happy celiac disease awareness day!

I didn’t know what challenges we would be facing when Einstein was diagnosed 3 years ago, but I know all of the changes are more than worth it when I look at my growing son who feels better and is happier now.

throwback thursday–celiac

It was 3 years ago that Einstein was diagnosed with Celiac.

It’s be an interesting partial gluten-free journey for our family, but it’s all worth it to not have a kidlet feeling sick all the time.

And now that he is healthy and growing very rarely do I see him struggle with food choices.

 

insta-friday 6.21.2013

It’s Friday…which doesn’t really mean anything during summer break. Who keeps track of what day it is?!?

This is actually 2 weeks worth of Instagram photos.

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I’ve been having sleep issues again. I am having trouble going to sleep, but even worse than that I wake up at stupid times in the morning and can’t get back to sleep.

Last Sunday I was awake at 3am, so stupid.

That night I told my kiddos I was going to bed…it was 7:30pm.

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While Aunt Niece was here Roo had her check-up but couldn’t get her vaccinations.

The day after Aunt Niece left Roo got to make a special trip to the Doctor just for shots.

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Speaking of doctors…

He hurt his wrist drumming, yep the same wrist that he had surgery on last year.

I called the surgeon to make an appointment and they couldn’t see him until August unless we went to the ER and then they could see us sooner. Thankfully we have good insurance…and can sit in the ER for 4 hours on a Friday. Gah…

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It’s summertime in Arizona. We haven’t had any frogs yet this year, but we have some awesome lizards living on our front patio.

Judging by the size of these guys we must have some pretty tasty bugs that used to live there too.

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For Father’s Day I went searching for a picture of my Dad and his 5 kiddos. The most recent I could find:

From my wedding. 17 years ago. and I am sticking my tongue out at someone. Because as the baby of the family I’m supposed to be the brat.

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Two boys getting ready for scout camp takes time and lots of gear.

They were both gone the same week, but not at the same place.

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The Man-Child was going to be roughing it where he was going and wanted his head shaved.

I usually cut their hair in my bathroom, but I didn’t want to deal with the clean up.

So we headed out to the back porch…in my bare feet.

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He likes it…

I think.

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While Einstein is a scout camp we have a tradition of gluten gluttony that always includes cinnamon rolls.

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Somebody special had a birthday!

I sure love my sister.

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I am amazed at how quiet my house is with only 3 kidlets.

And how much extra food I would have after dinner each night.

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The Man-Child made a canoe they were going to use at scout camp. I love my son, but seriously?!? He is going out in a lake in a canoe he made himself?!?

I trusted him on a river in a canoe built by Coleman in 2007. Mainly because I know Uncle Kirk was there to save him if anything went wrong.

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Thankfully he made it home safe and sound…

Now I just have to wait until tomorrow for Einstein to get home.

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I love my Suburban. I think I have made it clear that it’s not natural how much I love her.

But I sure hate filling her tank…and this wasn’t even completely full.

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Did you see that Instagram now has a video feature? I’m not sure how I feel about it.

Find me @embracethechaos

menu monday–cookies

Since we started on our gluten-free journey cooking and baking hasn’t been nearly as fun.

I struggle finding recipes that taste good for everyone. Einstein doesn’t have a choice so he is pretty understanding about the fact that gluten-free food tastes a little different. The rest of us do have a choice and there aren’t many things that we would choose the gluten-free option over the regular option.

But look at these beauties…

I found the recipe on Smashed Peas and Carrots.

I think they taste so good because they don’t have any flour of any kind.

She has some great gluten-free recipes on her site.

 

Insta-Friday

There has been a lot going on here this last week.

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We have missed watching the Olympics, good thing LaLa and Ham put on an impromptu synchronized swimming show for us.

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We had a pretty nasty dust storm blow through one night. The next morning not only was the pool pretty messy with leaves, but also deck chairs.

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Our 3rd percussionist of the family is in the making.

As a Mom it’s pretty cool listening to my kidlets working together and giving pointers to each other.

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So I was getting a little tired of everyone else getting all the attention.

It’s actually an old injury that flares up every couple of years and I get to spend a few weeks dragging this crazy boot around.

This time I have the added fun of Plantar Fasciitis in my left foot. At night I’m supposed to wear both boots.

I haven’ t made it a whole night with both of them on. One is a bit annoying, but 2 takes it over the top to annoying as hell.

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It’s been a bit warm here lately.

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It’s too warm to not feel good, but that didn’t stop LaLa from getting an ear infection.

It was so bad that it had her in tears. Poor Thing.

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You know it’s going to be pretty warm if it’s 98 degrees in the morning.

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We are getting close to 2 years since we found out that Einstein has Celiac. We are still experimenting with new things to replace things that we miss…like flour tortillas.

Well rice flour tortillas aren’t as good as we wanted them to be. Boo.

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Ham would rarely sleep in church when he was a baby.

I’m glad he doesn’t have a problem sleeping in Church as a 5 yr old.

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Roo started taking a Cake Decorating class in an after-school program.

Not only did they look good, they tasted freakin’ awesome too.

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Did you hear about the huge meteor shower? Well if you are going to take your kidlets out late at night to watch for falling stars it might be a good idea to take mosquito repellant with you.

Poor Ham was eaten alive.

The next afternoon I had given him some Benadryl to help with the itching.

It helped…

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I thought maybe I was having hot flashes at night. Apparently not.

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On a normal school day I spend a lot of time driving. When it’s a half day it’s down-right silly.

I did take a nap that afternoon to reward myself for my busy morning.

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Maggie and Mollie spend a lot of time sleeping in the Girlies bed.

I think they have claimed it for their own and let Roo and LaLa borrow it.

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If you want me to vote for you DO NOT leave trash taped to my front door.

Even if I liked you I probably wouldn’t vote for you after this little trick.

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My fingernails don’t usually grow very well, but lately they look kind of nice.

I’ve had fun playing with my OPI collection.

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I love these kidlets.

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Are you an Instagram junkie like me?

@embracethechaos

Insta-Friday

So apparently I’m only going to update the blog on Friday this summer.

I hope we are all fine with that…

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While Einstein was away at scout camp we took the opportunity to indulge in some of the gluten items that we don’t usually get to have. We ate bagels and flour tortillas and other naughty stuff.

We ended the gluten-ful week with cinnamon rolls.

They were so yummy, but I have to be honest my tummy was more than happy to go back to our gluten-free life again.

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Almost every Saturday evenings I have a hot date…with my iron.

I like having all the white shirts crisp and clean and ready for Sunday.

This week I had the added bonus of the girlies wearing white shirts…yes I iron their t-shirts too.

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Since this summer has been pretty low-key Big Daddy and I decided to take the kidlets to see “Brave”.

We all liked it, even the 14yr old Man-Child, but my hand may never be the same where LaLa was squeezing it during the scary part.

After the movie we went to In-n-Out for dinner.

It’s our favorite GF fast food.

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Summer in Arizona wouldn’t be complete without a few impressive dust storms. We had back-to-back storms this week.

I love this shot of the dust meeting the clouds.

And for the record I will never use the “H” word when it comes to describing a dust storm. It’s just a dust storm.

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Join Jeanette at Life Rearranged for more Insta-Friday fun.

Well maybe later today she will have her post up.

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Are you on Instagram?

Find me @embracethechaos

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The “H” word is haboob…in other words, a big dust storm.

It’s Baaaack….Menu Monday

Look at me planning my menu for the week!

So without out further ado…

• Monday – Chicken Pot Pie
• Tuesday – Tacos or maybe Tostadas (they are pretty interchangeable at our house)
• Wednesday – Baked Potatoes
• Thursday – Sweet and Sour Meatballs
• Friday – Pizza
• Saturday – hmmm, good question
• Sunday – Roast

If I include something in our menu that the recipe is listed on A Pinch of Chaos I will just link to the regular recipe, not a gluten-free version. If I come up with any new recipes they will be gluten-free, but still yummy.

The Chicken Pot Pie recipe that I use is from my Betty Crocker cookbook. There are a million different versions. The only difference is I will be using frozen gluten-free crusts. I have failed miserably at making a good homemade gluten-free crust so why bother when Whole Foods sells good frozen ones?

Yes we still have pizza. We do one of two things when we have take-out pizza: 1. we get Einstein a gluten-free pizza from one of the pizza places that has gluten-free crusts, or 2. He has a frozen gluten-free pizza. Usually he has frozen.

Have a delicious week!

And let me know what you are fixing tonight…

Pi Anyone?

Today was our first official day of spring break.

I declared it a pajama day, no getting dressed or going anywhere. Soon I had kidlets asking me if they could get dressed. What the What?!? Where did these people come from? Of course I told them NO. Just kidding. So some of us got dressed and I ended up being the lone pajama wearing slacker and that doesn’t bother me one bit.

We also celebrated Pi (3.14) Day with what else? Chicken pot pie.

I am still struggling with baking gluten-free so the crust was quite ugly. Good thing my family judges food by taste and not by how it looks. I had plans for another pie for dessert, but since I was having such trouble with the crust I gave up. It was kind of frustrating because I have used this same recipe before and they turned out okay. Maybe since it’s warmer it made a difference? Who knows…

So for the next 2 weeks it is me and the kidlets hanging out and having fun.

And enjoying Big Daddy when he is home in the evenings.

And I might declare more pajama days…even if it’s just for me!