Wendt Family Summer Reading Challenge!

When I was a kid, summer vacation was spent with swimming lessons, going to the library, playing outside in the yard, and lots and lots of reading. Nowadays, kids want to play video games all day. Well, at least my kids do.

One of my children doesn't particularly enjoy reading. He's a perfectly fine reader, it's just too slow for his fast-paced lifestyle. Another child wants to read the same book, only the same book, day after day. So this summer, I knew I needed some effective motivation. Thus was born the Wendt Family Summer Reading Challenge!

This poster is in our dining room, and the kids are loving putting squares up on it. One square equals one picture book or ten pages of a chapter book, depending on age. We write the titles on the squares; no repeats are allowed on picture books. The kids get a fruit snack every four squares, and when we fill the poster up, we get that swing set!

I thought it would take us all summer to fill this poster, but this is just two weeks! The kids have really surprised us. We'll need a couple more posters.

Positive results from our dietary interventions

About 4 weeks into Liam's gluten-free, dairy-free diet, I noticed that he was beginning to talk a little more; telling me about something unusual at school or the progress he was making in his favorite computer game. Then at about six weeks, his teachers both at school and church said he was talking more, too, answering questions and going off on lengthy monologues. Jeremy said he was making more eye contact with him. So of course, we kept it up.

I explain the diet to Liam by telling him that it helps him talk better. He wants to follow his diet, and asks us when he's not sure if he can eat something. Last week he declared, "Gluten makes me pause my talking."

This week he's been choosing--and putting on by himself--new summer clothes. This is HUGE. He doesn't like to wear new things, so each changing of the seasons is a big struggle. Last summer we just gave up the fight and let him sweat it out in his winter clothes. This year, I put new summer clothes in his drawers out of distant hope, rather than actual belief that he'd ever wear them. But when the familiar clothes were all worn and I hadn't done laundry, he just started wearing the new ones, without a complaint. Jeremy and I were floored! Another result of the diet? I hope so!

As for my diet, which includes a lot more vegetables and fruits and a lot less animal products and processed foods, I am feeling really well. I still wish I had the energy to exercise and do away with my daily nap, but hopefully that will come in time.

Diets are a Riot

Guiding Mom through the corn maze last fall.

Many parents of autistic children say that their child is greatly helped by going gluten-free, or milk-free, or soy and corn-free. We had never before tried any kind of dietary interventions for Liam -- until now. It was time. Things were getting quiet at home, with Noelle several months past treatment and John on a helpful medication. And despite our hopes, Liam has only become "more" autistic has he's matured.

For the past four weeks he has had no wheat gluten or dairy milk, and for three weeks before that we were gradually easing him in. But it takes a while for the diet to have any effect, so it will be two more weeks before we decide to keep going or throw in the towel. I think we're all hoping to be able to give it up, because a) it's harder for me to prepare meals, b) John protests daily that he wants a Danimals, and c) Jeremy hates telling Liam there are no graham crackers or goldfish. But, Liam has gotten pretty good at accepting it when we say, "Sorry, Liam, you can't have that. It's not gluten-free."

You're all probably wondering, "Well, has it made any difference?" Not really. He waved back to me from the bus for the first time ever, and he's been more talkative, but not so much that I even want to attribute it to the diet. From what I've heard, either the results are remarkable or not there.

________

There's someone else in this house on a diet, and that's me. I've never had really good health. I have had fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and recurrent depression since age 15, with only very occasional periods of near-vibrancy. After Noelle's cancer, I was at an all-time low. I had expended every bit of myself and then some. I wasn't sure I could even classify myself as "functional". So for several months, I have been nearly desperate for improvement.

I have a friend with MS, and she sometimes talks about the diet that is key to her health, which if she deviates from, will get a return of MS symptoms. This intrigued me very much, so I have kept close attention whenever she talked about her diet:

"I don't usually eat a lot of wheat or dairy."

"We're vegetarian."

"I've been drinking green smoothies, and have more energy."

"It's really about focusing on the vegetables."

She would probably be a little embarrassed to know I've committed these statements to memory, but I was trying to piece together what this magical diet of hers was!

I started first with green smoothies. At first, I couldn't make them on a regular basis because Liam is terribly afraid of the blender. But when I realized I just had to use it upstairs in my bedroom with the door shut :) I was able to start having one every day. I replaced my usual breakfast of whatever with a green smoothie, and began to feel a little more awake. I also don't get viruses as often and beat them sooner when I do. When I went out of town for a week and didn't drink my green smoothies (and had more junk), I found myself feeling sluggish and sleeping a lot.

Next, I improved my lunch. I used to eat last night's dinner leftovers for lunch, which is pretty healthy, but I decided I needed to load on vegetables. So I began making salads to which I would add a little protein and grain, like broccoli salad with quinoa and cashews; bell pepper salad with beans and brown rice. I literally cried when my zucchini-carrot salad -- which I had spent nearly 45 minutes making -- crashed to the floor in a shattered-glass mess when Noelle was "helping" me stir it. (At least dumping it all in the trash was cathartic.) I find that lunches like these give me better sustained energy through the rest of the day, without such a profound crash at naptime. Though I still nap.

This diet is work. It was easier to grab whatever leftovers I could find to eat, finish the kids' sandwiches, or eat granola bars for breakfast. Plus, I have to run the dishwasher every day if I want a clean blender! But hopefully the work will pay off and I will get more dividends down the road.

Try a green smoothie today!

Here's what I put in my blender today for breakfast:

1 c water

1/4 c quinoa flakes

3 cashews

2 large leaves of beet greens

1 c cantaloupe

1 banana 

1 handful frozen blueberries