Here I stand, at this moment, thinking back on the life of this blog and how much things have changed since I began it three years ago. I do not even recognize my life from when I started treading down this road. I have faced many challenges and have had to reinvent several areas of my family’s life.

Currently I find myself still dealing with more than I feel I can tackle. The health of my children is stable compared to 6 months ago but still shaky. I am constantly thinking about food and their diet. It has become a full time job. I am also continuing to deal with my daughter’s diagnosis of Autism. I am surprised to admit that hearing her diagnosis hit me harder than I expected. I knew in my heart all along that she was most likely autistic but to hear it officially sent me into somewhat of a depression these past few months. I suppose this may be a common reaction considering what we are now facing.

I am trying to come to grips with what this all means to us as her parents and to her as a child. We continue to seek out various therapies (and who knew there would be so many various forms of treatment) that might be of help to her. We are also wrestling with the idea of homeschooling her as we are concerned as to what a typical school environment might mean to a child with autism and sensory processing disorder. (Follow this link to an explanation as to what sensory processing disorder is.)

As I mentioned above, food is quite the challenge these days. Never before have I paid as much attention to each and every bite of food that my children take as I do now. We are in the process of shifting from a gluten-free and casein free diet over to what is known as the GAPS diet. I have been researching nearly every spare moment I can as to what might be plaguing my children’s health (as well as my own really, but that is another story entirely). The GAPS diet sheds light on so many issues that we are currently dealing with. I hope to implement this diet here in the next month or so. I do not feel like going into the elaborate details of the diet here at this moment but for those interested in what I am referring to I highly recommend taking a look at the links that I will have listed at the bottom of this post.

To summarize, my days are currently spent chasing after two very active children (my 4 year old and 1 year old), homeschooling my 12 year old for his final year (he wants to attend public school next year), and reading as many books and internet sites that focus on diet, autism, and treatments for digestive problems as I can. Unfortunately, there has been little time for gardening. I miss it greatly right now and hope as the weather starts to finally get nice around here (GO AWAY RAIN!) I can steal moments out there when I can.

I know I continue to be sporadic in my blogging and commenting but it is the best I can do at this point in my life. What a ride these three years have been!

For more information on the GAPS diet please check out the following sites:

• The GAPS Diet
• What is GAPS
• YouTube Video

I have been somewhat absent from the blogosphere these past few weeks due to some really annoying (and quite maddening!) problems with my blog. I am beyond frustrated with my hosting company after multiple mistakes on their part. This is on top of the domain for this site having some problems as well. I will spare all the boring techy filled details. All I can say is that I have been near pulling my hair out for the past week now. And all for a site that is really just a hobby I enjoy!

Before I go off on a tangent I need to let my readers know that here in the next few days I am going to begin the ever so fun and exciting (more like nail biting!) task of moving this site to a new server. Just about everything is in place to do so now I just need to make the final plunge. So, if in the next few days things look a little wonky around here everyone knows why. Hopefully the transition will be nice and smooth and no one will notice a thing. {fingers crossed}

The title for today’s post seems appropriate considering spring is right around the corner- although, I am not referring to spring or my garden for that matter!

No, you see, we have completely turned over a new leaf in my family these past few weeks. For starters, my husband was finally able to find a good job. Times have been so tough since he was laid off almost three years ago. We are thinking we can finally get back on top of things now that his work is once again more stable. The other big new leaf in this family has been the decision to go completely gluten free. My oldest son, you might remember, was recently diagnosed with Celiac disease. You also might remember that soon after that my daughter was diagnosed with being on the Autism Spectrum. There is a lot of information out there recommending autistic children be on a gluten free and casein free diet which led us to having our daughter go gluten free as well. (She has been dairy free since last year after it was believed she was possibly allergic to it.) I have been gluten free for nearly a year now because of nursing the baby and him having a sensitivity to the wheat/gluten that was in my diet. (Are you seeing a trend here?? Cause I know I am!) All of this has led my husband and I to make the decision for the whole family to be gluten free. After all, him and our 12 year old son were the only ones left eating a gluten filled diet! It is making things a little easier- having everyone on the same diet. We are adjusting to this new way of eating. I know it is hard on my 16 year old when he is at school and everyone around him is eating pizza and what not. (We are still homeschooling our 12 year old so he eats at home with me and the younger two children.)

I believe this blog is going to go through some changes in the next few weeks/months ahead. I have been thinking really hard about what it is and has been and were it might be going. Just blogging about my garden and hobbies doesn’t feel quite so….right for some reason lately. I keep wanting to write about other things such as what I mentioned above as well as my daughter’s recent events. I find myself avoiding this blog as I do not know just what to do with it. One part of me says to keep it on topic (e.g. gardening, herbs, knitting). The other part of me says it is my blog so I can do what I want with it.

I have toyed with the idea of starting up another blog that would be devoted to things such as a gluten free diet, homeschooling, autism, etc. but I keep not getting around to it. I worry about keeping up with two blogs. I have a hard enough time maintaining this one let alone adding another blog to the mix!

The first new change for this blog is going to be that from now on all of the recipes I post will be gluten free. So, as of right now, Brambleberries in the Rain is officially gluten free! (minus the few recipes posted prior to today that is.)

I would appreciate hearing from readers on their thoughts about what I am considering changing when it comes to this blog. Your input is important to me. I do not want to drive readers away by suddenly changing what I blog about. I am mostly just wanting to add a few topics to the list of  things I blog about. My life has evolved into something so new and I feel this site needs to reflect this.