Life at Home – Page 5 – A Liddle Good News

Getting some time away

The school system here gives students two weeks’ vacation in the spring, normally straddling Easter weekend. The long break gives families plenty of time to go away together on vacation. We decided to join the throng — despite the cold weather — and go to the south of Germany. Katherine booked us into a vacation apartment built on a fruit farm and vineyard that’s just a short drive away from Lake Constance, which is called the Bodensee here.

Here are some of the pictures that I took during that time. Click any of the galleries to see the individual photos in it. Use your Back button to get back to the page that shows all of the photo galleries.

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I’ll be adding descriptions to most of the photos, but write to me if you want to know more about any of them.

We’re thankful for the chance to go away and rest for a few days, and we also like the opportunity to go somewhere we haven’t been before. Given the beauty of the area around the lake — especially Mainau — we definitely think that we’ll make another trip there someday when it’s warmer.

Our son has gone partially nuts

More about my tardiness in publishing updates … in the next update.

You’ll probably remember that our son, C, has a number of food allergies. It’s especially easy to recall this fact if you’ve ever had us over for dinner. Broadly speaking, one of those allergies has been tree nuts, which includes things like cashews, pistachios, pecans, and more. We’ve know for several years that he is not, however, allergic to pecans in particular. He was tested specifically for this because we had two large pecan trees in our backyard in Texas. That could’ve been awkward.

Our boy has been through a number of tests with an allergist here in Germany. Some of them have been better experiences than others; Katherine would be the better storyteller on that score. But in the latest round, the allergist encouraged Katherine to do some testing at home as a result of low, low numbers in C’s blood tests (IgE levels). Home is more comfortable.

The test subject was to first try chopped hazelnuts baked into food. (Eating something baked, versus raw, can reduce the possibility of a reaction.) Then we were to watch for the usual symptoms. So the test preparer, namely Katherine, prepared something delicious with hazelnuts bought in the shell. And then the test subject ate said delicious somethings. We watched, and watched, and watched, but he did not react to the nuts. He did react to the deliciousness, though, but not in any way that would concern an allergist.

Over the span of a few weeks, C was to keep eating things with hazelnuts in them. Poor boy … so many yummy muffins and cookies, and so little time. Now he eagerly cracks them open himself and pops them in raw, and we now have a new source of protein (and much-needed fat) for him.

He’s been through the same routine, successfully, with almonds. We’re equally happy for that, too, but almonds are terribly expensive here.

Whether you’ve ever had to prepare food for our son or not, please be thankful to God with us for this change in C’s life. He is, and he has the crumbs to prove it!