A new week starting with some calm. Birthday celebrations are over (for a few weeks…Abram’s birthday is less than 3 weeks away!). The water around us is starting to recede. Although our main river has not yet crested. I am thankful that most roads around us are now open and things are drying a little.

Yesterday’s party with extended family was a big success! Rebecca loved her arts and crafts party. I achieved my goal of making it a totally gluten free and food dye free party. No junk food in sight 🙂  There was not a single thing on the table that she could not eat. And there was not one single complaint or negative comment about any of it (though there were many compliments :). I don’t even think most of them knew the pizza and cake were gluten free. We loved spending time with family and enjoying good food.

But I think the absolute best part for me was how much Rebecca was able to enjoy her special day. And by enjoy I mean she was able to be present. She didn’t act crazy. She wasn’t out of control. She didn’t have meltdowns. She was smiling from ear to ear. She was taking in every moment of it. She was in control of her body and her mind. She was able to sit and eat her food in the midst of the chaos of cousins and presents. She was fully focused when she was working on her crafts. She took her time opening each gift, admiring it and showing gratitude. She was excited and a little extra energetic like any normal child would be at their party. But she was herself and the sparkle was there in her eyes. I told her how proud I was of her for how she handled such an eventful day. She gave me the biggest hug and lots of kisses. She gets it. She knows how good it feels to be able to think clearly and be in control. I get teary eyed even now thinking about it. It brings me such joy to see my little girl enjoying life. And it makes me more confident that we are on the right path.

Menu: gluten free pizza (4 varieites + individuals for the kids…they topped their own), trail mix (crispy nuts, dried fruit, df gf chocolate chunks), kettle corn, tortilla chips w/ salsa and avocado bean dip, raw veggies (carrots, peppers, cucumbers) w/ dip, roasted veggies (mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, asparagus, brussels sprouts), mixed fresh fruit (pineapple, strawberries, blackberries, grapes, oranges), juice, gluten free cake, homemade ice cream.

This week is hopefully a whole week of calm 🙂  That’s what we all need. No big agenda. I want to get some extra rest. And I want to spend lots of time with my kids. Last week was so crazy trying to get the house clean and get all of the food prepped for the party. The kids had to be a bit more independent with their play.

I do have an appt. with my psychologist. And Rebecca has her 5 year check up. If time allows I’d like to take the kids to the library. Rebecca and I already read through the book I bought her for her birthday. We started it on Thursday and finished it Saturday…over 150 pages…a book suggested for 3rd graders…she’s in preschool…and has been reading these with me since before she even turned 4. It’s time to stock up on more books. And I’m sure we’ll be doing lots of crafts with her new gifts and the leftovers from the party.

Gluten free  has been going well with Rebecca. I might try a couple dairy free days this week just to see what happens. I’m also looking into vitamin B and symptoms of deficiency. I’m wondering if Rebecca could use more.

I’m not sure how much I’ll do in the kitchen this week since I want to take it easy and let my body recover after a stressful week. But here are some potentials: gf crackers, gf cocoa puffs, rainbow or soft serve ice cream, gf bread, restock freezer for Justin’s breakfasts, granola, rice bars, amaranth bars, coconut flour baked good, kefir, smoothies.

I didn’t have a lot of time for blogging, etc. last week. I was busy and the kids were up early most days. So I didn’t fill in all of the breakfasts and lunches for our week yet. Hopefully I’ll fill them in soon. At least I got the dinners planned. That’s the important part. My in-laws are still here this morning. By this afternoon the house should be totally back to normal and we can relax. And I don’t have to cook today 🙂  The benefit of working hard last week and making lots of party food. We have plenty of leftovers.
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S (prep breakfast, church, make boat, make gf crackers, prep smoothies, make kefir) D3
  B – banana bread, mixed fruit, yogurt, granola (family), gm yogurt w/ fruit and amaranth bar, leftover mixed roasted veggies (M)
  L – leftover pea soup, grilled ham and cheese
  D – leftover pizza/party food

M (Meijer, PS, Dr. V., strain kefir) D4
  B – smoothie, banana bread (J/R/A), squash, coconut milk ice cream (M)
  L – tuna, sour cream, veggies
  D – gf spaghetti, corn, garlic toast (family), ground beef, squash (M)

T (KM, Dr. S., make stock, make broth, soak flour) D1
  B – yogurt, granola, fruit (J/R/A), leftover roasted veggies, coconut milk ice cream (M)
  L – leftover spaghetti and/or pizza (kids),  leftover roasted veggies, gf crackers (M)
  D – roast chicken, roasted potatoes and veggies

W (strain/freeze broth, make soaked rice bars, PS, co-op, soak flour) D2
  B – yogurt, banana bread, fruit (J/R/A), pea soup, rice bar (M)
  L – pea soup, rice bar
  D – pasta bake, peas (family), peas, tbd (M)

Th (make egg puffs, make amaranth bars, bake/freeze squash, library, make gf pb puffs) D3
  B – egg puffs, toast (J), pumpkin, amaranth scone (M) 
  L – pumpkin, gm yogurt w/ amaranth scone
  D – baked salmon, broccoli, baked sweet potato

F (make yogurt, make coconut flour baked good, clean, PS, BS) D4
  B – pb puffs w/ milk, banana (J), squash w/ chicken, vanilla ice cream (M)
  L –
  D – hot taco rice

S (sleep in?, make granola, park) D1
  B –
  L –
  D – gf fish sticks (cod), french fries, peas

Good morning. It’s amazing what a difference a week can make. The whole family is fully over the flu. My inflammation is going down. Life is mostly back to normal. Feels good.

Now it’s on to party week. My “baby” girl will be 5 this week! How is that possible? We will celebrate as a family on her birthday. And we will have a party with extended family on Saturday. So this week is all about party prep. I’ve made it my mission to make it a gluten free, food dye free party. I am making one exception…there will be some colored fondant cake decorations…that can easily be removed before eating 🙂  Of course Rebecca chose pizza for the party food. Something real easy to prep ahead and make gluten free…not 😛  But I’ll do my best. I’ve been working on the pizza dough recipe. The kids devoured their experiment pizza last night 🙂  So it can’t be too bad. I’ve already made 2 out of 3 layers of her birthday cake. So far so good. Just chocolate left to make (she’s having a vanilla, strawberry, chocolate cake). And a couple batches of ice cream left to make as well. Then it’s on to frosting and decorations. Plus the rest of the party food.

Not too much else out of the ordinary this week. We have our first milk pick up for 3 families. Not really looking forward to that. But at least I only have to do it once every 3 weeks now. We have MomBreak on Friday. It’s been a little while since we’ve had a meeting. And I think Katie from Kitchen Stewardship is speaking!!! I’m beyond excited. Katie is a wonderful woman and blogger that I’ve had the privilege to meet already. I’m still excited to hear her speak. I love hearing anyone spread the word about real food.

My in-laws will also be here for the weekend. So I’ve got food and house prep to do for that on top of the party. My goal is to do as much as I can ahead of time without getting too stressed or too tired. I don’t want to have a bunch of super early mornings to get things done and get run down again. So I’m trying to plan well.

My body is doing ok. I’ve been trying to get back on track this week and be really good about avoiding my food sensitivities. When things are inflamed even tiny bites of the wrong food can perpetuate the problem. Right now the inflammation is finally going down. The cysts on my face are fading (hallelujah! :P). My belly is deflating. There is still more healing to be done, but I’m getting there. I got my thyroid levels rechecked and met with my naturopath. Thyroid looks good! And we discussed some other issues. So yesterday I did more bloodwork to recheck vitamin D and some other hormones. I’m anxious to hear the results. I’m also starting to take Natural Calm as a magnesium supplement. So far magnesium seems to be what helps me the most. I just need  high doses and have struggled to find the right one to take. So I’m crossing my fingers that this will help. I’m also going to try GABA for anxiety.

We are sticking with gluten free for now with Rebecca. I am also wondering about dairy. I think after all the party stuff is over I will do a dairy free trial just for a couple days and see what happens. At the end of the month I might try adding gluten again and see if I notice a change. Yesterday I bought some gf pasta and some decent gf bread. So that will give us more gf options.

On to the menu. There are still a few holes to fill in. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep on track with my to-dos this week. And I hope the kids are ready to have some fun in the kitchen 🙂  And help clean.
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S (make scones, chop veggies, soak gbf for pancakes, church, bake chocolate cake, make chocolate ice cream, make frosting, prep smoothies, soak flour for muffins) D4
  B – granola bar, lemon yogurt (J), squash, beets, scone (M), (R/A)
  L – gf beefy mac ‘n’ cheese w/ squash, broccoli, applesauce
  D – sausage, gf waffles w/ blueberry topping, strawberry milkshakes (family), squash, scone (M)

M (bake/freeze gf muffins, make coconut milk ice cream, make pancakes, Meijer, PS) D1
  B – smoothie, muffin (J/R/A), gf pancake, broccoli (M)
  L – tuna salad on gf pancake
  D – roast chicken legs, sweet potato fries, roasted cauliflower

T (cake deco, KM, chop veggies) D2
  B – yogurt w/ granola (J), salmon w/ pesto, rice bar (M), (R/A)
  L – salmon w/ pesto, snap peas (M), pb/honey sandwich (R/A)
  D – pork chops in gravy, hashbrowns, peas (family), pork or salmon, peas (M)

W (soak beans, cake deco, make pizza crust, milk, PS, Rebecca’s birthday) D3
  B – smoothie, granola bar (J), pumpkin, tuna, soaked amaranth bar (M), yogurt, cupcake (R/A)
  L – gm yogurt, pumpkin
  D – out to eat

Th (cook beans, thaw cake, make pizza crust, clean) D4
  B – toast w/ pb, pear (J), squash, scone (M), pear slices, yogurt (R/A)
  L – squash, beans, scone
  D – (Justin out for dinner) – hot dogs, sweet potato fries, broccoli

F (fill/shape/crumb coat cake, shred cheese, chop veggies, MB, PS, family, make trail mix, thaw cupcakes, clean, prep soup for Sat.) D1 (FLOODING – can’t do much)
  B – yogurt w/ granola (J), navy beans, ice cream, amaranth bar (M), (R/A)
  L –
  D – baked chicken, sweet potatoes and mixed veggies
  dessert – gf chocolate chip cookies

S (frost/decorate cake and cupcakes, boil eggs, prep pizza toppings, make avocado dip, make veggie dip, prep fruits and veggies, roast veggies, clean/set up, party) D2
  B – hb eggs, toast, fruit, yogurt (family), snap peas, soaked amaranth bar (M)
  L – cp split pea soup, gf muffins, carrot sticks w/ dip
  D – gf pizza (1 ham/pineapple, 1 supreme, 1 pepperoni, 1 ham and veggies for adults; kids top their own – ham, pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms, olives), roasted vegetables (potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, asparagus, zucchini), fresh fruit (strawberries, grapes, pineapple, blackberries, apples, oranges, bananas), tortilla chips w/ salsa and avocado bean dip, kettle corn, carrots, cucubmers and peppers w/ dip, trail mix (dried fruit, crispy nuts, df/gf chocolate chunks), gf strawberry/chocolate/vanilla cake, dairy ice cream (chocolate, strawberry and vanilla), gf df strawberry cupcakes, chocolate coconut milk ice cream

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