Where Have I Been?

That title reminds me of the Dr. Seuss book, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Well, where have I been? That's a good question! I have been a bad mommy blogger and have all but totally neglected this little piece of my world for around two months now.

Just like a lot of other folks, one of my excuses for absenteeism is the busy-ness of the holidays. My other excuse? Stress.

During the month of December, Reiss had three seizures and a fourth episode that can only be described as what looked like a seizure trying to happen. I say "trying" because Reiss is on anti-seizure medication and the symptoms he displayed during that particular episode appeared the same as his symptoms at the beginning of any other seizure (look of extreme fatigue, unresponsiveness, but still conscious) but he did not progress any further to some of the more extreme symptoms such as his eyes being fixed to one side or convulsing. Instead, he got a little bit spacey, told me he wanted to lie down and then, he simply fell asleep...for nearly six hours straight! And that was right after he had gotten up for the morning and eaten breakfast.

That was not all. We also had the return of Reiss's persistently bloody nose. We think we have that one figured out though. We added a zinc supplement back into his regimen, which he had been lacking for a few weeks because we had run out and we were not sure how much of a difference it was making. Once that was added back in, the incidents of Reiss having a bloody nose on a daily basis disappeared immediately and he has not had one since then.

So that was our December. As if December, with its holidays and preparations and special events, does not already present itself with enough stresses and frustrations without the addition of daily bloody noses and the riddling of seizures here and there.

On a happier front, we did have our share of holiday good times...

Above is a photo of Reiss and Milla decorating Christmas cookies (GFCF, of course!) at the house of our good friends, Matt and Staci. Staci is a registered dietician and is very familiar with the restrictions of the diet we follow in our house. They invited us over for cookie decorating and Staci so generously accommodated our needs by making cookies Reiss and Milla can eat.


It would not have been Christmas had we not gone out on a few occasions to check out decorations in several different neighborhoods. I read about the decorations of the house above in an Indy Star newspaper article featuring the best light displays around town. Granted, it's not really very Christmas-y in nature, but living in Indianapolis and being Colts fans, it was indeed cool to see.


On December 21st, Reiss achieved quite an accomplishment for any five-year-old. One of his ABA therapists made him the award pictured above. It has been hanging on the wall since that day and Reiss has counted to 1000 many times since then as well.


This is the only photo we have of both children on Christmas day because, not long after this was taken, Reiss had a seizure. No, the poor little guy could not catch a break even on Christmas Day.


I think this photo (taken the day after Christmas at my dad's house) of Milla looking at me makes her look so sweet. Please don't look at my big, pointy nose or double chin.


Milla was quite the little helper with Reiss's gift. As a matter of fact, she was so helpful that day that she opened most of my gifts while at my dad's house and I had no idea of what I received until we got home and got everything unloaded and unpacked. I still have no clue who gave me which gift.

That just about covers our holiday season. Yes, I am quite late to the punch, I know.

January has been snow and appointments and school cancellations and exercising and weight loss and oh yeah, did I mention that I have lost nine pounds since the beginning of the year?

I do not mean to brag but I have remained extremely dedicated and focused on losing this weight...again. At least I did not let it get really out of hand before tightening the reigns again. In the past I have been - how shall I say this? More tolerant of my own weight gain before getting it back under control. I was fat. There, I said it. In the past, I have let myself get to what doctors categorize as being obese. Personally, the image of obesity that comes to mind for me is someone who is so morbidly overweight that s/he can barely walk. But for the record, "obese" in medical terms generally means a BMI of more than 30 and/or being more than 20% overweight. This time around, I met neither of those requirements, thank goodness.

Weight loss is not the only change that is coming in our household. We have another BIG change coming soon. BUT I cannot tell about it on here just yet. It is a secret. Stay tuned...

Masters of Disasters

Last Wednesday Reiss' class made gingerbread men. Because our family eats gluten and casein free, Reiss obviously cannot have the traditional gingerbread cookie dough, so I made a really great GFCF version of it and sent some of it to school with him. What was left of it was dealt with on Saturday evening.

A little bit of tapioca flour for dusting down the table and making sure the dough didn't stick when rolling.....

Reiss eating a bunch of icing. YUM! And we have one shirt off....

If it looks like fun, I can tell you it really was a good time. I don't think I remember the last time Reiss and Milla stayed occupied for so long with one activity. It was nice to be able to just sit and relax without having to entertain them or worry what they were getting into...who cares that they made a ginormous mess. They had fun and the mess was cleaned up in about ten minutes - a nice trade-off for about twenty minutes of breathing time for me.

And no, you are not imagining things. Yes, they were eating the gingerbread cookie dough raw and although I am not one to worry about salmonella in raw cookie dough, I definitely didn't need to worry about it with this dough because the recipe is free of gluten, casein, and is egg-free as well. You can find the recipe HERE. It is Lisa Lewis' recipe for Gingerbread People from her book, Special Diets for Special Kids.


Moving on to other messes....

Our new two-person, open-concept shower.....

The extra-wide, extra-deep spa tub and glass block window....

The granite countertop we had made for a miraculously inexpensive price by purchasing a remnant.

And finally, what happens when someone (not me!) adds "a little bit" of shower gel to a spa tub with the jets turned on......

I am still left wondering how much constitutes "a little bit."

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Giveaway!!!!

Okay, folks, this is my first giveaway and I am quite behind in doing it. A deal was made between BlogSpark and myself and while they held up their end of the bargain, I am embarassed to admit that - due to an inkling of ignorance on my part about which I won't go into detail - I have not kept up my end of the deal.....until tonight. Thank you to BlogSpark and Betty Crocker for providing me with this opportunity. At the same time, I offer my apologies to BlogSpark and to Betty Crocker....but enough of the formalities, let's get on with it.

BlogSpark provided me with a wonderful Betty Crocker gluten-free "Sweet Treats" prize pack and in exchange for it, I agreed to give reviews of the products and - the best part - hold a contest where the winner will receive one of the same prize packs I received. It's a win-win! My contest winner will get to read reviews of the products and then have the chance to try them for free. The rest of you, well, you just get to read the reviews - you will have to go buy the products if you want to try them. More details on the contest later though, so keep reading!

The prize pack I received and the contest winner will receive consists of the following:
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Devil’s Food Cake Mix
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownie Mix
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
Betty Crocker grocery tote
magnetic grocery list and pen to make shopping easier!
(For more details on the mixes, check them out Betty Crocker)

To date, we have tried all but the Devil's Food Cake Mix. With any luck, I will be making that one this weekend.

When we made the yellow cake mix, it mixed up, baked up, and looked just like a regular yellow cake mix from a box. Knowing what I know of some gluten-free products on the market though, I was skeptical as to how this cake would taste. Looks can be very deceiving....and sometimes in a very bad way.

Luckily, the Betty Crocker Yellow Cake Mix was awesome. If I didn't know it was gluten-free, I would not have guessed. It had a little different taste and texture than a regular mix but not different in a bad way - just that, different. It was probably one of the moistest (is that really a word?) cakes I've had from a box mix. Of the three mixes we have tested so far, this was our favorite one.

About a week or so after making the yellow cake mix, we tried the Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownie Mix. The mix yielded a small pan of brownies - I wanna say 9x9 is what we made ours in. The brownies themselves took longer to bake than the box directions indicated. However, to Betty's credit, my oven has been acting a bit nutty so I'm not certain whether the problem was with the time indicated on the box or if it was just my oven rebelling against me.

We baked (and baked and baked) the brownies and the results were a gooey-chewy center and crunchy-chewy edges. If you have people in your family, like we do, who have different texture preferences, this is a very good thing. Overall, I give this product a thumbs up. But having said that, at the price the grocery stores are charging for these gluten free mixes, I would really like to see the mix make a larger pan of brownies. Without a coupon or sale, you can expect to pay about twice the price of a regular mix and only get about 2/3 the amount of baked product.

Finally, I will forewarn anyone reading that I am not typically one who sugar-coats things and although I greatly appreciate BlogSpark and Betty Crocker providing these products to me at absolutely no charge, I do feel it would be a disservice to my readers and Betty Crocker if I talk up the Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix with a glowing review. Simply put, it would not be how we truly felt about this product.

The chocolate chip cookie mix was, for us, a flop. The mix yielded very thin, flat, flimsy cookies that practically fell apart with a touch of the hand. Now if that's something you prefer in a cookie and you are eating a gluten free diet, I wholeheartedly recommend this mix. Was it so bad that we threw the cookies out to the birds? Of course not! That would be wasteful and we were able to resolve the problem by stacking and squishing two cookies together and eating them in such a way that did not allow them to fall apart.....very much. The cookies themselves tasted pretty good but baking isn't just about taste. It's about eye appeal, texture, anticipation and so on.

Will I buy any of these mixes again?

I can certainly visualize buying the yellow cake mix (actually, I have already done so probably four times!) and the brownie mix again but I'll stick to my favorite "from scratch" recipe when it comes to gluten-free chocolate chip cookies.

Now, for the giveaway.....

Simply comment on this post and tell everyone why you would like to try these products....and preferably not just because they are free. No need to give your full medical history or any private details you prefer not to share but you get the point. If you'd like to share a favorite gluten-free recipe, even better.

Sunday, October 11th at 12PM (that's noon - NOT night-time!) Eastern Time will be the cutoff for comments to be considered as "entries" for this giveaway. All comments after that time will be just that, comments (but appreciated just as much!). At some point after that time on Sunday, I will draw and announce a winner. The winner will be required to provide his or her email address to me (if you don't already have it on your profile) so that I may provide it to BlogSpark. The winner will then be contacted by a representative at BlogSpark requesting a mailing address.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask by commenting to this post or by emailing me at the address listed on the bottom left of your screen when you float your mouse over "Email" on my profile page.

The contest begins now...............Good luck to all!!!!

Firetrucks and First Steps Family Fair

Today has so far been a pretty productive day. Milla is napping right now so I'm taking some time to relax.

As is always the case on Saturday mornings, James and Reiss made pancakes and sausage for breakfast. Plain with maple syrup and "white" (powdered sugar) on top for Reiss. Occasionally, he will eat a blueberry pancake too, but he really just likes to eat the blueberries before they are buried in batter. For Daddy, it's plain pancakes and blueberry pancakes with maple syrup. That is, unless Reiss insists James put white on his as well. Mine are chocolate chip and pecan and blueberry and pecan with maple syrup. Occasionally, I will slice a banana on top. Milla doesn't - or perhaps I should correct myself and say won't - eat pancakes.

After breakfast, Reiss and James went outside to mow the front and side lawns. James uses the real mower and Reiss uses his toy mower we got at KMart a few years ago. Today, the KMart mower decided to die. R.I.P., little toy lawn mower. So, another thing on the agenda for today: Go buy another mower. Normally, we don't just go buy our children things for the heck of it but the toy mower is one of the kids' favorite toys so with the old one breaking, we decided it needed to be replaced.

A little later, we attended a First Steps Family event. First Steps is Indiana's name for early intervention for infant and toddler developmental programs. It is called First Steps here and in a few other states. In other states, it is called something else but I can't recall exactly what right at the moment. It was not an "open" invitation event, but rather an event where only First Steps recipients and their families could attend. Milla gets speech therapy through the program so we received an invitation.

Children in attendance at the fair were allowed to pick out three books for free. So we came home with SIX brand new books for which we didn't spend a single penny! There was a girl "manning" the book tables - there were FOUR huge tables of books to choose from - and she was wearing a Target shirt and the bags that were given out for people to carry the books were Target bags. One could reasonably conclude that Target played a part in providing the books at no charge, so thank you, Target!!

There were was a firetruck and an ambulance there - outside, of course, not inside with all the other stuff. The firefighters brought safety dogs with them and put on little shows with the dogs demonstrating fire safety. In addition to the book tables, there was a free ID card station and table after table of informational literature on programs for children of all levels of special needs.

There were two reps there who gave me some very helpful information regarding the Medicaid waiver program for children with learning disabilities. And before anyone judges me at the mention of the word "Medicaid," this program is open to people of all income levels. Even if the child does not meet certain requirements for all benefits while under the age of 18 because of family income levels, they do qualify for it once they reach eighteen years. It's very confusing and too much detail and drama to try and explain in a blog post that is meant to be a light-hearted recounting of our Saturday.

They also had tables of water bottles, bags of chips, cookies, hotdogs, and lemonade - again, all for free! LOVE, love, love FREE! Eating the way we do, we couldn't have everything there though, so I grabbed a bottle of water, a few bags of chips, and two lemonades. We popped a squat and drank the lemonades and off we went to see the firetrucks outside before leaving.

One of Reiss's favorite things in the whole world is firetrucks. Just don't blow the horn or he will freak out. We always make sure any fire personnel we come in contact with when looking at firetrucks know this and politely ask them not to blow the horn. They are always happy to oblige because even they don't like being so close when those things go off. They will do it for children who ask but they say those children usually want them to do it over and over. Too much noise, if you ask me. Good thing Reiss has noise sensitivities!

We climbed all over the firetrucks, inside and out. Reiss got to listen to his heartbeat with a stethoscope in the ambulance. He ran his Hot Wheels truck he was carrying all up and down the stretcher. He and Milla both tried phoning in an emergency. Okay, not really, but they were very taken with the phone and cb speaker or whatever it's called. They played and jumped around inside both trucks with several other children but not once did any of the other children ask to hear the firetruck horn....thank goodness!

As we were leaving the church where the fair was, which just happened to be the same church where Reiss goes one day per week for Parent's Day Out, he and Milla sat down on the little childsize park bench. It was precious and once again, I was kicking myself for not carrying our camera with us at all times.

Next we went and got lunch from the usual Saturday place and brought it home for a picnic out on the deck. Reiss, Milla, and James ate their lunches. I ate nothing and finished off the bottle of water from the fair. Since yesterday morning, I have had rotating flu symptoms. First, it was a headache, then achy body pains and then it was a sore throat. Today, it has been achy body and sore throat and no appetite since breakfast. I'm just glad it's not so bad to prevent us from being able to enjoy the weekend.

After everyone was sufficiently done feeding their faces and throwing the "dirty" almond cookies (we tell Reiss they are dirty because they contain gluten and he cannot eat them) off the deck that are always given to us by the Asian restaurant owners, we headed for KMart. KMart did not have a toy lawnmower.

Next up, ToysRUs. They only had two types of toy mowers and no cheapy $5 ones like the one we were replacing. One of the mowers they had was a bubble mower. No, no, no. Big fat Mommy veto. No more "bubble" toys. We have a zillion of them and probably every single one is currently sitting in the garage covered in a thin layer of bubble "slime" - what I call the bubble solution when it dries after the toy is not cleaned after use. The only other choice was a popper mower of sorts. The balls in it are very small. It doesn't make anywhere near the amount of noise a traditional "popper" toy makes.

$25.99 (not including tax) later, we have a new toy mower. Yes, I balked at the price and no, I didn't want James to shell out that much money but I also didn't want to drive all over town looking for a new toy mower, at naptime, no less. New mower in hand and everyone strapped safely into the Mommy truck and home we came.

Milla fell asleep approximately fourteen seconds into the ride home and Reiss sang trying to wake her. We got home and Reiss played outside for quite some time, covering nearly every square inch of grass we own with Daddy in tow. They both came in and headed for a good place to nap and that brings us to now....Everyone is asleep but me! And I'm the one not so hot so I am getting off here and going to get some Z's while it's still quiet. Na-nite! (at 4:30 in the afternoon!)

Live and Learn, Right?

I know it sounds cliche but if we didn't live and learn, we would never grow. Today's lesson was something that should have been so simple that I probably should have known I was making a mistake before I even tried. An old pro at the game of GFCF living probably would have scoffed simply at the notion of what I did. Not me, I have to believe things will work the way I want them to work. Just call me stubborn.

The plan was to make chocolate chip cookies - the gluten-free and casein-free kind, of course. Like all good cooks do prior to measuring and mixing, I was getting all my ingredients out and arranged in order of use in the recipe. It was at this time that I discovered I was out of sweet rice flour, a common ingredient in GFCF baking and one called for in my favorite GFCF chocolate chip cookie recipe. I stewed over this for awhile knowing that all the snow falling outside would most likely prevent me from getting out after naptime was over. But then, I had a brilliant idea. And I use the word "brilliant" very loosely because, as you will see, the idea wasn't so brilliant after all.

It occured to me that the reason companies like Bob's Red Mill make gluten-free all-purpose flour mixtures is so that those of us eating this way can take the easy way out sometimes just like regular folks and not have to mix thirty-two different flours just to get a flour mix that will produce an end result somewhat resembling it's gluten-loaded counterpart. So my brilliant idea was to substitute a regular recipe for chocolate chip cookies (I was using the one on a bag of regular chocolate chips that are still hanging around here until I can "let go.") in for the GFCF version I normally use. I would then substitute Bob's Red Mill gluten free all purpose flour mixture instead of the flour called for in the recipe. The butter sticks would be replaced with vegan sticks and the chocolate chips with a bag of Enjoy Life chocolate chips. By the way, LOVE those! They are one of the few things I have found that I honestly cannot taste a difference between the regular version (with casein) and those.

Okay, so I've got my recipe ready, my ingredients all set out, measuring cups and spoons ready to go, and the oven preheating. So now I begin....

I put all the flour replacement mixture and dry ingredients together. Then I begin "creaming" the vegan butter replacement sticks, sugars, and gluten-free vanilla (which, by the way, costs $11.49 for 2 ounces! Someone PLEASE tell me there's a better way!). Everything is going fine until the mixture starts to come together....only it's not really coming together. It's mixed but it looks like, well, like when you've made an alfredo sauce and you've cooked it too long and it "broke." No problem, this is only the first step so I keep marching on.

Next, I add the eggs. Hey, now my mixture is looking a bit better and more like what I'm used to from making cookies the old way. With three steps, I add the dry ingredients mixture into the creamed butter, sugars, and eggs. This stuff is looking better all the time. By the time I get the flour mixture all blended in and the chocolate chips added, I have just enough time to get enough dough dropped on my pan to make the first batch and clean things up before the oven beeps.

Everything gets cleaned up, the oven beeps, the cookies go in the oven, and I'm loving this home stretch period. It's the time when you know in a few short minutes you will be stuffing your face with cookies. Seven minutes pass and I take a peek in the oven. Unfortunately, at the very same time my mouth was watering in anticipation of a chocolate chip cookie pigout session, I realized my brilliant idea wasn't brilliant at all. I opened the oven door to see the flattest, most pathetic looking chocolate chip cookies probably ever made. Just by looking I could tell they weren't done yet so I still wasn't losing hope. Two minutes later...I open the oven door again. Now the edges of the cookies had migrated so far from their original centerings that some of them had fused together to form cookie amoebae - but they looked ready to come out.

As I always do with cookies, I let them set on the pan for a good minute or two before trying to remove them with a spatula for transferring to a wire rack for cooling. No go, these cookies were still too soft. Another two minutes go by and I try again. Another no go. So here is where my next idea comes and this one was actually pretty good as it turns out. Okay, a little background first: I have this thing about baking cookies directly on a cookie sheet, as in, I don't do it. Yes, I'm a snob. Yes, I use parchment paper just about every time I bake any kind of cookie or pastry. So anyhoo, my idea is to remove the whole piece of paper with cookies intact and place it on the wire rack to cool. I do it successfully and then comes the question of how to cook the rest of the dough. Trashing almost an entire batch of cookie dough in any instance would be a travesty but trashing a batch of dough made with GFCF ingredients would be simply unconscionable considering the cost.

Without a piece of parchment paper to cover my cookie sheet, I am left with a perfectly clean pan to put back in the cabinet OR dump the entire batch of cookie dough on. So that's exactly what I do. I pop it in the oven, set the timer for fifteen minutes, go in the other room and plop out my breast for DD who still breastfeeds, and I wait.

BEEP! The timer goes off. I get the pan out and what sits before me is one of the best-looking pans of "(Not so)Tollhouse Pan Cookies" I've ever made. Being the eager taste-tester I am, I immediately cut off a square to find that they taste as good as they look. I think even a hardcore cookie snob would have been hard-pressed to to know these were GFCF had they not been forewarned.

Lesson learned: There's a good reason so many GFCF cookbooks have recipes calling for common GFCF ingredients to duplicate regular recipes, rather than people using GFCF mixes in non-GFCF-adapted recipes - the results just won't be the same. Were these cookies good? Yes. Would I make them like this again? Not in a million years. Will I use my favorite GFCF chocolate chip cookie recipe the next time? Yes. And if I happen to be setting my ingredients out to make them and find I am out of something, I will take that as my clue that I just wasn't meant to eat chocolate chip cookies that day.

By the way, the GFCF recipe I mentioned that is my favorite is called "The BEST GF Chocolate Chip Cookies" and is found in Special Diets for Special Kids by Lisa Lewis.