I'd like mac-n-cheese, hold the dairy please.

I've done poorly at blogging lately, in part because my middle son has been sick since Christmas.  A couple of weeks ago one of the doctors at my children's practice decided to put my son a strict dairy free diet to see if we would see an improvement.  And while well meaning individuals have suggested that he can still have cheese our doctor has prescribed absolutely no dairy, period. 

Which is fine, I mean seriously, praise God that it wasn't a life threatening illness, that my son doesn't have to take strong medications and that we live in a society where we have the means and ability to get products that specific to allergies.  I mean that from the bottom of my heart.  Thank you Lord.

And for the most part is has been easy.  I went to the library and checked out all the vegan cookbooks I could find because I figured hey, vegan will be dairy free and if I want to add meat back in I can but we already don't eat any pork or beef. 

And we've found some great recipes, really yummy sounding and tasting and my son has been so responsive.  It still sucks for him sometimes, he's five and he can't have the cake at a birthday party or he can't have the snack at soccer.  But we're making it work. 

And can I say, I'm seeing an improvement!  It is awesome!  Thank you Lord!  I don't think we've identified everything that is at fault but he's feeling better, looking better, and just generally doing better. 

And so begin my blog stalking of dairy free sites....

I found Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World - sadly it looks like the last post was from October of 2007... 

So I thought back to the vegan winner of Cupcakes wars and looked her up and here is what I found:

Hello beautiful!  Doesn't that look amazing?  It is one of the cupcakes that Chef Chloe made on Cupcake Wars and hello, no dairy! 

And so while there are days that my son cries because I brought a dairy free cookie to a birthday party and he wants the cake, with frosting, we are generally making it work and so I give you the top five things that I am grateful for this week:








1. Healthy Children.  Despite the fact that little brother bear has been sick he is not sick with something life threatening and we live in a society where we have access to health care, medication, and alternatives to our current lifestyle. 

2. Friendship.  I grateful for my friends, or sister friends as one coined the term, as they are the source of my sanity and well-being many days. 

3.  Exhaustion.  I've been seriously tired lately, there's a lot going on and this momma is keeping busy!  But what a blessing to be tired, it means that I am filling my days with meaningful and wonderful things that I love doing. 

4.  Muddy paw prints.  Seriously folks, they are ALL OVER my house despite my best efforts to keep them from appearing.  We have had snow this week, yup, snow!  And that silly little dog loves the snow and the mud that brings.  But I know that we need that moisture and am so thankful for it. 

5.  A good book to read.  Enough said.