Knitting and Teaching and Cooking, Oh My!

I find it hard to believe it's been over 2 weeks since I posted. What a crazy 2 weeks.

I have another pattern for sale in my Ravelry store.
These are the Kinara Gauntlets:

Glittery black with silver lace-up details. The black makes the lace stand out more against the skin. These were fun- and a pretty quick knit once I actually concentrated on them. Too bad they sat in my knitting bag for 7 months.... :)
The pattern is available for $5.                            

Other than that, I've been very busy with school- and dealing with my health issues.

How good God is. Through a series of blessings from our amazing church and equally amazing friends, I was given the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome- and the funds (and some food) to start the protocol outlined in the book (mostly diet changes).

It's been a week, and I am feeling much better! I have gone a full week without an allergic reaction to my food- and I am starting to feel like I have more energy.

The diet (GAPS diet- you may have heard of it....) is pretty simple for the most part- no starches, grains, or sugars (except natural sugars from fruits and raw honey). Basically foods that are easiest to digest- plus a lot of natural probiotics from fermented foods such as sauerkraut, beet kvass, pickles, kimchi.... All homemade from natural, organic ingredients. (I made sauerkraut! And it's yummy!)

However, while the full diet is not too bad (much less restricted than the one I was on previously), there is an introduction diet to get you started and get your body healing quickly. That's the one I'm on right now. It's a bit more challenging. Mostly homemade broths (bone broth), a few specific vegetables, and sea salt. That's how you start, then gradually add in specific foods (starting with probiotic foods) as your body tolerates it.  My stove has been on 24/7 for the last 7 days making broth.  I've learned new recipes for soups, as I had 1 or 2 basic soups I knew, and I got tired of them on day one!  So I'm making soup from butternut squash, carrots, and cauliflower, as well as my staple soups.  Eating squash is interesting, as it's not a food I've ever really enjoyed- good recipes are a must!

Originally, I wasn't going to start this until January, but a series of events made it not only necessary, but possible (where it really wasn't possible before) for me to start early. I say me, because I intend to put the whole family on this in January. I won't ruin Thanksgiving and Christmas for the kids, but we all need this. I'm watching the kids' "minor" health issues grow just like mine have over the years, and I want to help them actually heal now while they are still resilient and young. It's going to be a journey. We need to be on this for 2 years minimum (me probably for the rest of my life), and it's expensive. I don't know how we're going to do it, but God does. He's already starting to provide for it, so here we are!

It's also a lot of work. I'm finding myself in the kitchen cooking and prepping for 6 or more hours a day some days.  Not being one that has ever really enjoyed cooking for the sake of cooking, it has proven to be quite a challenge for me. But as the week goes on, it has gotten easier, as I have the energy to be capable of doing it. That alone is enough to keep me in the kitchen!

In the time I'm not in the kitchen, I'm teaching the kids- and occasionally knitting. It's a crazy time, but this is where we're at. So, if in the year to come, this blog becomes more about cooking than about knitting.... this is why. This is where my attention needs to be at the moment.