Welcome to my blog! I am excited to share with you my history, experiences and journey to feeding my family healthy and homemade. In this blog, I also hope you get to know me and my amazing family for they are my Reasons for trying to live a Scratch Kitchen lifestyle.
Disclosure
Published November 24, 2015
Updated on February 25, 2022
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Who is Monica?
Hi! My name is Monica and I live in Wisconsin.
I love God, the Green Bay Packers, and feeding my family.
I have been married to Tyler for seven years and we have two boys. Samuel is our compliant 6-year-old and Matthews is our strong willed 3-year-old. They are my life, my joy, and a few of my Reasons for writing this blog. I am blessed to be a stay-at-home mom, homemaker, housewife.
Whatever your title is – please know from my heart that I do not expect anyone to follow my path or to be envious or jealous or angry or upset. Tyler and I decided for me to be a stay-at-home mom before we even had babies, and I can explain that in a different blog.
As a family, we never used to second guess what we ate. Buy it at the store, open the box-bag-plastic, mix, heat it, put it together, eat. But a few years ago, my 6-year-old started to have the age old ‘tummy ache’ that never really went away. For around two years we second guessed and brushed him off, only to conclude that his diet may be to blame. Don’t get me wrong, we tried everything under the sun thinking it was all manner of things before we brushed it away.
One of the Reasons we did not fully understand his pain, was we did not put together the fact that what is consumed can alter a person’s health in such a big way.
Reasons for my personal health
At my 6-week post baby checkup, however, I still was not feeling better. I was sent in for labs, CT scan, EKG, ultrasounds… the whole works. All of my tests came back normal. But I knew something was off, plus my sister, mom, and many other family members kept telling me they had the same issues.
Gallbladder disease. Ugh. It sounds like such a yucky thing. And it is, especially if you are like me and doctors brush you off for more than 5 years. I had colonoscopies, ultrasounds, blood tests, and multiple scans. Not once in that 5 years’ time did the doctors even listen to my pleas about my multi-generational genetic condition.
As of May 2014, I no longer have my gallbladder.
I also have an intolerance to dairy. Go figure! Samuel and I will suffer together, and search for better, healthier, tastier eats!
So that is my story, and I am excited to have shared it with you and am thankful for your support and curiosity about our path to eating healthier and making food from scratch. My blog will focus mainly on eating tasty foods made from scratch, and also a little bit of my family life thrown in. I love to go grocery shopping and I will add to my blog how to meal plan a week ahead of time as to save your family, or yourself, money. I will post recipes, favorites and failures, pictures, and plans.
Enjoy!
~Monica
Reasons for our family’s health
As a baby and infant, Samuel was always the 90% on height and weight charts at the doctor. He was born 2 weeks early and 9-pound 1 oz! As he got older, he slowly has fallen away from that top-of-the-chart standing. My husband and I became worried when one midnight we were taking a feverish 4-year-old to the ER and at a checkup his doctor said he could “put on a few pounds” because when he gets sick… he has no fat reserves to fall back on.
That jumpstarted us on the journey, mostly with trial and errors, that concluded with mommy and daddy understanding that dairy Samuel was the Reason for his pain. We have not had him allergy tested, mostly because when you find the reason for discomfort why prod needles where we know the problem already exists? (Update, since 2020 Samuel has had allergy tests and no food allergies to report!)
Matthew and Tyler have had no issues with food. They are blessed and lucky! As for myself, I started to become sick with my first pregnancy. Heartburn city… and it was bad. My OB brushed me off (I know how my son feels!) saying heartburn while pregnant is normal. What is NOT normal, however, is eating tums like they were candy. Which I did. A lot.
Update on my Reasons
What a couple of years it has been! I figured that since the last time this was written was in 2014, an update will be necessary as many of the Reasons this blog have changed. In 2019 our family moved from the house we lived in since 2009. In typical craziness, the Covid-19 pandemic reared its ugly head just a few months later. We are now a family of six living in a small town and completely in love with our home.
We have spent the last year updating small parts of our house, painting, adding two basement bedrooms, carpet, getting a cat, crisis schooling at home, working, and most importantly eating.
Within the next few years, we are going to completely change the landscaping by adding a concrete patio, getting rid of the weeds and adding an actual lawn, and adding concrete curbing. I am excited to share this journey with you!
Welcome to my Kitchen and come along with my family and I as we explore the Reasons and Why’s, and enjoy some amazing recipes, tips and tricks, and updates on our home.
~Monica
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