MSG and Me

This has been a huge day for me and after yesterday's upset, I needed more time to get all done that I really wanted to get done. Let me explain:

I was thrilled on my last grocery shopping trip when I found the Bertolli pasta dinners (in frozen foods) on sale. Combined with a good coupon, I got a bag really cheap and decided to use that and some other stuff for Sunday lunch. We get out of church at 12:30 and by the time we get home and get dinner on the table, it's something like 1:30 or 2:00, so a quicker fix sounded good to me.

I ate the Bertolli tri-color cheese ravioli dinner with Jonathon (he's a vegetarian and I'm sort of one). Let me tell you, this was delicious! I think I know what made it so delicious - it had something in it that makes me very sick. MSG.

Yeah, it has MSG and by the taste of it, quite a bit. I know; you can't taste MSG. Monsodium Glutamate is not a flavor enhancer, as some think. It's a chemical that is added to food that makes YOUR TASTEBUDS alter the way they taste the food. It does not bring out the natural flavors; it makes you think the food's better, but it's not.

Anyway, I ate this stuff, loved it, and then got sick. All afternoon Sunday and into the evening, I was a bit queasy but figured maybe I just ate too much.

Monday I got up and began school with the kids. As I was sipping coffee, I noticed my stomach feeling as if someone were poking pins into it. A friend called and I talked to her for a bit while the pain got a little worse. About an hour later it hit me full force and I felt as if I had food poisoning or something. I was really sick all day and finally felt better last night, though really drained and tired.

Today I am back to normal but very thirsty. I KNOW it had to be the MSG in the dinner because I've had this problem before, always after eating something with a lot of the chemical in it.

So after doing nothing but laying around ill yesterday, I got absolutely nothing accomplished. The kids homeschooled themselves. Today I had to catch up.

I graded papers and got the homeschool back in order. I got 6 quarts of tomatoes chopped and put in the freezer. I pulled up the plants in the larger garden and took all the tomato cages and pea fencing in the garage for Evan to put in the attic. I did a load of laundry, cooked a roast beef dinner (I'll tell you later how I got a good deal of beef this week), made a cherry pudding cake, and washed dishes twice in the day.

I still don't have the pillowcase dresses made and they were due at the church today. Pooey. It seems like I get all excited about something and then don't get it done after all. I have the pillowcases in the dining room waiting to be sewn along with repairs to Evan's and Josh's clothing. I'll make a dress or two anyway for Amanda and maybe for her cousin.

We're making headway.