at how good it was. What an easy way to get the kids to eat raw leafy green vegetables! Most of the greens were straight from the garden--young, fresh and sweet. I think I'll try that again today.

After I got the cauliflower soup simmering for dinner (with a few collard leaves added this time), SIL and I got to work.

##########################

First we loaded all our old rickety chairs into her van. I'd bought a set of 6 wooden chairs in good condition for $4 each at a garage sale last week, so for the first time since we got married DH and I actually own a matching set of dining chairs. It's so nice to have a set of chairs that look decent, and none of them are wobbly or falling apart. At $24 for the set, it was an affordable luxury.

SIL and I attacked the office next. We sorted things into piles to throw away, give away and sell. She filled her van with items to donate and took them to drop off for me on her way home.

It was so wonderful to have the help and moral support from SIL. We made good progress, although it will take weeks or months of hard work to get the house decluttered and organized. SIL is going to help me come up with storage solutions so that I have a place to put away all the craft supplies and other things I'm choosing to keep.

This morning I filled several more bags and put them out for the ARC pickup. We still have a long way to go, but you can actually see a fair amount of carpet in the office now. The whole room was piled high with clutter--mostly bags of clothing I'd bought years ago to sell on eBay, before Baby E was born.

The clothes I'm not donating, I'm going to take to a couple of local consignment shops. DH and I also decided that it's not worth the space to store most of the baby things. With a few exceptions, they would be easy and fairly inexpensive to replace if we had another baby.

So we donated several large items (like the exersaucer) to our church MOMS group garage sale fundraiser. I'm setting aside a few items to sell, and more to give away. We'll donate many of the necessities like car seats to a ministry that provides a home, help and support to young mothers in difficult situations who are choosing to keep their babies. It's a good cause. I'm glad to be able to help in a small way.

After SIL left last night, I fed the kids dinner and talked to a reporter from the New York Times, who had called to interview me about something I wrote months ago on my blog. That was kind of exciting.

Just as I was finishing with that, Malamute Rescue Guy arrived with his three kids. Since his wife is on a business trip, I volunteered to watch all 6 kids so the two guys could go to a meeting for the worship teams at our church.

Baby H, who is several months younger than Baby E, missed her mommy and daddy, but her 7-year-old sister A was a big help in distracting and cuddling her. Mr. M, the 3-year-old boy, did great. My kids, of course, were thrilled to have playmates.

All 6 kids played on the swingset for a while. It was so cute seeing Baby E trying to guide Baby H around the yard and coax her to go down the slide. She led Baby H by the hand to the small slide, got her to climb up, and then ran around to the bottom of the slide.

E held out her hands to Baby H, saying, "'Mon, H. Side. I tatch oo. Side; 'mon. Ooo do it. Tatch oo."

Baby H wouldn't slide, so Baby E went around to the steps, climbed up next to her, and showed her how to go down. Just then H realized afresh that her Daddy was gone and started crying, so I picked her up and tried to comfort her. She did enjoy the baby swing, though, and was happy as long as she was being pushed in that. E enjoyed helping "push" her.

After a while we came in and I let the kids help me make a special treat. They peeled zucchini, measured, sifted and stirred while we made a chocolate-zucchini cake. Made with 2 cups of zucchini, mixed with whole-wheat flour and sweetened with honey, it made a relatively healthy treat that was a big hit. While it baked, I helped the kids get their pajamas on and then we read stories.

By the time the extra kids were gone and our kids were in bed, I was completely exhausted. My allergies were acting up from all the cleaning even though I'd worn a dust mask much of the time. There were no sheets or blankets on the bed, but I ended up falling asleep next to a pile of laundry I'd been sorting and some other things piled there to put away, fully clothed, with my cell phone and keys still in the pockets of my jeans.

Unfortunately, sleeping on just the dust mite cover over the mattress wasn't helpful. By the time I woke up this morning my allergies were even more in full bloom and the fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue symptoms were flaring up on top of the congestion, coughing, itching, watery eyes and runny nose. A dose of Zyrtec is at least helping me to be functional. I think I'll vaccuuum the mattress cover before putting on fresh bedding. Hopefully that will help.

Baby E is napping early today, so I think I'll have the older kids take quiet time early so I can shower and nap (or at least rest a bit) too. Then we'll take a load of things to the consignment store.

I'm really excited to be getting so much of this junk out of our house. It will make our home so much more pleasant and usable, and I hope it will help with the allergies too.

Pure Deliciousness

When DH got home last night, I was attempting to cook dinner and get the grease off the kitchen floor.

He had to work from home at 7, but in the hour before that he took the kids and played a game with them. Then he vaccuumed the family room where Baby E had taken a piece of bread, crumbled it into bits, and spread the pieces around on the sofas and carpet. Then he got out the steam-cleaner and shampooed the carpet where M&M had just tracked in mud.

No, I can't clone him. Don't you wish?

Baby E is still uncomfortable and fussy this morning, but better than yesterday afternoon.** Her biggest thing at the moment is that she does NOT want her diaper changed, will NOT use the potty, and does NOT want any clothes taken off or put on.

#####################

Nothing should be changed. Nothing. The only change that should be taking place today, E thinks, is switching from one side to the other occasionally while nursing. (She says, "Side" and wiggles herself around to the opposite direction in my arms, and then grins up at me--very cute.)

That and she really thinks the fact that I have one hand on the computer instead of on her needs to change. She wants both of my hands and my full attention.

The way I managed to get her into a clean diaper and her pajamas last night was to tell her everything was a hat. We put a diaper hat on her bottom, foot hats on her feet, etc. That trick turned a flailing, screaming, death-grip-on-the "sirt!" tantrum into giggling cooperation, and made me feel like a brilliant Mommy for a moment. I'm about to see if it works again.



Breakfast this morning included homemade sourdough cinnamon rolls, made with raw honey and saigon cinnamon. Wow, they're good.

I have no idea whether I'll be able to reproduce them again, though. I've been inventing a lot of recipes lately, but not the kind I can post on my recipe blog. They're less of "one cup this, two teaspoons that" recipes and more of the "Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if I added some honey to this sourdough starter, and then mixed in enough spelt flour to make it into dough?" types of recipes.

I love experimenting with food. It's standardizing a recipe to make it reproducible that's challenging for me.

** I think I figured out what E is reacting to. Several days in a row she's gotten into the girls' bathroom (they are supposed to keep the door closed, but they keep leaving it open even RIGHT after I go and close it and remind them to keep it shut--argh). The moment she gets a chance, E makes a beeline for their bathroom. She opens the drawer, takes out one of the girls' toothbrushes, and tries to brush her teeth with it (a.k.a. sucks on the toothbrush--ick!). It happened at least twice yesterday.

This morning she had a tube of toothpaste, too. It just dawned on me that this is NOT the relatively-safe-for-Baby E toothpaste that I bought for the girls and put in their bathroom drawer. It is the little tube of toothpaste the dentist gave them, and which DH has apparently been letting them use. I was vaguely aware of this, but it didn't really click until today.

No wonder Baby E is having reactions, getting that in her mouth! Argh. That tube of toothpaste is now in the garbage, and I'll ask DH to get the girls new toothbrushes on his way home tonight. The girls are going to be upset, but since they keep leaving the bathroom door open I do not want that toothpaste in the house.