Lessons From My Lemons

FREE!!!

2010-06-30T16:11:00.003-04:00

Now that I have your attention I want to share with you an amazingly wonderful resource that is also FREE! Yup, I said it. Now, I bet you are saying, "Nothing good comes free." Oh, how I disagree!

Last night Dave and I listened and watched a free webinar given by Julie Matthews, Certified Nutrition Consultant. If you have never heard her name before then let me strongly encourage you to visit her website for a few minutes. She is a Nutritionist who "specializes" in autism nutrition. Although I think that her insight and approach are helpful to those not on the autism spectrum as well.

When Dave told me that he had registered for this free webinar I was a bit skeptical. I thought that it would take an hour to download software that would probably give us a virus and that it would be difficult to follow and stay focused. I was totally wrong! It took less than5 minutes for me to download the software (and that included updating Java). The audio was clear and the slideshow was easy to follow. Last night's topic was a Q&A about the various Autism diets. Some (including Dave) typed questions into a live messaging system and Julie answered them. While I "knew" most of what she shared it was so good to get a refresher.

We have already decided to "attend" more of her webinars. Will you?

Pineapple Chicken

2010-06-25T09:30:00.003-04:00

It is often hard to find GFCF recipes in mainstream cookbooks. But when I do I have to try them. Of course, I always tweak it and change it to fit what I have on hand or what I know my family would prefer. This is a recipe based on America's Test Kitchen's Pineapple Chicken Bake. I served this with Jasmine rice and braised Kale.

Pineapple Chicken

serves 8

8 chicken thighs (bone in and skin on)

salt and pepper

1Tbsp safflower or grapeseed oil

1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced

1 (20 ounce) can pineapple tidbits in juice

3/8 cup honey

1.5 Tbsp cider vinegar

1.5 Tbsp wheat-free tamari

1 Tbsp curry powder

1 tsp Tabasco (optional)

1.5 tsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp water

.5 cup slivered almonds (optional)

1) Preheat oven 450 degrees. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Trim excess skin and fat and season with salt and pepper.

2) Heat oil in a 12" oven-proof skillet add scallions and sauté until softened Add chicken skin side down. Once skin is medium brown and crisped up, turn chicken skin side up and slide skillet into the oven.

3) Drain pineapple tidbits, reserving 3/4 cup of the juice. Whisk the pineapple juice, honey, vinegar, tamari, curry powder and Tabasco (optional) in a medium saucepan or 8" skillet over medium-high heat. Simmer, whisking often, until the mixture has thickened, about 10 minutes.

4) Quickly dissolve the cornstarch in the water, then whisk into the honey mixture. Stir in the pineapple tidbits. Pour the pineapple sauce over the chicken, then sprinkle with almonds (optional). Return to the oven and bake until the chicken is fully cooked, 20 or so minutes more.

Try it and let me know what you think!! Or better yet, tell me what your family thinks!!

Roasted Ratatouille

2010-03-04T14:57:00.003-05:00

I love the PBS cooking series, America's Test Kitchen. A few Christmas's ago Dave bought me the ATK Family Cookbook. It is awesome. It is in a binder format so I can remove the page I am using and not have a big bulky cookbook on the counter. It has so many great recipes with glossy photos. Everything from Baked Mac 'n' Cheese to Braised Brussel Sprouts with Shallots and Bacon. When we decided to go gluten free I was saddened by the idea that I would not get as much use out of this well-loved tome. But then something changed! One of the benefits we have received via the gf diet has been James's acceptance of more foods. We don't just eat string beans and potatoes. He will eat rice and kale and - yes - brussel sprouts! I began to notice a whole new side of my cookbooks I had never seen before... the vegetable chapters! Here is a favorite in our house. We enjoy it over brown rice or brown rice pasta.Relatively easy and not heavy in your tummy...

Roasted Ratatouille

Serves:6-8

1 globe eggplant (1 lb), peeled and cut into 3/4 in cubes

2 medium zucchini or summer squash (1 lb), cut into 1/2 in cubes

1 red onion, halved and sliced 1/4 in thick

1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained with 1/2 cup juice reserved

1/4 cup olive oil

5 cloves garlic, sliced thin

1 tsp minced fresh thyme or 1/4 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 1/2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine the eggplant, zucchini, onion, tomatoes with reserved juice, oil, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and mix well. Spread the mixture into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Roast until the vegetables have softened and are browned in spots, about 1 hour, stirring throughly halfway through the cooking time. Sprinkle with the vinegar before serving.

Chicken with Potatoes and Olives

2009-12-02T13:02:00.002-05:00

Dave's grandmother bought me a subscription to Woman's Day several years ago and must keep renewing it because it continues to arrive in my mailbox every few weeks. Usually the recipes are not very helpful without major doctoring up. But a recent edition had several slow cooker recipes (which I am always on the look out for) and some were unknowingly GFCF. This one looked particularly easy and tasty. Enjoy!

Chicken with Potatoes and Olives

Serves 6

3 large all purpose potatoes, cut bite size

1 large green pepper, cut in narrow strips

1 medium onion, chopped

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup pimiento-stuffed olives

1 1/2 Tbsp each minced garlic and olive oil

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1/2 tsp each salt and pepper (or to taste)

1 bay leaf, broken in half

6 each chicken drumsticks and thighs (about 3 lb each), skin and exces fat removed)

1. Have ready a 4 1/2 qt or larger slow cooker.

2. Put all ingredients except chicken in slow cooker; stir to mix. Add chicken; stir to coat.

3. Cover and cook on high 5 hours or on low 8 hours, or until the chicken is cooked through and tender and potatoes can be easily pierced. Discard bay leaf.

Verdict:

I used a 6 qt slow cooker and it fit really well which makes me thing that a cooker smaller than a 5 1/2 might be too small. Secondly, don't think you are making things easier by buying leg quarters! They are more difficult to trim for a bunch of reasons: they have back bone attached, they have more fat to remove and they don't fit in the pot as easily. That being said, next time I think I am going to try just thighs. They are easier to trim and don't have as many bone pieces to fish out of the kids bowls. The original recipe said to peel the potato but I didn't want to lose that extra nutrition. I sliced the olives in thirds to make them stretch and so the kids wouldn't be intimidated by the large green olive-eyes staring up at them. (Note: if you are casein free check the olive labels. Most of the stuffed olives I saw had sodium lactate which can be a milk by-product. I went with Wegman's Red Pepper stuffed Green Olives.) I didn't salt off the bat because the olives are so salty but in the end we added salt at the table. So next time I will do that too. Also next time I think I will do more veggies: different colored peppers, more olives (maybe black and green) and possibly peas too. The twins loved it and Kayla had seconds. They had never had stuffed green olives before and after one leery bite Kayla wanted more!

Let me know what you think!

It All Happens For a Reason

2009-09-14T14:03:00.004-04:00

See, we were supposed to have John's 2nd birthday party Saturday. We had planned it months ago (June to be exact). We booked the pavilion in the park. We planned the menu. We alerted all our family and friends to save the date. And then it rained! Actually it started raining back in April and hasn't really stopped since. (Ok, it has stopped but it also feels like just when the weather got nice it rained again.) So, Dave and I had decided that (despite the fact that the forecasts were calling for rain on Saturday) we would go ahead with the plans for the party Saturday. Friday after Dave got home from work I grabbed my reusable shopping bags and headed out... out to get all the party favors, food, decorations, EVERYTHING! I went to the party store, Wal-Mart and then was headed to Wegmans when Dave called on the mobile. "Should we postpone the party?" "The park is already booked by someone else for Sunday." "Could we have it at our house?" "What are you nuts?" This conversation (or a close facsimile of this conversation) commenced for about 10 minutes while I sat in the parked car in the lot at Wegmans.

Decision: I would finish getting what I was going to get and then we would call all our family and friends and tell them that we were in fact ~~psycho~~ pushing the party to Sunday. Some couldn't make it, others who couldn't come on Saturday as originally planned now could come. All in all it was a good time had by all... but that is not the moral of this story.

After I hung up the phone (feeling rather depressed) I trudged into the store to make my ~~reluctant and bitter~~ purchases. I picked up some bananas and grapes (because we always seem to run out of these). Then headed around to the Gluten Free section of the store. Wegmans (in my opinion) has one of the most diverse and best-priced Gluten Free sections of any supermarket around. I needed everything from Peanut Butter Panda Puffs to Gorilla Munch; Glutino pretzels to Bob's Red Mill Pancake Mix. I was loading up my cart with some of the boys' favorite GF items when this women joined me in the aisle. She looked rather damp (remember it had been raining since April) and her body language spoke volumes. She was talking (quite loudly) to herself and kept sneaking glances into my cart. (Now I should mention here that I am the person in the store that will answer your questions even if you are not asking them to me. I hate nothing more that to see a fellow consumer struggle to find an "associate" who should know the answer and yet never seems to know anything. So if you happen to be asking questions either out loud to yourself or to another person in your party, and no one gives you an answer you better believe I will speak up!) I did the socially appropriate thing at this point: smiled and made eye contact. This says, "I am friendly and open to have a conversation with you, if, in fact, that is what you desire."

She desired.

Not only did she desire but she necessitated. She said she noticed that I was putting a lot of GF items into my cart and thought that I might be able to help her find some things and to make some suggestions. We began talking. I told her why we chose the GFCF diet for the boys. She shared her new found Celiac diagnosis. We talked shop and it was great! I told her about the gluten free tours that Whole Foods has... and then I mentioned Trader Joe's. Before I could finish saying the name she told me that she had been making the 45-60 minute drive to TJs in southern Jersey. When she finally stopped talking I told her that there was a TJs opening in 2 weeks less than a mile from where we stood. (I kid you not) She started jumping up and down in the middle of the aisle. She began shrieking and laughing! She had tears in her eyes! Once she regained her composure she looked me in the eyes and said, "I debated whether or not to come out tonight. I really wanted brownies but didn't really feel like trudging out into the rain. Now I know why I came. I had to come so that you could share that with me!"

I showed her where the gluten free freezer section was (for Vans waffles and Bell and Evans chicken tenders) and then we said our good byes. I stood there for a few minutes reflecting on what God had just done... you see, what I didn't tell you was that the 10 minute conversation with Dave in the parking lot was more like a 2 minute conversation followed by a 5 minute yelling match followed by an intentional hangup followed by another 3 minute yelling match followed by a truce and apology. Had it not rained, had we not had to reschedule, had I not been so depressed... I would have been in and out of that aisle of the market long before she got there (Dave added bananas and grapes to my list while I was on the phone with him) and I never would have gotten the chance to, even if for a moment, bless her. I know it might sound funny but that is exactly how I see it. It was a blessing. Not only for her but for me too. It was only after that happy moment (you really would have thought she had won the Publishers' Clearinghouse Sweepstakes) that I realized that my life has been so blessed and has been such a blessing. Each little connection that I make has given me knowledge and perspective and I, in return, have given as well. So whether we had the party at home or at the park. whether Dave's sister and her family could come or not, whether the grass was cut or overgrown didn't really matter. What matters is how we use what we have been blessed with to bless others.

Super Heroes

2009-07-30T09:47:00.004-04:00

In an effort to eat better and (hopefully) heal James's intestinal problems, we have been eating so much better this last year and a half. Do you remember as a kid when your parents would place a plate of food in front of you that made you want to run screaming to the hills? Well that is what I feared would happen here. As an infant anything with carrots in it made him throw up and anything with pear gave him reflux... true story. So we were always careful to see what kinds of responses he would have to other foods. Since he had so much difficulty expressing what he was feeling or thinking it was even more important for us to pay attention to his body and what it was telling us. (This is where I gained much of my poop knowledge!) For so long (I can't even remember how long) the only vegetable that James would eat were string beans. They had to be sauteed in garlic and a little bit of olive oil. They had to be whole and he had to be allowed to eat them with his fingers. I think there were a lot of texture issues in play here. He also has a lot of oral defensiveness and was close to 2 before he would really use a spoon. I was a little worried because I thought that surely he was going to be malnourished. So as we embarked on this endeavor to add more nutritional powerhouses into our meals. Kayla loves broccoli. And when I say loves I mean she would choose it over McDonald's Chicken Nuggets! When we order pizza we have to get it with broccoli and mushrooms or Kayla puts up a stink. So we decided to start with broccoli. At least we knew that one child would love. Well, since we had already done a few things to begin to return James's intestinal system to a more normal state it only took him a few dinners with broccoli to really get the hang of it.

We are firm believers in slow and steady. What I mean by this is that we never expect James to eat an entire serving of anything the first time he encounters it. In fact the first time he is only required to accept it being on his plate. Then he must touch it at the next meal. When he is offered it again he must pick it up and touch it to his lips or tongue. Then he needs to take a small nibble. By the end of the week, Lord willing, he is fully accepting and enjoying this new food.

The broccoli was no exception. This one didn't take as long as other to get used to since he had been exposed to it often in the past. So all this to say that if you think that yours is the only kid who won't eat vegetables, rest assured that you are sadly mistaken! And... there is hope for a nutritious future!

Here are just a few of the mega-benefits of broccoli: vitamins A & C, fiber, indoles (can help inactive estrogens that can promote the growth of tumors), sulforaphane (stimulates cell to produce cancer-fighting enzymes), and beta-carotene (another cancer fighter). But did you know it has protein? It is also rich in calcium, iron and magnesium! Now that is my kind of Super Hero!

But wait there's more... Broccoli Sprouts. Ever heard of them? I hadn't until we started working with a nutritionist for James. So I did a little reading and here is something that I found and wanted to share:

"Researchers estimate that broccoli sprouts provide ten to one hundred times the power of mature broccoli to neutralize carcinogens. A sprinkling of broccoli sprouts in your salad or on your sandwich can do more than even a couple of spears of broccoli. This is especially good news for those few people-particularly children-who refuse to eat broccoli. Check www.broccosprouts.com to learn more about this nutrition-packed veggie and where you can buy it." from SuperFoodsRx

I have many more Super Heroes to share with you and hope to do so on a regular basis...

Tom's Bread

2009-07-25T21:34:00.003-04:00

Tom's Bread

1 1/8 cup chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour

1 cup + 1 Tbsp Tapioca flour/starch

1 cup corn starch

3 1/2 tsp xanthum gum

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp creme of tartar

3 eggs

3 Tbsp oil (I use canola)

1 1/8 cup warm water (not boiling but hot enough to be uncomfortable to touch)

1 packet of yeast

Combine eggs and oil and scramble.

Combine dry ingredients (except yeast) and mix well.

Pour wet ingredients into bread machine pan. (Make sure the paddle is in the pan before you do this!)

Scoop dry ingredients on top of wet.

Make a small well in the top of the dry ingredients and pour yeast in the well.

Set Bread Maker to the basic bread setting. The recipe I have recommends using the medium crust setting. I did this in my machine for the first time and then decided the crust needed to be lighter and adjusted.

I buy Bob's Red Mill Garbanzo Bean flour at Wegman's. It is about $2 a pound. I buy Ener-G Tapioca Flour also at Wegman's. It is also about $2 a pound.You can buy almost any cornstarch. Argo usually says it is gluten free. I keep all of the ingredients for this bread together in one spot. I keep the sugar in an air tight container and all the flours too. Using these only for GF baking ensures that there will be NO cross contamination!

Ginger Beef Fried Rice

2009-07-22T15:16:00.005-04:00

One of the things that I have yet to get used to with this diet is the fact that you can't leave dinner prep to the last minute. So as usual, I have no idea what to make for dinner and all I have in the freezer is ground beef. Good news, John will generally eat anything made from ground meat! I have this great cookbook called 365 Ways to Cook Hamburger and Other Ground Meats that I get great ideas from. I pulled it out and found this great recipe that I tweaked a tiny bit and Voila! dinner was served.

Ginger Beef Fried Rice

2 T soy sauce*

1/2 t sugar**

1/4 t salt

1/4 t pepper

2 T vegetable oil

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 lb ground beef***

1 medium carrot, finely chopped

1 celery rib, finely chopped

1 scallion, chopped

1 small bunch of broccoli, finely chopped

1 t minced fresh ginger

1 garlic clove, minced

2 cups cold cooked rice****

1. In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper; set aside.

2. In a large skillet, heat oil. Add eggs and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until eggs are soft-set, about 45 seconds. Transfer eggs to a bowl and set aside.

3. Add ground beef, carrot, celery, and scallion to skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring often to break up lumps of meat, until beef loses its pink color, about 3 minutes. Add broccoli, ginger and garlic and cook, stirring often, 1 minute. Drain off excess fat.

4. Increase heat to high, add rice, and stir-fry until heated through, about 1 minute. Add soy sauce mixture and stir-fry 30 seconds longer.

*I use San-J Wheat Free Tamari

**you can probably use any other sweetener like Rice Syrup or Agave Nectar if you are on a sugar free diet or a low sugar diet

***I used beef but other ground meats would also work

****I used a combo of brown and white rice. It MUST be cold otherwise the end product will be mushy!

Verdict: It was great. The kids really liked it, well, except John. He really doesn't like the texture of rice. Dave and I loved it. A few hints: you can press the garlic in a garlic press and then press the ginger through the same press. This will give you a very fine mince and will distribute the ginger flavor evenly. The fresh ginger is key. It doesn't seem like a lot but it is perfect. And about the rice... I cooked the brown rice right before I made this dinner and then put it in the fridge and it really wasn't cool enough. The leftover Chinese take-out rice that was from last weekend was perfect and I am so glad that I decided to use it, too!

Let me know what you think...

The Times They are a Changin'

2009-07-20T19:37:00.003-04:00

I can't believe it has been over a year since I last posted anything to this blog. Believe me it is not for lack of desire. I have often thought about topics to develop here but have found it difficult to find the time - or should I say quiet-enough time - to write.

Recently it has occurred to me that the biggest "lemon" that I have in my life is how to manage our son's Autism. We have chosen to "treat" him with diet changes and supplements. When I say diet changes I mean no dairy of any kind and no gluten. Gluten is the protein found in many grains, including wheat, rye and barley. He also receives many supplements to this diet. He takes a multivitamin, Vit D3 drops, probiotics, and Omega 3,6,9. We have tried other things such as enzymes and homeopathic options that had little or no positive effect on him. In addition to all of this we have also changed the way we feed our whole family. We buy many things organic and eat mostly whole foods. We have also joined the Cook Student Organic Farm and have been receiving a share of the harvest each week. (This week we got orange cauliflower!)

So that being said I have decided to shift the focus of this blog. While I will still focus on making good out of what could seem to be not-so-good, I will be focusing mostly on the dietary and behavioral challenges that we meet each day. So bear with me as we try something new here... and let me know what you think!

Strawberries

2008-05-29T11:50:00.003-04:00

I know they aren't lemons but it is the time of year for strawberries and we are eating them by (what seems like) the truckload. Most recently we bought a 2 lb. box of them (on sale for like $5). The brand was Main Street Produce. Hadn't heard of them, didn't care. Then this morning I opened up the box to wash some for Kayla and there it was on the inside of the label. Proceeds from the sale of these strawberries goes to support Solid Rock Ranch - a Christian home for kids in trouble. These are kids who have been the victims of abuse and neglect or are homeless. What an amazing surprise! (Not the abuse part but the charity part.) Who would have expected to find out that the strawberries my kids (mostly Kayla) love so much are doing something more than providing nutrition. (They also sell broccoli, Kayla's other favorite... hmmm, seems like a trend.) So next time you see Main Street produce pick some up and think about the kids who are so thankful for your purchase.

Being Sugar and Water to Help Others Make Lemonade

2008-05-19T12:20:00.002-04:00

An internet mom-friend posted these words yesterday: "It's with a heavy heart that we write to you now. It's been a few weeks since * was evaluated at *** on 4/22. On 5/1/08, we received the blow to our lives that we were dreading. Our sweet *son* has been diagnosed Autistic. It's been the most horrific time of our lives ... we are grief stricken and feel sick with sadness."

Her email went on to say in more detail what she and her husband were dealing with but I must admit her email hit a nerve for me. I don't know why but I don't remember feeling like this exactly. We had spent about 6 months wandering around what seemed like this dark cave, groping for the walls, for anything to hold on to and claim. So when James finally got diagnosed I felt a sense of relief. "Finally, a direction to move in for recovery." I mean if you go to the hospital because one day you can see and the next you can't, there is a sense of relief when they finally tell you that it is Diagnosis X because now they can start treating you in an aggressive fashion if need be.

So I read her email slowly and prayerfully hoping to come up with words to encourage and give hope. I wanted to share them here not because I think that I am an awesome person or anything like that, but because I feel like these words are the Truth and we can all use to be encouraged by them everyday: "Hi. I just got a chance to read your email. I should tell you upfront that I am sometimes jokingly called Pollyanna because I always look for the silver lining. That being said, I wanted to respond in a loving and Christ-like manner so here goes: Our son James was also Dx'd with ASD at the age of 27 months. At about 19 months he had a major regression: complete loss of language, head banging, spinning, meltdowns... We had him evaluated by Early Intervention and while we were waiting for 'stuff' to get done I did some research of my own and realized that what we were probably looking at was ASD. I have to say that for me hearing his Dr give the official Dx was a weight lifted not a burden to bear. We had been living for 8 months in a sea of chaos and uncertainty and it was a relief to be able to point to something and say 'that's it!' Once we finally got the Dx I knew what path to finally take. I didn't have to guess which path we needed to walk I could confidently say this is what we are doing. Having said all that I want to encourage you... First, we are ALL made in the image and likeness of God. I have started reading a great book called Same Lake, Different Boat. The author (can't remember her name) is a Christian with a son with Downs Syndrome. Her basic thesis is that we need to change our view to be that "We are all normal people living in an abnormal world." If we believe that we are all made in the image of God then none of us are abnormal. It is the fallen world that we live in that is abnormal. Anyway I digress a bit. I want to encourage you to look at *'s diagnosis not as something bad or a burden to bear but look at it this way: * is 'fearfully and wonderfully made.' The dx doesn't define him Christ does. I know that it may be hard to hear but there is a bright side to all of this. Now on to practical, tangible help: After James's dx I went online and looked for advice from folks as to where to start. I read about GFCF and the GF part scared us so we removed dairy from his diet (casein free). We had also started him on some supplements that a friend had recommended when he first regressed. We are now firm believers in the DAN! protocol. It is the idea that you can help (and possibly cure) your ASD child through biomedical intervention. We are still in the early stages of all of it because my husband had a hard time at first believing that it would actually work. But now we have a DAN certified Dr and a DAN nutritionist and we are moving forward. I also wanted to mention one other thing: DIR and ABA don't have to be the exact opposite. And a lot of the "experts" in autism recommend that EVERY child with ASD receive some level of ABA everyday. Most of us hear ABA and we think of discreet trials. I am pretty sure that this is not going to be what * needs. And if this school really is that good they will adjust the goals and objectives to specifically meet HIS needs. We also thought that ABA was not going to be right for James but then a friend who is a behaviorist and works with ASD kids explained ABA to me more in depth and I realized that ABA could actually make a huge difference for him. (We have been predominantly DIR also since 22 months.) I wish that I lived close enough that I could come and fellowship with you and your family and possibly bring some hope in to this dark time. If I can be of any help please let me know and I would be happy to spend time with you on the phone walking through whatever you are doing. I don't know if you are a reader but if you are looking for something light and encouraging may I recommend Louder Than Words by Jenny McCarthy. (I will warn that she uses some foul language.) She takes you on her journey though what looked like hell to a point where her son is almost recovered. I laughed, I cried and I was motivated to do something that would help my son rather than wonder why he wasn't getting better. And again if I can be of ANY help please don't hesitate to ask."

I hope that you all see the joy and hope in adversity and celebrate the God who created us ALL in His image.

Other Peoples' Lemons

2008-05-07T16:55:00.000-04:00

Many of you have asked about how I got started with blogging and how do I have the time to write? Well, it all started with a pack of Pokemon cards and a fantastic blog called Because I Said So. Dawn has become a cyber friend who has introduced me to the humor in the craziness that is the SAHM. As I read her posts I thought, "Hey my kids do some pretty great things and I know there are lots of folks out there that would love to hear more about them." So I began blogging about the Minis at Super Mom to the Minis. As for the time, well that is another issue all together. Do I have scads of extra time? Not really, but when I have a thought it takes me only a few minutes to write a post for y'all.

But what I really wanted to tell you about were some lemons that I have been sharing with Dawn and many others in cyberspace. Dawn would occasionally ask us (her readers) to pray for Julian (aka: King Julian, JuJu). So I got curious and went to CarePages and looked up JuliansWorld and found the most amazing little boy and his Mama, Mimi. Julian was about 4 when I began following his journey with cancer. (Sorry I am bad with all the big medical words and can't tell you exactly what kind. All I know is that it started in his brain and eventually ended up in his spine and lots of other places.) And it didn't take long to fall in love. Well, sadly Juju went home to be with the Lord a couple of months ago. But (and here comes the lemon recipe) his Mama has met so many wonderful people through this dark valley that have been such a blessing to her and to some of the other children with cancer.

One of these special people is Michelle. She is a writer and illustrator who writes children's books. Michelle has felt called to turn her talents toward help to fight cancer. So she has developed a whole array of cards and other artsy things and is donating 50% of the proceeds to fighting pediatric cancer. So please take a minute and go to My Semblance of Sanity and show some love and encouragement.

Pollyanna

2008-04-22T01:55:00.000-04:00

When we were growing up our family was not what you would call on the cutting edge of technology. My family didn't even get cable until after I went away to college. We had 2 TVs (one in the den and one in our parent's bedroom) and one VCR (remember those?) so when we were kids and wanted to watch a movie we either all 4 had to agree or one of us would choose and the others would suffer through or go do something else. Well, when it was my turn to choose a movie I almost always chose Pollyanna with Haley Mills. (And as a result my sisters almost always found something else to do after groaning and moaning about how much they loathed that movie. I LOVE that movie!) If you have never seen it the basic gist is that Pollyanna has had a very difficult childhood and manages to teach her curmudgeon of an aunt how to see the good in everything. So maybe that is where I learned this but now I am always the one who takes a bad situation and can find the positive side. I know that it annoys the crap out of some folks but I can't help it.

Back in January, a dear Sister (Julie) was telling our email group about how she had been complaining so much but that things had just turned around 180 degrees and things were really starting to look up. I replied back that she always had this knack for taking lemons and making lemonade and lemon chicken and lemon meringue pie and then had enough time and energy left to slice some lemons to garnish her sweet tea. Then in a response she was telling us about another great thing that had happened for her family and that this was the "lesson from her lemons." So here I am making it public and official. What would happen, do you suppose, if when faced with a difficult, ugly situation we all looked for a positive, redeeming perspective?