The End of My Girl's Trip--New Zealand and Australia

I promised I'd be back with the rest of my oldest daughter's semester abroad, and though it's taken me a while, here it is! January must be the most difficult month of the year to keep up a blog--I notice many of my blogging friends taking breaks also. I'd rather cozy up to the fire with a book, fold laundry (really?), just about anything else than sit down with my computer and write! But I want to wind up telling you all about her trip to the Pacific Rim, so here goes:

After her wonderful time in Japan, the group moved on to New Zealand. She says now that though Japan was one of her favorite parts because of the home stay, she really loved New Zealand and Australia.  She was surrounded by so much beauty there, and it was so good to hear English spoken again.

In NZ they began their time with a few days in a Marae, sleeping on the floor and experiencing life as the original peoples of New Zealand would have.

From there, they moved on to a family's home on Waiheke Island, New Zealand.  Eating gluten- and dairy free in NZ was relatively easy. The mom where they stayed first kept her spoiled with gluten-free pancakes each morning--

And she had no problem finding cafes and restaurants with gf offerings!

GF Pasta on Waiheke Island

GF Cappacino Muffin

But she was most excited about the pizza! A few years ago we read that Dominoes had gluten-free pizza in New Zealand and Australia, and she couldn't wait to try it. Sure enough, as soon as she could, she ordered a Dominoes gf, cheese-free pizza. And ate the whole thing. Not just once, but over and over again. Here's the first one: (And I know, only someone who is pizza-deprived would really understand how excited she was at this point in the trip!)

Her first pizza in months!

Notice the Gluten-Free sticker on the mid-right of the box

In Australia, it rained much of the time she was there, which delayed and changed many of the group's plans. But they continued on in spite of the rain.

In the harbor near the Sydney Opera House

On the beach, but not swimming because of the rain!

Seeing a kangaroo at the zoo!

And eating a kangaroo burger for Thanksgiving Dinner.

She easily found gluten-free/dairy free food,

A cafe near her youth hostel in Sydney.

while she explored the beautiful countryside.

Blue Mountains

I think it may have been easier for her there than it is here at home. My sweet girl has always been a teensy thing, and in the earlier posts I told you how she lost weight in China but began to gain in Japan. By the time she came home, she had gained over 20 (needed) pounds! Never in my wildest dreams did I hope that she would gain weight on this trip, but she did--thanks to the great care of the wonderful people in other countries. And, I think, because it is, in fact, probably easier to eat gluten free in New Zealand and Australia where people are more health conscious, and there are more options.

She finished up her trip with a couple of days in Hawaii before coming home just in time to help get ready for Christmas. Finally she got some time on the beach in the sun!

On the beach on Hawaii

I'll end, again, with my girl's own words from her statement of learning about the semester. I am so proud of her! She is so glad she went. She felt really well the whole time she was gone. Can travel to difficult places be done on a restricted diet? It sure can! She learned a lot and so did we. And she's already talking about going back.

 Looking back over the semester, I do not even begin to know where to start. Do I start in Beijing, the logical place, where it all began? In Japan, where I fell in love with the people? In New Zealand, where I was surrounded by some of God’s most glorious creation? Or in Australia, where I was surrounded by the familiar and unfamiliar simultaneously?

In each place, I struggled to find God there, and in each place, there He was, right there with me.

Also in this series China, At Last!  My Traveler. . .An Update  More from Travelin' Girl! Japan 

Christmas Review

Christmas has come and gone. I took a nice little break from blogging and thinking about anything RA or health related during the holidays and concentrated on my family.

Natsumi, our sweet Japanese friend, spent a few days with us before she went home to celebrate her special birthday! We love having her with us for the holidays--this was her second year to help us decorate our tree.  I love looking at my traditions and beliefs through the eyes of another culture.

We mostly relaxed at home and enjoyed each other. With older kids, their activities and work kept things moving, but we managed to play games and see movies and drink home-made hot chocolate and snuggle by the fireplace.  Just having everyone together meant more this year after my daughter's semester abroad.

We visited my parents for a few days, where it seemed everyone was sick! My mother, a wonderful cook who has embraced gluten-free cooking for her many gluten-intolerant children and grandchildren, cooked up a Christmas feast anyway--along with some help from my sister. Here are some of their creations (Yes, you should be envious. My mom cooks mostly without recipes, by touch and taste. I did not inherit this talent.)  There was also gf dressing, gravy, about six other pies and fruitcake, candy, etc.  A completely gluten-free weekend. Delicious!

GF Coconut Cream Pie

GF Stromboli
Gluten-Free Pantry's French Bread Mix
Filled with Pizza Toppings and cheese

Cherrybrook Kitchen Cookies

When Christmas break began, I was still very weak and not breathing well. Most of my lung tests were normal, and by Christmas day I was starting to breath more normally, too. The official diagnosis, as is stands now, is methotrexate lung, which is a form of interstitial hypersensitivity pneumonitis. A little like coal miner's lung--but it usually gets better when the offending substance is withdrawn.  I'll do another post on what I've learned about it later. I still have some days when breathing is more difficult, but most days are good. Though I've had asthma all my life, I have never experienced anything like this before. I am so grateful to be able to breath!

I am looking forward to and hoping for a quieter 2012. Better breathing. No more shingles. RA under control.

Happy New Year to you!

My Traveler. . .an Update

Today's post is for those of you wondering about my traveling girl!

Goodbye America!

She is a college sophomore and her adventures began in Beijing, China just over a month ago. I don't have many pics--just a few from her iPhone or those someone has posted on facebook occasionally. China has pretty tough restrictions on the internet, so the group was limited to scattered internet cafes.

But from what I've heard so far, she had a wonderful time there--two weeks at Capital Normal University and then two more weeks of travel in the country, and now she is in Japan.

The group at Capital Normal University

At the Terra Cotta Warrior Museum in Xi'an Province

And how did she eat, since she can't eat gluten or dairy, and she's allergic to a few other things as well (strawberries, apples, peanuts, and shrimp)? I know she'll have tons of stories to tell when she gets back, but it sounds like in China she ate a lot of. . .rice. There were places where her dining cards worked well, and places where they didn't. She took packets of tuna and lots of gf snack bars with her, so I know she supplemented with those. She told me her group has been so kind to find places where she can eat, too-- they feel like family.

Hot Pot lunch--She said this was one of her favorites!

I'm so proud of her for going on this adventure, even knowing eating and getting gf food would be hard. I'm glad she didn't let the difficulty of eating in China stop her--that she just took it in stride. I'm proud of her for having a good attitude about it--and for being brave! She fell down some stairs at a farmer's house in Xi'an and sprained her ankle--but as far as I know, she didn't get sick from anything she ate.

She's in Japan now and says eating is much easier. They traveled for a week and now she's settled in with a family where she'll be for a month. More about that in another post.

Thanks again to Jen at Gluten Free Kids Travel for some of the best advice we found about gluten free eating in China. Thanks to her we knew Hannah COULD drink the Coke, should look for sushi for something safe to eat, needed to be careful about the salt shakers (they add msg there, which usually contains gluten in China), and in general should be aware of everything else! Keep blogging, Jen!

And tomorrow--look for my post about World Arthritis Day!

More posts in this series: China, at Last!   More from Travelin' Girl! Japan  The End of My Girl's Trip! New Zealand and Australia

China, at last!

At last I'll post about my gypsy child's departure for her semester abroad! For the past two weeks she has been happily exploring Beijing with 19 other college students and the family that has gone along with them as guides and guardians.

In the weeks leading up to the trip, she packed and repacked. And packed and repacked! She doesn't eat gluten or dairy, so--she and I did quite a bit of research before she left. She took packets of tuna, protein powder, and lots of snack bars!

We even shipped some ahead for later in the trip. She also has Triumph Gluten-Free Dining Cards in Mandarin Chinese to show waiters and cooks at restaurants to explain what she needs when she orders, and she says those have worked some of the time.  According to our research, China is one of the hardest places to travel gf. One of the blogs we read was called China-gluten-free-hell.  But, supposedly with planning it can be done. I am hoping that is true. After China, she'll move on to Japan, where eating should get a bit easier. Then in Australia and New Zealand it should be a breeze!

Saying goodbye was harder than I'd thought it would be. And I think that back-pack is bigger than she is!

  It was hard to let her go, that far for that long. (She'll be gone until December.) But it would have been harder not to. She has always been my gypsy girl, and she has dreamed of this most of her life. Her group is doing mission work along the way and their communications are limited, but when I hear from her after one of those days, her words are full of joy and delight, and I know that she is doing what she loves-- traveling and serving and learning. She loves people and other cultures and Asia, especially.

The group at a school for the blind in Beijing. These students are musicians and played for our students, and the musicians in our group played for them.  Their teacher is known as the Mother Theresa of Beijing.

And now this to her if she gets to read this: Godspeed my darling girl! I'll resist the urge to wax in any way poetic. Have fun. Seize the day. I love you.

(And I'm just a teeny bit jealous--I'll meet you in New Zealand? I know you want me too!)

Mom

Other posts in this series: My Traveler. . .An Update   More from Travelin' Girl! Japan   The End of My Girl's Trip! New Zealand and Australia

Off to Camp!

We did it!

In the end, there was very little fanfare. No one noticed the extra box and cooler of food. The young nurse in charge of the camp looked a little nervous while I was explaining everything to her at the last minute, amidst the chaos of 100 excited middle schoolers, but when I told her that he is a healthy boy who knows all of this himself, almost better than I do, and that he won't die immediately if she makes a mistake, she relaxed visibly.

And he and his twin sister are off to camp!

For five nights. Without me. And I won't even hear from them.

But I didn't realize until I talked to the camp cook just how much food I would be sending with my little celiac for the week! We basically replaced every meal and most snacks for six days! Whew! It took a day-long buying, cooking and packing session to get it all done. Luckily, the cook is familiar with other food allergies and cross contamination issues, so she will separately prepare his food. And since he'll most likely go to the same camp for the next several years, this week will serve as a trial run to see what works and what doesn't--and then we'll do better next time.

I searched the internet, trying to find specific tips from someone who'd done this all before, but the most I found were more general ideas. The book, Your Celiac Child, had some helpful information, but I like a road map to where I am going, so I am posting the specific things I sent, hoping that will help someone along the way. I'm also posting information on where I got everything, which will only be helpful to folks in the OKC area, but I spend so much time figuring out where to get everything, that information ought to be worth something to someone else!

Nonperishables:

*breakfast cereal (2 kinds of Chex)
*muffins (Gluten Free Pantry mix by Glutino, made with fresh blueberries--yum! This was at Akins on Memorial)
*protein bars (a couple of different kinds--I let him eat the South Beach bars)
*instant grits
*bananas
*gf (gluten-free) spaghetti (Ancient Harvest Quinoa--our favorite)
*gf nacho cheese sauce (Rico's, available at Walmart. Thank you Sandra at http://glutenfreegrace.blogspot.com/!)
*gf spaghetti sauce (I'll get back to you on this brand!)
*potatoes for baking
*snack-sized cups of peanut-butter
*boxes of gf crackers (Blue Diamond Nut Thins)
*gf pretzels (Glutino--these are our very favorite!!! So crisp! I have to order them on Amazon, but this time I got them in smaller snack bags. I try to never be without.)
*Cheetos
*3 kinds of gf cookies (chocolate chip, ginger snaps, and sugar cookies--The Mi-Del chocolate chip cookies were from Akins, but Homeland usually carries the Ginger snaps. And I made his favorite sugar cookies, the Cherrybrooke Kitchen Gluten Free Dreams mix. I use my food processor on this mix and it makes it slightly less gritty.)
*fruit cups

In the cooler:

*1 package frozen gf chicken strips (thaw and cook)
*3 pre-cooked frozen chicken breasts (thaw and reheat) (from Chick-fil-A)
*1 package gf hot dogs
*1 frozen gf pizza (Amy's Rice Crust cheese Pizza from Akins)
*1 package cheese sticks
*1 package frozen pre-cooked hamburger meat for spaghetti sauce

I also included a simple explanation of celiac disease and a short list of ingredients to look for on labels.

And they're both going to have a blast at camp!

And I'm going to have a week at home without my tweenagers! Now what?

Favorite Brands

From the beginning, I've tried to concentrate on the "normal" things that we can eat that are already gluten-free. But there are just some things that we've missed, so through experiment, trial and error, we are starting to develop a list of things that our family likes and can afford. I received my first Amazon order last week--much cheaper--of our favorites! Here's a beginning of the list:

• Kinni Kwik Bread and Bun Mix-Great for corn bread, and bread and buns are pretty good, too. Just a bit of an aftertaste. It doesn't seem to bother Alec at all, though, just me. Very easy to use.
• Ancient Harvest Quinoa Pastas-We just can't seem to find a rice pasta we like. This one pleases us all, and I like the taste so much sometimes I crave it. Nutrionally it's better than wheat pasta.
• Bob's Red Mill Chocolate Cake Mix-I've tried a couple of different mixes, but this is my favorite so far. I tried adding a bit of sour cream for some of the liquid last time, and some chocolate chips. It has a very cake-like consistency. We ate them all!!! So now I have 5 packages in my pantry.
• CherryBrooke Kitchens Sugar Cookie Mix-Yummy! My kids ate these up!
• Soy Joy Bars-These are great for lunches, and Target has had them on sale the past few weeks. Some places don't carry them by the box, and they are bit expensive by the bar. They've been $2.74/box at Target this week (don't know how long that will last). Not all my kids like them, but they are absent all my family's allergens (strawberries, apples (except the apple bars), gluten, etc.)
• Blue-Diamond Nut Cracker-I'm addicted to these! I love them with cheese, and I have to ration them out to the kids.

Some things we are now eating that we've never eaten much before include Funyons, grits (who knew how good these were?), risotto, polenta (ok, I never even knew what it was, and now it makes my mouth water), and lots more simple dishes--just fish, veggies, and some rice and one of the simple sides above. I'm also using more herbs and spices.

My sister just found out that she is also gluten-sensitive. The genes are outing themselves--I hope she is soon feeling as much better as my son is! Love you, girl!