Not Much Blogging Lately, I Know

I'm trying to figure out exactly why I haven't been writing much lately. I really think I've been in some kind of a slump. There are a lot of reasons, I guess. I tried to say it was because I've been quilting so much, but that's not it. A couple of ladies and I were talking at the park today (homeschoolers meet every Friday, and we go when we can.) I have come to the realization that I have been trying to blog only positive things. Maybe I am taking that philosophy a little too far. Although I don't want to drag anybody down by reading my not-quite glowing blog posts, I shouldn't avoid posts that aren't exactly perfect life. I don't mind if one of my friends share their trials or something that's bothering them in life, so why should I be afraid to do so? Life is not always "roses", and mine is surely no exception.

So, here goes. There is something that has been bothering me for quite some time. It is quite perplexing at times, and it affects our family greatly. I have mentioned tidbits before about the kids and I being gluten-free, as well as dairy-free and using very minimal soy products in our diet. This is because all 3 kids and I each exhibit different symptoms when we eat these things. (We are also all vegetarian by choice, so this complicates matters. I am quite used to being vegetarian as I was raised that way, but the GFCFSF is quite difficult because of the vege. issue.)

Well, I am not going to complain about having to eat this way. We've been dealing with it for 1 1/2 yrs. already, so that it's almost second nature by now. What is frustrating me now is our middle son's symptoms. Even following this diet very strictly, he continues to react. (I hinted at his difficulties on his birthday.) It's quite difficult, because I cannot tell if he's now reacting to nuts, or corn, or eggs. Or is it something else? Yes, I could do a rotation diet, but that seems very difficult to accomplish given the fact that he can eat very little variety as it is. Given his super-skinny physic, it's scary to think about him starving to death just because he can't eat beans on day #3 because beans are only allowed on day #6, for example.

Okay, so back to his symptoms, which is the reason for this post in the first place. When C is reacting, he is super hyper, has no impulse control, and torments the rest of us to no end. He really gets quite annoying, and even that is an understatement. This is not his normal personality, yet it's beginning to seem normal since it's going on all of the time lately. When he has a good day, he is so sweet and seems like a different person. This is why I don't like to talk about it. I am afraid that nobody will believe me, and just chalk it up to behavioral problems with little or NO discipline in the home. I know it's not true (lack of discipline), but when he is reacting very badly, I am literally afraid to take him outside of our own home. I don't want people thinking badly of him, or of us as his parents for that matter. I also realize it's hard not to judge his behavior. Truly, when he's reacting, I can hardly stand to be around him myself. Talk about guilt! How can I, his own mother, wish it were his bedtime, when it's only 9 o'clock in the morning?? And how can I help the other 2 kids tolerate and forgive, even understand his behavior when I cannot understand it myself?

There's the background of what we've been dealing with for the last 3 or more years. It has been especially bad the last few months, and does seem to be worse the older he gets. I can finally report that we might have found a supplement that just might help. I started him on 5-HTP 3 days ago, and he's been better. Even H and B have noticed it's better. I am crossing my fingers, knocking on wood, and yes, praying a LOT. Of course, I pray about it all the time, but I really don't want to get my hopes up if it's not going to last.

And you know what? It's sure a lot easier to be a nice, fun-loving mother to kids that aren't fighting all the time because one of them is continually pestering the other two!

Tomato Mission

I am on a tomato mission of sorts. Our family absolutely LOVES good, flavorful tomatoes. You know, a tomato that really tastes like a tomato! Well, everybody but C love them. He says he only likes the ones we grew in our garden 3 yrs. ago. They were called Brandywine. Anyway, really good tomatoes are hard to find. And if you do find them, they will cost you your right arm to purchase some. Our local grocery store has heirloom tomatoes, but we have never purchased them before because they're so expensive. Well, today, we bought 3 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes, one of each. They were on sale, but they still cost me $8.00!! I almost choked. So, I got to thinking. I need to save some seed from those golden nuggets and grow some myself! So I did some researching tonight online and it doesn't look too hard to do. I see a homeschool project in the works.....

In this picture, B thinks I'm getting a picture of her beautiful flower she found on the weed plant.

Back to tomatoes. We have 3 varieties planted in little pots. I ordered some heirloom tomato seeds online this year. I was upset though, when the variety I really wanted was on back order and still hasn't come in yet! We've had some near-frosts lately, or at least pretty low temperatures, so we keep bringing them in to the garage to keep them warm, just to be safe. Then we cart them back outside. Every time we cart them back and forth, we seem to drop one or two, or three! This last trip I nearly had a heart attack because we had a flat break on us. It was cracked and we didn't realize it until it was too late. I think we may have been able to rescue the seedlings without too much damage. I hope that's the end of the low evening temperatures. Florida isn't supposed to have weather like this!

So, these tomatoes we've planted. I am clueless as to what comes next. You see, we have a friend who is a professional horticulture specialist. He is going to tell us his secret on how to grow prize-winning tomatoes. He's swearing us to secrecy over this. Oh, the suspense is killing me! And he's too funny. He shows up to my hubby's shop every few days to get the "tomato report" and the "blueberry report". He keeps giving us incremental, step-by-step instructions on just what to do. I can't wait for juicy, tasty tomatoes. And I'm hopeful that C will like the ones we grow this year as well. Maybe that's why he liked the Brandywine so much a couple years ago, because they actually tasted so good, and not like the cardboard tasting tomatoes I can find for a decent price in the stores. I tried to buy Brandywine seeds again, but could not find the seeds in the local garden stores. I think produce gardening is a dying art. I haven't done much in my recent past either, so I'm not casting stones here! We had about 3 gardens right after we moved here, but we finally gave up because of poor soil and major pests: both insects and rabbits. Hopefully, we'll have learned a little more this time to make this project worth our while!

The kids can't wait for their favorite part of tomato gardening. One of the websites I looked up tonight about tomatoes stated it this way: "To kill the most destructive, ravenous tomato-eater, the Tomato Horn-worm Caterpillar, put a 10 cent bounty on their heads and turn your kids loose in the garden to hunt them down." My kids LOVE this activity, and search for them with vigor. They argue over who gets to stomp and squish them, when I find the caterpillars. Large smears of green goo in the dirt. Isn't that gross?!?

And here is a picture of the tomatoes as they look today, with their buddy the avocado tree. Before the Tomato Horn-worm infestation begins.

One of "Those" Days

I had one of "those" days today. I've had them before, but it's been a little while since the last one. You thought I was going to say it was horrible, didn't you?!? I've had those kind of days too, but today was of the wonderful "those" days variety. We got a late start because of the stupid time-change our government thinks we need to operate at peak condition. I don't understand that, and they should just leave nature alone, but that's a subject for a different day.

Today was just wonderful. I'm sure that today being a good day was somehow magnified in intensity because of our recent bout with the flu. Those days were NOT good. But, nothing wonderfully exciting or special happened today. We did school work, and the boys did very well and I maintained extra patience. We seem to be getting into a better groove, with less complaining and more listening and stamina on all of our parts. Even B kept herself reasonably busy with her books and projects. She's just a little sponge anyway, soaking it all in! Our neighbor came by the other day and we started discussing our way of "schooling". I explained to him how B, for the most part, does participate in our learning efforts even though she is so young and not even "school age" yet. He commented that B will end up being a genius in the end because she'll learn stuff so well with her frequent exposure. That was kind of funny.

Here I go again; I'm caught up in a rabbit-trail. I was trying to describe to you how well school went. And then how well the kids helped with various things we needed to do around the house. There was even some volunteer activity where that was concerned. The kids did relatively little bickering and got along well together with minimal fuss. That's my kind of day. I made sure to compliment the kids several times on their behaviour. I am hoping that positive praise will bring back more days like this, more often. I can tell you one thing though. Days like these make me feel SO good inside. And it reminds me how much I love being a mom! I'll be sure to come back to this blog post and reread it on those days that aren't so great.

Views From a 4 1/2 Year-Old's Perspective

Many times, the way I keep track of what I've blogged about, is to peruse my pictures. When I see some pictures that I haven't posted on yet, that's what I still need to blog about. A mental reminder of sorts! Imagine my surprise when I found a bunch of pictures just now, taken by our little photogapher several weeks ago . I didn't know she had grabbed the camera. I thought I would share a couple of them with you folks. Note the picture of my computer screen as I was typing a blog post!

She got a kiddie camera for Christmas. You should see the pictures she's got saved away on it! I'll have to download her pictures onto my computer soon. Some of them are pretty interesting. Hint: she's got a lot of pictures of the hind-ends of our dogs.