Of Birds and Wheat

Hen, little Hen.  My just turned two little bundle of wonder and words and love.  Little Hen bosses around our dog.  Our big, shaggy Labradoodle whose tail often knocks things off the coffee table.  The same dog that sometimes makes Badger, our eight year old, tumble over backwards, when they are playing outside in the yard.  She is a really exuberant dog.  (which we like. alot.  she's great!)  But back to the point here.  Hen bosses her around.  All the time.  "No Millie", "Down Millie", he'll say.  Or when she comes too close to me for Hen's liking he'll come over to her and push her out of the way.  She totally obeys him.  Which is too funny.  Once my friend and I were on the phone and she heard Hen bossing around Millie and she said something like, "It's so good that Badger can tell Millie what to do like that."  And I sheepishly admitted to her, "No that's actually my two year old talking in that loud bossy voice!"

 

Today we were out tilling the soil a bit in the garden and we let four of the laying hens into the fenced in area to eat grubs and dandelions.  Hen loves the chickens and all the boys have hand fed them since they were little chicks.  Today one of the chickens was getting really friendly with me as I turned the dirt over.  She knew there were bugs in it for her you see.  Hen was right there with me when the friendly bird went right up to him and pecked his finger.  He just stood there totally freaked out.  His poor thumb bled, the cuticle badly bruised.  I gently reminded him to not let the birds get his fingers, how the bird probably thought it looked like a worm, and how he was going to be okay that his thumb would heal.  Then a little bit later, the same "friendly" bird came up to Hen again.  This time Hen followed my advice and crossed his arms in front of him to keep his fingers safe, and the bird pecked his arm. (hard)  Hen was so afraid and the bird continued pecking him on his blue jeans and feet until I pushed it out of the way with my shovel.  For goodness sake!  The boy is terrified now!  The boy can boss around the giant dog but freezes in terror over a chicken.  I couldn't help but think that if he could've just found his voice, his big, boss the dog around voice then the bird would've run for the hills!

And you know me, I am a teacher by nature and can't help but see myself in this.  I do this same "losing my voice" thing all the time.  I spend so much energy on things that seem big but are actually not battles...and then when a real battle comes along I just stand there in fear!

Which brings me to the next thing.  I have been feeling like we need to fix our diet for awhile now.  But it has seemed like such a small thing.  And lately it has come up over and over again in conversation and I feel convicted about it.  So....

We are starting a gluten free diet very soon.  Sunday probably.  Monday for sure.  Why?  Oh, I've got reasons.  I might tell you about them sometime.  But for now....I'm going to focus on remembering how important this small thing can actually be and how it is so worth a trial time to see if it helps us.  We are going to aim for 6 weeks without gluten.  I'm not sure yet how strict I will be.  I don't want the kids to really rebel about it so I'm going to let them eat pizza at the pizza party we have on Wednesday.  I'm going to try to stay balanced about it, but still really striving for completely gluten free because I think that is actually the easiest way to do it!


Have any gluten free recipes for me?  I'd love to add to my few.  Leave me a comment!