a fall MUST!

A few weeks ago my girls and I were able to join a fun group of friends on a field trip to Hardy Berry Farms.  We learned lots and had a blast.  Only some of the activities were "open" during the field trip and I wanted so badly to squeak in another visit before the end of the season, the reality of that was grim.  However, after church and a bite to eat Mark was already one step ahead of me with the plant to continue our fun family weekend.  

We made it back to Hardy Berry Farms!!

 And now we have a new plan, to make it back every year during the fall,

let's just say, it was good for us ALL!

The bucking bronco was a hoot!!

The corn maze was huge.  I wasn't sure if we were going to make it out as each of the girls had a few turns leading and taking their pick of directions along the way.

 I took my turn being a kid with the girls on the "giant pillow."  Sometimes it is just good to jump high and laugh hard!!

A definite favorite was the zip line.  I think they each zipped about 7 times cheering all the way.

The girls took a few shots at roping the cattle.

Once you've "roped cattle" the duck races are a breeze.

The pedal cars were a riot! No matter if you were riding single

or double!! (yes those are her legs flapping.)

The 150 foot slide was great fun! 

You know we loved the animals, alpacas, sheep, cows, rabbits...

Don't forget the hay ride to the pumpkin patch, always a mark of fall.

Best of all was just being together and having fun.  (Sometimes all it takes is sitting on- or in- a hay bail to make life feel simple again!)

(There were many more activities, the corn box, shooting corn cobs out of a air gun, tennis ball sling shot... It was all great fun for one very reasonable entry fee.)

a great evening!!

Last weekend the plan was to have some fun.  

Mark had been working very hard on a lecture that loomed until last Friday.  Once he had completed the task that had absorbed a lot of his time over the past month we were all ready to enjoy each other and good friends.  Timing was just right as Saturday was the first time Mark was to be in town for our small group's annual pumpkin party.  It was a great way to spend Saturday evening...

 

good food,

 GOOD FRIENDS,

 goodie bags,

 GREAT EVENING!!

(thanks mb, as always it was a highlight of our fall!)

the Plan

We are planning on enjoying this weekend and all it blessings!!

~pancakes

~packing in time together as a family

~picking out pumpkins

~ parties for friends' birthdays

~pumpkin party (an annual treat for sure!)

~pulling for our football team

~praising the One who has blessed us with all these things

...and after all that we may completely disconnect from the world and run away to the mountains (for what my sister would call white space) --peace and "quiet" of a different kind.

I hope your weekend holds as much promise of joy!!!

This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24

A High Five Worthy Meal-- yum!!

 My guy has always loved food!  Always Loved Food!  One of the tougher parts of this food life style for me is never being sure how a recipe is going to taste when that first bite is taken.  Mark has been such a trooper though, he will try absolutely anything and if it turns out not so good terrible he just says, "Hey, you tried it." He'll eat as much of it as he can stomach then top it off with a bowl of cereal or an orange.  One of the nights within the last few weeks I didn't know what to cook and began to stress.  Mark just sat with the computer and began searching vegan sites.  He found this... Fat Free Polenta Lasagna with portabellas and kale and was intrigued.  This past Friday we finally tried it.  It was simple,  fairly short prep time, easily tweaked  so all our crew could eat it, and most exciting of all... it was "high five worthy dish!"

 Here is the what we came up with...

~Preheat your oven to 375* and spray an 8x8 baking dish.

~Place all cheese sauce ingredients  in your blender and blend till smooth (see recipe below.)

~Saute the onions and mushrooms in a large skillet.  Once you start to see their juices appear its time for the garlic to be added.  Saute for another minute.

~Add spinach, basil and 1/4 cup of water.  Saute until spinach is wilted and the water has evaporated.

~Stir in the cheese sauce.

~Salt to taste and set aside.

~Slice the prepared polenta into 1/4 inch strips (this is a little sticky so do the best you can, it will turn out.) Place the slices in the baking dish (you may need to puzzle it out a little, just cover the dish with as little space between slices as you can.)  

~Spread 1/2 marinara sauce over the polenta.

~Next spread the spinach mixture evenly.

~Add the top layer of polenta slices.

~Finally top with remaining marinara sauce. (I sprinkled some nutritional yeast on top but you definitely don't need to.)

~Bake for 35 minutes and let it cool 5-10 minutes.

~Enjoy!!~

The cheese sauce I used is from an entirely different recipe and cook over here ... thespunkycoconut.com

This is the super quick and easy 

cheese sauce:

1 cup plain cashews

1/4 tsp organic herb blend

1/4 cup vegetable broth (ours is soy free of coarse)

1/4 cup water

Puree till creamy and smooth.

These are the easy yummy lasagna ingredients...

1 18-ounce package prepared polenta

1/2 large onion, chopped

1 package baby bella mushroom(about 2 cups, chopped)

1 tsp minced garlic

 2 - 3 cups of spinach (the original recipe calls for kale and that was my plan, however, my kale was less than fresh ;)

4 leaves chopped basil

salt and pepper to taste

1 1/4 cups marinara sauce 

beginning pictures

May 8 was the date I had set for our allergen free eating to begin. May 7 was the last of Haleigh's end of the year wrap up parties.  I had processed as much information to prepare us as I could handle.  The longer I put it off the more I felt like I was harming her body with each allergen packed  meal. 

Right in line with her daddy's style, Mark took Haleigh to pick out a few things to savor before it all started, and savor she did, both cupcakes, icing and all!!

Check out those dark circles under her eyes, they will be a great guide in the months to come.

beginning steps

The weekend to kick off our new life style rolled around and the beginning steps were being taken.  Striping Haleigh's room and cleaning it well beyond clean.  It was completely emptied and scrubbed down.  We bagged her mattress and box springs (after we bought new box springs, I think her old box springs were actually much much older than her...  maybe three times older than her) in dust mite allergy bags.

Very few toys were allowed to re-enter, and those that did had to meet strict requirements and a scrubbing of their own.

One special friend, the sea turtle, spent the night sealed in a baggie in the freezer to kill any lurking dust mites. 

 

The next night he ushered in a much better sleep!

The pantry also had a make over.  I threw away a lot of food that just wasn't healthy for any of us.  Then I bagged up a lot of healthy food that just wasn't healthy for Haleigh and distributed it to a few friends. 

Next, new items began to enter our life...

31 Days... Maybe Next Year?!

If you are an avid blog reader you probably know of the 31 Day Challenge over at The Nesting Place.  The challenge is to post daily the 31 days of October on one topic.  For several months now my oldest sister has encouraged me to take the challenge and blog our allergy and food journey for the 31 day challenge.  I have stashed several drafts along this allergy road  as we have traveled it.  There have also been several posts narrated  in my mind that never made it even to draft form.  In my last post I mentioned the degree to which I have been overwhelmed with life and needed an abrupt halt and reset.  Well, we did get a lot done on yesterday, laundry, bills, general cleaning and just a smidge of school... But the reality is I just can't post for 31 days regarding our Allergy Road, mostly because we are on a crazy allergy road that honesty consumes a LOT of my time.  However, I do want to get the updates and info blogged for a few reasons.  I need it all logged because in the daily grind of it I tend to forget why we are taking on this challenge of eating this new way.  Another reason is because it all happens so quickly I can't remember when we have challenged what foods or seen which doctors.  Also, it helps me see real progress when I hit a time of discouragement.  And maybe, just maybe it could help someone who may be in a similar whirlwind.
It won't be every day and every post post won't be about our Allergy Road (I still have to capture more sweet moments from of our fabulous beach trip, but you can get a fantastic sneak peak from my oldest sister's point of view at The Wright Place.  She has an amazing way with words!!)
 So let's go...
As I started to type this post I searched to see just when the beginning of this journey took place exactly.  May 1 was Haleigh's first allergy appointment.   I actually cried as I read the post.  I'm not sure exactly why, perhaps the wave of fear and unknown I felt at that time rushed back and surprised me.  Maybe mixed in there were tears from this weekend, one of the most challenging we have had due to allergies in several months.  Or could it just be I didn't expect to still be struggling with many parts of this going into our sixth month, shouldn't it be old hat by now!? 

Here is where it all began....

Friday, May 4, 2012

Detour On Our Journey!! Allergies!!

I have several pictures flagged in my photo suite just waiting to have captions added so they can be part of our sweet memory treasure box.  However, this week has caused us to pause and do a bit of regrouping.  
Over the past two years Haleigh has been sick more often than not.  Nothing too serious except for one or two specific episodes that were pretty severe, one requiring a 4 day hospital stay.  We have been uneasy with the amount of sinus infections, walking pneumonias, simple strep turning into more serious lymph infection, it just seemed to go on and on.  We have taken many steps of "medical digging" to find answers, lots of blood work, boosting vaccines, switching up allergy medicines...

In the midst of this time span I had made the decision to start taking steps to move our family toward a more whole foods diet and diving in to find out how to lessen the toxins Haleigh's body was (in my mind) obviously not handling well.  As my pile of books about whole food diets, herbs, essential oils, and even one on ancient breads grew I stole moments to read snippets whenever I could.  (I even caught my own microbes and made sour dough bread from scratch!  That's another post entirely.)  As this information intrigued me we continue to reach for answers and direction medically too.  About a month ago Haleigh saw a Pediatric Infectious Disease doctor who spent a great deal of time with us, ordered, and scoured lots of labs to check on Haleigh's immune system.  It was all surprising right on track.  She was anxious to see what our next appointment would show us.  That appointment was with the allergy doctor.
 This week, after a few rescheduling hurdles were jumped, we set out for allergy testing.  We were scheduled for "patch" allergy testing that would require patching on Tuesday, a recheck on Thursday, and another full appointment on Friday.  I expected we would go for this testing have confirmation that Haleigh did indeed really struggle with outside, environmental allergies.  I expected we would juggle some medicines around and see how much improvement that would bring to her health.  As we began talking with the allergy doctor, she was certain we were about to get some direction based on Haleigh's history, records, labs and physical exam.
We started with a "scratch" allergy test.  My baby lit up like a Christmas tree.  She did great during the "scratches" and although her little back began to show welt after welt she didn't try to scratch once.  She just held onto my phone and peered at the Wild Krats show determined not to move.
After the 15 minutes of waiting it out, the doctor and nurse came in to read the results.  Out of 24 pricks with different test solutions about 18 were strong positives.  The environmental ones were much like we expected, trees, grasses, dogs, cats, but then dust mites were added to the list. The food portion completely UNEXPECTED.  It shocked me when the doctor listed them and said the nurse will be in with more instructions.  

When the nurse came back in to discuss further details she placed a stack of papers in front of me and gently said, "Life in your home is going to change.  Along with environmental allergens that span the seasons of the entire year, she is allergic to wheat, soy, eggs, milk, and maybe peanuts.  So you need to get educated on what she can eat, next take her off all the allergens for two weeks.  After those two weeks reintroduce them one at a time and see if her body will tolerate them if it can't you will clearly know.   Also, there are lots of changes to make in her bedroom for this dust mites allergy."  The nurse stepped out to get a few more papers and I could feel the color in my face drain.  Seriously?!? what foods are left?
So another adventure begins.  (Please know that I know it could be SO much worse!! These are allergies, and we can deal with them, but it is a LOT of allergies.)  I have spent most nights since Tuesday, once everyone else is in bed, searching out the resource sites the nurse told me about, looking for recipes and recipe books.  I think plain meats, and vegetables will be the staple for her two weeks without any of these allergens.  (If I stick with vegan and gluten free recipes that seems to keep all our unwanted ingredients out.) A sweet friend who has traveled a much harder, more intense road with these foods has offered to go with me to whole foods and teach me the label reading, as well as, point out their tried and true "go to"s.  Tomorrow and the weekend will bring the purging of Haleigh's bedroom "stuff," only things used daily are to stay in there.  We have bagged her mattress and pillow in the special allergen bags, picked out one stuffed animal that gets to be in her bed after a cycle in the washing machine on hot.  
My sister has encouraged me to track our "allergy journey" on a side blog.  I'm not sure it will be too exciting.  Therapeutic for me maybe, and it has to be logged somewhere.  Perhaps some things I learn along the way could help another overwhelmed mom when she feels she's the one standing in front of a wide open fire hydrant. (For example, did you know some Asian restaurants mold wheat flour into shapes to look like pork, beef, or shrimp!?)  I don't know, we'll see how that works out.  
BUT here is what I do know...
I know God started us on this path before we knew we needed to really be here.  
I know His timing is amazing as there is really no better month for us to go through our trial of limited food and re-introducing the allergens, all of the "end of the year" parties have been celebrated with goodies and treats we'll have to step away from now.  And most of our scheduled events are on summer break.  
I know God has been faithful to walk our family through other really tough stuff.  Through Mackenzie's food and health struggles as an infant He pulled us closer to Him and closer to each other, and showed Himself in mighty ways.
I know He is going to strengthen and walk with us on the tough road again.  We have just finished a series at church on "His strength in our weakness."  As a friend replied when I sent out a "distress text" to our small group, "He has prepared you for this."  
I know He has, and is, and will continue to!

Chasing Joy

 We waited months for this to happen...

  

time to be with family and linger in unhurried conversation

 

time to just stop and be still.

 

when the biggest decision of the morning was whether to walk on the beach with the man I love so much and laugh so hard with...

or to sip a cup a of coffee while rocking slow as the house fills with the sound of all the cousins waking into the fun day ahead.

 the week was absolutely packed with sweet treats, togetherness, laughter, and love.  

It was a week with

time to soak in the reality of the blessings from an amazing God!

Since we have been home however, it feels as though we have been running up hill and the hill just keeps getting steeper and higher.  So today we are chasing joy.  Today we will stop.  Dip from the happy memories of a few weeks ago to even out the list of all that must get done.  Taking a day with only the essential school that must be done and tackling the mountain of laundry, bills and emails.

Its hard for me to not log a full school day since it is an ordinary Tuesday.  But everything in me is screaming, "Stop!" My devotions this morning kept pointing me to joy because of Him, seek rest in Him.  The reminder of not having to do it all to gain His approval.  So today we will crank up some praise music, divide up the chores, tackle what must be tackled and soak in the reality of the blessings from an amazing God!!