My son had a banana DQ blizzard two days ago.

Last night we ordered pizza.

My husband just made ice cream floats.

No, my children did not win some sort of bet with the prize being junk food every day. I didn’t read some strange article about giving your children “treat foods” daily and often to make them tired of them and beg for apple slices. And no, my son has not hijacked this celebration post.

But in my house we sure are celebrating. My almost thirteen year old son has never had a DQ blizzard. He has never had an ice cream float. In fact, he has never had ice cream. We have ordered take out pizza in the last year or so but always one with cheese, one without.

We have been a house of food allergies. At 4 months old, we figured out that my son had allergies to soy, nuts, eggs and dairy. I was nursing twins (my daughter is allergy free) and his reactions were so strong that he was impacted by what I was consuming. Nursing twins burns 1 000 calories a day, When I cut all offending foods from my diet, his skin cleared up (eczema) and he gained weight. For every pound he gained, I lost two. But he was healthy, and we relearned eating and cooking with food restrictions.

This is not complaining because I will take food allergies over other health ailments/conditions. Being careful with food meant a happy, healthy child.

But some things were challenging. Sometimes, even when we were careful, a combination of food meant all night vomiting. I would bring this little guy into our bed with multiple tupperware bowels and receiving blankets and he would throw up every 8 to 9 minutes for up to 3 hours. Never once would he cry or complain and somehow he even drifted into sleep in between. This rarely happens anymore but I still wake up in the middle of the night sometimes sure I hear a strange cough that might mean a night of retching.

When we first went trick or treating, I would bake lemon cookies or carrot bars (using all safe ingredients) wrap them in little bags and “plant them” with willing neighbours up and down the streets near our house. When my son arrived at the door, they would drop his treats in his bag and he would be thrilled. When he got older, we let him collect everything and then would “trade him” safe candy for all the things he can’t have in his bag.

I baked “safe” cupcakes and kept tins of them in my freezer and in the freezer at his primary school. If a classmate brought in cake for a birthday or we attended a birthday party, he could also have a treat. There were 2 other boys in his K class with food allergies. If the class was cooking, I made “equivalent” food for these boys. Apple pie for the class? My boys got apple crumble with oat and brown sugar topping. Often, they got larger portions and felt happily special not strangely special.

We have had allergy testing over the years and there never seemed to be a change. When he was five, we tried goat cheese and he tolerated it. This changed things in huge ways – we bought goat yogurt and he had it with cereal. We could make pizza and use goat cheese. Goat feta meant greek salad. Hurrah!

My son is going to Grade 8 this fall. Time to update the allergy testing again. While he is so careful and responsible, I worry about the teenage brain and risk taking. He has been talking recently of feeling “different” and “left out” of certain experiences. Of course. What is “normal” in our house, is not “normal” in his expanding world.

So an afternoon of skin testing at the pediatrician’s office was on our agenda.

The results? My child is now only allergic to tree nuts and almonds. Wow. Wow. Whoa. I cried. I hugged him a million times. Life has changed.

We are still being cautious. Right now we are just exposing him to dairy. All good so far. Next is egg very slowly. I am not sure if I am ready ever to try peanuts. We will see.

This is of course my son’s story. But it is our family’s story. It is a story that means the world is opening up.

So yes, there will be more never before tried treats in his future. Everyday, we think of something new. “Now we can have . . .” “We don’t need to worry about . . . anymore.”

After almost thirteen years, my son has established tastes. “Mom, will you still buy me goat yogurt if I like it better?” “Of course.” “I think I still like sorbet better than ice cream. It’s too creamy.” “Agreed! Me too.”

Food is food. But food is so wrapped up in our traditions, our celebrations and our day to day routines. When you always have to do it a little differently, it’s hard.

We always have seen the positive things about these allergies. You have to find the silver lining. We read every label every time and avoid a lot of terrible stuff because we are so food aware. Allergies mean less packaged, more homemade. More fresh. More healthy. We learned to bake our own bread, make amazing fruit desserts (crumbles, loaves, cobblers, etc.) and sure saved a lot of money on not having take out or eating out.

In the end, it’s not so much about eating all of these things. It’s more about being able to. Which is more than we ever thought possible. More than my son ever thought possible.

So this week we celebrated all of this possibility. Out came the fancy glasses and we toasted with champagne and Orangina. “To the world opening up!”

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks.

We just returned from a beautiful trip away with my husband’s family on the Sunshine Coast. I celebrate all of the time we had to wander. Down to the beach, along forest trails, around unknown neighbourhoods. I loved the time we had to watch the water and the sky. We saw sunsets and ocean life and amazing rock formations. There was so much time to think. Time to process. Time to wonder. It was a beautiful trip!

Sharing my celebrations in this visual journey.

A lot of my watching was scanning the ocean for a gray whale said to be in the waters. I shared my excitement over spotting this whale here (along with a collection of beautiful picture books featuring whales!)

Oceans and forests are my favourite places. I celebrate that I had time to just “be” in both of them.

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks.

Looking back I see that last year about this time. I celebrated Book blogging. At that time, I had no idea when I would be returning to the classroom (prolonged teacher strike) and I celebrated the community that encouraged me to share – through various memes and twitter support – my deep love for reading and literacy.

A year later, I am celebrating the same thing differently. I am happily back to work. I know what I will be doing come September. And . . . my blog is still where I can share my love of all things literacy. This summer I have leaped large into the land of book lists and book celebration. What a pleasure it has been to share my thinking about various topics, all literacy related, here on this blog. I love that a little inkling of an idea has materialized into a post and been appreciated by others.

I have made a lot of lists and done some reflecting. A few highlights:

Picture Book Dreaming: July 2015 Ten fiction titles I hope to add to my classroom collection

A Year of Nonfiction Picture Books revisited: highlights of my 2014/2015 year sharing nonfiction titles

In the world of books: 25 boys who stand out

In the world of books: 25 girls who stand out

Now, I also celebrate upcoming plans. Of course, this is all about my own list making and expectations. Nowhere is there an obligation or a responsibility.

But blogging my plans and my thinking allows me to consider more carefully, to think a little deeper, to be slightly more responsible. This benefits me  – my teaching, my thinking, my classroom. I also hope, at times, that it will benefit others – – > that my planning and organizing might also fit somehow with something someone else out there might be doing.

Upcoming blog posts on the agenda:

* Next year I am going to be teaching a younger group – likely a Grade 2/3 (mostly 2s) – with this comes the opportunity to delve into new curriculum drafts for this age group. I spent some time looking at the B.C. curriculum draft for science. One piece of content includes: metamorphic and non-metamorphic life cycles of different organisms.  I plan to put some book lists together on this theme and share them for Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday. Another list might be all of the titles that explore life cycles and young animals like My First Day by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. I always am very excited to put together nonfiction lists!

*Next year my class is going to be brand new. After teaching many children for two and three years, this will be a big change. My biggest goal? Creating a new community of readers – winning them over to the land of Book Love one title at a time. How am I going to do this? My answer will likely be explored in a series of posts. I am thinking a lot about this. 🙂 Of course, amazing titles like this one will be employed to work their magic:

* Adjusting my classroom library for a younger group of readers will take some time and thought. It might transfer into some blog posts about the nitty gritty of organization and the broader thinking of what makes it all flow.

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks.

It’s summer and slowly, slowly I have been embracing a summer pace. This is what I celebrate – the time to do all of these things and breathe in between.

• Bookstore visits. Yes, I can’t get out without a few titles following me home but how I love the wandering, the reading, the choosing.

• Coffee with friends. Not starting with the “busy, busy” check in but with hugs, smiles and time.
• Walking in the neighbourhood and having time to notice wild and wondrous things like this . . . fungi? I don’t know if this is a good thing but it sure is startling.

• Baking banana everything. Eating banana everything. Muffins. Cake. Loaves. With lots of coffee. Yum. (Because those bunches sure do go brown quickly in the heat)
• Weeding. Deadheading. Appreciating garden views even though it has been weeks and weeks without rain. In the Pacific Northwest, this just feels so wrong. Particularly appreciating all of my drought tolerant plants.

• Reading a lot. And then a lot more. Watching my children do the same.
• Blogging a lot. And then a lot more. All of the reading means I start thinking in lists. Loved making this latest one.

• Listening to the hawks cry. And then discovering them mid day sitting on our roof. The sound is incredible.

When we celebrate life slowing down there is much to appreciate.

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks.

The 2014/2015 school year has ended. Some people celebrate that it is summer, time for rest. Some celebrate the opportunity for new beginnings. Some celebrate a full, productive year.

I celebrate that my class and I managed our goodbyes. Goodbye with lots of celebration. Goodbye with lots of connection. Goodbye with the understanding that it is not really goodbye at all because sharing a room is not the only way to share.

We toasted a wonderful year (or for many of us two or three years) together.

Yes, we had some tears. Yes, there were lots of hugs. But most of all there was security. When you build something great together, it still stands when you step away. Somehow, quietly, we all knew this.

And so . . . our goodbyes were full of gratitude, of smiles, of honouring what we have built. And of knowing that it is in each of us.

I am so lucky to be a teacher. So lucky to work with such wonderful children. Today, I celebrate that.

Big breath.

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks.