Quick...random...

• 3 weeks and 2 days until school starts.  I am not ready for that...
• VBS week!  Kids are loving it...and are sleeping in which is rather enjoyable.  :-)
• We were at the cabin this past weekend with my family...love spending time with family.
• Someone's GI tests resulted in instructions for me to give them an enema for 2 days...starting tomorrow...oh my...I'm not sure I can do this!
• Backpack, rest time blanket and lunch box are all ready for this year's kindergartener.
• Reading:  "Boundaries in Marriage" (Cloud/Townsend) and "Parenting from the Inside Out" (Siegel).
• Bought a food processor...loved the ease of grating things!
• Made 15 pt. pickle relish today.
• Grated 2 massive zucchini and froze for future use.
• Okay...gotta go...

Gastroenterologist Visit...

...Hmm...how do I phrase this so that if Mark reads it when he's grown up, he's not embarrassed.

Mark has been having some issues...really, since he was young, however the doctors usually brushed it off when I brought it up and we were dealing with other issues so that this was lower on the priority list.  I finally pushed it with the P.A. that we saw in the spring and she referred me to a pediatric gastroenterologist.  Very nice guy, by the way.  Anyway, he referred us for an x-ray and a couple of tests (still to be done) and told me to put Mark on a "low fodmap" diet.  As it would be, I had just ordered a book on that specific diet and it had come in the mail that day...so I am now working through that.  One thing I found interesting while reading it is that 20% of people with irritable bowel syndrome have joints that hyperextend.  Yup, Mark has that too!

As challenging as this diet is, it is not an all or nothing (although that's recommended to start).  Different people can handle different things, so the challenge is figuring out exactly what your system can handle.

After 2 days...so far I've been very impressed with the outcome!  We'll see how it goes...

For more information...http://stanfordhospital.org/digestivehealth/nutrition/DH-Low-FODMAP-Diet-Handout.pdf

Catching Up

Haven't written recently to what we've been up to around here...so here's a random list.  :-)

• Vegetables!  We have a garden...some things are doing better than others.  And I have a friend who likes to go to a produce auction and sometimes sells me the extras she buys.  So...in the past week or so I've been freezing green & wax beans and corn as well as making pickles.  I made Banana Pickles last week and need to can 5-Day Pickles today.
• Mocha - Yes, we are enjoying our dog so far!
• Melt Downs - Yes, less-structure over the summer combined with frequent transitions (new dog, camp, vacations, vbs, etc.) and less diligence to the diet result in more frequent "feelings of overwhelm" which lead to "melt downs".  Yes.
• Mom feeling overwhelmed.  Yes, having 6 children who frequently need "M-O-O-M-M!!!" for something can leave this mom feeling like she needs a bit of space...so bed time is staying pretty consistent even though it's still day light outside!  I've also been more consistently getting up before the children.  I do believe I am at least partly introverted!  :-)
• Laundry.  Never.  Ends.  Ever.
• And neither do dishes.
• The kids (particularly Josiah & Autumn) really do a great job of helping around here.  And I've seen positive signs of Janae maturing and taking more responsibility as well.
• Biking.  Randy & Josiah enjoy biking at least once a week.  They are training to do a 125-mile bike ride in September.
• I really enjoy having a/c.  It has been extremely muggy around here.
• This week Zach is attending a local day camp.  I'm anxious to pick him up later to see how he enjoyed it.
• After I dropped him off this morning I did some "catch up".  I had accumulated a bunch of stuff around here that needed to go to other places...so I dropped stuff off hither and yon.
• This afternoon I've been catching on paperwork.  Mark has an appointment this week with a gastroenterologist (paperwork required) and Autumn will be going to camp in a few weeks so I had paperwork for that as well.
• Okay...time to finish this up and go on to the next "catch up" thing!

Have a lovely week!

New addition to our family!

It's summer.

 

Who has time to blog?

 

But I needed to take a moment

 

to introduce

 

our newest family member....

 

Mocha!

 



Summer

I love summer!  Love the fresh produce...being outside with bare feet (or flip flops)...no coats...swimming...lovely flowers everywhere...

That being said, there are only about 6 weeks until school starts...and they include camp for 3 kids (different weeks).

Some kids around here don't do so well with the lack of structure over summer.  I don't do so well with trying to create structure...so to a certain extent we'll be glad for the structure of school again.

But I will miss the freedom of summer...and I so enjoy only packing lunches if I feel like it.  :-)

Josiah will be homeschooling this year and he has started working on some of his stuff awhile.

Early morning sunshine, late sunsets...yeah, like that too...easier to get up when it's daylight out!