Too much still, but God is so good!

We drove all the way to Portland, 2,000+ miles, in four very long days.
One cabin, one freezing campsite, one pet friendly hotel.
No car troubles! No pet losses! Only a little vomiting.... a lot of mountains, Oh, and one buffalo.
Insert pictures
We were welcomed to Kenton on Aug 20 with open arms, a comfortable lovely home to stay three days in (with a literally huge soaking tub), and a barbecue!
We came through Washington on a horribly smoky day, it felt apocalyptic from the road. A real act of faith to leave everything and bring my children to that! It all cleared up beautifully in the Columbia gorge. Absolutely gorgeous (cue the puns). We sailed in, a couple hours behind schedule, with the grace of the holy spirit propelling us, i don't know what else to say. I was not ragged and exhausted but peaceful and grateful at the welcoming cookout.
We moved in three days later. The unloading of our miraculous semi-trailer 'pod' was marked by the cheerfulness, enthusiastic service and brother- and sisterhood typical of a People of Praise move. (Much like the packing-up of the same pod in South Bend, which was truly miraculous). Beds were made and kitchen unpacked, the Ikea bunk beds were rebuilt by an expert team of handy man, engineer and problem solver.
photos here.
We are here. We love our neighborhood and new Trinity school. i just painted the kitchen and have started to unbox a few more decorative things that belong on the walls.
I will put some pictures here.

Our House

It is a major moment for us that we have decided to sell our house! (Now. As soon as possible!) I have thought for the past four years that it would be very good to have more space, and I thought to try a fairly lateral move, with property being so cheap during that time, to get a bigger house here in South Bend. Nothing panned out. And now here we are, with our big Oregon adventure before us, and we are moving far out of town! So the time that God has for us to sell our house is here! So many memories, such a beautiful home full of charm and sunlight. Such a wonderful yard for children to be wild and free in. I hope someone who is praying for just such a place will buy it from us and love it as we have.

Sunroom, computer area

Other side of sunroom, art and homework table

Side yard between garage and house, perennial garden

Backyard, fire pit, rain garden, rope swing etc

View the other way; rain garden and deck

Built-ins and window seat in living room. This room is currently full of boxes!

We are currently painting the upper cupboard doors.

But I actually love the open shelving!

Little boys' room

Master bedroom

The details. This is a three bedroom, 1600+ sq ft home with a sunroom attached to the kitchen and a bonus room upstairs among the bedrooms that makes a great little office or a bedroom for a baby. The master bedroom is 12x12’ and has a walk-in closet (are rare treat in a 1922 house!) that is about 9x5’. The other two bedrooms are each 11’10”x10’, also with large closets. The bonus room has a window, a ceiling fan light and an outlet as well as shelves and rods for using it as a large walk in closet. The bathroom is a very good size with a real tub good for soaking, and of course a shower. There is a ceramic tile floor. The living room has built in bookshelves that we built, and four huge sunny windows. Hardwood floors are throughout the home and there are cute French doors in the doorway between the immediate entryway and an elegant small entry area where there are extra wide doorways to the living room and dining room and the stairs going up. A charming half bathroom is there where no doubt there was once a hall closet. The dining room is a nice size with room for china cabinets and our family of nine. The kitchen has nice oak cabinets which we have recently painted, abundant storage, new countertops and a huge fridge which stays. Range and dishwasher are newer. The bright sunroom flows from the kitchen and makes a great breakfast area, school area, toy area, computer area, you name it. The basement has the laundry and great storage, a tool bench and tool area and a large finished room, the same size as the living room above. This is currently our girls dormitory, though it does not have egress windows. It does have two west facing windows.
The property is a double lot and we just put up a new fence and enlarged the enclosed area last summer. I also created a rain garden in the past year which uses perennial plants and flowers in a low sunken bed to drain excess melt and rain water from the back and side of the yard. We had a completely dry basement this year even during the flood time! A huge shady sugar maple and other trees and perennials make up the yard, plus a lot of built in playground equipment! And there is a deck. See photos. (a few rooms are missing from photos. coming soon!). Located five min from Notre Dame, just west of the river.

Summer 2017 was a Time of the Cat

Marshmallow's kittens!

Poor dear Marshmallow. Fed and looked after her like crazy!

Cat Noir, with her one white whisker. Now called Shadow at her home

Athena

Jeffrey

Sweet Athena looks like a baby dragon all curled up

Mint paw looking wicked

Minty looking innocent 

Dog and boy

too cute

Let me explain. No. Is too much; let me sum up.

Life keeps moving forward, and this blog has not been keeping up!
Stumbling blocks: 1) something about how I organize pictures changed, and I do not enjoy playing around and figuring out technology, so I have done nothing. 2) my techy daughter has been very busy in school, and in the golden age of this blog she was a 6th grade home schooler and encouraged me to blog, and helped me with stumbling blocks.
But! Hermione and I were discussing how she might start blogging, and I decided I will too. The year has been amazingly full and rich, with more fullness and richness to come, and I think
I will regret it if I don’t put some memories and thoughts here.
So. By category, we will have: Farm, Pets, Music, Home and baby, Holidays and food.

Postpartum Autoimmune Protocol Survival: Paleo Coffee Cream

Here's little Theo; the 8 month old cause of my current health craziness, and worth every minute of it.

I have Hashimotos and a gluten intolerance that is not diagnosed Celiac, but is certainly autoimmune and related to my genetics and a leaky gut. I just had my seventh child, and, lucky for me, I have remission of my autoimmune disease during pregnancy. That is a mercy, because I am getting old here, and pregnancy is pretty challenging anymore! I have killer veins and a lot of irritability and depression during pregnancy, but, praise the Lord, I can eat dairy!

I follow Sarah Ballantyne's work and a few years ago I bit the bullet and did the Autoimmune Protocol whole hog. It made a huge difference in my life. Huge. Since then I have been able to reintroduce many foods that I cut out during the elimination phase. And during this pregnancy I was able to enjoy dairy (read "survive on Greek yogurt") without consequences.

But, as Sarah has said, people with autoimmune disease who enjoy remission during pregnancy often experience  flare up postpartum. I have been waiting and expecting this, and Boom! the several weeks around the baby turning six months old finally delivered. Suffice it to say, emotional turmoil, a very leaky gut and lots of odd adverse reactions to foods have signaled that it is time to be back on a tight, clean elimination phase of AIP again. Joy.

Dairy is being a huge problem, as is alcohol, which seems to open me up to be intolerant to whatever I eat with it. And yet, one needs some enjoyment in life! I have cut out dairy almost completely; I am having only a tiny bit of organic half and half in my coffee, and rare tastes of cheese, but I am weaning off even more because I want/need to feel as well as I can. So, for that second cup of coffee, I have started replacing the cream with a nutrient rich concoction that is not too weird, and in fact very yummy.

You have heard of 'bulletproof' coffee; so have I, and I don't like oil in my drinks. I do not have a super immersion blender to emulsify my morning beverage; and if I did I would question getting it dirty every morning. Dishes are the bane of this house. Dishes and socks.

Anyway, below is my take on Paleo Coffee:

Yummy, creamy, not too oily, not too coconut-y Paleo Coffee Cream

I took the coconut cream off the top of a can of good Thai coconut milk; let my daughter put the milky liquid from below into a smoothie. I got the coconut cream good and cold, as you do when you are going to whip it into paleo 'whipped cream'. 

I also took a block of Kerry Gold, unsalted, grass-fed Irish butter. Softened that to room temperature, as you do when you want to whip butter. You see where this is going. Then I simply whipped the coconut cream (by hand, actually, with a whisk), and added the butter and whipped some more. This way the two were nicely blended and emulsified. I keep this in a container in the fridge and scoop off a bit for each cup of coffee. It is crumbly when cold, but blends well with coffee and does not go too oily on the surface of the drink. And as I said, it is creamy, not too oily, not too coconut-y. Grass fed butter has different fats than conventional American butter, plus vitamins and other good things. And not much lactose. This level of dairy seems to be gong really well! And of course, I am hitting the sardines and leafy greens and other good stuff as I should on AIP. (Not keen on organ meats; we have a bunch of liver and onions frozen, because we could not get ourselves to eat it! Next maybe I will be hiding some of that in meatballs...)

Just finally named the new baby!

Introducing Theodosia, born September 12, 2016

( you know we really named her before. But finally I have picked her blog alias! In honor of that beautiful song I love from Hamilton.)