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!