Four Things

Okay, so here's the "other stuff". 

1. We got Abby's allergy testing back. In addition to her pork, blueberry, sesame and sweet potato allergies, and in addition to her casein (for sure) and gluten (suspected, although we're still in the "trial" phase) intolerances, we have discovered that she's also allergic to soy and eggs. That has seriously narrowed our food choices... yet again.  

All the poor kid wants is a glass of chocolate soy milk, real toast with butter and McDonald's french fries. All of which are off limits.  

2. We tried the Neti Pot. She was okay with it for about the first ten seconds until she caught on to what I was doing. Then she wasn't so okay with it. 

It seems to have helped, however. We'll keep at 'er for a few days, twice a day, and see what happens. 

3.  I forgot to give her her afternoon dose of anti-seizure meds yesterday. Ooops. She seemed to be fine, however. Actually, better than fine. She was feeling happy and smiling in the evening. Connection? 

Michael and I have discussed cutting back on her meds. We're undecided what to do. We don't think it was the meds that mysteriously made her stop having seizures back in April and we're wondering how much the meds are affecting her physically and mentally. 

I guess what I would really like is to talk to the neurologist about it, and not her lacky-nurse-clinicians who automatically say "no" to everything I propose. *snorts* Good luck getting Dr. B on the phone, however. And Dr. E, the pediatrician is away on holidays. 

4. Canning season has begun!  I procured a mess of rhubarb from the first outdoor Farmer's Market of the season, and proceeded to can rhubarb marmalade and rhubarb syrup. 

The marmalade was ridiculously easy and insanely delicious. We've already eaten a jar. The syrup is delicious mixed with soda water or carbonated spring water for a refreshing "home made", old-fashioned soda. Kinda sweet and kinda tart. Or add a bit to your iced tea! 

Okay, I lied. There's five things. 

5. Still undecided as to the fate of ABA. Abby is obviously unhappy, and the tutors are frustrated. The consultant, bless her soul, is trying her best to resolve this, but deep down I have suspicions that it may be unresolvable at this point. We've got three weeks until my self-appointed deadline to stay in or get out of the program. 

There's a lot more to this story, and I will post it down the road when I know how the story ends.  

Stupid Rain

The title, methinks, says it all.

We've gone... what, a whole 48 hours without rain? And now it's raining. Again. And not a little bit of rain. Buckets. Boatloads.

We had six inches of rain last month. We've had close to four inches already this month. Some places within an hour's drive have had double that. Our ten inches is about double what we normally get for all of May and June, and there's still ten days left in June!

Abby's not feeling great. She looks like she has another sinus infection, and seems to be in pain. Motrin helps, but doesn't resolve the issue. She's taken to napping during the day again.

We bought a Neti Pot to try to flush stuff out, but we keep chickening out doing it (I want Michael to try it out on himself first, but so far he hasn't). With the black eye she's sporting due to a collision at school last week, she looks like a prize fighter.

Rachael is covered in huge mosquito welts. And I mean welts. I forgotten how much little kids swell up from them. There's just a couple million mosquitoes here. We never found the buggers that bad since moving here four and a half years ago. The soil here is quite sandy compared to Capital City (which is world-famous for it's mire and gumbo), and tends to have less standing water. However, eventually even the sand gets saturated and... voila! standing water and mosquito breeding grounds.

I have lots of other stuff to say and share, but I will make another post to do it (later).

And to all the papas out there.... Happy Daddy's Day!

Laundry List

laundry list
noun
1. An item-by-item enumeration.
2. A lengthy, inclusive list of data, matters for consideration, etc., often one regarded as unorganized or showing a lack of necessary selectiveness

God and I are on speaking terms again. We've been ignoring each other as of late, but caught up a little today. As I said my prayers for the people I regularly pray for, I came to realize that I never seem to reach the end on my list.

I thought of our priest who keeps our family in his prayers, and wondered how many hundreds of people he prays for on a daily basis. I remembered what I read about religious sisters who spend many hours a day in prayer, mostly for the benefit of others. I reflected on how my own list continues to grow in length, and occasionally some people "fall off" but more often than not they remain on.

Prayer, I suddenly realized, is like laundry. Just when you think you're almost at the end, there's another pile needing doing.

When Pictures Speak A Hundred Thousand Words

Click here. 

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

I want to plant my garden today!

I love gardening. It's very satisfying to plant something and watch it grow.

And then to eat it. Yum!

We're running a little behind schedule this year due to the weather. It's been.... uncooperative. My rental garden plot wasn't ready until the May long weekend , and the weather has been pretty terrible since then. The few nice days we've had got taken up by delivering flyers, or mowing the lawn, or doing one of the other million things that needed to get done. Right. Now.

And now it's raining. Again. Because we needed more rain after the three inches we got less than a week ago.

::rolls eyes and sighs::

Back to the garden. I had a community garden plot last year, and it was great. Except it got vandalized. Repeatedly. Someone kept pulling out all my carrots and tossing them around. And it wasn't an animal unless it wears a size 9 Nike running shoe.

I had a nice little garden at the old house (see photo above!), I got about 60 lbs of tomatoes off it it last year! But alas, no garden in the yard this year. It's full of gorgeous perennials and trees, but I haven't found the "right" spot for a garden. Yet. Give me time.

So this year, we rented a 1000 square foot plot along the Low Road at a nice little garden market organic farm that gives renters first dibs on the raspberries (my hands are trembling, I can hardly wait!).

Plus, we got a full share CSA again this year.

And did I mention the new house has two beautiful apple trees?

I'm going to up to my eyeballs in canning and preserving come August!

That is, assuming it stops raining....

Picture Perfect

(I can't take credit for all of them. The first eight my mom took with her awesome new Canon Powershot camera). 

(My new pet monkey)

 

(Concentrating on colouring)

(Time for tea!)

 

(Getting ready to cruise the 'hood)

(Girls sporting new 'dos courtesy of our respite worker!)

TMI???

Click here to read the funniest news story of the day. 

(Adrienne, this one is right out of the V&C files, methinks...)

Even Grandpa Would Be Proud.... (I Think?)

Abby recently discovered ketchup.

And I'm not talking about a little squirt of ketchup on a hamburger. I'm talking puddles and pools of ketchup for just about everything (although I do draw the line at having ketchup with cereal, no matter how much she begs). Now, we really do see this as a good thing... she's trying new foods she otherwise wouldn't eat just because she can dip it in ketchup.

We keep telling her that Grandpa (and Nana) would be proud. My father is a know ketchup user. One of my clearest memories as a child is him piling gravy and horseradish and ketchup on his roast beef at Sunday dinner.  Or sour cream and fried onions and ketchup on his perogies. Or... well, you get my drift. He always ate every lick too.

So anyway...

::ahem::

Abby's latest ketchup taste sensation?

Mmmmm.... wait for it....

Deeeeeelicous red grapes dipped in ketchup.

Yum!

(She had three helpings.)