Whew! I suppose all weeks and weekends are like this one, and I wonder sometimes if I'm just losing my ability to multi-task, but what a lot of stuff to keep track of!

Last week: dropping off and picking up the broken computer. Ballet and flamenco and co-op. Managing my books at both library systems on Tuesday. Shopping for birthday presents for Rutledge. Celebration of his birthday. Homeschool group meeting for one whole evening. Jazz dance class. The first piano lesson. Game day and trumpet and flute lessons and Cub Scout Meeting. Lots of work on Cub Scout Activity pins, did the wrong ones, missed getting the main badge for the year. Writing seminar on Thursday, Kerry had oral surgery and we were the drop off and pick up party. Picking up of prescriptions and recovery food. Big dive meet--Ollie wins first place! Dance company practice for upcoming show. Night out at the opera. 7 hour writing seminar on Saturday. Dinner out for Rutledge's birthday. Reading book for co-op. Trying out a new church. Regular dive clinic across town. Blue and Gold Banquet and Mad Science performance for Cub Scouts. Trying to stay on track without the gluten.

How is the gluten-free lifestyle going? Not as earth-shatteringly as I had hoped. I need to confront a pretty serious question: Am I not being meticulous enough (I'm not) and do I need to watch for hidden or cross-contaminated sources of gluten? And my answer now is yes, I definitely do, before I make a decision about whether to continue for a longer term or not. So far, I feel like I've seen some changes, maybe, but I can't say that there's a difference like night and day or that there's no question that life is definitively better without the offending grain. Tonight I ate at a potluck, something that someone with food allergies should probably never do, at least not without lots and lots of research. Presumably safe things were corn, a bean salad with green peppers, and a plain salad with lettuce and carrots. I can't be sure, though--they just appeared clean. More questionable was the barbecue that I ate generously ate. Safe was the mashed potatoes I brought. I was really hungry. That's no excuse for not eating safely--poison is poison is poison, whether it's cross-contaminated or not researched thorougly or downed with full awareness. If anaphalaxis was my response to gluten, then I was downright negligent. And I have to admit, though I haven't intentionally eaten gluten except for the very intentional cookies before my repeat celiac test, I have made some newbie mistakes, including what can only be called brain farts--ordering that chicken noodle soup at Panera because I was pretty sure that the Broccoli Cheese was not on an okay list so I had to pick something else. And I've also done some less than utterly conservative things like eating french fries at McDonalds because I had read one or two places that they were safe because they are cooked in a dedicated fryer and then later read that they in fact cannot be presumed safe and eating fruit snacks that are produced in a facility that also processes wheat products. I think I need to either bite the bullet or jump ship. For the next week, if I'm going to stay the course, I need to prepare, prepare, prepare. Quit eating in restaurants when I don't have full and complete details. Don't end up relying on food on the fly or snack foods because I didn't make time to make or freeze legitimate meals.

I really had hoped that it would not only erase my GI issues, but also eliminate my migraines. Instead, I've had a ton of migraines this month and lots of headaches that eventually responded to non-prescription means. The GI issues--maybe better, but not perfect. Maybe I'm expecting too much. But what I read from other people who have gone gluten-free, whether as a result of getting positive results on a celiac test or because of a sensitivity, is that their life suddenly is totally turned around. They are bursting with energy, they feel amazing all the time, their chronic illnesses are all gone, and they find themselve beautiful, rich, and famous. They're in a great mood and burst with time to spend exploring the glories of their kitchen. Maybe my health wasn't all that screwed up to start with. It happened again tonight, but a conversation turned to people saying they wish they had half my energy. So maybe I was already at an energy threshold of some kind. I feel like I could have more. I'm tired in the mornings when I first get up. I get seized with moments of 'fatigue of death' when I come out of the shower or around 4:30 many days. But still, being gluten free is not ridiculously difficult, but it does require a bit more advance planning than just blundering headlong through life eating food at the random potluck, catching lunch on the run between three appointments, and following the crowd to lunch or dinner at a restaurant or simply showing up for dinner at a friend's house and planning to graciously eat whatever is put in front of me. If I don't have to eat this way for the rest of my life, then I probably won't. I really do love homemade bread quite a lot. This reminds me that my personal challenge for this week is to use my bread machine for gluten free bread. Again, there's a possibility of cross contamination--this machine has made 4 loaves of wheat bread in its short lifetime, so even with a thorough cleaning, I can't assume cleanliness. But it's a risk I will simply have to take.

What is coming up this week? Lots of stuff!

* Co-op, where we still have to finish reading our books in the morning. Ballet and Flamenco class and my Spanish class (oops--didn't do the homework yet! I hate procrastinating when it comes to this type of thing!).

* Speech evaluation. Field trip to see Tuskegee Airmen. Piano lesson. Modern Dance class. Pancake Dinner.

* Orienteering With a Map and Compass class. Trumpet and flute lessons. Small Group. Cub Scouts.

* Latin Class, evening presentation by author Lois Lowry.

The weekend is looking rather clean. Exciting.

I feel like I'm kind of caught up in how much there is to do. And my recent extra attention to this is that I am working on revamping how I juggle things, how I leave notes for myself, and how I keep track of multiple people in multiple places. I'm pretty sure most other multiple-child mothers do a better job than I do, and I'm pretty sure I used to do a better job myself. My goal is to gently and with baby steps up my responsibility level by simplifying my house, cracking the whip a little harder about help and personal responsibility from children (a time-investment proposition when it first starts), and making broader use of specific to-do lists. We shall see how this goes....