Eliminating my diet

We have just finished our elimination diet experiment. This is a diet where we only eat from a short list of "safe" foods for a week or so to clear our system and then each day after we get to try one of the eliminated foods and see if it causes a reaction. It took us three weeks start to finish, and our whole family did it together.
We had a lot of friends asking us why we chose to do this diet, because none of us are suffering from some unknown food allergy that causes our quality of life to be horrible (which is the only reason anyone else would ever do this). I did it simply because I've seen the way wheat and milk have affected Alex and I wondered if we weren't all affected by a few foods in some way or another.
So...I learned to really like brown rice, organic turkey, and yams. I like rice milk better than soy milk, which is too bad because it was twice as expensive. I learned that I don't handle red meat well, and really shouldn't eat sugar. Especially not 10 sugar cubes in one sitting, which is the way we were supposed to experiment with it during this diet. Ugh. We also tried high fructose corn syrup, straight from the bottle, which is what is in pop and all sorts of candies and...well...everything. None of us reacted to chocolate, which surprised me because I thought I did, except that in order to test pure chocolate we had to eat the baker's kind (which is awful!) and so maybe what I react to in the chocolate is really just the sugar. We all reacted to red dye #40 -- that was an awful day.
I learned a lot about what certain foods do to you (did you know that wheat contains a high amount of toxin, and after going on a diet like this for awhile and then testing wheat you can actually taste it?), and talked to a lot of other people about their own food issues. I learned a lot, and lived it while I was learning it, and now it is over and I see food in a whole different way.
I felt really good while I was on this diet, and only had two days at the beginning where I felt odd and very hungry (all the articles I read about this diet said we should expect to "detox" during the first couple of days), and I lost ten pounds (legitimately, Mandy, not just the initial water weight Dad was talking about) without limiting my food intake at all. Now that I am done with the diet I am having a hard time eating the things that I used to eat. I look at wheat with suspicion. Anything with high fructose corn syrup in it makes me shudder. Food that looks unnaturally red is automatically off limits for anyone in my house...we even switched to Tylenol no-dye and GNC children's vitamins to avoid the evil #40.
So my grocery bill has soared, because it is much cheaper for everyone in the food industry to take food straight from the fields and do all sorts of unnatural things to it so they can package it to last for years. I am sure I will get over this as soon as someone puts something in my path that is tempting enough to lure me out of this food-snobby ditch I am in, but for now it is actually pleasant to feel good all the time. The most amazing thing is that I don't have any food cravings whatsoever. I'm sure if I were living with Mandy she would cure me of that immediately :) I haven't eaten a single chocolate chip cookie in a month!

This is a picture of Pavel trying milk, in the form of homemade whipped cream (made with local farm honey) and strawberries!

Surgery times three

The boys had surgery today. All three, one after another. Lots of people have been asking me what sort of surgery they are getting, and I am uncertain as to whether or not I should make an effort at privacy on their behalf. Since this blog has such a limited following I will go so far as to say, in the words of their doctor, they are "having their stems trimmed". Painful. In addition to that Andrei got his tonsils and adenoids out and Alex had tubes put in his ears. And something else private, but now he will be able to have children. Enough said.


Alex is staying overnight in the hospital because he has a bad history with anesthesia reactions. Dan is staying with him, reading books and coloring and playing with toys with him. I took Andrei and Pavel home and they are sleeping and being grouchy alternately. We went to the library and got 24 videos out to keep them still, but it looks like we might not have much of an issue with that early on. They are supposed to stay still for at least a week, though, so we might have need of them in the future.



OK, fast forward 1.5 weeks because it has been busy around here recently. We watched 23 of the 24 movies. Ugh! My kids act weird after they watch too many movies. They get hyper, and emotional, and clingy, and very difficult to manage when they all do it at once. Plus I guess I have to allow for the fact that they were in pain every four hours when their narcotics wore off. I was actually really happy to unload those movies back at the library drop box! Well, not exactly, since I miscalculated the due date and they were one day late and now we have a whopping bill.

The whole summer in one post

We have been in Maine for the summer, and are leaving tomorrow to begin the journey back to real life. One of the biggest things I will miss will be late nights watching movies with Mandy, but I am already practicing getting over it since Mandy left us for Ben and Julie last week.
But while she was still here, Mandy introduced us to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This did not come out of the blue--Brad started the whole thing when we were out in California and we watched the first few episodes of Angel. From there it just spun out of control. One and a half seasons later, I realise that in order to support my Buffy habit Dan and I need to sign up for a Netflix account or something. Only we are going to go with Blockbuster, mostly because we are doing the cheap version with only one CD at a time and I am too impatient to wait for stuff in the mail so I will just trade in to Blockbuster if I actually want to watch a movie two nights in a row (which is pretty unusual during the regular non-Maine year, but might happen). So, after that boring explanation, I have to say something interesting:
Last night I finally realised who reminds me of Angel. Or, actually, the other way around. It's Brad. Wait, don't shoot me down--the dark, unattached, brooding, mostly silent guy with strong opinions that don't really come out unless you know him fairly well and hang with him for a while...see, I'm right, aren't I? And he always comes through, doesn't he? And he may not necessarily be openly friendly with the masses but is fiercely loyal to those he holds near and dear (like sisters). Just in case anyone thinks the contrary, this is a COMPLIMENT. Way to go Brad, you stud!

Real life comes soon. We have known for a year now that Inga would be going to her Daddy's school for second grade. I've been preparing for it all year and I think I am finally ready and I know Inga is way ready. It's fun to think that Moira and Inga are entering the world of the school classroom at the same time. We don't have all the same battles, though. Inga will wear a uniform, so that solves the clothes issue (it actually makes it easier). My biggest issue is outfitting a particular school bathroom stall for Inga's use, and then hoping that when she needs to use the bathroom it will be available to her. Her teacher, Jayme, is awesome. Jayme has an aunt who is quadriplegic and became quite famous when she started a foundation for accident victims who became paralyzed (this is Joni Eareckson Tada http://www.joniandfriends.org/, for those of you who have heard of her). So this teacher has all the right attitudes toward Inga (which is to say that she will not be making any excuses for her), and has already started getting Inga excited about being in school by sending her home from church with various second grade-y type things like an extra baby praying mantis they had left over from a science project. So this is perfect, right? It's still hard to let go, though. At least I have my other kids still at home to torment with lessons.