What's new with me?

A lot! At home we've created three new routines, before school, after school and before bed. Our old routines needed updating and things are running much smoother for our whole family. I laughed on the inside when Alannah asked, "Why are you doing this to me? I like my life the way it is!" All of our focused parental solidarity has lead her to accuse us of "always taking each other's side." To which Michael and I high-fived each other after she left the room. Success!

We've gone to several doctor's appointments to determine the scope of some of her health problems and have discovered she's allergic (so far) to milk, dogs, horses, guinea pigs, mice, rabbits and hamsters. I knew she wasn't allergic to cats since she's shown no signs of being allergic to Miley, and I was right. I had no idea about the other animals though. The doctor did say that she's suffering from allergies right now, hence the runny nose, etc., but the scratch test indicated she had no plant allergies. Since allergies run in the family and I'm allergic to most plants and the scratch test is not 100% accurate, we'll do more testing in 6 weeks. The milk scratch test was negative too, but she had a RAST test score of 7, very high. So we've gone soy and are loving everything but the price. More vitamins and minerals, less fat and cholesterol, but wow, are soy products expensive. One box of Mac and Chreese is $2.79. Half a gallon of silk is $4.59. I'm going to check out rice milk the next time I head to the store.

Today during homework Alannah was so antsy that I made her run around the house 3 times, and then we went on an hour hike. We got back and she quickly finished her work. She said that our adventure was more fun than our pajama party day, and I agreed. So we'll be be heading out the back door for more adventures!

Life is good and can be hard, but I am never alone and I wouldn't change a thing. God is in control and I'm so happy that I am not!