Thoughts on Christmas. Of course. And dreaming. And poetry.

I am really excited about Christmas, especially the presents, which is a switch for me.  I’m a terrible gift-giver.  I just never can think of what would be “just right” or the only thing I can think of is a bizillion dollars, or it would have taken a month to make and I’m out of time, or whatever.  It’s a lack of intuition plus inadequate planning, I guess.  Add to that the constraints of staying ON BUDGET, and it about wipes me out.  However, this year, we set aside some money well in advance.  And I’m excited about what I have planned for my family.  Although, also in the back of my mind linger the unpleasant memories of gifts that I thought were going to be AWESOME and they turned out to be a total bust.  It’s so much easier to remember the failures than the successes for me.  Something wrong about that….  Anyway.

I had my children make Christmas lists, which I don’t often do, as I think it’s a bit tacky and self-serving and can get their hopes up for that ridiculously over-priced Really Cool Present that they will never receive, like the CELL PHONE on my 12 year old’s list.  I know there are younger children with cell phones, but I looked at him and asked, “Really??” with the Mom Look:  One eyebrow arched, head tilted to the side, lips pursed, a heavy sigh written all over my face.

However, I need to let my children dream…  I’ve been convicted about that lately.  I caution them and prepare their hearts so well about our family’s values — which have a lot to do with Jesus and very little to do with materialism — that I caution them right out of dreaming.  I’ve specially noticed that about my oldest son, who is 14.  He is afraid to even have dreams, lest he be disappointed;  he doesn’t want to fix his heart on the impossible.  That’s startling, partly because that’s just like ME, and I have to fight just to allow myself to have dreams… and frankly, it’s not a super-healthy place to be.  I read “Hold Fast Your Dreams” by Louise Driscoll to him yesterday and suggested that it was a good poem for him (though “The Metal Checks“, also by Driscoll, is much more striking, as poems go, it wasn’t appropriate for the lesson at hand…).  And, I let the cell phone stay on Grant’s list.

Mine is almost identical to this one, mustache bridge and all. An upgrade from $50 firewood. In related news, pretty much all of our guitar-buying has been pre-1997, when we started having children.

For my younger two boys, Wes (age 10) and the aforementioned Grant, I’m having them memorize Luke 6:27-38, in light of the commercialization of the American Way to Have Christmas, and due to the fact that there has been way too much of, “Hey, that’s mine!  Give it back!” which makes me want to poke out my eye with a fork.  I slowly went over each verse with them, explaining that in God’s economy, if you give up something willingly, you always gain back in greater quantity and quality than what you yielded.  I used as an example:  In April 1994, I semi-unwillingly gave my $50 guitar — which was just this side of firewood — to my roommate who had, in my absence, started taking lessons with it.  It was hard, but I was intentional about being generous.  I got married in November of that same year, and my dear husband greatly surprised me with a Taylor guitar (815C model — jumbo with a Florentine cutaway) for our first Christmas!  I hadn’t even dared to hope — to dream — about my own super-fabulous guitar.  It was enough to play my husband’s.    Come to think of it, that was the first of many instances where my husband goes above and beyond where I dare to dream, when it comes to buying me presents.

Anyway.  I also explained to my boys that Jesus was blowing the minds of his hearers.  The Jews already had an unusual law forbidding lenders to charge interest.  Jesus was taking it one step further telling His followers that they were to give anything to anyone who asked, and not even expect repayment of the principle, let alone interest!  This is challenging, to be certain.  Very challenging.  But, it’s required.  Even for kids.  No more, “Hey, that’s mine!  Give it back!”

And, it must be mentioned, that the former roommate is now a professional musician.

“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you. ³² “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. ³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵ But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. ³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. ³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Cranberry-Almond Stickybread Recipe (GFCF, refined-sugar free)

Mmmm....

I came up with this recipe for a friend whose husband has been put on a really restrictive diet.  At first, I was disappointed, because my intention was to make a dough for rollable cinnamon rolls, but the dough was too wet so I had to glop it all in the baking dish.  My husband, however, vetoed my plans to rework the recipe.  “It’s perfect,” he proclaimed, stabbing his fork into the air as an exclamation.

Usually I make a recipe a number of times to work out the kinks… but after excellent results on the second time making it, I decided to go ahead and post the recipe.  I’m thinking I’m going to make this for Christmas morning.  I read up on Monkeybread, and I think the recipe would work in that style, too — in a Bundt pan, maybe even starting with frozen dough.  I’ll have to work on that, though.

This recipe uses no refined sugar:  honey and/or agave syrup are the only sweeteners.  I used egg whites, as my friend’s hubby can’t have yolks;  I think it would work without eggs entirely — if you try it without eggs, up the water content and leave a comment to let me know how it worked.  I used sweetened, dried cranberries, but any dried fruit would work (and would be necessary to make it truly sugar-free).  I used almonds, but pecans would work fine, too.

Last caveat:  The flours.  I use my favorite trio of gluten-free flours in this recipe, but you may find others that work just as well or better.  Post a comment if you alter the flours and let me know the result!

• Garbanzo flour is made by Bob’s Red Mill, or you can find it in any Asian market as besan, chana dal, chickpea flour, or gram flour.  Expect to pay about $5-6 for a 4-pound bag of garbanzo flour at the Asian market.  My favorite brand is Brar, which is a product of Canada (and which used to be labeled as gluten-free and is no longer… though there isn’t any cross-contamination warning on it).
• Mung bean starch is very common in Korean cooking;  most Asian markets are organized by nationality/region, so you’d find it on the Korean aisle.  Or Chinese.  I’ve purchased it from both.  It’s also known, cryptically, as green bean powder or green bean starch, since mung beans are small and green.  Mung bean starch is a bit pricey, at around $2.50 – 3.50 per pound in the store, and about double that online.
• You can find gluten-free oat flour in many well-stocked grocery stores, or mill your own in a blender, sifting it through a wire sieve afterward.

 

Cranberry-Almond Stickybread (click for printable PDF)
About an hour and ten minutes from start to finish
Makes 15 servings

• Grease a large baking dish (I use a 9″ x 13″ Pyrex, though size is flexible.  I also use Spectrum Organic non-hydrogenated Shortening to grease my pans.)
• Turn on your oven to 350°F for only 2 minutes.  Turn off.  This provides a warm location for dough to rise.

1¾ cup warm water
1 Tbsp yeast
2 Tbsp honey

• Gently combine water, yeast, and honey, and let sit (proof) for ten minutes

1½ cups garbanzo flour
1½ cups oat flour
1½ cups mung bean starch
¼ tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp xanthan gum

• Whisk together these dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Set aside.

4 egg whites

• When the yeast mixture is done proofing, whisk in 4 egg whites, stirring briskly to combine.
• Add the yeast and egg mixture to the flour mixture, whisking quickly and thoroughly to combine.  Set aside to rest about five minutes.

½ – ¾ cup honey OR agave syrup OR a combination of the two
2 tsp cinnamon

• Warm the honey to liquefy using a microwave for 10-15 seconds, or setting the container in a pan of very warm water.
• Stir briskly to combine the cinnamon with honey.

½ cup almond meal
½ cup blanched, slivered almonds (or other chopped nut)
½ cup sweetened, dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)

• Stir the dough, then with two spoons, drop spoonfuls of dough into the baking dish, using half to two-thirds of the dough.
• Drizzle about half of the honey-cinnamon mixture over the lumps of dough, then top with about 1/3 cup of the almond meal and all of the slivered almonds and dried cranberries.
• Drop the remaining dough in small lumps over the first layer.  Drizzle with remaining honey mixture and sprinkle with remaining almond meal.
• Place into slightly warm oven or other warm place and let rise for 20 minutes.
• Remove baking dish, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and preheat oven to 375°F for about ten minutes, for a total rising time of 30 minutes.  Dough will have doubled in size (or just a little less-than-doubled).
• Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes, until top no longer feels spongy when touched lightly, and top is a nice, golden brown, and honey is sizzling along the sides of the dish.
• Cut into 15 servings.  Serve warm, with a side of dairy-free ice cream, or topped with whipped cream if you can have dairy.  (Tastes good cold, too, on the off-chance that there are leftovers.)

 

Thanksgiving family, friends & food; drooling over a seed catalog; a good/bad movie

• So, Thanksgiving was awesome.  At one point, we had 21 people here –  some watching football, some snoozing, some chatting over coffee and pie, kids running around and playing,  spilling out into our courtyard, friends and family.  Perfect.
• I made this recipe — Roasted Squash with Almonds and Cranberries — and it turned out so good.  I’m definitely making it again, and I probably won’t wait until Thanksgiving;  I LOVE root veggies.  I used parsnips, carrots, and butternut squash.  I baked it a little longer than recommended, and at 325°F because that’s just how it worked out with the other stuff that was in the oven at the time.  I made it about 1/3 bigger than suggested, and wished I had MORE.  Double recipe next time.  I also chose not to add the lemon zest at the end.  I guess I can’t make a recipe without messing with it.
• On Thanksgiving, my mom gave me a seed catalog that she said would be right up my alley.  She was right.  Pinetree Garden Seeds is located in Maine, so many of their selections are for much cooler, wetter, more northerly climates than here in the sunny desert.  But, I can’t resist.  I’m making a list and hoping for the best.  They have all sorts of heirloom veggies, plus herbs for medicinal use and even plants for dying cloth.  Lots of other stuff, too…  I’ve been savoring the catalog, reading each description.  The seeds are really inexpensive, too.  So far, I have eight packets on my list, and the total is $10.30.  And their shipping is reasonable, too:  $3.95 for up to $19.99 in charges.  I have this book on companion planting, too:  Carrots Love Tomatoes.  ~sigh~  Makes me want to plant stuff.
• 

  The ones at Home Depot are the identical brand, but MUCH cheaper -- about half the price.

  I’ve been making my own cheapie windowsill seed starters for months:  You need a paper egg carton and a foam one.  Cut out the paper “egg cups” one at a time and place them in the tray of the foam one.  Fill each paper egg cup with seed starting soil, and place in your windowsill.  Absolutely free (except for the eggs!), but it’s easy to over-water (and thereby have water all over your windowsill), and they dry out really fast — no lid and all, and only 1-2 Tbsp of soil in each cup.  So… at Home Depot, I bit the bullet and purchased a ready-made flimsy, plastic, effective 24-plant windowsill “greenhouse” seed starter, complete with peat pellets that expand like crazy.  I now have lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower sprouts happily growing on my windowsill.  Bugs and birds seem to like lettuce and broccoli;  I haven’t had great success directly sowing them into the garden.  I haven’t tried cauli yet, but I figured if the birds like broccoli sprouts, they probably like cauli, as they’re in the same family…

• Only (maybe) tangentially related to the above — just because we had wine at Thanksgiving — I wanted to mention that if anyone saw my little post on Facebook that said I was going to watch the documentary Blood into Wine and were interested, you may want to reconsider.  On one hand, the movie was REALLY interesting:  lots of wry humor, the fascinating process of growing and making wine in Arizona, and the relationship between the major characters (Tool’s Maynard James Keenan and Arizona winemaker and ecologist Eric Glomski).  I’m always interested in the… intersection of relationships.  Meaning, the events that conspire to bring two people of really diverse paths together.  I LOVE THAT.  I think of it all the time, and if you meet me in real life, one of the first things I will likely ask you is what brought you, here.  However, the movie was also full of f-bombs, sexual references, and way more all-out earth-worshiping religion than my husband was comfortable with.  I could have hung with the movie, compelled by the good parts and filtering out the other… but after an hour, my hubby asked that we turn it off.  And we did.

More garden stuff, including a little seed giveaway… (plus, any takers for an online/e-mail natural birthing class??)

I promise that there is more of note going on in my life than just my garden, but since I have such a nice pic, I thought I’d post another garden update.

One other thing I wanted to mention, though (buried, here in the garden post) is that I’m thinking about making my birthing class notes available as an online/correspondence/something-like-that birth class.  Anyone interested?  I can e-mail you the PDF of the first class (of six, total) as a preview.  I would send copies of each week’s class, one at a time.  I highly suggest that you take two weeks to go through each class’s material and homework, because there is a LOT of info!  And, for full disclosure, the classes are really geared to married Christian couples, but I’m thinking about editing them to be more appropriate for other… uh… demographics.  The basic idea of them is to show the wonder and amazing, kind plan of our Creator God in the process of birth — so that the mom would birth, filled with that wonder, and eager to participate fully in His transformational intentions for her… and that there would be NO FEAR in birth.  If anyone is interested, I will take on three student couples for $40 each, and you can help me work out any communication kinks that may need fixing.  Beta test, if you will.    ANYONE can have a free copy of the first class’s notes, though.  karenjoy@onlysometimesclever.com

OK.  Back to this day’s regularly scheduled garden post:

This was yesterday’s harvest:  Red chard, green beans (I found more hiding under the red chard after the picture), two dinky tomatoes, and two Dragon carrots.

The carrots would have benefited from another week or two in the ground.  The packet says that they should mature in 70-90 days, and they’ve been in the ground more than 120 days!!  Things grow more slowly in the winter growing season here… less sunlight.  But, sheesh!  Mature already!!  They’re lovely carrots, though.

My tomatoes are thriving.  I’ve harvested a dozen or so in the last couple weeks, though it doesn’t look like any will be red and ready for Thanksgiving.    There are probably 200+ tomatoes growing on my plants, but the bad news is that they’re all about one ounce “big”.  Teeny tiny.  Bigger than cherry tomatoes, but not by much!  I bought my seeds from Native Seeds/SEARCH, which is a fabulous, to-be-esteemed organization for growing, promoting, and selling native and heirloom seeds that do well in the Arizona desert.  However, the Native Seeds’ description of my Punta Banda tomatoes neglected the mention the size, and I neglected to notice the lack of description.  Here, on another site, they’re listed as cherry tomatoes.

My basil plants just won’t die.  Not that I really want them to, but when I add basil to any dish I’m making, I must confess that I use my basil-and-olive-oil “ice cubes” from the freezer.

Fiala, my three-year-old, ran off with a packet of carrot seeds and a packet of onion seeds a few weeks ago.  It is now clear where she planted them, as there are about one hundred carrot sprouts in about a one square foot area of my garden, onions sprouting in the gravel (leading me to think about the parable of the sower), and a sprinkling of onions and carrots in other less-than-ideal spots.    Precious, rascally girl.

I hope my garlic has lovely, round, purple blooms like this!!

I have one Mexican grey squash plant that is hanging on…  Broccoli that is sprouting (not too vigorously, though, and I think the birds like the sprouts), green onions that are slowly but beautifully growing, mystery volunteer tomato plants that are starting to flower and bear new, tiny fruit…  I planted some garlic cloves, too, and they’re coming up beautifully.  I love garlic and we eat a TON, but I’m kind of planting them for their flowers.  My green beans (Yoeme Purple String Beans, to be exact) are still hanging on, though I’m only harvesting about 1/4 – 1/2 pound every week from four largeish bamboo teepees.  I have set aside 33 seeds that would be good for planting, and will give them to the first taker who mails me a self-addressed, stamped envelope, if you wanna give them a shot!  Again, e-mail if interested.

My tomatillos are fairly pointless.  I have 1/2 gallon of teeny tiny tomatillos in my fridge, waiting to see if I will make salsa out of them for Thanksgiving.  I guess I should take them out of the refrigerator and let the husks dry all the way…  I’m fairly disgusted with how much space those giant plants took up, compared to the tiny fruit.    I started pruning the bushes WAY back, in hopes that the roots and stalks would super-charge the remaining tomatillos and make them grow big, but no such luck.  After Thanksgiving, I do believe I will just pull them out, amend the soil, and plant more broccoli, and maybe some cauli and rutabagas.

Now that I have a fruitful garden, I can’t imagine even NOT having one.  I pray I will continue to learn, and that my little plot of ground will continue to produce.

And, that’s it!  For today.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers, if I get overwhelmed by cleaning and baking and cooking and don’t make it back to the blog before then. 

GFCF Turkey Stuffing (a sort-of recipe)

A friend just asked me for a recipe for stuffing. I don’t have one written down, but here’s what I do, and it is SO tasty.  I always get compliments on this stuffing, even from those who don’t have to be gluten-free:

1. Cook up some quinoa.  Use 2 c. quinoa and about… three cups water, I believe. I always use less water than the package suggests. Set aside.
2. Sautee lots of veggies: onions, garlic, mushrooms, celery, and sometimes other veggies, too, using a lot of olive oil (about 1/4 cup) and a fair bit of salt (1-2 tsp).  This is just a suggestion, but I would use a whole, chopped onion; 6-8 cloves minced garlic; 5-8 oz sliced fresh mushrooms; and 1-2 cups chopped celery.  Light-colored root veggies like rutabaga or carrots work well, too, as do cubed firm winter squash, like butternut.  Steam those veggies — 2 cups or so — on the stove or in the micro until half-cooked, and stir into the sauteed veggies.
3. When the veggies are almost done, add minced fresh herbs (often, around Thanksgiving, you can find combo packages that have several herbs inside) like sage and thyme….  Use at least 3 Tbsp minced herbs.  Remove from heat.
4. Then, combine quinoa with the veggies & herbs, and stuff that inside the turkey. You’ll probably have to lace up the turkey, because the quinoa stuffing falls out more easily than “normal” stuffing.
5. For vegan stuffing, or for any stuffing that won’t fit into your turkey, bake in a well-greased bowl, covered, in a slow oven (325°).  Bake at least 90 minutes.
6. Keeps well for a long time in a warm oven, until you’re ready to serve!

Not in order of importance

• Wish I lived in Minneapolis!  Well, not really, but if I did, I would DEFINITELY be going to this:  A Procraftinator’s Delight, hosted by one of my favorite bloggers.
• When I was in the process of choosing which college to attend, I automatically disqualified any whose promotional literature had misspellings, glaring grammatical errors, sloppy art layout, etc.  With that in mind, one might be leery of a website called The Best Colleges when it publishes articles rife with the same.  Still.  This article, The World’s 15 Most Extraordinary Homeschoolers, is well worth a read.  Tim Tebow?  Who DOESN’T know he was homeschooled?  The Jonas Brothers?  Knew that, too.  But Condoleezza Rice?  Francis Collins (the evangelical Christian and renowned scientist, appointed by Obama, no less, to be director of the NIH)?  The list is inspiring and profoundly interesting.
• 

  The lift pin assembly

  Weird things make me feel old.  Yesterday, it was the fact that my pressure cooker apparently needs some parts replaced, the gasket and lift pin assembly.  Why does this make me feel ancient?  Because these parts are made of rubber, which becomes brittle (and ineffective) with AGE.  ~sigh~  Finding out that these parts would cost me $21 plus shipping made me a wee bit upset.  Doing some searching to find out that

  • a) a replacement pressure cooker would run me upwards of $50, and
  • b) doing some price comparisons online would save me $10 or so (from here) made me feel slightly better about my purchase.  I still feel old, though.
• I am THRILLED to report that Fiala is doing much better. The infection on her face is gone, though it’s having a hard time clearing up, as she keeps scratching the still-healing spots.  The bed situation that I wrote about a week ago or so finally came to pass;  I set up both girls in their new beds yesterday — Audrey in her new-to-us twin bed, and Fiala in the toddler bed that used to be Audrey’s.  Fiala fell out of bed once last night, in spite of a guard rail, and she did not nap well — well, didn’t nap at ALL — in her new bed yesterday, but that was really due to the visit of our beloved nephew Nick and his darling girlfriend PLUS it being a new bed PLUS us working on potty-training PLUS her having diarrhea every 10-15 minutes because of horrid Augmentin due to her ear infection.  I don’t think I wrote about that.  Her eardrum burst on Friday.  Apparently, the bacteria which caused it were not covered by the antibiotics that she’d already been on for more than two weeks.  In spite of the fact that the Solaray BabyLife probiotics that we have for her contain rice maltodextrin, and she’s previously demonstrated that rice is an allergy problem for her wee body, I had decided that an eczema outbreak from the maltodextrin was the lesser of two evils, even though her skin is finally starting to clear up from the six weeks?  two months? of outbreak that she’s suffered through.  ANYWAY.  I was remarking to a friend that the “good news” from her having diarrhea is that it seemed to be giving her a greater awareness of her… elimination process, of which she was blissfully unaware, which made potty-training heretofore impossible.  We’re not all the way there yet with toilet adeptness, but we’re getting there.  I have hope.
• Having local gluten-free friends ROCKS.  These may seem minor to most of you, but I am so thankful for:
  • a neighbor, whom I “met” through the Phoenix Celiac Yahoo group (and subsequently discovered we live a couple of streets away from each other), dropped off a darling little box of goodies:  three truffles, some oat-almond candy crunch, a mini pumpkin pie, and a mini cheesecake.  Usually, treats received from loving friends and well-meaning neighbors receive wistful glances from me, as I give them to my two gluten-eating children, Ethan and Grant.  I can’t recall ever having something dropped off to our home where I could eat every single thing.  I meant to only sample the goodies, but, I confess, I schnarfed down ALL of them.
  • Last night, at the grocery store, I called my friend Kim.  We live across town from each other, but she feels closer.    Even though she was sick, the poor raspy-voiced thing, we chatted about teff and millet, and grinding our own grain, and what grain works well in which application, etc.  She looked up some stuff online for me, as I shopped.  I had a goofy grin the whole time, because it is SO NICE to be able to just pick up the phone and talk with someone about things that are akin to a foreign language to most people…
• I am thankful for:  At least $300 in new or nearly-new jeans, given to me by my sweet friend, Brenda, who had been given them by her sister.  Her sister had recently lost a lot of weight, and now, two pairs of Lucky jeans, a pair of Guess jeans, and five or six other pair, are now nestled happily in my drawer.    I’m set.  That’s a good thing for me, because I wear jeans virtually every day of my life.  I have to lose more weight for some of them to fit better, but that’s a good thing, right?  Motivation.

Christmas, clothes, and too many “Bud Vase”s, year-end video

• I recently was going to post about how dearly I love wee flowers, brought to me by my kids, cheering my world in the bud vase on my counter top.  This sweet image, though, has been overridden by my husband overhearing my 3yo daughter saying, “Bud vase,” and thinking she was saying something naughty… then, him laughing hysterically about it, the all the boys catching on, and now, days later, my husband and me up to our EARS with the boys calling each other, “Bud Vase.”  (Say it aloud.)
• 

  The five best kids ever (and the doggie), Christmas morning

  Christmas!  I have only a few grainy pics from my phone.  Ugh.  However, my Dad tells me that, rather than repairing my camera (which he’s had since… June?  July?), that he’s going to buy me a new one!  That’s fabulous.  We’ve been essentially camera-less since April, and that’s a long time.  Anyways.  Christmas was great — lovely, happy, full of family warmth.  On The Day, we had my Mom & Stepdad, Martin’s Dad & Stepmom, my brother, his wife, and two of their three boys (the other in California with my SIL’s parents) over for the afternoon and evening, eating a non-traditional dinner of Thai omelette soup (I should post a recipe!).  Our home was full, loud, and happy.  And, GOD PROVIDES.  If I went into detail, I’d be typing forever.  So, suffice it to say that our Christmas, which we all thought would be spare and lacking in provision, was overflowing.  Overflowing.  God is so good;  He’s amazing.

• I am now a size 6.  I haven’t been a size 6 since before I had kids.  I now weigh less than I did before I got pregnant with my oldest, who is now 12½.  But, even there, God provides!!  Slacks on clearance at Macy’s for about $10 each, plus some borrowed jeans from a sweet friend who also has recently, unintentionally lost weight and is now a size 4!  So, I have four pairs of jeans on loan from her, two sixes, and two eights.
• 

  The little rosette, the heel height & shape, the rounded toe... perfect

  Not really size-related, but I also found a FABULOUS pair of black pumps on the 26th.  I haven’t been this excited about shoes in a long time… mostly because we just don’t have the money to get as many shoes as I would LIKE, so I typically purchase shoes that are sensible and long-lasting, rather than cute… Then I admire the shoes of my pastor’s wife, Nancy.  However, I found these for $6.99 on clearance at Ross, so I figured I could spend seven bucks on some totally insensible shoes.  I’m so excited about them, I wore them to the grocery store last night.  Hahahahaha!  I have huge feet — size 10.  But, as I’ve lost those nearly-30 pounds, I have discovered that my feet have shrunk a bit.  Who knew?  I had fat feet.  So now, I can wear a 9½ again — and these shoes are even 9W!  They’d be better in a slightly larger size, but this was the only pair Ross had. 

• Our church’s year end video…  FANTASTIC.  Many on here have commented about my church’s dynamics.  If you would like to see it in action, there’s a nearly-34 minute video here.  In a way it’s a best-of-the-year video, and in a way, it’s just really typical as to what takes place.  My whole fam is mixed in there…  Some personal highlights are:  My older two boys quoting Psalm 102 at 1:22;  My hubby leading worship at 5:07 (he’s in LOTS of other places, too); Me leading worship at 5:20;  Audrey being a “PUWH-son” at 12:36… And my son Ethan at the soundboard at the very end. 

Christmas, fake trees, colds, honey-as-medicine, yummy cereal, CHICKEN MEAT ALLERGY, and fabulous gingerbread cookies

• We all have a cold around here.  Not enough to be debilitating, thank God, but enough to sap our energy and make us all rather grumpy.  I’ve been trying to combat that by doing CHRISTMAS stuff, somewhat to no avail.
• We finally put up our tree on Saturday.    This is our second year of a fake Christmas tree.    We had the revelation a couple of years ago that Wesley’s asthma-like-clockwork which started in December of each year was tied to pine trees.  Duh.  We should have been able to figure that out previously, because he’d have asthma each time we went on vacation, too, which would — almost without exception — be to somewhere forested.  Ah, well. (Sorry for the lame cell-phone-camera pics.)
  

  Fiala exclaims, "Pribby!" (pretty!) and she's only broken two ornaments so far!

• I read on Friday that raw honey was shown in a scientific study to be MORE effective than dextromethorphan (DM) to inhibit coughing in kids.  I put it to work last night!  I didn’t have raw buckwheat honey (as in the study), but I have YS organic raw, unfiltered, unpasteurized, super-enriched honey.  That stuff is the bomb!  It tastes weird if you’re used to normal honey, but I LOVE the taste now.  The same can’t be said of my dear son, Wes.  Last night, he was coughing up a storm, so I mixed up a little concoction of a spoonful of raw honey mixed into a few ounces of warm water, with some organic lemon juice, and a few droppersful of colloidal silver.  He was not pleased.  But, I made him choke it down, and, VOILA!  No more coughs.  All night.  You can bet I’ll be doing that again!
• The good news?  My absolute fave gluten-free cereal (not that I can eat it right now), Erewhon’s Crispy Brown Rice with Mixed Berries is on clearance for only $2.24 a box at my local Fry’s grocery.  The bad news?  That likely means they will no longer carry it.    (The last time I posted about my love for this cereal, Erewhon contacted me and asked if I wanted “samples” of their g.f. cereal.  I said, “Sure!” envisioning, you know… samples.  I was blown away when a large brown box containing SEVEN full-sized boxes of cereal was shipped to my home.  But, this was right after I started the phase of “only” eliminating Fiala’s 17 known allergens, and I couldn’t eat any of them, as they all contained one or more of her allergens.  However, the kids liked all of the cereals, especially the Aztec Crunchy Corn & Amaranth.  They also really liked the Strawberry Crisp, though most of the flakes were pulverized by shipping — I guess — and they were more like cereal crumbs with added strawberries.  Still tasty, though.)
• This next thing is so weird it really deserves its own post.  First, I will state that I have had leg pain in my thighs for YEARS.  Years.  It’s deep in the muscle, from right above my knees, up into my hips.  It ebbs and flows, and at its worst, it will wake me up at night and I have to go take some Tylenol.  I have seen doctors about this, and the best that anyone can hypothesize is that since I have celiac disease, and don’t absorb nutrients well, perhaps my body is not absorbing calcium well, and, as one’s body needs to maintain a certain level of blood calcium, my body is pulling the calcium out of my largest bones, leading my bones/deep muscles to ache.  Now, this may still be true, but this past summer, a doctor finally ran a couple of tests on me, including several ways to measure the different levels of calcium in my blood, and they were spot on.  In fact, they were a tad too high, likely from me pumping the calcium supplements.  Well, a few weeks into the Total Elimination Diet with Fiala, I realized that my legs were not hurting.  At that time, I had the thought that maybe my leg pain was caused by some allergy in me!  I’m very slow to put two and two together — or, I’ll have some sort of revelation, then forget all about it, and be forced by my forgetfulness to rediscover it all over again.  However, after about the 3rd time trialling chicken — whereby both Fiala and I would eat a little portion,with no seasoning — I realized that a) Fiala didn’t like chicken at all, and b) about two days after eating chicken, my leg pain came back.  Every time.  HOWEVER, like I said, I’m forgetful.  So, this past Friday night, we bought a mess of wings for the kids, and I caved and gave a couple to Fiala.  By the end of the 2nd, her eyes were rimmed with red, and she was clawing at her face.  Duh.  I ate four.  Then, on Sunday (yesterday), I realized my leg pain was back, with a vengeance.  Double duh.  I had forgotten about the chicken=pain revelation of just a couple of weeks ago.  But, in a way, that was confirmation, because it was like running a blind experiment!  Ha!  I can’t find a whole lot of info online about chicken meat allergy, and the info that’s there is mostly of the “typical” allergy symptoms — Oral Allergy Syndrome, itching, wheezing, vomiting.  A couple of places mention joint pain, but although my hip joints do hurt, it mostly hurts deep in the muscle:  it feels like — honestly — like the muscle is deteriorating.  I don’t know how else to describe it.  When it hurts, I feel compelled to kind of punch my legs with the side of my fist, like a deep muscle massage.  But, that doesn’t help much, if at all.  Anyways.  The weird thing is, I have NEVER really liked chicken.  Give me a choice on a menu, and I will almost never choose chicken.  It’s not like I despise chicken;  it’s just never been my preference.  I love beef.    So, whether or not deep muscle pain is “supposed” to be a symptom of a chicken meat allergy or not, I can tell you that I will likely never eat chicken again.  I have the hint of exhilaration in my heart, with the thought of never having leg pain ever again.  I’m not sure how this is going to play out in my family, because my husband ADORES chicken, and there are many weeks where I don’t buy beef at all because it’s so expensive!  (And I really hope that this is chicken MEAT allergy, and that I’m not allergic to eggs.)  So, that is unresolved.
• 

  Mmmm...

  Last thing:  We made cookies!  Sunday morning, the helpers and I made the dough.  In the evening, we cut out and baked the cookies, and today we iced them.  We now have about 8 dozen  GFCF Gingerbread cookies, with royal icing thinned with lemon juice, and topped with sprinkles.  I altered my recipe just a tad, and they turned out even better.  Now, I just need a little of that self-control that everyone keeps telling me I have, because I’ve eaten three cookies.  These cookies are so good.  Seriously.  I should sell them.  I’m only about, oh, 60% confident in the wide appeal and money-making potential in most of the things that spring from my mind and hands.  But, these cookies (and the sugar ones, too, which we will make later this week or next) ROCK.  No gluten, no dairy — but they have that firm/chewy texture that cut-out cookies SHOULD have, and that gluten-free cookies rarely DO have.  The recipe has a lot of ingredients, but it’s worth it.  Make yourself some!!

• Dear Glade:  Instead of filling my home with fake “homemade” gingerbread cookies from a chemical-laden candle, I’d much rather fill my home with the real aroma of real cookies, actually homemade.  Thankyouverymuch.

Mismatched shoes, “love you man”, baking, babies, and books

• Saturday.  Shopping at Trader Joe’s.  Baby Fiala with me.  I’m shifting in the check-out line, biding my time.  My feet feel weird.  I look down.  I am aghast to discover that I had on one BLACK shoe and one BROWN shoe.  I was sssssooooo embarrassed that I had to confess to the check-out lady.    I can’t recall that I’ve ever done that — wear mismatched shoes out of the house, that is.  I think I’ve randomly confessed to checkout ladies at the grocery store before, though!!  Hahaha!  The shoes were vaguely similar in style, but one had a hard sole and the other soft;  I can’t figure out quite how I could let that happen.  I so wanted to take a pic, but the battery on my phone died.
• We’re not doing a gingerbread house this year.  The deadline for judging was November 30, which would have meant we would have had to spend the week of Thanksgiving doing the house.  That wouldn’t work.  I thought the kids would be crushed, but they weren’t.  They just asked, “Are you still going to make a bunch of cookies?” and I assured them that I would, but I still haven’t. 
• I still love farinata.  I still make it every day, sometimes twice.  I don’t let the batter sit for four hours first though;  I can’t figure out why most recipes instruct you to do that!  I just whip it up and pop it in the oven.  Some brands of garbanzo flour, I’ve found, are lumpier than others, and benefit from, oh, 15 minutes of sitting.  But not four hours.  My fresh rosemary plant is plucked to twigs;  I had to buy some fresh sprigs at the grocery store  last night!!
• Thanks to my friend Allison, we’ve been enjoying the Horatio Hornblower series as a family.  Love it.  My hubby and I did see the first four when they first aired on A&E years ago, but we haven’t seen the newer four episodes.  Everyone in the fam has been watching it.  Then, come to find out that there are BOOKS upon which they were based (written in the 1950s & ’60s).  Duh.  Should have figured that out long ago.  An e-mail just popped in from the library to to tell me that the first two in the series, by C.S. Forester, are now available to pick up.  The boys will be thrilled!  I was told that the Hornblower novels were based on Horatio Nelson’s life, but at least according to Wikipedia, maybe they weren’t — at least not entirely.
• My hubby and I swapped trucks on Friday, so he had the nicer one in which to pick up a guy from the airport.  I thought this was FABULOUS.  It tells you that a) his truck has a LOT of miles on it, and b) the guy who does work on our vehicles is a really good friend!!!
• I still don’t have my Christmas decorations up.    I want to have my house perfectly clean before decorating, and, um, it’s not.  I was just reflecting that, in general, this has been my worst year of housekeeping EVER.  Fiala is such a precious, happy little girl, but she has been very time-consuming, and as she still wakes about every 3 hours, 24/7, to nurse, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in, oh, a year.  That saps the energy, lemme tell you.  I’ve been thinking about asking my hubby for once-a-month maid service for Christmas, just to do dusting/polishing.  I can get everything else done (usually), or assign it to one of the children as a chore, but I’m sickened (not literally) by the 1/4″ of dust that piles up on everything.  Then, it picks at the back of my mind and drives me batty.
• Speaking of housework, I’m now off to mop the floors!!  I get odd satisfaction of having REALLY clean tile floors.  Nothing like a crawling baby to tell you whether or not a floor is clean.
• OH!  Speaking of crawling babies, Fiala is now almost-walking.  She still prefers crawling when she needs to get somewhere in a hurry, but she regularly takes steps now.  Her record is 16 in a row.  We all get excited and exclaim and clap, whereby she promptly sits down.

Thanksgiving and other stuff

• Post-post Thanksgiving breakfast?  Bacon, cranberry sauce, and homemade yeast rolls.  Mmmm.
• My mom said my wild rice stuffing was the best wild rice stuffing she had ever had.  I glowed.
• Fiala’s face is chewed up with bad eczema sores still, since the outing my husband and I had for our anniversary.  I explained her medical plight way-too-many times to concerned extended family (and family friends) who inquired about her face.
• HOWEVER, in the most encouraging news in almost three months of The Total Elimination Diet “Adventure,” I had decided in advance that Fiala and I would eat a normal Thanksgiving dinner and just suffer the consequences, rather than bringing garbanzo flour and lamb meat to my in-laws.    In what might be TMI, she has since had 100% totally healthy poop.  Previously, any time I veered even a tiny bit from the TED “safe” foods, she would get green, mucous-filled poop immediately.  Now, obviously, she is still having major skin issues, so I am not yet ready to abandon the TED, but her having normal poop after eating a normal (gluten-free) meal leaves me HIGHLY encouraged.
• We did not go to our appointment with the pediatric g.i. doc on Friday the 20th.  This is a point of disagreement between my husband and I.  I would have liked to keep it.  However, I totally understand his point:  We spent near $1000 on near-countless visits to the pediatric allergist, what with $50 co-pays, medication, and childcare for those doctor visits.  Fiala was subjected to a variety of uncomfortable tests.  For that $1000 and our sweet baby’s discomfort, we were given very little useful information from a doctor who eventually dropped us, saying he couldn’t be of any more help.  The MOST effective thing, so far, has been the TED which, other than the cost of food, is free.  My husband’s stance is, “Why subject her to countless tests and spend a bunch of money to get iffy results?”  MY contention is that perhaps through some tests, we could get a better handle on how to proceed, instead of just guessing.  Obviously, this issue is not yet resolved.  I’m holding off on pushing one way or another, though, until at least after Christmas.
• On Wednesday, we got a notice of “no show” from the ped g.i.  This was after I TWICE canceled the appointment with more than enough advance notice.  Grr.  I’ll have to take it up with them on Monday.