Learning How to Live Gluten-Free

Oh my goodness, life has been incredibly busy.  I don't mean to but I do tend to make my life harder.  I wish I could do it ALL but I just can't.  I decided that since I have an overload of non-food items from couponing, I'll only be couponing in the summer.  Seriously, I think my 40 deodorants will last me for a year or two that I've acquired over the summer.  Ya think?  Ha ha.  I don't want to be a hoarder.  Well, that frees up time for me to learn other important things.


My friend and I have spent HOURS learning about how to eat gluten-free.  I mean, we've spent HOURS.  While the kids went to their one-day-a-week school today, we went around looking for gluten-free bakeries and finding healthy stores.  Um, it's really expensive to have food made for you that's gluten-free.  It is so much better to learn how to make it all on your own.  I got a book awhile back from Future Horizons that is a recipe book for gluten-free cooking.  Special Diets for Special Kids.  Over 200 revised and new Gluten-free, casein-free recipes.  It's a fantastic book because the recipes are for kids in mind.  What can we make that's healthy, doesn't have a million ingredients, and kid will love?  Even better, it's not gonna hurt them if they have an allergy because substitutes were made.  Well, it's not nearly as hard as I thought.  Michele and I went to Whole Foods and had so much fun sampling everything.  I think I sampled the mangoes so much that it equaled just eating a whole mango.  So funny.  They had this machine that had peanuts in it and you can grind it.  Guess what comes out?  Peanut butter of course!  No yucky preservatives in it, just good ol' fashion peanuts.  Nothing needed to be added to it.  I'm in loooove with the store.

at least I try to convince myself... haha

Tonight Michele and I made Chicken Curry and some drink smoothies.  I called it Hulk Juice because it was tons of different fruit, kale leaves, and amazingly healthy for you.  The kids downed it.  We proved to them that great juice doesn't have to be about drinking Koolaid.  :D  Why does healthy food have to be more expensive?  Whyyyyy?  It's so much easier to go into Fry's (Kroger) and just snatch up $1 savings here and there but if it's bad for Chaz, My Aspergers son, and ADD son and daughter, I'll take that extra steps to help them.  I think Michele and I just have so much fun learning about all these interesting things and we tend to venture off into new things together.  I love having a friend like that.  Makes it so much more fun to explore when you're laughing half way through it.  :D

Here is the smoothie we made tonight.  See?  Not difficult at all!  Was yummy too.  :D

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Moms Can Have ADHD Too

Easter is coming and I'm not overly excited about the whole Easter basket stuff.  I feel like sometimes kids can just expect things after a bit and take it for granted.  Especially when there is a more important meaning behind the holiday.  I think we'll keep our tradition like we do every year but make it smaller.  We always give them new summer stuff for Easter in their baskets.  New towels, goggles, swimming suit, etc.  Then throw in a chocolate bunny.  Yada, yada.  However, I'm keeping it simple this year and just getting them new towels and some candy.  I don't like it when the amount grows of what they get and they expect more and more each year so I think this year we'll scale back.  Kind of like Christmas.  Growing up I never knew if we were gonna have a small Christmas or big one. We were just happy either way.

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As most my friends know I'm not shopper.  I used to be but now I mostly do my ordering online through Amazon.  Well, not only have I found that it's cheaper to buy my ink cartridges through Amazon but I find things that I need online rather than have to go to a specialty store.  I have 3 kids so far that have ADHD or ADD like my husband and I do.  Well, I've never treated them with medicine but I found another route through vitamins that was recommended by a friend and her doctor.  Chaz is has more energy than any person I've ever known and he has a hard time concentrating on schoolwork and falling asleep at night.  Ryan and Ivy just have a hard time concentrating period.  When learning, half the time they are in lala land and I know how hard it is because it was like that for Charles and I.  Even as adults it's a struggle.  After I have Juliet, I'm going to look into something like this for myself.  There are sooo many people who don't believe in ADHD/ADD but they just don't understand because they don't know what it's like.  Even as a mom and housewife it's one of my biggest struggles.  However, James Dobson said it can be a bonus because we are able to juggle so many things at the same time.  So, I do try and count my blessings often in dealing with it.

As funny as that picture is, it very much reflects how the mind works.  Its like firecrackers of thoughts going off in your head and before you complete one thought you are right onto the next one.  It also effects the memory and getting tasks done.  However, I have an amazing amount of energy all the time and it's a huge bonus for me.  Often I can't sit down for very long.  Sitting through a movie?  Ha!  You'd  better give me something to do at the same time or I'll go nuts. Ignorant people assume that because I'm a homemaker I'm lazy.  Yeeeeeah right.  My friend  has really helped me to slow down when she comes over so we can actually visit. I feel bad all those times she would visit me and she'd have to follow me around the house so we could talk.  It's amazing she's stuck with me since it took about 10 years for me to learn not to do that to her.  I don't know.  Half the time I get mad at having this issue but then I see the blessings of it too since I have to keep up with a  large family.  :)  It can be hard to remind myself to slow down and my husband has to remind  me to at least take an hour break in the day because I won't remember too.  Either that or he'll kick me out and tell me to go visit a friend.  Well, that works too.  

Vaccines: A Crime Against Humanity

 This is an EXCELLENT video and answers all the questions I've had about vaccinations and the dangers of it. I've just seen too much in my own life and families around me that are hurting from vaccinations.  I'm talking about FRIENDS in my personal life that I know who are effected greatly from giving their kids vaccinations.  That's shocking.  People have been really pressuring me to get my kids vaccinated because there has been an outbreak of some things.  In this video she says that there was an outbreak in Iowa where 67% of the children who had contracted mumps had already gotten the vaccination so they "should have been protected." Same with the pertussis outbreak in California.  A vast majority already had the full series of the vaccination.  This is a great video to watch.

Here is the video.

Is ADHD an Illness or a Hurdle?

My Elementary Days

In my other BLOG I was talking with moms on the subject of Aspergers.  The second half I talked about ADHD.  Is it an illness?  What are the positive aspects of it?  I wanted to share it here.

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ADHD has been given a lot of negatives and at times it was hard for me to deal with growing up.  But one day I needed to stop and think about the positives.  Yes, I struggled all through school.  Yes, I drove my parents crazy most days.  Yes, I made my parents chase me down the street in front of the neighbors quite often.  Yes, sitting in church was torture for me at times.  Sometimes they had to drag me out while I was kicking and screaming.  At times the pastor would just have to stop preaching because he couldn't be heard over me.  Taking me to the store was sometimes humiliating.  As an adult, these struggles don't always go away, they just change.

Organization is like rocket science to me.  I love going to church and I go three times a week.  BUT I have to keep my hands busy by doodling so I can focus.  When I compare myself to moms that making homemaking and organizing look like a cinch, I want to hang my head in shame.  I tend to go in circles cleaning up because of my focus problems.  I still wear earmuffs when the house gets too loud.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm a very traditional homemaker and LOVE it.  I bake, clean, cook, wash, sew, have babies, homeschool and I love every bit of it.  ADHD I believe helps me keep up with all these things.  Juggling it, albeit not perfectly and some days despairingly, I will work myself to exhaustion making sure it gets done.  Being able to move quickly from one thing to the next without having a perfectionist mentality makes it possible for me to keep up with a busy life and making room for spontaneity.  At times I may go to bed with a spotless house.  Sometimes I may be too embarrassed to answer the door.  But I can promise you this, I go to bed in peace that I give it my all every single day.  I may not have all the clothes washed or dishes may be piling in the sink, but it's probably because I'm out back playing soldiers with my boys or barbies with my girls in their room. If you are looking for a supermom, then you're looking at the wrong gal.  But if you are looking for an example of someone who loves life, loves her family, tries every day to work on her weaknesses, then you've found the right one.  Even though I struggle, I won't give up and just roll over because orderliness is a character quality.

Character Quality Alert

Orderliness vs. Disorganization

Preparing myself and my surroundings so that I will achieve the greatest efficiency. 

1 Corinthians 14:40

Some may call ADHD an illness.  For me it's just been a hurdle.  I truly am blessed.