Finally! Some Good News!

Great news, actually.

Bryce's annual food allergy bloodwork results arrived in yesterday's mail. To say that we were pleasantly surprised is an understatement.

The test results indicate that there is a  HUGE downward trend in his milk, peanut and tree nut allergy! Egg is still very high and Bryce has a newly confirmed allergy-sesame. For some reason, they didn't run wheat, rye, soy, cinnamon, walnut or pistachio, so Bryce will have to go in for another blood draw so we get a complete picture of where his levels are for those allergens.

What does this mean? Right now in the short term, this lovely downward trend in milk, peanut and some tree nuts means nothing. Bryce will continue on his Top 8 free diet, we will shop as we have previously, we will cook as we have previously, and we will avoid situations/places that risk anaphylaxsis. Nothing changes.

The light at the end of the tunnel? We actually believe we can see it.

Household Chores.

I have been know to affectionately refer to my kids as my "slave labor." While we did not have kids so that we'd have slaves or sevants, and Lord knows they'd have been fired years ago because they definitely don't do jobs around the house without significant prodding, reminding and threatening, we do want them to be part of making the household "go."

Brendan does things like watch Bryce when I run Brett to soccer, empty the DW of the "high up" dishes, take out the trash and yard waste, run laundry, clean the bathroom and lots more.

Brett empties the DW of the "low down" dishes, takes out the recycling, folds towels, runs the vacuum and a few other things.

Bryce? Well, Bryce is not a fan of chores. He'll begrudingly pick up toys and will put away the silverware out of the DW. He likes folding towels and is great about putting the towels away. Here's a look at Bryce singing a made up song while putting away the silverware. Be impressed--we have silverware in 2 drawers and he gets it right-every time!

Frugal Gardening

Check out a guest post I wrote for the absolute BEST couponing blog in Hockeytown--Bargains to Bounty!

While you're visiting Bargains to Bounty reading my awesome cheapie garden ideas, check out her coupon match-ups for Meijer and Kroger. They are the clearest and most user-friendly match-ups around.

Final Snowman of 2011.

Well, we hope this is the final snowman of 2011. A very sloppy 2-3" of snow fell Monday morning and it was the BEST packing snow we'd had all year. Luckily the kids are on Spring Break, so they were home to enjoy it.

Here's some photos of the action:

Jars.

A huge thank you to Brad's Aunt J on the gift of JARS!!!! Glorious canning jars!  She is cleaning out her Chicago basement and was kind enough to send these jars back with Aunt N over Easter break. I had no idea there'd be so many! No excuse now for not canning more than 2010.

All told, there were multiple dozen quarts & pints. Plus several cases of jars for jellies and things. YUM!

Canning season is right around the corner-and we're totally prepared now.

Fermenting!!!

Since the success of my fermented salsa last summer, I'd been wanting to try homemade sauerkraut. Sauerkraut is a fermented vegetable (ahem, "fermented" replacing the less favorable word "rotting" ha ha) and homemade kraut is rich in probiotics and other lovely things that you can't get in a jar of inexpensive kraut from the store.

I'd be remiss if I didn't share with you the aforementioned fermented salsa. I can't believe I didn't blog about it last summer! It was too salty for everyone else in the house, but as I like love a good salt-lick, I thought it was total yum.  Here's a photo:

Looks like "regular" salsa, right? Well it IS "regular" salsa!  It's just sat out a few days to ferment. I used tomatoes & onions from my garden, bell peppers & hot peppers (I forget which variety) from a farmer's market and salt. You dice it all up, throw a bunch of salt in and let it sit out for 2-3 days. It was yum. Total yum.

Ok, so for sauerkraut it's really about as easy-maybe easier-as making salsa!  You buy a cabbage, shred it (I sliced mine super thin with a chef knife), then you sprinkle some salt on it and pound the heck out of it to pull the liquid out of the cabbage. The cabbage will "shrink" or reduce. The pounding takes a good 45 minutes-have helpers around to help pound.

Once pounded, dump the cabbage and liquid into a quart canning jar. A smallish cabbage will end up fitting into a quart jar! If there isn't enough liquid to cover, add a little water. Then let it rot sit on your counter for a week or two or 4.

It will look like this at first:

That is one smallish cabbage, sliced, pounded and sitting on my counter. I filled a ziploc bag with water and put it on the top to take up the air space and keep the cabbage submerged. It sat out for a good 3 weeks.

Here's what it looked like when we ate it:

It was the same color and scent as store bought sauerkraut, but the texture was a bit crisper. You honestly couldn't tell the difference! I liked that it had a bit of "crunch" left in it. Bryce liked it raw, I called it "sauerkraut pickles" to get him to eat it, and Brad and I enjoyed it with some brats. It was very good and very inexpensive and so easy to do! I think I'll grow my own cabbage this summer and see if home-grown cabbage makes a difference in taste.

Mold--some recipes on the internet have said that you might have to scrape mold from the top layer of kraut. I had no mold. I don't know how long it would keep. Ours sat out for a good 3 weeks then I stuck it in the fridge. I'm guessing if you were a bit heavy-handed on the salt, it might keep in the fridge for a month or so. But I can't imagine it not being consumed inhaled and having no leftovers.

Give it a try yourself & please let me know how it came out!



Bacon Boy!!!

We do love our pork products here. Those who know us personally know that I often post on Facebook about Bryce's baon exploits. As in, "Bryce ate 1lb of bacon!" and other such statements. Bacon holds a special place in the Bryce-meister's heart as it was one of the first "real" foods that he "ate."  Bryce had such oral aversions and struggled with textures and gagging and just not wanting to eat that we were just desperate for him to eat anything.

Enter bacon.

Bacon was meat, salt, preservatives and allergy-free. That's right-a food that's easily obtained, liked by millions and is allergy-free (for Bryce anyway). It started off with him just licking pieces of bacon, then kind of chewing on it like a chew-toy-but not consuming it. Fast forward about 2 years later and this kid is Bacon King. We can't keep him out of the stuff. He literally can consume one pound in one sitting.

At 3 years old, Bryce knows how to get bacon. He doesn't ask for bacon, he sets everything up and then asks me to cook bacon. The other day, he wanted some bacon and there wasn't anything but raw bacon in the fridge. No problem for Bryce! He got out the cast iron skillet, the bacon, the shears to open the bacon, the spatula and a chair for himself---then asked me to COOK the bacon. Ingenious. If he could've reached the knobs for the stove and worked the shears, I'm certain he would've cooked himself up a whole pound.

Ok-I didn't just "let" him do all this---I heard the banging when he got the skillet out and then I just hung out in the kitchen to see what he was doing. Sheesh. I'm not THAT much of a slacker.

Here's a photo of bacon joy-he's so proud of himself:

Bowling!

Our Cub Scout Pack had a bowling outing-something the Pack hadn't done in recent history. As Brad & Brendan were camping with Boy Scouts, it was just 3 of us bowling. Well, 2 of us bowling, I didn't bowl because I knew Bryce would need a hand.

The was a pizza & bowling activity, which meant a "level 5 food alert" for Bryce, also known as "Mom worrying about reactions from dirty tables and chairs". I brought a homemade pizza for Bryce and brought him water to drink. I wiped down the table/chair before he used it. He had no problems. He still doesn't really eat pizza, but he does pick off the toppings (bacon, what else?!) and nibbles at the crust a bit. He believes he's eating pizza just like everyone else, and that is what counts!

Bowling was a lot of fun, though I think Bryce enjoyed watching the ball return gizmo more than the bowling. He talks about bowling every time we drive past-so maybe we'll try it again during our Spring Break.

Here's some cuteness:

I thought this was kind cool for being so blurry!

You Be The Chemist!

WINNER!!!! Brendan took 3rd place at the Regional YBTC two weeks ago. He won a $50 gift card to Best Buy and a slot at the State level YBTC. First place and 2nd place were held by 2 of his classmates (Y & S) --they SWEPT the field! Way to go!

You Be The Chemist is a national middle school chemistry competion. This is Brendan's third year participating and his third year to qualifiy for the State level competition.

Bryce Update.

Bryce had his bi-annual trip to the pediatric allergist at U of Mich.  He sees a GREAT doctor and we had an interesting appointment.

The short version is that the pedi-allergist isn't ready to jump in and start testing Bryce for more food allergies, which is standard with an eosinophilic esophagitis (EE) diagnosis. The allergist pointed out that as Bryce is already Top 8 food allergen free, he's already on the diet that a new EE patient would likely follow. He already had emailed the pedi-GI regarding the diagnosis and hadn't heard back.

The pedi-allergist is wondering if maybe the course of treatment should be changed. Should maybe Bryce be put on a reflux med? Untreated reflux can cause eosinophils to show up in the esophagus. Maybe Bryce's EE is as "controlled" as it's going to be is another thought the pedi-allergist had. He also wanted the pedi-GI to get to the bottom of Bryce's long-standing "diaper" issues (no pun intended!). He agreed  that putting Bryce on a daily dose of Immodium (pedi-GI's solution!) to help his problem is NOT an answer. He wants the pedi-GI to consider a colonoscopy.

The allergist also cited that Bryce's growth/size are not typical with EE. I will politely disagree with him on that one. It takes a lot of "work" to make sure Bryce gets substantial calories daily, and as recently as last September, he had an unexplained 2lb weight loss. Something's not quite right there. I think you CAN be of good size and still have EE/reflux, especially considering that after that weight loss we started tracking every single bite Bryce took to figure out how many calories/day he WAS eating and then to increase them to gain that 2lbs back. Bryce at age 3 is on par with his brothers at age 3. Bryce is .5 inches taller than Brendan at 3 and 1 pound heavier than Brett at 3. So that's all good.

So where does that leave Bryce and his new EE diagnosis? At this point, we're waiting for the allergist to make contact with the GI doc for some clarification and discussion. Bryce stays on his swallowed Pulmicort (which is going down much better!) and will stay off his Zyrtec pending allergy testing.

Bryce gagged yesterday and threw up his entire lunch. EE? Reflux? Who knows. I'll keep you posted.

Quotable Kids.

Scene: Bryce looking out the doorwall on the deck, comments about my flower pot o'coffee grounds & eggshells for the garden. (It's not like this just appeared today!)

"Holy cow! That is some NAH-STEEE there!"

**let me just add that while yes, Bryce is VERY allergic to eggs--including shells--he has NOT touched this all winter long. I do realize that we risk a reaction were he to touch it, but it'll go into the garden soon, I promise!

Addicted!

The addicts, I mean video game enthusiasts playing early this morning. This isn't their normal spot to play and I honestly don't want them playing anything by the stairs, but I let them be. For now.