WHEW

Well it just took me far too long to sign in, since I forgot my username and password. Oh my, that was a marathon, and I am wondering if I really have time to write, after all...
How frustrating.
Reg is out with Morgan and Lance for the afternoon. Jadengrace is asleep and Kady is at school. I have the house to myself. I should:
get papers ready for an appt on Monday.
do the dishes.
make myself a sandwich.
make some phone calls.
do some laundry.
straighten up this nasty ol' desk.
figure out something for dinner.
But I am here, resting. I want a hot cup of tea but we are out of milk. I pray Reg remembers to pick some up on his way home. I do have Jaden's 'fake' milk (it is made out of potatoes and Reg asks her, 'do you want some potato juice?' :O)) but it tastes awful. So awful I would rather skip the tea.
Jaden, on the other hand, drinks the stuff. She looked at her sippy cup kinda funny the first few times she tasted it. We started her on the gluten-free/casein-free diet in early September. So this is her milk source now. Even though it is made from potatoes, it has added nutrients. Much better for her than plain rice milk.
The diet itself has been tough. Jaden is not a picky eater and doesn't even realize she is on a restricted diet. (well except when we have pizza for dinner--then she NOTICES) but we try to do that when she is in bed for the night. The hardest part is variety. In addition to potatoes, she can have white rice, real meat, real veggies, real fruits, applesauce, Welch's fruit snacks, raisins, Wise original chips, special pretzels from the HFS, special gluten free cereals from the HFS (which taste surprisingly good) homemade pancakes and waffles made with rice flour, eggs, Boar's Head turkey, Hellman's mayo, Peanut butter, bread homemade with appropriate flour. She can't have wheat, barley, oats, rye, spelt....don't know if I am remembering them all...she also cannot have dairy (casein) which is in a lot more than milk. No more yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream, cheese.....Ingredients must be carefully checked.
Anyway, Reg feels very sorry for Jaden because she doesn't have a variety of foods. I say she doesn't even notice and is very happy with the choices we give her. Well, not the meat. Most of her protein comes from peanut butter and Boar's Head turkey from the deli. She doesn't really like any other meats, though we try every night. :O)
Well, Jaden's diet is one of the first things we changed when we suspected she was autistic. I read many testimonies of children making incredible improvement by following this diet. We have not noticed a lot of change with the diet, but we do notice now that she has been on it for awhile, that if she gets just a bit of offending foods, she doesn't have a good day. Food is powerful! And is the cause of most ailments in America today.
More later. My brain hurts and I will feel guilty if I don't tackle just one of those things on my list of things to do.
Fighting autism,
Bon