Bye-Bye Wheat

We added wheat back into our diet two days ago and it appears to affect both my son and I. We both get flushed cheeks - mine is rosacea like - and crabby. I also got a headache and the next day all my old joint issues returned. (I have struggled with tendonitis from my dancer days in just about every major joint below the waist.) The sad thing is that I never really noticed the crick in my knee or the twinge in my ankle go away, but boy did I notice them come back. We will try adding it in a few more times just to make sure these aren't isolated incidences but from the looks of things wheat will be something we eat in extreme moderation. Ah, bagels I sure will miss ya!

Happy Bithday Da Da Da

It's official, our little baby's first word is da da! Now, I'm not going to tell you that she's all super baby smart and everything and say that she actually associates it with daddy. But she does say it more around him and even at her Dr's appointment yesterday the Dr asked if she was saying ma ma and da da and right on cue she said, "da da da."

Just in time to wish daddy a happy birthday - thanks for being the best dad and hubby ever, we love you!!!

Grace

Today my heart was filled with gratitude and it was a wonderful day. I always feel at the end of days like these if I can only have this grateful heart every day my perspective might shift to make every day just as wonderful. Even thought I try to focus on the positive stuff around here, I am living in real life you know!

Today, I am grateful for a morning at the movies with only my husband! The first time we've been out just the two of us since our anniversary in July. I was thankful for a free movie (thanks to the Realtor who sold our house last summer), a more than experienced baby sitter, and a movie that didn't disappoint (National Treasure: Book of Secrets.) Oh, my what fun it was to have three blessed hours all to ourselves, I had almost forgotten what it was like.

I am so grateful that the Signing Time DVD starts over by itself. It doubled my couch nap this afternoon and really, I don't mind if my son watches again how to say things like "set the table" and "may I be excused" in sign language.

I found myself again moved to tears during tender bedtimes with each of my children. My son sleepily asking to sing silent night just one more time (about 5 times) and me wonderfully willing to complete the task while nursing his sister and rubbing his back. I walked out of his room hearing his muffled voice saying, "See you in the morning time Mommy" and I had a tear streaming down my face realizing that I've been pretty hard on him lately and he is SUCH a great kid. Oh, it's these moments that I hope I remember (and my kids too) until my last breath.

1 Peter 3:8-22 especially verses 8 and 9.

Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

We are richly blessed indeed. Now sweet dreams to all of you, and see you in the morning time.

A day of wheat, sugar, dairy and everything but taste free recipes!

Eating wheat, dairy and sugar free has had its challenges but I've become much more creative in the kitchen and we've begun to enjoy foods with less alteration. These are a couple of recipes that we've enjoyed recently. I love the enchilada one and all you wheat and dairy eaters can adapt it to be a fairly simple and nutritious meal too.

Fruit Sweetened Granola

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup sunflower or other seeds (I also added about 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup almonds or cashews (or other nuts) halved or coarsely chopped
• 1-2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup almond, sunflower or other oil
• 1/4 cup pineapple juice (I used apple)
• 1/2 cup mashed banana
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine oats, seeds, nuts, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. In a blender jar combine the oil, juice, vanilla and mashed banana, and blend briefly. (Or just mash together well.) Pour over the oat mixture and blend well.

Spread on a large jelly roll pan and bake for about 45 minutes, stirring about every 10 minutes. When light brown remove from oven - it crisps as it cools. Store in a cool dry place.

Enchilada Casserole

• 4 spelt toortillas
• 1 16 ounce cans of vegetarian refried beans (or 2 cups of homemade)
• 1 batch of Mexican sauce (recipe follows - or bought Mexican red sauce)
• 1 cup shredded cheese (optional)
• option to add leftover cooked shredded turkey, chicken or ground beef
• Sliced avocado or guacamole
• sliced black olives

Place on tortilla in the bottom of an 8 or 9 inch round baking dish, spread it with 1/3 of the beans, top with 1/3 cup Mexican sauce, and 1/4 cup of cheese (meat if adding - it's great vegetarian - either way!) Repeat the layers two more times. Top the casserole with the last tortilla, 1/3 cup of sauce and 1/4 cup cheese. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Cut into wedges and serve with more sauce, olives and sliced avocado or guacamole if desired. Makes 6 servings.

Mexican Sauce

• 4 1/2 pounds ripe Italian plum tomatoes OR 1 28 ounce can tomato puree or sauce
• 1/4 onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1/8 -1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp oregano
• 2 teaspoons chili powder or more to taste
• 1 tsp salt

If using fresh tomatoes, quarter, remove seeds and puree in blender or food processor. Saute the onion until it is soft. Combine the tomato puree (fresh or canned), onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, chili powder, and salt in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until it is thickened. About 1 hour for fresh tomatoes, and 30 -40 minutes for canned. Makes about 3 cups of sauce.

Foaming hand soap

My husband came home with some foaming hand soap over the summer and I just fell in love with it. Not to mention my son was slightly more eager to wash his hands with it as well. It has since bugged me that you can't get refills for them - hello it's better for our pocketbook as well as the environment!

A frugal friend of mine shared this tip - now you all might know this already, but it never occurred to me! You can refill your foaming hand soap with about one part of your favorite liquid hand soap and three parts water. Mix well and viola - more foaming suds! Then the odds of your three year old actually rubbing the soap on his hands and it not just slipping through his fingers increases a bit. Plus you won't go broke buying the more expensive soap - just a larger refill bottle!

Anyway, it works for me. Have an idea to share or need some ideas visit Shannon's place.

We seem to be doing better today. Not so much in a coma from lack of sleep anyway! I'm certain tomorrow will be even better.

I played with my son for about an hour today with these picture word cards that my sister gave him for his birthday. I was absolutely amazed at how many letters he could recognize. I was equally amazed that it held his interest for as long as it did.

I'm not meaning to brag or anything (really) about seemingly boring details but this made my sleep deprived day today extremely wonderful. I resisted the urge to turn on the tv and I was vastly rewarded with quality time!

This morning after her fever broke...

Her dry seal bark cough is the saddest little sound along with her hoarse cry. Oh, my aching heart for her, she's probably got croup like her big brother had around this age. Thankfully she's down to a low grade fever now and took a three hour nap in mommy's arms today we're praying she's on the up swing now.

Hopefully tonight we all can sleep soundly!!!!

Six Months!

It's funny the difference in parenting the second kiddo. When my son turned six months I was ready with the mashed banana so eager for each new stage. Don't get me wrong, I'm eager with this one too it's just that I don't feel like rushing it. I'm ready to start feeding her solids sometime soon, just not right on her six month birthday. I'm not ready for the extra time it will take, the mess, nor the change in her poo! ;) It is the first step in the separation of our relationship and her becoming more independent and I just want a baby for awhile longer!

My MIL (who I only refer to as in law on this blog to keep track of everyone) made this wonderful necklace for me my daughter. She has scratched herself with another one of my favorite necklaces too many times to count, so I stopped wearing it. I'm thrilled that my MIL agreed to make this one for us. She's holding a bigger beautiful stone that you really can't see, it's nice and smooth and perfect for little fingers while nursing and makes a great chew toy for her while in her sling. Not to mention the fact that it's gorgeous, I'm so lucky!

Well my little six month old I don't know your stats for the month since we missed our mother baby circle. You have grown, and we have all grown in love with you even more!

UPDATED: I had to add this picture - I meant to put it originally be forgot!!! On 2/27 you were 26 inches long and 19 pounds 4 ounces

Here's what I looked like last month.

Happy Heart Day!!!

"I LOVE YOU!!!"

I'm really not the biggest Valentine's day gal. I like an excuse to go out to dinner together or something but the whole buying of cards and flowers - for me it's a HUGE wast of money!! Needless to say I like kids crafts and such - homemade stuff to me is the bestest!

If you are a relative please don't click on the link that I'm providing - lest you want to see your card before it gets to you. They are in the mail just - you know me - a bit late! So we did something similar to these really cute cards this year.

Can I say...

...that my husband is the sweetest! For the last three nights in a row my little gorgeous baby has been up every hour and nursing constantly. This morning my wonderful Adam got up with my son and daughter and let me sleep for almost three hours all in a row - the longest stretch I've gone yet without seeing my wee one! Wow, sleep (or lack off) can really affect my level of sanity! Ah, now to finish tackling some projects!

I watched that Oprah with Peter Walsh and I'm motivated to get our kitchen decluttered for good! Especially with the way our kitchen has been used on this diet - THE MOST EVER - I need it to be way more organized. Off to declutter, start dinner and make a batch of spelt crackers!

Tonights Table Prayer

"God, nank you for Mommy and Daddy and baby sister and me. And nank you for my plate and nank you for something and something and you and you and me. And nank you for Jesus. Amen"

My Personality Painting

I saw this around at a few different places and thought it looked like fun. So is it me?
Click here to create your own painting.

A Day of Milestones!

The most important one, my daughter rolled from back to front for the first time with her brother there cheering her on!!! It was so adorable. Having missed (from the next room)the first few times when she rolled from front to back it was nice to see her little effort to get over. She's just too cute!

The second first of the day was that I cut my hair. I've been wanting to just even it out for a few weeks. I didn't really like the way the layers were growing out but with my hubby looking for work I didn't really want to go spend the $25 just for someone to do it. You should have seen my bathroom floor. I know it's not perfect but I've decided that the best thing about doing it myself is that I'll always know how to "do" the style.

For some reason my hubby took all close up pictures - ack!

Sweet Dreams

Especially since our baby girl joined the family my hubby has done most or all of my son's bedtime routine. It's a nice special time for them - my hubby is a wonderful singer and I love listening to him sing to our son each night. I'm always around and sometimes I even read the books and sing some songs too or bathe them both, but much of the time I'm sitting nursing the babe distracted.

Last night I had the rare privilege of doing it myself. (Well, Daddy did come up to kiss goodnight and say prayers.)

Another rare occurrence was that my daughter fell asleep in the car seat on the way home from church at 8:20pm and slept there until 10:30pm. (Usually she awakens when either the car stops or withing 5 minutes of coming into the house - and that's only IF she falls asleep in the car in the first place.)

Convinced that she would wake up soon, I left her downstairs with Adam and I went up to get my #1 son ready for bed. It was SO nice to have some alone time with him. He was very tired because of the late hour but it was so nice to be the one that started him on his journey to sleep. I lay there singing, rubbing his back and his hair adoring is little face still seeing my little baby and choosing to ignore the boy he's becoming. I was thankful that I hadn't had time to cut his hair yesterday as I had hoped, it was so soft, I decided not to buzz it all and to try and do a longer cut today.

Well, I didn't succeed and you know what, he still looks too darn cute!

Did you see??? 5 minutes for mom is giving away this Oreck XL Ultra. Click on the link above to try to win too!!!!

Brotherly love