Chai Lady

After I gave birth to Grace back in December, Darin did a lot of the grocery shopping for about a month.  Lydia and I have a weekly grocery shopping routine.  We both missed it.  We go to SuperTarget, step in Starbucks for a tasty beverage while we read a chapter of a book together (we're working through the Elsie Dinsmore series), then shopping.  I always, ALWAYS  order a venti, breve (breve is half n' half), 10-pump chai.  I'm addicted to the chai in no small way! 

Lydia and I missed getting out together and we learned that the baristas at Starbucks missed us, too!  Darin took the older 3 Christmas shopping.  They did their shopping, then he installed them at Starbucks while he finished our shopping for them.  While the kids were ordering a drink for themselves, the barista asked, "Did your mom have her baby yet?"  The girl working with her said, "Who?"  She responded with "You know.  Chai Lady."  ;-)  So I'm Chai Lady.  But next time I go in to the SuperTarget Starbucks with Lydia, I'm not going to order a chai.  I'm going to order an unsweetened, venti Passion Tea.  That doesn't roll off the tongue like Chai Lady.  Passion Lady....Passion Tea Lady...<blush>.

Back at the beginning of the month, I was chatting with a friend who told me that her son had complete relief from his seasonal allergies when he quit eating dairy.  Our allergies have improved so much since going to a chiropractor but not completely, so I wondered if we chilled on the dairy if it would help? Goodbye Chai Tea... only I didn't realize how entrenched dairy is in our diet.  It seems that just about every meal includes some sort of dairy product.  So I'm working on slowly weaning everyone from it, but I went cold turkey.  The first thing I noticed was a difference in Grace!  At 5 months, she's still nursing.  Right away, she stopped spitting up so much.  We used to have to have a burp rag extremely handy because she spit up so much.  Now it's almost nothing.  I also have noticed a difference in her dirty diapers.  She doesn't have as many blowouts as she did.  Well, she doesn't have ANY blowouts.  It's a complete night and day difference. 

My big dream is for us to move into a home with 2 acres (I'm not greedy ;-)) so we can have our own goats or cows and have our own milk.  Our chiropractor calls all the pastuerized/processed stuff "man-made dairy" and encourages us to find raw sources for milk and other dairy products.  We used to get raw goat's milk from a family here in our town, but they're working on moving and have sold all their goats!  They sold their milk at a reasonable price.  I've done a little searching around and the cheapest I can find goat's milk around here is $16 a gallon!  That's just not in our budget.  We do use milk from a local ice cream shop (Braum's) to make milk kefir.  We make smoothies from the kefir - its consistency is a little more runny than yogurt.  The lactose, which is what most people react to in dairy products, is "pre-digested" in the kefir making process, making the good stuff in the  milk easier to absorb. 

Another great thing I've noticed from leaving dairy behind is that I'm 3 pounds down.  I've done a little research to try to find the benefits of a dairy-free diet and have only found a small list so far:  relief from acne, migraine headaches, ovarian cancer and autism.  As if those aren't enough, I wonder, do you have any info to share on this topic?

To the Work

One of the biggest challenges Darin and I deal with is teaching our kids to love their work.  We grew up in the 70's and 80's mindset where we were led to believe that the world revolved around filling our spare time with fun activities.  And not only our spare time was devoted to our entertainment, but we were encouraged to fill all our time with "fun opportunities."  It has been a hard, cold slap in the face for both of us to grow up, get married, have a family and realize that the world was not actually created for our entertainment.  There's work to be done and no one is going to do it for us.

So the biggest challenge in teaching our kids a work ethic is ourselves.  We have a hard time overcoming the cultural lie that the kids should be constantly at leisure to fill their days with activities that leave them little time to develop that work ethic.  We have to constantly remind ourselves about the frustrations we've felt as adults when we realize that we weren't prepared for certain adult responsibilities.  Then of course the next thing we struggle with is follow through.  After all, we ARE children of the 80's.  We want our kids to LIKE US.  ;-)  No, really, we do.  We don't want them to grow up and be bitter at us because we forced them to do chores and stuff, but at the same time, we don't want them to grow up and feel frustrated with us because they weren't prepared for life as an adult.  It's a fine line we find ourselves standing on.  Another thing we've discovered through parenting is that there are no "tips and tricks" we can use that will make the teaching and learning painless.  It's gonna hurt.  The kids aren't going to want to do their chores.  We're going to find ourselves not wanting to make them to them.  The best solution we've come up with is to follow God's advice in 1 Corinthians 16:14: " Let all that you do be done with love."  If we can keep our perspective straight and teach our kids "with love" we feel sure that God will bless the work.  The next hardest thing is persevering over the years and years it takes to see the benefits of the work, but that's a whole other issue!  ;-) 

Misc.

Since starting chiropractic care back in 2006, all our allergies have improved SO much.  I used to walk around sounding AWFUL.  My nose was constantly stopped-up, a lot of sneezing, nose blowing...just generally sounding real un-ladylike on a regular basis.  But now....no nose trouble.  No nose spray 24/7.  That's the biggest blessing to me.  There was more than one pregnancy, when I couldn't take anything to help my poor nose, when I would be up till 2 or 3 a.m. because I couldn't breathe.  But now, only relief.  LOVE my chiro!  We still struggle a little with tiredness during allergy season and a headache every now and then, but the improvement we have felt is too good to not be thankful these days. 

Another thing that has helped over the years has been cod liver oil.  I don't know what the deal is, but seems everyone has a big mental block where cod liver oil is concerned.  When I mention it to friends, I get, "eeeeew!  I could never take it.  It tastes awful!"  I don't get that.  If it's something that could be helpful to one's quality-of-life, why wouldn't one want to rush out to the store ASAP to get it!  I used to get sinus infections every spring and fall during allergy season.  Since starting taking it about seven years ago, I haven't had even ONE sinus infection.  My husband's high blood pressure is a thing of the past, the arthritis that was developing in my hands is gone.  I'll bet there are also other issues that have been taken care of that we don't even know about.  If you Google "cod liver oil benefits" you'll come up with some sites that have huge lists of the benefits of it.

Totally unrelated....I've finally worked out a Beans n' Rice recipe that my husband likes to eat.  Seems he's a big fan of salsa as an ingredient in things.  I first learned that with Beef Stew about a year ago.  I was out of canned tomatoes and grabbed a can of my Mom's homemade salsa as a last minute fix.  Then when I ran out of salsa and went back to regular ol' tomatoes, Darin noticed.  So back to salsa in the Beef Stew.  There's not a soul on the planet that would think that Darin Beard would ever eat Beef Stew because it has vegetables in it.  When we met, the only vege he ate was French Fries.  ;-)  But I've worn him down over the years....let's see...it's been a long haul...we'll be celebrating 19 years this August. 

Back to the Beans n' Rice.  I've been getting a tepid response from Darin every time I make it, and I just hate that.  It finally occurred to me yesterday to use salsa rather than canned tomatoes and that did the trick.  While I don't think he is in love with Beans n' Rice, he can now eat it without gagging.  ;-)  Here's my recipe if you're interested.  The great thing about this recipe is that it's fast and easy.

Beans n' Rice!

First off, I use this recipe to cook the rice.  I do it earlier in the day.  I put it in the oven while I’m taking care of lunch.  It’s SO easy and to me, less stressful than cooking it on the stovetop.

Here’s the rest... 
½ onion, chopped (or however much you want – Darin isn’t a huge fan of them in his food, so I keep it down to 1/2)
2 or 3 cloves garlic
1 - 2 t. chili powder
½ t. celery seed
½ t. pepper
16 oz. jar salsa
2 cans chili beans

The brown rice you cooked earlier.

Cook the onion and garlic in some olive oil for 5 minutes, then dump in the rest of the ingredients and heat through.  We can eat this plain, or on a tortilla with cheese and sour cream.  YUM.