April Happenings

It poured down rain, impressive enough for me to stop what I was doing and gaze out the window and up through the skylight, and then the sky brightened up.  I love showers then blue!

While I am not a fan of digging out dandelions, the bright yellow and green that is currently decorating much of the yard is lovely.


Glorielle in on an elimination diet...eliminating allergy known foods to try and clear up her rash.  We went off wheat/gluten and that didn't help.  We went off stevia since the rash appeared closely to the time I started replacing sugar with stevia in my baking and that didn't help.  She is now corn, all dairy except for yogurt and kefir, and eggs in addition to gluten and stevia free.  The corn isn't a big deal, we only occasionally eat chips and popcorn.  Dairy isn't too bad since I can leave off Parmesan and grated cheese for her and I do anyway for Sawyer since he has never really cared for dairy.  Gluten isn't too difficult since we really only eat sandwiches and I can make her gluten free crackers or rice cake pb and j instead.  But egg, oh that is a tough one!!  We eat lots of eggs.  It is a diet staple in our house.  I make a variety of gluten free waffles and muffins but I use a lot of egg in my batters.  We eat omlets or hard boiled eggs almost daily.  This one has sent me scrambling (no pun intended, he he) for foods she can eat.

I have made some dietary changes the last couple of months - dropping our grain consumption down even more in favor of boosting up our veggies and meats.  I have also done quite a bit of baking with flax meal, almond flour, stevia, and egg for breakfast foods.  This has worked well and I have been able to drop our already very low sugar intake even lower!  The good news is that this has been fantastic for Phil.  He started riding his bike or walking to work daily and in combination with fine tuning our diet, he has lost 20 pounds and dropped his cholesterol level 40 points.  He is looking trim and fit and feeling very good.

Unfortunately for Glorielle, I am unable to stick to our lower grain consumption since she can't have the protein breakfasts that I usually make.  So far, I make her crackers and granola to eat with yogurt and sliced fruit and she eats nut butter on rice cakes and chicken breast slices for lunch.  I have experimented with various hot cereals and coconut milk but haven't found one she really likes yet.  If eggs are indeed the culprit (and I should know in a month or so), I can try duck eggs which are marvelous for baking anyway and get back to normal.

What is flying off my hook?

Pansys 

Daffodils 

Primroses

I am hooking up lots of flowers to make a Spring Garland.  It will probably be summer before I finish!


Posted by Picasa

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Boots

Image
Last week, was snowy and cold cold cold, then rainy.  I continued to work on getting the yard cleaned up.  I dug out the ponds and refilled the holes with dirt.  I loaded up rocks, pavers, and bricks.  I cleaned out the water features.  I collected the strawberry runners so I would have starts to plant.  I unloaded 2 loads of bark dust.  The children were a tremendous help.  They loaded an entire trailer of firewood all by themselves and then helped with another load of rocks and bricks.  I am amazed at how much there is to load and fix just in the yard alone.  It is a lot of work for the simple concept of "curb" appeal.   Waiting for the snow to melt so I can put down the bark dust. Even with two pairs of socks, my feet were freezing so I broke down and bought a pair of Muck Boots.  The funny thing is, 2 years ago, I really wanted to have a new pair of winter boots but I just couldn't justify paying so much money just to have ...
Read more

Then Came Dense Fog and the Thunderstorm

Image
Sunday, I woke up to a dense fog and smoke cover combination.  I think this is probably the densest fog I have ever been in. Before the sun came up, it was white.  Once it got lighter outside the smoke color showed through. On the porch, looking toward the swimming pool (North) but unable to see it or the goat barn or the walnut trees. On the porch, looking toward the barn, only able to see the garden before the parking area. Outside the window looking at the tree block, barely 30 feet away. I am not sure how I let Phil talk me into (trying) going to the store...but the fog was supposed to lift by 11:00 and we were scheduled to gather at the Rawie's for church and I needed ingredients to put together something for the potluck.  (We ended up having to cancel our homechurch.) Our mailbox, we couldn't see any cars, so we had to roll down the windows and listen.  I was already terrified at this point and didn't want to continue. After having to slam on his brakes multipl...
Read more

More Hats

Image
The Etsy shop is still a work in progress and unfortunately the name Over the Top is already taken.  I have been tossing around the names Tip Top and Whimsy.  I managed to get 7 hats made during the month of November.  I have a couple that I can put on Etsy when we are ready to list them and several Christmas hats made for the children.  I have been timing how long it takes me to make a hat and I am surprised (and not in a good way LOL) at the number of hours I spend.  A baby hat takes over 5-6 hours, a child's hat takes about 7-8 hours, and an adult hat 10 plus hours.  It takes even longer if I decide to tear out the stitching because it isn't looking the way I had imagined.  The more yarn variety I use, the longer it takes me to weave in the ends.  I usually spend over an hour just with a tapestry needle making all the ends secure.  Minimum wage plus materials puts the hats in the 50-80 dollar range.  Yikes!  I would never pay th...
Read more