Dairy Free Dilemma

One of the most depressing days of my life was when I finally discovered that I was lactose intolerant. But even worse was when I learned that lactase enzymes do NOT work for me. For a few weeks after finally putting a finger on my symptoms and calling it lactose intolerance I was content to keep eating my pizza and just pop a pill at the beginning of the meal. Unfortunately--it didn't work. In fact most days the medicine just made me feel even worse, sending me to bed with horrible cramps for an hour. (sorry, TMI?)

Anyway, it finally occured to me, my body does not want dairy. DUH! Why am I trying to force it? So has begun my journey with a food allergy. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. Back in the day my roommate Sarah and I would play the classic conversation starting game "Would you rather". One of our favorite questions was; Would you rather from this day on never have sex, or never eat cheese? We usually agreed we'd rather give up sex than cheese, in theory anyway. Well...looks like I'm giving up cheese.

Things I'm learning along the way:

1. I can go without things I love, like cheese, cream in my coffee, pizza, and ice cream. Maybe this means I could make it without other unhealthy things that I think I'd die with out, ie. tortilla chips, candy, and Diet Coke.

2. Soy milk after a while really starts to taste just like soy. Not a fan of crushed edamame over your breakfast cereal? I'm partial to almond milk lately. It tastes like almond a little, but I'd rather have almonds with my cereal than soybeans any day.

3. Starbucks caramel topping, that they use to top off their delicious Caramel Macchiatto and yummy Creme Brulee Lattes (which are both good with soy btw), is made with milk.

4. I'd rather skip the dairy and feel great, than enjoy the 30 minutes of cheese and feel like junk for the rest of the day.

5. I am way more sensitive to other people's dietary needs and preferences than I used to be. How hard is it really to accomodate gluten free or dairy free, or vegan. Hmmm well all three and we're running out of food, but you get the idea.

Full Time Ministry Mom

So I’ve been obsessed with this blog lately called Money Saving Mom. She has great deals, and ways to save money. She loves Jesus and she’s making it work. Something that I’ve been noticing out in the blogosphere is that moms tend to fall into one of the following categories:

Stay-at-home Mom: She stays at home with her kids. Maybe she home schools, and she definitely keeps the house in order. Her role is primarily to be with her kids, nurture their development and keep the family fed, clean, and loved, in the most efficient manner possible.

Work-at-home Mom: This mom looks a lot like the stay at home mom, but she also throws some money making work in the mix. She maybe sets aside time to blog, or bill, or whatever she does for income during naps, or after the kids head to bed.

Work-outside-the-home Mom: This mom works a 9-5 job outside of the home. She is juggling the regular mom duties (cooking, cleaning, and loving) along with getting the kids to and from daycare or school so she can work. Evenings are pretty routine since work ends at 5 or 6pm so a meal plan and weekly schedule work for her.

I don’t seem to find myself in any of these categories. I work full time, in Youth Ministry, for a non-denominational organization called Young Life. I work strange hours. I work a 12-14 hour day on Mondays. Thursdays start with a bible study I lead at 7am and I’m done usually around 5pm. Fridays I usually spend a good amount of time hanging out with B (our 2 year old) and running errands. Saturdays I teach a leadership class for high school kids from 8-10am. Then every Sunday night we have either a team meeting or an area wide leadership meeting so that takes up every Sunday. Once soccer season starts in a few weeks (I coach the JV Girls Soccer team at the school I work with) add practice 3 days a week and 2 games a week.
I am out with high school kids at least 3 nights a week. My husband works a job that has him out about 8 evenings a month. I find that I am craving a schedule and some organization in our lives. But I have yet to figure that out. Being out every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday night and having meetings every Sunday night is proving to leave little time for family, and being a good home-maker.

I’m working it out…but would love to hear what you all think about trying to balance family and work with an odd hours job.