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?