As many of us have encountered, life gets in the way of our best laid plans. I did manage to finish the baby afghan, almost. I still need to weave in all the loose ends, but for all practical purposes it is done, and with a lovely boarder. I’ve tried 2x now to sit and weave ends but have been distracted. I haven’t gotten back to the larger afghan and I’m still looking at the next yarn cake begging to be created into something awesome. But it has been busy here. Good reasons though mostly. The upside is that we will be moving within the next month or so into our new home. The downside, I have to pack the place up and then unpack everything… The joy of moving. But I am excited about the house because I’ll have a nice size art room. There should be room enough for a multi-space storage shelf like this one from IKEA for the yarn stash and other needs. And I’ll finally be able to completely open up my sewing table so that I have the full top available and the side table for my serger. As of right now, it’s folded up in the most compact position so I cannot use it for much of anything other than a storage spot.
The other thing in life that we must all endure, enjoy and discover is food. I am one of the 15 million Americans with food allergies. Food allergies are on the rise but the causes are not known and there are no cures. We live with them and learn how to avoid the causative agents. In most cases these days people are more understanding considering how prevalent the issues are so eating out at restaurants are becoming less of a problem. I’m allergic to pork products and wheat/gluten proteins. Yes, pork allergies are real. Just like seafood, shellfish or peanuts, this is an actual allergy. Simply put, my immune system overreacts to the pork and produces an antibody called immunoglobulin E (IgE). When I’ve been accidentally exposed to pork products, I’ve experienced symptoms including difficulty breathing, itching, skin rash, sudden feeling of overheating, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting and headache. Usually many of these all at once and painfully. Luckily, I have not yet experienced anaphylaxis (fingers crossed). Ironically, pork allergies can be related to cat allergies, not sure why. I don’t have a cat and don’t hang out with them so I don’t know how I would react.
And, No, my wheat/gluten allergy is not a fad diet, I’m not trying to lose weight and I’m not trying to be cool like all the other stylish people trying the latest fad diet. I’ve been hospitalized twice because of this lovely protein. My GI doctor has restricted me from eating it, ever. After many tests and the two hospitalizations we discovered that my diet needed to be changed, immediately. When my husband and I went through the pantry and refrigerator to rid ourselves of anything with wheat, barley, rye, flour, or other gluten we found we had 5 large boxes of food that I could not eat. We donated this to the Food Bank so it wouldn’t go to waste and then set out to begin to figure out what to buy that I could eat. Every once in a while I still get cross-contamination when we go out to eat. I’ve learned to ride out the pain and symptoms that follow, keeping positive that it will pass and I’ll be okay soon.
Many people these days have food allergies. More than I’ve ever realized. I’ve been in mixed food allergy company many times. And it seems to be very prevalent beginning in Gen X. My question is why? More processed foods when we were kids? More pollutants and contaminants in the environment? I have no idea but here we are. On the upside, we are still surviving.
To end this I’m going to add my first fav recipe that I’ve discovered and reconfigured a bit to remake a Southern breakfast dish that is tasty but safe for the gluten free crowd. You can find it in my Food 4 Thought section. It relies heavily on Bob’s Red Mill products, and rightly so. The products are awesome! Highly recommend them for anyone, they taste great.
