Clogging Thoughts

Fiona and Eric had another clogging performance tonight. There have been a lot of them this month since it's the holidays. Many have been at nursing homes and I'm glad. I love seeing how much the residents enjoy watching the dancers. I love seeing my kids walk around afterward and greet them. It's good for them to be exposed to these elderly people and it's good for the residents to get to see the youngsters.
It also makes me miss my grandparents. I enjoy talking with these great men and women. I'm happy to share my kids with them. I know all of my grandparents would approve. ;)
That said, I'm worn out from so many this month. This week it was every other day. Whew! There's only one more and then we are done until Jan. Then I think we just have one that month. Then back to once a week practice until May. That will be nice. :)  I can't wait to see what new songs they will be learning. :)

My first try at wheat free bread

So I was looking for a gluten free bread to make Colleen. She loves bread and butter. :)  I didn't have the ingredients for the one I found, so I substituted. This is what I ended up with. Since it has oat flour, it isn't really "gluten free" but it is wheat free and that's what we need.

First Bread (Wheat Free)

    * 1 cup Oat Flour
    * 1-1/2 cups White Rice Flour
    * 1/2 cup Corn Starch
    * 3 tsp Xanthan Gum
    * 1 tsp Sea Salt
    * 2 Tb Sugar
    * 1 Tb Yeast, Active Dry
    * 2 Eggs, room temperature
    * 2 Tb Vegetable Oil
    * 1-3/4 cups Water, room temperature
    * 1 tsp. Vinegar, room temperature

Directions
In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in the warm water. Sprinkle yeast on top and let stand 5 minutes. In a medium bowl, combined the flours, starch, xanthan gum and salt; set aside.

Add the eggs, oil and vinegar to the yeast/water mixture. Blend ingredients until fully combined. Add the dry ingredients and blend for about 2 minutes. Using a spatula, spread dough into a greased bread pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm location for 30 minutes, or until dough rises to top of bread pan.

Place bread in preheated 375°F oven and bake 55 minutes.

It is great! Very yummy and I really wouldn't guess it was wheat free. The kids all love it too! Bonus!

Sometimes you have to man up...

and do what you have to as a parent.  For us, that means sucking it up and going wheat-free for Colleen. I've had to listen, with no way to help, as my little girl sat on the toilet and screamed and sobbed trying to go to the bathroom. Every time she eats, she gets a belly ache. Yes, it's hard to tell her no when she wants food she used to be able to have. Yes it's hard to go anywhere to eat and find something safe for her. But, we have to do this. She needs it.
So how do are we going about it? Well, some of it is easy since we were still doing it from the last time we tried to get rid of wheat. We still don't have any cereal with wheat in the house for instance. Also, she is used to the rye crackers. Other stuff with be harder. I still don't have a good idea of what to do when she wants a sunbutter sandwich. I don't want to buy gluten-free bread. (or make it. yet anyway) We have found a gluten-free chocolate cake mix that is fantastic. We also have a few different noodles that we like for different things. Some are rice noodles and some are corn based. For some stuff, like sloppy joes, we just eat it over rice. Some stuff, like tacos, don't have to change at all! :)
So, we start the wheat-free journey again. This time knowing that we simply have to stay on it.

Scottish Shortbread

I thought I'd share this recipe.  I'll probably share more later. :)

Scottish Shortbread
  
   Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
 --------  ------------  --------------------------------
    1      pound         butter (no substitutes) -- softened
    1      cup           packed brown sugar
    4      cups          all-purpose flour -- -4 1/2 cups
 
 In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar. Add 3-3/4 cups flour;
 mix well. Sprinkle a board with some of the remaining four. Knead for 5
 minutes, adding enough remaining flour to make a soft, non-sticky dough.
 Roll to 1/2″ thickness. Cut into 3"x1″ strips. Place 1″ apart on ungreased
 baking sheets. Prick with a fork. Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes or
 until cookies are lightly browned. Yield about 4 dozen


I usually only make half a recipe and that's plenty for the 6 of us.

December!

I can not believe it's December already! William ill be 4 months old tomorrow. He's laughing more, rolling over from his belly to his back, reaching for things and will look for what made a sound now. When ever Daddy is talking, William looks for him and tries to catch his eye to smile at him. :)
Fiona and Eric have a lot of clogging performances to go to this month. We are going to be very busy. So busy infact, that I'm not sure when we are going to celebrate Colleen's birthday. We'll have to fit it in somewhere.
They had to miss their one and only practice this months. Everybody got sick. Even William. :(  It's not horrible, but not great. Sore throats, cough, runny nose and drainage. Yuck. It's made it hard for everyone to sleep. I'm ready for us all to be healthy again.
In other news, we ran out of dog food and decided to go raw for them. They are loving their daily chicken leg quarters. :)

Small bits to share

Last night Eric came running to tell us that his tooth fell out! He was surprised that it just fell right out. LOL So we gave him his $2 bill and he happily went back to bed. :) Colleen is now trying to figure out how to earn $2 bill when she isn't losing teeth yet. LOL
William has started to suck on his first two fingers. I find it funny that all four of our kids have been different. Fiona sucked her thumb. Eric had a paci, Colleen wouldn't take either. Now William started on a paci and is moving on to his fingers. LOL

William Laughed!

Yesterday Fiona got William to giggle a couple of times. We were both so excited!  She was talking to him as he was squealing and then he giggled. :)  We can't wait to hear more giggles from him.

I love our library

So today Fiona had a dentist appointment. It went great. :)  Everyone behaved well and William took a nice nap.  The ladies there commented a couple of times on how well behaved all of the kids are and even let Colleen and Eric get something out of the reward drawer even though they didn't have an appointment today. Afterward we went to the library.
I knew I needed to pay fines and also planned on buying a book since we can't seem to find it so we can return it. I owed $5.85 (not bad!) So I got out my debit card and she told me, "We only take cash and checks. We can't take debit cards."  What?!? Who doesn't take debit cards? :P  So I dig out what cash I have in my wallet and go find what I can in the van. (we don't carry cash on us usually)  I came up with $4.45 (crap!) So now I'm standing there with my kids who are all excited about getting their books (Fiona had 11 books ready to check out!) and I'm dreading telling them that they can't get them after all. :(  Then the lady starts walking around, looking in drawers and in the back. Turns out she was rounding up money. The library covered the rest of my fines!  I was (still am actually) in shock. I was almost in tears over the kindness.
I love our library. :)

About the fish...

at the bottom of the screen...  They are just something fun to add to the blog.  They will follow your cursor and if you click you can feed them. :)  Fun!

Fun on the swing set

So, Fiona and Eric were outside playing and I thought maybe I should check on them. I peek out and see this.

 

In case you can't tell, they have flipped that swing over and are riding it upside down. I let them carry on for awhile and then told them to flip it back. I'm not so sure that the manufacturers had that in mind when they made it. LOL I'd hate for the swing to break on them.