I would like to say life has been so fantastically busy in the last 10 months that I've hardly had time to breathe, much less take off my party dress.
I would like to say that I've been cut off from modern technology while spelunking in the Son Doong Cave in Vietnam.
I would like to say I've been hanging out with these ladies.
To be honest, I HAVE had some fun adventures in the past 10 months, and some sad adventures, and a lot of living happened. Husband and I were able to take a special, kids-free vacation to Mexico during the cold months, and we brought my mom and her beau along. My smart, funny, silly, youngest brother came to stay with us for about 3 months. We did a lot of knitting. We played a lot of games, like LOTRO. He helped me with my work. He helped take care of my kids while husband and I jetted off to Mexico, and again while I spent a few days in Vancouver to visit husband while he was working.
Brother and I:
Mexico (from the infinity pool - Can you tell where the pool ends and the ocean begins?):
Husband and I in BC:
Our three sons took a school year's worth of field trips all in the last 2 months of school, because the teachers had been doing some sort of work-to-rule thing until then. I always volunteer to chaperone every field trip, afraid that I will be an old woman who regrets not going on every. single. field trip. if I don't go on all of them. That was chaotic.
Summer was a whirlwind. Eldest went away to school in Chicago for 3 weeks. We all spent a couple weeks in Chicago on top of that. We had the opportunity to meet new friends, spend time with old friends, see some of my family in the Chicago area, celebrate July 4th in Chicago, experience Medieval Times, etc. It was a great time. All the boys spent 3 weeks in Texas with my mom, during which time husband and I took a last-minute trip to St. Thomas, USVI. The boys then came home to spend the last 3 weeks of summer at home. The 3 weeks at home were completely lazy. The boys spent about 14 hours/day playing games on the computers (mostly Minecraft), and about 1 hour/day eating. The rest was spent sleeping. Yeah, I totally let them gorge on technology time. No, I don't feel guilty, but I'm expecting some people will wish I did. LOL
Now the boys are back to school and I'm back to being a homebody with some excess time to research recipes and play with food.
In January I eliminated gluten and dairy from the boys' diets, but allowed them to continue eating meat. To be honest, I haven't seen a huge difference, other than they seem to be cured of the occasional bout with constipation and/or diarrhea. I was hoping for a more obvious improvement in their general well-being, because it would make it much easier to motivate them to stick to the diet. While they were gone in the summer they didn't attempt to stay away from dairy or gluten, and they didn't have any issues. Ultimately, it's a good thing they don't seem to suffer from consuming dairy and gluten.
This summer I did some experimenting with my own diet and found that my reactions were MUCH less severe than they were last year. Gluten still makes me look bloated, but doesn't make me feel as uncomfortable. Goat's milk products seem to have little/no effect on me in any way. Cow's milk products still cause me to break out and sometimes cause a slight headache, but no migraines anymore. Eggs are still iffy; sometimes I don't have a reaction and sometimes I do. I've been eating egg white omelets with no negative consequences. My weight has held steady for the last year, give or take about 3 pounds, depending on how much junk I've been eating.
In the future most of the recipes will still be vegan and gluten free, but I'm going to showcase some of the other things I cook for either myself or the kids. Just keep an eye on the ingredients to look for allergens you may be avoiding.
If you have a recipe you are interested in, but haven't had the time or energy to try it, let me know in the comments below. I have average cooking skills, so would be happy to try out recipes for you and blog about how easy/difficult they are, including sourcing the ingredients.
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