Babies. Bacteria. Bacon.

Yeah, it's kind of a quirky blog name but those three words will probably encompass what I am going to spend most of my time talking about. However, if you're taking the time to read this, I'll spell it out a little bit.

I have two adorable little monsters, we'll call them Big E and Little E for now. Big E basically knocked out my ideas of what parenting was like with his incredible high needs behavior. So because of that, I'm a pretty AP minded mom, and I do crazy things like full term nursing (aka extended breastfeeding), bedsharing, and not spanking and trying to use positive discipline methods for my children. So I'm sure that my blog will discuss parenting issues and ideas and strategies from time to time.

Bacteria. It surrounds us, and lives within us. I'm no germaphobe, but I never really gave bacteria much thought apart from washing my hands. Or at least, I didn't start considering it seriously until Big E became part of the club known as "failure to thrive" and after an initial suspicion of Celiac disease went nowhere, our doctors didn't seem to know what to do with him besides push copious amounts of Pediasure and Miralax at us, and acted like I was a crazy person for insisting that something else must be going on. I kept researching alone, since no medical professional seemed to be interested in helping us, and eventually started to see a bigger picture about health and disease across our culture. And it all comes down to - our guts are sick because we eat lots of foods that feed bacteria that can harm our gut lining, and because we load ourselves up on medications like antibiotics and painkillers that can kill off the good bacteria and again, damage our gut lining. Once your gut is damaged, all kinds of problems, from malabsorption to allergies to autoimmune disease to mental illness to autism can readily develop. Throw in a few gene mutations that can inhibit absorption of certain nutrients already and you have a perfect storm for an epidemic of chronic diseases and syndromes that you see all over the place today. I'm still sifting the information that I've started to learn. I'm planning to become a nutritional therapist so I can help other people with the information I've learned. My family is doing the GAPS diet to heal our guts, although the more I learn, the more I come to see that there are numerous paths to healing and it just takes tweaking to find the right one for you. I'm researching natural methods of healing, including using DoTERRA essential oils therapeutically, and sharing them with other people. And I'm learning new relevant information all the time. So I will be musing, putting ideas down on paper, and sharing what information I think is important, with anyone who wants to read this blog.

Bacon. Because what's not to love about bacon? (*vegetarians, vegans, and various religious affilations excluded). Although bacon really should just stand in for all things delicious. I love food. I am trained as a chef. And since my son became ill, we have radically changed our diet, first to Paleo and then to GAPS. I'm also learning about Weston A. Price Foundation guidelines for the preparation of foods in traditional styles to maximize nutrition and minimize damaging anti-nutrients in the food. I have never been in love with processed food, but realizing how much it was contributing to my family's health concerns really made me appreciate my culinary skills all the more. I have been very reliant on the internet for recipes and I am starting to get to the point where I am able to easily adapt and maybe even write my own. However, I will probably share links to a number of great blogs where I am getting some of my ideas from. If I can inspire anyone to try out one of my recipes, even if it seems weird or out there, I'm thrilled. And if you learn something or discover a new favorite, even better!


Thanks for reading!