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You are here: Home / Archives for children

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My Story

June 13, 2011 by KerryAnn 49 Comments

Note: I am neither a dietitian nor a doctor.  I do not dispense medical advice nor do I offer any information on treatments nor cures for any medical condition. Always consult a physician before proceeding with any treatment.  Our full disclaimer is at the bottom of this page.

—

In June and July on the blog, we’re going to discuss gut health.  Gut health is a hot topic in the traditional foods world because so many people are not healing despite a traditional foods diet.  I became seriously ill and healed my gut before the currently fashionable diets came out.  This is my story.

A very wise man in my life often tells me, “A problem well stated is half solved.”  Five years ago, we knew all of the problems, but had none of the answers.

I was born 7 weeks early to an undernourished mother who was 95 pounds when I was conceived.  My childhood was rather uneventful health wise, other than huge tonsils and repeat ear infections.  I grew normally and had none of the digestive problems associated with celiac disease.

I was diagnosed with PCOS in 2001 and was told I’d never had kids.   I changed my diet to traditional foods after seeing my cat, Blue, have an ‘incurable’ and life-shortening health problem healed by a species-appropriate diet. I was told he wouldn’t live long and would require expensive, difficult medication until his death.

It had worked for him why can’t it work for me?

 

[Read more…] about My Story

Filed Under: Best Of, Celiac disease, Dairy, Food Allergies, Food Matters, Grains, Gut Health, Health, Series Tagged With: butter, Celiac Disease, children, dairy, Enjoy Life, ER, fat, flu, food, Gluten Free, IQ, kids, liver, MSG, October, ONE, PCOS, Whole Foods

Busy Summer on the Mini-Homestead

July 22, 2010 by KerryAnn Leave a Comment

This summer has proven to be incredibly busy, much busier than I expected.  A few weeks ago, I felt like the Lord was tapping me on the shoulder and telling me to get organized quickly and declutter as much as we can. We have some elderly family members who might need assistance, and we need to prepare for that possibility.  So I have kicked myself into high gear, trying to school on our year-round schedule, do my job and handle the garden and daily chores in addition to the extra workload this presented.  And we have managed to accomplish everything on a shoestring budget while we save for some needed car and home repairs.

Despite spending time gardening and even expanding our garden, we have lost most of what we planted.  What the Mexican bean beetles and squash vine borers didn’t destroy, the chickens did when the town mowed down a post of our garden fence when they were tending the ditch with their machinery.  The chickens got in and decimated what was growing in short order.  What we have left is some green tomatoes we hope will ripen, about 5 sunflowers that are now over 10 feet tall, and we’re waiting now to see how the potatoes did.  The onions are still tiny, despite supposedly being close to time to be pulled.  We have replanted the winter squash on Monday and we’re now organizing to put the fall and winter garden in.

The last few weeks I have spent time at the farmer’s market, buying wholesale.  The Lord has plopped some incredible deals on produce in our lap.  While canning I worked a full week of VBS at our church and managed to wear myself out between the two.  We processed our extra roosters over a period of two weeks and sent them to freezer camp.  We cleaned out the freezer that needed defrosting and got everything organized in an effort to have enough space to hopefully purchase half of a cow this fall.  I found I had one whole shelf full of stock bones that I need to use. I also got all of the remaining meats grouped by type, to better help me plan our meals and use what we have wisely.

I have started setting up ‘centers’ for everything I do at home, where everything needed for that project is centrally located to where the work is performed.  I have created centers for laundry, baking, dry goods in use, personal care, herbs, school and work, gardening and more.  This inspiration came from listening to Vicki Bentley at the NCHE conference Memorial Day Weekend.  Vicki is an excellent speaker, and if you ever have the opportunity to hear her, I highly encourage you to do so.  I would be willing to drive to a conference just to hear her speak, she gave so much inspiration, encouragement and practical advice.  (You can purchase MP3s of Vicki’s presentations from the conference here.)  Her chore and star chart information alone has been a huge help to me in getting my kids motivated to do chores and take initiative without being asked.  Vicki said in one of her presentations that if you spend just 5 minutes looking for one item every morning and every evening, you waste over 60 hours a year.  I have found that I am going up and down the hallway and the stairs too often because things are not centrally located, and I wish to free up that time so I can accomplish more.

For the baking and dry good centers, I took one cabinet and placed my measuring cups and measuring spoons along with mason jars of xanthan gum, salt, baking soda, baking powder on the bottom shelf.  In racks hanging below the cabinet are all of my spices.  Each spice has a label on the lid so I don’t have to hunt for the correct one.  The rapadura, flours and dry goods are located behind me on a baker’s rack.  Each item in stored in a quart to half-gallon size mason jar with a labeled lid.  I do not have to take extra steps in the kitchen, saving me time and energy.  We also reorganized and deep cleaned the kitchen.

For the laundry center, we reorganized the laundry room so that we now have a rotating system for the clothes hangers, separated by type.  Each day when we get dressed, the empty clothes hangers get hung on each bedroom doorknob.  One child is tasked with the chore of retrieving all of the clothes hangers, taking them downstairs and putting each hanger where it belongs.  This has solved the problems with wrinkled clothing and additional ironing time because it had to be hauled up the stairs after coming out of the dryer while we hunt for the clothes hangers that fit the item.  And you know any time kids haul a piece of clothing, it’s bound to wind up wrinkled.  😉  All of the different clothing and fabric types now each have their own bin to facilitate quick sorting and washing of the laundry. We finally installed the utility sink that we purchased in 2007 in the laundry room.

For our school supplies we use daily, we repurposed a rolling cart which is now located within reach of my computer.  We also located a bookcase and the filing cabinet beside my desk in order to facilitate school, bill paying and handling my job.  Now, when mail comes in, I can handle it immediately and drop it right into the correct file folder in the filing cabinet.  Paper doesn’t have to be handled twice, nothing gets lost and I don’t worry about any bills or other important paperwork getting missed.  We located a locking cabinet with doors in an unused area of the living room that holds shoe-box sized rubermaid containers.  These boxes contain our items that are in pieces, such as the math blocks and flashcards, as well as the games and the small-piece items such as K-nex and Legos.

I updated my household binder (Flylady style) and created binders for family recipes, every mailer I have published, our school records, and the gardening and homesteading records.  I also have one binder where I keep info on ideas or things I want to try, build plans for potential projects and the like.

I obtained two rolling carts, one for each child.  These carts now hold the library books and are parked beside the homeschool cabinet. These carts are incredibly handy and stop the problem of having to haul the books to the car and into the library, breaking my back.  This has just about eliminated our hunting for a book that is due and it keeps the books out of the kid’s bedrooms.

I created two memory card boxes.  I used the Simply Charlotte Mason Memory System and made one for our scripture verses and made one for the myriad of other things I wish my children to memorize.  We have included everything from family members phone numbers to poems, science and history facts, songs and more.  These boxes set atop our rolling school supply cart.

I still have to get the dining room chairs recovered so we can reclaim our dining room table.  We are also looking for an effective storage solution for our canning jars, both full and empty.  Both of these projects are likely going to take some cash, so I’m looking for the most workable solution that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

—

KerryAnn Foster runs Cooking Traditional Foods, the longest running Traditional Foods Menu Mailer on the internet. KerryAnn has over nine years of traditional foods experience and is a former Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader. Founded in 2005, CTF helps you feed your family nourishing foods they will love. Each mailer contains one soup, five dinners, one breakfast, on dessert and extras. You can learn more about our Menu Mailers at the CTF website. For a free sample Menu Mailer, join our mailing list. You can also join our forum to chat with other traditional foodists and learn more.

Filed Under: Frugality, Gardening, Homeschooling, Inside Organization, Kids, Uncategorized Tagged With: baking, budget, children, clothing, family, herbs, homesteading, kids, laundry, mason jar, meats, potatoes

Surfin’ Saturday- Feb 26, 2011

February 26, 2011 by KerryAnn Leave a Comment

On Surfin’ Saturday, I share links from around the web. It’s not always food related and not always blogs. It’s anything I find inspiring or helpful for any part of life. [Read more…] about Surfin’ Saturday- Feb 26, 2011

Filed Under: Surfin' Saturday Tagged With: baking, butter, children, food, giveaway, Menu Mailer

What will you do when you get that call?

March 9, 2011 by KerryAnn Leave a Comment

A few days ago, my best friend got that phone call that everyone dreads.

Your daddy has had a heart attack. The doctors don’t think he’ll make it through the night.

GET. HERE. NOW.

She did what everyone would do. She grabbed enough for a road trip, threw it in the car and took off for a long drive. All she could think about was getting there as fast as possible.

On the way there, she called me to let me know what was going on. Trying to stay calm, she recounted the conversation and what details she knew. She told me later that she didn’t even think about food until she hung up the phone with me, about half-way through her drive. She was headed to a large military town, but it only has one grocery store chain and no health food stores. She has multiple food allergies and doesn’t fare well when exposed to an allergen.

Her daddy did make it through the night. She was having to go to her mom’s house do laundry and had to run by the store to buy basic necessities. She was then faced with the dilemma of having to go to the limited-selection grocery store and find safe food, figure out what to fix without having any of her recipes with her, find safe pots and pans to cook it in at her mom’s house, and keep it safe and segregated in the fridge while a trail of friends and family come through the home. It took time away from being at her daddy’s bedside and provided to be a considerable stress.

Of course, if you have a cast iron stomach and can handle fast food, pot-luck, or hospital cafeteria foods for as long as you need, you’re ok in the food department. But what about clothing? Toiletries? In a rush to get out the door, would you forget something? If you have children, would you have to suffer through their boredom and confusion while you’re going through what can arguably be considered one of the most stressful events in your life?

What would you do? You’re lucky if all of your family lives locally, you can just call a friend and have them swing by your house and drop off whatever you might need and you can run home for food and sleep. But if you have any family out of town, how can you prepare so that you don’t have to worry? Is it possible to just grab-and-go, knowing you have what you need?

You need a bug-out bag.

[Read more…] about What will you do when you get that call?

Filed Under: Bug-Out, Elder Care, Emergency Preparedness Tagged With: breakfast, chicken, children, chocolate, clothing, cookies, emergency, emergency preparedness, Enjoy Life, family, fast food, food, food allergies, hospital, kids, laundry, soup, stress, Toiletries, travel

No Condemnation

February 14, 2011 by KerryAnn 3 Comments

I have taken both heaps of praise and heaps of criticism for the coconut milk yogurt recipe since it was published.  Praise from those who are dairy-free and looking for ways to expand their probiotic intake or are happy to have a replacement for the expensive coconut yogurt that their kids love.  I have received criticism from those who are unhappy I wouldn’t push raw milk consumption over coconut milk, even for those who are dairy allergic, and that the recipe would use canned coconut milk instead of directing people to first make their own.

First, to address those who come here for help and support- I understand that you do not have an unlimited budget and all of the time and resources in the world.  You will not receive any condemnation from me for not being able to source and use the best ingredients possible for everything that you do.  You do not have to be a food snob to be accepted here and on the CTF forums.  We welcome you, as you are, wherever you are on your traditional foods journey.

[Read more…] about No Condemnation

Filed Under: Baby Steps to TF, Casein-Free, Cultured Foods, Good, Better, Best, True Confessions Tagged With: budget, children, coconut milk, coconut yogurt, dairy, dessert, dirty dozen, family, food, grains, kefir, meats, Menu Mailer, raw milk, soup, yogurt

Stretching Soups

January 14, 2011 by KerryAnn Leave a Comment

I posted my curried pumpkin soup a few days ago that I made this past weekend.  It was slated to be polished off for today’s lunch, but I didn’t have enough to feed the three of us.  I had about 2 servings left in the mason jar and two hungry children plus myself.

This morning I did my Flylady zone work (we’re in the kitchen this week) and found a small amount of green lentil flour I had left over after grinding some for another dish I’ve been working on.  A light bulb went off.  Lentils work wonderfully to thicken liquids.  With a strongly flavored soup like the curried pumpkin, I was pretty sure it would hide any lentil flavor.  Whole red lentils have no shell and they dissolve when cooked.  Green lentils will hold their shape when cooked.  But when ground into flour, it doesn’t matter what type of lentil you’re using, it works beautifully as a thickener.  Using cooked red lentils would have worked for me if I had the time to cook them, but it was already lunch time and the kids were asking for something to eat so I went with the flour.

I put a small amount of the soup in the bottom of a saucepan.  I whisked in the leftover tablespoon of lentil flour until smooth.  Then I whisked in the remaining soup, enough extra stock to make it three servings, and a little coconut milk I had leftover from breakfast.   I brought it to a boil, reduced to a simmer and cooked it long enough to make sure the lentil flour was cooked through.  It thickened nicely.  I did have to adjust the spices since I added stock. The kids didn’t notice any difference and they ate it without a word.  SCORE!

Like rice, lentils are low in phytates.  I don’t worry about the occasional use of a small amount of unsoaked lentil flour as long as it is well cooked to void any digestive upset uncooked legume products might cause.  If you aren’t working on the fly and you can prepare ahead to soak your lentils, I would have whisked the lentil flour with a tiny amount of acidic water (1 cup water to 1 Tbs lemon juice or whey) and allowed it to sit a few hours before cooking lunch.

—

KerryAnn Foster runs Cooking Traditional Foods, the longest running Traditional Foods Menu Mailer on the internet. KerryAnn has over nine years of traditional foods experience and is a former Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader. Founded in 2005, CTF helps you feed your family nourishing foods they will love. Each mailer contains one soup, five dinners, one breakfast, on dessert and extras. You can learn more about our Menu Mailers at the CTF website. For a free sample Menu Mailer, join our mailing list. You can also join our forum to chat with other traditional foodists and learn more.

Filed Under: Food Storage, Kitchen Tips, Leftovers, Sanity Savers, Soups Tagged With: breakfast, children, dessert, family, kids, mason jar, Menu Mailer, pumpkin, soup

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Meet KerryAnn

I'm KerryAnn Foster, a crazy vibrant Jesus Freak with a heart full of hope. I'm not afraid to love on the least of these or get my hands dirty. This blog is my journey from ineffective, uptight, obese wallflower to a woman on fire for God and living the most vibrant, passionate life possible!

I live in the mountains of Western North Carolina with my husband, Jeff, and our two teens. I blog about self-confidence, health and home, homeschooling and living a vibrant, wide-open Jesus-centered lifestyle. I have over seventeen years of real food, natural lifestyle and health experience. We have homeschooled our children since birth and both Jeff and I run home-based businesses. We're crazy, we know it, and we love every second of it!

Read about my journey to health through celiac disease, PCOS, food allergies, obesity, adrenal fatigue and heavy metals.

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