Random Notes

Feeling a little blue and overwhelmed. I was sick all last week and now it seems I've come down with a cold.

But I have watched some good movies lately!

Josh and I watched To Kill a Mockingbird. Wonderful movie. It did make me weepy though. For some reason, every nostalgia emotion crowded into my little ole heart and I spent the rest of the day with my throat (already sore) getting lumps in it and my eyes welling with tears. A couple of heartfelt sobs emerged from time to time. I missed my mom and dad. I missed my childhood. I missed Gregory Peck.

I did get over that though!

I watched the movie Waiting for Superman twice. Once by myself when I was too tired to get out of bed one day. I find it so interesting that it is the product of the same guy who did An Inconvenient Truth, which was so 'liberal' in outlook, since thinking global warming is a real threat is a 'liberal cause.' I put quotation marks because I really hate the stupid liberal/conservative break down of every issue. Anyway, this movie, Waiting for Superman, puts the failure of our public schools squarely in the lap of the teachers' union. Not so liberal there. And even goes to say that the two major teachers unions own the Democratic party at the federal level. They own some of the Republicans at the state level. A very moving movie that makes you think. I watched the movie again days later with Sean. I think he found eye-opening too.

I watched Werner Herzog's movie of the Chauvet cave in France. Whenever I see those cave paintings I think of G.K. Chesterton's book The Everlasting Man and how he starts off that book. And he didn't even have the benefit of these latest cave paintings (the oldest found so far 30,000 to 32,000 years old - discovered in 1994). Herzog is great except I can do without his narration which is almost comically tense with emotion. A little too theatrical for my tastes. But the movie was gorgeous and fascinating.

That's it for the movies.

I have watched two very inspiring clips on youtube lately:

Peter Kreeft's How to Win the Culture War

An Interview with Andrew Kern

I've also been listening to The Late Middle Ages, a lecture series by the Teaching Company. I listened to the Early Middles Ages by this same professor several weeks ago. It is very interesting and I am learning new things. I thought I had a better understanding of the Middle Ages than I actually do. The professor is excellent, however, he has a really nasal voice and he's always saying 'aaannnnddd' and thaaaaannnn.' That takes a bit of getting used to, but overall, the course is really intriguing.

This is all for my own self-education, though some has been shared with the kids.

Okay, I am girding my loins for today. I want to get a lot of academic stuff done this a.m. Rick is about to leave for the airport, a quick two night trip to California.

GF/CF note for Monday 2/18/13

Thought I'd jot down yesterday's dietary news.

Breakfast was a success for me and Becky. We like the Peanut Butter Panda Puffs with almond milk. I put sliced banana on mine. Tasty, filling and quick. Becky doesn't believe in fruit on cereal but she liked hers too. Sean does not like them, I learned. So instead he had peanut butter on rice cakes. He was happy with that. Josh was very discouraged that there was no real milk in the house. Later on in the day he went out got bread and milk to keep him and Rick happy.

Even though I was sick, I sent Becky to Aquinas. I packed her up some of the last of the cheese and then a lot of gluten free stuff to snack on. I think I really have to buy a bunch of boxes of gluten free chicken nuggets from Whole Foods and just cook up 5 or 6 for her lunch on Mondays. As it was, she was so ravenous that we stopped at McDonalds on the way home from picking her up and she had not gluten free chicken nuggets and french fries. Sigh. It really is hard with that girl.

I had a great lunch. I ate a big salad with some left over steak on it, oil and vinegar for dressing. Sean didn't know what he wanted. I served him some gf/cf lunch meat on little toothpick skewers and some corn chips with hummus. He refused the hummus (even though he's liked it before) and was suspicious of the blue in the corn chips. Note so to self: don't buy blue corn chips. He was still hungry a bit later so he wound up eating pb and rice cakes again.

I need to buy more peanut butter!

Dinner - another fail! I don't know what it is with me and not being able to defrost chicken in time. I thought I had gotten it out early enough in the day (11 or so) that by 5 it would be defrosted. It was a big whole chicken and it was still partially frozen. I ran it under water and wrestled with it a bit and put back when I thought we'd eat dinner by a half hour. I made really good roasted potatoes. I peeled and chopped up potatoes into smallish chunks, nuked them in the microwave to 'parboil' them, then rolled them in some olive oil, garlic salt, salt and pepper and stuck them in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour. Yum! I dumped the last of the mushrooms on too. Everyone loved them. But the chicken wasn't finished cooking. In fact it was still half raw. So Rick, who was hungry, ordered chinese food from P.F. Changs because I'd read they had a big gluten free menu. By the time he got home with the food though the chicken was cooked. So I have to do something with it. The chinese food was good! I only ate a little because by that time it was 8 and I was getting tired and didn't feel like eating anymore.

Today, I am seriously considering eating the Chinese food for breakfast (Becky and Josh can have eggs), going to our planned lunch at Five Guys and then doing something with the chicken for dinner tonight. I might doctor up some soup and put lots of chicken in it. Tomorrow we can have chicken salad for lunch.

GF/CF weekend hits and misses

After our miserable Friday, we had some successes over the weekend, though some tears as well.

Saturday a.m. I decided to replace bagel morning with donut morning. The donuts were from Kinnikinnick They were delicious! A definite hit. I put out the chocolate and the cinnamon sugar ones. The chocolates were really good but the cinnamon sugar were really, really delicious. They went first and usually in this house anything chocolate goes first.

Well, donuts don't really hold you for long but on Saturdays we've decided we are doing lunch at Chick fil a. I wasn't feeling well (I was actually sick all weekend and am playing hooky from Aquinas today because I've lost my voice) so I didn't go, but Rick took Becky and Sean (Josh was off on retreat with his CLC group). They had the grilled chicken on fruit salad and the waffle fries. It was a good lunch and GF/CF.

For dinner, I cooked up some lamb tips I'd bought at Trader's Joe's over some basmati rice cooked in chicken broth. The kids ate a little of the lamb but it was too fatty for them. They ate some of the rice, but not a lot. I tried to get some fruit and veggies down them too, but met with limited success. Rick liked everything though! So did I.

Sunday breakfast was easy because we didn't have RE. I am not sure what I am going to do next Sunday. Anyway, I made turkey sausage, scrambled eggs and TJ's gluten free pancakes. The kids didn't like them with syrup because they became too doughy. But toasted and then smeared with pumpkin butter, they were delicious!

Sunday lunch just kinda, sorta didn't happen. I really wasn't feeling well. Rick was helpless in the face of our dietary restrictions, plus he was running errands and helping Sean with math. So the kids got really hungry and weepy and we had to do some stop gap snacking which wasn't very satisfying.

Rick grilled steak, hamburgers and hot dogs. We missed our cheeseburgers. Sean is the only one who likes the rolls. Becky and Josh just ate hotdogs. I had steak and a hamburger. I also cooked up some frozen fries and sauteed lots of mushrooms to go with the steak. I put out some baby carrots and sliced cucumbers. Things went over pretty well.

The Journal of Best Practices - Book 8

The full title of this book is The Journal of Best Practices; A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome and One Man's Quest to be a Better Husband by David Finch.

David Finch marries the girl he's had a crush on and been best friends with since high school. But it is now five years into the marriage and they are estranged and disappointed. Where did their love go? Finch's wife figures it out: he's got Asperger's Syndrome. Once Finch realizes this, he begins to use his analytical and obsessive tendencies to zero in on how to become a better husband and save his marriage. What he can't get intuitively, he can get by analyzing and problem solving. Thus he takes a businessman's approach to his problem and he begins to keep a journal of best practices; what is the cause of the conflict and what actions need to be taken in order to solve that conflict.

Finch writes well and is very funny at times. The book is so sweet in that he loves his wife so much and she obviously wants the marriage to work as well. She is incredibly patient and honest with him. The whole book is really a primer on how two very unhappy but loyal spouses can work things out through hard work and sheer determination. The first vital component is communication. Finch gets things wrong all the time in weird, weird ways because of his Asperger syndrome. He doesn't mean to be insensitive, he just often is completely clueless. The next component is dealing with Finch's egocentricity. Aspergerians live in their own world and are very self-absorbed. It can look like raging selfishness but it is the way they are wired. They need to learn to add others into the formula. Another major component was dealing with Finch's quirky OCD tendencies and the way he flips out in anger when tiny little things that wouldn't make any difference to a 'neurotypical,' make his world fall apart.

Finch works through all this systematically. His love for his wife and kids and his willingness to be completely honest with himself and then lay it all out there in the book is really admirable.

While I did enjoy this book very much, there were a couple of things that bothered me about it. First of all, it brought to mind that scene from that Woody Allen movie where he's standing in line somewhere and he asks this other couple in the line (or maybe it was a party) how they keep their relationship going and they both answer, 'We're really shallow.' Finch and wife aren't the deepest people in the world. Finch looks to the likes of Howard Stern and Oprah Winfrey to learn about communication. He turns to reading Cosmo magazine to see how his wife ticks and the way they bond in friendship is by watching some show about runway models together. Whatever floats your boat, but frankly, they just seem pop culture deep. I felt like in real life, I wouldn't have really been able to connect with them much. The other thing is the use of expletives was rampant in the book. I mean the guy thinks in expletives. Do people really go around saying f you to their spouse all the time like that? I would say that right there might be a problem too. Maybe it hit me harder this time because this was the forth 'current' book I've read in a two week period and every one of them was just full of expletives. Is this our modern legacy in writing? That we can't talk without being so incredibly crass? I mentioned it to my husband and he said he resents that because it takes away the power of a good expletive! If you just use them once in a while they have meaning but if you are forever speaking so the language just gets watered down, meaningless, while still being abrasive. It made me long for richer, more eloquent language.

Also, as I read the book I started to think that a lot of what Finch was dealing with, about folding and putting away laundry, or who cleans the kitchen, etc was something that any couple would experience and that this wasn't necessarily Asperger's that was creating the problem. He talks about his wife in glowing terms, but as the book went along I thought, hey, she could maybe pitch in a little bit here too! But as the book drew to its end, it occurred to me that his wife had probably abdicated some things too, simply out of self-protection. Being newly married, having two children, a consuming career and a husband who can't relate to you is a bit overwhelming. She probably got into some sloppy habits simply because she couldn't keep all the balls up in the air by herself, especially when feeling so bewildered and heart broken over the unhappiness in the marriage.

All in all, this was a good book. It had a lot of insight into relationships and how to make them work. I am glad Finch was so humble and honorable about dealing with his difficulties. He does really love his wife and that was heartwarming to read.

For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Healing the New Childhood Epidemics - Book 7

Healing the New Childhood Epidemics by Dr. Kenneth Bock details the approach he has developed when treating children with autism, ADHD, asthma and allergies. All four of these syndromes or conditions have been on the rise at a frightening rate for the last 20 years especially. It is not just a matter of better diagnosis either. Dr. Bock thinks there is a complicated interplay between genetic vulnerability, nutritional issues due to our industrialized food system and environmental toxins such as heavy metals accumulating in the body. The book is very detailed and systematic. I didn't feel like he was trying to sell me anything, but really just wanted to get information out there to help parents and their children who are struggling so with these conditions.

The book begins with several cases that Dr. Bock has worked with over the years that illustrate how children respond so positively to his very sensitive and practical approach. The cases are pretty extreme and heartbreaking. One thing that made me trust Dr. Bock is that while many of the patients were healed, not all were completely. Not all the issues went away, but were so reduced that life, instead of being a living hell, became quite manageable and full of hope. I didn't feel Dr. Bock was trying to sell me a magic cure at all.

Dr. Bock takes a four prong approach to dealing with healing or improving these epidemic illnesses. The first is diet. He has several diets listed going from fairly restrictive to extremely restrictive. And the fairly restrictive is actually pretty restrictive by any normal point of view. The diet is to go gluten and casein free. Many children with these disorders respond positively to this diet. He explains the whole chemistry behind why this is so. Gluten is found in bread and in all sorts of processed foods. So many, many people are going gluten free nowadays because celiac disease is on the rise. But even if you don't have celiac's the gluten and casein (a protein found in dairy foods) can still mess up those neurotransmitters in your brain. Between 50 and 60% of kids struggling with the 4-A disorders, as Dr. Bock refers to them, respond positively to taking gluten and casein out of their diets. That's a pretty big percentage!

We just had our first gluten free/casein free day yesterday. Sean and I are going whole hog with it. Becky tried but towards the end of the day had a bagel, some cheese crackers and then some tortilla with cheese melted on them. It's gonna take a while for her. I do think she is truly addicted to cheese! But Seano was a trooper. Even though he is struggling so much with depression right now, or maybe because of it, he really wants to feel better, so if this diet can clear the fog and get those transmitters firing more normally, it could really help the depression, I'm thinking. Everything is so interrelated for him. Beyond the gluten/casein free diet are other more restrictive diets which I can't even handle really thinking about right now. I am sure you would need a nutritionist to help you figure the 4 or 5 foods that are eventually left! I'm exaggerating a bit there! A lot of it though is kind of a modified Paleo diet, so it is doable. Not easy, but then if you are desperate, you'll do what it takes!

The second prong, which I have not really started on, is supplementation. Kids suffering from these conditions are often very nutritionally depleted in certain minerals, fats, vitamins and enzymes. I feel I need to get Sean tested and I am not sure who to turn to for this. I am afraid of quackery! I need to talk to my pediatrician. Anyway, kids are given certain supplements to restore balance to their chemistry. The book outlines a very detailed list of every kind of thing they may need and spells out everything very clearly. But it gets rather over my head at this point. I just found all the information a bit too much to take in, so I kind of skimmed and then decided I would focus on diet first and once I felt I had a handle on that, I'd move on. I can only process so much at a time.

The 3rd prong is detoxification. I have heard for years about the connection between autism and vaccines. I know someone who is convinced that's what triggered her daughter's epilepsy and developmental delays. I know this is controversial, but Dr. Bock's explanation made sense to me. So many of the children do seem to change after having their vaccinations. This has happened too many times and is evidenced by videos even, before and after the vaccinations, to be always chalked up to the idea that the parents simply want to find something to blame and noticed the problems after the vaccinations. There are heavy metals in these vaccines and if the child is genetically vulnerable, there can be some kind of complex chemical reaction that makes the immune system or the brain (all interrelated) go haywire. We get metals from other sources too like medication and environmental exposure. I couldn't read the portion of the book closely either, as again, I was suffering from information overload. And again this is a process where a doctor is needed to first test to see if there is an excess of metals present and if so which ones. The detoxification treatment depends on each individual child's needs. We haven't reached that step yet.

The final and 4th prong is medication. Dr. Bock thinks that in some cases medication really does help. He lays out a thorough analysis of when drugs are appropriate, which types to use and all their various pros and cons.

I have a feeling this book is going to get dog-eared after I'm through with it. It lays out a very sensible systematic, but complicated path. Dr. Bock seems very caring and his observations and advice is very hopeful. I like how thorough he is (even though for me, a beginner in all this, it was overwhelming) and I like that he doesn't veer off into things that make me a little nervous, like some New Age practices that promise to cure everything. I don't think, truly, that there is a cure out there. I do think though things can be improved. That's what I am hoping for.

For more reviews go to 52 Books.

Look Me In the Eye - Book 6

Look Me In the Eye is another book by John Elder Robison. I just finished reading his Be Different the other week. Look Me In the Eye is a memoir of his life and while it covers pretty much the same territory as Be Different, it has enough of a different orientation to be interesting. Be Different is more an analysis of the difference Asperger's made in his life. He looks back and sees where it had negative effects and where it helped him; and also how he learned to cope. Look Me in the Eye is more of a straight memoir. I found the book really engrossing. Since it came out before Be Different, it had some information in it that was sort of assumed in the latter book, so it cleared up some questions I was left with.

One thing that saddened me was that in Be Different, Robison writes about how sorry he is that his second marriage failed. In Look Me in the Eye, he talks about how happy he is in his second marriage. That kind of broke my heart a bit. He seemed so happy (though odd!) about his marriage.

Robison is a really good writer with a ton of insight. He's also strange, but in a nice way. He just seems like a really nice guy. It is amazing all the struggles people go through and still manage to come out in one piece, more or less. I loved all the stories about his son Cubby. The fact that, in spite of everything, he still loved his father and mother so much is really touching.

For more reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

GF/CF - Day 3

Yesterday was an awful food day. No bread, no dairy, no meat. Very unsatisfying. Unfortunately, we did not display the proper penitential attitude that would have been a blessing on our first Friday in Lent.

So I've decided I need to make sure I always have the following on hand:

Cereal and almond milk

Rice cakes and peanut butter (that the kids actually like)

tortilla chips

fruit - apples, bananas, raisins, citrus

juice - apple cider and TJ's orange, banana, strawberry everybody is currently loving

Tomato soup

various types of frozen potatoes

eggs

raw veggies and hummus


some kind of sweets that the kids like - fruit roll ups, ginger snaps have gone over well. Meringues not so much.

GF/CF - Day 2

Todays hits and misses:

Had the muffins from Kinnikinnick. I had the sunflower seed muffin which I thought quite tasty. Later in the a.m. I went to eat another but Josh at that moment happened to be reading how much fat and calories are in one of them. It was a lot! So I just ate half. Becky, Sean and Josh all had the chocolate muffins. Josh liked it, of course. Becky and Sean did not. Bah.

The highlight of eating today was going to Chipotle for lunch. Sean and I had soft corn tacos. He had white rice, black beans, chicken and lettuce. I had carnitas, brown rice, salsa and guacamole. We both thought they were absolutely scrumptious. Hurrah! Becky being wimpy about this whole thing had not one but two quesadillas. And you wouldn't believe how much weeping she's doing over this. She's just eaten wheat and cheese each day so far! Poor Becky, ever the drama queen. It is definitely going to take a while to get her on board. Sean though is being a complete trooper about it which is good because it is mostly for his benefit.

Over at a friend's house he was offered some chocolate candy and declined. He was pretty proud of himself.

Dinner - mostly a miss. For one thing I could not find the curry chicken tenders from Trader Joe's. Did not get them?? Are they hidden somewhere in the bowels of my freezer(s). I searched both freezers twice but couldn't find them. So I wound up opening up the last box of gluten free chicken nuggets and then grilling up some Applegate beef gf/cf hot dogs. I toasted up a hot dog bun from Kinnikinnick for Sean. Everyone else declined having a bun at all. But Sean said it was surprisingly 'not bad.' The kids didn't like the chicken nuggets! I fried them up instead of baking them as I usually do. So next time I'll bake them again.

GF/CF - Day 1

A quick list of hits and misses from our first day:

Breakfast: Nature's Path organic, fruit juice sweetened corn flakes with Blue Almond vanilla almond milk (unsweetened) plus a little bit of table sugar sprinkled on was a hit. The kids were not gobbling it up or exclaiming with delight or anything, but they both ate their bowls of cereal without complaint.

Lunch - Sean loved the honey rice cakes with peanut butter. Me too. Even if we weren't on this diet, it would make a yummy snack. I found it quite filling and satisfying. Becky refused. She's not overly found of peanut butter, plus she wasn't in an openminded mood at that moment. Try again later with her.

Dinner - Mahi mahi burgers on gluten free english muffins. I thought they were fine. Becky refused. Sean ate half and then gave up. Rick liked the fish but not the rolls. Josh ate three of them! I think it was because he had been fasting so much all day and he was ravenous, but really he'll put ketchup on anything and eat it up.

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.

Today I will:

Clean the kitchen thoroughly

Begin reading my designated Lenten read - Christianity and Classical Culture by Charles Norris Cochrane

Pray the rosary at 7:30 a.m.

Fast and abstain from meat

I'll also go gluten and casein free today

Read aloud The Story of the Trapp Family Singers

Help Becky and Sean with math, copy work, Latin, composition, and history

Connect with Josh to make sure he's on track

Vacuum something - not sure if it will be upstairs or downstairs - dusting sounds like a good idea too.

Go to mass - some of us will go to the 5:30 and some the 7:30 p.m.

I have other errands to do like call doctors and pick up dry cleaning - gotta squeeze them in somehow.



May you have a blessed Ash Wednesday!

An Irish Country Doctor - Book 5

This book was a pleasant, light read in many ways, but it also had characteristics that irked me as well.

It tells the story of Dr. Barry Laverty, freshly minted from medical school sometime in the early 1960s. He gets a job as an assistant for a Dr. Fingal O'Reilly in the small country village of Ballybucklebo in Northern Ireland just outside of Belfast. The book chronicles his first few weeks on the job. Dr. O'Reilly is a character. A very good and wise doctor in his fifties, who also does things in his own unorthodox, curmudgeonly way. We are introduced to the eccentric, humorous, poignant and heart-warming characters that inhabit Ballybucklebo as well as the villian in the story, the weathly but evil (kind of like Mr. Potter in That's a Wonderful Life) Councilman Bishop.

The story reminded me a bit of All Creatures Great and Small which I liked much better. Patrick Taylor, while he is a good writer, especially at descriptions, and he's got the formula down pat for writing a cozy piece of fiction, also suffers from the problems of modern cultural myopia, as I'll call it. I've noticed this in the few best sellers I've read lately (all from the British Isles!). For instance in the Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society, we have the gay character that the grandmotherly type coos about indulgently. No one has any objections whatsoever at all, ever. It is treated as just one of those little eccentricities that some people have. Now saying this I probably sound really awful. And I don't mean it that way. Whoever you may be attracted to, you are still a child of God and blessed with gifts, a soul created in his image and likeness, a person who can contribute and shine wonderfully in this world. We are more than our sexuality. But the issue is a complicated one and the book just treated the whole thing in such a sugar-coated way. However, it was really a minor plot point. Overall I really enjoyed that book. In Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, another book that to me falls into the same category of novel, we have another charming tale about a dignified elderly man trying to cope with the loneliness of widowhood. It was a good book, except for the fact that when he finds out his son's wife (or lover, can't remember if they were married) has aborted his only grandchild he doesn't even blink an eye. Abortion, aw, shucks. Who wants a grandchild anyway?

The sugar coating on these issues, wrapped up in cozy love stories is just mite bit propagandistic to me. And shallow. Something very Hollywood about it.

So now I read An Irish Country Doctor. Dr. Fingal is meant to be a lovable, eccentric character. And we know he is a good, forward looking guy. He thinks abortion should be legal. That the woman with eight children should be given the pill and that homosexuality is just one of those things. Takes all types to make up this world, says the good doctor.

The book has a romantic element to it, as well as the standard lovable eccentric village characters. Dr. Laverty meets a beautiful girl on the train, falls in love almost at once and is very put out when she won't sleep with him on the third date. Because, you know, getting pregnant isn't a possibility, right? Actually, the reason the woman gives is that she can't get serious because she wants to be an engineer. Yes! All I could think of when I read that was that old song by Peggy Seeger, that feminist song about being an engineer? She's having that same sort of problem at her university, trying to get a degree. I felt like the love story was rushed and was in there just because, you know, you have to have some kind of love interest when you write one of these kinds of novels.

I don't think Taylor is very good at recreating a 1960s feel. It all seems rather forced to me. I guess since the last book I read along these same lines was Call the Midwife, which did such an excellent job at recalling the culture and mores of a time in the recent past, Taylor's rather clumsy attempt seems to fall especially short.

Another thing is that the whole "Troubles" thing is really glossed over. They have the Orangemen parade but the villagers participating are seen through affection eyes that laugh at their quaint and rather absurd manners. This is Ireland, bitterly torn between two religions, yet, no one seems to go to church. Dr. O'Reilly uses colorful language and I got a bit tired of his variations on taking the Lord's name in vain in humorous but profane ways. He is fond of the f word too.

But the thing that irked me the most of all in this book was the fact that the doctors decide to breach patient confidentially and blackmail the evil guy by lying to him. But the ends justifies the means (Dr. Laverty actually says this to himself) because this means everyone will have a happy ending. The book does end on a very warm and cozy note. But, alas, there was just enough that irked me as I read the book that the happy ending did not bring a tear to my eye!

The book does hold your interest, it has some humorous scenes and you do come to care about the characters in the book. Taylor is a good writer and really does sometimes use the perfect turn of phrase. But the book felt a bit cookie-cutterish to me in its worldview and superficiality.

For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

GFCF Menu Planning

This blog is probably going to focus on this new diet twist for a while as I work all this out. Right now I am baking some banana bread from the Trader Joe's mix. I decided I might as well use up any wheat and dairy that we have now before Wednesday. This a.m. I hope to clean out the pantry and then go to Trader Joe's and see what I can get for this coming week.

This morning I tried the gluten free, fruit juice sweetened corn flakes with almond milk, a little pinch of sugar and some sliced bananas and blueberries. It was delicious!

I think for lunch we'll have grilled cheese!

Not sure what to have for dinner tonight. Maybe we'll eat out.

Sunday:

I guess we'll meet at Dunkin Donuts. But we won't be able to do that next Sunday, so I have to come up with a suitable replacement. We've been doing this because I teach RE and Sean attends his RE class at 9:30 on Sunday morning. Then we meet the family at the nearby Dunkin Donuts, eat breakfast together and then go to the 11:45 Mass. Just don't know how I am going to handle that situation next week!

Lunch will be come and get it.

If Rick doesn't want to grill I think I'll broil some kabobs.

Monday:
Breakfast - cold cereal, almond milk, fruit
Lunch - I'll let Becky have her cheese and crackers for lunch.
Dinner - chicken nuggets, french fries, salad

Tuesday (Mardi Gras):
Breakfast - fried eggs and toast, fruit
Lunch - quesadillas (use up the last of the cheese and wheat tortillas)
Dinner - pancakes, sausage, fruit salad

Ash Wednesday:
Breakfast - for Becky who doesn't have to fast - cold cereal, almond milk, fruit. For others fruit and gluten free crackers
Lunch - Peanut or almond butter on rice cakes
Snack - raw veggies and hummus
Dinner - Mahi mahi burgers on gluten free english muffins, applesauce

Thursday:
Breakfast - eggs and bacon, juice
Lunch - soup and turkey wraps
Dinner - curry chicken tenders and biryani rice

Friday:
Breakfast - gf oatmeal, fruit
Lunch - Pb&j, veggies and fruit
Dinner - shrimp with cocktail sauce, quinoa, marinated veggies

Saturday:
potato, sausage and egg casserole.

Snacks: tortilla chips, potato chips, sunflower seeds, dried mango, apple cider, any gf cookies I can find.

GFCF

I am thinking of trying to go gluten and casein free for Lent. The book that inspired this is by Dr. Kenneth Bock, called Healing the New child Epidemics. He calls these the 4 A's that are now so very common among kids these days: autism, ADHD, asthma and allergies. He thinks they are all interrelated and can be helped or even cured by a 4 prong approach. These four are 1)diet, 2)supplements,
3) detoxification and 4) medication. He doesn't seem too looney! LOL. I am such a cynic about such things. But what he writes makes sense to me. And since Seano's little trial with medication has ground to a halt, I am open to other approaches that maybe our very good but very conventional doctors are skeptical of.

So the first step is diet. The diet that seems to work the most for most families (over 50% report improvement) is the gluten free/casein free diet. Now I know someone who used to go to my church whose daughter was diagnosed autistic but the mom stumbled on the fact that it really was a reaction to dairy! She took her daughter off dairy and she was completely normal! I don't know if we'll be affected that way, but maybe it will help Seano and who knows, it could help me and Becky as well. Becky's diet will just be modified. She is so upset that I am threatening to take her cheese away from her! So I can't do that. I did tell her, Josh and Rick that they are free to go out and eat some things. I think it will be really hard on Sean though to have them be eating things he wants and craves just as much as he does. When I broached the subject he was amazingly open about it. And he really fixates on his cheeseburgers and pizzas. But he feels so lousy. He keeps telling me he can't think straight. That feels like he is always trudging through pudding. That is the phrase he uses. He manifests so many of the symptoms Dr. Bock talks about. So he is willing to try to give up these things in order to feel better. That's really is a sign of how desperate he feels! Rick was very upset when I talked about it too, but I think I guilted him into trying it.

Here's my strategy. I'll just start searching and making the yummiest things I can find that just happen to gluten and casein free. I will only buy gf/cf snacks though. Becky will have to sneak out with her father or brother to get other stuff. Sean and I will be the troopers.

We went out Friday, Sean and I, and looked through Whole Foods for various items. He got bored half way through and really wanted to go home. But we did try different milks. We got almond (which I already knew he liked), rice and coconut. Both he and Becky said the rice was the best. I got some gluten free cold cereal (I haven't bought that in a while because of Nourishing Traditions but what the heck, if I get too narrow we'll have nothing to eat!). So we are going to try that for breakfast. I also got some gf oatmeal and we can have that a couple times a week. Then there are always eggs and bacon. So breakfast really isn't that hard. Lunch - soup and peanut butter and rice cakes, egg salad, chicken salad, chicken nuggets, tuna salad, hot dogs on gf buns. I'll have to come up with others.

I ordered some baked goods stuff from Kinnikinnik.com I heard they made the best gf bread. I ordered their hamburger and hot dog buns as well as their donuts. If the donuts are good that might be a Sunday treat.

I just subscribed to Living Without (the free subscription where you get a new recipe idea a week). That may give me ideas. I also found this really refreshing youtube clip done by a funny mom of four.

Be Different - Book 4

The full title of this book is Be Different; My Adventures with Asperger's and My Advice for Fellow Aspergians, Misfits, Families and Teachers. John Elder Robison didn't find out he had Asperger's until he was forty. The diagnosis made everything fall into place though, in terms of understanding his own childhood and the problems he had always had when it came to relating and communicating with other people. But in spite of this disability which caused him to drop out of high school in 10th grade, he went on to a successful career in sound electronics and special effects as well as eventually owning and running an auto repair garage that catered to the nicer, high end cars.

This is the follow up book to Robison's New York Times bestseller, Look Me in the Eye. I am curious now to read this first book. His brother, Augusten Burroughs, wrote another bestseller called Running With Scissors, which sounds absolutely dreadful. Apparently, Robison made out much, much better than his poor younger brother. Robison, being older, was able to get out on his own before his mother's mental illness took over.

While I found this book interesting and a quick read, the author is awfully proud of himself and his success. He does seem a tad self-absorbed. Though I understand his pride, because it must have been a very difficult road for him. He also strikes me as beyond ordinary in terms of ability. So I don't know if he is typical of most people with Asperger's. Still it is a very interesting read and I do feel it gave insight into the mind of those with Asperger's Syndrome.

For more book reviews see 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Daybook

I used Bookworm's daybook entry as inspiration a post or two ago. This time I am using Jen's Midweek Daybook entry:

Outside my window: It is very dark but there is a dusting of snow over the ground. In fact it was so windy last night that there is a dusting of snow all over my screen porch!

I am thinking . . . about cleaning my house. I have people coming this evening.

I am thankful . . . for a warm home, for God and all His blessings. For coffee and a laptop and electricity.

In the kitchen . . . the kitchen is an untidy mess right now. It is number one on my cleaning list. I also have to think of something to eat for dinner tonight. I forget now what I planned last Saturday when I went shopping! Must rummage in freezer and see what I come up with.

I am wearing . . . Hmmm. This is my second daybook type post and since I do most computer stuff in the a.m. before I shower, I am again wearing my pajamas. I do however, occasionally wear things other than pajamas.

I am creating . . . Well, I am not creating but I think I've talked my husband into building book shelves for two bedrooms. I want him to do it with Josh and Sean helping so they learn some manly skills! I am still in the throes of planning for next year. Also I have to plan a lesson for my Religious Education class on Sunday.

I am reading . . . I'm still reading Robin Hood but this week I also started reading a book called Be Different. I'll be reporting on that in my Sunday morning 52 Books post.

I am hoping . . . that we'll figure out a solution to Sean's issues. Jesus, I trust in you!

I am looking forward to . . . my meeting tonight, to see how many are interested in the program we are trying to start up for 7th and 8th graders next year.

Around the house . . . I am still enjoying not having cleaners come in and disrupt my life and make me feel so guilty and disconnected from my own house. I am actually enjoying puttering around the house cleaning here and there. We are still a cluttery mess, but I have been enjoying doing the scrubbing and vacuuming. My house is no where near house beautiful and I am sure I am no where near to a germaphobe's standards, but I am pretty satisfied!

One of my favorite things . . . this reminds me! I was trying to find the perfect breakfast read aloud for Becky and Sean and I stumbled across The Story of the Trapp Singers. It's wonderful. We just started it and the kids are really enjoying it. I love read alouds. Rick has started reading The Lord of the Rings out loud to Becky and Sean. And in between my morning read aloud and Rick's evening read aloud, I am reading Famous Men of Rome, usually some time in the afternoon. I love a day punctuated by read alouds!

A Peek into my day. . . Sorry, can't do this one. Oh where is my camera?? Oh where is my camera? Oh where, oh where, oh where, oh where oh wwhheerreeee is my camera?!! (Sung to the tune of one of my favorite Veggie Tale songs).