One Can't Live On Bread Alone...

...But it is so good!!!

I don't broadcast this out much, mainly because of the stigma surrounding it, but our middle son, Corey, is in the autistic spectrum. So, why post it for all of the world to see? Well, I hope that maybe someone might stumble across this little piece of the web and glean some insights and hope. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

To go into a long drawn out history behind everything, would take months of posting. Here's the just of it: Corey was pretty much non verbal and extremely hyposensory. Loved the birth to 3 program, hated our small town public schools. Started home schooling 4 years ago and haven't looked back! I've done tons of research, trying to reverse his symptoms...so far we are doing really good! He went from mumbler to motor mouth, crash and banger to calmer and quirky.

What have we done so far?

1. PRAYER...can't stress enough the power of God and the miracles he bestows us with!

2. Fish Oil...everyone needs Omega 3's!

3. Accidophilus...fights candidia and helps stop leaky gut syndrome.

4. Magnesium...nature's sedative....helps keep him balanced.

5. Probiotics...rebuild the good flora in the intestines.

6. Limited sugar and processed foods...very rarely have food dyes, especially red (yes, it does make a difference!)

So far so good, but I've been feeling we had room to do better. A friend (hi Chris!), recommended a book called Gut and Psychology Syndrome (G.A.P.S.) by Dr. Natasha Campbell-Mcbride. It reinforced that we were on the right track, just not all the way on the path yet. Healing the gut involves more than just adding back the good bacteria and getting the bad under control. We need to give the gut a "break" of sorts to help heal damage, detox and regrow healthy cells. As I read this book, I realized that both Jamie and Riley have symptoms of dys-ease in their gut...eczema, allergies, and constipation to name a few. (I think we all need a bit of tweaking from the onslaught of garbage we put into our system)

Sooooo....I'm contemplating, stewing...doubting. The GAPS diet is not a forever diet, but still...ugh! It mainly consists of cutting out all complex sugars, carbs (all grain),starches and dairy. Yum, right?!? Hard...most definitely! Like I said, its not forever...more like a cast or splint for your broken intestinal wall!

I really struggled with this! If Corey had let's say cancer, there would be no hurdle I wouldn't jump or door I'd kick down to make him better. So why am I bucking a little inconvienece that could possibly give Corey a very normal life? Am I more lax because you can survive Autism?

But how could I live with myself if I didn't try everything in my power to reverse this! So, here we go...I'll document our progress...want to come along?

A Few More Paintings

This was my second attempt at mixed media:

It's ok...turned out a bit more "country" than I wanted....was going for more of a bohemian thing, but it is what it is!

I've never drawn or painted people before, not too bad I guess! I also think that I like adding elements to my paintings, not covering the entire thing with the paper....we'll see, art is a learning process right? :)

I love these birds! I still have to paint the verse around the sides, but I wanted to show you what I worked on for my girls weekend!
(and no, my walls are not pink....so weird because every one of those pics were taken in the same spot, within seconds of each other!)

Laughs and Crafts

*warning---Long post about some super awesome ladies!*Here's my table, all packed and ready to go! (do you think I have enough junk for one day?!?)

Friday night, we all gathered at Lori's for a chick flick night (with pizza and tons of food!) Most of us worked on some projects, I had a new wreath (details soon to come), Joyce was finishing up a t-shirt quilt, Stephanie was working on projects for Kidzlink and Lori was photoshopping away! Lots was accomplished in between fits of laughter from watching The Proposal ;)

Ami, Lucinda and Becky were great sports for our interruptions in the movie!

There were three of us who decided to stay the night...I can't tell you enough about how much Lori did to make our stay so cool! It was just like a B&B, but much better!

Here's the room I stayed in...the picture is terrible, absolutely no sun on Saturday! The room was filled with old pictures of their relatives, barn board shelves, old canes....beautiful!

I am sooo saving my old window for this project!

Saturday morning arrived way too soon! (I'm definitely not used to sleeping with cats in the house...one jumped on my bed early Sat. morning and about gave me a heart attack!) Lori really put out the spread for us all...egg casseroles, fruit salad, coffee cakes...real honest to goodness coffee creamers! I seriously didn't want to leave....felt just like my kids, "but I don't want to GO!!!!"

We had plenty on our lists so we got straight to work! First project was necklaces that we punched saying into....so funny that we all had the same supplies, yet each one was very unique! (this is Ami making a necklace that had her and her hubby's name on the outer ring and then Love on the inner disc)

Yes, we invaded Lori's husband's man cave! (good thing he was on a mission trip!) His work bench came in very handy....and so did his drill press! Great job Lori figuring that beast out!!!

I wish I could have gotten a picture of everyone struggling with the pearls and jump rings, but I was banished to the garage to help line up letters!

Here's Amy and Stephanie eagerly awaiting lunch...which Lori made and was excellent of course!Oh the concentration!
Sue did the cutest black and red canvas...here she is lining up her letters. ...and getting ready to outline!
Really..we did have fun.....but oh, the seriousness when everyone painted over their beautifully scrapped paper!
Well, except for one! Joyce had this very pink thing going on..to which she added "pepto" paint.....and then I lost it when she squirted this brown "baby's diaper" color..... but look....
It actually turned out great! Can't wait to see what she ends up embellishing it with---transfers of old dress forms, buttons, and leftover zippers were mentioned!

I'll post my canvas later, I'm sure you're sick of hearing about my FANTABULOUS weekend!

Thanks again, Lori for being such an awesome hostess! And to all of the other lovely ladies who made it such a blast!

(check out Lori and Joyce's blogs...they have much better pictures!)

Quick and Easy

My Grandma's birthday party was on Sunday. I had made her one of my heart wreaths, but I decided on Sunday morning that she needed something that she could hang up now too!

These are popping up all over the place and are super easy! (especially if your hub does construction and has loads of scrap wood in the garage!)

Here's your cast of characters...except for the minwax, I decided to use a wash on the bare wood instead of stain.
Mod Podge your paper on to whatever areas you want...I only did the sides. You don't have to be super exact (except when you use stripped paper...ugh!) because you'll sand the edges to make it look worn.

Stain or paint the top and bottom...drill holes for the copper wire to stand in....and...

there you have it....super quick project for Grandma! (sorry, I knew she had tons of extra pictures at home, so I didn't fill the holders!)

is it with a "t" or a "d"

(I have tons of posts with pictures to do, but flikr is being a booger so I'll try again tomorrow!)

This morning I decided to get a little ambitious and start my bible study reading (a week ahead of time!). We are going through a study called Resting In Him. So this chapter was on contentment...well, kind of...that section was the big V8 slap to my forehead ;)

This whole job search deal for Jim seriously stresses me out, I worry, I analyze All the time. I want to move ahead and be done with this season of our lives...I am sooooo done with it! I focus on planning; if he gets this job, in this town, we could do this, or if its this town we'd do this...but what if he gets a job right away and then I'm stuck dealing with all these details here by myself. I'm drowning in a sea of IFs.

Anyway, back to the study- I grabbed my dictionary (thanks Sue for that tip!).

contentment: ease of mind

Ok, sounds good to me because my mind has been nothing of the sort!

Now it gets hairy---

contenT: (v) satisfy

Still sounds good right? I sure could use a little more being satisfied and ease of mind!

BUT, if you glance one word up...be prepared for the V8 slap!

contenD: (v)strive against rivals or difficulties, argue, maintain or claim

I've been doing a lot of striving against difficulties, arguing AND maintaining...especially maintaining control over situations.

Life isn't about control...peace and ease of mind are found when we relinquish control...when we let go, trust in God to take care of us even when we can't see.

Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than them?

It amazes me how patient God is to keep showing me things--if I were my child, I seriously would exasperate myself! Yesterday's sermon was on Honoring God. One thing in particular hit home: God knows our needs and has already provided what we need before we even know that we needed it! Its our ram in the bush. Somewhere, in God's perfect timing our ram will be there waiting for us...the hard part is trusting. But, faith grows the more it is stretched so here we go!

Just Because...

...Its almost the weekend and this week has really stunk it up!

...I laughed so hard when I read this (thank you Ms. K, I really needed it!)

...Hey, did I mention it was almost the weekend whoot whoot!!! (Girls Retreat!!!)

So here it is, my friend posted this on facebook...a quote from her dad (and I couldn't agree more!):

Some people are like slinkies, they don't do anything but make you smile when you push them down the stairs.

;) Happy Friday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Martha Stewart Show

Martha had a Loverly tutorial Friday on how to make roses from lace panties...Yes Ladies, Martha said Panties! (and crotch, which made me laugh so hard that I almost wet my pants!)

Only Martha could dare to try to class-up something you buy at a trashy truck stop! My thoughts are that she's been on the air for so long that they obviously are running out of ideas ;)

Have a Happy Valentine's Day...hopefully an underwear flower free one...unless, of course, you're into that sort of thing!

Ya Win Some, Ya Lose Some

Last week, I had a little bit of a melt down. I've been working my tail off to get a few canvases painted to sell locally. This one was seriously my favorite~loved the colors, love the saying, L.O.V.E., Love it!

I've been working on it for a couple of weeks, here and there when I had a minute. So, imagine my surprise when I went to finish it off the other night only to find someone had poked holes in it! (yes, I morphed into T-Rex mom and banished them all to their rooms before someone got hurt!!!!) You might be able to see the hole in the upper part of the K...I was devastated. A friend had showed me the basics to mixed media painting. So, why not...it's not like it could get any worse..right?

In my head I had this bright, fun painting...focusing on the Lovely's of life. What I ended up with was, well...pastel :( I'm not a real girly girl, pastel kind of person. I cried. I might have even thrown a fit that would put my 6 year old to shame! I hated it. No...I LOATHED it! Now that I think about it, it was probably because I loved the other one soooo much, but it filled me with loads of self doubt. (who did I think I was? I'm not talented...now one is going to like this crap!) So, I headed off to small group to have my buddies, Joyce and Lori tell me what it needed.

I walked in with my canvas, almost in tears because to me the whole thing looked like a Kotex box! Dear sweet Tami took one look at that and said "That would look great in my bathroom!" She bought it on the spot! (Thank YOU Tami for the ego boost, Love you LOTS!)

I guess it just goes to show that I shouldn't be creating in just my "colors"...not everyone will have my skewed tastes...who knows, maybe even see the beauty in something I likened to feminine hygiene!

Here's another quick lovely that I did with the boys (again, I can't for the life of me remember/find where I saw this, but who ever did it...you are talented and wonderful!)

It was pretty easy, just had the boys sign I Love You. (took the pics with my camera phone even!) Then I just picnic'd them to make them black and white and kind of get them to be similar sized.

One hour photo in a small town is great because it took him less than 10 min!

I found the frame at target for $4.98!!! LOVE Target Clearance!

Covered the backing in burlap, taped the edges and stuck on the photos.

I'm not a super technical person, so I just flipped the pics upside down and arranged them until it look even.

Tadaaaa!

I super love it! Their little hands (Jamie's not so tiny hands!) make my heart smile!

L.Y.B.O. Wednesday

Corey and Riley decided to put on a show last weekend while all the fam was in town. Corey's singing "I like to Move it Move it". They are both shakin that booty like crazy (surprisingly in sync with each other!) After the whole move it, move it part, they'd jump around so they were facing everyone, put a hand up in the air and yell "We like to ....Move IT" (this was the part that they instructed everyone else to chime in on!) I would have taken more pics, but I was laughing to hard...just another day in the life!

Couldn't Leave Well Enough Alone

Last weekend, we had a birthday party for Jim...when I should have been cleaning, I was working on little projects...well..they were taking up valuable space, so I was technically cleaning...Right?!?

Here's last week's chalkboard~After a trip to Michael's and finding the COOLEST scrapbook paper Ever (sorry forgot to take a pic of that!), I decided the white had to go!

Hit the Home Depot before leaving town and they were sweet enough to color match me a sample size (seriously, I never knew you could do that! I knew you could pick it up in their paint colors, but not custom...SaaaWeeeet!)Ok, so it's cool..but not quite there yet. (and while perusing the paint counter I totally scored a little can of super bright green for a whopping 66 cents!!!)So, I tried again to wash a color on....ehhh, not so much! The right side is the washed version, the top is where I decided to paint the whole thing green and then dry brush on the blue.

LOVE IT!(terrible picture, but I can't remember the last time we had a decent sun shining through our windows!)

Well, that led to cleaning out my built in shelves...yes, this is the "clean" version! The recycle truck is gonna love me this afternoon!I'm thinking about making some bins out of duck cloth and cardboard boxes to store the schooling stuff.

I also had the hubbster finally hang the states chalkboard from forever ago! We've been propping it up on chairs or against the armoire...so much better actually on a wall!
We ended up cleaning the house in a mad dash....but I like my dining room so much better now! I'm really thinking about doing this to my other wall...not exactly normal adult space decor, but it's also our school room so I'd like to keep it funky and upbeat!

Chalkboard Emergency!

Some of you may remember this lovely painting from a week ago or so....isn't it a beauty?!?

Well, one of the things that made me snag it like a bride at one of those clearance sales was that it really isn't a "painting"...it's chipboard with a picture printed on it (Gotta LOVE the 70's!) and the frame has some pretty good merits.

I wiped it down with a damp rag and then painted the entire thing with leftover ceiling paint from J's room. I really like the color...not too white...not really a cream.
Originally I thought that rubbing some brown paint over the details on the frame would be fantastic....distressed ended up looking dirty...like I rubbed it with an old diaper!

I figured that I'd just keep it white then....until I realized it was too big to fit on the wall I had intended it going on in the kitchen!!! (this all happened after a completely ridiculous day that I'll blog about soon, but forgot to take the picture of my mishap...errr)

With those plans scrapped, I'm kind of at a loss. It ended up fitting perfectly on the wall above the boys' school desks, but I haven't painted the dining room (I don't have any idea what I'm doing to that room yet!).

People, we have a serious CODE WHITE going on here~~~white frame on a white wall is BORING! What should I do? Do I try and rub on a different color...even after my disastrous aging attempt! Do I repaint completely...the boys' desks are school red (no other way to describe it...and I wasn't going to take a picture because the floor surrounding the desks looks like a Crayola factory exploded!) Or do I just leave it because I have monsters for children and chances are the whole thing will get painted over a bazillion times any way....suggestions would be soooo welcome!

I do seriously LOVE this frame...*sigh*

Thank You fellow cheapo craftsters....YOU ROCK!

Chicken Enchilada Soup

I found this recipe over at Whatever.

YUM!!!

Here's my version:
~cook 2 chicken breasts and shred 'em up!
~chop an onion and 2 carrots (because the kids need veggies and these needed to be used pronto!)
~add 1 can tomato soup, 2 cans petite diced tomatoes, 1 can green chilies, 1 can green enchilada sauce, 1 box o' chicken stock (these are all original to Meg's recipe)
~then add in 1 can black beans and half of a bag of frozen corn
~cook until corn is no longer frozen and the soup is HoT
Serve up with tortilla chips, sour cream and cheese! Super Delish!!!!

Also, Meg is headed to Africa this spring.....stop over at her etsy page to help fund her trip!!!