Merry Christmas Eve

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It has been a very full week here at the Shard household. Let’s see…yesterday we got a bit of a storm and it was so beautiful to watch the big flakes float down so softly from the sky. I love the silence that comes with the fluffy flakes. It’s very serene and peaceful to me. It’s almost like those millions of flakes are saying, “Shhh…slow down…look at us…enjoy us…”.

I know, yet again, I have used my iPhone for another pic. Ugh – I can’t help myself sometime. I need to go out and get a good point and shoot, I’m just too fussy and can’t decide. I don’t want to pay $500 for a p&s when I have a super-duper dslr. So, for now, it’s iPhone because I’m just too lazy sometimes to go upstairs and get my camera out of the bag. I know, silly, but true. However, I did use it today to take some great pics of all of the cousins when they came over today to exchange gifts. It’s amazing as they get older they actually all sit and listen and look at the camera – wow!!! I will post one of the pics if it’s okay with everyone – gotta check that first….

Yesterday, I started the long and arduous, yet mostly enjoyable, task of making a GF gingerbread house from scratch. You can’t buy ’em gluten-free and XL saw the cookie cutter set at the store so I couldn’t help myself. It did go fairly well all things considered, I guess, but I did try to hurry things along since I only had one cookie tray and I had to work later. I didn’t wait for the cookies to cool down before transferring them to a rack. Some of them were too soft and fell apart. I had to redo one roof part, two sides and two fronts. We also have a temper-mental oven so some of the bottoms got a little too cooked although the tops were perfect. Seriously? Why? All part of the process I know.

At this point I had to relinquish the power of the house creating to Steve. I had to go to work. On the bus. In the snow. Fun. So the rest was up to Steve and the boys. I got a pic of the first icing-making effort – it was not pretty. It was clumpy. Oil and icing sugar do not mix. Literally. We usually use oil as a sub for margarine for making breads because it’s easier and cheaper. Cookies too. No problem there. But, apparently, not so good for icing. So, try number two came out with better results, albeit still a bit tricky. Here’s a pic of what’s been constructed so far with a little help from some Tim’s cups for support:

I think it looks great! Can we be done now? I’m afraid to touch it for fear the roof may slide off. I’ll keep you posted, fingers crossed!

This morning, although we had a plethora of things yet to accomplish before family arrived at 1pm, I was determined to make a wack of gf waffles again so I could freeze some for future breakfasts. Future meaning like Christmas morning. Meaning tomorrow morning. Tripling the recipe according to Catherine’s recipe went very well and we managed to have a load left over. Off to the freezer they went. Cool. 🙂

I must say here that the iPhone is certainly fun to use when the lighting is right. So fun!

Waffles and breakfast over-with, next on the list was um, making gf sugar cookies. I made up the dough and put it into the fridge to chill at which point it becomes a blur. I know that suddenly it was noon and I had to sew seven little stockings to put treats into and I hadn’t even taken a good look at my ‘new’ sewing machine. (A great find on Kijiji and only used once before me) I crossed my fingers and plugged in the sewing machine and sewed a sample piece. Ah, it ran smooth as butta. Beautiful! I finished the stockings at about 12:45 which was longer than necessary but I realized, with Steve’s help, that I was one stocking short and it took me a bit to find the extra material. It was on top of the microwave in a papier-maché bowl. Isn’t that where everyone keeps extra material?

I was thinking of an easy way to close the top of the stockings without the kids struggling to rip open a sewn top so I used some previously painted green clothes pins. Perfect! The kids loved them, I think especially since they were unexpected. I like that. :0 Aren’t they cute? I can’t take all the credit – Martha Stewart made me do it.

1pm, family arriving and I’m making sugar cookies. The dough is so much easier to roll out as it is much ‘wetter’ I want to say. But, that being said, this makes it harder to transfer to the cookie sheet. So, not only did some of them burn on the bottom (a bit), some of them were also not really recognizable. Our niece held up one cookie asking what it was. I said, ‘It’s holly. No. It’s a tree.’ Oh, well. At least they tasted good. Nothing to see here as far as cookie pics. Didn’t think of it and probably didn’t want to remember the oddly shaped, albeit, yet yummy tasting cookies.

Once all the kids left I made some yummy potato soup with onions, garlic, dill and fennel. So yum! Totally off topic but so enjoyable! Then we Skyped with Nanna and Papa. When I asked the boys during dinner what their favourite thing about this year was so far they said, ‘visiting Nanna and Pappa. And Cheeky Monkey.’ I can’t argue there. Our visit to see Nanna and Papa was awesome as always. The boys love seeing them and their friends and going to play at Cheeky Monkey, the coolest indoor playground even for adults with some kid in them. Rocket slide, you are one crazy fast piece of plastic! Eek!

Suddenly it was 6:30 and we all jumped in the car to  drive around and check out Christmas lights. X said he counted more than two hundred houses with lights. It was fun to see how people decorate their homes. The glow of the lights just really gets me in the mood for the holidays. Of course, the street that we found with the most houses decorated was just 5 minutes from us. Our street was pitiful. That includes us. The plug to our house is in the driveway so not in a convenient spot at all when it’s late at night and very cold outside and you need to unplug the lights. I know, we should get one of those extension cords with a switch. I know. We said that last year too…

We got home, and helped the boys get ready for bed and Steve and L read, “The Night Before Christmas” and off they went into ‘Christmas dreamland’. I usually say to them as I kiss them goodnight, “Sweet dreams come true”. This time, after I made this wish to the boys, X said, “Sweet Christmas dreams come true”. Indeed…which leads me to the next part – gift wrapping…

Santa, as always, dropped off gifts and I took a quick pic of the wrapping. Always impressed I’m with Santa’s wrapping ways. I still wonder what his hand-writing looks like because he always uses these cute little tags. Hmmm…I guess these days, with computers and all, and so many gifts to deliver, the time it takes to print out a tag is much less than writing. What a hand-cramp that would be. Carpel tunnel anyone?

…and like we told the boys, Santa can’t get you everything on your list as he has so many children to deliver gifts to. Well, Santa is good. He got them one thing on their list and a couple ones that they had forgotten to mention when they made their lists with Daddy last night while I was at work. Boy, that Santa, he is fast. He can even do last-minute requests! X decided to place his list on the tree so it wouldn’t be missed by Santa. He used a magnet from our dart game. Works perfect with a fake tree. L’s list is in the next best place, the refrigerator door. 🙂

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I was surprised to see L’s list much shorter than X’s. Then again, I think this was a ‘carry over’ from his birthday list. He totally scored on that one.

Steve and I managed to wrap a few gifts from us. I decided to do something a little different for the tags. Maybe I was inspired by Santa’s savvyness. Or, maybe I saw something like this online. That Martha sure is crafty!

Now here I am with my glass of wine, the gifts are under three tree, stockings stuffed and I am pooped.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Love you all!

xoxoxo Us 🙂

Good night and Sweet Christmas dreams come true.

~smile~

 

 

Gluten-Free Waffles: a great way to start a day! and why we went GF.

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The boys have now been off gluten for maybe a month. Hmmm…wish I’d kept track of the date we started. It has gotten easier every day as I have a friend who inspired me to try the GF thing when she mentioned that since she started it with her two kids two years ago and it has made all the difference in their behaviour. When I say ‘behaviour’ I don’t mean in just how they act but how they think as well.

I don’t know if I have said this before but I’ve had a trying time with L and getting him to concentrate. He always has to be doing something with his hands, and this easily distracts him from other things, like his math book sitting out in front of him. Sometimes it would drive me around the bend as I couldn’t see what the big deal was: why should it take him and hour and a half to do two math pages????? Maybe he is distracted by the Lego in front of him. Solution: no toys on the table while doing lessons. Did this work? Yes. Briefly. Then he would just sit there and stare part of the time unless I worked through each page with him to keep him on track. At this point there are many of his lessons he can do independently. Well, he can do but doesn’t.

I read in a book titled, Beyond Survival: a Guide to Abundant-Life Homeschooling by Diana Waring that we all have different learning styles. How interesting! L is actually one of those kids/people who, like myself, always needs to be doing something with his hands. How interesting! Like mother like son! So, I relented and said he could have a toy on the table to ‘watch’ him while he did his math, etc. Also, he fiddles with a toy (yet again, usually Lego) while we have our reading time where I read a book to them. (To clarify, at 5 and 7 they already know how to read, but me reading to them everyday helps them to understand how books are read when it comes to punctuation and tone and rhythm for comprehension. Also, they get to hear interesting stories that may be above their reading level.) I’d stop and ask L a question while I was reading to see if he was listening, and sure enough, he told me the answer almost word for word as I had read it. X, too – when he wasn’t doing hand stands on the couch. That boy cannot sit still! Again, mother…son. 🙂

Now, although I relented to the toys being around to ‘watch’ L as he worked he still took painfully long to get things done. I’d ask him a question he should know such as, “L, what is 5+7?” And he would say, “5+7. 5..+7..5…..+…..7……….” Boom. Gone. It was as if I had drugged him and his mind just went to mush. He would stare off into the air expressionless.

Then came the introduction of Gluten-Free foods. Can’t hurt to try, right? Makes, sense as we are what we eat. And if it worked for C and her kids then it just may work for us. In as little as 24 hours I noticed a difference with L and his school work. X, too. Albeit, X’s lesson load is much lighter as he is only five but nonetheless, the concentration was there where it hadn’t been before. It stayed. It hung around like a wonderful friend and helper. Amazing. Lucas can get his spelling done in ten minutes and his math in twenty to thirty. Aside: I also instilled a more realistic schedule for the boys that spreads out their lessons through the week where we get the brain challengers done first thing. Their various programs are also in the schedule, such as Multi-Sports class, Art Gallery and Discovery Centre and theatre group to name some, and if it keeps us out of the house for hours then I lighten the load of lessons for the day so it doesn’t seem so arduous. Also, Family Time Fitness thrown in there is a great way to get us energized again for 15-20 minutes before starting another lesson. Educational games are great too. They learn as they have fun. Well, we learn as we have fun!

Getting ready to go out the door, which used to take a good twenty minutes from the time I would ask the boys to go to the washroom, get their shoes and coats on and grab their water bottles shrunk down to a mere 5 minutes in most instances without very little repeating of this easy ‘getting out the door’ list.

Okay so, long story long, this wonderful friend of mine, C,  gave me a recipe for waffles. The GF ones at the store are expensive but the boys love them. (Oh, and her recipe for sandwich bread has finally been successful for me after trying all of those bread-machine ones. Making this one by hand is much more rewarding. Pat myself on the back for my persistence! My reward is worth it.)

Here is ‘going into the oven’ and ‘out of the oven and oh so good’ hand-made bread.

 

Yesterday I bought a waffle maker with new recipe in hand. I was inspired by C as she makes a big batch every weekend and freezes them to use for breakfasts. Brilliant. I tried out her recipe (small batch first) expecting maybe a bit of difficulty or dry, distasteful (?) waffles. I was so thrilled as my first two waffles just cooked up perfectly and the boys scarfed them down. Oh, what a great way to start a day!! LOVE that waffle maker. There is hope, after all, with GF food and sane kids! Yay! …sane Mommy too! 🙂

I think next time I may add blueberries, or chocolate chips…yum…this time Steve just added the chocolate chips onto the top of the already cooked waffles.

Such a pretty sight for my eyes – home-made GF waffles. (Yes, I know, it’s blurry, argh, camera phone, but pretty nonetheless!)

All gone! Success!

I ‘heart’ my waffle maker. I ‘heart’ my boys. All three of ’em!

How time flies…

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I started looking through various family pics to see what to post next. I am playing catchup in a bad way. I was going to start with pics from L’s birthday but once I found these images I realized that they are still in RAW format, needing to be editing and changed to jpg’s to post. I opened Lightroom to see if I had already them imported to edit and I found some images from January. I did a double-take when I saw them and checked the date and they are indeed from January of this year. Geez, I look so well-rested and young’ish’ and that was only 11 months ago – how times flies!!!

Me and the boys via iPhone on the ferry…they are awesome!

X loves cucumbers and is getting quite good at peeling them too!

Natalie Norton, some inspiration…

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So, today I had a half hour before starting dinner and I thought it would be a great time to do a post (which won out over editing). But, I got caught up with the tab open at the time which is my Google Reader. Within Reader you can subscribe to various blogs without having to leave the Reader site. Pretty cool. I have 385 unread posts from other blog and counting. I don’t get to it often, but at times, it can be photographically inspirational and sometimes spiritually.

Today, I became absorbed in Natalie Norton, a wonderful photographer whose blog I’d found over a year ago, although I don’t recall how. She has been through hell and back and always gets me ‘right there’ with her words. I either leave tearful from sorrow of her past loss or inspired by her strength, or both. She is amazing.

I copied this from her blog and plan to use something like it for myself as a reminder each day (especially the tough days which are sometimes more abundant than they should be):

My commitment moving forward

1.  I will thank God for my blessings every, single day.

2.  I will LOVE and CHERISH my living children. . . in honor of Almira. . . who could not do so for her own. (not sure who Almira is but need to check it out)

3. I will continue the legacy of service left by brave and beautiful Lucy. I will not wallow in grief or hide behind self-pity and doubt; I will step forward and lose myself in doing good, every day, and always. (Lucy, not sure…)

4. I will continue to write, that my children (and theirs) might know me, completely–that they might know my deep, abiding love for them and for that God who gives us life. I will write the TRUTH, as I see it, from the bottom of my soul.

5. I will seek God more completely. I will strive to know him more intimately, through sincere prayer, openly expressed gratitude, and daily study of his inspired word.

Aloooooha, N

Check out her blog if you get a moment. You may need more than a moment. 🙂

 

AGNS and learning to felt

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The boys take a trip to the local art gallery once a month and they love it. They get to view new installations and various recent travelling shows. This October there was an artist in residence who was making a felt waterfall that rotated vertically by a track on the side. The kids loved it, especially turning the big crank to make it go! Below the piece is a mirror which makes it look as though the ‘waterfall’ is crashing into the water below.

The coolest part?

The kids got to learn how to felt, from combing out some sheeps’ wool into thin, fine pieces to actually picking up a nice piece of finished felted sized about 6″x12″. It was very cool to watch. Then they were able to pick – well, I think Xander found the spot – to place the newly-made felt onto the already existing waterfall structure once it was dry.

Gotta try this at home! Not the waterfall, just the piece of felt. Or, at least little felt balls. So fun!

The pics were taken with my phone so not the best but oh so handy!

That’s one of the artists next to Xman. She was very patient with the kids and you could tell she enjoyed showing them the process. It took me back to art college days learning to felt in Textiles class!

Xman feeling drying felted pieces.

Pine cones and chestnuts

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I’m playing catch up here whenever I get a moment. So today, as we are in the midst of a snowstorm, I declared it a no lesson day as school was apparently cancelled. We are chilling (no pun really intended and it’s nice and cozy in here), watching a bit of tv, putting together a puzzle of flags of the world, and we already went out and played in the snow and hung the pine cone feeders. These posts will come soon to show the snow fun and feeders.

In order to make the pine cone feeders we needed to collect the cones first. We went to a great park just under one of the bridges and found a great many cones. The boys and I went with a friend of mine and her two kids that are great friends with boys. They always find fun and interesting things to do. This time they created an imaginary fort inside the big pine trees and chestnuts. The boys have been intrigued with chestnuts for since I can recall.

X used the hat I knit him to collect his chestnuts. It was stretching from the weight!

When we got home the boys wanted to plant their nuts in the backyard. We marked them each so we remember where they are and can check on them after the snow. It’s gonna be a long wait if today is a sign of what this winter has in store: malls closed, highways backed up for miles.

Our day at the park was wonderful. The weather was a bit cool, but just enough to sport a vest. The breeze was fresh and smelled like the ocean and fresh fallen leaves. Great memories!

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zucchini relish – super yum!!

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Okay, so I am relishing (haha) my time to myself by catching up a bit on blogging while Judy watches the boys for a couple of hours: sipping a venté soy chai latté at you-know-where. I never get a venté size but it was a freebie so for sure!

I started up the laptop and realized we took all Photoshop versions off of it to make room. We don’t edit on it any longer as we have our own computers and this is the family one. Soooo…great, what to do now when I want to resize some pics for the blog?? Hmmm…oh, maybe Preview can do it, and voila, yes, it can. Whew!

So, here we go…

My lovely sister-in-law gave me a recipe for zucchini relish. I needed something to do with the woppin’ big zucchini my friend, Juli, had dropped off from her parents’ garden – it’s huge! Here is a pic of it with a teaspoon measure to get the idea. Well, this is half of it as I’d already used some for the zucchini marmalade recipe I got from Juli…the boys went crazy when they saw it!

The marmalade turned out great albeit very, very thick. My first time waiting for the mix to ‘gel’ and really not knowing what to expect ended up with something crazy, bread-tearing, thick stuff. But yummy. At least I tried 🙂

Aaanyway, here are some pics along the way. The first pic looks so good already what with the zucchini, carrots and I forget what else (!) mixed in. Kind of like an alternative coleslaw. Raw zucchini is sooo good!

MIxin’ the suga’ togetha…

All ready to go into the jars and this time I didn’t super cook it into a crazy gel – so pleased!

Funny thing is that four of the jar lids didn’t ‘pop’ after 24 hours as they should to show it’s good to go/ready to store and eat pretty much whenever. Steve brought one of these jars into work and popped it into the fridge. By lunchtime when he went to retrieve it the lids had popped. Weird. So, I stuck the rest into the fridge at home and what do ya know? They popped! Nice. Thanks, Steve. Inadvertently, but thanks, nonetheless.

Steve LOVES the zucchini and I must say, M, thanks for a super-awesome recipe! We put it on egg sandwiches, plain toast, whatever. It’s totally worth it!

There. Another post done. More catch-up to do but I still want to read, knit and draw and I’ve got just over an hour left. :0

Judy, thanks for the time. It’s…I don’t know…so nice to say the least.

I’m not perfect, nor are my days…

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I know that we want to stay positive as much as possible, but I think it’s nice to show the other side of myself sometimes being human and all. By saying that I don’t mean the crazy one (haha) but the one that sometimes just doesn’t feel like getting out of bed to go through the rigor of the day. Can’t we all just cuddle in pj’s and watch a movie? Probably. But…

Today is one of those days where it was a bit tough to get going.

I felt way too tired this morning and everything felt like such a chore, even making breakfast, let alone doing lessons.

Sooo, I lay down on the couch after breakfast to calm a silly stomach. Lucas grabbed my pillow from upstairs and put a blanket on me. Both boys cuddled into me and we watched Curious George together. I almost fell asleep. Almost. But, I don’t believe in sleeping when you have young children who may get  into things, which is rare, but that would be the time.

I felt a bit better after my bit of rest and just letting the lessons go for now. Sometimes I feel guilty and trudge on with it all even on off-days.

I let the boys play on the computer for 1/2 each as I got us an early lunch. I know, it sounds like this happened soon after breakfast but there was email checking and three loads of laundry to fold in between it all. I must admit that folding the laundry did help lift my spirits. So did the snuggle with my boys. 🙂

Lunch, then consisted of easy food. As much as I hate it, I broke out a can of Zoodles. The last one in the cupboard. I hate using cans and processed food for the boys so I have vouched to not get them any longer. If they were lucky they may get it once a week as it was but I think it’s better this way.

~Aside~ Yesterday was AWESOME for lessons and I think it had to do with the fact that I have just recently greatly reduced the gluten in my boys’ diet (post to come). L did his math and spelling without any distractions. And by distractions I even mean the distraction of L to L. His brain easily distracts him. It’s cute sometimes and the things he thinks of amaze me. So, the boys did so well that we finished lessons in 2.5 hours including a bit of play in there. Wow!!

So, we will see how the gluten factor in the Zoodles affects my lovelies…this is the test of the gluten vs gluten-free. Here goes!

Now, for myself I decided to cook the easiest thing I could think of that is not only easy but sooo cheesy! You may have guessed it – Mac and Cheese. Oh yum! Still, I added garlic for health. That’s good, right?

Now, I think lessons will commence if I can get my boys to slow down and stop running in the house! Can I blame the gluten this soon after the Zoodles ingestion??

I must admit I love their energy. Wish I could harness it some days!

Maybe we will start with learning why leaves change colour and fall off trees. Very seasonally apropos, don’t you think? Speaking of trees, maybe we will read Pinocchio too…

Amazing. Blessed. Boys.

Have a good day. Even if it means Mac and Cheese to help you get there.

-smile-

 

late nights equal tough mornings…

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Lately, Steve has been working some evenings and into the early mornings on one particular piece of design work that is separate from his day job designs. It’s a logo and he loves to do logos.

I must say I admire his work ethics as he treats his design as an art. Every time he is hired to so some design work on the side he never does anything only half as good as he could. He is one of those people that puts in 100% for every job and that is something I respect a lot. I only wish it didn’t come with the guarantee of at least one all-nighter. But, you do the work when you can and that’s when the house is asleep for the most part.  Well, this dedication to the work comes at a price that many of us call ‘lack of sleep’ to put it lightly. Ugh! It never ends really. Sometimes the lack of sleep is lacking a little less than other days but always lacking to a degree.

Last night Steve got to bed at – wait! – I should say this morning Steve got to bed at 5am and then was up at 8am,which is late for a work day, to get ready for work.

In the mornings we have the habit of making tea or coffee for each other and placing it on the side of the shower edge to be drank/drunk ? while one of us is showering. This morning Steve was quick into the shower before I pulled myself out of X’s bed, which is a regular happening around here. I walked into the bathroom to see this on the edge of the shower. A tell-tale sign of what the night was like and what the day to come would hold for Steve.

Shazzam! Talk about your waker-upper!

Love you, my hard working, man. 🙂

 

First stab at GF bread in breadmaker vs second time…

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Tasty too.

It was a bit of a challenge to figure out the bread machine recipe as it begins on the ‘dough cycle’. Then, after the first mix you remove the paddle which is a messy business to say the least. Then you wait for that cycle to end. You reset the breadmaker to the GF cycle. Really? A breadmaker has a GF cycle? Hunh…

I chose the ‘rapid bake’ which was for the same time and I think I did pretty good.

The boys are like changed children since removing gluten from their diet. They listen now, can concentrate on their lessons, and seem happier – oh wait, maybe that’s me. 🙂

Onto second GF breadmaker recipe story. This one was for a pumpernickel which we’ve made with regular flour before and I love. Sooo, since I had made one GF loaf so far and it worked just fine I figured this should be easy! When the ‘dough’ cycle ended I opened the lid to see how much the bread had risen and couldn’t believe what I saw.

It was alive! I swear!

At first I thought I could just wipe around the edge with it in the maker but then noticed this was not such an easy solution. This monstrous yeast mixture was growing by they second (literally) and oozing all the way down and over the bottom of the inside of the maker. This is what it looked like when I removed it. I cleaned the maker and then proceeded to clean this mess. I wiped all around the edges and it took a while as the dough was very sticky. The goop kept coming over the sides as I wiped the overflow off. I couldn’t believe it!

GF flours, in my novice opinion, are a little pricier than even the regular organic stuff we buy. I was not going to give up on this loaf. Finally, I wiped it down for about the fifth time and then stuck my finger in the top a couple of times. It was like watching the Wicked Witch of the West melt! Down, down it went, lower into the container. Guess I popped one too many air bubbles. :0

Nonetheless, I was relieved and put it back into the bread maker for the ‘rapid’ cycle with fingers crossed. It rose a bit more but luckily not to the top and not overflowing. Whew!

When the beeper went off I opened the lid and there was a big sink hole in the middle. Bummer for sure! It tasted good and the boys liked it but you couldn’t really slice it. Just when I thought I had saved the loaf it goes and sinks on me!

I added less sugar next time and it went much better. Such a learning experience, and one I can laugh about at least!

Since then, I tried to make GF flour tortilla shells. Dreadful. When the recipe says potato flour starch that means add the potato starch and not the potato flour. BIG difference. BIG. HUGE.

😉