I haven't been on here in a while. Since that time ...
...I'm in my last half of highschool. I'm a junior. It takes up some time.
...Pooky is now 9 months and defying all rules of Down Syndrome. But then, our family's just generally contradictory.
...there have been many birthdays, and almost all of us can claim to be yet another year older. Yes, I'm one of them. Yesterday I celebrated my technically-15-but-still-feels-like-I'm-14-th birthday. My third gluten-free one. And the third one in w
The day before Valentine's Day, we were having potatoes, asparagus, salad, and fish. I skipped the potatoes and had the rest. Turns out the fish had butter on it.
I was never terrible allergic/sensitive to dairy. It was a tiny thing resulting from gluten intolerance that had gone unnoticed. So I went back on. And it doesn't seem to be bothering me, eight days from then. So I will happily slip back onto some chocolates, cocoa, butter, sour cream, cream cheese, and other things I might have misse
...two things occurred.
One was that I went to a concert and was away from home from noon until 0030 -or, as some people prefer to call it, midnight thirty. It was a Winter Jam, the second concert of the tour. Artists like Newsong, Newsboys, and Third Day (which in my opinion was the best of all), along with many others, were playing from 6 o'clock until past 10:20, when our group decided to skip the rush and leave early.
The other things was ...while I was on my way to be picked up to g
We expected a baby to arrive around New Year's. With eight girls already far outnumbering the two boys in the family (not including parents), we were thinking it was going to be a baby girl.
Exactly a week ago, my little brother popped out. The delivery was quick and easy, which Mom (and everyone else) was very thankful for ...but the little boy, who is now in possession of several nicknames, such as 'Bongo' and 'Pooky', had to be transferred to another hospital because he was having a great de
I've been gluten- and casein- free for over a year, soy-free for almost a year, and none of my symptoms have gone away. My joints still ache, I'm still tired all the time.
Thankfully, I have an absolutely awesome mom and dad who keep trying to figure out what's wrong ...and I think we may have hit something this time. The Diet Cure by Julia Ross -filled with little questionnaires that direct you towards what chemical imbalance your body may have -has definitely helped me find out what's wrong (
...God, who sent His Son to save us from our sins, rescuing us from an eternity of torture in the Lake of Fire and instead allowing us to share His home in heaven!
...God's Word, to keep us in line with Him until Jesus returns!
...my parents, constantly guiding me and teaching me (not always in ways I like -at those times I should be more thankful for them) through any problems I may have.
...my brothers and sisters, with my almost-double-digit number of siblings. There's always som
For those of you who don't know, I'm a fantasy fiction author. I love to write. I can't communicate all that well by talking, but writing suits me perfectly. Poems, songs, books, even papers -you name it. I love to write.
Well, with a combination of starting a story around Feb/March, writing (this is all by hand) 181 pages in April, and writing 150 pages last month and several misc. pages in between, I've finished my first book. Funny. It's also the last book in the series. It's not getting pub
Yesterday night was the first time I'd ever eaten out since being diagnosed. (I'm not counting flavored ices at stands and stuff like that.)
We (my dad and I) had a GREAT time at the Outback. The food was absolutely delicious, cooked to perfection (their wasabi -soy free - was GREAT!), but that's not what we paid for.
The customer service was super, and a waiter that helped us figure out exactly what I could and couldn't have on the menu. He even went into the kitchen to make sure that they di
Well, in less than a week I'll be going on my second gluten free vacation.
My first one was to a camp. I had only been gluten free for about a month, two months then. I brought along a good deal of Ziploc bags filled with stuff such as beef stew, chicken, rice, and peppers, and a variety of breakfast foods. The camp nurse was wheat free, so she knew something of what I could and could not have. So that week I lived almost purely on beef stew and chicken and rice ...and some desserts I had broug
Got a haircut yesterday. About ten inches were donated to Locks of Love. That's about the third time I've done it. The first time I donated somewhere around 17 inches and still had around 8-10 inches left. The other time I donated around...10 inches. It's really fun and it's better than just a plain haircut because you help out others who have lost hair from cancer or other diseases. (Open Original Shared Link).
I think I got glutened yesterday. Beats me as to how. Breakfast was completely fine -aside from the crumbs in the toaster, which might have done it though it never has before. (I'm the only one gluten free in our house, and since we don't have a whole lot of extra money with ten kids, we only have one toaster.) Lunch was at home and was completely fine unless Perdue chicken recently changed its ingredients. Dinner was the most likely culprit, though I can't think of what it might be. For beverag
I recently found out that most peanut butter has soy in it. Great. So I'll have to finish those cookies I made with it before I go COMPLETELY off...not that I really mind, though. Well, for a success story, my mother and I found soy-free peanut butter AND corn chips at Kroger's...ah well...
Monday we had spaghetti, like we always do. I concluded that Italy invented gluten.
I'm really glad for accountability at this point in my story, because if I didn't I this would probably be where the rest of my stories are: half-finished and really useless. Instead, I have someone bugging me to get this done. Precisely what I need to get through my dry spots. This friend is pushing me with "I want Chapter 5; hurry up!" so I've been pulling myself through an area where it's been harder to ge
Well, after gathering some info from the experts in the forums, I concluded a while ago that I was soy intolerant. Two days ago I completely got off it. The reason I didn't do it sooner is that I had a whole bunch of teas from Christmas that had soy in them...so I finished that and then completely went off soy. That and now I make my own chocolate chips and eat my bagels plain because the cream-cheese substitute I had contained soy. What caught me completely off guard was the amount of corn chip
It's been a little while. I've been brainstorming, doing schoolwork, playing LOTR on my flute, and being generally unusual. Recently my younger sister had to be taken to the hospital. Recently meaning ten minutes ago. We think she has a concussion. She's four.
Isn't it scary how life is so fragile and it can end in a moment? I've realized it several times while barely regaining my balance at the top of a flight of hard stairs, or slipping down those same stairs because some left a plastic bag t
I don't see what's happy this new year, and I don't know who coined the phrase "Happy New Year", but the year ahead is looking pretty bleak, what with the economic downturn and Obama's inauguration. So I say, "What's happy about the new year?" But don't listen to me. I'm a cynic if there ever was one. Dad's said he needs to replace me with a human, I guess simply because humans don't have the same capacity for cynicism and sarcasm that my older brother and I have. Ah well. I'm not going to be cl
So far only one got sick (my older brother; but not anymore) enough to skip meals. Bits of colds are flying around but nothing TOO bad. Wow, I can finally read the time any time I want because I have a watch that actually WORKS. (How long has it been since that's happened?) And the backpack and story binder are perfect! Great Christmas! Anyway...
Christmas is a very informal, relaxed time in our house. Everyone gets to sleep in (especially since the older ones have stayed up past twelve the
Merry CHRISTmas (and none of that 'happy holidays' junk) and a JOYFUL New Year! Celebrate Jesus, celebrate! He is truly the reason for the season!
This isn't long, but I just wanted to swing by and wish you the Joy of the Lord all year round!
Until now. That's how long it took. To water the chickens I had to use some water from the greenhouse. Dishes were done by directing madly spurting water into containers and heating them. I have a few burns on my hands from the water and the pots. The water came on about ten minutes ago, and we finally got the ability to flush the toilets and get a drink of water from the sink, instead of boiling microorganisms out of the liquid or sucking on an ever-decreasing supply of ice cubes.
Ah well.
Proof of the varying, useful lessons of being homeschooled:
Learn how to increase water pressure (that outcome is hopeful)
First turn off the well pump.
Partly open water filter containers and find out that turning off the water didn't work it's apparent purpose (i.e. turning off the water).
Screw containers back into position and call Dad to find out what to do next.
Go climb into the pump house and turn off the water that way.
Attempt containers again. Find out that this time it work
The chickens decided to make me happy and turn in the full quota of eggs today. I needed that and the chocolate ice cream I described before to get through geometry. I hate that particular subject. People say that if you like logic and reason you'll like geometry. I love logic and reason. Something tells me that the people who took that survey weren't on top of everything.
At least I have reading. Sure, the study guide delves too deep for the book to be fun anymore, but at least there are so
