Where I've Been

I didn't actually set out to ignore this poor little blog. And I didn't mean to give up on Homemade365's homemade challenge. But life, well, it has had different plans for me. :)

Most of y'all know about K and her eczema issues. This has been a struggle for our family for over 5 years now. But we are finally getting close to a solution! Allergy testing revealed that out of the 96 possible food allergens they tested for, K was allergic to all 96 of them!!! Now, we're pretty sure that it must be a few big hitters that are making her system so over-reactive. For the last almost 2 months, we have been tinkering with her diet, trying to find the right combinations of foods that will keep her healthy and still allow her system to heal. Currently, K is completely without gluten, dairy, soy, egg, pork, nuts, beef, avocados, carrots, and I'm sure a few other things I can't remember off the top of my head (please don't worry if it sounds extreme... we're working with our doctors and nutritionists etc... she's in good hands). And little by little we are seeing improvements. I can't even begin to describe how amazing this is for us! It has not been an easy change for me to deal with, but helping K get better makes the whole struggle worthwhile.

But the progress is slower than we'd like (isn't it always?). Wheat is K's biggest allergen, and I have a suspicion than there is lots of accidental exposure occuring.... a few crumbs in the jelly jar, crumbs in the toaster, accidental wheat exposure at restaurants, that sort of thing. So as of tomorrow, everyone in the Owl Nest will be gluten free. No more wheat for this family. I'm looking forward to seeing if this helps.

Dealing with diet changes turned my world on its head. Right when I finally felt like things were hitting their stride, I had to change the way I approached everything about feeding my family. This was hard, and lead to more than one late night crying session. Change, even for a good reason, is still very, very hard. But I am finally getting back to a place where things feel normal, though my normal is completely different from what it was before. And that's good, I think. That means I'm growing. But the growing pains stink!


In the meantime, besides dealing with food, I've been working on a few of my New Year's resolutions (which I never did find time to blog about). I tried hard to make these attainable, and to have my list look more like a set of goals for 2010 and less like a set of "reinvent my whole life this instant" directives.

But, in an effort to re-motivate myself, and because I'm honest like that, here are my resolutions for 2010, along with a mini-update about how I'm doing so far.

1. Give up soda: ah, the saga continues. I lasted almost three weeks. Then it was a sip here, a sip there, and then WHAM back to making trips through the drive through for mega-sized 44 oz sodas. I have realized that this may have to be an all-or-nothing thing for me. SIGH. I'm currently working through this and have weaned myself to half a bottle of Coke a day. That's progress at least.

2. Run at least 2 5k's before the year is up: must start walking first! :) I miss my running days (also know as my pre-momma days... J is seven (and a HALF)... it's been a long time). I took a tour of the gym today. I think that's what I'll be up to this summer!

3. Read through my 2010 booklist: so far I have read a few of the books I set out to read. Making unsurprisingly good progress. I'll post my booklist later. This post is long enough already. I'll even try to remember to link to it.

4. Learn to knit: well, I have about 6 inches of a poorly knitted scarf to prove that I am trying. It's going to be a long road though :)

5. Write more: we've probably all noticed that blogging more isn't really happening. But writing is. I am working on a novel, reading books on writing (very typical of me... if there is a book on a topic, I will read it), and feeling creative and happy about it.

I am sure there were a few other resolutions, but I lost the list I wrote them on. I'll bet, though, that Get Organized and Stop Losing Things were both on the list :)


So, that is where I've been. Now that life has reached a manageable point again, you can look forward to more blogging. I'm sure I'll have some new gluten-free, casein-free (GFCF) recipes to share, some updates on the writing process, complaints about how sore and tired I am from working out, maybe some 5K results, and fun updates on the Little Owls. We'll be schooling through the summer, so look for updates on that, too. Thanks to those who've hung around!!!

Have a great weekend!
OWL MOMMA

mini-update

Wow, time goes by SO QUICKLY! I am not even going to try to catch up... I've missed posting about Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter... you'll have to take my word for it that we're all having alot of fun! Maybe someday I'll share with y'all what we did to celebrate... but maybe I won't :)

This week has been busy trying to prepare for J's Batizado for his Capoeira classes... the cord and ranking ceremony will be this weekend. Piao (J's portuguese nickname... it means "spinning top") is excited. But this will be the first Batizado that Owl Poppa misses. We're all a bit disappointed about that, but at least Owl Poppa made it to the class tonight tonight watch J do his testing (testing took place tonight, and cords are awarded this weekend).

K's wobbly tooth is still hanging in there. She is willing it to come out, but it just stays there, sticking out when she smiles. And she is smiling alot these days... she got her ears pierced on Monday! She has tiny glittery pink "diamonds" in her ears, and couldn't be more pleased with herself.

I'm hoping to get a new camera in the next few weeks... anyone out there have one they love and would recommend? I promise that I am going to keep this new camera far away from W and his big feet, and will hopefully have lots of new pictures to share. But just in case, please recommend cameras in the "this piece of equipment may possibly be stepped on by small children" price range. Thanks!

Wow, this might just be the lamest post I've written, but there you have it. Life for us has been fun and full and happy... but it doesn't make for good writing :) I'll save the good writing for another post.

More on Thankfulness

A friend of mine gave me a beautiful owl themed journal. No occasion, just because she was thinking of me. (Friend, you know who you are! :) Thank you again) But I haven't been able to bring my self to write in it yet... not wanting to use such a thoughtful gift and such a beautiful book for writing grocery lists or something mundane like that.

This upcoming move, in addition to making me stressed out and somewhat crazy, has left me feeling contemplative. One of the things that has come out of my late night deep thoughts is that I have decided to record, at the end of each day, just a little blurb about what we did that day. So that we (the kids and I) can look back over it and see what we've done and who we've seen. It's so easy to lose track of the little things we do. I don't want to forget the little things that count so much, like spontaneous trips to the park, cool things we find along the way, or other random fun times we share. The kinds of moments I am thankful to be able to share with my kids, and that can be easily forgotten in the "dailyness" of life. This is something that has been on my heart for awhile, and I haven't acted on it yet, not having the perfect place to record these things.

Do you see where this is going?

Tonight, I'll be making my first entry about our daily happenings in my new Owl journal. I am excited and thankful and happy at the way it has all come about.

Late Night Ramblings

It's late late late. And while I am up, unable to sleep, Owl Poppa is at the emergency room. His sore throat finally got the better of him. Unable to talk or really swallow, he took himself to urgent care and they sent him to the emergency room with peritonsilar abscess. It is freaking me out a little bit that I am home with the kids and he's in the ER without me; but I'm really more harm than good anyway since being calm isn't exactly my strong suit and the ER gives me weird anxiety issues. My mother-in-law, who is just amazing, is with him and is going to drive him home. Last I heard he was on IV antibiotics and steroids. I'm just hoping there is no cutting involved... *shudder* Since I can't sleep, I'm working on laundry, cleaning up, and now blogging, trying to stay busy and keep my mind from worrying. I don't really even know if there is anything to worry about, but googling "peritonsilar abscess" is not on my list of ways to keep calm. Just in case :)

If you're up reading this, send some love and healing vibes our way!

ETA: Owl Poppa got home a little after 2 am. He was able to talk again, which he hadn't been able to do all day. He has antibiotics and some pain meds to take, but was doing okay. He actually looked more chipper than I've seen him in a couple of days :)

Kids Are People, Too!

I took the kids to the zoo yesterday. Just me, with all three little ones. And we had such a nice time! Really! If you had asked me about this even earlier in the day, I would have said you were crazy... there was no way I was going to take all the kids (like we have SO many) anywhere alone. But I got inspired around lunch time, and off we went. And we really enjoyed ourselves. We picnicked, saw the animals, followed the map, went to the children's area, and enjoyed the sunshine and each other.

I think sometimes I have it in my head that my kids are somehow little beings that need to be managed. Like I need to work extra hard because I am not only doing my own thing, but controlling all these other people, too. Yesterday was one of those days that reminded me that my children are actually little people, not projects, and you know what, they're good company, too! I was able to just relax, give up my illusion of control, and really enjoy hanging out with three interesting people.

I'm feeling rather inarticulate this morning, and this post isn't coming off quite as eloquent as it was in my head. It's hard to capture the emotion and the meaning in something as simple as taking the kids to the zoo. But that's okay, too. Because I'm realizing that it really isn't all about me anyway.

Here are a few pictures I took with my phone during our little adventure.

J hiding in a tunnel in the children's area, pretending to be a turtle

J and W playing store

K posing for the camera

W playing in the stream

Rainy Day Fun

Otherwise entitled, How Can We Pass The Time on a Rainy Day With No TV


Otherwise otherwise entitled, A Nearly Exhaustive Look At Our Day


This morning it was raining again. Not gentle rain like on Tuesday. Today we had a terrific downpour, complete with thunder and lightning. We HAD planned to work in the back yard today... SIGH I guess plans change. It was dark and gloomy, so we lit candles and snuggled up for some good books. But we all knew that could only last so long. And it was only last night that I announced to the kids that we would be keeping the TV off during the day from now on. YIKES


So what to do with three super active kids on a rainy day? Why, indoor bowling of course! We set up our little foam bowling set, and took turns bowling down the hallway.




Next up was lunch -- soup served in tea cups with tortilla chips on the side. During lunch, we read aloud from Little House In the Big Woods. So of course naturally we then had to play Little House.


And then K and I settled in on the loveseat to finish attaching Bianca's hair. Bianca is the Waldorf doll I made for K for Christmas. She'll get her own post complete with pictures at a later date. But due to running out of yarn, and waiting for a new ball of yarn to arrive, Bianca's hair has been incomplete. And today seemed like the perfect time to fix that. K helped, J watched, and W tried to jump on us repeatedly.


Somewhere in there we also played a few board games, did all of our lessons, baked two loaves of bread, baked a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread and a batch of rolls, made a pitcher of iced tea, emptied the dishwasher, got dressed, had some snacks, folded and put away yesterday's laundry (oops), and started another load running.


And just when I thought we might run out of things to do... the sun came out. The sky is a perfect blue with not a cloud in sight!!!! What happened to the ferocious storm of this morning? If it wasn't for the muddy ground and lingering puddles, I almost wouldn't believe it. So into the car to pick up our CSA share and let W take a nap... we had been postponing this (the car trip, not the nap) because the wet weather seemed dangerous for driving. And now that we are home, the boys have tumbled out of the house to go play in the mud, K is playing with chalboard in the garage, and I am about to go fix supper (chili and cornbread, yum).


So, we all survived, and we managed to keep the TV off too! Whew!

No Deep Thoughts Today...

I am just too tired :)

W is STILL boycotting sleep. Owl Poppa got up with W at 6:45 this morning, and I got to sleep in until 9:30! Amazing! Not that Owl Poppa got up with the kids (he is so great about that), but that I had all that time, in bed, by MYSELF!!!!!! And then I made a big breakfast (brunch, really) and stayed in my pajamas until after noon. So, I am still tired, but have a somewhat sunnier outlook.

In fact, while washing up brunch dishes, in my pajamas, I was a little overcome with how lucky and blessed I am. W (not in the least bit tired, mind you) was playing with his firetruck on the floor; K was sitting on the couch reading a book; J was at the coffee table playing with his playmobil. Owl Poppa and I were in the kitchen... I was washing up the dishes and he was cooking up the last of the pancake batter. It was one of those rare moments where everyone was happy and content and quiet. We were really quite the picture of domestic bliss. I had to stop what I was doing, and just take a deep breath and smile. It was all so sweet and was glad to have a chance to stop and savor it.

While it lasted. Because anyone who has spent any time with my little owls knows it didn't last long :)