On the Mend

Good news! The kids are entirely over their colds. Not even runny noses left.

So-so news: Darrel and I still aren’t 100% better.

Though I didn’t want to, I had to call out sick for work this weekend. Thursday and Friday I was a walking zombie, but by Saturday, if I sat perfectly still I felt almost normal.

However, if I stood up, I got dizzy, and if I moved, I started coughing like I was about to hack up a lung.

Most people don’t want the Flight Attendant serving them drinks to hack up a lung in the aisle. And sitting perfectly still isn’t an option in my line of work.

So I didn’t go to work. Instead, I’ve been puttering around the house, trying to do as little as possible…which is still about 90 times more activity than I would have done if I were sick as a childless gal!

It’s really, really, really rotten to be sick with kids. They refuse to cut you any slack.

Little tyrants.

Not to mention that with our food issues, I have to cook whether I feel like it or not. Plus there’s all the food storage stuff that has to be done, and tending to the garden.

None of those things cares one whit that all I want to do is snuggle on the couch and watch chick flicks all day.

So while I’ve been sick, I have managed to do quite a lot in between coughing fits and dizzy spells. Even though I didn’t feel like it.

I made butter for the first time. Get ready to laugh at me for that story tomorrow!

I harvested the first yields from my garden, which was VERY exciting for me!

Friday, I even managed to make an amazing dinner (thanks to my moms help!):

I didn’t take step by step photos, but if anyone is interested in how to make this delicious, gluten-free, allergy-free pizza, let me know and I might be convinced to make it again and share the recipe.

We declared apricots a safe food for Zac last week and began the cucumber trial.

He’s not such a huge fan of raw cucumber slices. He’s eaten a few like that, but mostly I’ve been shredding the cucumber and hiding it in his other foods.

(One tip if you’re doing a food trial that way…any time you shred a veggie and add it to a recipe, keep in mind it will release moisture. So reduce any liquids called for in your recipe.)

So far, so good! We’re already on the three day break, and with any luck, by the end of this week Zac will have his 8th safe food!!!

Being sick, Darrel and I have completely dropped the ball on the food journals for the kids.

I mean, there’s not a thing written in them from Monday of last week on. It’s terrible.

We’ve been watching the kids closely, as usual, and since neither of us saw anything resembling a reaction sign in either of them for anything, I think we got lucky and are safe.

But boy, am I glad cucumber is going well. If it wasn’t…the lack of a food journal would be stressing me out right now.

Time to start writing things down again.

One nice thing about cucumber is that one night last week Zac got to have an almost normal looking dinner!

I made him pork roast, a ramekin of apricot purée to go with his roast, and some cucumber slices on the side.

It was so cool – and so sad – that he’s over 2 years old and this was the first meal he’s ever eaten that looks like a normal meal.

Sigh.

Well, we’ve finally reached the point where it’s getting hard to feed him all of his safe foods every single day!

So far, we’ve been feeding him every single food at every single meal (except pork, which we ration), but with apricots becoming safe, it got harder to do. With cucumber in the mix, well, I looked up one day last week and realized he hadn’t eaten any bananas or cauliflower that day at all!

That is EXCELLENT news! He’s finally getting a diet large enough that he can have some variety!

Whew!

Last weekend was “owner’s weekend” at my health food co-op. That means that in addition to any cheaper prices offered to owners on a daily basis, everything purchased THIS weekend got an additional 10% off.

In anticipation, I pre-ordered three cases of potatos and a case of apricots (I didn’t know they’d be safe or not when I ordered them, but, just in case…I figured Jed could eat them if Zac couldn’t).

Even though it was the LAST thing Darrel and I felt like doing, we expended the last of our daily energy on a trek to the co-op to pick up our goodies.

Turns out, I got that case of apricots not only with the 10% owner’s appreciation discount, and not only with the 10% case discount, but also with a $.70/per pound sale price reduction!

Instantly I asked if they had more apricots in the back, but they didn’t. What they did do, however, was give me a rain check on the apricots I wanted. So when they get more apricots in, I can buy 3 more cases at the sale price (plus the 10% case discount)! Sweet!

I also managed to grab another case of Jed’s favorite crackers and some Ancient Harvest spaghetti noodles, both at the double 10% off.

It was an expensive trip, but it will save us SO much money over the next few months.

That means, of course, that, like it or not, I had to do more apricot preserving this weekend, too. It would make me sick to my stomach for those apricots to go bad before we could use them.

Maybe it would have been easier on me to go to work when sick…

How was your weekend?