Busy busy day.

It's my own fault I'm so tired right now.  I promised my youngest son that I'd take him yard-saling on top of having to work my usual shift and having to meet the homeschool moms for mom's night out at 4:00 p.m.  So I rushed and got my work done very quickly, then took him to several yard sales and a thrift store on the lookout for Legos and YuGiOh cards.  We didn't really find any.  We got home and then I had 5 minutes before I had to leave again.  For mom's night we went to a salvage grocery store (our latest fun thing) then to eat out and then to Hobby Lobby.  We drove an hour each way for this, after we met, with 15 minutes of solo driving before that.  Thus, I am experiencing, the above-mentioned tiredness.  Actually, I didn't eat out.  I just had ice cream because I didn't want to risk getting glutened.  I have way too busy a weekend planned.  I've got work tomorrow then the first of our summer fun nights at church.  I don't really expect much of a turnout since it's Memorial Day Weekend and a lot of people will be camping, but I want the ones who do come to have fun.  Then Sunday, we've got a baby shower and I'm in charge of the games.  I'm thinking we'll make playdough babies and play baby gift bingo, but I'm not sure.  Sometime this weekend, I'll need to figure that out.  :-P

Some pictures.

Gluten free groceries.  We didn't need bread this week, so pretty much everything I bought was gluten free.  It's not weird stuff we eat.  :-)

One of my daughter's drawings.

The "super moon" after it was higher in the sky and not quite so super anymore.

The crochet mats made out of grocery bags that the 4H kids are going to try to make.

This/That

We've got lots of stuff going on.  We're finishing up the crazy busy week and next week doesn't look too awfully busy for some of us.  For my oldest son, he's starting a job in a  factory tomorrow.  His first job ever.  Right now he's packing up his lunch and making sure he's got everything he needs to take with him.  I'm not ready for him being gone all the time, but he needs to buy a car.  My fear is that he'll just get stuck in a rut in this factory job and end up never going to college.  Moms worry, you know?  He insists that he won't, but it's not a part time, not a temporary job, they are hiring him with the expectation that he'll stay for a good long while and I'm afraid he'll bow to the pressure and just stay.  As a people pleaser myself, I battle with trying to make everyone else happy and often making myself miserable in the process. With kids, it's hard letting them go and letting them their own decisions.  Actually, I'm not sure if this is his decision or if he's just bowing down to some intense pressure from other family members.   :-(  Can you tell I'm not thrilled?  Still, I'm being supportive and as helpful as I can.  I bought a bunch of gluten free dairy free lunch options for him, new pants and socks for work and I'll be loaning him my car 5 days a week for a while.   

Anyway, we've only got 10 days of school left and the other 2 kids are counting down, ready to take a break.  I'll be glad not to have them next to me whining about math all the time.  With school out, they'll be up and about during the day, not at our shared computer table.  Although, when those 2 are all grown up and starting jobs of their own, I sure will miss their old math whining days.  We've only got 4 years of homeschooling to go. Again, can you tell I'm not thrilled?   I'll miss it.

I need to plan some fun stuff for this summer. 

The end of year count down.

We had 4H yesterday and it was nice.  My artsy friend had the kids making a collage out of beans and popcorn and stuff and it looks really neat.  Then we went out to eat at Fazolis.  I can't really eat anything there but the company was good.  I took Nutella, peanut butter and gluten free crackers as my snack.  That's my go to snack most of the time. It probably should be fruit but that's not the point.  The point is we had a really good time.  The homeschool moms and I hadn't gotten together in several weeks and we got kind of giggly and slap happy.  So much fun.  I'm so blessed to have found such a group.

Today we have a field trip.  I'll report back later on how it went.  

The Day After Easter Breakfast of Champions.

2 eggs for protein

and a nice big carrot.

I've invented a sandwich (cross posted from my gluten free cooking blog.)

This sandwich is very, very, very popular at my house. I invented it on Friday, grocery day. We were out of cheese and so I was trying to make something besides a grilled cheese. I needed it to be completely gluten free. This is what I came up with. You'll need:

Butter.

Rudi's multigrain bread.

Deli Cuts Roasted Turkey

KRAFT Miracle Whip Mayonnaise

Hormel bacon bits and lettuce.

I heat up a skillet and put in a teaspoon of butter. Add 2 slices of Rudis multigrain bread and fry until the bread is crispy and turning golden brown. Then, I remove the pan from the heat, turn the stove off, put the bread on a plate, spread the miracle whip, put on the turkey, bacon bits and lettuce and enjoy. My daughter especially has been begging me to make these. Finally last night I taught her how to make her own. She decided today that having tried it with both regular bread and gluten free bread, it's better with the gluten free bread. They're yummy. Now to think of a name for them? Any suggestions?

Last night

was Mom's night out with the homeschool group. Only 4 of us could make it but we had a really nice time. My only problem was with the restaurant. We went to a small family restaurant and I scanned the menu as I always do for things that would most likely be naturally gluten free. I'm not a fan of salads, so I avoided looking at them. I finally settled on an order of cheese and bacon fries with jalenpos and sour cream. (Health food, in other words). But then, when I came, the jalepenos had been breaded and fried, which I didn't expect. I couldn't help making a face of dismay when the waiter put it in front of me and he said "what's wrong?" and I said that I couldn't eat anything that was breaded so I couldn't eat this. Normally I wouldn't even attempt it but I felt bad because it's a small family-owned restaurant and they might need the money, you know? So I started trying the pull the jalepenos off in preparation to eat the fries when one of my friends bit into her fry and said "the fries are breaded too" and they were. So we had to call the waiter back over and I had to order something else so I ordered a salad (didn't want one, but I was hungry) and I emphasized to him nicely that it couldn't have any bread or croutons with it. He took the fries and said the dishwasher would eat them. When he brought my salad, it had saltine crackers (gluten!) all along one side. I just ate the side without the crackers and came home and ate my dinner. It was frustrating. I guess we'll have to stick to chain restaurants from now on. :-0

A better Friday?

My husband has got the cold that oldest son had, then youngest son and then daughter had, so he's home today and he is keeping on top of the youngest to try and make him do his school work in a timely manner and not do it all late tonight and early tomorrow morning.  He's also going to take daughter to her guitar lesson today, which is weird, because since he's had to work bad work shifts (second and third) our whole marriage, I've always done 99.9% of the taking and bringing kids places.  I have felt like a single parent at times.  When the youngest was born it was not unusual for my husband to have to work 80 hours a week.  :-/

So anyway, today  I'm able to concentrate on work, trying to get it done.  I'm almost finished, thankfully and then since my husband is doing the guitar lesson, I'll be able to take a break until it's time for my oldest son and I leave for a concert tonight.

These kinds of days, even with the afternoon unexpected break were not possible when I was not gluten free.  I was too tired all the time.  

From my Email Box this morning.

I get some interesting email each morning.  Here are some of today's highlights.

I got this email from Family Education which included this printable.
Spring Staycation Printable

I also got my daily Hunger Site reminder to click.
The Hunger Site

And my Animal Rescue Site reminder to click.
The Animal Rescue Site

I got a notice that I sold one of these shirts on my cafepress store,
Cafepress Gigi shirt

My daily notification from Cozi to take my pills.  :-)
 Cozi

My daily book section from Daily Lit.
 Daily Lit

I got multiple work status updates for my job with pleas to please type more and faster, but I'll spare you those.:-), also multiple travel advertisements and bunches of  notices of sales. 

 I also get some google alerts about homeschooling and gluten free living which provided some interesting links.
Penelope Trunk Homeschooling Frustration
Heart of the Matter, What I like best about homeschooling.
Gluten causes more than just stomach problems.

It's no wonder it takes me so long to get done with my workday.  It takes me a while to get my email!  :-)

Monday March 5.

Sometimes thinking of a title for a blog post is difficult.  Today I wimped out and went with the date.   We basically did nothing yesterday.  My husband had another attempt at fixing his car last night, which took my car away from me because he still hasn't gotten his car home.  It's about 15 miles away, parked at a hospital.  So we had to spend the entire day at home.  I did a bit of this and a bit of that, but mostly just goofed all all day.  I cooked dinner and made a loaf of gluten free Japanese Milk Bread which was pretty yummy and then kids and I worked a while on cleaning out my closet and took down a wire shelf in there, in anticipation of putting in a tall shelving unit that I will pick up if I ever get to leave the house again.  Just kidding.  Today, we've got 4H and I am going to ask my mom if I can borrow her car. 

This morning my youngest son is up and at it early for him.  He's sitting beside me now, watching the math lecture for his algebra lesson on Teaching Textbooks and yawning.  I said a few minutes ago that we might work on a project for the house this afternoon and he said "No, the kids need to concentrate on getting their schoolwork done" so maybe he learned a lesson last week from his procrastination?  I hope so.  That Friday night/early Saturday morning thing is no fun for anybody.

In weather today (since I've been blogging about weather all week) we were supposed to get snow today but we didn't.  It's sunny and cold.  I brought my tiny herb garden in last night.  

Maybe not. Who knows?

I got up this morning feeling okay.  Maybe yesterday was a fluke?  Maybe I ingested some gluten I don't know about?  That always makes me feel like I'm getting the flu --- not like I have the flu, but the early stages; headache, body aching all over, brain fog.  Sometimes I wonder how I managed, feeling like that for all those years.  Anyway, today I feel okay.  I don't know if I successfully managed to head it off with the Cold Eeze, I took yesterday or what, but I am not going to question it too much.  I'm just going to enjoy not feeling bad.  It is a beautiful day.  I hope the kids and I get a chance to get out and enjoy it today.

Our late valentine's party cupcakes.

Pictured at top is the picture my daughter took of our Valentine's cupcakes on Monday night.  At the bottom is the picture that I took (not realizing she'd already took a picture) on Tuesday morning.  Do you notice the difference?  Yes.  Someone stole one!  Thought we wouldn't notice, hmm?

January 26.

I love my day off and I had a lot of things planned for today.  Usually it's our clean the house day but the house is in relatively good order (for our house) , so I was thinking of doing some organizing or perhaps putting down the floor tiles I got black Friday (Yes, in November!).  I've been dreading that and putting it off because I really don't think I'll be very good at it and I tentatively set today as the day.  Unfortunately, I got up feeling quite bruised in well, as Junie B. Jones would say, my behiney and I don't feel good about the thought of sitting on the cold hard floor for hours.  I have no idea why this has happened.  My son said I sit too much and that is true, but I've been sitting and doing medical transcription now for many years and I've never actually had this issue before. It's odd.  So, today I have done things that don't require that amount of sitting.  I've taken out the garbage, cleaned up the kitchen, baked chocolate chip gluten free cookies and made my son a gluten free dairy free pizza while my daughter made herself and youngest son a gluten-y, cheese-y one.  My oldest son, bless his heart, said that the pizza was really good, although it just looks sad without cheese. Now I am uncomfortably sitting and blogging and ruminating about what else to try and accomplish today.  I may work on my version of this tablecloth which is halfway done and would involve lying on the floor and not sitting.  :-P

Sometimes,

I really just don't know what to blog about, but I'll tell you what I am up to this morning.  I am off work today and it's cleaning day and I've gotten started on that.  In between house work chores, I've checked Facebook, blogger and g-mail and took a tiny look at Pinterest.  I signed up for Youtube for educators in the hopes that I can find some good videos for the kids to watch on there.  I haven't explored it much because I'm just bouncing around between things today.  I don't really have much to say about homeschooling today because Thursday is their lightest day for school and they haven't started yet. 

I've read the first chapter of Wheat Belly.  I don't know why I get these books, it is just disheartening because  I have (2) friends and (5) family members whom I think would benefit from a gluten free diet and none of them will even consider it.  (I put the numbers in there because certain people who read my blog think that I think that everyone should go gluten free when really out of all the people I know, it's only 7, 2 with Crohn's disease, 1 with lupus, 1 with myasthenia gravis, 1 with rheumatoid arthritis and 1 with fibromyalgia) so :-P to those people.)   Wheat Belly is another book written by a doctor (I've read several) in which, when people took wheat out of their diet, they started feeling better in rather unexpected ways.  Their joints stopped hurting.  Rashes cleared up.  Brain fog and headaches went away.   Restless legs stopped being restless.  This all has happened to me too.  I feel so much better, but no one I have mentioned it to wants to even consider that it might help them or even try it for 1 week.  It's discouraging because I hate to see people suffer when I think they could feel better.  

Anyway.  Back to what I'm doing.  Right now I'm going to take a break from my up and about activities and sit for a few minutes, possibly watch a video and cut out the Boxtops for education for our homeschool group.  Through the year, I just tear them off of whatever package they are on and put them in a ziplock bag.  Then, this time of year when they are due, I cut them out more neatly, because I know that our homeschool group leader has to put them on some kind of form.  Last year we got 50 bucks for our group and I think it will be more this year because we've all been going to the salvage grocery store a lot.   (Chex gluten free cereal for 1.45 and a box top!)  

Friday night, again.

Vincent Van Gogh, Wheat Field Under Threatening Skies

It's Friday night at 8:23 p.m.  and no one's done with school.  They do have plans to finish up soon, so does that count?  I'm rolling my eyes here, though you can't see me.  I was hoping when I started working at home again that my get up and get it done early work ethic would wear off on the kids, but it most definitely has not.   I got my work done today, went to the library to get some books, and then to Walmart for a few minutes and then did the dreaded grocery shopping.  Wow, those prices just go up and up.  We were out of everything and that did not help.  The store brand peanut butter in the size I always get (although I kind of think it might be smaller now) has went, in the last 2 years, from 4.99 to 8.99.  It's crazy.  Right in the middle of the grocery shopping, it suddenly hit me that I was exhausted.  (The left side of my back started hurting and now I think I may have a kidney infection.  Oh.  Joy. )  It was, of course, not as bad as the before-I-went-gluten-free-constant exhaustion that I used to have, but still, it was kind of bad.  Pretty much nothing makes me feel as bad as eating wheat does.  

Food of Champions.

My daughter and I have set a goal this year.  We want to walk a couple of 5K walks and maybe, possibly do a half marathon.  I know she could do it.  She walked about 8 miles today, but me, that's a different matter.  I did work hard to get my Presidential Active Lifestyle Award last summer and then this fall I did barely enough walking to get a reward from my insurance company,  about 20 minutes a day.  Today I wanted to buy Cheetos (my addiction) and my daughter said "You can't eat Cheetos, you're in training"  Then my youngest son said "Mom needs some Wheaties.  Or maybe Wheat-Free Wheaties."  Hmmm.  I kind of doubt they make those.  :-)

Merry Christmas?

We are going to another Christmas party today.  My youngest son wanted to keep our tree up until now, but I just couldn't stand having the living room crowded up any longer, so we took it down last week.  It feels weird, going to a Christmas party today, but I don't mind eating and socializing, so that's okay.  It's a really pretty day.  The kids might even get to venture outside during the party.  We're taking the game we got for Christmas, Curses, so that should be fun.  I tried very hard to think of something I could cook that would fit the criteria that my husband said we'd bring, sandwiches and a salad or a dessert, that my son could eat, being gluten free and dairy free.  I decided to make peanut butter fudge for the dessert and take a ham I bought at the grocery the other day, a loaf of regular bread and have my son bring his own gluten free bread.  I'm also gluten free, but I don't each much bread, so I don't need to bring bread for me.  It's too expensive.   I'll just roll my ham up in a lettuce leaf.

Quiet.

It is very quiet around here as both of our boys are staying the night with friends.  My oldest son is gluten free and lactose free and so he packed a small cooler of food.  My friend offered to buy him whatever he needed, but I know that she doesn't normally shop in the grocery store in our town that stocks the most specialty foods and I also know that special foods are expensive.  He took some leftovers from our lunch, a carton of lactose free milk and a box of gluten free Chex.    This is the first official sleepover for my youngest.  They all 3 stayed with this same friend a few years ago when I had surgery, but that's the only time for him.  He was packed and ready to go by 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon, having finished all of his school-work.  He even had everything already in the car by that time.  Can you tell he was excited to go?

Wow.

Yesterday was intense.  I left home at 10:00 a.m. and didn't make it back home until 7:00 p.m.  I would have been home an hour earlier if it hadn't been for the rain and the fog and the accident it caused on the interstate.  We made it safely, though I was pretty tired.   We had a good day of fun and fellowship.  We shopped at Hobby Lobby and then Bath and Body works, Hallmark, Starbucks and then a salvage grocery store.  :-)  That was different but it was kind of fun.  I often go to one closer to home, which I like better.   The one I usually go to is run by the Amish and I often pick up gluten free cake mixes and flour blends.  This one had a few, but honestly, I didn't think I had room in my pantry for them, so I passed this time.

When I came home, the kids were mostly done with school and as a surprise to me, they had straightened up the Christmas stuff that had been in the living room and loaded the dishwasher.  That was really nice.  Oh, it was so, so good to be home.

Excessive sleepiness.

I think I may have accidentally ingested gluten yesterday because today I had a headache all day and then felt the need this afternoon to take a 3 hour nap. My son said that my daughter had dropped some pie crust crumbs from one of the other pies onto our gluten free sweet potato pie, but I did not heed his warning and ate some of it yesterday afternoon.  I should have listened, because it just about wiped me out today.  When I woke up, I still had work to do which I'm finishing up right now at 9:53 p.m. on a Saturday night (not fun) and I still had to go to the grocery.  Ideally, I should be baking the cake for tomorrow and the cornbread, but am I?  No.  As usual, I'm working.  :-(