Contrary

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,

And pretty maids all in a row.

There are a variety of explanations for this nursery rhyme that originated in England sometime before 1800 a.d. Regardless of what the actual truth is, I find this little jingle to be an accurate reflection of the life God has designed for me. Much like the popular phrases 'upside down kingdom' or 'set apart', I find the implications of Mary and her garden to be something I can relate to, particularly during this time of life.

What in the world am I talking about? Mary is contrary; opposite and going against the flow. And how does this reflect? It reflects in her garden where she successfully produces healthy flowers, and in her home where she grows beautiful maidens.

My home, as determined by the spinner of the universe (that would be God), has been blessed by two beautiful little girls who were designed for us and delivered in the most unusual manner. Like all children, they are unique in design, and have their own special needs. Moriah's medical needs seem mild compared to Elianna's. Her speech and swallowing struggles will hopefully fade by adulthood, but her perception of the world as God designed it and her spiritual depth have left me on my knees and searching the internet for guidance on many nights. I have no doubt there are times that she just disappears into her room where she talks with Jesus, and I pray that stays the same as she grows.

Elianna has a different journey laid out before her that appears to be more dependent on the physical. I often must stop and remind myself that her chronic condition is more than just meeting an immediate physical need, and that it is more than my exhaustion and struggles for answers. It is about her. I am sure the spiritual and emotional effects of her condition will be more evident as she grows. But for now she is the most interesting experiment of nature versus nurture, and genetics versus spirit. My heart aches for this little girl who has know pain from the first time she ate at only a few hours old. By 10 weeks old her intestines were ulcerated and filling her diapers with blood. Now at 13 months old we have narrowed her diagnosis down to two possibilities, sustain her on a medical grade amino acid based formula, and she has one safe food that we have been able to determine does not send her intestines into a mal-absorbing state of shock. Her first birthday included a rectal biopsy and scope, and an attempt at a new formula that sent her into three days of pain. In spite of this she continues to thrive, grow, and meet milestones. We obtained our first baseline at 12 months on a corn syrup and MSG filled formula, and for the first time in her life she has had no projectile vomiting and less intestinal distress.

What has all this meant for our home? With our first child I began the process of removing 'the world' from our home environment. I restrict television and movie influences, pay careful attention to our social environments and focus my attention on emotionally and spiritually growing my child(ren). Time on my knees has convinced me that the first many years of a child's development are critical for a future relationship with her Creator and her overall perspective on the world. I made hard choices that included removing some relationships that were unhealthy, and attempting to break cycles that I saw as generational. Contrary. Opposite. Not always received well, even within the church, I made these choices in order to grow my garden and produce beautiful maidens.

With the arrival of our second child, the Lord challenged me to examine other areas of health in our home. Like it or not, I am now on the road to becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder of the 21st century, armed with modern science and resources. I can now look back and see how the Lord has prepared me for this through friendships and encounters of information. Prepared is a strong word. I don’t know how I could have ever been prepared for this! For some reason there are life topics that are accepted by others and easy to explain. Then there are those topics that are judged harshly and many choose to ignore. Welcome to the topics of food and intestinal health in North America. Everyone has an opinion, and no one seems to understand my daughter's condition.

What I have discovered is that I need to turn my God-given love of gardening into health for my family. I pray that I can be strong enough to be contrary to mainstream, and grow my garden free of spiritual stumbling blocks, worldly influences, pesticides, and petroleum products. My hope is to be on my knees in the garden every day, that I may produce beautiful maids lined up in my home.

"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7:13-14 NKJV

Perhaps we are all meant to be contrary.

Trial by Fire

School has started! Officially we are in week two. Or three maybe? This week I learned a valuable lesson. I often tell my families that I work with to remember that it is 'homeschool', not 'school at home'. Parents must go through a time of de-schooling themselves in order to effectively homeschool. I have had parents buy Bingo games for one child. I have had parents do circle time with one child. These things don't sound very fun to me! Today I was in need of de-schooling, and de-educatoring, and de-just-about-everything.

Tuesday I got out my neatly typed lesson plan and schedule for the day. It included Language Arts activities in handwriting and reading, math patterning, science reading, and history worksheets. It seemed very standards based, very organized, and very goal oriented. Half way through the first worksheet and about 3 minutes into our day, Moriah very dramatically threw herself over sideways onto the kitchen table and declared "My body is sooooooooo tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-red. I dont WANT to do more work. I have been talking alllllllllll day." Ugh. Not a good start. And so went the majority of the morning. A little work. A long 'recess'. A little work. A long break coloring pictures. Frustrating!

Somewhat later in the day I finally thought about the day before. An entirely different day. We had gone to the free zoo day in town. We spent the morning observing animals during feeding time, petting a box turtle, boa and tortoise, and talking to docents. Moriah learned and practiced reading a map as she guided us around the zoo. We learned how giraffes drink water in pairs because they are vulnerable when they drink and need a look-out for lions. We talked about how God designed things like giraffes to reflect Him, and how it shows us it is important to look out for our friends. We counted things, read speed limit signs, and finished off with a fun ride on the Merry Go Round. What could be better? It was such a fun day! And...involved no table time. No worksheets. No drill and kill. And LOTS of learning. Ugh.

OOPS. I think my next task will be to write down all the things I frequently tell other parents, so that I can look in the mirror and read them out loud to myself!

Jehova Jireh

I made a new friend! OK. Not really. I have not actually met her as she lives in Pennsylvania. But a friend who is storing jewels in her crown, and is truly a friend indeed! Hold tight for a great story :)

I love how my friends (you all) are so savvy at finding things on the internet. We all have different motivations and use different sites, which makes it all the more valuable when we share with each other. Last week I was feeling rather desperate about Elianna's possible diagnosis. To sit and wait for the allergist to get around to checking back with me was not what I considered a good option, regardless of what he said. While complaining, one of MFF (my favorite friends - do you like it? I made it up. It seems much more adult and appropriate than a cheesy BFF)...anyways, one of MFF sent me links to FPIES pages in facebook and baby center. Those are two places I would have NEVER thought to look for information.

I signed up for baby center and began perusing. I found an amazing amount of information within minutes. Moms helping moms out in a fantastic, long distance manner. I then found the facebook page. This is where I met my new friend.

Her name is Nichole. Isn't that funny? No, I am serious. Her name is Nichole. With an 'H'! And she has a set of twins who are have been battling GI complications since birth. She responded to a few of my posts with more information and encouragement than I have found in months. Then she sent me a facebook message, and in that message she offered to mail me 7 cans of the more expensive formula that they were not using. I was floored. And then I was skeptical. Who does that?

After Elianna's last doctors appointment I began reviewing the last 8 months and all of her symptoms. It occurred to me that she has never had a normal stool, and that even after switching to the partially hydrolyzed formula at three months, the blood went away but the diarrhea and other symptoms never have. That got me to thinking that perhaps she would benefit from the next step up - the more expensive amino acid based formula. Considering the financial state we have been in lately with insurance not covering everything from her formula to Moriah's speech, the thought of moving up to about $60 a can for formula made me want to vomit.

And then, here was this person I have never met offering to ship me 7 cans. I messaged her back and said that it was a lot to ask and I didn't know the cost of shipping it. Her response included this: 'It is hard but faith sustains me - one day at a time. I know it is scary to take the leap when you don't know where the money will come from. I began praying for your family last night and I will keep you in my prayers. I am in PA, but don't worry about the cost to ship the formula. This has been laid on my heart and my husband agrees. We have been so blessed with all of our financial needs being met.'

I cried. I emailed her my address, and waited. Would it really come? Was God really so obviously and blatantly providing during our financially tightest month yet?

Today the doorbell rang and I opened it to find a USPS box on my porch. The return label said Pennsylvania. I brought it inside in amazement. Cracking open the box I found a short note left on the top of 7 cans of very expensive amino acid based formula. It read:
Nichole:
Jehova Jireh
:)
Nichole

Jehova Jireh. God will provide. He will see that my every need is met.

I wept.

Day One

Today we started our first official day of homeschooling, in hopes of making the transition a little easier and less pressured. I spent the last two weeks creating a detailed family schedule for us so that I would know I had time to do chores, home school, work, etc., and then spent the weekend planning our first week. Perhaps I should have created a schedule at the beginning of summer rather than at the end, and I would have gotten more done! This morning went great. I did learn one very valuable lesson. Well, make that two. The first is to not provide creative project options. I let Moriah choose which craft project she would work on today, and she thought they both looked so fun that she could not wait until tomorrow to do one of them. This resulted in a massive tantrum. Lesson learned for mommy. No choices. Instead, this is what we are doing. Lesson two was that on a schedule Moriah eats her meals much easier, without complaint, and swallows more. Hmm. Who knows why. Overall it was a great first day!

The new Disney

We travelled down to Anaheim this last weekend for our first family experience with Disneyland, and what a ride it was! The new Disneyland is definitely geared toward the older, more mature child, or those that have been exposed early on to terror. Fortunately we still had plenty of fun filled activities to fill our day. We visited the Princess Faire, watched a princess coronation, visited Pixie Hollow and Minnie Mouse's house, did a little bit of shopping and napping, and rode a few rides. Here are some tips that were given to us or that we learned when we went:

The parking lot:
The parking lot was not hard to get in and out of if you arrived early. There is a tram to the Resort from the parking lot that will allow for strollers not folded, but children may not ride in them. For sleeping children at the end of the day, the walk to the parking lot was about 10 minutes.

Food:
Outside of the park there is a picnic area if you choose to bring a cooler, but going to and from the parking lot would take a lot of time. There are lockers at the gate to place smaller coolers and items in that would be a good option. We did not use them. We packed our snacks and lunch items for the day in ziplock bags so that they were visible for security inspection, and filled the stroller basket. We brought a water bottle for each person, and filled them at various water fountains throughout the park. There were water fountains near every bathroom we used. We ate an early dinner and refilled our ice while there. We were pleasantly surprised to find a kid friendly and reasonably priced Mexican restaurant where we ate dinner for about $35. There were also healthier options around the park that were not outragesously priced, like fresh fruits and frozen 100% apple juice drinks that felt like a treat to Moriah. Check out Toontown for these.

Rides:
The amount of nightmare causing rides for small children = many. We had a most devestating experience on Frog and Toad's Wild Adventure, which caused extreme caution for the rest of the day. Avoid most rides in Fantasyland. And I was sad to find that most rides had a very scarey element. The Tiki Room, for example, now has an adult-like outdoor area to wait, complete with a juice 'bar' and booming, loud Tiki God's that take turns coming to life and shooting fire. This was not helpful for convincing a four year old that the upcoming closed room only included animated birds and flowers. Even Tarzan's treehouse, which used to be the Swiss Family Robinson House, had a frightening, growling tiger that sent Moriah running.

Moriah was smarter than us and figured out that the outside rides were the most pleasant, while those that disappeared into the dark were most frightening. Rides that were great fun for her were: King Arthur's Carousel, Dumbo, Mad Hatter Tea Cups, Its A Small World, Autopia, and believe it or not, Splash Mountain. Hit all rides geared for just smalll children early in the day because they close in late afternoon to prepare for the fireworks. We were sad to miss out on the Pirate Cove Adventure and the Petting Zoo. What made the day the most successful was focusing on meeting the characters which was so age appropriate and what Moriah truly loved. If you forget your autograph supplies like I did, they have official pens and autograph books you can purchase for less than $10 in Main Street as you come in (whew!).

If you have not heard of the amazing software called Ride Max, check it out! A few engineers in Southern California got together and studied the ride wait times and put together a program where you can plug in a bunch of different factors and it willg enerate a daily schedule for you that uses fastpass and the least amount of wait times. That being said, it was a great source of information to us, but since we did not know which rides would be a hit and which would not, we had to do a lot of plan changes.

We also were able to take advantage of the Stroller Pass. This little known trick was great! Arriving at Autopia we discovered that Elianna was too small to ride, so we asked the cast member at the entrance and she provided us with a Stroller Pass. Jason and Moriah entered the ride (using a fast pass), while Elianna and I climbed up the exit and waited for their return. When they exited the ride I handed Elianna off to him, and Moriah and I walked back up the exit to the cast member. I handed her the Stroller Pass and she put us right back on the ride! Hooray for Disney, this was a family friendly option.

I was suprised to find that the newere Disney pin trading trend was a big hit with Moriah. She had a blast finding cast members to trade pins with and begin a collection of her own. It was not money I had planned on spending, but was glad that we did. If you choose to participate, plan on spending $25 on a lanyard starter set with about 4 pins. If you head to Frontierland you will find the Trading Post that is a pin shop and probably the cheapest place to get started. For every $30 that you spend you can purchase a collectible pin for $1, and I purchased Moriah a 10 year pin trading anniversary pin (and then put it away so she would not trade it). If you find cards that have two pins on them this seems to be the cheapest way to get started. For a total of about $60 Moriah had more than enough pins to keep and trade for the afternoon.

I think that is more than enough info. I will post some pics when we get them downloaded. Overall it was a most fun adventure that Moriah loved, and she has been talking about non-stop. Despite what everyone said, one day in just Disneyland was more than enough, and should hold us over for the next 4 or 5 years until we feel ready to visit again.

TTFN...ta ta for now! (Tigger)

Whip It!

Here is a trick I recently discovered.

Like whipped cream? Love it? Me too! Ever looked at the ingredients of those lovely whipped toppings in the store? yeah....I know. Rivals Twinkies. Well here is a healthy-ER alternative.

Buy a big thing of whipping cream at the store. For those of you unaware, you can find this in the milk section. Bring it home, dump it in a bowl, and add a couple teaspoons of honey. Then start up the hand mixer and get to whipping! Whip it until it is stiff and has a 'dry' look. Then it is done!

You can use it immediately on the dessert of your choice, but what I just discovered this week is that it is freezable! Get yourself some small containers, like lidded aluminum mini-loaf pans. If you are kind to them, they will also be reusable. Portion your whipped cream into these containers, cover, and freeze! When ready to use, take them out and let them sit for a bit, just like our favorite frozen whipped hydrogenated topping. Presto! Real whipped cream!

A few things

Here are a few things I learned recently that you may not care to know.

- Foster Farms Dairy feeds their chickens solely corn and soybean meal. (bummer)

- Oats are cross contaminated with gluten due to sharing the conveyor belt with wheat.

- NO chicken has hormones; it is illegal in the US.

- When buying ground meats, there is no cross contamination between meats when buying poultry due to FDA laws. However, the machinery may not be cleaned between grinding meats such as beef and pork.

- Just for fun, here is the link to those lists of insect parts, etc that the FDA allows in your packaged foods: FDA food defect list