Today in carpool, Annabelle (4 1/2) was telling the story to Devorah (4). Because we were close to school, she said, "I'm just going to tell you the end. So she pricks her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel.........(pause). Is that right?"
Me: "Yup. They're just words we don't use often, but that's how you say it".
Annabelle: "So she's going to fall down dead, but then she just falls asleep for a long time and the prince has to come and kiss her on the lips. Do you get it, Devorah? It's GOT to be on the lips b/c his name is 'Phi-LIP', so it's gotta be on the lips!"
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
My "SCD Success Story" post
sent to the two main SCD groups I'm on after a newbie posted asking for success stories....
"When my dd first started the SC diet, I found success stories very helpful, so here is ours:
My dd was dx'ed at age 8.5 w. a very severe case of Crohn's disease. It took us three months to get a proper dx, and, by that time, her SED rate was 95, which was so off-the-charts that, if the GI consult didn't pan out, our next stop was the cancer docs, b/c it was most likely to be lymphoma.....
She was hospitalized a week and we started the SC diet two days after she was discharged. It's been (and I can't believe I can say this)
2 1/2 years.
Everyone has their trials and challenges when they start the diet. Ours were that dh and I had been vegetarians since we were teens and we felt that it was really impossible to eat only dairy and eggs and have a complete diet on SCD. So we added some fish, chicken and meat to our diets. Since we are Jewish and keep kosher, this meant adding an entirely new set of dishes, pots, cabinets, etc, and re-learning how to keep a kosher kitchen with two sets of dishes in it, something I had not done since I was a child.
Our other big challenges were that we had a newborn baby (dd got sick when I was 7 months pregnant), and one of our four children has an anaphylactic allergy to nuts [editor's note: for those of you not familiar w. the SC diet: no grains of any kind are allowed. Nut flours are used instead of grains). Whee!
If we could make it through 2 1/2 years with this @#$^@#!$ against us, I hope I have given some inspiration that, whatever challenges you are facing in implementing the diet, it CAN be done.
We also had lots of good things to help us: very supportive family (including my mother and brother-in-law who cooked all off dd's nut products at their house so I wouldn't risk "dosing" the nut-allergic child), a GI doc who STRONGLY supports the SC diet and tries to get all his IBD patients to follow it, parents who came to help with the baby [my dad] and help me figure out what the heck to cook [my mom], and the financial ability (for a little while, at least!) to hire someone to come 3 hours 3x/week to clean the kitchen that I repeatedly and continually trashed cooking for six people.....It was also a big help that dd has always been homeschooled so we didn't have to deal with packing her lunches for school and dealing with tons of parties.
dd left the hospital on a ton of meds and has weaned off of prednisone, flagyl, prevacid, and (the last one to go) Imuran. She's been over 5 months totally med-free (no supplements either) with only the SC diet for treatment. We have begun experimenting with her having a few bites of things that aren't SCD, and she's had two complete meals off for major family events (one was a year ago and her GI doc gave approval since she had been symptom-free for quite a while).
I am starting to use some ingredients that are not completely SCD (I bought my first package of pre-shredded cheese in three years recently!).
The way that I've presented it to my dd is that it's great we have the SC diet "in our pocket" for the future. I picture her eating mostly SCD but without the diet-recommended fanaticism. Like how I heard that Elaine Gotschall's daughter ate/eats 80% SCD and 20% SAD (Standard American Diet). Maybe/probably there will be times in her life where she'll have to go back to it (for women, notably hormonal changes of adolescence and pregnancy/postpartum seem to induce bad flares), but how great we know something other than meds and surgery.
Wishing everyone on this list good health,
Ellen
11 y/o dd scd since 5/06 for Crohn's
med-free since 9/08"
"When my dd first started the SC diet, I found success stories very helpful, so here is ours:
My dd was dx'ed at age 8.5 w. a very severe case of Crohn's disease. It took us three months to get a proper dx, and, by that time, her SED rate was 95, which was so off-the-charts that, if the GI consult didn't pan out, our next stop was the cancer docs, b/c it was most likely to be lymphoma.....
She was hospitalized a week and we started the SC diet two days after she was discharged. It's been (and I can't believe I can say this)
2 1/2 years.
Everyone has their trials and challenges when they start the diet. Ours were that dh and I had been vegetarians since we were teens and we felt that it was really impossible to eat only dairy and eggs and have a complete diet on SCD. So we added some fish, chicken and meat to our diets. Since we are Jewish and keep kosher, this meant adding an entirely new set of dishes, pots, cabinets, etc, and re-learning how to keep a kosher kitchen with two sets of dishes in it, something I had not done since I was a child.
Our other big challenges were that we had a newborn baby (dd got sick when I was 7 months pregnant), and one of our four children has an anaphylactic allergy to nuts [editor's note: for those of you not familiar w. the SC diet: no grains of any kind are allowed. Nut flours are used instead of grains). Whee!
If we could make it through 2 1/2 years with this @#$^@#!$ against us, I hope I have given some inspiration that, whatever challenges you are facing in implementing the diet, it CAN be done.
We also had lots of good things to help us: very supportive family (including my mother and brother-in-law who cooked all off dd's nut products at their house so I wouldn't risk "dosing" the nut-allergic child), a GI doc who STRONGLY supports the SC diet and tries to get all his IBD patients to follow it, parents who came to help with the baby [my dad] and help me figure out what the heck to cook [my mom], and the financial ability (for a little while, at least!) to hire someone to come 3 hours 3x/week to clean the kitchen that I repeatedly and continually trashed cooking for six people.....It was also a big help that dd has always been homeschooled so we didn't have to deal with packing her lunches for school and dealing with tons of parties.
dd left the hospital on a ton of meds and has weaned off of prednisone, flagyl, prevacid, and (the last one to go) Imuran. She's been over 5 months totally med-free (no supplements either) with only the SC diet for treatment. We have begun experimenting with her having a few bites of things that aren't SCD, and she's had two complete meals off for major family events (one was a year ago and her GI doc gave approval since she had been symptom-free for quite a while).
I am starting to use some ingredients that are not completely SCD (I bought my first package of pre-shredded cheese in three years recently!).
The way that I've presented it to my dd is that it's great we have the SC diet "in our pocket" for the future. I picture her eating mostly SCD but without the diet-recommended fanaticism. Like how I heard that Elaine Gotschall's daughter ate/eats 80% SCD and 20% SAD (Standard American Diet). Maybe/probably there will be times in her life where she'll have to go back to it (for women, notably hormonal changes of adolescence and pregnancy/postpartum seem to induce bad flares), but how great we know something other than meds and surgery.
Wishing everyone on this list good health,
Ellen
11 y/o dd scd since 5/06 for Crohn's
med-free since 9/08"
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Ilana Makes Soup
Ilana is pretending to make me dinner.
She hands me a soup bowl and pours something from her little pot into it.
"Yum, Ilana! What kind of soup is it?"
"it's chicken....pox soup".
I don't know why I didn't want seconds!
She hands me a soup bowl and pours something from her little pot into it.
"Yum, Ilana! What kind of soup is it?"
"it's chicken....pox soup".
I don't know why I didn't want seconds!
Sweet Words
There are words that are so sweet to hear.....
"Mama"
"I love you"
"Harei at mekudeshet....." (the "I do" line of a Jewish wedding)
but I am still, two days later, so unbelievably happy at the words "former president George W. Bush"
"Mama"
"I love you"
"Harei at mekudeshet....." (the "I do" line of a Jewish wedding)
but I am still, two days later, so unbelievably happy at the words "former president George W. Bush"
Sunday, January 18, 2009
posting again
What can one say after writing about the worst thing that can happen to a parent?
sigh
A few weeks back, a small group of us went with Jodi, Jon and Jake to scatter Katie's ashes in the woods near Jodi's childhood home (they also scattered ashes near Jon's parents, and brought some back to Malaysia). This was the home where Heidi, Jodi and I spent so many hours together, and the woods that we knew like the backs of our hands when we were younger. How unbearably sad, utterly surreal, and, in a small way, comforting, to be there scattering Katie's ashes....
Jodi read a beautiful and moving farewell to Katie, telling her she would be with her grandfather Joe there, in the woods where Papa Joe had so delighted in taking Jodi and her brother and sisters to play pirates after making paper pirate hats with them. Jon read a prayer that had been said at the funeral. They asked Jake (who is 5) if he wanted to say something. He had been playing with sticks and said he had found one that looked like a "7", which was good because Katie was 7. He had a pile of them and said something like it was his pile of "loving sticks". G-d bless him. So we all started collecting loving sticks for the pile.
Jodi showed him and her great-nephew the "fairy ring" of rocks there. Her sister went way back into the woods to see if something she remembered was still there. We all marveled over how easily the house they grew up in could be seen (having mostly played there in spring and summer, it was usually impossible to see the house at all through the trees, and, since it was a whole block away, felt rather far!).
Shabbat was fast approaching. Heidi and I were emotional wrecks. So glad I could go, though.
Jodi, Jon and Jake are back in Malaysia again. Miss them....
sigh
A few weeks back, a small group of us went with Jodi, Jon and Jake to scatter Katie's ashes in the woods near Jodi's childhood home (they also scattered ashes near Jon's parents, and brought some back to Malaysia). This was the home where Heidi, Jodi and I spent so many hours together, and the woods that we knew like the backs of our hands when we were younger. How unbearably sad, utterly surreal, and, in a small way, comforting, to be there scattering Katie's ashes....
Jodi read a beautiful and moving farewell to Katie, telling her she would be with her grandfather Joe there, in the woods where Papa Joe had so delighted in taking Jodi and her brother and sisters to play pirates after making paper pirate hats with them. Jon read a prayer that had been said at the funeral. They asked Jake (who is 5) if he wanted to say something. He had been playing with sticks and said he had found one that looked like a "7", which was good because Katie was 7. He had a pile of them and said something like it was his pile of "loving sticks". G-d bless him. So we all started collecting loving sticks for the pile.
Jodi showed him and her great-nephew the "fairy ring" of rocks there. Her sister went way back into the woods to see if something she remembered was still there. We all marveled over how easily the house they grew up in could be seen (having mostly played there in spring and summer, it was usually impossible to see the house at all through the trees, and, since it was a whole block away, felt rather far!).
Shabbat was fast approaching. Heidi and I were emotional wrecks. So glad I could go, though.
Jodi, Jon and Jake are back in Malaysia again. Miss them....
Thursday, November 27, 2008
From the Vista Academy Times, written by Chana and Mama
On November 6, our little friend Katie Jonis died. She was 7 ½
years old. She had a problem called a cerebral hemorrhage in
her brain. She was living with her parents, Jodi and Jon, and
her brother Jake in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia.
My mother and Katie’s mother have been friends since
elementary school, so I got to meet Katie when she was little.
When they were in the US this summer, we saw each other
twice. Katie was a very nice person who was fun. She liked to
do gymnastics and go rock climbing.
Katie was born in Singapore and lived in Massachusetts for a
few years, too. People all over the world knew Katie, and we
all miss her.
If you would like to sign the online condolence book, please click here
http://www.legacy.com/bostonglobe/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=120053126
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
She's a Polar Bear!
On Friday, our heat was out (thankfully, fixed before Shabbat). But Batsheva had decided on Thursday that she was going to set her alarm for 6 a.m. and take a shower. And when Batsheva decides something, there's nothing that's going to stand in her way. She could see her breath in the bathroom and she still went ahead with her shower! (the rest of us could barely get out of bed and Ilana refused to even take her pajamas off, so she spent the rest of the day with her nightgown hanging out among the other layers of clothes I put on her!)
As we say, "She's a polar bear, grrr!"
As we say, "She's a polar bear, grrr!"
Monday, November 03, 2008
Yo!
Ilana and I are outside on the swing, waiting for PB to return from school. Ilana points to our lawn sign.
Me: "Who are we voting for, Ilana?"
Ilana: "Yobama!"
Me: "Who are we voting for, Ilana?"
Ilana: "Yobama!"
Sunday, November 02, 2008
This is some dead turf (literally)
Batsheva, Chana and I have been spending our evenings phone banking from home for Obama. We're calling NH voters. This being the end of the election and we being johnny-come-lately volunteers, we're certainly not getting the cream of the crop with our turf.
So far, we've made 91 calls and contacted 10 people. 2 screamed at us for various reasons, 2 were "resident aliens" (I am VERY proud that my girls didn't laugh until *off* the phone!) and the other six had all died from between 2 all the way to 27 years ago! Where did they get this turf?!
So far, we've made 91 calls and contacted 10 people. 2 screamed at us for various reasons, 2 were "resident aliens" (I am VERY proud that my girls didn't laugh until *off* the phone!) and the other six had all died from between 2 all the way to 27 years ago! Where did they get this turf?!
Ilana gets political
Me: "The polls are now saying it's very close. What if McCain wins?! I can't take staying in America with another Republican administration."
Sam: "We can always go to Israel."
Me: "Okay. Fine."
Ilana: "We can't go to Israel!!!!!!"
Sam: "Why not?"
Ilana: "Because I haven't finished my toast!"
Ilana chews. And chews. 2 minutes later:
Ilana: "I done! Now we go Israel".
Sam: "We can always go to Israel."
Me: "Okay. Fine."
Ilana: "We can't go to Israel!!!!!!"
Sam: "Why not?"
Ilana: "Because I haven't finished my toast!"
Ilana chews. And chews. 2 minutes later:
Ilana: "I done! Now we go Israel".
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Carbon-free kids
Read this great article about our friend and cousin, Ruthie! I love these "go get 'em" kids!!!!!!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Very sudsy
We're a busy group of people around here! We've gotten a bunch of orders for pink ribbon soaps (20% going to breast cancer research funds), Halloween soaps, and the beginning of our yearly huge order for our friend in NY who gets personalized soaps for every one of her kids' teachers, doctors, coaches, etc. LOOOOVE it!
I've also figured out a way for Ilana to truly help out in the business. When I chunk soap (i.e. take the 20 lb. cube and chop it into small pieces), she takes the pieces and puts them into ziploc bags for me. It is really a big help and she loves doing it!
I've also figured out a way for Ilana to truly help out in the business. When I chunk soap (i.e. take the 20 lb. cube and chop it into small pieces), she takes the pieces and puts them into ziploc bags for me. It is really a big help and she loves doing it!
Friday, October 10, 2008
She's gone, Jim
Betsy, I mean. Our poor, dear car. The thingamajiggy that is broken is so deep inside the engine (or something) that our mechanic doesn't deal with it, and the guy he recommended says it will cost $500 to even look at it.
Next up, between Shabbos and Yom Tov, buying a car. EEEEK!
Next up, between Shabbos and Yom Tov, buying a car. EEEEK!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
The Contest Is On!
Following-up to my post about Yaldah magazine winning $10,000 by being a "Someday Stories" contest finalist:
The contest just started and you can see all the stories and watch videos of the contestants talking about their dreams. It's a really neat contest, and the finalists are wonderful! Check them out here: http://memelabs.com/somedaystories/ and don't forget to vote!
The contest just started and you can see all the stories and watch videos of the contestants talking about their dreams. It's a really neat contest, and the finalists are wonderful! Check them out here: http://memelabs.com/somedaystories/ and don't forget to vote!
Monday, September 15, 2008
Brushing Ilana's Teeth
That's been a fairly big struggle since she's gotten teeth. We sing songs, play games, act silly. Mostly, though, I do all those things while I put her in a headlock and go to work....Recently, she's started letting me floss her teeth, which, according to some, is more important than brushing anyway, so we'll hope for the dental best.
Tonight:
Me: "Before we read another story, it's time to brush your teeth"
Ilana (almost 2 1/2): "Don' wan' brush teeth! I don' have teeth!!!!!!"
Tonight:
Me: "Before we read another story, it's time to brush your teeth"
Ilana (almost 2 1/2): "Don' wan' brush teeth! I don' have teeth!!!!!!"
I've found my favorite snack food
Love at first bite. I just tried Trader Joe's Roasted Gorgonzola Oven Crisp Crackers. WOW. They have a base taste of regular, buttery cracker. And then a delicate POW of stinky cheese. Heaven. Absolute heaven. If these had been around when I was pregnant, we would have had to buy them by the case. Reasonably priced, too, at $1.99/box.
btw, O-U dairy certified. And if they can make gorgonzola crackers w. an O-U certification, would it be asking so much to find some good stinky cheese w. a nice hechsher?!
btw, O-U dairy certified. And if they can make gorgonzola crackers w. an O-U certification, would it be asking so much to find some good stinky cheese w. a nice hechsher?!
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