Idiosyncrasies

We are going "home" tomorrow. After breakfast, we'll load up the car, get some gas and head to Ben and Tracy's Christmas party and then to the airport. We have been talking with Owen about whom we will see, and he has a whole list he tells us: Ma, Anne, Grandma, Pa, Granddaddy, Keiko, Roman, Alison (this seems to mean both Allen and Alison???), Micah, Kailey, Roman, Steve. I'm impressed he remembers all those names!
So, what are we packing? Each of us obviously has different priorities:

Owen said, "Dump!" and opened up his pants drawer and tried to unload it into the suitcase. He also got into picking out some books to take along - Hairy MacLary's Bone, My First Christmas Board Book, and The Night Before Christmas.

I am packing a cooler of food - 4 gallons of stock reduced to 4 pints, sauerkraut, sausage, coconut cream, lard, ghee, soup, and some other things it's too late to remember.

Right this minute, Abram is going through his D&D stuff to figure out what he can fit in his backpack along with his computer.

So, there you have it. You can tell what our priorities are. We are also taking along enough complete outfits for each person that we won't have to do laundry every night, and we will be cloth diapering Owen throughout the trip (except nights when we always do 'sposies.) Mostly, we just like to make the Homeland Security folks work for their pay and give them good stories to tell at family gatherings about the weird stuff people travel with.

Snow Cream

We had another snow today. It started as a frozen rain but turned into a lovely snow that blanketed everything about 2 inches. When Owen woke up from his long nap and looked outside, he said, "shovel, rake, . . . bucket. . . Owen. . . snow." That's Owen-speak for, "I would like to take the shovel, rake, and bucket outside to play in the snow." I finished getting a pot of soup cooking for supper, and Owen had snack before we bundled up and headed over to the park near Abram's office to play in the snow while we waited to pick him up from work. Owen enjoyed digging with the shovels, and we made a small ice castle, but Owen really, really, really wanted to taste the snow.
After dinner, I sent Abram and Owen back outside to collect some snow to make snow "cream." We all enjoyed having a sweet treat.

Snow Cream
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
3/8 c. honey
big bowl of snow
Beat the eggs, egg yolks, and honey well while the men-folk go out for the snow. When they return, add the snow a little at a time, stirring as you add. Add snow until the mixture becomes fluffy (rather than slushy). Eat immediately.

Train Ride

Yesterday we took a ride on the Strasburg Railroad 1915 steam train. It was a fun trip. Owen enjoyed sitting in the seats, walking up and down the aisle, visiting with the other children in our car, seeing "Santa" (with whom he is fascinated lately - he is everywhere after all - I guess he's a toddler celebrity ;-)), getting a coin bank from the jolly elf himself, and looking into the coal stove to see the "fire." We also enjoyed hearing some carolers and musicians pass through our car during the trip.
This evening Owen told one of his stories. He's been telling these stories a lot lately, and although he is starting to speak in small sentences, his stories are generally a series of single words. Tonight's story was about our train trip yesterday:
"Train. . . loud. . . bank. . . Santa. . . sank you (thank you). . . fire. . . hot. . . noder (another). . . person. . . off." Lots of head nodding accompanied the story to affirm the truth of the events.
Do you get the picture? We went for a train ride. The train was loud. He received a bank from Santa and said "sank you" (after Santa was long gone). There was a hot fire, and another hot fire - a coal stove at each end of the car. There were other people on the train. Then we got off.

The Results Are In

I was just not satisfied with the dentist's and doctor's take on Owen's teeth, and I had some nagging worries about the root of the issue, so Owen and I sent off some stool samples to Entero Lab to get a bit more information about our digestion.
Yup, I'm telling you about our, um, poop analysis!
So, we got the results back this week, and here's what they say:

• Owen and I are both sensitive to gluten; specifically, our intestines are making antibodies to gliadin which is part of the gluten molecule.
• We also "have an autoimmune reaction to the human enzyme tissue transglutaminase, secondary to dietary gluten sensitivity." This autoimmune reaction causes a breakdown in the intestines.
  
• We each have two copies of a gene that predisposes us to gluten sensitivity, but neither of us have a "celiac gene."
• We are both sensitive to (bovine) casein (milk protein).
• We both have elevated fat in our stools. Mine is in the "mild elevation" range, and Owen's is in the "moderate elevation" range. This is a measure of how efficiently we are digesting our food and absorbing the nutrients from it. The damage to our intestines from the autoimmune reaction has made us less able to absorb the nutritients in our food. (This, in turn, has resulted in Owen's tooth decay.)
  

What does this mean?

• This is a confirmation of what I have suspected all along, and we were already on the right track. I think the mild and moderate levels of fats in our stools indicate that significant healing has already started over the last few months of our diet.
  

• Owen and I will continue the diet we have been doing to heal our "guts." This diet is full of bone broths (very healing to the digestive system), meats, eggs, good fats, and vegetables with some fruit. It does not include any starches or grains (so, by default, no gluten). Eventually, we will transition to a diet that will include limited gluten-free grains (such as rice) and starches.
  
• Owen and I will be excluding dairy (except butter oil and ghee which are both essentially casein-free) from our diets for a while. We also figured out that Owen is reactive to dairy in my diet. His persistent (2 month) cold that climaxed on our fall visit home, cleared up and has not returned since we took dairy back out of our diets. We will try re-introducing dairy after 6 months or so.
  
• We will retest (just the fat test this time) in about a year to see if our absorption has improved.
  
• Eventually (in a couple of years) we may attempt to re-introduce gluten very carefully, but that's a long way off.

At this point, you may be thinking I'm off my rocker again. You've never heard of someone who was sensitive to gluten and never had a problem with it yourself. But, in fact, many people are sensitive to gluten and do not know it. Besides an observed reaction to gluten, the best way to determine gluten sensitivity is through a stool test. Blood tests and skins tests are sampling far away from the site of the reaction, and often do not indicate a sensitivity when it really present. As almost 1/3 of people who have stool analysis, have anti-gliadin IgA (antibodies), it is likely that you or someone you know (besides Owen and I) is gluten-sensitive. Allergies and food sensitivites present themselves in a myriad of ways. Chronic colds or infections such as "strep throat" or ear infections, digestive issues, hyperactivity, seasonal "allergies," autoimmune conditions, and many other commonly accepted conditions are signs that you may be reacting to foods. They are signs of negative overall health. If I had a nickle for every time someone told me they or their kid was healthy - despite need for tubes in their ears, braces, dental fillings, (diagnosed) hyperactivity or AD(H)D, tonsillectomies, rounds of antibiotics, dark circles under the eyes, . . . - I could pay for next year's stool analyses.

Santa's Surprises

Although we don't "do Santa," we will be putting some surprises under the tree just before our family celebration. For Abram, well, I'll give you a few hints:

• something hand-made
• something from Freecycle (yes!)
• an activity (to go with Freecycled gift above)

You can submit guesses via the comments section if you would like.

For Owen, we just completed a play kitchen made from a $5 night stand found at Goodwill, painted with paint from the Habitat Re-Store, and complemented with an "antique" faucet, knobs, and a towel bar from there too as well as some hooks we had on hand and two burners made from CD labels. We also collected a variety of tools for the kitchen from Goodwill and the Salvation Army. All told, this cost us less than $25 in materials. I think he will really enjoy it.

Early Christmas!

Owen is already enjoying two of his Christmas presents. In November, we picked up a wagon on behalf of Anne. Owen likes riding in it - sometimes sitting down and other times doing death-defying escape moves. I'm glad he got to use it a bit before the COLD set in. Last weekend, we picked up a pint-sized table and chairs for Grandma from Ikea. We also got to visit with Ben and Tracy since they live really close to the store. Owen seems to like it, and we have had several family meals there at Owen's request (read, insistance). Thank you, Anne and Grandma Sharon!

Oh, those helpful cats

Here's how Zoos decided to make sure Owen stayed nice and warm for his nap Sunday afternoon - how thoughtful of him.

Brussels Sprouts

Owen begged for "more Brussels" (accompanied by the sign for more) when I made these Tuesday night, so we had them again tonight. He still likes them. This is not a real recipe; the amounts are all approximate.


Brussels Sprouts With Bacon and Onions
8 pieces of bacon
1/2 small onion
quart of Brussels Sprouts
balsamic vinegar

Cut bacon into ~1" pieces and brown. Add onion as bacon begins to brown slightly. While bacon and onion are cooking, wash and trim sprouts and cut them into 1/4's. Add them to the bacon and onions. Cover and cook until sprouts have reached desired tenderness (about 10 minutes for us), stirring once or twice. Dress with balsamic vinegar if desired.

Greased Lightening

Here's a shot of Owen at the park today. He really does move so fast he's mostly a blurr!
This is some of what he did today:

• Went to the farm to get milk, cream, and ghee (They were out of eggs.)
• Ate bacon and avocado with a little scrambled egg for breakfast
  
• Played at the toddler gym
• Had dried apples for snack
• Took a good nap - almost 2 hours
• Picked out Daddy's hat to wear rather than his own
  
• Visited Daddy at his office and posed for a Christmas card photo
• Played at the park near Daddy's office in the cold (high just above freezing!)

Leftover Turkey

Our Thanksgiving turkey was about 12 pounds. We ate some for Thanksgiving, of course, and I made stock with the carcass the next day. We froze some right away. We had soup with some of the extra meat, and a re-run of Thanksgiving dinner. And there was still some looking me in the eye today when I opened the refrigerator door.
So tonight we had two tasty, GAPS-friendly, turkey containing recipes that did not go together at all, but they were good enough I'm going to share them with you. I've got no pictures. You can imagine what these look like, and we were a bit hurried at dinner time tonight. Maybe you still have a bit of bird hanging around too.

Turkey Caesar Salad
salad:
Romaine lettuce
green onions
left-over turkey
Parmesan cheese (optional)
Wash and chop greens and onions. Cut turkey into bite-sized pieces. Grate cheese, if using. Arrange salad.
dressing (adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe that I may have passed on to some of you already - This one is adapted a little.)
1 large egg yolk
1t. Dijon mustard
1 large clove garlic
4 anchovy fillets
5T. lemon juice
1t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
~1c. olive oil
Blend egg yolk, mustard, garlic, anchovies, lemon juice, salt, and pepper with blender until smooth. Slowly add in olive oil as you continue to blend, processing until the dressing is a little thick. Dress salad, and enjoy.

Coconut Turkey Soup (inspired by Sally Fallon's Coconut Turkey Soup in Nourishing Traditions)
1.5 quarts stock
1/2 cup coconut cream concentrate or 1 can of coconut milk
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 green onion, chopped
juice of 2 lemons
1t. freshly grated ginger
salt to taste
1 cup left-over turkey, chopped
Bring stock to boil. Add veggies, lemon juice, salt, and ginger. Cook ~10-15 minutes until veggies are tender. Stir in coconut cream concentrate or milk and turkey. Serve hot.