Disclaimer:

The writer of this blog is not responsible for any food cravings or fatness caused by preparing the yummy recipes she has listed here.  :-P

Seriously, do make those pancakes, they are wonderful. 

I had a great mom's night out tonight.  We went out to eat, went to the salvage grocery store and then to Micheal's crafts for the yarn sale they were having.  Fun! 

In a cooking mood.

I think when I am in a cooking mood, it may be a sign of my good mental health, since after my Dad passed away, I couldn't face cooking for months.   I've really been enjoying it lately though.   I've been looking up and finding some really good recipes on line.  Here are some yummy ones.  I have adapted all of them to gluten free, if they aren't already.

Rice Noodle no-boil lasagna.
This one is already brilliantly gluten free.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Pancakes. 
I just used a gluten free pancake mix.

Scalloped potatoes
I used 1 can of Progresso cream of mushroom soup since it is gluten free.

It seems like when you first go gluten free, all you can find is gluten free bread recipes, but you need other things too, right?

Anyway, I missed getting to video chat with my son again today (schedule conflicts) but I am still doing okay, enjoying the cooler weather and cooking up a storm. 

I do need some hot chocolate though.

Or hot cider.

Hmmm.

Still here.

I'm still here.  Life is marching on.  The science experiments are ongoing in the kitchen.  The weather is beautiful.  My son in Mississippi was supposed to chat with us tonight but he was AWOL.  My mom is okay.  Her sister is having a lot of problems with her rheumatoid arthritis and so mom and I went out to visit her today.  Usually she comes to see mom and I see her there.  I volunteered in the children's hospital last night.  I've realized that it makes me happy, being able to comfort those little ones.   Just thinking about them today would make me smile.  I wish I could do it more often, or have it as a paid job.  I really don't want to go to nursing school though.  :-)  We played a couple of hours of rock band tonight and my voice is tired, so we are going to watch Monk instead of doing our read-aloud, the second book of the brotherband chronicles. 

And that's the summary for today. 

I hope you all are having a good evening! 

The homeschool practice of strewing.

I used to do this all the time.  I'd go to the library, pick up a bunch of interesting books that I wanted the kids to look at, whatever subjects we were studying at that time, and put them on the couch and not make the kids read them.  Of course, they would be drawn to the new books and would read them almost every time.  Today I wasn't even trying to do it, I went to the library and while I was there, I thought I'd pick up a chemistry book that was recommended by our curriculum. When I was in the chemistry section, I saw a book on kitchen science experiments and I thought they might be good for 4H this month, so I picked it up.  I brought the books home and put them on my bed and forgot about them.  But now, a couple of hours later, my youngest son has about 6 science experiments going on in the kitchen. He's been asking me all night for things like epsom salts, borax, balloons, tall containers with lids, etc.  I hope nothing explodes in there.  :-)

Friday stuff.

Yesterday, we had what we like to call a big day.  We had a homeschool gym day which was really nice and then my daughter and I went to a dinner playhouse, well, for dinner and a play.  Our church was going and the driver could get a free ticket, so I filled up my Suburban with people and we went.  I think it will probably be a once in a lifetime thing for us, because it's expensive and time consuming.  We left at 4:45 and didn't get home until 11:00 p.m. and it involved a lot of sitting.  We saw a play called The Church Basement Ladies 2 and it was cute and extremely well done, but well, it's just not us, I don't think.   I dunno.  We have an invite to go to a movie tonight, but I think we might just stay home.  After that day, I need some home time. 

Thursday.

As usual, I've got a bunch of stuff to do today and as usual, I don't wanna do most of it.  I am doing a bit.  I've washed dishes, got rid of Monday's lentil stew disaster (threw it out to the woodland creatures, maybe they won't mind that it doesn't have any flavor.  At all.)  and cleaned out my purse.  That's the sum total of what I've gotten done so far today.  It's sad, really.  I've sat down here to eat my lunch and after lunch, I am going to do some cleaning.  I promise.  I don't promise how much, but I am going to do some.  Then later, we've got skate night and we've got to go vacuum out the car, pick up prescriptions and get dog food.   Exciting stuff, I tell you but it's one of those days when I'm appreciating the everyday.

Last night we got to do a video chat with the oldest in Mississippi.  We didn't have a very good connection because our internet is too slow, and it kept signing us out but we had fun anyway.  This was the first time his siblings have gotten to talk to him at all since they refuse to use the phone.  This way, with the cameras, if nothing else, they could just make faces at him and hold the dogs up for him to say hi to.  It's the little things, right?

Latest baby gift.   It's a seal.

 An occupational hazard I have from many years of medical transcription is that I almost always try to type lung instead of lunch.  Imagine if I hadn't noticed and had blogged "I've sat down here to eat my lung".  :-)  Also, I almost always try to type bowel for bowl, so I have to really watch it when I'm typing recipes.  :-P.

Book stuff.

.Parental Book Reviews  This doesn't seem to have all of the book reviews we need, but it has quite a few and I find the reviews helpful. The volume of books that we go through around here can be crazy at times.  My youngest has lost 2 Hank The Cowdog audio books and they are valued at the library at 19.99 each, so 40.00 worth of books he's lost.  I just paid to replace a book a couple of months ago, but I don't want to buy these two.  Consequently, I took pretty much all of the books that we had checked out back to the library today and today he's trying to cope without his usual huge selection of audio books.  He's listening to some audiobook that we had previously purchased or downloaded from the library, I'm not sure what it is, but I know we don't actually have very many and he can go through 5 or 6 audio books a week, so I'm not sure what he's going to do.  I looked into getting him an audible subscription but the most books you can get there is 2 per month.  Silly people.  Do they think that is enough books?  Apparently they do.  We are better off sticking with the library downloads (although they don't have as wide a selection as he'd like) and free audiobook downloads like Books Should Be Free.  Hey, maybe he'll expand his classical books exposure with this library ban.  Or maybe he'll get desperate and FIND THOSE BOOKS. 

Sigh.

Tired Tuesday.

I started out tired today.  I am trying something new on Monday nights, which is volunteering at a hospital NICU.  I went and held and soothed babies for a few hours last night.  It was underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time.  Most of the babies were quiet, so I spent a lot of time looking for something to do, but when one of them needed me, it was nice to be there.  I got to hold one little guy for quite a while.  The lady who gave us the tour said that some of the parents go back to work while their babies are in the NICU with plans to take their time off when the baby finally gets to come home and the nurses are stretched a little thin, so sometimes they need people to do non-medical things like holding, soothing and fetching things.  I did a little bit of each.  The worst part, but I know it is necessary, is the constant, constant, constant hand washing.  My hands got tired of it, but I won't neglect doing it.  As to why I am doing this?  I don't know.  I guess I'm searching for some meaning and purpose since my kids are getting so big and really don't need me as much.   I don't know if I'll continue it, but it might be therapeutic for me to give to others (it usually is) so I'm going to try it for a while and see how it goes.  I might need to switch to Thursdays because doing it after work was pretty tiring.  I think everyone should do some volunteering at least once in their lives.  Here's a book to make finding a position easier.  Make a Difference