Dear Blog,

Sometimes I think I brought you into existence so that everyday I can be reminded I have not gotten to everything on my list!  My phone has nifty little reminders for me, and of course, you, blog, are on that list.  However, how often do I actually make it through my need-to-do list?  Well, I how often do I actually blog?  Sigh.  I would cry myself to sleep, knowing what a bad blogger I am, but I find that when I am not blogging, I am living.  And living a lot.  So... I refuse to feel bad for not keeping up and instead will update what the month of January brought us maffeoberries.

Every year we are fooled into believing that in January, because it is the month of our New Years resolutions, we are destined for greatness, or at least a new start.  January is rarely looked at as simply the month that follows December.  I think it is easy to forget it is like any other month with the capacity for as much greatness as meritocracy and happiness as misery.  Sobering a post as I know this is shaping up to be my updates are not all great, but span the chiasm between life and death.

First, my family lost their dog, Sunshine.  I know non-dog people cannot understand this loss, but we are all very sad.  My thoughts go out to my mom and sister.

Second, my man went in for back surgery.  My mommy-in-law came and helped out.  I miss her company.  It was not until she left that I realized how nice it was to have a conversationalist around.  My man is not much of a talker. 

Third, on the same day my daughter broke her braces (third time), my son had an allergic reaction to peanuts (I know, roll your eyes!  Have a great time doing it too!), and in the chaos of running out the door to the orthodontist and ER someone, we have no idea who, spilt milk over my old laptop.  Thus, slowing my progress down this month on many things, including my photo challenge (that being stated I do not recall the photo challenge stipulating that the 30 days have to be consecutive - so I am still working on that).

Fourth - we got a puppy. 

I have some blog posts on the way, including a post on Strawberry Cheesecake from my mommy-in-law, a post on Coffee Cake and a post on breastfeeding.  And I have photos I am in the process of recovering from my old hard drive.  Maybe I can get some of that up today!

 

Happy Monday People!

Leaves - a photo for the photo challenge.  I am not sure what is more challenging - finding time to take a photo, taking a photo that does not reflect poorly on me (having worked in the photography field) or finding leaves in the Colorado winter. Either way, Ramona gave me a  photo op today with her rainbow loom flower bracelet.  I figure that is as close to a leaf as I am going to get - till Spring.
I know I am a few days behind in this challenge... but I have determined it is only important what I do complete.  Or at least, that is what I will tell myself as I try to keep pace.

Ramona came downstairs today with her Rainbow Loom kit in hand - she is rarely seen without it.  Rainbow Loom is the new craze among her generation.  Kids her age create necklaces, bracelets and other woven charms with a loom and a plethora of colorful tiny rubber bands.  Ramona noticed a girl at school with an advanced bracelet - a woven flower.  She came downstairs this morning determined to make it and I had no doubt she would succeed.  Out of all my children she is the one that can make any lego plane, train or automobile no matter how complicated with minimal to no help, build a birdhouse with a hammer and some nails without help and draw amazing pictures.  She is definitely a creator and a builder - when her dad is making something you can bet she right by his side helping out.  I gave her the iPad so she could looked up the tutorials on the Rainbow Loom site; however, she felt aggravated when the flower weave was a bit too complicated.  I was busy making French toast for breakfast, but was immediately told about how Emily's mom helped Emily to make her bracelet.   I was hoping the kids would drop it there, but instead I got to hear how some parents are just more involved than other parents.  (Thank you Beezus).

I admit, I was about ready to tell them to make their own breakfast.  I was suddenly feeling a little less like being involved in the cooking process than normal.  I am think it is a testament to loving these silly girls that I did manage to finish breakfast, the whole time I am buttering their French toast, putting maple syrup on, dealing with cranky pants little man, getting them waters and listening to the amazing and astounding feats of Emily's mom and the Rainbow Loom bracelet - all while not making any snide comments. 

I admit after breakfast I sat down and looked up the Rainbow Loom bracelet video.  I got guilt suckered into that one.  I figured if Emily's mom could do this with her daughter, I could do this with mine.  However, about thirty seconds into the video I determined that Emily's mom could totally be the better parent.  I do plenty with my kids... and I can feel my brain rotting out my ears and eyeballs as I stare at this rubber band loom tutorial.  I can relate to my daughters artistic streak, but not her Rainbow Loom streak.  Thankfully, I have a great partner.  A man that can not only tile a floor, build a house, hatch a duck, sew a corset, make Christmas stockings, win in a sword fight, but also has mad Rainbow Loom skills.  So, I might continue to hear that Emily's mom is better at being involved in rubber band bracelets, but Emily's dad now gets to hear how Ramona's dad makes great rubber band bracelets.  Beat that!

Here is the French Toast Recipe:
4 Eggs
1/2 Cup Milk
1/4 Heavy Whip
1 Tblspn Vanilla
cinnamon to preference
sugar to preference

I prefer Udi's Gluten Free Bread

Soak bread in batter for ten seconds.  2-3 minutes medium heat on stove top.  Cook a couple at a time.  Cook till each side of bread is cooked through and is golden brown.

Right before I got the parent comparison this morning I had decided to make a "better" French Toast than usual.  Usually it is just milk, eggs and vanilla.  I looked up a couple different links on French Toast and modified this one:  http://www.inspiredtaste.net/22422/perfect-french-toast-recipe/

Happy Beginning of the Work Week!

Smile

Day two on the photo challenge.  I had so many ways I wanted to do a photo for smiling.  Life has it ' s own plans.  So, right before bed tonight we grabbed a cell phone shot of the little man smiling .  I  am grateful for him, his unfaltering smile and constant positive attitude!  

Happy Thursday Night!

Would love to see others smiling faces posted below... People we miss... Maybe I will get one if me too.  

 

For the month of January 2014 I am going to complete the above photo challenge.

The picture of the challenge above is a link to the blog Positively Present, all about mindfulness and the blessing of being present in the moment!  The author talks about how photography is a way to become fully immersed our surroundings.  Combining both being present/mindful and gratitude are two separate and powerful happiness practices.  So, of course I am down with that! 

 

I found this challenge more difficult than I had anticipated.  The first topic is FOOD.  I figured,  photos and gratitude and food!  I can slam this out!  This is my shtick.  Yet, when it came down to it I had a hard time determining what foods I am grateful for - this seems especially ironic when considering the nature of this blog and that to unwind I bake in the kitchen.  I immediately knew my answer: I am the most grateful for cupcakes.  For me, cupcakes are hope in food form.  Cupcakes are the first gluten free sweet I could really take and master for my first grade child diagnosed with celiac disease (CD).  It has been my one treat in my arsenal on the frontlines of a gluten-y world.  I could make any flavor, decorate them professionally and bake from sunup to sundown to bring my child with CD happiness.  Yet, for this challenge I felt I needed to step beyond my defining dessert.  I knew it was time to think up a new food.  Even more to the point - I have taken so many photos of cupcakes over the last few years that it was definitely time to find a different food to photograph.  Or risk getting lazy and using an old one.

 

 

Maybe it was because I was tired from a long New Years Eve night of "my Little Pony Monopoly" (we got to bed at 2am!) or maybe it is because everyone in my house is burnt out from a long couple months of travel and moving.  But, I initially took a photo of coffee (a substance that I am not only grateful for, but might be the only reason I keep up on being a domestic engineer powerhouse). However, my depth of field was too shallow (a problem I struggle with in many of my photos).  I felt this could be symbolic of the blurred hours of the last few days.  Maybe it can be symbolic of a hectic life with three kids and no time to even take a decent photo.  Or simply a symptom of needing to track down my lost tripod.  Either way, I felt unsatisfied and torn on whether to retake the same exact photo... especially since this evening I did not actually feel grateful for coffee.  Sort of goes against the whole point of the challenge.

 

When I am lost... I often get found, by three messy, loud, exuberant children.  And this situation turns out to be no different.  I am relatively excited about taking a photo a day based on a theme, so excited I have extended it to our dinner table (as per usual).  I told my family that I will be taking photos on the theme of gratitude and that each day I will have a different topic.  Tonight the topic is food! 

 

My kiddos had no problem getting into that action.  Beezus says she is grateful for "whip cream, strawberries, mac n cheese and candy, candy, CANDY!"  I believe when we started this her gratitude followed the same line of items.  Ramona, a child more present in the moment, stated "the chicken we are having tonight."  Then she proceeded to eat more than her fair share and got a little scolded for overindulging.  My man proclaims without hesitation "pizza."  Probably the fastest he has ever been grateful for anything at the table.  We are not surprised by that.  I found when I really thought about it, I am the most grateful for foods that are easy, fast, simple to make and healthy to eat.  And, as for the little man...

 

...he is grateful for mashed potatoes and ranch dressing - as long as he can smear it in his hair!  I guess I am grateful for a great photo op, as coffee was a bit of a fall back anyway.

 

Feel free to share anything food related you are grateful for... if you want to. 

 

Happy New Year

May Your 2014 Rock

I was hoping to get our family update done before I got our holiday cards out. 

Oh, well.  Here is our late for the holidays and on time for the New Year family update!

Our family in 2013 traveled a lot (at least within the United States itself).  South Dakota, Minnesota (x3), Nebraska (x2), Washington (x2), California (x2) and of course Colorado.  Plus we went to Mexico (a first for everyone in our family).  We went to the Minnesota Ren Faire twice, the Mall of America too much, stayed at an indoor water park and saw Cirque du Soleil in MN.  We finally went to the top of the Space Needle, went to the Glass Museum, hit the Tech Museum, plus Aquarium in Seattle, WA.  We even got a front row view of the May Day riots in Seattle (from the safety of our hotel room window).  We went to San Diego, hanging out on the beach and eventually visited Disneyland with Grandparents. We went abroad to Mexico where we met many interesting people at Club Med, spent time with my man's side of the family for Opa's 70th birthday and toured the Maya ruins, specifically the Chichen Itza.  We moved from South Dakota to Colorado - which is why I can say we visited Nebraska twice.  Our first trip to Nebraska was to the best zoo in the US! While our the second trip to Nebraska was just a lot of driving through it to Colorado.  Got into Colorado right on time for the floods that got national news attention, plus a lot of phone calls from my mom checking in. Since living in Colorado we have been to many street fairs, farmers markets, the pumpkin patch, the art museum and the science/natural history museum.  Both girls have started/continued with instruments.  Beezus is playing violin and Ramona has taken up the Cello.  We lived in two houses and two apartments this year.  I organized one Halloween party and a fourth grade event.  Our ducks went to live on a farm (for real).  We are down to two cats and one dog.

We continued with old traditions this year and started new ones.  Friday movie night is probably one of the most important traditions in our family, both because we like movies, and also because I like ordering out for food.  I do not have to cook AND my man gets his pizza. 

We tried to stay busy this year and succeeded, maybe we were too busy this year... by the end we were all sick and tired. So I think next year we might travel less and have people travel to us more.  And where we will try to keep up doing things on the weekend, we might try to learn to ride bikes and walk to the park, instead of taking weekend trips places.  We really want to go camping (and can meet South Dakotans in the Black Hills or Nebraska or take Californians/New Yorkers who travel to us out to do CO camping) and this winter we hope to sled and ice skate a bunch!

For us the new year will jump start with my man getting back surgery for his stenosis.  The last six months of this year have been very painful for him and we hope that the surgery which is scheduled in a few weeks will fix that.  Beezus got braces right before the holidays, we already see a huge difference and hope to report them being taken off before new years 2015!

Lastly, what I learned about traveling, especially in relation to the typical holiday card update (the list of places we have been that make us "exciting" or whatever) is that the best parts of the year had nothing to do with where we were located.  It is neat to list our travels out, just see what we were up too, but the best parts of 2013 were less grandiose than the holiday update.

My best memory of this entire year was on my birthday.  My whole family was sitting on a hotel bed in MN watching a cartoon movie: my kids, my baby and my husband eating desserts glued to the TV screen.  I practically cried with joy watching my youngest scoot up to the edge of the bed to sit with his sisters.  He was obviously so proud to be one of the older kids, he kept looking back at me with a happy grin before going back to the movie and in that moment my family felt complete and perfect.  I can travel and move anywhere, but home is my family and the little moments are perfection.

The little man's Xmas list

If you want something very, very badly, let it go free.  If it comes back to you, it’s yours forever.  If it doesn’t, it was never yours to begin with. - Jesse Lair  (Quote Investigator)

I tried to explain the above saying to my 15 month old son today.  Of course it is a bit beyond him, but why not start early?  Or, in our case, when it seems extremely necessary.  My little man is infatuated with our mechanical vacuum, our Roomba, aka Marble (the girls named it, plus added a label in case we forget).  It could be love for our little man.  A pet that does not mind toys being placed on it's back or being followed around the room and poked.  A pet that will stop when he pushes the button and go when he pushes the same button again.  For our little man this has become a smothering sort of love: the type of love where he wants to sit on it and ride it around the room, as well as, a draining sort of love, the type of love where when Marble needs rest the little man wants it to move, so he pokes it, pushes it and screams at it. 

Our little man did not care for my explanation to let it be and it would come back.  If "mommy shut up" was in his vocabulary he would have used that phrase on me today.  Or if he had learned to cover my mouth, like his oldest sister did at the same age to quiet me, he would have done that.  Instead he pointed at Marble over and over, making his "mommy fix this!" noise.  I continued to attempt to explain the concept, in easier and easier terms, while he become more and more frustrated.  I think it ended with, "leave it alone".  I admit, not quite the lovely saying above, but a step above "leave it", which is what I use on our dog.  I felt this was the perfect situation to explain to my son relationships.  It is safe to teach him this with the Roomba, since, once charged, the Roomba will come back.  After all, once he is older I want to know he will give his significant other space. 

Yet after telling him to leave it over and over and seeing him slowly panic more and more (I assume he thought the Roomba was gone forever).  I decided to put the situation in terms that might have made more sense for the little man.  "The Roomba needs a nap.  It is nighty-nighty time for Roomba."  The little man may as well said, "ahhhhh".  He seemed much happier once he understood that even the mechanical pets need to sleep on occasion.  After leaving the Roomba tucked in having a nap, the little man went back to pushing his car around the room.  And chasing the cats.

Happy Friday! From our cat.

I have been asked, in the past:  how can a parent help their child if they are being bullied?  

I read a lot of books and looked up plenty of articles with different advice and theories.  I have written on here about some of them, but I firmly believe to help your child you need to move them.  Move them to a different school, if possible a different neighborhood or city.  They need a clean slate.  Let them know it is not their fault, that sometimes people are cruel.  This advice is not "giving up".  The bully does not win.  It is giving a gift to your child.  They can still have a wonderful childhood, one in which they are accepted and free from stress.  They should not have to be a figurehead for justice, or a martyr for a cause, they deserve to just be a regular child at school.

This might not be doable for everyone, economics and other life logistics can complicate or even negate moving as a viable solution.   This is why this advice is hard to give out. And often, this advice is just not given at all.  The idea that a bullied kid is helpless to the system, doomed to the drudgery of everyday bullying, at the mercy of officials that might at best be apathetic and at worst just not care, is untrue.

To grasp the need for this advice imagine bullying as a bully giving your kid a highly contagious and fatal disease.  Everybody is now afraid to help, because they do not want to get sick.  No one is an objective bystander, because of their fear.  This is true of your child's peers, as well as the administration.  No one wants to admit it, but once the bully gets their target picked out, and the harassment is bad enough that the parent is informed, the rest the school has taken a step back from the target.  School administrators do not want the taint of a poor reputation or potential legal action and frankly some officials are lazy or stupid (watch the film Bully to see what I mean).  Avoid complications, avoid conflict and deny, deny, deny - this is the safest line of school defense. It is easier and better for the school if the problem is the bullied child and the parent or parents of that child.  The other students do not want to be next in line to be bullied - so they either ostracize your child or they join the bully.  Joining the bully seems incomprehensible; however, it is done in hopes the allegiance to the stronger party will keep them safe. Survival of the fittest.

Three years ago a little boy choose to bully my daughter.  Why?  Well, she was seated next to him the first few weeks of first grade.  There is no other reason outside of pure proximity.  What started as stealing her school supplies and poking her quickly escalated into detailed death threats.  She was followed around the playground as he described ripping her head off, among other disturbing imagery.  It is hard to blame the other first graders for taking a step back.  That is some scary shit for first grade; however, why the bully was not expelled is beyond me.  We pushed to have actions taken and were kept at arms length on any of the potential repercussions of his transgressions.  His behavior was as far outside the limitations of appropriate behavior as he could get, unless he actually tried to make good on his threats.  It was explained to me, almost as an excuse, he played violent video games.  WTF, who cares.  Expel the kid regardless of his video game time.  I guess I was under the strange impression school taught students, but I guess the buck stops at how their state tests scores are looking, how they treat each other is not relevant without money to back it.

What affect did this have on my daughter.  Well, what affect would this have on anyone?  She had nightmares and a hard time sleeping.  She had stomachaches and headaches as a result of stress.  Her self-esteem suffered: she worried about her intelligence and her looks.  Her academic progress stopped cold. In the first weeks of first grade she stopped learning.  We were given IEP services for her "depression", but only if we agreed the "depression" had started before she began school in their district - covering their asses in case I brought up her "depression" was directly related to the bullying.  We ended up repeating first grade, at my request.  She not only needed to catch up academically, but I hoped to gain some space from a peer group tainted against her.

Because no adults at the school told her it was not her fault, and they never stuck up for her by expelling the bully she internalized a sense of worthlessness which was reinforced by the other students taking a step back.

Bullying is a public form of humiliation and debasement.  Everyone who does not speak out against it approves it.   Not indirectly, not by accident, there is no oops, sorry.  The way to stop it has to be public intolerance.  Expelling bullies is a public and clear message from the administration to the school, students and the victim that bullying is unacceptable.  

Expulsion makes it clear who is actually in the wrong, in a society that looks for blame in the victim.  Bullies look for a physical trait they can expose as "dorky" (braces, glasses, teeth, tall, short, large, small - you name it), they look for a verbal quirkiness (stutter, phrasing) ,they look for a different skin color, sexual orientation, mental capabilities or even a blush or laugh that they can exploit.  Once the bully latches on to a target the rest of us see this trait for the first time, and secretly we nod to ourselves, oh, I can see why that kid is being bullied.  We reassure ourselves that we are different, we are okay.  Sadly, this is bullshit.  Please look in the mirror, listen to yourself talk there is something there that someone can exploit.  Don't kid yourself.  Bullying is the luck of the draw.  Which is why when I say there is noting different, no fault in the kid being bullied I mean it.  The problem is the bully.  The fault is with the bully.  The characteristic that is unacceptable to society is the bullies need to victimize others. 

It is time to validate the children who are bulled.  Who are worthwhile, who matter.  Punishing the bully with expulsion validates a child being bulled who is otherwise told by society they do not matter.  And my daughter matters.

We have moved.  In our new hometown my daughter is considered a valuable part of her community.  She is doing well in school, she is an artist, a friend, and is most importantly happy!  Today she is heading off to a classroom beach party and life is good.  I want to forget about that one year of bullying we experienced, but that would be doing a disservice to other children out there.  Not everyone can pack up and move from a bad situation.  So it is important as a human being to support children who are bullied, to make it clear it is not their fault, and to voice that the public school system needs to start taking responsibility for the behavior of their students.

Spent the day preparing for the kids Halloween parties. For those who wonder what a stay at home mom does with her time, one of the things I did today was create juice box zombies.  I hope  these little guys make great memories for my daughter and her friends.  Took about thirty minutes while the little man napped.  Just one if the many tasks on the "complete before Halloween" list.

Happy Wednesday night!

Simple things I learned

& 

The Weekend Before Halloween! 

 

The secret to a successful move, and life, is keeping busy.  I learned that from a dear friend in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  She is humble and does not like it when I point out what I have learned from her.  So I feel mildly guilty when I say, "whatever" and decide to hold her on pedestal anyway.   I will proclaim that she taught me that you cannot wait for the world to come to you - you need to embrace the world!  To reference my title, this as a concept is simple and some people do not have to move to South Dakota to figure that out.  I on the other hand learned, in part due to being starved for things to do in a bitterly cold environment, that taking advantage of what is around you is important part of experiencing life.

In less general terms this means looking for local attractions, events, fun and going to it.  I moved to the right place to try this out, Colorado has large community which embraces this very simple understanding of life.  There is always, always a local event worth trying.  I understand why many of the local cities are considered the happiest in the USA (source CNN money - so, if you think your community is better, take it up with CNN money).  Everybody is always out embracing life - with music, festivals, farmers markets and giant inflatable balls we stick our kids in and watch them run into things!  (See picture below). 

Another reason I am sure that some of our local cities are the happiest in the country are the many local restaurants designed for families.  When I say designed for families I do not mean Chuckie Cheese (which is more like parent hell with loud noises, blinking lights, tracking down your kids, trying not to step one someone else's angel, demands for tickets, demands for money, demands for candy, demands for demands, fights and the grand finale full on meltdowns!  The type of meltdown where you end up dragging your little red faced, tear streaked cherub from the Las Vegas style clinking and clacking machines home - all the while assuring the staff you are not kidnapping your own kid).  I do not mean they have great kid menus with Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and hot dogs (which they chargeyou five bucks for and you could have made at home), or adults in cartoon character suits (which you always wonder what kind of adult is hidden inside), or clowns, or ponies, or crayons (which my son eats or throws at passing waitresses).  What I mean is they have outdoor seating with sun, and fresh air, as well as areas for the kids to do kid stuff AND they serve amazing drinks! 

This weekend our outdoor restaurant had solid Margaritas, plus a place for the kids to draw on the sidewalk with chalk (fenced in), plus a grassy area to run around.  Not only are these kid activities effective and less artificial (no blinking lights, no electronic games, no huge walking teddy bears), there are always kids taking advantage of them.   No one is tense about their children playing - we can see them, they have the fresh air and are less sensory overloaded, thus,(sometimes) they fight less.  It feels more like eating at a park with a waitress and a nice buzz, which is, also a simple lesson to a happy life, superior to eating in an indoor, uptight restaurant and trying to bribe my son with fries to keep him from climbing on to the table and flinging food like a monkey at the zoo.  Or bribing my daughters to not fight with the iPad and Kindle Fire.  One of the first local digs we tried out is an Ice cream shop with an outdoor play area and inflated rubber cows for infants, toddlers and the kids to jump on and wrestle with.  They do not allow dogs inside the fenced off human area (and whereas I love dogs it is nice to know my children can play without ending up in a mess).

We spent Saturday downtown.  We grabbed a bite to eat at an outdoor restaurant, (with, as I feel the need to restate, amazing margaritas), trick or treated from store to store, watched the annual Halloween 10k and 5k runners finished their marathon (I told the family next year we are hitting the 5k - it was the kids marathon!), and finished up at one of our favorite ice cream places (the ones with the rubber cows). 

Sunday we hit the local pumpkin patch!  Well, one of the local pumpkin patches, turns out there are a lot. I learned a couple things about pumpkin patches that I will pass on:

• Hit the Pumpkin Patch Early in the Season.  It was a little depressing to see how many rotted and smashed pumpkins there were... it was also very hard to find ones we liked. 
• Know that you understand the simple and enlighten truth about life - doing things is healthy, no matter how your family acts!  The kids may have stated several times, "I like when we got to Target and just buy pretty pumpkins", they also said things like, "this is hot", and my man might have grumbled "this sucks".   And maybe your son does not face you when you try to snag a quick, cute autumn shot for the baby book (see above picture).  Just know you are doing the right thing, even when you are hot, sweaty hot, and holding an overtired child and a camera that is too heavy (especially when you have an iPhone that takes fine photos), and you kids have backwashed in all the bottled water you brought, and you find yourself snapping, "no" a lot more than you envisioned...sigh... you are doing the right thing!  BEcause, near the end of the couple hours in the Colorado heat, and the pillaged pumpkin patch you kids get to try something new and fun, being put in inflatable balls in water and running into each other!  Then you know, it was worth it to simply leave the house and do something fun!

This might lead to a more than a few tiring weekends, but it also has led to a bunch of wild adventures.

 

Happy Tuesday Everybody!

Be grateful, Monday if over...

(this week)

Our Essentials for the Nomadic Life Style

Evening walk.

My attempt at interior decorating.

We still do not have a permanent location to live.  Right now we are in our new temporary housing.  We spent two months at our old temporary housing, before that two weeks in two different hotels.  Our first real temporary "home" was a sizable (1200 square foot), but really dingy townhouse.  My proof of dinginess was the full canister of dirt in our vacuum every other day.  Yuck.   Our bedroom and living room boosted the only normal sized windows which faced a wonderful view of a couple office buildings and our tiny "backyard" (aka dog bathroom) was over grown with weeds and creepy crawlers.  The part I will always remember are the large, squish resilient spiders I killed daily.  Still get spider-mares at night! 

Luckily our dog loves to eat spiders, our cats are essentially worthless.  The only living creature in my house that helps out is our dog.  She eats food that spills on the floor, licks my sons face clean, licks the high chair clean and eats the bugs I miss, plus alerts me to people at the door. 

This being stated we made the best out of our home.  I decorated with pillows, and a rug from Costco (the idea being to keep my little man off the gross floor as much as possible).  Plus, my daughters and I found Halloween items to decorate with, as Halloween is one of our favorite holidays.  We had evening walks to the local park, very cute park, full of nice people walking their dogs or playing with their kids, plus neighborhood young adults playing
basketball or frisbee.  My favorite part of the park, and really so far of the entirety of Colorado, are the mountains and trees.  Every where we go we can see the mountains in the background, and they are beautiful!  Plus, right now all the trees are turning bright yellows and reds.  Gorgeous autumn colors. 

At our new location we are closer to the community we want to live in and we have beautiful large windows that flood our tiny apartment with light (and heat). Very appealing to my California roots.  At night we take walks around the lake, view the mountains at sunset and get bitten by evil mosquitoes.

The most difficult part of temporary living is that everything we own is in storage.  I found that within the first few weeks I was purchasing things I cannot live with out.  Everyone in our family has learned what our essentials for a happy life are for each of us as individuals.  For me that has been a kitchen aid, effective vacuum and cupcake tins.  All used frequently.  I brought with me my coffeemaker and Romba.  Of course my camera.  :-)

Ramona's most recent dragon drawing

For Ramona art supplies are imperatives; thus, we now have fabric paint, water colors, markers, colored pencils, crayons and paper.  On top of that we replaced scissors, a dreaded addition to our belongings since kid with scissors essentially means little bits of cut up paper all over the floor.  Glue and glitter are similarly dreaded belongings, that we have replaced, and I have spent late hours cleaning off the floor and furniture.  At least Ramona feels at home, and lets face it, when I am hunched over scrubbing glue and glitter off the floor I am pretty sure I feel at home too.

Ramona's Class Flag Design!

Ramona has been flexing her art skills in class too!  She is getting a reputation as an artist.  She takes this very seriously.  Her teacher asked her what she is good at for an in-class interview and Ramona said, "Art".  No real surprise; however, she followed that statement up with, "It was what I was born to do."  This took my breath away.  How many people feel they are born to do anything!  I had a huge mommy pride moment, plus a bit of an anxiety attack about her future... art is not an easy field to make a dent in.   Ramona also won the class competition to create the class flag.  So, she had been diligently designing and painting the flag that will hang outside her classroom for the entire school year.

 

For Beezus we have slowly been building a home library (and of course got a library card).  Currently she into the Warriors series.  Her new reading obsession.  The drawback to Beezus's love of books, she stays up very late reading.  I have to take all the books out of her room, which usually involves looking under her pillow, under bed, under her blankets and in her dresser.  I end up leaving the room with piles of books, which I do not bother to put in our bookcase, but instead dump on the floor.  If I do put them "away" they are all gone anyway by bedtime the next day, hidden all over the room again.  I am proud of Beezus and her love of reading; however, she is the only kid I have which the punishment is no books past 8pm. 
 

Our book collection so far...

Of course, when Beezus is not reading, she is composing a book.  She has her writer's binder full of pages with hand written plots, characters and chapters.  This is harder to take out of the room, because often her loose leaf pages mix with Ramona's loose leaf pages of art.  Ramona hides her sketch pads all over the room and draws late at night and together they make their room a mess of papers and creations- but thankfully the scissors and glue are still in the dining room.  Too bad dogs don't eat paper - that would make my dog the best vacuum ever!







Hope my family enjoys my update.  Things are, as my mom would say, chugging along.

 

Happy Almost Halloween!

Puppy Love

My son is a little man of few words.  He is fourteen months old and his vocabulary consists of a couple main words, "daddy", "goggy"  (aka doggy) and "mama".  Mama means "I want", "get this", "no, you fool", "hurry up", "my sisters are annoying me", "water", "food", "no car seat", "I love you", "no I do not want my diaper changed" and so on.   Daddy means daddy and sometimes doggy when we are not sure which word he is actually using.

He does like to elaborate.  For this he has some baby signs.  He knows "I want", "dog", "duck", "cat", "food", "sing, "twinkle twinkle" and "that" ("that" is just pointing).  It is with these signs I have learned that he thinks all in animals (if it is not ducks or cats it is dogs).  He makes his baby sign for dog daily, sometimes hourly.  In fact, it is through this communication I have learned just how important our dog is to him.

He follows our dog around, tackles her, kisses her, bites her (yes he does do this), he likes to smash her face, poke her eyes, grab her feet and at least twice a day he gives her massive bear hugs.  he loves to lean on her, lie on her and he tries to sit on her. He does not like to share her.  When his older sister was relaxing on the couch and placed her feet on the dog he got very defensive.  He screamed at her over and over "mama!"  "mama!"  (in this situation "mama" meant "mine").  While screaming "mama" he kept attempting to  knock her feet off the dog.  She was mischievously grinning during all of this.  If he succeeded  in knocking her feet off, she would just place her feet back and ignore him.  He tried hugging our dog, and pulling our dog away from her (but he is smaller - and our dog is pretty damn good at this point at ignoring him).  Finally, in a fit of desperation he attached his sisters legs.  Biting and pushing them to get his precious dog back... sigh.

Sometimes during the day he sits in my lap, points to my computer says, "ma, ma" waggles his finger at the screen and says either "googy", does his sign for dog, or says "meow" for cat.  Which means it is time for one of our favorite new games, look images of dogs and cats up on google.  It is amazing how long that game can last.

He loves our dog so much that he feeds all the food I give him immediately to her.  If it looks like I am going to stop him from this he throws the food fast, instead of sharing it in pieces.  A new rule has been made in our house, the dog has to be in the other room while we eat - in hopes some of the solid food makes it my sons mouth.

Thus, it is not surprising that the new word my son has added to his vocabulary is "bed".  "Bed" does not mean "nap time", "I am sleepy", "I just woke up" or anything having to do with people sleep habits.  "Bed" is the command that everyone in the house uses when our dog has to go to her mat.  So, now he signs dog, says dog, calls all living animals that are not cats or ducks dog, feeds the dog all his food, often most his water, and he now commands her when to go to bed. 

Still waiting on him figuring out his sisters names.

Happy Late Friday Early Saturday!

Gluten-Free Insenstive

Tonight, right before bedtime, this article made it across my Facebook feed:

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-maclean/surviving-whole-foods_b_3895583.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=5329153b=facebook

 

 

Many people thought this article was very funny, while a whole community of those who eat gluten-free were pissed off.  I found this article to be offensive, despite it's claim to be satirical.  I believe the author could have done herself a favor and at least understood the gluten-free community before flippant, disrespectful article.  I too see that many people are joining a fad; however, that fad is based on a solid, strong and connected community of those diagnosed with Celiac Disease.

 

I wrote this comment in response to the article -

I think the most offensive thing about this blog post/article, satirical or not, is the statement which implies that restricted diets are primarily a "rich persons" optional ailment. This discredits many people who are unable to eat certain foods for valid health reasons. My daughters are unable to eat gluten, because they are both medically diagnosed with Celiac Disease. This has been a long and rough road at times, and we can be, understandably, sensitive. It is hard enough on my kids to not be able to enjoy the food at pizza parties, birthday parties, school functions, festivals, amusement parks etc. They always have to sit at the allergy free-table, they always feel left out. They both are sick more often than their peers, due to impaired immune systems. They get flu like illness when they do ingest gluten.

To someone who can choose to skip the gluten-free aisle this means nothing, but to those who can never skip it, this means everything.

It was extra cute that after invalidating the entire Celiac community the author goes on to add insult to injury by dissing the only food we can eat with the comment that the wheat substitutes are cardboard and sawdust.

I get this was supposed to be a joke, and perhaps it is funny, if you are not restricted in diet and you like to point a finger at allergy prone kids and laugh. Congrats to you.

So, I will skip the Namaste and just say,

F-You

 

 

I want to write about Whole Foods, at least for a second.  Whole Foods is expensive  (I also often complain about that) as a result I do not often shop there and my man and I do refer to it as "Whole Pay Check".  In fact, a lot of people I know do.  And it definitely goes for that hippie vibe.  Dietary restrictions just always seem to go hand in hand with the hippie trend.  That being stated, it is one of the few stores I know I can find a ready made snack, dessert or dinner for my family in a pinch.  Unlike every other grocery store out there, which almost exclusively cater to unrestricted diets.  Most importantly to me, Whole Foods Market was the first place I felt "normal" again after my oldest daughter was diagnosed with Celiac Disease.  It is the place that people aided me in finding products, giving recommendations and even support in the grocery aisles! In fact, several times I asked other patrons for help, only to find out they too had Celiac Disease, or were married to someone with Celiac Disease etc. 

 

I feel the author of this article stepped in something she did not expect, and wrote an entire article on an assumption or stereotype she had.  I think, it is so easy on the internet to write thoughtless comments and articles, without research, without basic comprehension... it is important to practice some decorum when writing. 

Our Princes

I posted last week about the gluten-free brand Jovial.  A brand making cookies, among other products.  I reviewed their cookies negatively.  I made a couple other points in that post:

1.  Gluten-Free food is becoming mainstream.
2.  In becoming mainstream many Gluten- Free companies/products are popping up.
3.  This should make products cheaper (but has not... yet).
4.  Some products are awesome... and some need to be improved upon!

In response to my post my mother emailed me,  

"Sometimes to find a prince, you have to kiss a few frogs."

And she is entirely right.  I even took her advice!

This week my little man was sick.  Starting last weekend he hardly slept, for the first three days of the week he hardly slept, on Tuesday night he was up from midnight till 4am!  He was cranky, he had a fever, he had snotty nose and at the tail end of the week he had a body rash.  Needless to say by combining lack of sleep with the 30 minute commute to my girls school it was a long week for baby and mommy.  Unfortunately for us, it was also a huge week for the girls' school.  The girls' school had the school fundraiser of the year and meetings to plan events for my oldest daughter's class later in the year.  I have been so happy to move to a school that has a highly involved parent community - so of course I was volunteering most the night at the main fundraiser, I signed on for the event planning, plus I promised two gluten-free cakes to the cake walk!  All good intentions aside, I did not create time to actually make those cakes - not for lack of effort.  I kept thinking I could find time, but my little man needed me more.  As a result I had to indulge in the world of new gluten-free products and purchase some cakes for the cake walk.  I was entirely grateful for the many companies popping up and creating ready made baked goods.  Like tons of other parents I was able to rush out to my local Whole Foods and cheat, bringing pre-made, store bought cakes to the fundraiser.  While I was out I found a new  gluten-free Prince product this week.


Poparuba:  A Denver based company founded by Kerri Gedert which aims to create healthy and fun gluten free, low sugar, low calorie treats.

Poparuba make Gluten-Free Petit Fours which are cool for the health conscious consumers.  Poparubies are low in carbohydrates, low in sugar, high in fiber and are "calorie controlled" at 50 calories each. 

I these because they are healthier than other treats available to gluten-free families, they are small enough to put into a purse, they are ready-made (no prep) AND, most importantly,  they are yummy!  These are four tiny little cake bites, that are definitely decadent.  I found chocolate and lemon at our Whole Food Market and enjoyed them.  One complaint - they are not cheap!   

 

 

Now the fundraiser was a blast!  We met a ton of wonderful and friendly families.  I volunteered at three different booths and spent most the night busy - which I loved.  I have definitely missed being highly involved in my children's' school activities, thus I felt right at home in the middle of the noisy festival atmosphere.  We even won/bid on a new bike for Ramona.  She was thrilled to bring it home and it gives us some nice future adventures coming up (bike riding on Colorado trails!)  My man took care of the little man, who was feeling a bit better by the fundraiser and entirely better this weekend.  In fact, little man decided to make up for lost time.  He climbed all over the dog, the furniture and even tried to scale a wall to bring a hanging picture down (he did not succeed).

 

 

Happy Late Sunday Night!

Have a Great Week... 



Happy Birthday to my other sister!

Unfortunately this post is a few days late... baby man was sick this week.  One night he was up from midnight till 4am!  In fact, that was Tuesday night - so needless to say, Wednesday I was a bit of a zombie.  That being said...

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, zany little sis and my kids energetic and fun loving Auntie!

 

 

An Aunt that will ride on an elephant with the kids, make silly faces, send gluten free goodies.  We miss you!  Hopefully Colorado will get a Trader Joes soon.

Happy Birthday to my Sister!!!

Gluten Free Products to Avoid

Gluten Free eating is a fad for some.  It is not simply Celiac's that are avoiding gluten in their diet anymore, but a whole range of folks, from those trying to be more healthy, to those who want to do what everyone else is doing, to those doing a dietary cleanse.  Whether it is trendy or physiologically necessary, my feeling is the more avoiding gluten the merrier. 
 
There are a few ramifications to this increase in consumer resistance to gluten.  One, there is a larger demand, therefore (presumably) a larger supply and (we hope) more amazing products to choose from at (we pray) cheaper prices.  I have yet to see cheaper prices, though I have seen quite an abundance of newer products in a short period of time.  New products are flying onto shelves, some stay and become gluten free staples in kitchens nationally, and some fly off of shelves as fast as they flew on, becoming nothing more than a blink in the evolving gluten free market's eye.
 
Another ramification, a less desirable one, is in the haste to join a growing economic trend some companies (restaurants, and food producers) do not follow good cross contamination practices; therefore, the menu or label might say gluten free, but it is always prudent for someone with Celiac Disease to dig deeper and behave defensively.  However, this is another post.
 
Thirdly, because many allergies go together companies often clump allergies - creating gluten free, nut free, soy free, dairy free, egg free etc. products.  Well, for the savvy Celiac this is not a good thing.  We need products that have protein and fibers we are missing in our already vastly restricted diet.   I want my children to have diary, nuts, eggs etc.  So, yes I want the convenience of buying muffins, instead of making them on occasion, but not at the cost of all that is nutritious in the world!  That being said, I respect that is it hard to cater to individual dietary restrictions - but suck it up and do it anyway.
 
Lastly, and unfortunately, another negative consequence of the growing gluten free consumer base is an abundance of products that are crap.  The old quantity does not necessarily mean quality conundrum.  And speaking of which... a product I am going to slam today, happens to be some "cookies" I picked up at Whole Foods for my kiddos.  There is a Whole Foods near us.  It is pricey to get anything there; however, this Friday we had a tight schedule between school getting out, group violin lessons and a play date, before of course getting home and having Friday gluten free pizza and movie night!  Thus, a new routine on tight schedule days is for us to grab a gluten free snack at Whole Foods Market.  Usually this works out great, we get fruit and a muffin/cracker/cookie snack.  Well, this Friday our snack fell drastically short of expectations.

 

 It is hard to "review" these "cookies" - in short they are probably best described as gloried, dry dirt with a little vanilla in the middle.  I blame the health gluten free market trend on this product.  I think certain gluten free products want to appear health conscious, so they make a product that tastes so bad it must be good for you!  What BS.  Dear Jovial Inherently Good please do not make anymore cookies, you are slowly disheartening gluten free children everywhere, and consider changing your name.
 
Thank you,
A Mom who spit your cookie out in a parking lot.  
 

 

Happy Sunday! 

Eat Cookies that Don't Taste like Dirt!

Back from summer.... vacation?

Well, every summer I hit the blog thinking, I am going to write soooo much.  I will write everyday of the summer.  I will log all the great activities we do, and all the awesome progress, the wonderful adventures we have, so one and so forth. Then summer hits and the realization of having three kids at home dawns on me.  Everyday is a marathon to bedtime.  When the kids finally zonk out I feel lucky to have just enough energy to peek at facebook (see what I am missing as my single friends/couple-without-kids-friends) travel the world and drink at bars in their free time - then I fall over asleep.

This summer was especially grueling,  I decided, in my infinite wisdom, to take two summer school classes towards my master's.  Phft.  Sigh. Stupid.  And to top it all off my man got a new job.  (Given this is a great opportunity for him).   Yay my man!

So... I want to say now.  I will take every summer off.  I will try to let you know what day I will stop and what day I will start back up.

... with that said... I am starting back up.

We moved!  Again!  This time to the centennial state.  The mile high state.  The Berkeley of the Rockies.  The state where people bike in flash flood conditions!  Also one of the states that legalized pot... Colorado.  As, I am a person that appreciates swag, I was extremely happy to see that Coloradoans pride transitions into their love to wear their state flag on their shirts, hats, pants, they also stick it to their cars, water bottles, bikes... I bet I could find Colorado underwear if I looked enough.  You will never forget where you live, because at least one person near by is wearing the state flag in some form.  In any case, I have yet to buy a Colorado shirt - but you can bet I will be doing that in the near future.  I have to admit, South Dakota needs to market better... they need to invest in more swag.  I feel like I am constantly at a "I love CO" state convention - except the swag is sadly not free.

I am sure there are going to be many new adventures, as well as, new gluten free eats/products and stores, but right now it is 1am and I have a head ache.  One other things about CO I have learned so far... it is hard to stay hydrated!

Happy Tuesday!