Musical Interlude

Bradlee has loved the piano since I first played it with him on my lap.  He was too small even to keep himself in the upright position so it made playing very interesting.  His love has not abated one whit and he now plays the piano with both hands and sings along.  Granted, his songs are made up on the spot as his hands wander the keyboard and his voice may or may not match the notes played either in key or tempo but he's learned to be gentle with the keys and it's all somewhat pleasant to hear.

He climbed onto the piano bench Christmas Eve when everyone was here and played a bit.  Then he recalled that I look at a book on the music rack while I play and occasionally turn pages so he picked up a Rodehever's Hymnal that was lying to the side.  Nick didn't want him damaging my hymnal so traded him for the first book at hand....a crossword fill-it-in.

As Brad began playing and singing, Mike announced that we were listening to "Crosswords" in B-flat major.

Gluten

I've known I've needed to avoid gluten for a few years now.  I've felt the negative effects of breads but managed to believe my own argument that it wasn't the breads themselves, just the volume of my consumption.  Never mind that I felt some effects every time I had one sandwich or a dinner roll. Bread is so delicious that a person will believe anything if it means being able to continue enjoying it.

A little over a month ago,  I was presented with unarguable evidence that Richelle needed to go gluten-free.  She doesn't have celiacs disease, just very low tolerance to gluten.  It was keeping her from going to sleep, she was waking up multiple times in the night and then finding it difficult to get back to sleep again.  That meant an overslept alarm clock, being tardy for school, a sullen teenager, and one highly irritated mother.  Multiply that by five times each week and something was going to give.

I didn't require my family to join me in eliminating chocolate from my diet twenty years ago but I decided to join Richelle in eliminating gluten from her diet.  Cooking is so much easier that way!  Plus, I will do for others that which I will not do for myself.  I don't avoid chocolate because it makes me feel terrible; I avoid it because my family doesn't deserve to live with the terrible person I become when I have it.  I didn't begin to avoid gluten because it is not good for me; I started avoiding gluten to support Richelle.

Fast-forward five weeks.

Richelle goes to sleep on time, sleeps all night, and is up on time in the morning.  When you realize our school starts at 6:30 am, you understand the scope of the benefit.  Another benefit is that her head is clearer and studying isn't the onerous chore it had been.  She's even able to do some simpler Algebra II problems in her head correctly.

I am also seeing some positive results from avoiding gluten.  Curiously, the first one I noticed was a marked reduction in my "jumpy" legs.  All this time I had linked it to lack of exercise and the intake of caffeine.  On a scale of 1-10 with 10 having me up and wandering because I can't lie still to sleep, I'm now between 2 and 3.  It's wonderful to lie in bed and peacefully drift off instead of pushing myself to fall asleep quickly before the twitches get too bad.

The second result for me is that my own head is clearer.  It feels as if my thought process is no longer mired in molasses and I can leap lightly from thought to thought again.

And, you know, gluten-free foods are quite tasty!

Sorry, Mom, that it took so long to join you in going gluten free...