Four friends plan to turn Smitten, Vt., a former male-dominated mill town, into a romantic getaway, and along the way each one falls in love with someone they’ve known for ages.

I’m a sucker for the fall-in-love-with-a-friend (or in one case here, enemy) stories even if they are obvious and the ending is a foregone conclusion. And that is very much the case in this book. There was not one single plot development that came as a surprise but I enjoyed going along for the ride. I love the description of a first touch, a first kiss, a first realization that something is changing.

Being a Christian book, there was an overarching theme here of trusting God to help you overcome your fears and reach your dreams. I appreciate that theme. Some mentions to God and prayer and one instance that quoted scripture seemed a little out of place in a romance novel, but admittedly I don’t normally read Christian fiction, so I’m sure it’s par for the course. I liked that some of the characters would be considered model Christians while others had less-than-enviable pasts but were not vilified for it.

Disclosure: I received this ebook free from BookSneeze as part of a blogger review program.

“I think those are all the rememberies I have, Mom. My brain just goes dark after that.” 10/13/11

“We’re pretending our water us coffee cause we’re polices, and polices like coffee.” 9/28/11

Watching Wizard of Oz: “GO HOME. A tornado is coming!!” 9/23/11

“Mom, why is dirt on TV people?” (He was thinking of the Swiffer commercials) Me: “Just to be funny.” Him: “Oh. It IS funny.” 8/29/11

Walking home from the playground: “Know why I’m having a bad day? All this sweatiness.” The next day, walking to the library: “I’m starting to have a bad day again. I’m getting sweaty.” 7/28/11

As Mark is cleaning spot out of carpet: Connor: “I know what we need. Oyclean.” Me: “How do you know that?” Connor: “uh, commercial” (in his duh voice) 6/17/11

“When it was the first day, George Washington should have been alive. Bur that was a long time ago.” 5/20/11

To his friend: “What if you were my brother? Cause I don’t have any.” 5/15/11

Connor: “Ellie, stop whining. It’s annoying.” Me: “It’s annoying when you whine too.” Connor: “Not to me.” 5/3/11

A lot of kids in Connor’s class were being silly so he told the teacher they must have had silly juice for breakfast. When she told me, I said “Connor, did your class have silly juice for breakfast?” and he said “Yes, but not me.” On the way home, he wanted me to play “the song about take me home.” That would be Paradise City by Guns N Roses, which he said was annoying the one time he heard it. 1/31/11

I’m not sick, per se, and I know all western-medicine doctors would say there is nothing wrong with me, but that is not entirely true. I’ve actually seen doctors in the past about the itching and about my low energy levels. In each case, I was either blown off immediately or after one test turned up normal or one specialist said I didn’t warrant further testing.

But just because I’m not “sick” doesn’t mean I’m well or living up to my full physical potential. And answering Mary’s questions by phone as well as filling out my goals as part of her intake forms helped me realize that. And my lack of energy and mood swings affect my children as well as myself.

I wrote my goals out in pen rather than on a computer, which was kind of liberating. There was no going back and changing or rearranging. I just wrote the first things that came to mind.  I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of things I should put – results-type of goals or specific steps to get to my big, long-term goals. I guess I ended up with a bit of both. Here they are.

Disclaimer: Mary Langfield is providing 90 days worth of health coaching in exchange for me blogging about my health journey.

I have another health journey post coming but in the mean time, I just discovered this weekly blog link-up called “Meet Me on Monday.” I LOVE answering random questions about myself so I couldn’t help but play along. I hope you do too, either in the comments or on your own blog.

3.  If you could choose to stay a certain age forever, what age would it be?
Wow. I really would not want to stay the same age forever no matter what the age is. But I think I really liked being say 6, 7, 8. I am also loving seeing Grace go through those ages.
 
4.  What was your first paying job?
Cashier at Linder’s Garden Center. Worked there all through high school and my first year of college.

5.  Have you read the Twilight series?

Hmmm …. I can’t get the linky to work so you’ll have to click the icon at the top to see all the other posts in this meme.

by Steven Straiton

For the past year or two, I have had a severely itchy scalp. It is worst at night but I rarely feel non-itchy. We have a water softener and chlorine filter on the shower. I’ve tried different shampoos, no shampoo, Scalpicin, coconut oil and shea butter to no avail. I was going to see a dermitologist when, on a whim, I ran a search on “scalp itch food allergy.”

After weeding through a lot of results about contact dermatitis, which I’d effectively ruled out, I landed on a Livestrong article saying it is not an uncommon symptom of wheat allergy. A search for “scalp itch wheat allergy” brought up many more accounts of people having this symptom.

Reading other possible symptoms of gluten intolerance or wheat allergy has lead me to think this is the likely cause. I learned the difference between the two and hope it’s only wheat, not all gluten, I’ll have to avoid. Because I was planning on oats being a major substitute but that also has gluten.

Durum wheat, by Markus Hagenlocher

I spent a couple of weeks paying attention to how I felt after a day or two with little or no wheat compared to a day, like yesterday, when I ate pizza and a sub and ended the day feeling miserable.

I sought advice on Twitter last night. I was amazed at how quickly people spoke up with offers to help or suggestions of who to talk to after my friend Missy, a food allergy advocate, put out the plea for help.

I’m talking with two acquaintances/soon-to-be-friends about their experience. One of them posts gluten-free recipes at Stuffed Pepper, which looks like it will be a great resource. The other has celiac disease and blogs about it.

I’m also going to employ the help of my friend Mary, a holistic health counselor who I’ve wanted to work with but never had a reason in crafting a diet that works for me.

Several people have suggested to me that getting tested by a doctor is unnecessary since I’m fairly certain this is the key or at least a big piece of it. But food issues are complicated; there are so many things that can cause reactions when eaten together even if you can handle them separately. (I suspect dairy may be a culprit for me as well.) I am considering seeing a gastroenterologist as well as working with Mary on my diet and overall health.

As you all know, I’m no cook, so learning to live gluten-free will not be easy but I’m willing to do it if it means being the me I was intended to be.

Welcome to the November Carnival of Natural Parenting: Kids in the Kitchen

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared how kids get involved in cooking and feeding. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

***

When Connor came home from school the other day, he was set on having a smoothie. We had very little yogurt, no ice, no fresh fruit. But he was determined. I decided to follow his lead and see what happens.

He knew there were cranberries in the freezer, and he’d been intent on finding a use for them for a couple of days. He grabbed the two small containers of Greek yogurt in the fridge — black cherry and strawberry. He said we needed sugar, and later said there should be brown sugar too.

I added some milk because the yogurt was so thick. After tasting it, Connor decided it needed even more milk and just a little more sugar.

He tried to drink it through a Magic Milk Straw but it was too thick to pass through the chocolate powder. So then he wanted to put chocolate syrup in the smoothie. I wouldn’t let him so he decided to drink a cup of chocolate milk side-by-side with his smoothie.

He didn’t end up drinking a whole lot of the smoothie, but he sure had fun helping create it.

***

Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be live and updated by afternoon November 8 with all the carnival links.)

• Baking & letting go — Cooking with kids can be a mess. Nadia at Red White & GREEN Mom is learning to relax, be patient, and have fun with the process.
• Family feeding in Child of Mine — Lauren at Hobo Mama reviews Ellyn Satter’s suggestions for appropriate feeding and points out where her family has problems following through.
• Children with Knives! (And other Kitchen Tools) — Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy teaches her children how to safely use knives.
• “Mommy, Can I Help?” — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment writes about how she lets her kiddos help out with cooking, despite her {sometimes} lack of patience!
• Solids the Second Time Around — Sheryl at Little Snowflakes recounts her experiences introducing solids to her second child.
• The Adventure of Toddler Tastebuds — The Accidental Natural Mama shares a few things that helped her daughter develop an adventurous palate.
• A Tradition of Love — Kelly at Becoming Crunchy looks forward to sharing the kitchen traditions passed on from her mom and has already found several ways to involve baby in the kitchen.
• The Very Best Classroom — Alicia C. at McCrenshaw’s Newest Thoughts reveals how her kitchen is more than a place to make food – it’s a classroom!
• Raising Little Chefs — Chef Mike guest posts on Natural Parents Network about how he went from a guy who couldn’t cook to a chef who wanted to teach his boys to know how the food we love is made.
• In the Kitchen with my kids — Isil at Smiling like Sunshine shares a delicious soup recipe that her kids love.
• Papa, the Pancake Artist — Papa’s making an incredible breakfast over at Our Mindful Life.
• Kids won’t eat salad? Try this one! — Tat at Mum in Search is sharing her children’s favourite salad recipe.
• Recipe For a Great Relationship — Cooking with kids is about feeding hearts as well as bellies, writes Hannah at Wild Parenting.
• The Ritual of Mealtimes — Syenna at Gently Parenting Twins writes about the significance of mealtimes in her family’s daily rhythm.
• Kid, Meet Food. Food, Kid. — Alburnet at What’s Next? panicks about passing on her food “issues” to her offspring.
• Growing Up in the Kitchen — Cassie at There’s a Pickle in My Life shares how her son is growing up in the kitchen.
• Harvesting Corn and History — From Kenna at School Garden Year: The kids in the school garden harvest their corn and learn how much history grows in their food.
• My Guiding Principles for Teaching my Child about Food — Tree at Mom Grooves uses these guiding principles to give her daughter a love of good food and an understanding of nutrition as well as to empower her to make the best choices for her body.
• Kitchen Control — Amanda at Let’s Take the Metro writes about her struggles to relinquish control in the kitchen to her children.
• Food — Emma at Your Fonder Heart lets her seven month old teach her how to feed a baby.
• Kitchen Fun? — Adrienne at Mommying My Way questions how much fun she can have in a non-functional kitchen, while trying to remain positive about the blessings of cooking for her family.
• Kitchen Adventures — Erica at ChildOrganics shares fun ways to connect with your kids in the kitchen.
• Kids in the Kitchen: Finding the Right Tools — Melissa at Vibrant Wanderings shares some of her favorite child-sized kitchen gadgets and where to find them.
• The Kitchen Classroom — Laura at Authentic Parenting knows that everything your kids want to learn is at the end of the ladle.
• Kids in the Kitchen — Luschka from Diary of a First Child talks about the role of the kitchen in family communication and shares fun kitchen activities for the under two.
• Our Kitchen is an Unschooling Classroom. — Terri at Child of the Nature Isle explores the many ways her kitchen has become a rich environment for learning.
• Montessori-Inspired Food Preparation for Preschoolers — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares lots of resources for using Montessori food preparation activities for young children in the kitchen.
• My Little Healthy Eater — Christine at African Babies Don’t Cry shares her research on what is the best first food for babies, and includes a healthy and yummy breakfast recipe.
• Two Boys and Papa in the Kitchen: Recipe for Disaster? — MudpieMama shares all about her fears, joys and discoveries when the boys and handsome hubby took over the kitchen.
• Food choices, Food treats — Henrietta at Angel Wings and Herb Tea shares her family’s relationship with food.
• learning to eat — Catherine at learner mummy reflects on little M’s first adventures with food.

• The Night My 7-Year-Old Made Dinner — Melodie at Breastfeeding Moms Unite! shares how her 7-year-old daughter surprised everyone by turning what started as an idea to play restaurant into pulling off making supper for her family.
• Cooking With a High-Needs Toddler — Sylvia at MaMammalia describes how Montessori-inspired activities and a bit of acceptance have helped her overcome hurdles in cooking while caring for a “high-needs” child.
• Kids in the Kitchen – teaching healthy food choices — Brenna at Almost All The Truth shares her belief in the importance of getting kids into the kitchen using her favorite cookbook for kids to develop healthy food choices now and hopefully into the future.
• Make Milk, Not War — Tamara at Tea for Three remembers the daily food fights as she struggled to feed a picky eater.
• teaching baby birds about good food. — Sarah at Small Bird on Fire writes about the ways in which her family chooses to gently teach their son how to make wise food decisions.
• 5 Ways to Enhance Your Baby or Young Toddler’s Relationship with Food — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama shares simple ways to give your child a healthy beginning to her lifelong relationship with food.
• Toddler at the Table: 10 Creative Solutions — Moorea at Mamalady shares tips for preventing meal-time power struggles.
• How My Child Takes Responsibility During His Mealtime… — Jenny @ I’m a full-time mummy shares how she teaches and encourages her 32 months old son on adopting good manners and responsibilities during his mealtimes…
• Kids in the Kitchen: 6 Tips Plus a Recipe — Kristin at Intrepid Murmurings shares six tips for overcoming some of the the difficulties of cooking with multiple young sous chefs, and a recipe they all can agree on!
• How BLW has made me a better parent — Zoe at Mummykins shares how baby-led weaning has changed her approach to parenting.
• My Budding Chef — Jenny at Chronicles of a Nursing Mom is no cook but is happy that her daughter has shown an inclination and manages to whip up yummy goodies for their family.
• Kids in the Kitchen: An Activity for Every Age — Gaby from Tmuffin describes how she keeps her kids busy in the kitchen, whether they are one week old or two years old.
• The Phantastically Mutlipurposed Phyllo — Ana at Pandamoly shares how Phyllo is used to create enticing dishes at home! Anything can be made into a Struedel!
• Kitchen Kids — Laura from A Pug in the Kitchen shares her children’s most favorite recipe to make, experience and eat.
• Independence vs. Connection in the Kitchen: won’t you please get yourself your own snack already? — Lisa at Organic Baby Atlanta wishes her daughter would just go make a mess in the kitchen. But her daughter only wants to do it together.
• Grandma Rose’s Kitchen — Abbie at Farmer’s Daughter reminisces about her childhood and dreams of filling her kitchen with people, love, noise, and messes.
• Healthy Food Choices for Kids — Jorje offers one way to encourage children to make their own healthy food choices at MommaJorje.com.
• Cooking food to thrive rather than survive — Phoebe at Little Tinker Tales is trying to foster a lifetime of good food habits by teaching her children about the importance of avoiding junk, cooking healthy meals, and learning about the whole food process.
• Evolution of a self-led eater — Sheila at A Gift Universe shares the story of how her son grew from nursing around the clock to eating everything in sight, without her having to push.
• 10 Ways Tiny Helps In The Kitchen — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama explores the ways in which her toddler actively participates in kitchen-related activities.
• The Complexity of Feeding a Child — Feeding children a healthy diet is no straight-forward task, but Lisa at My World Edenwild shares some general guidelines to help your child thrive.
• Lactation Cookies — That Mama Gretchen shares a fun recipe that will benefit both mamas and babies!
• 50 of the Best Books, Websites, & Resources to Inspire Kids in the Kitchen — Need inspiration to get your kids in the kitchen? Dionna at Code Name: Mama rounds up some of the best books and websites that can serve as a source for ideas, recipes, and cooking with littles fun.
• A 4-year-old’s smoothie recipe — Jen at Grow With Graces and her son set out to make a smoothie without the usual ingredients. She let him improvise. See how it turned out.
• Independent Food Preparation (My Toddler Can Do That?) — Megan at Montessori Moments shares simple ways for children to prepare their own healthy snacks.
• Follow Your Gut — Amy at Anktangle shares her philosophy about intuitive eating, and how she’s trying to foster her son’s trust in his own inner wisdom when he feels hungry.
• A TODDLER-STYLE LUNCH + RECIPE — Manic Mrs. Stone photographs how to have messy fun during lunchtime with a helpful toddler.

We carved three of the five pumpkins we bought at Whistling Well. The big kids drew their designs in dry erase marker and Mark carved them. He did Ellie’s himself. The big kids gutted their own pumpkins too, after only a little protesting by Grace. Ellie helped throw the guts in the garbage for Grace, who was across the table from the trash can. Grace took a bowl full of seeds out to the woods and “planted” them. We’ll see if we end up with anything next year.

We also got all the kids’ costumes. We bought Connor’s this summer at a garage sale. It’s a really nice Scooby-Doo costume. Despite being from a garage sale, it cost more than the girls’ outfits combined! We found a Mulan dress at Neighbors that fit Grace and added a foam sword from Goodwill. Total cost: $3. Our Goodwill gets lots of Target cast-offs that are brand new but can’t be sold at Target for whatever reason. We got Ellie an adorable gnome costume that retails for $20. It was marked $7. The cashier gave me a coupon booklet for local second-hand-type stores. It had a half price for 1 item Goodwill coupon and she let me use it on the spot, so the gnome was $3.50.

If you’re looking for Halloween ideas, check out these posts I’ve enjoyed over the past week:

• Staying home to hand out candy? Make it a little more fun with Costume bingo
• You can hire people to do almost anything these days, including Halloween chores. Ridiculous.
• Here are ideas for Cheap Halloween treats and decorations. I like the makeup idea, instead of buying a whole set and using just a little. I hope to make these Candy Corn Pudding Treats for the kids on Halloween.
• And for me? Hot spiced cranberry cider.
• More links to DIY Halloween crafts and treats here.
• This has simple directions for making three cute kids’ costumes out of T-shirts (with links to other costume posts).
• And finally some tips to make your Halloween safe, green and food-allergy-friendly.

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter  for more links to things I find interesting. There may be video of the kids gutting pumpkins  coming too.

We made our annual fall orchard trip this week. We picked a peck of apples, selected five pumpkins, petted chickens and heard a donkey’s bray for the first time.

This year we went to Whistling Well Farms, one of several orchards near the St. Croix River between Afton and Hastings. We have also been to two other orchards in the area — McDougall’s Apple Junction and Afton Apple. (Read my post about the Afton Apple corn maze and see scrapbook pages from the past three years at the end of this post.)

Whistling Well sells mums, gourds, Indian corn, corn stalks and straw bales in addition to the pumpkins and apples. McDougall’s has mums as well but I don’t think they have the other items. They do have a few more activities for kids, like a giant pile of straw bales to climb, a small playground, rubber duck races and an apple launcher. They also have a corn maze but we have not done it.

Whistling Well and McDougall’s both have some animals. Here is Connor, after many minutes of petting the chickens, suddenly backing away and quietly saying, “You’re not going to eat me, are you?”

And of course, both have plenty of apples to pick, food concessions on weekend and stores with goodies like jam, cider and caramel apples.

Our 2008, 2009 and 2010 fall orchard outings:

Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy. I reviewed this when I read it. In a few words, though, I loved it.

Irish America: Coming Into Clover by Maureen Dezell. I grabbed this at Half-Price Books on a whim. It’s about the Irish immigrant experience in America and the way they were and are perceived and portrayed. It was a light, easy read for a potentially dry subject. I had once tried to read “How the Irish Became White,” which is on a similar theme, and couldn’t get through more than a few pages.

Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders: From the American Chronicles of John H. Watson, M.D.by Larry Millett. I love this book. I’ve never read the real Sherlock Holmes books but Millett’s books mimic their style but are set in Minnesota. You know I’m a sucker for that. I also love a good mystery and this one kept me guessing till the end.

Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss & Love by Matt Logelin. The story of how Matt Logelin lost is wife in childbirth and made a desperate call for help online is well-known here in the Twin Cities. I have friends who know Matt well. So I knew I had to read this book as soon as it came out. I normally would read a sappy memoir like this so it’s hard for me to give a fair review but I thought it was well done for the most part, and I recommend it if you’re looking for a good cry.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Wicked Years, #1) by Gregory Maguire. I wanted to like this book but gave up around page 120. It was tawdry, slow-moving, dull and so, so long. I would like to see the musical though.

Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse, #10) by Charlaine Harris. Sookie Stackhouse is my guilty pleasure. This wasn’t the best in the series but it beats a sharp stick to the eye. And I needed something I knew I’d enjoy after the “Wicked” debacle.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. I love how she waxes poetical about vegetables while giving useful information. I was inspired to grow my own food (if I had a space too) and learned some useful tips for doing so even though it’s not an instructional manual per se.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I really enjoyed it up until the point where the missionary family left the African village. The final third of the book could have been about half the length, or less. I enjoyed how it was written from the perspective of five different characters.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Except for the socialism campaigning at the end, this was a compelling story. And it’s eyeopening how though many things have changed in the last 100 years, there is much still the same.

Welcome to the Great Mysteriousby Lorna Landvik. I’ve never read anything by this Minnesota author that I didn’t like. This one is a heart-warming tale about a woman who finds her true self while caring for her nephew, a task she dreaded immensely. This was exactly the kind of book I needed after those last two depressing ones.

The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King. This is a prelude to a trilogy, and I’m excited to read the rest. Thought I got hooked on Stephen King because of his classic horror novels like “It,” I prefer his non-horror novels, like this one about a medieval prince framed for his father’s murder by an evil magician.

Waiting for SUPERMAN: A Participant Media Guide. I haven’t seen the movie “Waiting for ‘Superman,’” which this is meant to go along with. But I know the basic premise of it. This book is basically a series of essays about the U.S. educational system, the reforms needed or in progress and some rebuttals to the movie. It was very eye-opening and included a lot of facts and data as well as ideas and ideals.

Dracula by Bram Stoker. It took a LONG time to get to the action/point but once it did, it was fascinating. I love that the book spends very little time on scenes involving Dracula himself. It is focused on the two women who he victimized and the four men out to get revenge for them. The old-fashioned language is a bit hard to get through. But overall, worth reading.

I am now reading A Secret Gift: How One Man’s Kindness–and a Trove of Letters–Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression” by Ted Gup. I’m about half way through and it is fascinating. Gup’s grandfather anonymously gave $5 to 150 families in Canton, Ohio, in 1933. Gup researched the families, what they were going through in 1933 and how they and their descendents have since fared. In his research, he learned a lot about his grandfather, including that he lied about his early life, fabricating official documents to hid his status as a Romanian Jew and concealing a stint in prison.

Still to read (You can keep track with me at GoodReads.com)

1. Wicked
2. Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy
3. The Minnesota Table
4. Hinds’ Feet on High Places
5. There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America
6. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
7. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
8. The Poisonwood Bible
9. The Help
10. The Not So Big Life (I started this and then abandoned it. It’s more of a project than a book!)
11. Me Talk Pretty One Day
12. House of Sand and Fog
13. The Power of Less
14. Two Kisses for Maddy 
15. The Forgotten Garden  (recommended by Sarah)
16. The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship  (recommended by Lauren)
17. Growing, Older: A Chronicle of Death, Life and Vegetables  (recommended by Katie)
18. A year of living Biblically (also recommended by Katie)