Thank you Lord for the start of a new day and a new week. Last week was quite a doozy. We went to church Easter morning. Then left for vacation for a few days. So that took a lot of work and it was a long drive there (have I ever mentioned that my kids do not ride well? 😛  And neither do I?). We had fun on vacation…but Tuesday afternoon Abram came down with the flu. Thankfully he bounces back quickly and was doing ok by Wed. so our drive home was fairly uneventful. Then Wed. evening both Justin and Rebecca got sick. I followed along Thurs. evening. After I thought we were all getting back on track Friday I had a relapse on Saturday. And I’m still not back to normal at all. So spring break here was kind of crazy – travel + flu. Needless to say I didn’t get as much done around the house as I had hoped.

In the midst of all that we did celebrate Justin’s birthday. Abram helped me make a delicious gluten free chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream. He is becoming quite the little helper in the kitchen lately. He wants to do every single thing I’m doing in the kitchen. If I have to get a pan out to cook a vegetable, he has to get it out of the cupboard, set it on the stove, pour in the vegetables, etc. He would like to turn on the burners, but I do draw the line there with a one-year old 😛  Abram helped with just about every step in making the cake and homemade frosting. He’s not a good taste tester like Rebecca (he has never been a sweet eater), but he loves to help.

So Justin and Abram are back to normal. Rebecca and I are still not 100%. Just shows who has a healthy body/gut and who needs extra healing.

Hopefully the nausea will subside soon and it will all be behind us. I have too much to do this week to still be sick 😛  This week it’s back to our usual activities plus starting to get some things ready for Rebecca’s birthday party.

I would like to start baking her cake, making ice cream and finalizing the games, decorations, etc. And see if there is any other food that I can prep ahead. The goal is to do a totally gluten free, food dye free party so she can have fun and not have to avoid anything there. The one exception will be a few fondant decorations on her cake that can be removed before eating. I was hoping to experiment with gluten free pizza crust last week, but that went out the window with sickness. So hopefully this week.

After a week of travel and being out of commission I am running very low on my safe foods too. So we’ll see how much baking I can squeeze in.

As much as I can I want to focus on healing foods this week and try get plenty of rest. That was the one nice thing last week…I got quite a bit of sleep.

My body is in a major inflammatory state right now. Having the flu gets everything totally out of balance. I think I’m about the only person that actually gains weight when they have the flu and are barely eating :\  I just puff up like a balloon. It looks bad and feels even worse. My belly looks like I swallowed a beach ball even though I’ve hardly eaten anything for the last 3 days. Hopefully some mild foods, lots of sea salt and some probiotics will help. I don’t really want to leave the house like this…I look about 6 months pregnant 😛

I will also be focusing a lot on Rebecca’s health. Having the flu really wipes her out too. I can tell in her appearance, her appetite, her ability to focus and in her mood. Lots of regression last week.

Hopefully by the end of the week we’ll all be a little more back to normal and can have energy to get outside now that the weather is starting to get better.

Here’s what’s on the menu for now. I’ll modify as needed depending on appetites and health.
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S (prep lunch, church, make gf pizza dough, prep smoothies) D1
  B – gf banana muffins (J), squash w/ rice, gm yogurt (M), yogurt, muffin (A)
  L – gf bbq chicken pizza, olives, corn, tortilla chips (family), salad w/ chicken (M)
  D – beef, pork and broccoli stir fry over rice 

M (soak flour for crust, SP, PS, Dr. S.) D2
  B – smoothie, crunchy granol bar (J/R/A), snap peas, white rice scone (M)
  L – pureed peas and squash, cheese slices, pears
  D – gf bacon cheddar scones, sauteed peas w/ bacon, pears

T (make soaked amaranth bars, prep breakfast, KM, bake cupcakes?) D3
  B – bagel w/ cream cheese (J), amaranth pumpkin pot pie (M), yogurt w/ blueberries (R/A)
  L – pumpkin pie gm yogurt, amaranth bar
  D – cheesy rice and chicken bake, broccoli, applesauce (J/R/A), pureed zucchini and pumpkin soup, soaked gf graham crackers (M)

W (Meijer, PS, WT) D4
  B – TBD (J), squash w/ butter and sour cream (M), yogurt, rice bar (R/A)
  L – squash soup, crackers w/ cheese
  D – porcupine meatballs, carrots, twice baked potatoes (J/R/A), squash, plain meatballs (M)

Th (soak flour for porridge, skim cream, prep dinner, Dr. L. ) D1
  B – yogurt w/ granola, fruit (J), leftover chicken and rice bake, broccoli (M), tbd (R/A)
  L – tbd
  D – (prep ahead) – seven layer dinner (J/R/A), sauteed veggies (M)

F (soak flour for pie crust, make ic, PS, Justin – hockey game) D2
  B – hard boiled egg, toast (J), teff porridge (M), ice cream (R), yogurt, fruit (A)
  L – snap peas w/ pesto, cheese slices
  D – baked white fish, peas, rice (M/R/A)

S (bake cake, make gf pizza dough, prep pie crust, make powdered sugar, make pizza sauce) D3
  B – waffles (J/A), gf waffles (R), pumpkin soup, gf crackers (M)
  L – gf pizza (experiment)
  D – turkey pot pie w/ amaranth tapioca crust, warm cinnamon applesauce