Sing and Make Music

Praise the Lord!

How good it is to sing praises to our God;

for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.

He heals the brokenhearted, 

and binds up their wounds.

Joshua trying out Daddy's electric guitar

Ever since Emily died, Joshua has complained of stomach aches. Until last fall. 

The summer of 2012 the Lord did miraculous healing in my own grief and thus in the grief journeys of my children. Ever since then, Joshua has not complained of stomach pain.

Josh has been ITP free for over one year now.

Joshua's blood sugar levels are steadily (and very slowly) improving. (We are giving him Prickly Pear Extract- a natural source of insulin).

Madelynn with Davidic harp (lyre)

Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; 

make melody to our God on the lyre.

Rachel with harp

Rachel continues to eat gluten, with no side effects. Does she still have Celiac? We don't know, but we do know that she is happy, content, learning, growing and exploring. She is showing no signs of disease.

Hudson tooting on the recorder

Let Israel be glad in its Maker;

let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.

Praise him with trumpet sound;

praise him with strings and pipe!

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!

(Psalms 147, 149 & 150)

Uppy-datey

I haven't given an update on the kids in awhile. I know some of you enjoy that, and I enjoy remembering what new things they are up to. So I'll begin...

Dressed for summer.

Hudson with a green bean up his nose.
Don't worry, it's organic.

I'll start with Hudson (2 yrs), or our little "pie" as Rachel calls him. She has all sorts of pet names for him. He and Madelynn weigh the same, their heads are the same size, but he is still shorter than her. He enjoys tackling his siblings by running and then pushing them over with his arms wrapped around their waist. It is quite funny to watch as he barrels them over. He's a sturdy kid, for our family anyway. He's laid back, mostly happy, even when he wears his serious face. Hudson is also our parrot. He will mimic whatever you say, usually the last one-two words of your sentence. Which makes communication difficult, but he is getting better. He calls Mommy "cute" and proclaims Mommy is also "cutest". Hudson admits that Josh, Rachel, Meh-meh and Daddy are also "cute". He loves the Piano Guys and plays the "cello" rocking out in the middle of the living room floor. It's just the toy ukulele we have and it's usually upside down. This morning the first thing Hudson said to me was, "Cello Wars!" Hmm-mm. Yes, I think we have a little groupie.

Meh-meh (as Hudson calls her) with some
of her stuffed animals stuffed in her
nightgown.

Madelynn (3.5 yrs) is our little blue-eyed joy. Full of smiles, hugs, cuddles, jumps and wiggles. She is learning a mile a minute along side her older brother and sister. She hates baths (yes, still), shares a double bed with her sister, loves being read to, and loves pancakes. Right now she is in the transition from taking one nap a day to taking zero naps a day. Sometimes it's a hard balance to figure out what she needs. She can rattle off numbers 1-10 in Thai faster than in English. She also is working on her emotional stability and the ability to use her words rather than her emotions. That said, she is like my (Renee) little shadow if she's not running around with Hudson. Unless of course, Nina (Renee's mom) is in the house, then it's Nina's turn to have a shadow!

Stuffed animals and dolls dressed in doll clothes.
These doll clothes my mom made for
my Patty Pumpkin doll when I was a child.
Now they have been given to R and M
and R has had a great time dressing up her "friends".

Rachel (6 yrs) is our growing artist. She loves to draw, decorate, organize, create and tape. Did I say tape? We go through alot of tape. She enjoys keeping a piece of tape on her chin, just in case. Rachel loves to give gifts (another reason for the use of tape) and often gives Joel and/or I something new. She is full of love and hugs and notes full of hearts and stars. She is also learning to read. Rachel is a wonderful big sister to Madelynn, taking care of her when Mommy can't and taking her by the hand in "shy" situations. Madelynn soaks it in and loves being cared for, most of the time.
Rachel is also, no longer gluten free. 

Rachel lifting Hudson up

Yes, you read that correctly. For the last month and a half or more, Rachel has been eating like the rest of the family: wheat toast, cross-contaminated oats, whole wheat noodles, Red River cereal, etc. We haven't gotten her tested again for Celiac Disease, but she is experiencing no symptoms of this disease any longer.
Four years ago Rachel was diagnosed with Celiac and put on a strict gluten free diet. A year ago I came across this article and decided to give it a try after praying about it. What they said in the article made sense and it was how we wanted to eat anyway-more healthy, more whole grains, less processed foods.
Well, all I can say is, I am amazed. It was frightening at first letting Rachel eat a whole slice of wheat bread. But after awhile, I got used to it. And after seeing no ill side effects, it seems natural now for Rachel to eat like us. She loves it by the way. Rachel had her first cinnamon bun and loved unrolling it as she ate it. She also had her first malted milk ball.
Maybe someday down the road we'll get her tested, but right now we are just rejoicing in God's goodness and mercy to us.

Joshua (8 yrs) has really been into building and creating and then taking pictures of what he has created. Whether it's Legos, blocks from wood kindling, Duplos, train and road systems, he enjoys building. (At the moment of this typing he is with his grandpa playing with an old Erector Set) His favorite right now is to create a city and of course add the cars and trucks to his building creations. Here are a few of the photos Joshua took himself:

A recent highlight for Josh was when a long time buddy and his family came to visit. Oliver and Josh have been good pals for their whole lives. This last time they had fun making a way cool robot out of Legos:

Joshua and Oliver with a Robot

After seeing the Piano Guys play music that he likes to listen to, Joshua has expressed interest in learning to play the cello! We were happy to hear that, but in our family, learning piano comes first as it's such a foundational learning instrument. So now Josh is learning piano, and so far, he is motivated to play.

And I will end with a family photo.

Thanks for checking in and reading this far!

May God bless you with His wonderful Presence.

A "hey! everyone's smiling and looking at the camera
and not blinking!" family photo

Snickerdoodles (GF)

My kids like these better than the regular wheat Snickerdoodles. This recipe turns out more crunchy and buttery than I like, but maybe that's why the kids like them so much. If you like a chewy-er, softer cookie, than use less butter.

This recipe is not mine, it's taken from a Jules' CookiE-book. I don't use her GF flour mix anymore, but the cookies still turn out just fine.

Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 C sugar

1 C butter

2 eggs

2 3/4 C GF flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbs sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Cream shortening and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and beat until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk dry ingredients together: flour, b. soda, cream of tartar, salt. Add to wet ingredient bowl and mix thoroughly.

Cover tightly and refrigerate until cold, at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 F (static) or 375 (convection).

Shape dough into 1-inch balls by rolling in the palms of your hands. Roll each ball in the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet spaced 1-inch apart, and bake for 8-9 minutes, or until lightly browning and puffed. Remove to cool on a wire rack; the cookies will sink slightly in the middle when cooled - this is normal.

Yield: approximately 3 dozen cookies.

Gluten Free Bread

So here's the bread recipe that we use. Some people may not like it. I mean, it's gluten free bread, made with whole grain. But my gf girl loves it. She eats two loaves a week. Plus buns, pizza and such.

I pretty much just adapted this recipe from our Staple Bread recipe. I love simplicity. And after an accident and some tweaking, we got it.

1 Cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp yeast
small amount of molasses

Let bloom 5-10 min.

Add 360g GF flour (we use the whole grain mix)
1 tsp salt
1 Tb olive oil

Mix/stir, adding 2-4 Tb warm water as needed. Consistency should be like thick cake batter or a soft sticky cookie dough. Place in parchment paper lined loaf pan.
Cover and let rise 45 min. Bake at 400 F for 30 min.
Remove from pan and allow to cool before removing paper or slicing.
When cool, slice with non-serrated, sharp knife. (I find that turning the loaf upside down and slicing produces a cleaner slice of bread). Place wax paper or parchment paper in between slices. Freeze in plastic bag.

Gluten Free Flour Mix

I've tried a variety of GF flour mixes, but this has been my favorite so far, largely due to the fact that it's whole grain.

I stumbled upon this recipe and I shouted (in my heart) for joy! Finally a whole grain GF flour mix, that actually works!

Here it is. Are you ready?

70% whole grain flour (ie: brown rice, sorghum, almond, teff, oat, quinoa, etc)
30% starch (tapioca, corn starch, potato starch, etc)

That's it.

If you have a kitchen scale you would use 120 g for every "cup" of flour. To make 10 cups of mix, 360 g of starch, 840 g of whole grain.

I've also noticed with this recipe, that I no longer use any kind of excess binder. You know, like guar gum, xanthan gum, ground flax with hot water. The starch in the mix seems to take care of most binding needs. Except in cake. I always add a beaten egg or two to a cake recipe. Helps tremendously.

So that's what I use now. My own little gluten free girl loves it. And she's not getting all those useless starches. (Or as much as she used to).

Cranberry Pie

This is my Mother-in-law's recipe. It is a fabulously easy, fabulously delicious pie. One of our favorites. It's going to be Jesus' birthday "cake/pie" this year. Yum!

Beat two eggs well.
Add:
1 Cup sugar (I decreased it to 3/4 C)
1 Cup Flour (120g- wheat or GF)
3/4 C butter, melted
**If doing GF, add 2 tsp baking powder

Mix well.

Grease 10" pie pan. Put 2 C cranberries and 1/2 C (I decreased it to 1/4 C) sugar over berries. Pour batter over berries.

Bake 350 F for one hour or until golden. (GF will be a dark golden.)

Quick Buns

I love this recipe. I usually don't have time to make full on, three hour yeast buns so I use this recipe a lot.

1 Tb yeast (I've cut it down to 2 tsp and haven't noticed a difference, both GF and non)
1 1/3 Cup warm water
a squirt of honey

Let bloom for 10 minutes.

Add 2 Cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 Cup oil (again, I've decreased this to about 2 Tb, no difference in GF and non)

Combine. Add about 2 more cups of flour to form a soft dough. Knead until smooth. Let rest about 5 minutes. Form into buns, breadsticks, even a pizza pie or cinnamon buns! Place on greased pan/stone.

Bake at 425 F.

Buns and cinnamon buns take about 13-15 min.
Sticks are about 10-12 min.
Pizza is about 15 min.

Yes, this recipe is interchangeable with Gluten Free. Weigh out your GF flour mix (1 Cup = 120 grams). And use less water. Don't knead of course, just stir. Place in paper lined muffin tins, let rise 15 min and bake accordingly.