Happy 4th Birthday John Paul

Four years ago this crazy, energetic, life-loving, loud, independent, caring, long-haired, tough, little dude was born.

Happy 4th Birthday little man, big helper, big brother, Lego builder, castle builder, explorer, patient bird watcher, jungle gym climber, oatmeal and sugar eater, brand new scooter owner, havoc wrecker!  I love you and wouldn't have you any other way :)

She's 16 Months

She may be 16 months today, but sometimes I think she thinks she's closer to 16 years.
Penellie wakes up in the mornings and the first thing she tends to do is grab her shoes, sit at my feet, and gesture for me to put them on her so she can go outside.  This morning I let her out with me, sans shoes...it's Earth Day after all, why not feel the dewy grass?  The beautiful morning quickly turned into a dark, gray, and pouring down rain day. 

She LOVES to climb pretty much as much as she loves to be outside.  Cooped up inside does her no good.  I found her squawking up on top of her roost chair...

 demanding to go outside.

See the door over there, Mama?

What?! Pouring rain's never stopped me before!  (insert much crying and more gesturing, foot stomping, and squawking)

 

Then, my happy girl returned when I pulled the blinds up so we could watch a robin hop around then dart away.

Earth Day 2010

I don't normally get into Earth Day, but this year I did :)  Last night I saw this fun blog, Bloom, and on there I found this cute tin can pot and knew I had to do that too.  So this morning (going totally off of just seeing the picture on Bloom and not reading the craft instructions on the other site) I grabbed a can from the recycling box, put some fresh soil in it, cut some herbs from the garden, sprinkled in some water, snapped a picture and called it done.  :) I know the can needs some holes poked in the bottom and a layer of small rocks under the soil, but I was also thinking that these cuttings would be transplanted by a friend in to her garden, so I skipped those steps.  I'm thinking a set of these would be charming on a pretty windowsill (of course with a plate underneath).

 The picture was taken right after I planted it.  The oregano has since perked back up and all 3 herbs look great. :)  Now picture these with some colorful little flowers in there too....  Makes me happy!

I'm Here, I'm Here, Really I Am

Life's hectic, yeah yeah yeah, heard it before :)  I get on here every morning with the best intentions of finally uploading a post and some pictures, but then I get to reading all the blogs I adore (because they are typically updated daily!) and then my allotted 20 minutes of computer time is gone.  So, a super quick run down of the last just about 2 months....John Paul, ERs, doctor visits, tests, diagnosis (Celiac Disease), then today, maybe it's not CD.  FRUSTRATION!!!!  Last week John Paul had an EGD (knocked him out, camera down his throat, biopsy in 3 different places) the doctor confirmed what the blood work had told us (he saw that the duodenum was slick--no cilia), he has Celiac (yes, shock at first, but we got over it and were excited 1)to finally have an answer and 2)new ways to cook and bake...healthier)While CD can be a big deal, it doesn't really have to be and we are fine with it.  John Paul is a totally (well okay, he is still 3 and does behave accordingly) different kid without gluten and wheat in his diet.  He's so much more well-behaved.  Thank God too, because I was really stressing out trying to raise him lovingly!  So, we've embraced the GF life.  We're having fun cooking and trying new things....Yesterday I bought rice flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, and what not to be able to bake again.  Then today we got a call from the nurse to give us the results of the biopsy...everything looks good, a slight shortening of the cilia in the 1st 2 areas they looked at and then the duodenum looks good; we'll retest in 6 months.  Yes, we're confused!  We have another appointment. When we first started all of this, the hospital had 2 files for JP, one had blood work saying yes, CD and the other had no blood work so therefore no CD.  RRRRrrrrr.  They were supposed to merge the files and have corrected everything. I'm hoping that there is some kind of mistake, not sure what, but I love my boy without gluten (yes, of course I loved him before, but he wasn't happy and no one else was either).  In order to be tested again, he has to go on a full gluten diet to avoid a false negative.  Do these people know what they are doing?!
If you're still reading this, enough of this topic and ranting.  That's really not why I decided to post tonight.  What I really wanted to share with you is this awesome site I found: Sprouted Kitchen.  There are some INCREDIBLE recipes there and the photography is just beautiful.  Enjoy it.  I'm looking forward to creating the dish she posted on March 22nd. :)

John Paul in his favorite t-shirt, Mr. Incredible. It's got at least 3 holes in it, but he still loves it. :)

 

Loooong time

I understand that part of having a blog means updating it.  I've been veerrry bad here.  However, I've got lots of pictures and projects to share :)  Buuut, they will have to wait until I can get more than 2 minutes to sit here and work on them.  Until then, check out this cool new site a good friend of mine started, Momma Reads.

For you, Patricia :)  Have a great day and I know all will be okay :)

 A tutorial will come on how to make these cute soft baby blocks and taggie blankie.