a complicated kitchen

If you were in my kitchen tonight, you would be able to smell the delicious scent of homemade gluten free chocolate chip cookies, fresh from the oven.  This is one of my favorite recipes.  Coconut oil used in place of shortening gives them a special melt-in-your-mouth flavor.  I don't miss the wheat flour and although admittedly some people do not care for the texture of rice flour, I don't think many people would turn their noses up at these. 

So much of the time, I can be content and thankful for the food journey we have been on.  My kids are healthy, overwhelming days of dealing with behavior are mostly behind us, many of my own stomach issues have subsided, and even Eric has benefited from the changes we have made with huge drops in his cholesterol and triglycerides.  Josiah has come so far in the past year, even in the past 4 months since school started as we tweaked a few little things about his diet.  What a difference the right food can make!

But there are a handful of days now and then when trouble comes creeping back.  Sometimes I see reactions in my very food-sensitive Josiah.  It may be just a matter of needing to back off of stage 2 (like the tomatoes we have been too joyfully allowing in the form of chili, although happily pizza once a week is that "just enough" amount of tomato sauce).  Another time it is a new reaction to a food like oatmeal that his body is not handling as well as it used to.  Not only does he become much more impulsive, on an affected school day he writes some of his letters and numbers backwards--unheard of on his good days--and takes at least twice as long to get things done.  He says his brain feels foggy.  My heart goes out to him even though I'm also worn down trying to keep up with what he needs.

For the past month, Rachel has had diarrhea at least once a week, a bit of a return of old symptoms of two years ago.  So far we suspect dairy and tomatoes as her worst offenders.  Why she did fine for two years but is now having a flare is beyond my understanding, but this is often the way with GI issues.  After spending considerable time and effort to make holiday feasting safe for my kids to eat, both she and Micah indulged in foods that caused digestive upset for the first part of the next week.  Josiah simply does not eat off diet, he did just fine.  There may be a lesson there, one that my older children need to internalize for themselves.  They are beginning to do so, and I'm blessed by their willing attitudes.

So, a deep breath, another look around the kitchen for tolerable food, another scouring for new recipes, and we forge ahead.  When I want to throw up my hands, I remember I don't have to go slaughter my own cow and make my own candles and soap.  But maybe, if I didn't know any better, that wouldn't be so bad.