Man alive, have we had DEVELOPMENTS around these parts.
First of all, THE CHILDREN ARE BACK TO SCHOOL! This is the very most exciting thing because they are OUT doing SOMETHING which they haven't DONE for a VERY LONG TIME.
I AM ALL CAPS EXCITED ABOUT THIS.
I have also been doing a lot of food experiments lately. You see, one cannot join the military if one has an anaphylactic food allergy, and one human in particular very much wants to join the Air Force. (Hooray! So proud!) Thus, we made an appointment with the immunologist to see the extent of their allergies. Good news: He can join the Air Force. He can eat lobster. Bad news: He is allergic to ALL OF THE GRAINS. All of them. Rye. Barly. Wheat. Corn. Rice. Oats.... All. Of. Them. And mollusks. Also allergic to mollusks.
To say I have been experimenting with baking is an understatement.
AND THEN
IN A PLOT TWIST
(but not really a big plot twist... kind of like an "I knew something was coming, but I thought it was something else, and whoa, that makes so much sense" kind of way)
We found out that BLAYNE is allergic to all. the. grains. AND! Yep! They are even MORE allergic to shellfish than their brother. (But we never knew, because we've been avoiding shellfish and etc. since 2005.) So now half of the children in this house cannot eat most of the commercially prepared convenient foods that make my life easy. I mean, it's not a HARD pivot, but it's definitely presented with some challenges.
I made grain-free pasta. It was okay-ish. I have notes with improvements for next time. Because there most definitely will be a next time, because nowadays, I just get to spend all my time in the kitchen forever and ever and ever, amen.
I also plan to make appointments for Daniel, Taylor, and myself, because if I have to change all the recipes, I'm only going to change them ONCE and FOR ALL. (I mean, not really once because it takes at least half a dozen times to get something right, which is why I need to have a definitive list of things to avoid.)
In other news, it's beginning to warm up a bit here in Northern Utah. The days are getting longer and more chickens are laying eggs (thankfully NOT allergic to) which is fascinating to me that their egg cycle is based upon hours of light exposure. So interesting!
I've also been dreaming of the garden. The garden plan has to change because crops need to be rotated and changed due to dietary restrictions. I even told Troy that I want to take more of the yard and turn it into a vegetable garden, but he is not on board. Ugh. I JUST WANT TO PLAY FARMER.
We also have a house cleaning service now. I've been working a lot, especially the last few weeks, and I'm just too tired/unmotivated/drained to take care of the house. I can't do the house and the kids and the animals and the cooking and the cleaning and ALSO MY JOB THAT I WORK HARD AT. So I hired housecleaners. It has been the best thing ever, and they come on Wednesdays and I am so grateful that we are able to afford this service. I'll tell you what, my MS is progressing, and I have two spinal cord injuries that aggravate any type of bending over to clean. In all seriousness, the last time I cleaned my bathtub, I was bedridden for 2 days, which essentially undid all of my hard work.
This brings me to my next thing: work. I have worked in marketing and communications and branding for the past decade-plus. When we decided that I should stop working as a lunch lady, because my exposure risk to covid-19 was too high, I was approached about taking on a new project. I took the job for a number of reasons but the main one was flexibility. I can work from home in pajama pants. I can work at 1am without needing a building key. It's a pretty sweet gig and I've been working on the backend for a few months now. It's always difficult to convey to clients the time and effort that goes into building a cohesive, functional website. It should be ready to launch by March 15, but I really have to WORK. It's definitely not as physically challenging as my last job, but mentally, phew, it's a little rough. OH WELL.
Beyond that, I've got nothing to say. Happy Tuesday folks! I'm gonna have a nap!
