Summer Camp Again!

Kids to camp, after one long, gargantuan day of cooking. Can a day be gargantuan? Well, it was! I still haven’t cleaned all the mess—and I finished two days ago! Six days of food for two gf kids—breakfast, lunch and dinner. And snacks. To match what everyone else is eating. While my kenelog shot was wearing off. I took extra pred, drank 6 cups of coffee and a coke and took my monthly B-12 shot a couple days early. And a couple doses of pain meds—before, during, and after.

That’s the way I got it done. But I did it!

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Time Goes By. . .So Quickly!

It's summer again! Hurray! Sleeping in, the pool, family trips and camp. I'm packing up Alec's food for camp for the second year, and it's not nearly so stressful this time. A bit of this, a bit of that, and he's set for the week!

But there's something different about this summer. My oldest daughter just graduated from high school. Let me type that again. My oldest daughter just graduated from high school. I know they're supposed to grow up, but somehow this still caught me by surprise.

Where did the time go? That's her in the green shirt in the picture above. Seven years ago. Yesterday. Seriously, I thought I'd be the mom with young kids forever. How did I end up with 3 teenagers? How did I end up with a high school graduate? I want more of that summer--or like the ones above. We were wading in the Paluxy River down in Texas near Granbury, looking at the dinasaur footprints.

These days are sweet, too. I wouldn't trade a moment of any day. I just didn't think it would all pass so quickly. I know there is a spiritual application here, but I'm too tired today to try to verbalize it. I'll let you look for it yourself.

Don't waste the days. They are short. And don't forget your camera.

Blessings-

The Lady in Pred

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?

Here I am, again!

I've let this lag far too long, but I'm back! And determined! I've broadened my scope a bit and figured out some of the things that were frustrating me about the blog--so hopefully I've got this blogging thing down. (hopefully, surely. . .!)

I'm preparing this week to send my celiac son off to camp for the first time since he was diagnosed! We are trying to get a menu from the camp, then we'll fill in what he wants and the camp nurse will help him prepare whatever needs preparing for each meal. It's church camp, and the ministry staff has been extremely helpful--in fact, it's been easier than I could have possibly imagined when he was first diagnosed! I think this will be so much fun for him and hardly any worry for me, once we have all the food figured out and packed up.

I only really have two concerns:

1. Him not eating enough, which he still tends not to do when he doesn't want to bother with finding/asking about the food that is offered, or
2. just eating what everyone else is eating--which he will also do if he is feeling lazy. As he's taken more responsibility for his own diet, we've seen him do both several times. He's almost 13, and these are lessons he's going to have to learn for himself. He was sick in the middle of the night last week after eating a hot dog for dinner, one he'd taken in the bun and wiped off without asking what kind it was, etc., at a VBS carnival. UGH! But I can't walk around behind him forever, and he definitely paid for that hot dog with lots of pain!

His twin sister, his friends, his youth ministers, and the camp nurse will be there to remind him if he's tempted to slip, but ultimately the decision is up to him. I hate letting my kids learn the hard way, but I'm afraid that's the only way he'll ever really learn, otherwise it will become a battle of wills. His own pain--which, lucky for us is very real--should make him avoid gluten in the long term.

Now if I can just get the menu from the camp so I can finish gathering the food to send with him! A whole week without cooking for kids! No one besides my husband asking me "what's for dinner?" or "when are you going to the grocery store?" No pile of dirty dishes in the sink at least three times a day because it's summer. Only myself to please. . .and hubby.

I wonder if there is such a thing as husband camp? He's not celiac, so I wouldn't have to pack his food. . .