Feingold Diet

Don't you love spring?  I wake up every morning these days full of ideas.  I've spent the winter huddling and crocheting wearing suggles and fuzzy socks, because I can never get warm.  Now the sun is shining, everything is turning green and I'm ready to quit vegetating and do something!
And of course, spring always means children coming into the house with their grimy hands full of flowers picked from the yard:

The six year old girl in our house thought the Indian paint brushes were enough, and that the two year old boy's one bluebonnet with the very short stem ruined the look of the flowers, but I think it looks nice there in the center!!

I've spent much time on the computer lately, trying to find help for Tommy's raging tantrums.  I delayed downloading the forms that will get us an appointment to Child Study Center, just knowing I could find something to "cure" him, although several knowledgable, very good friends - the real kind - are encouraging me to look at this as not curing him so much as helping him be the best "Tommy" he can be.  I like that way of putting it!
So, I put fear aside, and I even downloaded the form after two weeks, although I still haven't filled it out and mailed it in yet - maybe two more weeks will give me the courage to do that?  And of course, the fact that it's nineteen pages long (gasp!) may take me longer than that, but then it won't be my fault, right?  Busy mama here, people!!

Anyway, I settled on the Feingold diet, and after seeing some good results, not only in Tommy but other children in my house, when I tried to do what I could learn without buying the material, I decide to spring for the whole thing, and bought the books.  I'm waiting for them to come in the mail now.  In the meantime, I've been doing a LOT of cooking, which my twenty two year old son especially is glad about, but everyone seems to be enjoying!

So out goes the MSG.  I'm throwing stuff in my pantry into the dog food bucket (sorry, puppies...) including my big stand by:

But that 'bad for you' stuff is being replaced by the real thing.  This weekend I made chicken stock, and it was absolutely WONDERFUL.  Today, I have beef stock simmering.  I got the bones and recipe from Burgundy Beef, where my son Max works.  He is really excited about me making this.  He thinks the beef stock his boss makes, something she sent to our house last year during Max and Gage's bout of pnuemonia, is the best there ever was.  Here's mine, in the crock pot right now:

Messy stuff, but it sure smells good!!

I searched and searched the store for bread Tommy could eat, something without dyes, perservatives and additives.  If I find anything close, it's really expensive.  So I'm making my own again, something I've always done on a small scale, but now, one of my morning chores is to get bread in the oven.  I found a delicious recipe in one of my Mennonite cookbooks.  I've been making two loaves at a time, and the kids eat both loaves at one setting.  Today, we sprinkled slices with cheese, toasted it, and dipped it in "all natural" spaghetti sauce:

One surprising thing about this diet is while Tommy cannot have corn syrup, or any kind of fructose type sweeteners, he can have plain sugar and white flour.  Which is great, because what would life be without dessert?  And little boys without cookies?  So again, I have to make most of his treats.  But an upshot of going on this diet is that we also bought some raw cow's milk from our friends the Krause's, and while yes, the cookies have white flour and sugar, they also have fresh homemade butter and the buttermilk left over from making it in them, and of course our own hen's eggs:

And according to the website I got this recipe from, "The Hillbilly Housewife" they only cost about fifty cents a batch to make, too!  I don't have time to figure out if she's right or not, I'm too busy trying to think and cook at the same time...

So here's my Tommy, brother Luke and nephew Jayden (yes, that's right, Tommy is the uncle of the boy on the left) gobbling up homemade cookies still warm from the oven.  And no, they didn't wash their hands first, but I think dirt is on the Feingold diet, too...

Large Family Book Review: The Duggar's: Twenty and Counting

As a homeschooling, quiverfull mother of ten children, I looked very forward to reading this book by the Duggars. I don’t own a television, so I hadn’t been able to keep up with them through their show. But what I had heard about them seemed interesting, especially since they have some of the same religious convictions I have.

Once the book arrived, I read it very quickly. It’s an easy to read book and I enjoyed it. It covers a lot of ground, detailing why they have so many children, how they handle their finances, mealtimes, transportation, laundry and other things that seem beyond the realm of smaller families to imagine. Although I already know many of their ‘tricks’ I still got some new ideas.

This book includes many recipes both for meals and also for things like laundry soap, and how to make fabric softener stretch. I’ve tried most of them, and I have been pleased with everything so far. Also scattered throughout the book are ‘fun facts,’ answers to questions that people have emailed the family, stories about family life, and lots of pictures, which I enjoyed seeing.

The Duggars take turns telling their story, starting with their childhoods, their courtship, early marriage years, and what made them decide to give family planning to the Lord. They tell about coping in a very small house while running a car lot in the front of their yard, and how they built and financed the house they have now. They share how Jim Duggar’s stint in politics ended up with their being approached about the television show.

There is a chapter on organization that was interesting. It ranges from organizing through a big move, to assigning “buddies”, in which they match each older child with a younger child. The older child’s responsibility to the younger child assigned to them ranges from getting them dressed and helping with music lessons and school to getting them into their car seats on trips away from home. The older children and the younger children enjoy the special closeness this gives them, and it helps teach the older children child care.

The Duggars share their homeschooling methods. Michelle gives the reader her schedule. They tell how music lessons are done in their large home. Each child takes violin lessons beginning at a very young age, and some take piano, too.

At the end of the book is a list of resources that I found very interesting.

Whether you have a small family or a large family, I would recommend this book. Check the link on the left side of this page for a look, or to purchase, this book.