Life, Gluten Free

Seven Things I Love

Naomi of Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried tagged me with a meme and the Kreativ Blogger award.

For the meme, list seven things you love, in no particular order and then tag seven others to do the same. Below is my list of my seven favorite things and then the seven bloggers that I have tagged to do the same.

1. having the windows open to enjoy a light spring breeze.

2. listening to Sophie's deep, exuberant laugh.

3. admiring my husband's gentle and honest smile, remembering all the reasons why he's mine and why I am the lucky one.

4. watching Sophie grow and change, but noticing the moment's where she's still in need of my love and protection, and realizing that in some ways, she always will need me.

5. going to the Farmer's Market and feasting my eyes on all the fresh, local and organic produce.

6. being a family, caring, loving, appreciating.

7. cooking and creating for the simple joy of it!

For my dear seven, you are now tagged with this meme and given the Kreativ Blogger Award. The internet world would be a little less creative and a lot less captivating without you.

Cathy at The Life and Adventures of Catepoo

Ali at Whole Life Nutrition

Rachel at The Crispy Cook

CoconutGal at Coco.nut Your Average Girl

Vittoria at Deliciously Gluten Free

Maureen at Hold the Gluten

Trish at Gluten Free in SLC

And I would tag my good friend Kelly at The Spunky Coconut, but she was already tagged by Naomi. Good choice :)

Go have fun!

-heather

An Indoor Snowman

What do you do with a toddler when it is snowing madly outside? Bring in a bowl of snow!

Sophie enjoyed tossing the snow around (we have wood floors) and then mopping it up. Bonus: our floor was sparkling!

And then, of course, we built an indoor snowman.

And the next day, when the snow stopped, we tried to ignore that our cats were sleeping in a warm bed why we were outside shoveling snow.
 

We thanked our neighbor for not only shoveling part of our sidewalk but also our driveway leading up to our front door. 

Monitor little fingers if they play with the snow without gloves. I am still looking for a pair of waterproof toddler gloves that have fingers instead of the "mitten" style with the thumb. Those are sub-par. Sophie can't even move her fingers around in them enough to play with the snow properly.

And one more thing, remember that while it IS fun to throw snowballs at your husband, he is (more than likely) bigger than you and..... will throw one back at you! :(

-heather

Social Networking for Toddlers?

We were shopping at our favorite natural grocer when Sophie spotted a little girl, and like wise, the little girl spotted Sophie. The four-year old started introducing herself to us. Her bright-colored striped tights matched her upbeat personality. The next thing I knew, they were skipping along throughout the store - with my husband trailing behind them.

I took the opportunity to do some shopping, and later when we were driving to our next destination, my husband said that Sophie's new friend asked for her phone number. Suddenly, I thought of "calling cards" for toddlers and kids. I started laughing: "Oh, you should make Sophie a card with her picture on it and phone number." We had fun thinking of what her title could be, and came up with "Play Artist," since play is really a kind of art :)

We stopped at the library before going home, and by the time we got home there was already a message on the phone from Sophie's new friend. Cute!!

And although I thought for sure I had a potential million-dollar idea by introducing calling cards for kids, it seems I am not alone! I found a place online called Amy Adele that prints calling cards (and cute stationary) for kids on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

-heather

The Moments That Make Your Life

The moments that make your life good, blessed, awesome, amazing.... We all have epiphanies now and again - hopefully more than less. Though you may struggle and have hard times, there are things in your life that make you realize that the bottom-line is, your life is pretty amazing.

When you walk through life focusing mostly on the negative or the trivial matters in life, you start to take things for granted, forgetting all of the little things that make life what it's all about.

There are times when everyone feels overwhelmed, and then we begin to forget to appreciate. 

I had postpartum depression, at least that is what I was told. Instead of taking a prescription, I went to an alternative doctor and started a supplement regime which included fish oil and a combination of 5-htp and l-tryptophan. While it did help, my symptoms did not completely subside until I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease about a year later.

Through those times, I learned that it really is easy to forget to be thankful for what you have.

And then there are times where you can't help but appreciate what you have.

The other night, my daughter and I were dancing in our room to music. That is one of her favorite things to do. We had a scarf that we were dancing with. She was enjoying herself thoroughly. 

She started saying "dancing 'gether, momma!"

Instead of "together," she says "gether." I wonder why sometimes, whole parts of words are dropped. It is pretty cute though.

In the picture above, we were walking home from a trail that is near our house. Actually, we drove to the trail because it's about a mile away and we were going to stop at the store. But, my husband locked the keys in the car, which is something that is not that hard to do since we have manual locks. We got to enjoy some fresh air while we walked home to get our extra key :)

-heather

A little love for mommy

While I was eating, my husband was helping Sophie with some crafts. I looked over and saw what they were doing and I asked Sophie who she was making that for. I think she thought I was asking what she was making because she said "a flower," unless of course she really meant she was making it for a flower ;)

I looked away and then I noticed that my husband was whispering to Sophie, and I asked again "oh, who is that for?"

Sophie: "a momma"
Me: "oh thank you! it's beautiful"

She puts an "a" on a lot of things: "A momma," "A cow," etc...

She also loves to put glue on the entire paper, and not just on what she's glueing. But hey, it's art!

The glue we use is called EcoGlue and it happens to be the only glue she can use. I have a glue stick that is for photos, and when only a smidgen got on Sophie's hand, she broke out in hives within seconds. Doesn't that tell you something? not exactly non-toxic!

-heather

Happy Valentine's Day!

My husband brought those flowers home to me last night. They are, to say the least, extremely beautiful. That particular hue of pink is really quite amazing. I am thoroughly enjoying them. 

And then, this morning, there was a knock on the door. 

Flower delivery! I received a glass (pink, no less) vase of daisies and red roses. Needless to say, I am feeling very loved, spoiled..... and somewhat unworthy :) 

But today, I encourage everyone to try and appreciate themselves. I have always been very modest, and it has been said that modesty is a virtue. Is it really though? Of course, no one wants to be around someone who is arrogant and egotistical. But, learning to appreciate yourself.. is an entirely different matter. 

I stay at home with my daughter, and that is a hard job. I, unfortunately, do not sit around all day watching tv and eating chocolate. No, being a stay at home mom is a true blessing and at the same time, a challenge. So why shouldn't I appreciate myself? quite right! It's a hard thing to do, something that we should be taught at a young age. That is something that I am striving to instill in my daughter, that she is amazing and she should appreciate herself for who she is. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day. Remember, take time to love yourself too :)

 -heather

Recipes Written in Crayon

Although we have many pens to choose from, they are never in the draw or anywhere to be found when you need them.

Was it the gnomes?

Perhaps.

You see, where we lived previously, we had a large laundry cart in our closet. It contained three bags. One for whites, one for darks and one for our daughter's clothes. Pretty easy, right?

Unless you have gnomes...

My husband said that the reason his clothes always ended up laying over the cart or near it on the floor, was a direct result of what he called "gnomes."

Pesky little buggers. Since we moved here, they must have followed us and decided that they needed a new hobby: pens.

This has been an ongoing issue, and many of my recipes have been scrawled in crayon.

And I am guessing, that the popcorn that I stepped in while photographing the recipe, was more than likely those same gnomes!

Because, clearly, my daughter didn't do it. She loves to clean and help.

And she's very good at it too.

Show your kids that housework can be fun. It doesn't have to be a bore! 

-heather

Ring in the New Year!

If you do your research, you will find that most people agree that new year's resolutions fail because the person has set their expectations too high or have made too many resolutions at once. I have a different take on this and a solution to the dreaded new year's resolutions.

Most resolutions are to change something that you don't like about yourself, for example, to lose weight. Instead of thinking about what you don't like about yourself, find ways to appreciate who you are. Think about how you might could improve yourself, in a positive way.

If you do feel that you need to trim down, restructure your words, they make a powerful impact on how you feel about yourself and how you feel about whether or not you will accomplish your resolution(s).

For example, test out these two sentences and take time to notice your emotions:

"I am very overweight. I don't eat right and I need to lose weight."

"I am at my proper body weight. I am eat nourishing foods and my body image reflects that."

Take time to realize what you want and act as if you already have it. Don't be your own critic. Instead of feeling bad about yourself and judging yourself, appreciate who you are. A lot of good things can come from that.

This year, we are going to be focusing on things that we can do to improve ourselves and our relationships. We are going to be careful to not focus on the negative, but rather think of what we can do in a positive light, instead of bashing ourselves because of our self-perceived weaknesses.

We are also going to be watching Louise Hay's movie You Can Heal Your Life.

Beyond that, here are a few tips on some resolutions you can make to help the environment:

1) Use reusable bags. Keep extras in your car for the times that you may forget to grab them on your way out. Don't limit them to just grocery shopping, use them for all your shopping trips.

2) Use biodegrable trash bags, like these: 

- Eco-Smartbags Biodegradable Trash Bags.

- Perf Go Green Kitchen Bags With Handles.

- Seventh Generation Trash Bags.

3) Use cloth diapers and cloth wipes. We use FuzziBunz. If you don't want to purchase specific cloth diaper wipes, you can simply use wash cloths. We have a mixture of cloth wipes and regular wash cloths.

4) Use reusable water containers like Sigg or Klean Kanteen. 

5) Recycle! Make sure your recycling container is larger than your trash container. We have that option in our city, and we have the smallest trash container instead of the largest.

May you all have a blessed and positive New Year.

-heather

Happy Holidays!

She was so excited to have her own bike! It was too cute!
 

And she was really excited about the keyboard from Grandma. 

But then it was nap time.
 

Good thing too, because after her nap, we had relatives from out of town. 

Sophie wasn't sure at first, but then she started to feel more comfortable.

I knitted that scarf for her! (above)

From our house to yours, we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a Happy New Year! 

-heather

Cupcakes for Sophie

I was enlisted to make 24 cupcakes and one birthday cake for the daughter of my mom's friend. Besides being gluten-free, the desserts also needed to be egg free and dairy free. As I was making them, Sophie wanted to help. My mom quickly grabbed some ingredients and got to work with Sophie to create something that she could eat too. It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good either.

Her favorite thing was to "organize" them by taking them in and out of the cupcake pan and putting them into a dish and then back again to the cupcake pan!

As I started to put the frosting and sprinkles on the cupcakes for the little girl, I started to cry. Here I was, making cupcakes for other kids. I've never been able to make a cupcake or any baked treat for my own daughter, because of her allergies. It has been so hard with Sophie's allergies. Right then and there, I vowed to figure out how to make a cupcake or cake that she can have for her second birthday this February. The problem is that we haven't been able to find any oil that she can have, which is really critical to a good cake. I can't use apple sauce either.

Life with allergies is tough, especially when it is your own child. Somethings as simple as cake can be out of reach for children with allergies. 

But life goes on, and my daughter is happy and content. She ate her cupcakes, even though they really weren't that great and didn't have any frosting. I didn't let her see the ones that I was making, so she wouldn't be upset. 

But for her second birthday, someway - somehow, she will have a gluten-free cake. 

My heart aches, but I know someday she will be able to eat more foods. And I am thankful for how far she has already come.

Here are the cupcakes and cake that I made:

Organic, gluten-free, non-artificial sprinkles? Not out of reach! They are by Let's Do Organic! and you can find them at Whole Foods, Vitamin Cottage and other natural health markets.

-heather