What's the big deal about gluten?

I recently decided to do a trial run with a gluten free diet for our family. Well, mostly for Cameron but I'm not about to make two different meals, every meal, every day. So we are all on this little trial run together. Well, almost all of us. Dan will be joining our little journey really soon! I posted a couple things about being gluten free on Facebook and had several people ask me why I have decided to make the switch. Rather than clogging up Facebook with lengthy explanations, I would rather blog about it.
It really isn't anything other than a test right now.
My 3 year old, Cameron, has displayed several little "issues" over the past 2 years as he is growing that have raised little flags here and there in my mind. Yes, I know every child is different, every child grows and develops at a different pace and they all have their own little unique personalities. But struggling (and I mean STRUGGLING!) to get my son to eat just about anything and everything, every day for over 2 years starts to raise a lot of concerns in a mom's heart. So I started to research a few things and made a lot of mental notes. I also talked to his doctor about my concerns. She just kind of gently walked around the issues with comments such as "he is just a picky eater" and "he will grow out of it". Well, that is one of the problems. He literally isn't growing. When your toddler wears the same summer clothes 2 summers in a row there is a chance something isn't quite right. So I persisted. Finally she agreed to have a food allergies blood test done on him. And of course everything came back normal. So I was left thinking either I really am just crazy or something is still not right but I just don't have a clue still.
In talking with several of my family members that have a number of food allergies I learned that a blood test doesn't always reflect what your body is feeling. Long story short, I read up on symptoms of being gluten intolerant and Cameron displays several of them. Both physical and behavioral. I figure as his mom I owe it to him to try any and everything I can to find how I can best help my little boy get healthier.

The 2 week trial so far:
At first I just started slowly trading out things that he normally ate for a gluten free alternative.  Eventually I moved to a totally gluten free diet for several days in a row. He was showing signs of feeling better, more energy and just overall a happier kid. More willing to receive instruction and actually a joyful helper rather than an angry defiant stinker. His tummy wasn't  as bloated, his bathroom issues were improving a lot and the dark circles under his eyes were going away. Then I allowed him to have 1 item that had gluten in it to see what would happen. The result: a horrible day for all! He didn't feel good at all, he was majorly cranky and just a total yo-yo of emotions. So back to totally gluten free he went. It took a few days but he started to come back around and is doing much better again. I am going to keep him on the g-free diet for a couple more weeks to see what additional changes may result. But so far, the changes I have seen have made the change completely worth it. Yes, the food is pricey, you can't eat out many places (darn!), and it is a lot of work learning how to cook all over again. But after seeing what my boy is like when he feels healthy, you can't put a cost on that for me. If this really is what he needs (which at this point I am almost certain it is) then I will do everything in my power to make it work.
Making it work?
Right now I am going to a lot of stores to find where the best places are to get products, getting creative in the kitchen with what I have found so far, asking a ton of questions, and researching ways to make a lot of things my own. Thankfully, I have a lot of built in resources with family that is gluten intolerant. They have walked this road before me and have been a great source of information and encouragement. We still have a long way to go in figuring this all out but at least there is a start and there is progress! Really good progress! And for now, I am beyond thankful for that.

I'm back on the wagon!

So I just realized it has been over a year since I posted anything. Oops. Well, it has been an amazing year. Let's see, Kyle joined our family in January, we moved into our own home in February, our house in Indiana FINALLY sold in July, Taylor graduated kinder, we took our very first family camping trip (with a 6 month old!) um, and a million other wonderful things!
Now that we are finally settling into things I am determined to be much more diligent about posting about the many adventures of the Mahaffie family. If for no other reason, to force myself to stop and reflect on all of the sweet moments this season in life has for us daily. Cheers!

Our little Evangelist

Today over lunch Taylor tells me "I don't think my teacher knows about Jesus."
To which I reply, "Why do you think that?"
Taylor: "Well, she just never talks about him." (Hmm, how many of us ADULTS claim to know Jesus but we just never talk about him, chew on that.)
I then try to explain to her that even though her kindergarten is on the same campus as her Christian preschool this school isn't allowed to teach about the Bible. So her teacher might know about Jesus, she just isn't allowed to teach about Him.
Taylor was appalled! She says, "That is such a bad rule! We should just break that rule and tell them that they don't need that rule because the Bible is a VERY important book." She continues with "I know! I will tell my teacher everything I know about Jesus so that she will know and then she won't get in trouble because I will be teaching about Him! Then, when I get older, I will study and learn more and more about Him and tell her that too!"
Then she asks, "Will I get in trouble for that mom?"
To which I just reply, "No baby. You tell anyone you want about Jesus."
Still shocked by this 'rule' she says, "I bet that rule makes God very sad because He wants people to learn more about Him."

This whole conversation I pretty much just let her talk to see where she would go with it and how she would respond. I must say, if we all had the passion and urgency that our Taylor girl has in spreading the gospel things would look a LOT different!

Let your little light shine baby girl! Public school or not, people NEED Christ and she gets that.

(Side note: The property RIGHT next to our church building a Muslim prayer center is being built.) A while back, out of her typical curiosity she asked what they are building. We explained to her what it is and what will be going on there. She then asked if we could get up early the next morning to go talk to them to tell them about Jesus so that they can stop praying to the wrong god and so they can know God. I explained that right now it is just the construction workers there, the people that will be praying there aren't there yet since the building isn't finished.
She replied so matter of factly, "Well, do the construction people need to know about Jesus?"

This girl isn't 5 yet Ya'll! She is on mission to tell everyone she meets whatever she knows about Jesus. She knows she still has a lot to learn about Him but that doesn't stop her. She will share every bit that she does know and as she learns more, she'll share that too.
This is such a perfect picture of that child-like faith Jesus spoke about. Such a challenge and inspiration to us to just share whatever we do know, even if we don't know it all. Because guess what, NO ONE knows all there is to know about God (in case you didn't already know that) ;). So just share what you do know and let God take care of the rest!

 Lets all take a few lessons from Taylor: defy the rules and tell the world about Jesus!

In Awe

As usual, the summer has passed in a hot blur. Although it has been loaded with tons of fun, adventures, vacation, birthdays, re-uniting with long time friends, visits with family, fun ministry opportunities, etc. I have failed to blog about any of it. Purely out of simply not taking the time to do it. So for anyone out there that has been eagerly awaiting to know what has been going on in the lives of the Mahaffie's, I am so sorry to let you down. We are busy as usual. However, I am not going to use this posting to catch you up on the past 2 months of our lives. I may eventually get pictures up of some of our adventures, we will just have to see how that goes.

Dan and I have been meaning to go through a DVD series we purchased a while back on parenting. Tonight we finally cracked open the case and watched the first session. In the brief 25 minute long session God showed me once again how I let my busyness and task oriented self get in the way of giving my best to my kids. Not because I am ignoring my children in order to get stuff done (God revealed that major area of sin a while back and I refuse to go back). Rather, I am failing to see God in the mundane tasks of everyday life, therefore I fail to show my kids the awe of God in every aspect of our lives. I came across this little story in a book I am reading and I think it will better illustrate what I am trying to say:

 "The story is told of three women washing clothes. A passerby asks each what she is doing.

'Washing clothes' was the first answer.

'A bit of household drudgery' was the second.

'I'm mothering three young children who some day will fill important and useful spheres in life, and wash-day is a part of my grand task in caring for these souls who shall live forever' was the third."

How often do I look at laundry in the way the third woman responded? Hmmm, wanna guess? My response in usually the first and on a grumpy day probably the second. I include my kids in household duties like laundry and such for a few reasons but I don't always see laundry as an opportunity to point my children to the awe of our God.

I am not writing all of this to say woe is me, I'm a bad mama for not doing these things. I am writing this in excitement and hopefully as a challenge to anyone that may read it. How much more exciting will our days and "tasks" be when we choose to see everything, I mean everything, we do as an opportunity to point our kids to Christ. How much more naturally the gospel flows into conversation rather than coming up with these great theological speeches that leave the 4 year old looking at you like you are speaking a foreign language.

So tomorrow when we all rise and shine early to take Taylor to her first day of Kindergarten (Yippee! and *sniff* already?! all at the same time) I look forward to using my to-do list as opportunities to leave my kids in awe of the grandeur and amazement of our creator.

So the next time you are turning those socks right side out because for some reason NO ONE else seems to know how to do that when they take them off, use the opportunity to thank God for each one the feet that wear those socks, pray for them, make a matching game out of it with your kids, use examples of feet in scriptures (washing of feet, how beautiful are the feet of those that bring good news, etc). God is in the mundane, we just fail to see Him in it therefore we fail to leave our kids in total awe of Him daily.

All of that to say, I am actually a bit excited to do laundry tomorrow and the rest of the things that I have on my list. It's going to be an awe-some day!

The Graduate

Taylor with her teachers, Miss Lori and Miss Rochelle. (Miss Lori is in the middle of saying "kindergarten", sorry about that Lori)

As previously blogged about, Taylor attended Pre-K this past school year. Well, let me just tell you, her pre-school wants them to know just how big of an accomplishment that is. They went all out!  On the last day of school they had a family BBQ at lunch. That same evening was the 'graduation ceremony'. We decided to make an event of it and invite the great grandparents, have a celebration dinner, etc. Then off to the ceremony we went. I must say it was one of the cutest things I have ever seen! The class all walked in to the adorably decorated auditorium to "Pomp and Circumstance" (which for some reason triggered the mommy tears, she's only 4 for goodness sake. Get it together Carrie!) Once they were all seated on the stage they did the pledge of allegiance and then Taylor did the opening prayer (which again, made Mama choke up a little. I know, I'm a mess!). After that they performed a couple songs and memory verses, showed a slide show of the kids and then presented them all with their 'diplomas'. When they called each child up to receive their diploma they asked them what they want to be when they grow up. There will be no shortage of princesses and super heroes let me tell you. Taylor decided that she wants to be a doctor. That is a large career jump from her last declaration of wanting to be the tooth fairy. It was a really fun evening. Below are pictures of the days festivities. Mostly for family that couldn't be there but enjoy none the less.



Gift time after our family homemade lasagna dinner. Class of 2011 Minnie Mouse.




Yes, my 4 year old has a newer computer than I do. She was given a kids Toshiba laptop (not by mom and dad). She is so excited! She loves it!




Pledge of allegiance. (not sure I like how the little boy next to her is checking her out)




When did she get so grown up?!




Opening prayer.




Telling the crowd what she wants to be when she grows up: a doctor.




The family minus Cameron (he was a disaster so our favorite Sally watched him for us)




Grandma and Grandpa Mahaffie




TOG (The Other Grandparents) Donnie and Juanita Land (Taylor lovingly refers to Donnie as her worst nightmare. They just have that kind of relationship. He loves it!)




Great Grandma and Grandaddy Russell

 So proud of our little graduate. Just think, in 13 years we can do it all over again! I am pretty sure there will be A LOT more mommy tears that day.

Movin' on up!

(Don't be misled by the title, I am not referring to actually moving into a house of our own.)

Dan and I have known that we want a big family since before we were married. After Cameron was born I 'decided' that I am done with pregnancies because pregnancy and I don't get along. At all. Dan and I have always had a huge passion for orphans and adopting so we have been focusing on growing our family in that direction. Well, His ways are not my ways and for that I am thankful. Come January, the Mahaffie family will be welcoming our newest addition into the world. That's right, we are pregnant! And I do say WE because when I am pregnant the whole family feels it in some fashion. Whether it is just not being able to play as long because I am just so tired or because I can't cook certain foods anymore unless I want to be sick from the smells. Either way, it is a family event for us.
When I first realized that we are expecting this little one, I will be honest, I wasn't looking forward to the challenges pregnancies bring. That same day, I was driving home after picking Taylor up from pre-school and we are going through the "what did you learn today" talk. She tells me "Today I learned 'Children are a gift from the Lord." At that point she didn't know about the baby. I just laughed and said "OK God, I needed that. Thank you for all three of my amazing gifts!"
So there it is folks. The Mahaffie's are Movin' on up to a family of 5! With hopes to still adopt someday. But first we need to work on this whole housing thing. The state gets a little picky about wanting you to actually have your own home before they let you adopt. What's that all about? ;)

The Farm Hand

Taylor has had the amazing opportunity to attend a wonderful preschool this year here in town. It is a great, Christian preschool with loving staff whom all posses an amount of patience that can only be explained as divine. But what makes Taylor's preschool amazing to us is knowing that two of our cherished church members work there. Not only does this help mommy in the letting go process but it also gives us a set of eyes and ears on the inside. The stories they come back with about things Taylor has said and done...oh my! I think it was just this past week she couldn't be interrupted at recess because she was busy getting married to her BFF Kaden of course. That girl...

Anyway, that isn't the point of this post. Throughout the year, Taylor's amazing and super fun preschool has hosted fun events for the kids and their families. A few weeks ago they had "Farm Day" come to the school. It was so stinking cute! Here are a few pictures of Farm Day for your viewing pleasure.



"Milking" a cow.





Making butter. Shake shake shake!






Eating the butter she just made.






Shucking corn (which later was cooked and served with lunch).






Ta Da!






Planting wild flowers...



...and watering them of course.



Finger painting chocolate pudding "mud" on pigs.



Meeting a real live calf (no milking involved this time).



Witnessing Nanny the goat being milked. Check out Taylor's stance, she's into it!






So I'm not an expert on the matter but I'm pretty sure this is a donkey ride rather than a "pony ride". Still fun either way.






Cam got the actual pony ride. He was pretty pumped!






And to top it all off, a tractor ride!

 That was Taylor's day as a "farm hand" at preschool. Blessed we were able to be a part of it with her.
On a side note, anyone in the Manteca area looking for a GREAT preschool for ages 2-Pre K, Manteca Christian Preschool on Button Ave is the place to be! (I am not being paid to say this I promise! We just love her school.)