Thursday, August 13, 2009

supplements

I know there are many differing opinions on taking vitamins, some even say that you just have expensive pee when you take lots of vitamins! I must say I completely disagree with this opinion. I have taken different vitamins from the drug store over the years and never felt that they made a difference. Then after reading Jenny McCarthy's book on her journey with her sons autism I decided to try excellent quality vitamins. The reason for the higher quality than you get in the drug store was to avoid things like gluten in the vitamins. All I can say is WOW! I could see a difference in the kids immediately and I felt the difference right away as well! Between the diet and the vitamins we all made huge improvements!

Here is a list of what we are all taking at the moment...

Essential fish oils
magnesium
B12
multi vitamin
zinc
Juice plus AM and PM
Probiotic

This list changes at times, sometimes there are even a few more and we are always adding new supplements to help out. If you are wondering how to get a younger child to take pills and let me tell you Kolton was not thrilled with the idea of taking anything at all! We simply let him put his capsules on a spoonful of applesauce and he downs them no problem!!

Happy vitamins!

Pamela

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Logic of an Asperger's boy

Good morning!

Kolton is such a logical boy even though he is only 8! I am sure he could be an engineer by next week!

He was complaining that he was bored and I suggested that he go and play with his toys in his room. He told be that he had no interest in those so I suggested that we should throw them out if they were so boring. He then asked me if I liked to scrapbook every day and since I don't scrapbook every day maybe we should throw out my scrapbooking supplies! I know when I have been "got", he did have a great point!

You just can't fight logic!

Pamela

Friday, July 24, 2009

Some days 3 kids with challenges can be so overwhelming! Nothing major needs to occur, just life! I love the summer on one hand and other days I can't wait for it to end. Having the kids around everyday and all the assorted friends that come with them can be a little crazy! I am someone who loves peace and quiet, so having 3 highly energetic kids who all love to talk is not so quiet! At least when they are in school I have a chance to enjoy some quiet before the chaos arrives home again, but in summer it is hard to get that break.

I think as moms we need to make sure that we find time to work out, read, scrapbook, do whatever it is that fills your tank. This time that we all feel guilty for taking is so important and makes us better moms in the long run! It can be so hard to find that time, but it needs to be a priority for all of us!

Take time for you!

Pamela

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Camping

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but we have been away camping for a couple of weeks! I love camping with the kids since it gets us out into the woods where technology doesn't work too well! It forces my kids to let go of the X-Box, MSN, Facebook and of course the TV!! For a change they have to simply bike, swim, walk, read and sit around the camp fire! It is wonderful, they can't get away from us no matter how much they think we are annoying!

Camping before going gluten and dairy free was much easier, when we ran out of food we could simply run to the store for more and we kept is simple. Unfortunately most stores near the parks we camp at don't seem to carry the special things we need. So I do a lot of cooking ahead of time prepping so that we don't run out. The great part of this is that there is very little to do when we are there. I bake bread and hamburger buns and cookies before we go. We eat lots of salads and BBQ meat! I found some great salad dressings by Organicville that are gluten and dairy free, this was necessary since Chase will only eat Ranch dressing! Of course everyone was happy to hear that Kraft marsh mellows are OK! We even made a safe version of Graham Crackers so we could have smores!

All this stuff is lots of work, but it is worth it when your kids can do normal kid things and still feel healthy!

Happy camping!

Pamela

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Special Occasions and the diet?!

So what do you do on special occasions when there are temptations everywhere? Today is Chase's Grade 8 Grad and there will be all sorts of yummies full of gluten and dairy! Generally I only let them choose things that are on within our limits, but today is really special for him! Sometimes I will help them choose the goodies that have the least amount of offenders but just about everything there will have gluten and dairy!!

On a night like tonight I will let him have whatever he wants, but I will caution him to try and limit too many bad choices. For example, more than 1 piece of pizza would be a bad choice! Chase is very aware that whenever he cheats he pays the price the next day when he feels crappy. He usually gets a stomach ache and a headache, he also gets a little spacey!

Sometimes though, like tonight, fitting in with your peer group takes priority!

Pamela

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Cosmic joke!

OK so seriously the universe is playing a huge joke on people in general! Whoever came up with the plan that has families living under the same roof when the mom is peri-menopausal, the dad is hitting his mid-life crisis and then there are teenagers in the house!!! Who thought this would be a great idea??? Lucky for me my teenagers are fairly reasonable, well at least for 3 minutes every day. And Larry has not gone out and bought a red sports car yet, although if he did I may run away in it! And in our house we have the joy of ADD, ADHD and Asperger's!! Some days are just exhausting and then I realize it is only 6:30am!!

I think it will be a very long summer, right now the teens are arguing over gum?! Why? How can you have a 1/2 hour long argument over gum? Really it should not be going on this long since they are ADD and ADHD, they should have lost focus about their topic 25 minutes ago!!

Well off to run away from home!

Pamela

Monday, June 15, 2009

Must have chocolate!

OK as far as I am concerned the need for Chocolate is one of life's basic needs!! So if you are gluten and casein free, what can you do? I found some chocolate chips from Enjoy Life that are gluten and dairy free!! I get them from our local health food store and you can order them online (www.enjoylifefoods.com). With the chocolate chips you can work wonders! We melt the chips and add things like almonds and you have a chocolate bar. To make icing for our yummy chocolate cake I melt the chips and add rice milk and gluten free icing sugar until I get the right consistency! These chocolate chips are incrediably rich and sooooo good!! Apparently the Easter Bunny knows about them too and makes them into Easter eggs and puts them in plastic egg cases!

Happy chocolate!

Pamela