Mmmmmm Peaches!

I am so excited about my peaches. It's because last year I missed out and I couldn't make myself buy canned peaches from Costco. It's like eating rubber food. I got 21 quarts out of the 72 pounds we picked. Of course the kids and I ate at least a dozen before I canned. They were so good that I didn't mind. I really wanted to make it back to the orchard but just didn't get it done this week. But come winter we'll be enjoying fresh peaches while the rest of the non-canning population eats rubber peaches from Costco. Good luck with that.

Alpenrose Dairy and some Peach Pickin' Time

For a couple days Super-Hero has been bugging me about what to do this weekend. Frankly, I didn't want to do anything! He offered the beach. And you say to yourself "Are you crazy? He's willing to take you to the beach and you don't want to go?" And my answer, this time, is no. Because it's all about the packing. You see, we wouldn't go to the beach and stay the night. We would leave early morning (after I've fixed breakfast for everyone) and head off to the beach. The kids would play, we might fly a kite, dig some holes to China and then eat the lunch I had to bring for all five of us. And not forget that 90% of what I would bring would not be gluten free for Holland. Then we'd get wet, have no place dry to go change and then we would leave and maybe get taken to McDonald's on our way out of town.

Normally, I wouldn't mind doing that, but Friday when the idea was put on the table, I just couldn't wrap my tired little brain around more planning and fidgeting with food that would have to be properly stored while traveling. It just did not appeal to me. My kind of trip to the beach would be one small night spent somewhere, getting up at the crack of dawn to watch the sunrise. Sitting on the beach late at night knowing you have a warm room to go back to and could tuck the kids into bed and read a book and be refreshed for the drive home. When we get to the beach for the day, I end up driving most of the way because super hero here can't stay awake for more than 45 minutes while he's driving. I pack those No-Doze pills in our glove compartment, but he'd rather slap himself on the cheeks to keep awake. Or roll down the window for some fresh air. Or let me drive. Which wouldn't be bad, except 5 minutes after I've taken the wheel, two things have happened: 1 - he's fallen asleep. 2- someone is arguing with someone else in the back seat. Or touched someone or looked at someone sideways. So now I'm trying to drive and tell everyone they need to shush because I'm distracted and don't want to crash.

So, that's why I'm not in the mood for the beach. But I was in the mood to go check out a fundraiser at Alpenrose Dairy in Portland. I had never been up there, but Super-Hero had played Little League baseball up there a couple times. There were cute kid's activities (face painting, a real live camel, tossing games for prizes, catching rubber ducks, pitching contest, a bouncy house and of course food.) All the food was free. And after you filled your tummy with a delicious burger and ice cold coke, you could wait in line for free ice cream! It doesn't get much better than that.

What gets better now is that I'm talking to my mom asking if she made it to the rummage sale (she's the one who told me about it). We had a good laugh. She, my dad and sister's family all came up and we were all there about the same time, just never ran into each other. I found out they were heading towards Hillsboro to pick peaches. I missed peaches last year due to husband interference :-) He just doesn't understand that it's something I've done for years; something that makes me feel good and productive; saves us money by canning; and gives the kids a wonderful memory of picking peaches in an orchard. I convince him to go. In his mind "it's sooooo far!" Well, we're more than half way there right now! Let's do it. The peaches weren't completely ripe which is good and bad. They shouldn't bruise as easily as ripened peaches and we wouldn't have to come straight home to can peaches that could spoil in a day or two.

Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to can with a missing part of my canning paraphanalia. It seems Holland has absconded with the metal insert for lifting the cans out and keeping them directly off the heat while bathing. He seems to be doing a lot of this lately (gosh, big surprise there!) I was talking with my sister on the phone tonight and my cordless went dead. I ran over to the only phone with a cord in the house and picked it up. No dial tone. I looked to make sure the curly cord was pushed in all the way and waited for it to click. Nothing. Then I noticed that the phone jack is completely empty and there is no phone jack cord anywhere around. Another experiment somewhere in the house is enjoying the use of that phone cord.

A Good Laugh

I found the funniest blog. It must have been because I can get so annoyed at my super-hero husband and needed a good laugh. What amazed me is this blogger has only been blogging since July 30th of this year and already has 14,000 hits! What?!? I've been blogging over a year and really, nobody is interested in my boring life? She and her husband are newlyweds. Maybe that's why it's so funny. She's already annoyed and they've only been married since March. But go check out her blog. It's called "My Husband is Annoying." Pretty fitting, huh? I thought blogging about all the crazy things my kids do would keep people coming back for more, but apparently I need a husband that speaks in an Irish brogue and wears the same sweater over and over. Just 5 minutes ago I realized the mouse I was using on my computer was not the mouse that was there yesterday. Holland has been in the garage reorganizing boxes and he actually set up our old computer, booted it up (where is there an outlet in that place?) and had done a switch-a-roo with my mouse. He gave me the old decrepid mouse with the roller ball that doesn't work. I made him switch it back because I didn't know how.

Oh, I wanted to add, while I was writing this, the blog hits on "my husband is annoying" went up by a thousand. My hero.

Here's To Your Health

My favorite speaker at the Camp JAM was the Naturopath doctor from Portland. He had a really cool name, too. Tyler Keliiheleua. He talked about how diet can affect a child with an autoimmune disease and since I have two kids that fit that bill, I perked right up.

Here are some common inflammatory foods to avoid: refind sugar; refined wheat; pasteurized dairy; grain fed animal meat; vegetable oil. Some of these are obvious to avoid for just being unhealthy, but I never thought of foods being a cause of inflammation. He also said chew your food 32 times! Yes, that's right. It should basically be liquid by the time you swallow it. I've tried this and it's weird to chew that long. But it also aids in digestion because your stomach acids don't have to work as hard to break down foods. You're also supposed to drink less (or not at all) during dinner. This also hampers the acids from breaking down food and keeps it in your system too long. He suggested drinking a glass of water with 1/4 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (which I ran and bought at Trader Joe's today) 5-10 minutes before your biggest meal. People with autoimmune diseases have trouble breaking down proteins especially and the cider vinegar is supposed to get those juices flowing.

Some common foods that reduce inflammation are: wild cold water fish; organic spices like ginger and turmeric; leafy greens; Extra Virgin Olive Oil; lemon; cilantro and parsley; garlic; water; dark berries; herbal tea; flax seed/oil; and walnut (and walnut oil). He said he would email out some smoothie recipes that used some of these things. I'm curious how he's gonna make a leafy green smoothie that my kid will drink.

The healthy oils are: walnut oil; flaxseed; coconut; grape seed; extra virgin olive oil. He listed the bad oils and I asked about Canola. He said he didn't include it because it falls somewhere in the middle. You don't have to cut it out entirely, but the good oils should be used more often anyway.

The last thing he mentioned that I found interesting were Probiotics. I've been giving Holland that in a pill form, but he was talking about something that was a live culture and had to be kept in the fridge, so that's something I'm going to have to investigate more.

So there are my tips on how to have a healthy gastrointestinal system. Don't forget your fiber!

Camp JAM

We got back from Camp JAM (Juvenile Arthritis Matters) yesterday and I'm still downloading pictures to share from our amazing time there. The time and effort (and volunteer hours!) that went into planning this is mind-boggling. When we arrived, they had our main meeting room decked out in a Hawaiian theme. We got our cabin keys, a map and "treasure hunt" and had our picture taken and each child got to pick out a brand new backpack. After having a little snack, we used our treasure hunt clues to find different areas of the camp. At several stops the kids got to pick out a treat. At one stop we got new water bottles; at another they got Leis. It was a great way to find our way around. After unloading everything (we had to use a wheelbarrow to get our things to the cabin) we met back in the dining room for dinner. Hamburgers, potato salad, fresh veggies. Our first meeting was at 7 and all the counselors, staff and volunteers were introduced.

Then the most amazing thing happened. They introduced an older couple who had donated money to make this camp possible. They had all the kids affected with JRA come up to the stage and as each one walked across, they handed the woman a flower. After all the kids were on the stage, each child was presented with a gift bag filled with a handmade quilt that ONE WOMAN made! I think half the moms were crying or ready to cry! Each quilt was different. Each quilt suited the child's age and gender. I was so amazed. I'll have to get a good picture of the quilt and post it. All the pictures I took were indoors and it was dark, so not very good focus.

On Saturday the kids were grouped by age/grade and went with counselors while the parents were in meetings. Our morning session was "okay" because I spent most of it interpreting for super-hero. I didn't think that our sessions would be that involved. This one was on stress and the one on Sunday was so much better. They brought in a naturopath doctor and he talked about anti-inflammatory foods and what foods are best for people with autoimmune disease (which actually benefits 2 of my children!) Saturday afternoon we got family free time and the boys got to go fishing; did archery; rockclimbing; had sno cones; watched part of a movie and Romania played shuffleboard! While super-hero did that with the boys, I went with Egypt to a bouncy house then took her swimming and we met up for the sno cones. The day was jam packed with fun. After dinner on Saturday, we had a talent show that all three kids participated in. Romania sand (or rather recited) "The Alphabet of Nations" song; Egypt sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and Holland balanced a pen on his nose and then the audience started singing "Take me out to the ball game". After singing songs around a campfire and eating s'mores (see how much we did??), they brought in a woman who was a fire dancer. She had these small bowls that she lit from the firepit and swung them around. It was totally dark and was the coolest thing. She said she practiced over a year with beanbags before trying it with fire.

Sunday's session with the Naturopath was so informational. That was almost my favorite part of the camp (sno cones might be a close second). After packing up our cabin, we met one last time for goodbyes and each camper got a special "JRA" pin. The kids are already looking forward to next year.

World's Weirdest Cat

Actually both of my cats are weird. LuLu will walk right up to a new person in my house and get right in her face. She even walked on someone's shoulders that was sitting on my couch. LuLu also likes to bite my ankles when she wants to be fed. Fancy has been kinda quiet. She'll wait for LuLu to finish choosing which bowl she's gonna eat from before chowing down. They both like to chase each other which is still evidenced at night when we forget to shut them in the bathroom. The other night at probably 3 in the morning, I heard them running up the stairs and all of a sudden, they were racing over our sleeping bodies. That's the only time they do it - when we're lying in bed asleep. Fancy also likes to chase little Beanie Babies. Egypt has this small rabbit and we throw it and that dumb cat chases it like she's a dog. We started throwing it over my bed to watch her race over it.

But the weirdest thing that Fancy did was find a mitten and tear it up. That wouldn't be weird, except when she started chewing on this very nice mitten last winter, I put it in Egypt's drawer so she wouldn't destroy it anymore. The other day I noticed that the mitten had found its way out of her drawer and was on my floor. Not wanting it to be mangled further, I put it in a wooden box with little wooden drawers in my room. There's 6 drawers about the size to hold CD's. Yesterday I found it on my floor again. I thought one of the kids was probably going through my things again and just shoved it back in the drawer. Well, this afternoon, there it is AGAIN on the floor! I looked at the wooden drawers and there was the mitten drawer pulled open! That crazy cat could smell that mitten and opened the drawer. Makes me want to put a hidden camera to the drawers and see if she does it again. You'd think catnip was rubbed all over this thing.

The kids really want a dog. Now I can say we have our dog.