Summer Beach Days

Sand was everywhere! It covered toes and the folds of rolled up pant legs. Going to the beach in Washington State didn't usually call for a swimsuit, or did it? As a mother of six kids, the investment of bathing suits is sometimes similar to snowsuits. I wish we used them more, but we usually didn't.

"Let's got to the Cape George beach." This was our first attempt to go to the beach. I forgot about practical things like looking at tide times. It was a crazy low tide. The kind of low tide where a super a rocky beach smooths out into sand bars with mini lakes and streams. It was the kind of tide where kids could not imagine not finding the edge of the water, but to get there, they must cross one of the mini streams and not get their feet wet. The water was far too cold for that.

Isaiah, two years old, cried out "Hand hold." It was the first summer he really understood that touching this little stream would be like a cold version of bath time.

All the older kids pretended I wouldn't notice they were up to their knees in sea water and making pretend paddle boards out short, flat, well weathered pieces of drift wood.

"Get out of the water!" I cried, but seriously it was too late! We were going to be going home in wet clothing.

"Joel told me I should go to that rock," Dominic insisted that his nine year old brother would push him to the rock if he had not ventured in himself.

"I am wet," Bria appeared. Was she wet from water or was it pee? Who knew at this point. As a three years old, she usually kept things under control, but this water mark didn't look like the water wading type.

Was it time to pack up and go home? I wasn't sure, but I was ready.

Attempt two at the beach took place. This time we brought a picnic. The beach was covered in interesting, chopped up white shells. It was a small beach, where the water funneled between Marrowstone Island and Port Hadlock like a stream with gentle rapids. A tall green bridge towered over us. We set up a picnic and broke open a bag of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. A man fishing nearby gave the kids a lesson on how to catch fish and through them back without killing them. My oldest perked up with questions.

Nobody got wet that day. The water moved to quickly and the assortment of clam shells were more interesting.

We got to right under the bridge, that was more like a floating skyscraper to six much smaller people and maybe even two slightly taller adults. Then the perfect sand turned into jagged basalt. Black chunky rocks were more of a hazard. They could harm children. Our walk was cut short when super careful Isaiah slipped and scraped his hand. I scooped him up in both arms, carried him like a football, and attempted to dip the scrape in the fresh cold salt water. He wriggled, screamed, and I wished could just let him walk to the car.

A lot was learned through trips one and two. First, bring some food! Prepare for water, sand, and kids falling on things.

Trip three to the beach was the most civilized. I knew my kids would get messy. We packed a bag of spare clothing. The one item we forgot was a change of underwear for all. I highly recommend bringing everything.

The sun beat on my shoulders that were covered with a thin denim jacket. It was hot when I was fully covered up. To the kids that meant, lets wade into the water as far as possible.

"I know we brought back up clothing, but can we try to stay somewhat dry," I begged the kids. This lasted about two minutes before my oldest daughter, Ellie (8 years old), soaked herself mostly to her waist. It was as if the spare clothing was a ticket to get drenched. Swimsuits called for swimming, right?

It all began with jumping waves, as one might jump rope. Of course the kids will want to swim. After all, we did actually go to the beach. It was not Hawaii, but it was warm enough to get a little bit wet.

I took a deep breath. It was just sand and salt water. For the first time in weeks, everybody in my family was happy!

No dairy in a house that loves cheese!

Going for official allergy testing always scared me because I knew there was something going on, but if I knew what it was, changing would be a must instead of an optional thing. I never wanted to be the guest at the table who couldn't eat anything in front of me. Sometimes allergies take over everything. Nope, I played it 'safe' calling possible allergies just things that bothered my body.

I was pregnant with Charis (baby #4) and addicted to an evening ritual of Strauss chocolate chip mint ice cream and a warm cup of vanilla rooibos tea. Tim and I had three small children, one of whom was a baby, so it was like a date night to tuck them all into bed around 6 PM (YES bedtime was that early...still is...way less cranky kids) and cuddle on the couch watching something from Netflix or Gilmore Girls because we had a tradition of watching every season we owned each pregnancy.

Charis was my first homebirth baby with a midwife who expected a strict diet from her clients. I was up for the challenge, minus the whole ice cream thing. In my mind, I viewed it as some extra protein and we only got the best quality. Along with a healthy diet, was an infusion of raspberry leaf, nettle, oat straw, and alfalfa. I drank it everyday and fully believed this would all put me in the best health of my life.

Then a rash appeared on my left arm, just below my shoulder. My dark brown skin never turned red, so all I knew was that it itched like crazy and didn't go away. I blamed the drink and experimented with eliminating different herbs. Since the rash felt like stinging nettles against my skin all the time, I assumed it was this. It took six months to get rid of the rash and three of those months were with an baby girl in my arms. She was my fourth, but my body was acting strange.

When baby number five was born, I began to feel puffy and I weighted the most I ever did in my life. I didn't know what the cause of this was, but I crave foamed milk a lot. I found myself having a decaf latte a week for  awhile as a treat. Not only did I get a treat, but my four kids were all strapped into the car for a whole twenty minutes while I went to purchase the coffee. The ice cream habit had grown into warm coffee milk. I drank my special infusion, as I did the time before, but without the nettle, so the stinging rash did not come back. I thought I had figured everything out. Other than feeling fat, I was rash free. I even noticed I hardly got sores in my mouth, when I used to get them all the time. Being healthy was paying off in several ways.

HIVES! I was covered in hives after my sixth child was born. I knew I must have an allergy, but I could not imagine what to. I traced it to possibly peanut butter because I had been making my son a PB & J sandwich daily for his school lunches when I had never really had much peanut butter before. In fact, I noticed my face swell slightly once after making my son's lunch, so I cut it out of my own diet. However, just cutting out peanuts seemed to not work...unless I was getting into trace peanuts constantly without knowing it. The symptoms got worse. My ankles and legs had welts on them.  I had a huge hive breakout on the back of my neck making it challenging to sleep. Sleep with a newborn was hard enough. It was six weeks before these hives mostly went away. I went to the doctor who tested my blood for all kinds of things, but not allergies. Frustrated, I gave up and tried to test myself by eliminating things.

I started with peanuts and moved on to soy. Maybe I still had hives because I was allergic to soy as well? Often soy and peanuts were processed together making it difficult to pinpoint if I was allergic to one and not the other. This got things under control. I would have a few smaller hive episodes, but nothing like what I dealt with the first six weeks after baby number six was born. However, things didn't go completely away.

Then I went back to school and found myself back in my old college ways. I didn't want to be a pain, and I had not real proof I was actually allergic to anything, so I went and I ate what was provided to me. Worse than any hive breakout ever, I found myself knocked out for a week. My throat felt like it had a trail of hives all the way down it. I needed to sleep any spare moment I could get. I felt ill, but I wasn't sick. I knew I would need to be more careful next time, so I set out to buy a lot of my own food.

Without access to a kitchen I bought food I could just eat. This included a quart of my favorite whole milk yogurt. If I needed to shy around meats in strange sauces, then I would want some kind of filling protein beyond nuts. I didn't think twice about things like cheese frequently served with Mexican food (super popular in southern CA). I also bought fruit, nuts, and plain salad. I didn't want to get dressings because of the soy and peanut factors and a bottle of olive oil seemed like a bit much for the whole ten days I would be on site for school.

The first time, I was at my school's ten day intensive I made it a couple of days before my mouth broke out in sores. This time I made it five days. I was sure it was the tortillas in some Mexican food that may have contained soy oil. Everything went back to that meal.

However, everything went back to another food group in all of this. DAIRY! I have never been best buds with dairy. It was a suspect of discomfort ten years ago, but I had conveniently forgotten that. When I came home from my second intensive, I was knocked out for weeks...in fact over a month before I went to the doctor for a physical, and begged to start allergy testing. I was swollen with hives on and off, and I felt like I almost had the flu for weeks. I should also state that I worked out six days a week intensely and never lost a pound. I did mysteriously gain about four pounds during the ten days I was gone, and I ate less than usual.

I went for blood testing. It was not always accurate, but a good place to start. When I opened the results I was possibly allergic to dairy and sesame. Suddenly a lot made sense. By avoiding all things with soy and peanuts, most sesame things were out of my diet as well. There was a granola I loved that gave me hives, but did not contain soy or peanuts. Guess what it did contain? Sesame. As for dairy, one can see I ate a lot of it. I also always cooked in butter. It tastes so good. This was going to be harder for me to eliminate.

It's been two weeks now without either of these things! I feel wonderful. No longer is the couch calling me for a nap every hour of the day. I lost two pounds! I don't have hives! I still have the remains of a few sores in my mouth, but they are healing. I don't feel swollen. Plus, I feel so great I don't miss the bear paws, lattes, cookies, veggies cooked in butter, etc. I do miss bread and butter, but other than that, so far so good. It has been worth it to remember what it felt like to actually have energy! Maybe I haven't figured it all out, but what I have learned is to not ignore one's body's warning signs.

Nectarine Fried Rice

So the original idea was pineapple fried rice, but I was lacking ingredients. We didn't actually have a pineapple. Without the main ingredient, I searched the shelves of my fridge for a new creation.

We were at the end of the farm box, and I had been putting off practical things like going to the grocery story. What was actually left? Some evil looking red beet leaves, a spicy green pepper, and garlic( I recently bought a braid of garlic) were what needed to go into this dinner.

To replace the pineapple's sweetness, I grabbed six super ripe nectarines. They tasted great in oats so why not rice? My daughter recently labeled peaches as the other mango, so there was even a vague sense of tropical appeal. I diced them up and wished for the best.

Two cups of riced cooked in a large pot with a tablespoon of coconut manna, garlic, and the spicy green pepper.

In my frying pan I scrambled six eggs, while I waited for the rice to be finished. The end was simple. Peaches, scrambled egg, beet leaves, and small square cut pieces of deli turkey meat were added to the large pot of rice.

The look of this stuff was colorful and much pinker than most of what we were accustomed to eat. I told my kids this dinner was basically sugar in a bowl.

The result was a new favorite meal!