Ahhhhh. . .Summer!

Dropping into my blog for a quick update. . .I've got plans for this place, but not the time right now to implement them. Some little changes coming up when time allows. Soon.

I have been counting blessings this spring and summer.

OKC Memorial Marathon

Husband and kids did the 5K--so proud of them all!

We gave honor to whom honor is due with an anniversary party for my parents. Thank you Mother and Daddy, for everything!

My two youngest painted houses at work camp and then went to church camp. My oldest worked and had an internship, writing BLOGS for a marketing department! I packed gluten-free food for everyone as they came and went and came and went.

My boys went wilderness trekking--my son's dream since I read him My Side of the Mountain in second grade. They summitted a 14,000 foot peak in Colorado, hiking 25 miles in and out! They were gone for just over a week.

The whole group!

And finally, we took a short family vacation to New Mexico. My college girl could barely get away, but we squeezed it in and were glad we did! These times together are getting more and more rare but I so treasure them.

Flowers outside the little house where we stayed! Gorgeous!

Medical update: For those of my rheumatoid friends--I've stopped taking Orencia and methotrexate. No more. So--no more shingles and no more breathing problems. There seems to be no permanent damage to my lungs, though I'm still occasionally short of breath. Though I miss the pain relief, it is lovely to be without the mtx side effects each week--the one day of nausea, fatigue, headache, etc. I would begin to feel sick as soon as I  drew the stuff into the syringe! 

AND. . .I'm actually feeling pretty well! Not perfect. Not pain free. But without the shingles and their viral counterpart, and by sticking carefully to my gluten-free, lots of veggies and fruits diet and getting plenty of rest, I feel pretty good! I'm decreasing my prednisone per the directions of the infectious disease specialist and trying to let my immune system rebound. I'm down to 5.5 mg and have lost a little weight.

And I am thankful, thankful, thankful for the prayers and grace that have brought me to this place this summer. I am aware that without them I would not be feeling so much better. This is the first summer in three years that I have really felt well enough to enjoy it!

Fall Break and Other Lovely Things

Before there were teenagers. . .

Before there was rheumatoid arthritis. . .

(Lovely photo of me, I know!)

Before we even knew what celiac (or a blog) was. . .

My travel-loving family began spending Oklahoma's October fall-break at a cabin at Tenkiller State Park. Three or four beautiful fall days of relaxing with our kids. Pretty soon RA came along--you can see my cane in this photo.

We went almost every year, no matter what (one year we had to go to a different park because I couldn't get reservations at Tenkiller). We hiked and waded.

Let the kids go fishing off the little dock and help build campfires.

 

We played together and built a tradition and they grew up.

These last five photos are from last year. As time grew closer for fall break, it became apparent that we were not going to be taking any trip. Some new health problems cropped up for me and we had to stay home. My older daughter is in Japan, but my younger two were amazingly flexible.

We did manage a round of chicken foot before the weekend was over. They even let me win.  


And the kids and I did a little talking, in light of the discouragement we all felt about having to stay home. We've had lots of good years on our camping trips. And hopefully we will again. But this weekend was good, too, in it's own way. And we were together. And we enjoyed each other, which is what the weekend has always been about.


This verse keeps coming to me, in different ways, in different settings, over and over again. It applies here. Not dwelling on the difficult, but on the happy times. And we have had so many happy times. So glad my teenagers still want to be together, whether it is at the lake or at home.


Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.  Philippians 4:8

Our (Utterly Delicious) Summer Vacation

As promised, I'm back to blog about our gf vacation! It’s been a busy time for our family, getting kids back in school and moving my oldest into her college dorm--sad and happy time for me, but wonderful for her. She is exactly where she is supposed to be at this time in her life. Sigh.

Our vacation was long and wonderful. I really didn't want to return to the Oklahoma heat.

One of the reasons I really want to tell about the food on our trip is to let others see that we really do eat well and eat gluten free. It’s not impossible. It’s not boring. It’s not even very difficult once we adjusted to it. Eating this way is not what we would have chosen—but it’s definitely doable—and very worth it.

When we vacation, we take most of our food with us. Lots of fruit, snacks, drinks, and special treats. We stay in places with kitchens when we can so that I can cook. Fun! But we used to do that before, too. We’ve always loved to picnic. This time, we took three coolers. When we stop, the kids run around and stretch their legs, and we make some great memories—much better than a mcstop. We’re a family on a budget. We always have been, and this is the way we have always traveled.

I made carrot/zucchini bread for our breakfasts the first few days.  I also made gf snack mix for the road. My kids love this, and I threw some in the oven the night before we left. (Recipes will follow.) Another time, for a trip this long, I would have brought more homemade goodies, but I was really sick for a while before we left, and that was all I could manage.

We had one big food goof (I’ll fill you in on that one later), but the rest of the trip was a breeze. A delicious, gluten free, vacationer’s breeze. YUM!

We limited our eating out, so I’ll divide this into a couple of posts by area. This first part of the trip was to the Grand Canyon (loved it!) and Northern Arizona. We were busy with outdoorsy stuff, made a few quick stops at Arby's, but otherwise ate our own food. We then moved on to southwestern Colorado.

When we checked with the local health food store about gluten free eating options in Durango, the store folks weren’t much help. We found out more by asking at restaurants, always our best resource.

Durango

We found this cupcake at The Yellow Carrot in Durango, Colorado. This  little bakery and catering shop had some of the most delicious gluten free baked goods we’d ever eaten. No kidding! We had two different gf cupcakes, two regular cupcakes, a piece of gf focaccia bread (wow), and took a gf shepherd’s pie back to our condo for dinner. The cupcakes were huge and cream-filled. Two people could have easily shared one. And the shepherd’s pie made a great dinner for road-weary traveler’s who’d been eating picnic food for most of a week.

In Durango, fresh off the road, we also wandered into this cool barbecue joint--Serious Texas Barbecue.

Right on the menu on the wall it stated that all meat and sauce were gluten free. We felt like we’d won the lottery. We ate outdoors in the cool air, there were baskets of flowers everywhere, and the food was delicious. My son is very sensitive to gluten, but he didn’t have a problem. One of the side sauces had berries in it, which we didn’t realize, so berry-girl ended up with swollen lips. A little Benadryl and she was fine a few hours later. 

This is getting a little long, so I’m going to put this up and continue in a separate post—but believe me there’s more wonderful food—and a train ride-- to come!

Blessings,

The Lady in (ever-increasing amounts of) Pred

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