Gluten Intolerant

Many of my posts are about foods that heal, that's because I have a bowel disorder, and I can't digest certain foods. Wheat, and in fact, all grains except rice. I can digest some seeds that are ground into flour and used as grains. These exceptions are: Teff, Quinea, Buckwheat, (no it's not wheat. It's a berry.) I can also have Flax Seed.

Thank Heavens for natural food stores. In Ogden, I go to Good Earth. It's a little pricey, but these stores are the only ones where I can find foods to eat like like: cereals. Even Rice Krispy's have corn in them. I can't have corn. And many of the cereals you might find that seem like they should be ok, are not, because there is no much cross-contamination. They use the same areas to process the rice foods as they do wheat, corn, and oats. It's very frustrating.

They also sell rice breads, rolls, waffles, English Muffins etc., I could go on and on, but I am so happy to find foods to eat.

I have even discovered some treats. I buy the Almond Breeze chocolate milk, put one cup of milk and one banana, a few cut up strawberries in a blender, with some ice, and it makes a wonderful shake! You can vanilla if you want.

I am constantly reading and learning had to heal my body with good food and herbs. I always say, "Eat fresh. As close to the earth as possible, with the exception of worms or dirt of course. (Although, I think there might be more nourishment in both of those than most of the foods people put in their mouths.) I also love organic foods.

We need to learn how to cleanse our bodies by using natural foods and herbs, and increasing the
level of health. I did a lemon cleanse a few months ago and felt very well afterward. My niece Heather was just here visiting two days ago and told me that she had done the same lemon cleanse, but she stayed on it for a week. I wasn't able to do it that long. I have blood sugar problems that won't let me have them much maple syrup.

Heather has always had a problem with bloating, and said that after the cleanse she wasn't bloated near as badly as she normally was.

The lemon cleanse is very simple: 8 ounces of water, two tablespoons juice from a fresh lemon, and 1 tablespoon real maple syrup, and 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cayanne pepper.

The lemon and water cleanse your bowel, the pepper cleanses your blood, and the maple syrup keeps your blood sugar from falling. The maple syrup makes my blood sugar rise and then fall.

Don't use the syrup in the stores that are made for pancakes. In fact, I would tell you never to use that syrup. The maple syrup from the natural health food stores tastes great on pancakes.

So for this cleansing recipe use only real maple syrup from a natural health food store. And make sure it is grade B. That sounds funny, because why wouldn't you use grade A. The reason is because grade A is refined. We want it as natural as possible. Grade C is a little too natural for me. It is straight out of the tree, bugs and all.

My Gratitude Journal

Many years ago I was watching Oprah and she told how she kept a gratitude diary, and that it was changing her life. All you have to do is write 5 things a day that you are grateful for.

My five things for the day:

1- I'm very grateful for my wonderful husband Mike.

2- Very grateful for my wonderful children: Kenny, Mike, Cari, Kim, Chris, Stephen, Sherri, Amy Lisa, and Brian.

3- Very grateful for a wonderful mother, Dorothy Code, who was an angel mother to us.

4- Very grateful for wonderful grandparent, John and Frances Linton who converted to the LDS church, as young adults in England, came to America and insprired 10 children to keep the faith.

5- I'm grateful to live in this wonderful land. The good old USA.

There are about a million things in this life that I am grateful for. When I did this years ago, I was amazed that I could think of 5 different things everyday.

Peggy Lives At The Computer

This is me, Peggy. I really have no life outside this computer. I blog. I do genealogy, and I play computer games.

Lately, I haven't have much time to play games though. Which is a very good thing, since it is a great waste of time!

It was so funny, I had just downloaded this picture and Mike walked in the room. At the very moment he walked it, it showed up, and I was sitting in exactly the same position, wearing a white shirt. I'm not playing a game though, and I'm not eating. I'm not sure what that is on my plate.

Lydia Is Doing Well On Her Diet

Lydia seems to like her diet! She has to have a supplemental drink which replaces her milk, because she has PKU. She is old enough to eat more foods now, and seems to be a good eater. And as far as I can see likes everything. I haven't asked Chris if there are foods she doesn't like. I really haven't been around her that often when we are all eating.

What a darling picture of Chris and Lydia!

Sun Birds!

We get called "Snow Birds" in Arizona, because we fly south for the winter. Well, the time is quickly approaching when we will be going back to Utah. So I guess we will be called "Sun Birds" now.

If I'm going to be any bird, it will be this bird. My favorite: Brazilian Cardinal! They are all over Hawaii and Arizona. I love these birds!

People are always giving us the heads up, that Arizona is hot! They can't understand why we want to move there. Mike and I have to keep reminding them that we will only be there for the winter. They still keep saying how hot it is.

I have to tell them that Utah is our hot spot! The temperatures in Arizona during the winter averages 70-80 degrees. The temperatures while we are in Utah, range from 45 to 105 degrees!

We have thoroughly enjoyed living in Arizona this past 5 months. But, we will be heading back to Utah in a week and a half. Lots of work needs to be done before we can leave.

Ed, the sweet, little, 80+ gentleman who lived her previous to us, cut the wires to the drip system! There were two lines set up so that you could water the trees and plants at different times, and he and Doris just gave up on having any plants and the water went to the four trees in the yard. I want plants!

Mike and I are busy working hard on trying to get the system ready to water all the new plants and pigmy palm tree we planted.

There's a lot more to do that just the yard too! Mercy!

Swimming With Our Visitors

We had a lot of company who swam in our pool. I told Robyn that we had a good showing of her mother's children and grandchildren in the pool. We had more of Sharon's grandchildren in the pool that we had of our own.

The first picture is Robyn, Barrett, and me. Jake is at the front. I don't know where Blakelyn and Grayson are.



Out of our 8 children who could have come to visit, we had three. Kenny, Mike and Chris. And out of our 19 grandchildren, we had Andrew, Ben, Katie, Nick, and Lydia.

Out of Sharon's three kids, we had Robyn and her four children, and Chris and Sally and their three children.


The bottom picture you can barely see Katie, Andrew and Nick are in the middle, Ben is swimming under water and My Son Mike is watching all of them.

We also had Pam and Joan swim. So all in all we had a good time at the ranch!

Chris And David's Visit

Here are a few pictures of Chris, David, and Lydia During the time they came for a visit to Arizona. David actually had business and so it made it possible for them to stay and have a nice visit with us.





David had quite a drive each day. We live in Apache Junction with is 35 miles from Phoenix. He never complained about the drive though. It turned out that his meetings were held at what used to be a resort, well actually it still is a resort. Previously, it was called "The Point" and was a private club. Now the Hilton bought the whole resort. I kept looking for the pool I swam in and the tennis courts I played tennis with Steve, Karen, and Scott at, but it has all changed too much!

I went there when I stayed with Karen and Steve in the mid-80's.