New Blog

I've moved. You can find me here: Adventures of Owl Momma

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

Happy Half-Birthday J!

Today my oldest is 7 and a HALF! Isn't that amazing? I mean really... seven and a HALF is just so grown up! Happy half-birthday, sweetie!

(W's half-birthday passed last week without much fanfare... he is now two and a half, though he believes he is four and will be six on his next "birthday party")

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.

Happy Half-Birthday K

Today my little girl is 5 and a HALF! And she has her first wobbly tooth!

sniff... they grow up quick!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Yes, I know this was awhile ago. And yes, I know today is Valentine's Day :) But this past week we finally had our Little Owl School Groundhog Day Party (and I'll probably have a Valentine's update next week or something... hey, that's just how I roll).

The night before Groundhog Day we read a few books about groundhogs (I put a list of books at the bottom of this post). Then on the morning of Groundhog Day, we tried to remember to say "groundhog" first thing to bring us good luck. We read a few more books, and made sure to check Punxsatawney Phil's predictions.

This week, we had a Groundhog Day/Six More Weeks of Winter Party. The kids woke up to a table set with our winter dishes, and little winter prizes at their breakfast spots... snowman notebooks, and a penguin project from OTC.

After lunch (soup, because that's a warming food for winter), we used white crayons on black paper to make snowy pictures. We decorated the pictures with snowman stickers.

This is K's:

And this is J's:

W was too busy playing to color!

We played shadow tag (one of us was the shadow, and chased the others). Then we did shadow silohuettes! This one was really fun (and much trickier than I remembered)! All the kids took a turn...

First J:

then K:

then W, who would only look up at the ceiling:

and then K traced my shadow for me!!

We hope everyone had a great Groundhog Day, and that y'all are staying warm with these six more weeks of wintery weather (especially our friends and family on the East Coast!).

And as a last thought, here is J's favorite Groundhog related commercial (if you didn't see this during the superbowl, you totally have to watch).

Here is a great list of Groundhog books for kids to check out! We found all of these at the local library:

Great Groundhogs!
Gregory's Shadow
Gretchen Groundhog, It's Your Day!
Go To Sleep Groundhog!
Groundhog at Evergreen Road

This is only a test...

I am trying to learn how to set things up to post at a future date... wish me luck in my quest!