Everyday Delights

GF Yummies

Sorry for taking so long to get back into Blogging this past month!  Fall is my all time favorite season and I've already begun baking like crazy.  Last night I made vanilla sugar cookies and make soccer balls on them to kick off peewee soccer, and a batch of Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownies for the pure pleasure of it it.

Today on Facebook I saw a post from a friend of mine, Hillary, she posted on her blog the GF Pumpkin Cupcakes her and her husband made over the weekend.  As someone who is obsessed with anything pumpkin I am drooling and can't wait to make these next weekend!

GF Pumpkin Cupcakes

I'm *cough cough* sick...

So the other day I was feeling a little run down and just needed to relax for a bit.  But I trudged through work, then making dinner, then went for a walk with G.  You know the usual stuff.  Bath time, bed time.  Then after he was asleep I moped around the house a bit trying to get some sympathy from my husband for how lousy I was feeling.  Which wasn't really working, so I watched some Kendra & John & Kate Plus 8 the two shows I can't stop watching even though they are stupid. 

So yesterday I woke up and was feeling still a bit run down, not exactly sick I could have definitely functioned still and just went to sleep early but I wanted to try something out.  You can call it an experiment.

I faked being sick. 

That's right, I talked to my husband during the day and said I was still feeling yucky and asked if he would mind making dinner for the night, he grudgingly agreed.  When I got home dinner was ready to eat and I ate dinner then sat on the couch and read books to G while my husband kinda picked up after dinner.  Then when it was bedtime I have G a kiss and a hug and daddy went to put him to bed.  So I grabbed my book and went to read in bed.

It was awesome.

And just what I needed.  Today I woke up feeling fully refreshed and rejuvenated.  Ready to take on the world. When you take a day off from work and you're not sick they call it a Mental Health Day, what word would it be for us mom's to take the night off from our duties?  Mommy Recharge Day?  Mommy Strike Day?  Whatever it is, it worked. 

Menu Plan Monday

Hi Everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend, I went to the cutest cupcake birthday party for my 1 year old niece this past weekend.  I'll post some cute pics this week for you the check out!!

This week my husband turns 30 so I've got a few days off without cooking (woo!) and I'm also trying some new recipes which is always exciting!

I found some yummy GF bread this weekend also (finally and it doesn't taste like sawdust!!).  It cost me just under $10 (home made from the local healthy food store) but it was worth it since the $5-6 I spend at the grocery store just ends up in the trash because it's so disgusting.

Monday:  GF Chicken Enchiladas (Recipe featured on last Friday's The View)

Tuesday:  Steak, Rice, Beans (I accidentally typed Rick instead of Rice there, I work with a Rick and that would be just nasty if I had to eat him!)

Wednesday:  GF Chicken Mexican Tortilla Soup (also featured on last Friday's The View)

Thursday:  Out to dinner with my husband and family (I checked Margareta's website to see what I can eat that's GF, looks like I can have just grilled steak, chicken and a side salad...I should be able to have a baked potato too, we'll see)

Friday:  Pizza Night! (G really looks forward to this every week, it's my one splurge then we go out for ice cream at Coldstone Creamery...NEVER get the pineapple sherbert, YUCK!)

Saturday:  Cookout for husband's birthday, so hotdogs & hamburgers at least, I have some ideas for kabobs with steak & veggies but it depends on if I feel like really making an effort on the food or not, sometimes just having fun is better than stressing over the menu :)

Sunday:  Leftovers from the BBQ because I know I'll make WAY too much food as always.

Desperately Seeking Sleep

My son is great most of the time.  There are only 2 hurdles I haven't been able to finish still. 

One is the sippy cup.  I'll save this for later as I know I just have to trash all the cups and that's that.

The biggy is that my son won't sleep through the night unless he sleeps in my bed.  Usually I can get him to go to sleep in his bed but he always wakes up around midnight, 1am, 3am, 4am..not sure why he doesn't wake up at 2 am lol. 

Today I did some more searches on the web to see what other mom's are doing in this situation, some recommend the No Cry Sleep Solution book (which I have and kinda read), others aretalking about a sleeping pill called Melatonia.  I'm not sure if I could give my son a sleeping pill, I wouldn't get any sleep worrying that he's alright.  

But while I was searching for the book link above I noticed that there's a new book targeting sleep solutions for toddlers & preschoolers:

 

I'm totally ordering this book today, for now it's a better option than pills.  I keep hoping that one day he's just going to sleep and stay asleep through the night, but I also fear that if I don't aggressively try to remedy this he may not grow out of it.

Just a little history, we always co-slept when he was a baby and the transition to his own bed obviously hasn't been going well....for 2 years....

I don't understand why sleeping is so difficult.  When I was pregnant I was warned about the loss of sleep.  No one warned me that 3 years later I still had to work at getting him to sleep and stay asleep.

Anyone else having this problem?

Menu Plan Monday

Over the weekend I sorted out my cabinets with Gluten Free foods and food with Gluten and allocated space to each one.  I was surprised by by the 50/50 split I had even between my canned goods.  I thought more would've been GF but I had to restock GF versions of soups and chicken broth.

I did keep the Gluten items for my husband and son, my plan is to cook them meals that they can reheat and eat for lunch together.  Eventually I hope to have everything GF because other than the bread, all of the other substitutes have tasted fine or even better and I've stopped buying Gluten items (again other than the bread, GF breads I've tried so far taste like sawdust, I have to find a good one still).

So here's this weeks Menu Plan:

Monday:  Steak, Baked Potato, Salad

Tuesday:  Pork Chops, Risotto, Asparagus

Wednesday:  Taco Night

Thursday:  Spaghetti Night

Friday:  Pizza Night Out

Saturday:  Dinner Out at a GF Cafe

Sunday:  Shrimp Scampi with GF Spaghetti

What I'm Reading Now

This week I started reading Wizards First Rule, this is the first book in the Sword of Truth series that my husband has been incessantly bugging me to read before I buy or borrow any other books. 

Seeing as how he has almost read all the Twilight books I found that I had to finally read this book. 

And it's good.  Really good.  I've got about 200 more pages to go and I cannot stop reading it.  I've heard that a TV series was made based on these books this year as well, I'll have to check that out once I get through the 12 books eventually.  I don't even think my husband has read past the first 3 books, but I gotta tell you I love a good series. 

This book kinda reminds me of the Lord of the RIngs, if you like that then you'll really enjoy these books.

Beach Day

So this weekend we headed to the beach for some fun in the sun.  It was just me, G and my sister.

Here are my steps for the beach: 

1. Park Car (preferably not paralell  parking, which I tend to hit curb or other vehicles and ruin the day)

2. Find Spot on Beach (no rocks plenty of sand hopefully without too many people around)

3. Set up Pop-Up Sun Shade (easy)

4. Have Fun (easy)

5. Lunch (can get dirty)

6. Pack Up (includes washing all toys in the ocean first)

7. Un Pop the Pop-Up Sun Shade (challenge)

8. Load Car Up (almost done!)

9. Go Home (what a beautiful day)

So I drive up the strip to find a parking space (Step #1).  There are a lot in the beginning but it's way far away from where we'll be on the beach so I keep going.  Then it's bumper to bumper and no spaces empty at all and everyone is looking for that one spot to open up.  Then the car in front of me stops in the middle of the road and everyone gets out of the car and they are unloading their beach stuff.  What the heck is going on?  I honk the horn and they smile and wave at me...not the reaction I was hoping for, which would include them moving their car.  So I take the opportunity to do a U-Turn and head back for the far away but available spaces in the beginning.  As I complete my U-Turn I see that the space I was next to is not empty--the car that was stopped is gone and the car behind where I was is taking the space....WHAT?!  I was only not looking for maybe 10 seconds to turn!  Oh well, I am already in the opposite direction anyway so I keep going back to the beginning.  Finally I am there and panicking.  The spaces are almost filled up already and now I will have to parallel park if I can find a space.  Luckily I find a good enough space that I feel comfortable parallel parking in and amazingly I do not hit a curb or any other vehicle.

Next we unload the car:

2 bags full of lunch, towels, clothes, books, etc.

1 pop up hut

1 truck

1 box of sand toys

1 chair for G

2 blankets

1 backpack full of whatever my sister brought with her

1 3-year old

All loaded up we head to find our spot on the beach (Step #2).  Wow it's so far away.  A few hundred feet into our trek I realized I didn't feed the parking meter.  So I have to run back to the car and take care of that.  Then back we go.  And go.  And go.  I'm thinking it'll be easier coming back because we'll have eaten lunch and drank our water and juices so we won't have that weight anymore.  Finally we get onto the beach but it's still very wet and rocky since the tide isn't out enough, so we sit on some rocks for about a half an hour and slowly move our stuff up a foot at a time until we are finally clear of the rocks. 

Next is the pop up shelter, which is super easy, just open up the bag and POP it's up.  I love Step #3. 

I set up G's chair next to the hut but didn't bring anything me and my sister to sit on so even though the ground is still wet I lay out the blanket so we can sit down and start having fun (Step #4).

And we had lots of fun.  G loved running away from the waves, he even took a few mouth fulls of water as he fell a few times, but never cried once, just got back up and laughed.  Then we searched from some snails in the tide pools.  Then we went back to play in the sand and have lunch (Step #5).

Then it was time to leave so we started to pack up (Step #6) and clean the toys off.  Then it was time for the pop up to un-pop (Step #7).  This was bad.  So very very bad.  I wrestled for over half an hour with this stupid thing while beach-goers watched my futile attempts to harness this stupid thing back into the stupid little bag.  Covered in sand and mud I finally called it quits.  My sister offers to carry it to the car as-is.  Then I go to grab the blanket and go...but ohh no.  The blanket is SOAKED.  It weighs 100 lbs!!!  I was very temped to just leave it there especially after the stupid pop up escapade.  Again my sister had enough so she offers to carry it too.

We tredge back to the car which is so very very very far away.  I offer to my sister for her to wait for me to go get the car and come back for her but she's determined she can handle the heavy awkward load.  After a long time she finally can't do it anymore and G and I continue onwards toward the car.  Six cars later and we find my car finally.  My sister see this and catches up with us.

Now how the heck am I supposed to get this stupid pop up thing into the car?  I try once, twice more to un-pop it, but can't.  So I just shove it into the back seat with G.  I now have a car holding traffic up because she wants my space so I feel rushed trying to load up the car (Step #8) and make sure we didn't leave anything behind.  I'm finally ready to go so I wave and smile at the lady waiting in the car holding up traffic.  Phew!  But wait! I forgot to buckle G into his carseat....so I get out of the car again and mouth "sorry" to the lady in the car holding up traffic while I run around the car and buckle him in.  Then I wave and smile at her again while I hop back into the car and go home (Step #9).

What a beautiful day.

By the way, the stupid pop up thing is still not un-poped, it's in my back yard now.

Before my next beach trip I vow to purchase a rolling beach cart to carry all my crap, and I must practice and become master of the pop up shelter.

Menu Plan Monday

This is my 2nd week cooking Gluten Free foods for myself and consequently for my family for the most part too.  This is getting easier and easier and soon hopefully will require no thought at all!

Monday:  Getting my hair done so the guys are on their own, hopefully not hot dogs!

Tuesday:  Risotto with Chicken

Wednesday:  GF Caprese Lasagna(Check out my older post, I'm going to substitute the noodles & flour with GF alternatives)

Thursday: Taco Salads

Friday: Pizza Night (either making from scratch or going out, there's a pizza shop in our town that makes GF pizza)

Saturday:  Fish & Chips

Sunday:  Leftover Buffet

Skinned Knees

So the other day after dinner we decided to make a trip out to get some ice cream. 

Okay, it wasn't that easy.  First of all we're finishing up dinner and I hear a little tune coming down the road.  Uh oh the ice cream truck.  I quickly try to think if I have any cash in my purse...nope.  Damn. And sure enough G hears the truck's song louder and louder as it gets closer to our house.  And our neighbors almost always buy from him so he's in the habit now of actually STOPPING in front of our house to wait for the neighbors to come out and buy.  This is good and bad for me.  Good if I need an extra minute to put on shoes grab cash and run out there, but bad when I don't want to buy anything and on a day like this day when I am out of cash.

I might've had a dollar and change in my purse but I've noticed the going rate of Spiderman ice cream is like $3 at least.  So I try and ignore the truck sitting in front blaring his special happy tunes.  G is turned around in his chair now staring outside with a lip quivering.

One look at him and I am pudding.  So I promise we'll go get ice cream since I don't have any money ready for the ice cream man.

Five minutes later we're heading out to the car, G of course doesn't go right to his door, but decides to run around the car instead.  On his way around back to his side of the car down he goes.  My husband is outside the car and first to the scene, while I sit in the car and hold my breath.  How bad is it?  DId he just fall and catch himself?  Please don't let there be any blood.

This is the worst skinned knees he's had so far.  One knee is skinned completely about the size of a dollar coin,the other knee is scratched pretty good. Both arms are scraped too.  And there's blood.

It takes a minute, then the crying starts.

My husband puts him in the car anyways while I'm saying "what are you doing? Let's go in the house to take care of this".  But he's already on his way in to get my first aid box of supplies.  I have just enough time to tell him to bring me a wet cloth too.

Blood under control and first aid foam applied with even more wailing added to the already deafening screaming.  I'm wondering what the neighbors think is going on in our car...

Then it's time for band-aids.  I never knew band-aids were so awful before G.  I cringe whenever he needs one because he fights me on them.  Every. Time.

As I'm trying to band aid the bad knee at a minimum and G is batting my attempts away and screaming still, my husband says "just leave him alone".  Wrong time to tell me to leave my baby alone when he's hurt and needs care.  I give him a dirty look and mutter something under my breath directed at him.

Thirty minutes later I've got band-aids on both knees and we're off to get ice cream.

The plus side of the skinned knees is that when it was bedtime he didn't get out of bed at all,since he was acting like his legs were now broken. 

He even asked me to carry him to the bathroom and stuff.  I played along and babied him for the night, but the next morning when he asked for me to carry him to the bathroom again I said no way.  I stood him up on his feet and it was so funny.  It reminded me of the Case of Benjamin Button when the old/young guy stood for the first time without a wheel chair.  Kids, so dramatic!

What I'm Reading Now

The book I'm reading now was actually given to me by my mother.  This in itself is not so shocking as she buys books all the time from yard sales, a habit she picked up when my grandmother was here and loved reading books.  The last book I recall my mother reading was the Silence of the Lambs when it came out in 1988 or something like that.  This book she actually READ.  I couldn't believe it.  Since this book she's also read the Twilight series too which is even more surprising.  It's one thing to read a book but another to read a series.

So this book is called Flirting with Forty by Jane Porter.  It's a very cute quick read.  I'm about half way through it now and it's really hard to put the book down.  I have a few ideas on how the book may end but I'm happy to keep reading because I have no idea and hope to be pleasantly surprised with the ending.

Besides the few breaks I get at work that I'm not running errands I also find a few minutes to read every day after I put G to bed, I have a little book light and sometimes if he's being especially difficult going to sleep on his own I'll sit in his doorway and just read until he's asleep.  Also, sometimes I can get a few pages read sitting on the toilet (with the lid down, I'm not discussing bodily functions people) while G takes his bath, before he starts asking me to play with him or draw pictures with the bath crayons which I later have to scrub off the tub.

So I encourage you to take few minutes to yourself, maybe pour yourself a glass of wine, put our feet up and read a chapter or a page of book whenever you can after the kiddos are asleep!