New Blog For Gluten Free living

Check out my new blog if it's of any interest to you:

http://celiacmommy.blogspot.com

It's still a little in the workings and there is ALOT more to put on there. But it is a start, so if it is helpful to you please check back often and I hope it is a blessing to you.

Who Says Parents Don't Take As Many Photos After Their First Kid?

Me and Madelynn

The Hefty 10 pounder (it's all in those chins)

Weighed In

The kids and I went to the Doctor's yesterday. Madelynn weighs about 10 lbs! She is 7 weeks old tomorrow (Friday) and is doing great. She eats every three hours and is getting chubbier. Her sweet head smells so good and she is practicing her smile. Madelynn goes to bed (on average) at about 9pm, eats at about 2am and then sleeps until 6 or 6:30am. Bliss. I like easy babies.

Joshua has VBS (Vacation Bible School) this week. It's everyday (five days) but to maintain emotional stability within our family Joshua goes Mon, Wed, and Fri and then there is a carnival Friday night. So far Josh has learned about loving God (Josh loves God by hugging Madelynn, throwing the diaper away, wiping the spit up and giving Madelynn her nuk) and trusting God. The challenge (the homework) for trusting God is to draw a picture on how Joshua trusts God. We will probably do that today.

Rachel, well, Rachel is a two year old. She is growing like crazy thanks to the gluten free diet. Her vocab is growing everyday and is learning her social graces, slowly.

Joel has lots of work this summer. So much actually, that it is getting difficult to get time off of work. Joel is also busy planning two missions trips for our church. One is a weekend trip to insulate an attic in another Baptist church about two hours away. This will help immensely with their heating costs. The second mission trip is to minister to children at a summer Hispanic Family camp. It's exciting to see our church go beyond our comfort zone to reach out to others- those going on the mission trips and those staying home tending to their children. (yes I'll be staying home while Joel leads these trips. Pray for all of us as we serve others, here at home and far away)

Sorghum Bread Recipe

This is one of our favorite bread recipes, gluten free of course!

Sorghum Bread (by Bette Hagman- “Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread” Cookbook)

Dry Ingredients:

1 ½ Cup Sorghum Flour

Take a 3/4 Cup and fill it with 3 Tb of Quinoa Flour, fill the rest of the cup with Tapioca Flour

¾ Cup Cornstarch

1/4 Cup Ground Flax Seed

1 Tb Xanthan or Guar Gum

½ Cup Dry Milk Powder or nondairy Substitute

¾ tsp Salt

2 ½ tsp Unflavored gelatin

1 Tb Egg Replacer

2 Tb Sugar

Liquid Ingredients:

2 eggs

3 ¾ Tb butter or margarine

¾ tsp Dough enhancer or vinegar

1 Cup + 2-4 Tb Water (more or less)

2 1/2 tsp yeast

If using an oven: Grease your chosen pan(s) and dust with rice flour.

The water temp will be different for hand mixing and for bread machines. For hand mixing have it about 110 F; for your bread machine, read the directions in the manual.

For both hand mixing and machine mixing, combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In another bowl or the bowl of your heavy duty mixer, whisk the eggs slightly, and add the dough enhancer, butter (cut in chunks), and most of the water. The remaining water should be added as needed after the bread has started mixing, either in the mixer or in the pan of your bread machine.

For Hand mixing: Turn the mixer to low and add the dry ingredients (including the yeast) a little at a time. Check to be sure the dough is the right consistency (like cake batter). Add more of the reserved water as necessary. Turn the mixer to high and beat for 3 ½ minutes. Spoon into the prepared pan(s), cover, and let rise in a warm place about 35-45 minutes for rapid-rising yeast, 60 or more for regular yeast or until the dough reaches the top of the pan. Bake in a preheated 400 F oven for 50-60 minutes, covering after 10 minutes with aluminum foil.

For Bread machine: Place the ingredients in the bread machine in the order suggested in the machine manual. Use the setting for 1 ½ lb loaf, medium crust.

The Prodigal God

Joel has read The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller, and is reading it again with a group of other guys. I have just finished the third chapter.

Here's a short review:

"Keller uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable. Within that parable Jesus reveals God's prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic. This book will challenge both the devout and skeptics to see Christianity in a whole new way."

It is very good and I recommend reading it. It's easy to read, but full of depth and conviction.

First Milestone

Madelynn smiled! Sunday morning July 19th. Just thought I would share that with all you faithful bloggers!!

Meet Me At The Fishing Hole

How To Keep Your Kids From Fighting With Each Other

Swaddle them!

Bath for Madelynn

When Madelynn is awake, she is almost always WIDE eyed (still blue) as you can see in the pictures. Today she is six weeks old, waking up once in the night, and so close to smiling. She is gaining weight and is adored by her siblings.

Marbles and Communication

Rachel is saying new words everyday now. It's hard to keep track of them all. It used be only one new word a week. I wasn't getting too concerned, knowing she was a little behind on her communication because of the undiagnosed Celiac Disease. Since the diagnosis seven months ago she has improved dramatically in her physical development. The social and communication development, I believe, is just now starting to improve more noticeably. Her new words are listed off to the side of this blog underneath her picture.

Joshua is doing great. We're thinking of enrolling him into preschool (the one up at the elementary school) this fall. We think he'll do better with the transition to Kindergarten if he is familiar with the school, the hallways, the staff, and getting up early in the morning.
He is proving to have a more mathematical, practical mind. He is still into puzzles, sitting patiently and figuring it out. (Though not all the time, there are moments of frustration) Recently, I bought a marble thing at a garage sale. You know, where you put all the pieces together and then put a marble at the top and the marble goes through all the pieces, mesmerizing you, and then breaks the spell with a plop at the bottom. Anyway, Joshua really enjoys it and blows me away at how good he is at it, making different routes for the marbles and having them land in different places at the bottom. Kind of incredible. Especially when I can't even figure out how to do what he does.

Family Man

The Five S's

The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp, M.D. (given to me by my friend Jaeme) has a few good tips in it on how to calm a fussy baby. I really don't agree with his theories but he does have a few good ideas on how to calm your baby down.

My favorite is called the Five S's. They really work, and I really don't know what I would've done sometimes without them. Here they are in the recommended order of action:

1. Swaddling: It helps your baby feel secure and like he's back in the womb again. Some babies resist swaddling, but that doesn't mean they don't want to be swaddled. (Babies cannot control their flailing arms)

2. Side/Stomach: This will eliminate that feeling of falling which causes panic in a baby.

3. Shhhing: The soothing sound. A loud, harsh shushing sound will recreate the sound of the blood rushing through the mother's veins and will be familiar to the baby. The louder the baby is crying the louder the shush needs to be, as the baby quiets, so the shushing should be quieter. This has worked miracles with our babies.

4. Swinging: Rythmic, monotonous, jiggly, swinging movements are what the baby is used to, having just come from the womb.

5. Sucking: After you have done the above four steps, the final step is to use something, like a pacifier or a finger, to encourage sucking. This creates relaxation within the baby's nervous system.

Fourth Of July

Boston (Joshua's Friend) going down the slide:




Rachel going down the slide:

Summer, Mmmm

Summer has come to the North Shore. July is usually hot and dry. Well, hot for living by a lake. It got up to 80 yesterday. That's hot. We're outside a lot now. Going to the park at the elementary school is one of our favorites right now. There's a great playground next to a good sized basketball court, perfect for riding tricycles. Because, you know, Joshua has a tricycle now. (Thanks Dawn!)

Summer brings all sorts of stuff that winter cannot offer. So I try and enjoy it to the fullest. (Twice now, Joel has commented to me "Winter is coming. Winter is always coming"...)





This past weekend there was a birthday party for Joshua's friend Boston. It was in the evening and I, as usual, was rushing around trying to get everything in order so we could get to this party. Finally most everything was in the van. I told Rachel to pick out a diaper as I hurried around. Two year olds are slow, so I reminded her again. Finally I put the diaper on her and we hurried out the door.

Fast Forward two hours.

We're getting ready to go home. I, as usual, am trying to get everything together in one spot so we don't forget anything. Finally most everything is in the van. Joel comes holding Rachel.

"She's wet." he says.

Confused, I wait for him to confirm this statement. Yes, indeed. She is very wet. Oh well, all part of parenting. I take her diaper off as Joel changes Rachel's dress.

Hmm. This diaper seems different... I look at it closer. I see a number "1" on the front. My jaw drops and I start laughing.

"It's a size 1 Joel! Rachel was wearing one of Madelynn's diapers!"

More Pictures: Our nephews

The Happy Family
(L to R: Kaleb, Shane holding Lucas, JoAnne holding Caius)

With Big Brother: L to R: Lucas, Kaleb, and Caius

The adorable, long awaited twins!: Lucas (on left) and Caius

Pictures of Caius and Lucas

The proud grandparents, Nana and Grampa!

Give a Big Welcome to...

The twins have arrived!!

Meet...

Caius Shane

and

Lucas Stephen

From an email that Nana sent:

JoAnne had two healthy boys early evening today, July 7. She had them naturally - no C Section!! Caius Shane (the 'ai' has a long 'i' sound)was born at 5:56 PM weighing in at 6 lbs 13 oz. Lucas Stephen came along at 6:12 PM weighing 5 lbs 15 oz. You can do the math to see how much baby weight JoAnne was carrying. She was at 38 weeks today, which we all think was totally amazing. She was VERY large. She had to be induced today, but thankfully the babies were pretty close to being ready to be born. The labor was not difficult. JoAnne only pushed for 20 minutes to birth both of them 18 minutes apart. She and Shane are very thankful. At this time I only know Lucas's length, which was 19.4". He was feeding when we got there and then he was measured. Caius was feeding when we left, and hadn't been measured yet.

It is looking like JoAnne and the boys will be able to come home Friday morning if all goes well. They are not certain at this point if they are identical. They do not look like Kaleb. They have fair skin and light peach fuzz hair. We will go up to the hospital and spend the morning there. Kaleb is stll rather clueless. For those of you who don't know, he is 21 months old. He was more interested in the crackers on Mommies tray and the lights on the ceiling. He did find a bit of mommies tummy through the covers to poke .

Pray for Mango and Guava

Today is the day JoAnne (Joel's Sister) and Shane are to have their twins. Their appt is at 8:30 Mountain Time (9:30 CST) Please pray for them.

Here is a family photo with their 20 mo old son, Kaleb.

Four Weeks

Madelynn is four weeks old today! She is in size 1 diapers now (a step up from the newborn size). She wears cloth during the day. She is losing the "newborn" look and becoming chubbier. I wish I had a weight for you, but I don't. I'm guessing over 9 lbs.

During her second week Madelynn spit up through her nose. Three times. One of those times was because of a sneeze. Yes I laughed. Even though I had to change my shirt afterwards.

Joshua and Rachel are going to try something new today. They put the pool at the bottom of the slide and we are waiting for the water to warm up. Guess what they are going to do after their nap today? Yahoo-ey!

The Ferris Wheel of Motherhood.

In a moment like this my anger becomes a mist and all I can see is the bright light in your eyes. You're telling me something. Something special to you. I try to listen to make it special to me. I am told these years go by quickly, yet everyday is long.

In a moment like this my frustration is no longer tangible. Your laughter, so full of love and light, shames my worry and I become silent. I am told to enjoy my children, yet I feel as though I am always angry.

In a moment like this I don't feel quite so tired anymore. Your eyes stare into mine, eyes full of trust and need. The smell of your head calms my heart and I relax.

I hold you, you look at me. I smile yet my eyes wander to the outside. I see people, rushing, cars, in a hurry. The world is going, leaving, never staying. Am I missing something? I sit here, staying. Will I resent you?

Just last night I yelled at God about Him making me a mother. It's so hard, God. I hate it. Everyday is the same. Every night I am tired.

Yet in a moment like this I hardly remember, hardly remember when the wheel was so low. You are telling me something special again. The wheel is lifting. Will I get to the top? You laugh and tell me you love me. I feel wretched for yelling at you, but the guilt subsides as you grab my hand and say “up please.”

Your arms around my neck, my face in your shoulder, I feel grateful. Grateful to God for making me a Mother. Right now anyway.

-An Anonymous Mother