Smiley Face for Mom

We are wrapping up the last week of school before the summer.  However, we are trying to jam in as much as possible into this week.  Today Ramona got her chipped tooth fixed, Beezus had a play date, the little man had his first haircut (which I gave him and might have botched a bit) and I organized an art club for the summer and a dinner party for tomorrow night.

Needless to say the kids and I were a little tired tonight.

I was tired, not just from the activities of the day, but also the night before I stayed up till between 1am and 2am cleaning my daughters' room, because Beezus called a friend for a play date. 

This might not seem like a big deal, but sometimes calling another child for a play date can be very intimidating for her.  She struggles with social anxiety, especially in a situation that she is unsure what to say, what is expected, and what the end result will be.  She tends to build these moments into an insurmountable challenge in her head - and it is hard to talk her out of it. 

I have been working with her this year on making this one phone call.  I talked to the other mom in front of her about having the phone call, so Beezus would know the mom expected her to call.  Beezus would not have called if she thought she was surprising the other mom.  And Beezus talked to her friend at school about the call too.  Heck, her and I went over exactly what to say several times before the phone call.  This seems like a lot of extra preparation just to make a phone call, that everybody already knows will be to schedule a play date, but for my daughter that takes the unknown variables out, and almost relieves her anxieties enough to actually make the call.  I did have to bribe her with a reward to get her on the phone - it went great!

The look of pride on her face when she hung up the phone - knowing that she had a play date and, at least for the moment, got over the fear of the phone was awesome for us! 

When we got home she began to panic that her room was too messy.  I told her to clean it.  However, as the night wore on, and as she ran out of time to finish cleaning it (not that she had really started), I told her I would finish cleaning her room.  I would not normally do this, but I knew I needed to relieve her anxiety over the room so she could enjoy her play date the next day.  We worked too hard just to get her to make the play date, to have it fail over a messy room.  So, this one time I cleaned the girls' room into the night.  I had to wait till everyone was asleep to get the time.

So there I was, 1 am, sorting bins, tossing trash, dusting, organizing books, sighing and listening to everyone in my family snore in their respective beds, including our dog (who is the loudest snorer in the house).  To keep a positive frame of mind I reminded myself how ecstatic Beezus is to have this play date - how excited I am for her to have it!  Just had to keep remembering what big steps we were taking.

Anyway, so tonight, as I was holding my little 9 month old man, who is cranky from missing his morning nap during Ramona's dentist appointment, his afternoon nap during Beezus's play date, and is letting me know it with kicking and fussing, I am staring at the stove, willing it to cook dinner for me, Ramona walks into the kitchen and says,

"Mom, since my room is clean can I have a smiley face sticker?"

Happy Mid-Week Everyone!

 

1-2-3 Gluten Free

We tried out a new gluten free brand, 1-2-3 Gluten Free Inc.  This company is dedicated allergen-free & gluten free.  Their facilities are certified by the Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO), as well as, free of are peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, dairy, soy and casein.  They also are Kosher!

We tried their Bundt Pound Cake Mix.  My family loved it.  It actually is as simple as one, two, three.  We poured in the batter, added the ingredients, placed it in the oven.  Voilà!  Probably the easiest bundt cake I will ever make.  To avoid one problem we had - make sure your bundt cake dish is the right size, mine was too big.  The cook time was slightly longer than the packaging indicated - we went for an extra 15 minutes.

To make the cake special I added a chocolate ganache drizzle (or in my case chocolate ganache saturation), my man made some whip cream and we cut up strawberries.  It was amazing!

 

Happy Friday!!

This is for my sister.  I spent the day cleaning, while my man and the girls watched Lord of the Rings.  I might have blogged too.  And now, feeling the fatigue from scrubbing bathrooms, not to mention the permanent smell of bleach up my nose, I decided to relax and look up the msn.com news.  I know, I know, google shudders at the thought. 

 

When I was on msn.com tonight I saw this headline near the bottom of the home page:  Cute bunny balances stuff on his head

 

Needless to say I just had to click on this slide show - of which there are 18 photos.  Too freaking cute.  More than anything though - this bunny reminds me sooooo much of my med school sister - that I had to share.  So, even though we are states apart, and I will never, ever own a rabbit, I thought she would appreciate a post dedicated entirely to her, and her love of bunnies...

 

This bunny is talented.  :-)  And since the bunny is balancing food, we will pretend it is gluten-free food and that way it is okay to have on the blog.

http://now.msn.com/stuff-on-my-rabbit-tumblr-features-funny-photos

Happy Saturday Night!
Might have spent too much time with the bleach tonight!  Yikes.

Pamela Pancake Mix on Saturday!

Our Version of the
Pamela Pancake Mix Recipe:

• 2 Cups Pamela's Pancake Mix
• 2 Eggs
• 1 1/2 Cups Water
• 2 Tablespoons Oil
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons Vanilla*
• 1/4 Cup Sugar*

Directions:  Mix in electric mixer, cook medium heat till bubbles are solid, flip for one minute, done!

*We added the sugar and vanilla.  Sometimes I like to make it with Cinnamon too!  You might need to put in slightly more flour to determine your desired constancy.

We love to add bananas and maple syrup to our pancakes. It is a great Saturday meal, one we try to have every weekend.

Happy Saturday Afternoon!

 

Artisanal Gluten-Free Cupcakes

I have mentioned several times that I am now making cupcakes out of a new book.  I am not altering the recipes and I will not be placing the recipes online. 

I love this book and highly recommend it for a gluten free household!  The recipes all utilize a gluten free flour combination of brown rice flour, sorghum flour, corn starch, potato starch, potato flour and xanthan gum.  I find that the cook times accurate (something that is hard to find in gluten free recipes).  The recipes are well organized, easy to follow, and relatively fast to make.

This weekend I made the vanilla with chocolate frosting cupcake. (Page 45).  My family loved the vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting.  It is one of the more standard cupcakes we have made.  By standard I mean no fillings, no candy ingredients, no fruit, no cookies or fancy frosting.  Of course, sometimes simplicity can be simply understated.  My family ate all 24-30 cupcakes over last night and this morning (I would know the exact number, except they kept disappearing as I made them).  Ramona wants her birthday cake made from this cake and frosting recipe.  My man actually asked me to make more (a high compliment from him).

On a Maffeoberry scale this book gets 5 out of 5 maffeoberries. 

Happy Saturday Morning!

The sun will come out tomorrow...

Or today. The sun is shining, the snow is melting, the kids feel great and are having a great time in the yard. I still feel a little burnt out from one week of snow days, followed by Ramona getting sick; however, I plan to bake out my frustrations tonight with some more Creme filled cupcakes. I have the semi sweet, heavy-whip frosting left over in my fridge... it needs a cupcake home.

For today I have a Beezus post.

Beezus learned early on the power of written word. Ever since learning how to write mom she had been able to aptly express her frustration with me. In fact, her first signs or letters were simply "mom" with an "x" through it when - I had managed to displease her. I have that sign saved, so I will post it when I find it. I guess my daughter is truly a child from the sixties ready to protest at the drop of a hat... or in her case, when she is told to take a time out. The apple did not fall far from the tree in this case. I have always been one to look for injustices that need protesting. Anyway...

Her most recent letter to me is below. I received this letter when she was grounded from the iPad for not going to bed nicely. She likes to stay up late into the night reading and I am under the silly impression she needs to get rest. So I wanted her to rest and told her she would lose iPad privileges if she did not go to bed. Well, she did not go to bed and spent two days without the iPad. You would have thought the end of the world had come to pass in our house.

I also got a note that said "Roses are red, violets are blue, I need the iPad and so do you."

Ha!

Have a great weekend!

Gluten Frustration

Today it is snowing!  What???

I was driving home today from Ramona's doctor appointment, with snow falling in swirls around me (because it is blizzarding in mid-April!!) and city trucks cleaning up tree branches broken from the storm last week, and my mind is digesting the conclusion of the our most recent visit to the hospital. 

Clutching the steering wheel and sighing to myself.  Today I feel like a mom with children diagnosed with Celaics.  Most days I just feel like a mom that bakes more than average.  Most days I feel like a mom that has her shit together and is taking names and kicking gluten ass. Most days I am making lists of new products, budgeting for our favorites.  Today I just feel a little beaten by a disease.  Today I feel like maybe it rules the house despite our best efforts.

We went into the doctor this Thursday after spending most the night up with Ramona sick.  My man and I were taking turns with her in the bathroom.  When I could not be with her, it was because I had to be with her younger brother who woke up when we walked back and forth outside his room.  Till 2am she was whimpering and I felt frustrated.  Like, geeze, if gluten was a person I would be taking my anger out with a baseball bat on gluten's butt.

Ramona has these stomach aches more frequently than I like to think about, and as a result, frequently misses school due to them.  This week she came home early from school on Wednesday morning.  I was very proud of our school - she complained about a tummy ache and they called immediately, saying they figured it might be Celiac related.  They did not play her symptoms down, they did not hesitate.

So, Wednesday morning I dropped everything to get her, because Ramona never complains about pain unless she is truly in it.  And usually it is only a matter of time before she vomits or needs the bathroom once she complains about a stomach ache.  I was more afraid she would be vomiting in class if I did not hustle.

She spent the day home, resting, in pain, not particularly hungry and then the night in the bathroom.

I had it.  Oh, hell.  I have had it.

I made another appointment with the doctor.  I decided this is it!  I am going in with guns blazing.  I am going to advocate.  I am going to demand new tests.  I am going to say that my kid does not need to be in pain.  That obviously this isn't gluten!  Obviously we missed something else!  This might not be the first appointment I went in complaining about these aches and pains. 

Sometimes I have to ask myself what I am hoping to walk away with, but deep down I know exactly what I want.  I have this illogical hope that this time someone will say, Oh, we missed this very easy to diagnose and cure no-big-deal-virus!  That is why her stomach hurts.  Here is your miracle prescription.  May you never have to see your kid lose sleep over gluten again.  This will pass.  Here is your clean bill of health.

Well, I love our doctor.  I takes time to find a doctor you truly like.  I find this especially true if there are any special needs involved.  Our doctor listens, she asks questions, she does not hesitate to run tests and takes our frustration seriously.  Then she always gives it to me straight (and delicately).

We have some new tests we are running, along with a general blood count panel.  But, it comes down to this is most likely cross contamination.  Sigh.  I did have bagels for a morning playgroup on Tuesday morning, but I thought I had cleaned up.   I told the doctor this and then I stressed to her that this seems like a HUGE reaction to what must have been a crumb I missed on the counter top.

As I am driving home I keep hearing Ramona's doctor say, "Ramona might be much more severely sensitive than her sister.  Had she not already been on a mostly gluten free diet she might have been very sick." 

It is not that it did not occur to me, it is not that this has not been said to me before, but today it just keeps playing over and over.  I remember when Ramona got sick in Mexico, we almost did not go to the Chichen Itza.  But we sucked it up, barely making it and then her sister got sick on the bus.  Everyone near them worried they had a flu and all I could think was nope, this is just Celiac kids vacationing.  Sigh, sigh double fracking sigh.

Time to be grateful:
My kids are relatively healthy most the time.
There is a cure, it is called no gluten for us.
Ramona is feeling better and spent a lot of the appointment laughing - including when she got her blood drawn.
They have nothing more serious.
They are happy.

And I am grateful and I can see that in the over all scheme of things we are okay.  Sometimes though we need to decompress, validate our feelings and just say out loud, this sucks.  Sometimes.