Beer- most "normal" beer has gluten, so if you don't respond to gluten elsewhere you can probably cross that off the list and as long as other alcoholic beverages don't cause the reaction it's probably not alcohol itself. Hops would be my first guess for an allergic reaction... it's less common in the modern american diet, can be triggered by other plant allergies (like, if you're allergic or sensitive to ragweed, passionflower, various plant pollens, etc you could be sensitive to hops as well). After hops I'd guess yeast and then the specifi malt used for that beer. Really though your best bet would be to research the ingredients of that specific brew and go from there.
Life- It's an odd balancing act. My MIL was just diagnosed with cancer and besides the obvious whammie, she can't care for the kiddos during my soon to be here birth. My mom has agreed to step in, but honestly that option has me freaking out a bit since my mother and I do NOT get along and we have even gone through long periods of time (years) where we have avoided all contact because of how she has behaved towards the kiddos. And she has told us she can really only care for the kids if I have the baby th-sat. Sunday she is at church and she works m-w. My dad isn't getting any better, and he wont, but he seems to have held steady for a few weeks now... meaning I really think he'll be alive to see this grandchild. Which is wonderful, but also nerve wracking because I feel a lot of pressure to "have the baby before anyone dies" from the extended family. I'm 39 weeks but apparently the new insurance guidelines for my midwives mean they can't attend me past 40 weeks and OB at the practice can't attend me past 41 weeks, so I'm really nervous about my appointment on Friday... if I have a good bishop's score then I'll probably agree to an AROM induction and hope for the best. BUT the last time round I didn't have a good Bishop's score just 12 hours before Tor was born so I'm not sure what will happen. The "after school" program is signed/sealed/paid for and we have a dr visit to get the paperwork done... it starts next week, on the 7th. It looks like a great program but right now dd1 and dd2 would be the youngest kiddos and the only girls (dd2 would be THE youngest at 4, then dd1 at 6, the other kids are all 8 or 9 year old boys though the director thinks this will change as word gets out) and the school that is running this program has had a history of bullying. There is a one month trial so that's good, but I'm a little worried. The integrated preschool hasn't gotten back to us with paperwork but did confirm the spot for us via email so I'm still counting on them! And the new floor is more or less totally good... though the kids have already broken TWO tiles. How the heck they managed it we don't know (best guess, they threw a metal water bottle or other "hard" item) so we'll have to fix that at some point. For now I've got a rug over the cracked tiles and am hoping that bloodshed remains at a minimum... the kids want to run/jump/bounce but the floor is so hard now it's just not safe!
So while I think life is sort of balancing out, and is on an overall upward swing... it's that same seasonal tidal swirl thing. Yes, the tide is coming in and life is improving, but the turbulance and swirling is still causing some not insignificant suck. LOL
Fairy House- the kids built a really rockin fairy house today in our woods. Actually, today was an overall good day... hit a 50% off sale and got nearly everything the kiddos need for winter along with a dozen or so wonderful books and a pretty purple bottle for the bottle tree, all for less than 30 dollars! And then I took the kiddos on a nature hike, took pictures of red/yellow/fallen leaves, and waatched while the kids put together the fairy house complete with mosaic floor, moss bed, and bark roof. And dd2 even started a little larder of nuts and seeds and found an old "icicle" from our solstice tree (silver sparkle thing) to decorate the front door of the house. I stuck some pictures on FB if anyone wants to see. (
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I'm trying to pull more waldorf influences back into our daily life and into our homeschool routine too. Though I do get the silliness of trying to get new things in place right before a baby comes! :) And I've found enough craft sites to have me in perpetual drool mode. Seriously, how do these ladies do it? Is it a Martha Stewart slight of hand sort of thing where there is actually a staff of hundreds standing in the wings? Or have they simply been blessed with children who would rather put their nature findings on a beautiful table instead of sticking those acorns, pinecones, and sparkly pebbles up their noses? Who enjoy looking at felted critters instead of improving them with sharpie markers and then feeding them to the cat?
I have to say, though, karma works in funny ways
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