The Before Pictures...

Here are some pictures of our current filing "system". I am using the word system very loosely here.



This little corner of the kitchen is our kitchen office area. Right now it's known as the chaos counter. The coutertop actually looks pretty good in this picture.



I clean it off periodically and then the next thing I know there is stuff all over it again. This is were about 90% of our papers end up so this is where I'm planning to store all the active files. Our permanent documents and completed tax returns will be stored upstairs in one of the closets.

On the bright side, any sytsem we manage to implement will be better than what we have now.

No Noodle Lasagna

A couple of years ago, before I developed Celiac, I was trying to reduce the amount of refined flour and sugar in my diet. Since it was summer and zuchini was plentiful I decided to try to use it in place of noodles in lasagna. Much to my suprise, it worked! I really never missed the noodles and the zuchini blends in nicely with the tomatos and cheeses. Now that I can't have traditional lasagna noodles this has become a staple in my kitchen.

I do need to warn you that this gluten free lasagna does not cut into neat little squares. When it it hot and the lasanga is cut up it will spread over your plate. If you like it to be a little neater cook it the day before you need it. The leftovers always taste better and look better than the day it is served.

No Noodle Lasagna

1 lb ground beef (also works well with 1/2 lb ground beef and 1/2 lb ground pork)
¾ cup chopped onion
Cooking spray
1 can tomatoes
2 small cans tomato paste
½ cup water
1 T parsley
2 t salt
1 T sugar
1 T garlic powder
½ t pepper
½ t oregano
2-3 small zucchini
1 lb cottage cheese
4 cups mozzarella cheese


Cut zucchini into thin rounds and steam cook in the microwave for 2-3 min. Brown ground beef together with onion. Mix together with rest of ingredients except zucchini and mozzarella cheese. Layer a little sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish coated with cooking spray. Add a layer of zucchini rounds, cheese then sauce. Repeat until you have 2-3 layers ending with mozzarella cheese on top. Bake at 350°for 40-50 min.

Happy Birthday Doodlebug!

Since today is Doodlebug's birthday it seemed appropriate to tell the story of his birth.

We arrived at the hospital on January 26th shortly after midnight for a scheduled induction. Since I had gestational diabetes my midwives would not let me go past my due date. We spent our first hour getting settled in the room, getting IV's started and finding out what to expect. Once we were settled the nurse checked my blood sugar, put in my IV, started my Cytotec and hooked me up to the monitors. I was given some Ambien and we settled in to try to get some rest. Ha! Everytime I would move so would Doodlebug and alarms would go off. I don't think we got more than an hour or two of sleep all night.

Around 7:00 AM my midwife came in to check my progress. I was still dilated to 1 cm(which is where I had been the night before) and she started me on Pictocin. Marilyn, our nurse, came in to meet us and discuss our birthing preferences. A lot of them had already been ruled out since I was induced but we told here that we were using Hypnobabies. Although she had never worked with anyone using Hypnobabies before, but had heard of it and seemed really interested in the whole process.

Soon my contractions were coming on a more regular basis and becoming increasingly uncomfortable. The Hypnobabies relaxation scripts were irritating me so I asked my husband to put on the relaxation music without words. I got up and into the rocking chair. When a contraction would start I would take a deep breath, drop my head and stop rocking. I would just sit in the chair breathing deeply and relaxing until it was over and then I would pick my head up and continue rocking. About 1:00 I started having a more difficult time relaxing through the contractions as they increased in intensity and requested an epidural. As we waited for the anesthesiologist the contractions became so intense I started repeating over and over "Help me, help me, help me..." Chris would rub my lower back, remind me to breathe and tell me to relax my hands, my shoulders, my arms etc.

The anesthesiologist was delayed due to a baby on the floor that was in trouble. Since we did not know when he would be able to come in to give me the epidural Marilyn gave me a narcotic to take the edge off the contractions. We continued to prep me for the epidural so I would be ready as soon as the doctor walked in the door. No sooner than the medicine got in my IV and we got me seated on the edge of the bed than the anesthesiologist walked in. Once everything was in I just laid in bed listening to my Hypnobabies music and relaxing. I didn't sleep but I did manage to doze in and out as I rested up so I could birth my baby. Not much later my midwife came in to check me told me I was at 5 cm and she broke my water.

I lost track of time at that point. I remember telling Chris and Marilyn that I was feeling queasy later in the day. Chris got a washcloth for my head and gave me my Hypnobabies "No nausea" CD to listen to. When Marilyn checked my progress she told me I was at 7 cm. I told her, "Yep, I'm in transition." Some time later the midwife came back in and inserted a catheter through my cervix to better monitor my contractions. Since Nathan was still squirming around and the monitor kept losing track of his heartbeat, a lead was placed in his head to better monitor his heart rate.

Sometime later I started to feel mild urges to push. Since I wanted a little more time for the urges to grow stronger before I had to start pushing I didn't say anything. Soon after Marilyn checked me, told me I was at 10 cm and asked me to give a little push to see if the baby would move. She told me I was only 5 or 6 good pushes away from meeting my little guy. My husband and Marilyn started to reposition me in the bed. They had me sitting up, on each side and finally on my back with Marilyn telling me to push. I got really vocal at this point repeating that I did not want to lie flat on my back to push but she told me that “The baby is getting tired and needs to come out.” I heard something in her tone of voice that made me realize something was not right so I shut up and pushed as hard as I could. A minute later she told me to stop pushing and went to the phone to call the midwife. My midwife was delivering another baby at that time and I heard Marilyn say that she needed a doctor, any doctor, to come in now. I did not know exactly why she was saying this with such urgency, but I remember thinking that this could not be good.

Things started moving very fast and the room started filling up with people. Someone gave Chris scrubs and told him to go and change in case we had to go to the OR. As soon as the doctor got there they put me on my back and told me to push again. The doctor explained that the baby’s heart rate was dropping into the 40’s each time I pushed and she thought we needed to do a c-section.

A few minutes later we were in the OR and I was being prepped for surgery. I could feel people pushing on my belly and knew that the medical team was preparing for the c-section. A few minutes later I heard Marilyn say “We have a head…we have shoulders” and then I heard Doodlebug cry. I looked at Chris and said, “Oh my God, I didn’t even know they started.” Doodlebug was born at 7:55 PM on January 26, 2009. He was a little peanut at 6 lbs 2 oz and 18 ¾ inches long. And of course, the absolute cutest baby I have ever seen.


Happy birthday Doodlebug, I love you!

One step forward, two steps back

I've been potty training Doodlebug since November, when he was about 9 months old. Actually what we are doing is really more a form of elimination communication (EC). Basically I am watching him for signs of when he needs to use the potty and then just take him there. He's pretty predictable so we usually go after meals and naptimes.

Although every time we went potty his diaper was already wet, I was really encouraged that he seemed to understand what to do on the potty, and if he had to go when I set him on it, he went. He was using the potty about 80% of the time, and I hadn't washed a poopy diaper in weeks.

And then we hit a wall. Three days of missing every single time. Then one success. Then several more misses. Several poopy diapers to wash.

I don't know what's changed. I guess it's just going to be one step forward and two steps back.

It's baaaack!

Here are the links to the other two posts about the leg lamp as a Christmas gag gift, for those of you who don't know the whole story.

Last night I was putting some stuff away in our guest room closet when I noticed an odd looking box.



Now the only question is, do we set the lamp up in their front window when they go on vacation? Or is our Christmas shopping done for them for next year?

Personality Change

My sweet little baby is no longer my sweet little baby.



When Doodlebug was born we noticed he was a very laid back baby. He rarely cries unless he needed something, always goes to other people easily and is generally pretty happy.

For the first couple of weeks we waited cautiously and held our breath. Is this really his personality? Could we really have gotten this lucky? Yep. We really did hit the jackpot. People who watch him in the church nursery or at the YMCA comment on how good he is. He watches the other kids, plays contentedly and is so pleasant to be around.



December was a really rough month. Almost as soon as we got home from Thanksgiving he got a supervirus. He ran a fever for a week and was sick for at least ten days straight. Poor little guy. Then he caught a cold. Then we went away for Christmas and he got really sleep deprived. Then his top tooth came in. This was a 5-6 day ordeal that involved very little eating, lots of fussing and Motrin every six hours. I was so ready for December to end.



When it did I noticed that Doodlebug was yelling a lot. Not screaming, not crying, but yelling. Or maybe bellowing. Hmm.

And he started throwing stuff on the floor. Not dropping, throwing. Hmm.

And then he started kicking at me. Not waving his feet in the air and trying to get his shoelaces. Hmm.

I thought that maybe another tooth was coming in. Or he was getting another virus. Maybe he's still not caught up on his sleep. Because this just isn't my sweet baby.

I finally asked my friend who has two kids older than Doodlebug, "Do kids have some kind of major personality change when they turn one?" Of course, I had to yell it pretty loud to be heard over the bellowing. Her eyes got bigger and she slowly nodded. And then I heard words I was dreading. "And it only gets worse."

Fabulous.

And just like that, we entered the toddler years. I'm not ready. I miss my sweet baby boy.

Daily Cleaning

If I’m going to have a hope of getting my home cleaned up in an hour or so a week, it takes some daily maintenance.

This is what I typically do in a day.

º One load of laundry. This means washed, dried folded and put away.
º Wipe down each bathroom daily. Spot clean mirrors, spray counters and toilet, swish a little soap in the toilet bowl and call it done.
º Spray down the bathtub and shower after each use. I hardly ever have to scrub it this way.
º Keep up with the dishes. If I unload the dishwasher as soon as it’s done I have a place for my dirty dishes and the counters stay clear. I just clean as I go on this one.
º Every night I do a five minute pick up of each floor. Put away toys, clear my nightstand, put away stray items, and clear off the surfaces that always seem to attract clutter in my house. If I keep up with it, it really doesn’t take long.
º Clean up messes as they happen. If my son drops his fruit on the floor I pick it up and spot mop it. It takes a lot less time to clean up most messes as they happen rather than waiting to do it all at once.

Some other things that have really helped me out.

º Declutter. This is the single most important thing. How can I put things away if they don’t have homes? Who wants to spend 5 minutes trying to close drawers that are so stuffed with clothes they won’t shut all the way? Why do I want to store, take care of and look at stuff I don’t need any more?
º Take it in small steps. If your house is a wreck, it will take longer to get in shape. But don’t just throw up your hands and collapse on the couch. Work on it for 10 minutes, 15 minutes or even 5 minutes. Even if it’s only 10 minutes a day for a week that’s over an hour. You can get a lot of cleaning done in an hour.
º My home is not a museum. I have cat hair on the couch, rumpled towels in the bathroom and dishes drying on the countertop. I do not need to vacuum under the couch every week. I want it clean enough that my family can enjoy it and basic tasks are done regularly. Good enough is good enough.
º Know when to stop. If you’ve been vacuuming for 10 minutes and that’s all the time you have, stop. It’s okay not to vacuum the whole house if you are running tight on time. Ten minutes in the high traffic areas will do a lot more good than nothing at all.
º Figure out how long it takes you to do each task. I know I can thoroughly clean my kitchen floor in 15 minutes. When I find myself with a few spare minutes I know what tasks I can get done since I know how long they take.

How to Clean Your House in an Hour

If you know me in real life you would laugh at the idea I’m doing a post on house cleaning.

I hate to clean. Seriously hate it. I used to avoid it at all costs. My former roommate once told me I at least needed a path in my bedroom.

It was that bad.

I am somewhat reformed now. Not all the way, but a lot better. Our house is lived in, but we almost always have a pretty clean kitchen and clothes to wear. And the clothes usually come out of a drawer or the closet and not the dryer.

The first thing I learned was to make it easy on myself. I store basic cleaning supplies in each bathroom and the kitchen. Usually just a role of paper towels and some multi-purpose spray cleaner. If I leave to get those things I inevitably get distracted and forget I was cleaning the bathroom.

I have learned to clean fast. I don't want to spend my whole day cleaning, there are much more fun things to do. I wipe down the bathrooms every day. I try to do it while I'm in there anyway and since I do it daily it takes only a minute or two tops. I spray down any spots on the mirror, the counter tops, the toilet bowl and squirt a little soap in the toilet bowl. I swish the soapy water around the toilet, wipe up everything else and I'm done. Missing spots doesn't really concern me since I'm going to be back doing it tomorrow anyways.

You know the days you'd rather just sit on the couch rather than clean? I have those all the time and sometimes I totally give in. Usually I can get my butt up long enough to do something during the commercials. I can unload one rack in the dishwasher during one set of commercials. At the end of single TV show my kitchen is presentable.

I try to get all of my weekly cleaning done in one big spurt. The key is to get my husband and son out of the house for an hour or so. If I haven't been doing this regularly it takes longer.

The first thing I do is run pull my hair back, put on some running shoes turn on the music. I move when I clean.

The next thing is to run around the house and do a general pick up. Throw out magazines, put the toys away, get the dishes off the nightstand. Since we have two floors I finish one before going to the other. Instead of running every item up or down the stairs to its home I just throw stray items in a laundry basket and take them all up at once. I try to restrict picking up and putting away to 5 minutes upstairs and 5 downstairs.

Next I dust. This is does not mean getting out Pledge and polishing all the wood surfaces. I grab a feather duster and race around the house. My goal is to be done in 10 minutes or less.

Then I do the floors. I vacuum everything carpets, hardwoods and tile floors. I do not move any furniture, I just run it around the middle of the room. (The only exception is the kitchen.) My goal is 10 minutes or less.

Next comes mopping. I use a spray bottle and microfiber mop. I spray the microfiber cloth to dampen it, spot spray any stuck on dirt in the kitchen and then fly around the house with it. My kitchen takes 15 minutes total. (Move chairs, vacuum, mop, move chairs back.) The rest of the house is 5-10 minutes.

If I have some more time I vacuum the stairs, this only takes a couple of minutes.

All said and done my major cleaning is done in less than an hour a week and it doubles as a workout. In order to get it done that fast I have to focus only on cleaning and keep on moving. I also have to recognize that it won't be perfect, it's just going to be good enough.

Christmas Photos

I don't have anything really inspiring to share today, so I'm just going to post some Christmas photos of our Christmas.

The wrapping paper is definately more fun than the presents!

Amazingly Doodlebug's firt Christmas was a white Christmas. And we live in the South. Too bad he wasn't big enough to enjoy playing in the snow.


Mommy getting sloppy Christmas kisses. Doodlebug now thinks it's funny to lick me while kissing me.

Daddy and Doodlebug. Aren't they sweet?

Gluten Free Bread that Tastes Good

Really Good Gluten Free Bread It sounds like a contradiction in terms. Good and gluten free bread doesn’t it? I haven’t eaten much bread in the past two years since I found out I have Celiac. Why spend $6.00 for a loaf of bread that tastes awful? Why spend my time making homemade bread with a dozen exotic flours for it to taste like cardboard?

But I really wanted garlic bread. And a grilled cheese sandwich. So I decided to try making bread at home. I like to bake. This could work.

My recipe requirements were only that it could not contain any flours that I did not already have in my kitchen. It is really frustrating to buy a box of flour for a recipe that I end up not liking anyway.

I found a bread recipe that looked promising here.

Of course, I don’t have a bread maker or all of the flours listed in this blogger’s all purpose flour. So I started making substitutions.



This is the recipe that I am using now, and I love it!

1 package (or 2 ¼ t) active dry yeast
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/3 c. water (105 degrees or a little less than hot)
2 ½ cups Jules Nearly Normal Flour Mix
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 ½ Tbsp. oil
1 tsp. white or rice wine vinegar

1. Combine yeast, sugar and water in a small bowl. Set aside.

2. Combine the flour mix, xanthan gum and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix well.

3. In a third bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and vinegar until the eggs are a bit frothy.

4. Check the yeast. By now, it should look a bit frothy on top. This is an indication your yeast is working well.

5. Pour both liquid mixtures into the flour mixture. Stir until all ingredients are well mixed. It’s important not to undermix the dough. I put my in my mixer and turn it on for at least three minutes.

6. At this point the dough will resemble a thick cake or brownie batter. It will not form into a loose ball like dough using gluten.

7. Pour dough into an oiled 2 cup bread pan and smooth the top.

8. Cover bread dough with plastic wrap and allow to rise until it just reaches the top of the bread pan.

9. Bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes. The top of the bread will be a golden brown and will sound hollow when tapped.

10. Allow bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then place on a wire rack to finish cooling.

11. When fully cooled slice with a serrated bread knife.

Gluten free bread is much more tempermental than it’s gluten containing counterparts. Even the best bakers will occasionally have loaves that turn out hard or fall. Since gluten is what gives bread structure making gluten free bread often has some issues with shrinking or collapsing after coming out of the oven.
If your bread is collapsing and has large air pockets in it, this is a sign you are using too much liquid. Cut back on the liquid in the recipe until you have a more stable loaf with small even air pockets throughout. You can see in my picture above that I have some rather large air pockets and I may need to cut back slightly on my liquids.

Most gluten free cooks like to vary recipes. If you do this, take it one step at a time. It’s generally not a good idea to cut back on liquid, change the type of vinegar, use a different sized loaf pan and substitute guar gum for xantham gum all in the same recipe. If your loaf does not come out as you had hoped you have no idea what you need to change to get back on track.

A New Perspective

Do you ever hear a phrase that gives you a new perspective on something? As soon as you hear it you slap your forehead and think “Of course! Why didn’t I see that before?” Just recently I heard one on self discipline.

In the blink of an eye Christmas is over and New Year’s is right around the corner again. As I put up the Christmas presents and decorations my mind turns to taxes and New Year’s resolutions. I know, I know, I know. I can hear you groaning through the monitor. Don’t be tempted to turn off your monitor at this point, I’m not going to beat you up. There are no New Year’s Resolution Police.

I pretty much hate New Year’s resolutions

The last two years I’ve made New Year’s resolutions that were pretty easy to keep. In 2008 I resolved to get pregnant. Resolution accomplished.

In 2009, buoyed by my recent success with 2008’s resolution I resolved to give birth.



Ta da! Meet Doodlebug, the newest and cutest member of our family. Well, there’s no way I’m going to be able to top that!

Okay, let’s see. I could work on the weight I want to lose, or actually keeping the house reasonably clean. But I’ve made those resolutions before, and here I am in my size way- bigger-than-I-want-to-admit-on-the-world-wide-web jeans with my computer desk threatening to cascade an avalanche of paper on the floor if I make one false move. And I start to think I just don’t have the self discipline to change myself.

And then I read something that resonated with me. Okay, it was more like being struck between the eyes with a two by four, but you know what I mean.

Self discipline is remembering what you really want. (Pam Young)

Now I always think of self discipline as sacrifice and hard work and deprivation. And it’s often about failure, guilt and beating myself up. But it’s really not that at all. It’s just about making decisions about what is important to me and following through on them. I can do that.

It’s not hard, or scary or depressing. It’s liberating, freeing and hopeful. It’s about knowing who I am and what I want and going for it. It’s keeping my goals foremost in my mind so I don’t get distracted by all the other stuff that inevitably happens in life.

Maybe the goals I have set in the past haven’t reflected what I really want. Maybe I just got sidetracked along the way. Either way the solution isn’t to buckle down, beat myself up or try harder. The solution is to figure out what I really want and hold onto that. That seems a whole lot easier to me.

Guest Post

Today I am the guest poster on one of my favorite blogs Want What You Have. Here is a copy of that post.


Does it strike anyone else as odd that strangers in Walmart feel it necessary to give you advice on child rearing? There must be some secret school where people go to get an advanced degree in raising other people’s children. Their preferred method of spreading their knowledge seems to be accosting weary moms in produce aisles and checkout lines.



I am always surprised that I get a lot of comments on wearing him on my back. Usually I become aware of people laughing and comments about the “baby backpack”. I am not sure what the big deal is, but I have learned to keep to myself some of the less conventional things we do like making baby food and using cloth diapers. They seem to cause big reactions when I mention them. And my biggest secret? I started potty training my son before he even learned to crawl. And here’s the astonishing part, its working.

When I was pregnant with my son I first read about elimination communication. The basic idea is that infants instinctively do not want to wet or soil themselves and will attempt to communicate their need to go even as newborns. If their caregivers respond to this by giving them an alternative to using diapers they will do so.

I was fascinated by the idea that infants are capable of letting their caregivers know when they needed to pee or poop much like they are capable of communicating their need to eat. And I have to admit the idea of not washing tons of poopy diapers appealed to me immensely. But even though this is how women around the world care for their children I was pretty skeptical this would work. It seems common knowledge that most kids are not toilet trained until age three or four and most just aren’t ready before then. Right?

When my son was 9 months old I decided to give it a whirl. What did I have to lose? I already knew to expect a poopy diaper shortly after a meal and figured it might be easier to sit him on the potty rather than wash out the poopy diaper in the toilet.

The first time we sat on the potty I just plunked him down and started reading him his favorite book. After a few seconds I don’t think he even noticed he was on the potty. After all, Pajama Time! is a pretty engrossing book.

My only focus was on making potty time be a positive experience for him, and to my surprise he pooped in the potty. Wow! When I started singing and clapping about his success he looked slightly confused but quickly decided it didn’t matter why we were celebrating and so he sat on his little potty and danced along.

After that I sat him on the potty once or twice a day after meals or if I noticed he was trying to poop. To my utter amazement, it usually worked and I soon realized he was using the potty 75-80% of the time I put him on. We stepped up to using the potty at almost every diaper change.

I gradually realized that he was taking less and less time to go potty. If I sat him there when he needed to go, he was pretty quick about it. Could he be getting it? Were we really potty training at just 10 months old? He’s doesn’t really understand what he’s doing does he?

Last week I sat him on the potty and wasn’t paying much attention to what he was doing. I was busy looking at a boo-boo and band aid he had on his foot. When I looked up at him he was pointing down into the potty and looking right at me. Sure enough, when I peeked in there, he had peed. I think he gets it.

We have a long way to go before he is fully potty trained and I’m sure we’re going to have some more bumps along the way. Maybe the shoppers at Walmart will have some suggestions for those too, but in the meantime I’m just going to enjoy not having to wash out as many poopy diapers.

Update to the Gag Gift

As promised, here are the pictures of my parent's opening their gag gift.

My husband found a site that allows you to make your own Western Union telegram so we make up one that said, "Have won major award will be delivered tonight stop".

We put the telegram in a gift bag from PF Chang's.

Reading the telegram....

Mom realizes what the gift is.... She doesn't look too happy. She kept repeating, "Oh no, oh no, oh no. They got us a leg lamp."

Dad realizes what it is.... He looks considerably happier than mom did.

Mom and Dad admiring their new lamp. Well, admiring may be putting a slightly positive spin on it.

Mom kept saying they were going to leave the lamp here for Doodlebug's room, but in the end Dad packed it in the car. I wonder if they put it up in their house.

Returning an Adopted Child?

Have you heard about the couple on Good Morning America who want to give their adopted son back to the state? Their story is a horrible one. The child has been violent and even tried to kill them by burning their home down and has been locked in a psychiatric ward for the past year. They are attempting to change Oklahoma law to allow them to return the child to the care of the state.

But it both makes me mad and breaks my heart what they are trying to do.

I cannot imagine the terror and anguish that this couple is feeling. To know the child you love and are caring for wants to kill you, and would try. And he's coming home next month. I know they are desperate. I know they are terrified of having this child in their home. I would be too.

But he is their child. If he was their biological child they would not be pursuing this as an option. Adoption often gets a bad rap. The children who are adopted are often treated as though they are a second choice. Comments are made to their parents about how they are not their "real kids". Just this week I heard of an adoptive mother who became pregnant. Her co-worker asked her if they would be giving back their adopted 18 month old child now. Really? Do people think like this? Do people think adopted kids are expendable?

There is a lot of adoption within our family. Our second child will be adopted, not biological. I have always thought that I would adopt my children, instead of give birth to them. This is a topic I am passionate about.

I am angered that this family would go on national TV and announce they want to give their child back. I am angered for this child as well as for every other adopted child in this country. I am angered at the perception they are perpetuating that adopted kids are expendable. That they have a return policy. That they are less a part of the family than a biological kid.

Can you imagine being an adopted child and watching this news report? Thinking your place in the family might not be secure because you were adopted into it and not born into it? What would that do to a child?

I hope that out of the show today this family gets a solution. I hope it's a solution that protects everyone involved and leaves the family intact. I hope for everyone's sake it comes soon. And when it does, I hope they run that story about adoption on Good Morning America too.

Mmm...Meatballs for Dinner

Ever wish you had a personal chef? Someone you could call in the morning and say, "I'm in the mood for spaghetti and meatballs tonight. Could you please have that ready at six o'clock? I may not have the personal chef, but I have the next best thing, my crock pot.

Now I know what you're thinking, "A crock pot? What is she, crazy? That's not anywhere close to having a personal chef." Ah, and that last statement is where you would be wrong. I am in serious love with my crock pot. Since my son was born I can find odd snatches of time to cook, but rarely time for a time consuming project like making meatballs, frying them and then putting them in sauce to cook for several hours. But my crock pot solves that problem for me.



When I have a few minutes early in the day I mix up the meat and other ingredients. Then I throw it in the crock pot raw and by dinner time I have spaghetti and meatballs. Mmm, it's a wonderful comfort food and so easy to make.

I make my recipe fairly small since it's just for my husband and I. This makes enough for our dinner (served over spaghetti) and a couple of lunches for me.

1/4 lb ground beef
1/4 lb ground pork*
1/4-1/2 t Nature's Seasoning
1/2 small onion minced**
1 egg
dash of salt
dash of pepper
2 cups spaghetti sauce
1/2 package of spaghetti cooked***

Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl. When throughly mixed shape meat into balls slightly larger than a golf ball and place in the bottom of the crock pot.



Pour the spaghetti sauce over the meatballs and cook for 6-8 hour on low or 3-5 hours on high. Serve over spaghetti.***



*can substitute all beef, all ground turkey or turkey and pork together
**or can substitute 1/4-1/2 t onion powder
***as long as spaghetti is gluten free this can be a gluten free meal

The Great Santa Debate

I am amazed at all of the controversy that Santa brings up at this time of year. As I have been reading bits and pieces of other people's blogs and visiting message boards I keep seeing the issue of whether or not to tell kids that Santa isn't real. And, oddly enough, feelings run so high that people are getting nasty to each other when they disagree.

Here is where we stand. My child will believe in lots of things when he gets to be a toddler. I'm sure he will think there are monsters under the bed, that he has imaginary friends and that Santa does exist. I will tell him that the monster's aren't real, but I will likely talk to his imaginary friends and I won't correct him about Santa.

And I do wonder, for those people who do want their kids to believe in Santa, how do you explain all the discrepancies out there about how he works? It seems like every Christmas movie has different explanations for how Santa gets all those toys delivered in one night, how he gets in houses without chimnies and what enables the reindeer to fly. It's so ironic to me that the overwhelming promotion of Santa by our culture has made it so much more difficult for children to believe in what they are trying to promote.

Our home is not going to focus on Santa or on giving gifts. The Christmas season is the time to talk about the birth of Jesus, celebrate Jesus' birth, spend time with family, and to reach out to others. We're not against Santa, he just isn't the most important thing at Christmas time for us.

Our home does have a Christmas tree, a Nativity set, an Advent calendar, stockings hung on the mantle and gifts under the tree. I'm pretty sure that Santa will be dropping of presents at his grandparents' homes and I know he will have a stocking at Mawmaw's house that Santa will drop off there.

I realize others will tell my child about Santa, ask him if he's made his list and inevitably the other kids will tell him Santa doesn't exist. When he asks us about it, we plan to tell him the real story of St. Nicholas on a level that he can understand. Basically we want him to know that St. Nicholas was a real man who loved Jesus so he gave everything he had to other people. Because he loved Jesus and helping others so much people still celebrate his life by giving gifts and helping each other out at Christmas to each other to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Santa Claus in the red suit with all of the reindeer is not real, but the spirit of generosity and giving that he represents is. Moms and Dads tell their children about Santa Claus and pretend to be Santa Claus because they love them and they want to give them gifts and telling the story to children is fun. I also plan to tell him that we should not ruin the fun for other kids and their families by telling them that Santa is not real.

Santa Claus is very much a part of our culture. There is no way my child will not hear about Santa unless we move to The-Middle-of-Nowhere without a TV, internet and human contact. And let's face it, Santa can be pretty hard to compete with. What kid wants to hear about a baby born in a manger when he can hear about the jolly man with the fancy sleigh, flying reindeer and presents? Instead of insulating our child from that or trying to deny the existence of Santa to him, we plan to let Santa be a peripheral part of our celebration and use him as a way to explain to our child about Jesus and why the baby in the manger was such an important event.

A Gag Gift for Christmas

Every family has holiday traditions. Some are sweet, some are strange. One of ours involves watching A Christmas Story on Christmas Eve. Have you ever seen this movie?

This has to be one of our favorite scenes, the leg lamp. A couple of years ago they started selling the leg lamp in stores around Christmastime. I have always wondered, who the heck buys those things? Well now I know the answer, we do.

Now with all my blogging about being frugal this probably sounds like a really odd choice. And it kind of is. But here's how I'm rationalizing it. First of all it was on sale and we had a coupon. These are always very important considerations to me.

We were going to spend the money on a gift certificate for a restaurant for my parents. Now with the gift certificate they would get an evening out, but they would probably end up kicking in some money towards the bill as well. And the evening would come and go and the money would be gone. Instead, what we're buying for them is a gift that will be made into family legend. This is one of those gifts that will be talked about and laughed about for years to come. I think my money is better spent on the story that will come out of this particular gift. We even wrapped it up to resemble the way it arrived in the movie.



And since my parents have just moved they have been saying they need to buy more lamps for their house. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!

Babywearing with a Mei Tai

The term babywearing has always sounded a bit odd to be. I wear a coat, a sweater, some socks, but not my child. He is not an article of clothing. I always think a more accurate term is babycarrying. But I digress....

I really love carrying my son around in a wrap. I can put him on my back in less than a minute and he is happy on my back for about an hour or so while I do whatever needs to be done. We can mop floors, go shopping, plant daffodils in the backyard, go for a walk, or any number of things. And he loves to be on my back and be able to see things from a different perspective. He espcially likes it when I turn on the Kitchen Aid mixer. Silly boy.

This picture is from a Halloween festival we went to. It was really muddy outside and a stroller would not have worked well going up and down steps, over the muddy grass and manuvering around tons of little kids.



I'd say more than half the time we go out I find it easier to have him in the Mei Tai than in the stroller. I also find that he is better behaved in the Mei Tai. He is usually pretty quiet, looking around and taking it all in.

And the most common question I get is, how the heck do you get him up there? This is the method I use the most often. I feel I have the best hold on him while wrapping and there's no danger of him slipping off my back while I'm tying the straps.

Every once in a while I will wear him in front of me. It's not a very convenient hold to get stuff done since he tends to be in the way, but it's a great way to take a sick baby to the Doctors. He feels snug and secure and I can have my hands free to get out my insurance card.

When he is sick I also use a hold where I place him tummy to tummy with me and put bot his legs out of the same side of the wrap. I can't get much done this way, but it gives my arms a break from holding him when he wants to be held 24/7. It's also a lifesaver when you end up sleeping sitting up in a chair holding a sick little one.

And last but not least, here is a picture of Doodlebug just after hunting for the perfect Christmas tree in the Mei Tai. He always grins like that when I get him out.

Homemade Snapple

We have elves. Or maybe gremlins. Or very hungry caterpillars. I'm not sure which. But they live in my pantry and keep eating one ingredient out of each recipe I want to make.

I'm pretty sure it's not my husband or Doodlebug. What person would finish off the white rice flour or eat a can of tomato paste?

I wanted to try a homemade Snapple recipe I saw this week somewhere. So I heated up some water, stuck a tea bag in it and went to the fridge to get out the juice. But there was no juice. Arg! The hungry caterpillars struck again. Hmm, is there anything I can use? Ah, frozen juice concentrate, that'll work.

I keep some frozen juice concentrate on hand for recipies that call for a little juice. Lots of my crock pot recipes say to add 1/4 cup of apple juice or something similar. If we don't have any regular juice I just scoop out a little of the concentrate, add a little water and use that instead.

I put about 1/2 spoonful of orange juice concentrate and a bunch of crushed ice in a large mug. Once my tea was done I poured it over the ice. The ice melted very quickly and my drink was cool, although not cold. I added some Splenda to sweeten it up a bit and took a sip. It really does taste like Snapple. In fact, I think I need to go and make myself another cup.

What is Celiac?

I was diagnosed with Celiac in November 2007. I often tell people it's like a food allegy for the sake of simplicity, but it's really an autoimmune condition. Whenever I eat gluten (a protein found in wheat) my immune system responds by attacking the gluten in turn damaging to the lining of my gut. This produces an astonishingly wide variety of symptoms and complications ranging from mild heartburn to neurological impairment. For most people it leads to gastrointestional issues and can lead to other things like anemia, infertility and malnutrition.

There is no cure for Celiac. There are no drugs to take to be able to digest the protein. The treatment is very simple, do not ingest any gluten. Unfortunately simple and easy are not the same thing.

Some sources of gluten are pretty obvious. Since wheat, rye and barley all contain gluten anything with these ingredients is out. No pasta, cookies, crackers, breads, cakes... But there are a whole host of things that are not quite so easily identified and avoided. It's often hidden in foods that I would think would be okay, like bullion cubes. Suddenly I had to become a label reader, and not just on food, on everything. Lip gloss, tooth paste, medications.... Not to mention the list of unsafe foods is approximately 3 pages long. It was a bit overwhelming.

And then there is the issue of cross-contamination. Since it takes very little gluten to set off an autoimmune reaction I have to be extremely careful with my food. I have to make sure that there's no gluten in it, and that nothing containing gluten has touched it. If I'm at a fast-food restaurant and the cook puts my gluten-free hamburger on a bun it is contaminated. I can't just take the hamburger off the bun and eat it. I need a whole new hamburger. If someone has made themselves a sandwhich and then puts their hand in a bag of chips to put them on their plate, I cannot eat chips from that bag. My body is that sensitive to gluten.

While I'm on the subject, I hate using the word contaminated. To me that has implications of someone or something being unsanitary. That's not at all what I mean when I use this word when talking about gluten. It simply means that my food cannot touch any food or any surface that has touched gluten containing food. It's a like like keeping kosher. The foods must be kept apart at all times.

In my experience the medical community has few answers and very little practical help. I have been given incorrect information by several medical professionals. So where do you turn? I was lucky. I had a close friend who has Celiac as does my mom. But my saving grace has been internet sources of information. I'm not a doctor. I'm not even in the medical field. I'm just another person with Celiac trying to help out other people with Celiac.

So on my blog you will see gluten-free product reviews, recipes and links to articles about Celiac. If these have no interst to you, just pass them on by. But since roughly 1 out of 133 people has Celiac it seems that most people will at least know someone who has Celiac.