Okay... we're back

We finally relocated to IL. It's been ROUGH. We are not taking any of our supplements regularly and eating has been absolute hell. And the kids are NOT sleeping well. It got so bad that I made a special trip to the store and bought fish oil to start them THAT DAY. Today will be day 4 and no kidding, last night Matthew slept through the whole night for the first time in a few months. The baby is taking the adult dosing and the last two nights she went to bed record early. Last night, I took someone's advice to make her use the potty just before laying down to empty her bladder (she's not fully potty trained yet, but if I sit her there, she will try) and sure enough she was out cold in less than 10 minutes. I honestly don't know if this is illness starting or teething or what. I remember having the same questions when Matthew started sleeping so well after the fish oil. Both are on Nordic Naturals liquid Complete Omega 3-6-9 (the lemon flavored--not the strawberry flavored kids version). Both take 1 tsp/day although the baby is probably only getting about 3/4 of that.

So far, we have been here for about 7 weeks and were able to get in 4 solid, rigid weeks of Feingold. True to form, like every other diet, you get used to it. Lots of melon and pears and kiwi and bananas. Coconut milk yogurt (holy fortune), baby carrots, celery with peanut butter and deli meat lunches.

Now, we're off Feingold somewhat. Matthew's only reaction to Feingold was (I THINK) a reduction in bedwetting. I had such HIGH, HIGH, HIGH hopes for Feingold with him. Seriously. Mike and I, on the other hand, DID respond to it. Mike felt a world better, less agitated and more focused. Within days of being off the diet, he was a complete mess and looking for a medication change before I pointed out to him his change in eating. That kind of hit him like a ton of bricks. And my constant, excessive urination disappeared. Sure enough, a few days back into eating salicylates, it's back.

So we're likely to eat SOME salicylate foods and just limit them severely. Leave ketchup/tomatoes and pickles/cukes off of salads and stuff. Maybe no so much PB&J (since pretty much all jellies are off-limits).

We're also trying to implement fruit and veggies with EVERY meal--not just dinner.

And I think we are going to go completely gluten free after the December holidays to see if it affects Matthew's ADHD. In the meantime, we're going to try some other holistic remedies that have been recommended, but I have not finished researching. The attention problems are seriously grating on everyone. He is homeschooled and all the "activities" started up in the last week. He has a Hip Hop dance class, two 45-minute swim classes, a 45-minute gym class, a 1-hour American History class and a 1-1/2 hour T-ball instructional league on Saturday mornings. So, mostly physical activity spaced through the week. The baby has a dance class that we missed, a "gymnastics" class and a swim class. It's really more about having time with her alone.

Mike is away this week, so it's been ROUGH!!!! But I've made a serious effort to cook. We've had:

Breakfasts: gluten-free pancakes that were made ahead and frozen with fresh berries and real maple syrup; and eggs that were made ahead and frozen with fresh-made GF, uncured (so no nitrates/nitrites) bacon. And, instead of just having water all the time, we've had non-organic, but no corn syrup lemonade. You can actually find it at Walmart or Whole Foods.

Lunches: have been hard. We found this awesome bread by Breadsmith that has, literally, like 4-5 ingredients in it maximum. So it's not gluten-free, but it doesn't have any of the other crap in it. So we've done a lot of homemade chicken salad, tuna salad, deli meats and now with the end of Feingold, Matthew requested PB&J with mommy's homemade organic Concord grape jelly. We often put some green beans on the side. Mike was trying to be gluten-free and made some deli meat rolls where he sliced the rolls and used the pieces to make a face with green beans making a moustache and hair. It went over pretty big.

Dinners: have been easy, but then, they always have. I'm trying to get us away from the quick and easy "meat and one veggie" plate. I don't usually cook, so this is my gripe to Mike--who doesn't really change it. I keep reminding him that meat should only be 1/3 of what's on the plate at most. And really, this would save an awful lot of money with meat being so expensive and all--ya know? So while he was gone, I made good use of the Near East Wild Mushrooms & Herbs Rice Pilaf Mix
we had in the pantry. :) It claims to have soy ingredients in it, but I took a chance because it was quick and easy and frankly, it had to get used. But we DO have the Near East Original Rice Pilaf Mix and will be using that up. You can cook it in broth for extra flavor. I bought THAT because Matthew saw some Rainbow Trout (the whole fish) at Whole Foods and decided we should have that for dinner one night. The guy behind the counter told me to slice some pears and line the inside of the fish, put some rice pilaf in, find a way to fasten it closed and grill it up. It was delicious. The trout had been fileted, but still had a backbone--so I highly DO NOT recommend this for smaller kids. It was awesome, but we won't be doing it again.

Desserts have been expensive. Allergenic s'mores, ice cream sandwiches and ice cream have just been ridiculous. We even found ice cream cones that were gluten-free.

It's also been hard because we've been on the road a lot looking for rental property in an area about 1-1/2 hours away one-way. It's made food difficult. We just need to plan and prepare better, really. We are NOT good about that and are often rushing around last-minute. >:(

Onward and upward!