Amy J. Bennett

Before I write any sort of recap, I’d like this post to live up to its blog’s name Permission to Peruse. We have a few family members going through some serious stuff.  In fact, my busy thoughts and troubled heart are why I didn’t post at all on Friday.  Please know as I post in the next days, perhaps weeks, that my heart is heavy.  I don’t have the permission to let you peruse the details (sorry, had to) but if you could say some prayers, I know God knows what’s going on.

Scott worked the weekend so those are always the times the girls and I get out and have some sweet girl times together.  Friday night we got out to the park.  Emma was hilarious as two younger boys tried to join in their fun in the sand box and Emma kept looking at me and mouthing, “Save. me.”  It made me giggle even though we all know she’s been the busy little girl no one could keep up with before.

Saturday morning we got out to the library.  I love, love that both of the girls are becoming bookworms and nothing makes me happier than all of us carrying an armful of books out the door.  Their current favorite is Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  I was shocked when Emma ended up reading one of them in less than 24 hours.  We hit up the grocery store and then did a little spring clothes shopping.  We didn’t make any plans for Spring Break and the only request Lexi had was to go to Justice.  I don’t know if that’s good or bad but I do know one outfit is a lot cheaper than a Spring Break week at Disney.  We had someone come out and talk to us about landscaping the front yard since we never planted anything after the addition last year.  We had another friend stop by and then the girls and I just spent the night at home, capping off the day with an episode of Little House of the Prairie.  I’m not sure the girls quite appreciate the show yet.  In the middle, Emma exclaimed, “This is so pointless!”  The episode was about a couple in the town on the brink of divorce so I’m just not sure she connected.  Ah well, at least I’m trying.

Sunday we had church and lunch and then the girls stayed over with their cousin.  I did some heavier grocery shopping, laundry and the like.  My niece stayed over last night and we ended up at my parents’ house for the evening where they played, visited a neighbor’s horse and watched a movie in their theater room. 

Today is the first day of Spring Break.  We have family coming in to town on Wednesday so I decided to take Thursday and Friday off.  It’s a short work-week and I couldn’t be more excited. 

Before I end, I wanted to highlight the blog’s newest (and first!) official Sponsor.  Casey Coley is a Thirty-one consultant.  You’ll see her ad on the right sidebar.  I’m proud to say I managed to put that button together in Photoshop.  Musings of a Housewife has a great tutorial on creating a button.  Go visit Casey’s Thirty-one site and check out the latest Spring patterns and bags.

I’m in the car somewhere in Northern Georgia. We had our follow-up doctor’s visit today. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, let me refer you to this post. So here’s the results:

Emma’s liver is now testing clear and she does not need to take her liver pills anymore.
Emma’s emotional test was clear so she does not need to take her drops.
As for her milk, he still wants her to stay away from milk on its own. Cheese, baked goods with milk, etc are fine but if she’s going to have a glass of milk or a bowl of cereal, she should either have a dairy-free alternative OR he said he felt comfortable with her having drinking raw milk which I thought was interesting.
As for her gluten, it is better but she should continue gluten-free. I asked about a NAET treatment and he said it was not an allergy, but a sensitivity which is totally different. I had suspected as much after doing more reading these past weeks. He thought she may outgrow it though and could be tested in a few years.

Scott’s sinus is clear of the fungus but we haven’t seen much improvement. It turns out his other sinus cavity has a different fungus so he gave him a different anti-fungal medicine for that. He had indicated last time that might be the case so no surprise there.
As for his stomach, he doesn’t need the Amalyse anymore to help digest carbs but kept him on the Digestin. He ran out of that last week and his acid reflux returned immediately. He said his body is just not producing enough acid to break down his food.
As for his seratonin, he is also continuing that as we believe it could replace his OCD meds.

Overall, he said he could see improvement in both of them. I’m a little bummed we are sticking with gluten-free but it’s great to have the milk back. It opens up so many more Italian dishes and snacks she can have. We have found so many good gluten-free products. Oh, he also gave us a pill to take in case we did have gluten and it would help break it down. He didn’t see any need to see us again. He’d just check on Scott by phone.

Even though gluten-free is hard I’m so glad Emma is not suffering. While its no fun to miss out on some foods I think it’s better than hurting every time she eats and have no idea why. And even though Scott could be on that Digestin for years I feel better knowing it’s a homeopathic solution.

So that’s that. What questions do you have about gluten-free living? I’m just a baby gluten-freer but would be happy to help if I could.

I have had our Canon Rebel XT DSLR for years and all I’ve ever used is either Automatic or No Flash mode.  Every once in a while I’d catch a blog post of someone trying to teach ISO and aperture and all those manual mode words and I’d get courageous and turn the dial over to Manual to see what would happen.  Nothing but fail.  I just couldn’t get it together.

I’ve been a fan of Layla and Kevin at the Lettered Cottage for a while and when Kevin announced he had started a new online photography business with his friend Josh called Shoot FLY Shoot, well, I knew it was for me. 

And boy, was I right.  I SO enjoyed taking the classes.  Photography 101 is simply a set of 12 videos on a web page to watch at your leisure.  Kevin and Josh are super awesome.  They don’t assume you know anything and don’t make you feel stupid if you don’t.  They explain it in a straightforward manner but it’s not boring either.  In fact, the two of them are pretty charming if you don’t mind me saying.  The videos are sharp and professional and really just pretty, for a lack of a better word.  As a visual learner, I just couldn’t have asked for anything more.

The best thing is, I GOT IT.  I really, really finally GET ISO, aperture and shutter speed.  I get what that meter is for on the back that keeps moving back and forth.  Before, I knew that a high ISO would make the room brighter and low would make it darker but I didn’t realize I was sacrificing detail and really that’s not the thing I need to be messing with much.  I knew about bokeh but I was trying to change my aperture all on its own.  I’d heard about shutter speed but didn’t have a clue about how to change it and when.  It’s like I had some of the pieces but they finally put it together for me. I’m not an excellent photographer yet but I know the basics of what I need to do on Manual mode.  From here, it’s practice, practice, practice.

I have no other incentive to say this other than I mean it and you should know: help is out there and it’s 100% worth the cost.  If you’re scared of the “M”, go.  Go, go, go!