I’m really thankful and grateful to be included with some wonderful female bloggers. and #72 is a good showing!

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Welcome one and all to the Gaggle of Girls stop on the Ultimate Blog Party tour from 5 minutes for mom!

We are a family of 5 humans, and 3 fuzzy ones. Mom (Rachel), Dad (B), 9 1/2 year old Big Girl (BG), 7 1/2 year old Middle Girl (MG), and 4 1/2 year old Little Girl (LG). Our pets are 7 year old calico cat Yuki, 15 year old Australian Cattle Dog mix Harley, and our lone boyo 10 year old Australian Cattle Dog Jack.

Our family enjoys playing games together, reading, computer games, and cooking. We are coping with a few medical issues, so the cooking is necessary – it’s way too expensive to eat packaged food when you have Celiac disease and are living gluten-free, dairy-free, and berry-free! Rachel has some added medical fun, the big one being 2 1/2 years of Chronic Lyme Disease presenting like Fibromyalgia, plus osteo-arthritis and small fiber peripheral neuropathy (all of which translates into chronic moderate to severe pain). Rachel’s issues have meant that she hasn’t been as active as usual, which isn’t always fun for anyone.

Our girls are homeschooled, and we are a part of a local homeschool coop, which is a lot of fun for everyone. We live up the hill from a beach on the North Shore of Massachusetts, on a peninsula which can turn into an island when the rain and tides are just right. The girls have 2 sets of grandparents in Massachusetts, and one set in Texas, plus great-grandparents in Connecticut and Texas. They are lucky enough to have cousins all over the place, too!

Feel free to take a look around the neighborhood and leave a comment. You might want to also explore our 3 other main blogs, too – Rachel’s Recipe Box: the gluten free family, A Gaggle of Book Reviews, and Spotlight product reviews.

Enjoy this week’s Ultimate Blog Party!

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The longer version is after the jump, but here’s the short version for those not interest in the geeky insider scoop.

We have had to change servers 3 times since November due to all kinds of weird stuff. We are settling in at our newest host, hoping to be staying permanently at Steadfast Networks. We highly recommend them: they are friendly, polite, helpful, and when something happens, they apologize. We do not recommend HostPenguin; while their mission statement says they will be gracious, they were rude and condescending, plus unhelpful and unstable.

We love people who can spell, use English correctly, and who apologize when they’ve made a mistake. It’s a Big Thing around here.

Our original host vanished in November after hosting us for about 6 years. I followed my Good Friend Sue to a new host. Good Host was fabulous and wonderful. I even wrote a review about how wonderful they were. From November through mid-February, I had 2 brief downtime issues, but otherwise no problems. Really accessible server admin, very responsive and just wonderful.

Unfortunately, there were behind-the-scenes problems and they ended up going under, and the Good Host set us up on the servers of a friend in mid-February.

From mid-February through early March, we were hosted by Host Penguin. I was dealing with my health stuff, the girls’ homeschooling, and general other crap, so even though I was a bit iffy about having a host that proselytizes Christianity on its homepage, I decided I’d move when things were quieter at home.

Things don’t really get very quiet here, of course, but it was a great concept. In any case, during the 3 weeks or so we were hosted there, we had to deal with having emails returned as blacklisted, database errors, unexplained downtime, and other problems – far more issues than I had ever had before. I had 1 support ticket with the Good Host, and about 6 in 3 weeks with this one.

I know it should be a minor a pet peeve, but I have issues with bad grammar and misspellings – not typo-type errors, but mis-using plurals, verb conjugations, word misuse, etc. Everything I received from them was filled with those errors, and in a giant block of text, which I find hard to read.

Another pet peeve – if someone makes a mistake I like to hear “I’m sorry”. It’s what I teach the girls, and it’s what I expect from others. Never in the myriad of replies for those 6 tickets did I get an “I’m sorry” for the problems or the downtime. They had errors after they moved the databases from the Good Host, but they said they weren’t responsible for data that was moved, nor for the files that were installed by the Good Host’s installer.

I got fed up quickly, got angry, and once my files were in a state where I could repair them myself, I backed up and moved my site ASAP. In short, Host Penguin sucks. Steer clear of them if you value good service and a reliable host.

While some might say “you get what you pay for”, I was paying the same amount for Good Host & Host Penguin. I’m now paying 5 cents less per month for my hosting with Steadfast Networks, so maybe you get the quality you search for – I based my choce of Good Host on Sue’s extensive research, and my choice of Steadfast Networks on my own research Googling and searching the Web Hosting Talk forum. I did no research before being moved to the suckage of Host Penguin.

I’ve been with Steadfast Network for about a day now, and while there were some problems with the databases after the move, the support staff was very helpful, polite, and knowledgeable. They guided me through the steps I needed to perform without a tinge of condescension. As a former tech support person, I know there’s a way of performing support that leaves the customer annoyed, and a way that leaves the customer happy, regardless of the end result. Steadfast definitely has “happy customer” skills!

Moving from one host to another is fraught with problems, so I was expecting a few. It turned out that some of the problems were because of a different naming convention that I didn’t notice, and when I told the support staff at Steadfast Network about the resolution, they apologized for being so busy on the weekend that they hadn’t been able to walk through it with me. Technical skills, politeness, sincerity, it’s all good. We like Steadfast so far!

I’ll update in a few months with a full review of Steadfast. In the mean time, let’s all cross our fingers that there’s no more yoyo-ing of the site!

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I’ve requested that my blog be added to the March NaBloPoMo blogroll.  Anyone want to join me?  Just one little post a day…  My book reviews might end up accounting for a fair number of the posts, but I promise it won’t be just book reviews and whining.  Perhaps I’ll talk about food, too. 

Apropos of nothing, I got a book from a publisher in ARC format (advance reader copy) that won’t come out until August.  The mind boggles – publishers are thinking WAY farther ahead than my poor little brain.  When that book comes out, all of my kids will have had their birthdays.

Which reminds me – in March I will turn 37.  Yikes.  How the heck did that happen? Am I too old to dye my hair funky colors now?

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I recently clicked over to a blog I had never read before, Believer in Balance. This mom has just discovered that her daughter has a peanut allergy. I remember feeling overwhelmed at first, so if you live with food allergies, please go offer her some support and tips!  Check out the other great information at the Food Allergy Carnival!

When you first discover a food allergy/Celiac disease, it is so hard to cope with the realization that your child is the 1 in a 1:100 possibility.

We have several of those 1:100 condition here, and each diagnosis took a lot of emotional and practical adjustment. Your heart breaks a bit for the things your child can’t do, and while we all learn to cope, it’s still hard. I can adapt almost any food so my kids can eat it, but that doesn’t always make life easier. There’s a lot of prep work that goes into living with kids who have food allergies, which can turn a simple birthday party into a challenge. Additionally, there’s so much emotion tied to food, visits with grandparents and other relatives can be difficult to navigate.

We’ve been living with food restrictions for about 9 years now. For folks who are new to food allergies, I’d suggest visiting my recipes (of course), which are all allergy friendly. I’d also suggest visiting the The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, there are wonderful books and helpful cards to carry around for checking ingredients grocery shopping. (Their focus is on the top 8 allergens, so not as great a resource for unusual allergies) For personal support, tips, tricks, resources and stories, the folks at Kids With Food Allergies are incredibly helpful and empathetic, and they have some great recipes. You might also want to download this guide to anaphylaxis, as well – keep yourself informed! If you are receiving a Celiac Disease diagnosis, the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness has a lot of information.

We have found two books especially helpful for our family and friends, in addition to the FAAN books.

• Bagels, Buddy, and Me, a wonderful book about Celiac Disease which we reviewed here.
• The Peanut-free Cafe, a great story about peanut allergy which we reviewed here.

If I could give just a few tips to a parent of a child newly diagnosed with a food allergy/intolerance/celiac disease/etc it would be:

• Don’t be shy. Be the parent who asks others to accommodate your child. They may be mildly inconvenienced for a few hours out of their day/week/year, but it’s important for your child. I’ve tried “compromises”, and they either blew up in my face, or my kids got sick. Neither one was pretty. Stick to your guns – keep your kid safe.
• Read every label. And then read it again. Perhaps one last time? Too often product ingredients change (one of the girls’ favorite potato chips now have dairy) or a store’s supplier has changed (the roasted chickens at our store are from a new company which adds dairy) or you might miss a word (when reading “cocoa butter, butter”; I’ve missed the second “butter”).
• Climb every mountain! Or, call every company. The food allergy labeling laws have made life a bit easier, but I’m still skittish about “natural flavors”, unless I know the company’s stance on labeling or if I have called the company for that item.
• Better safe than sorry. If a food’s ingredients are unclear, it’s best to pass up the treat. My kids might miss out on several treats that are labeled “naturally flavored”, but there are plenty of other treats around! They know if they can’t have something, they’ll get something great later.

(At the top left, you can see my girls eating a store-bought pizza! Amy’s Kitchen is now making a larger line of gluten-free and dairy-free products, which is wonderful. Many of their products are free of other allergens as well. More companies are making allergy-friendly foods, which is a good thing for everyone! It’s great for relatives to be able to buy something to have at the house for visiting kiddos with allergies.)

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Today is Blog for Choice Day, commemorating the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The theme for this year is “Why I vote pro-choice”.

I vote pro-choice because I think abortions need to be kept legal. I believe firmly that a woman deserves the right to choose how to care for her body. I believe that making abortions illegal wouldn’t stop abortions, it would just make them more dangerous. Statistically, our abortion rate is the lowest since 1976, which refutes the idea that the longer abortions are legal, the more people will choose that option.

Why do I think abortion should be kept legal?

• Because women who are raped or victims of incest can become pregnant, and it is unfair to make the woman continue a pregnancy after that trauma.
• Because diseases like toxemia exist that can take the life of the woman and fetus, or spare the life of the woman if she aborts.
• Because there are diseases and genetic conditions that can lead to a child dying in severe pain within hours or days of birth.
• Because you never know what could happen to you.

I vote pro-choice so that women have an option that will save their lives and/or sanity. Does this mean that there are some people who have abortions for reasons other than what I listed? Absolutely. Do I wish that people would make different choices? Sometimes. But how can I know for sure what their lives are like? I can’t. It’s their decision. Their bodies.

I vote pro-choice because I don’t think the country should make laws based on religious beliefs.

I vote pro-choice because the Constitution grants us the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, and therefore the woman’s life and happiness need to protected.  If a pregnancy would threaten a woman’s life or happiness, she needs to have options for termination.
I also vote pro-choice because I want to give myself an out. I have no plans to have an abortion (and no plans to become pregnant), but I can’t see into the future. A wise doctor of mine once said, “Sometimes you wait because someone else has had an emergency. Sometimes you are the emergency.” He was right, I was. And someday I might need an abortion. I am selfish enough to want abortion to be kept legal for that possibility.

If you still think “It could never happen to me”, read Julia’s story about her son Thomas, and her need for a late-term abortion.

I vote pro-choice because I want there to be choices available for all women.

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In other geeky-love news, one of my children (who has asked to remain nameless) said, “Can I have my allowance in Amazon money? I can’t wait to open my own Amazon account!”

Yep. We may be a bit computer-centered here…

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I gave up, and started looking for a Recipe design.  I pretty quickly found a template called Marc for Rachel’s Recipe Box.  After a lot of fiddling with colors and code, I tweaked the same template for the final redesign for A Gaggle of Book Reviews.  Yay!

OK, that’s done for now – redesign on 3/4 blogs, and I’m happy with how Spotlight: A Gaggle of Reviews looks. I should get some sleep – even if the girls are with my folks, I still need to get out of bed in the morning! (but then I can sneak back in and take a nap…)

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If you’re reading this through RSS, please click through and tell me what you think! Those of you with IE on a pc, does the layout work for you? (I can’t find IE on our pc, and B would have a fit if I installed it…)

Go outside and enjoy the beautiful day! (er, in New England – never thought I’d have people in California jealous of our weather in the winter…)  I’m off to supervise more girls walking dogs.

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