Baby Shower Gift

I'm going to a baby shower tomorrow. In fact I will be making the cupcakes for it. This is the gift I am bringing. I got the idea from wordl.net. Have you been there? It's a fun way to create a word cloud. I couldn't quite get the results I wanted and then had a duh moment. I could type it up myself on my powerpoint program. I arranged the words how I liked them and then printed it right onto pink linen paper. I mounted it on the scrapbook paper cut down to size to fit the frame. I added the brown ricrac ribbon before mounting. I just taped the ends behind the paper. Then stuck it in the frame. I just love how it turned out. It is such an easy idea to customize for anyone and for any occasion. Showers, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries etc.

I don't have much

Not sure why I am writing when I don't having anything brilliant to say. Oh wait, that is most of the time! LOL

The house is a wreck. Really. I am not exaggerating. Thankfully there haven't been any calls to show the house. Or maybe I should hope for a call so I can get my behind in gear and clean.

School is going pretty well. Adding some brain integration therapy to our day adds some extra time and effort but I think I already see a payoff as my little one is making progress in her reading.

I will make sure to devote a whole post to what I'm talking about. There may be other parents wondering why their bright child is struggling to learn.

I went to a parent info meeting for Classical Conversations. Anyone know what that is? It's like a group school that meets once a week following a classical education model. It looks really neat, but boy oh boy is it expensive. I don't think that will be in our future. I'd love to hear thoughts about it though if you have experience with it.

I guess it's time to get off the computer and go have a shower or eat breakfast and get my girls up and have some coffee. Yep, coffee first.

Blog how to

Jenni asked me how to put the little check boxes at the end of each post so I thought I'd share.

If you are at Blogger, go to you layout page. Click on the edit at the bottom of the blog post (usually the center of the page)

A page pops up with different edit options. Go to the eighth box and click it. You will then be able to customize the words you use to label each check box. Hit save and it's done. It is very easy.

Now I wish I was able to take a picture of the page and post it. I tried but for some reason it kept saying the file was corrupt and wouldn't upload it.

So, while I have figured some things out, others still baffle me!

Crocheted Hat

I took this photo to show off the new hat I made. I love the look of a knitted hat but have yet to learn how. When I saw this pattern here I decided to give it a try. I've had this yarn for a little while saving it for something special for me. I tend to make things for everyone else and not for myself.

The girls had to jump in and I am glad. It makes the picture look better.

Happy Birthday Phi

I cannot believe it's been 10 years since this little one was placed in my arms. (in the front middle with pink hat) She was so tiny and so perfect. She had tons of black straight hair that would stick straight up when I washed it. I called her my little duckling. I remember her puking all over me after every feeding for the first month. I did so much laundry. She has always been the smallest of our girls, a little feather weight. Hubby would perch her in his hands and lift her up. She is finally getting too big for that now.

She is one smart cookie. I remember pulling out the puzzles when she was about 2 and she would just put them together in no time. It was amazing. At four she was adding numbers in her head. She would evaluate her world through math problems and not even know it. "Mom, if there are eight in the box and I have two and my sisters each have two then there are two left in the box." This from her car seat. Phi definitely sees the world differently and I admit it has taken me a while to understand her. Her daddy is so much better at it. But I love and appreciate her quirkyness and look forward to seeing what God does with her life.

Happy Birthday Phi!
Love, Mom

This weeks menu

Is up at glutenfreedaily if you are interested.

Susan

New blog

Call me crazy, or call me clever. I decided that if I was going to make this gluten free journey interesting for myself and keep track of what I bought, used, liked or hated, I needed a new blog to do it with.

Have a look:
Gluten Free Daily

Super Sweet Pink Yummy Gluten Free Goodness

Today is the 10th birthday party of our middle child. She will be indulged with pottery painting, pizza for dinner, movie and popcorn, and five giggly girl friends staying the night. What fun!

I bought Pamela's gluten free white cake mix, added ground up dehydrated strawberries, because she insisted on a strawberry cake, and came up with this. They taste fantastic. I actually like them better than standard cake mix. They have a little more substance and seem more like a muffin than an airy cupcake.

So far we have tried Bob's Redmill chocolate cake mix and it turned out great too. Moist and chocolatey and you couldn't tell the difference. Warning: Don't eat the batter raw though---YUCK! It tasted like grass or something earthy. I think it was the fava bean flour. Yuck.

Namaste pancake mix is pretty good too. A bit thin, so next time I will add less water to the mix.

Well, gotta run to the store to get more food for this party. I have to find a gluten free pizza dough for tonight.

Post more pictures when the party is over. If I have enough energy!
Susan

One of those days

Do you ever have one of those days when you wonder what on earth you are doing wrong as a parent?

Today is one of those days.

I need fresh air and a fresh perspective.

Thank goodness His mercies are new every morning. I don't think I could survive if it weren't.

I hope you are doing something right today.

Me? I'm off to put some dinner together before BSF.

Gluten Free

I have suspected for a while that one child in our home is gluten sensitive, intolerant, allergic or whatever you want to call it. I've known that I needed to do something about it. At least do an elimination test to see for sure. But, I've been a lazy mom. I know it is going to be a lot of work. I'm such an all or nothing kind of gal that I feel like I need to do all my research, planning and learning before I even start. I don't want to fail.

Reality tells me that there will be plenty of trial and error and that the learning will be ongoing. So, I'm jumping in with both feet. My prayer is that it won't be too difficult to make the switch for this child, and that we will find some answers and improve her health.

Thankfully I have a friend who is a step ahead of me on this journey and I can have local support.

I received a gift card for Christmas and got two cookbooks to help me out.



I already have a couple of favorite blogs about eating Gluten Free
Gluten Free Mommy
Gluten Free Gobsmacked
Gluten Free Girl

I'm sure it won't be long before I add to that list. I just love that I can find blogs on living gluten free. It makes learning so much more enjoyable to me.

New Year, New Look

This is the longest most deary season in the Northwest, so to cheer me up, and give myself a little sunshine, I decided to go with this new look. I will hopefully be working on this the next week to make my blog a little more personal. And in case you were wondering, I do not create these, I don't have the skills, although I would like to. These free templates come from

SimplyFabulousBloggerTemplates.

She is kind enough to have a huge list of free templates to choose from.

Susan

New Years Day 2009

What have I been doing today?

I started with getting up really late. Later than I have all of 2008. Inf act I cannot remember how longs it's been since I slept to nearly 11am. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but hey I'm just being real here.

I somehow decided by default that I was not going to get dressed today, which is unusual because I get dressed everyday even if it is later in the day, unless I'm sick. Praising God I'm not sick. Last year I was sicker than a dog. How sick is a sick dog anyways?

I made an ornament today. I saw it online and it is just perfect for a certain friend of mine. We exchange ornaments each year. Yes, I've already given hers this year. This little ornament if for next year. Amazingly it is made and wrapped with the name tag on it. Crazy huh, to be this far ahead of the game? It's a first for me. I hope I don't lose it before next Christmas. And because she occasionally pops in to see what's up on this blog I cannot post a picture. But it is dang cute.

I repurposed my Christmas cards for the first time too. For the larger cards, I turned them into cute little boxes. For the smaller ones I cut up and made little name tags for next years presents.

Gift boxes---

Gift tags---

I played Battleship with Phi.

I hope to play Apples to Apples later with the girls and Hubby if I can peal his eyeballs from the football game. Don't ask me who's playing. I pay not one bit of attention to that. ( For the record, I don't mind him watching. He historically watches very little football so when the important games come up, have at it.)

Later a movie shall go in the dvd player. It's a toss up between Mama Mia, which I've seen and thoroughly enjoyed, or John Adams, which I haven't seen but expect it to be a bit serious. Oh, and there is some action movie for Hubby.

It seems to be the New Year Day of firsts. I hope there will be many good firsts this year. The first being, that the house will sell. Twelve months later and we still have not moved. We closed on our new house a year ago yesterday. I could not have imagined in a million years that we would still be here. I'm still trusting in our Father though.

Praising God for His continued goodness.

Happy 2009 to y'all.
Susan