Kil-Mart

God has given me the best sisters in Christ ever. In every life stage He has provided sisters and brothers for me that hold a dear purpose for that time in my life. My church family at Robinson Ave is no different, and I love them dearly.

On May 5th I called some of my dear sisters and

asked them to come to the house and help me clean out the pantry and fridge from all gluten and casein products. I made a joke that I was going crazy and "at these prices you'd be crazy too not to come over and take all this food

that I am giving away!" I knew I had to clean out the house from everything that we cannot have and fill it with all that we can. It's not fair to the kids for them to always wonder what they can eat and what they cannot. Four precious friends of mine came over and helped me start my journey. It was more difficult than I thought

it would be.

(Above) The table full of food that we clean out.

For one, I did not realize how strongly one can become connected with food. I found myself

mourning it. I would miss the recipes that I have grown to love. My kids were sad, too. I am trying to play a game with them that each week we will find a new recipe that we all love and that will become a new favorite. Soon the others that we cannot have will be less painful. And, if, at the end of 9 months, our evaluations show no difference in our bodies off of gluten and casein, then, bring on the Mexican food! I mean, I will eat queso for a solid week if I can!

(Above) The cleaned out pantry

Also, I quickly became overwhelmed thinking "what will I feed them?" They will need supplements, they will always need food ready to eat when they are hungry so that they will not have to wait on it, we will need food ready to go on trips and to church, etc. All of

that takes organizing, and I have no time to breathe, let alone organize meal plans. And, what if I make it, and they don't like it? Gluten free bread is so horrible. I have been gluten free before, and I remember the bread. It's terrible. I may not need the bread, but my kids need carbs. So what to do?

Switching gears, I have been wanting to go on a diet for a year now. I have not been motivated at all to change my diet or begin to exercise, mostly because there are so many other things going on now. But last week I felt moved to join weight watchers online. Just a little plug here, I like it so far. But looking back, I am so grateful to God for letting me have that one week on weight watchers before I found out that I was going to be GFCF for one year. It really helped to focus my mind on how attached to food I was. God was one step ahead of me, even in that small detail.

And He was leaps and bounds ahead of me when He provided such great friends. I can't thank Julie, Renee, Charity and Rachel enough for coming over to "take the food away". They made a hard moment much easier and were so encouraging.

I love my Christian family!