tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87572532024-03-07T01:54:09.168-08:00Just ME - One Post at a TimeI love life as a mum to three boys. That said, this isn't just a mum blog - it's everything - love and marriage, friends, cooking, baking, gluten-free baking/cooking, scrapbooking, sewing, (actually, all sorts of crafty stuff), photos, music, life, God. The good stuff. And sometimes, the honest to goodness sad and bad stuff.dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-3617755283867263482012-02-07T13:24:00.001-08:002012-02-07T13:46:39.402-08:00Booster Juice, I don't need you anymore<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As part of my 90 day commitments, I'm drinking smoothies and/or shakes as part of my healthy eating plan. (Yes, I've read about the perils of smoothies, and I'm aware of and ok with them.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of my FAVOURITE indulgences in days gone by were <a href="http://www.boosterjuice.com/" target="_blank">Booster Juice</a>-type smoothies. They always seemed IMPOSSIBLE to replicate at home, but at up to $6 a pop, they were hard to justify. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not anymore! Lol!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><u><em>Berry mango smoothie</em></u></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 cup Bolthouse Farms Amazing Mango Fruit Smoothie</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 1/2 cups Western Family Bite Size Blend frozen fruit</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/4 cup water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 scoop (30g) <a href="http://kaizennaturals.com/flavours/vanilla-ice-cream.html" target="_blank">Kaizen Naturals natural whey - vanilla ice cream flavour</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">--> blend well. (I use a hand blender and a 1 litre wide-mouth mason jar - less dishes than using a full-size blender!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mmmmmm yum!!!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The protein shake mix (<a href="http://kaizennaturals.com/index.html" target="_blank">Kaizen Naturals</a>) I use is the best I've found (and actually, Todd found it!): whey (not soy) isolate and concentrate, stevia (NO ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS, flavours or colours), GLUTEN FREE, 24g protein to 1g sugars, AND.... It's only $27.99 at Superstore for a 30 day supply (at 1 shake a day). Plus, and I tell you, I've tried a LOT of shake mixes, it is the BEST TASTING one too. I actually like it plain with just milk. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And no, I don't work for Kaizen, nor do I get any benefit from this post. I just feel that people should know that they have AFFORDABLE options for shake mixes, that do the same things, if not better than the expensive ones. :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Enjoy!</span>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-75282767421084850142012-02-05T12:22:00.001-08:002012-02-05T12:22:07.631-08:00Process Vs. ProductI know the theory behind process vs. product when dealing with kids. I have to say that I whole-heartedly agree with it, because my generation was taught at a very young age: product > process, and thus there are many people like me who struggle with the fact that we can't be perfect at everything (not so good for self-esteem!).<br />
<br />
But sometimes, there are instances when a project DOES need a product, and it ISN'T all about the process. And I think that teaching kids that too is important. So that they understand that in life, there is a time and place to be focused on your product and not just the experience. <br />
<br />
Case in point: homemade Valentine's cards. There are 15 other kids in Xman's class and 6 other kids in Shanman's class. To not complete the product would mean that a) some kids would get left out, or b) mummy would do it all. Two unacceptable options in my book. <br />
<br />
My compromise? <br />
The boys chose their colours, I made the elements and then guided the crazies in the assembly process. <br />
<br />
The result?<br />
Two happy boys who got to glue (X got to cut out too, his latest obsession), and put stickers on, their cards for their classmates. <br />
<br />
We got product AND process, and I didn't yell or pull my hair out in frustration. <br />
<br />
Yes! Win-win-win!<br />
<br />
(The pictures are my "template" on the left, and 4 of each of their interpretations of the template on the right. Red and orange were X's chosen colours and blue and purple were Shan's.)<br />
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<div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfL0x0WnviFTKf0c7B1aBBAqUrERK_Lfro7Sr8sdLuBdqmmFAGAxNbd3F1YeCTmn9TqACDxESOxGnt7GuJCIp2IIGBqaA52KaWTxJ-MTY_c3delpjMxiNhKWZyu2_3dWeRHJXv/s640/blogger-image--295541302.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfL0x0WnviFTKf0c7B1aBBAqUrERK_Lfro7Sr8sdLuBdqmmFAGAxNbd3F1YeCTmn9TqACDxESOxGnt7GuJCIp2IIGBqaA52KaWTxJ-MTY_c3delpjMxiNhKWZyu2_3dWeRHJXv/s640/blogger-image--295541302.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcRRKTOgFpSXQ-XQvytDxC1CQDJDOAZNmA7OMrMZ7wNtFL309xpKfDhZF2aqQ6tkSSq16xtl-yJ88vENQAskvCwE7XQnQX-oq03rVb8YU5bWCee7gld8QwxWbEJ4gESA7sV-ft/s640/blogger-image-136227621.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcRRKTOgFpSXQ-XQvytDxC1CQDJDOAZNmA7OMrMZ7wNtFL309xpKfDhZF2aqQ6tkSSq16xtl-yJ88vENQAskvCwE7XQnQX-oq03rVb8YU5bWCee7gld8QwxWbEJ4gESA7sV-ft/s640/blogger-image-136227621.jpg" /></a></div>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-52531730515410822102012-02-04T20:29:00.001-08:002012-02-04T20:29:34.439-08:00Question: Do you share your breastfeeding photos online?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Facebook debacle. How many blog posts have been written about his? *sigh* I shudder to think of the real estate that is being occupied by this idiotic situation, when TRULY, it is avoidable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">***** If you are just reading/hearing about this now, go check out this page:</span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/StopHarassingKwasnicaAndALLBreastfeedingWomen/posts/301920126524051#!/StopHarassingKwasnicaAndALLBreastfeedingWomen"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> FB! Stop</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.. and this </span><a href="http://jodinesworld.blogspot.com/2012/01/fb-harasses-women-for-breastfeeding.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">regularly-updated blog post</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> on Jodine's World to read the history of the most recent chapter in Facebook's persistence in being a bully and participating in the digital harrassment of breastfeeding mothers worldwide. *****</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/Boba"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Boba</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, a baby carrier maker, posted this pic on the facebook page on 2 February, with the caption: "Press *LIKE* if have photos of your baby breastfeeding. Do you share them online?"</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh5zAecxMVFnFkPaOh6otKwq1xgH_cV-bwBYaEfiJtxTynxjGRV-fp2dtjA1BArfiqYucKjftw51F3djXY7XZcBJZWJAikK8lnYEVuKXfdwC_uBOk1_Pgg_w-UuLkZ88wymHXG/s1600/fbdelete.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh5zAecxMVFnFkPaOh6otKwq1xgH_cV-bwBYaEfiJtxTynxjGRV-fp2dtjA1BArfiqYucKjftw51F3djXY7XZcBJZWJAikK8lnYEVuKXfdwC_uBOk1_Pgg_w-UuLkZ88wymHXG/s320/fbdelete.jpg" width="288" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How cute is this pic?!?! LOL!</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And I posted this in the comments:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"yes I do. I LOVE my pics of breastfeeding my boys. breastfeeding has been SO HARD for us, and there have been different challenges with each of my 3 boys, but amidst the tears and the struggles, we have succeeded, against all odds. I've b</span><span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">een breastfeeding for a combined total of 50 months, none of my boys have ever had a drop of formula, and we're still going strong with baby #3. And I'm PROUD of that fact. Because it's NOT easy for everyone. And because I had NO ONE close to me to help me. If breastfeeding was NORMAL, and everyone SAW it, perhaps I'd have had someone in my life I could call on, to help me through the pain, the spasms, the pinching, the blood, help me with latch, with nursing strikes, with mastitis, with supply issues, etc etc. But it's NOT NORMAL. Even though "they" say it is, here in North America, it's not. Breastfeeding isn't even allowed on Sesame Street anymore. Breastfeeding needs to be RE-NORMALISED, and how else to do it than by making breastfeeding photos NO BIG DEAL? And how do we make them NO BIG DEAL? By posting them, by dealing with the backlash, and by desensitizing our society to the sight of *gasp* a non-sexual breast, and a baby feeding as God designed it to do: at the breast. <br /> <br /> I feel that our goal, as "those militant lactivists who post their breastfeeding photos" is that we WANT people to say "meh, whatever, another breastfeeding photo." You don't have to think it's beautiful like we do.... but it should be commonplace, and NO. BIG. DEAL. I do NOT want people to be gawking at my boob. FAR FROM IT. I want to feed my baby when he's hungry, without people getting all up in my face. I want my grandchildren to be breastfed when they need it. I want my great-grandchildren to be breastfed when they need it. I don't want their mothers to feel the shame of feeding their children in public like so many do today. Because that is sad. Sad that any mother should feel shame in providing for her baby. And it IS NOT NECESSARY."</span></span></div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"></span></blockquote>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span> </div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not long after I posted it, a few people (including the lovely Emma Kwasnica, and Jennifer V T) shared the second paragraph with their peeps... and as I read it back again, this response is probably the best I've pulled out in regards to the photo debacle. </span></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span> </div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sometimes, I can be eloquent, but others, when emotion comes into play, well, I become a cursing, blubbering moron. I was apparently calm enough to articulate my views on this heated debate in a way that I feel proud of my communication skills. LOL. (So yes, folks, English class in school DOES have a purpose.) I wanted to post it on here for posterity, oh, and for a broader audience than just the likers on the Boba page. ;)</span></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span> </div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So what about you? Do you share your breastfeeding photos online? Do you scrapbook them? Oh, and next question, are you going to a Facebook nurse-in on 6 February????? I'll be in Seattle - meet me there!</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<br />dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-48826571306075186352012-02-02T09:39:00.001-08:002012-02-07T13:45:24.101-08:00Changing habits<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The rule of thumb with habits, good and bad, is that it takes 40 days to make a new habit, or kill an old one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That means forty days of being diligent, persistent, and conscientious of your actions. Paying attention. Being engaged with your own actions, and not just operating in a haze. (HA!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm bringing up changing habits NOW because I LOATHE the whole "New Year's Resolutions" thing. I turn 33 this year, and I've wasted enough time in my life lamenting at how I wasn't able to keep up with my NYR this year, BUT NEXT YEAR!!!! Good gravy. I've been of the frame of mind, for about the last 7 or 8 years or so, that I don't do resolutions, per sé. I do GOALS. Why?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because setting goals WORKS.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And my goal right now?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To change my habits.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have a list the length of my leg of habits I'd like to change or develop, but since I'm the type of person, that in order to not get totally overwhelmed, then stressed, then have debilitating anxiety attacks, which THEN result in hideous depression - *breathe* - I have to take baby steps. So, because 90 days seems to be "THE THING" right now (P90X, Vitality for Life, etc), and yesterday was the 1st of February, I made a commitment to develop a couple of new habits, and to COMMIT to persistence and diligence and engagement with these habits for the next 90 days. That will take me to 30 April, 2012. (I will then be 33. :D) Because, realistically, I know for me, 40 days? Probably not enough. Besides. GO BIG OR GO HOME. ;) And changing a couple of actions for 90 days seems like a good enough baby step for me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm really excited to see what 2012 holds for our family. We have faced some MASSIVE adversity and challenges as a family, financially, emotionally, physically, you name it, over the last 4 years most specifically. And I personally have battled for years with stress/anxiety, depression, and most related to being a housewife: inadequacy. I LOGICALLY know that these feelings are bunk, but feelings don't have to make sense. And I know that logically, in order to deal with them, I need to address my actions - and create new habits. Hence, I'm changing habits.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm going to be posting in the coming weeks about my commitment, in addition to other things, and I'd love to hear what kind of things that you have committed to - either now or in the past. What things have you battled with in your commitment? What challenges have you faced to keeping those commitments?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cheers,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dinnae ;)</span>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-11907350837062848472012-01-19T10:00:00.000-08:002012-01-19T10:00:01.030-08:00My gluten free all purpose mix & some yum yum yummy cheddar dill biscuits<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I've been asked by more than one person on more than one occasion what "all purpose" gluten free flour I am using these days. Since embarking on this "gluten-free journey" I'll call it, I've learned SO much about what's out there and available, what's not out there (yet), and how we can adapt our "normal" life to be more gluten free friendly, if you will. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When I first started gluten free baking, <a href="http://dinnae.blogspot.com/2011/07/gluten-free-adventures-begin.html">I posted about an all purpose flour mix</a> that I found the recipe for at <a href="http://glutenfree.wordpress.com/">glutenfreegobsmacked</a>, and <a href="http://www.celiac.com/">celiac.com</a>. Then, as my reading and researching continued, I learned more about flours, and how to use them to recreate our normal recipes, as close as I could, but using the gluten free substitutes. The most notable source of my knowledge about how flour works in a recipe would probably have to be the posts that I've read that are part of Shauna's (from<a href="http://glutenfreegirl.com/"> a gluten free girl</a>) brain child, the Gluten Free Ratio Rally. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">***The Ratio Rally is a group of gluten free bloggers who have been experimenting with replacing wheat flour with gluten free flours, based on WEIGHT, not volume measures, under the premise that every good recipe is based on a solid ratio that will create a good product, no matter whether you are using wheat flour or not. Follow the ratio, and your results are almost guaranteed.***</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As said by <a href="http://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1377838851"></span>Tara over at "a baking life<span id="goog_1377838852"></span></a>:"</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">"Baking by ratio is not an entirely new concept, but it's been spotlighted lately by </span><a href="http://ruhlman.com/" style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Michael Ruhlman's</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"> book </span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1416571728/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=dinnae-20&linkCode=as2&camp=15121&creative=330641&creativeASIN=1416571728" style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><i>Ratio</i></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">. It's an enormously helpful way of understanding traditional cooking and baking, but I've noticed some hesitation about applying it to gluten-free baking. Would it even work with all our crazy flours? Would a good gluten-free ratio be adaptable to a variety of flours? Would it make gluten-free baking even more daunting to the uninitiated?</span> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes, yes, and thankfully, no. It really works. And it's easier than you think."</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That said, I have yet to try out any of the GFRR recipes. :O I know. Here I am saying how great it is, and I haven't tried the fruits of their labours. Okay, so I haven't tried the recipes, but the whole WEIGHT thing is a nugget that is stuck in my head - and that is a good thing. Kate (at gf gobsmacked) also mentioned weighing flours vs. measuring them, in fact, most gf bakers recommend it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is due to the different density in the different grains. Corn has a different density to millet, to chana, to rice, to the starches.... you get my point. But when we're baking gluten free, we have to mix these flours, and try to get a flour that will mimic wheat as best we can.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another thing I've learned, that while brown rice flour is the closest match to wheat in taste (yet still SO far), there are so many other flours that give amazing texture, flavour and NUTRITION to your baked goods. So combining these flours to create a whole- and multi-grain flour gives great texture and flavour, and beats wheat flour hands down in the nutrition aspect. (Just don't eat the batters or doughs raw... ummm, grossness.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don't use that multi blend mix anymore. Ha ha. It's funny but it's not. This is a learning experience for me, as it is for ANY person taking on the task of learning to bake (and cook) gluten free. I only used the multi blend mix for a couple of months... before the reading and research convinced me that I should be putting more whole grains in. For the first couple of times that I made my own mix, it was just a hodgepodge of flours, to make up the 70% flour and 30% starch by weight. I made it in 1 kg batches, and was using it in place of the multi blend mix. But, because as I said above, more than one person on more than one occasion has asked me for the mix I'm using now, I ACTUALLY wrote it down when I made it last weekend. :) Stoked.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dinnae's all purpose multi-grain flour mix</span></i></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">350g brown rice flour</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">150g corn flour (NOT corn meal or corn starch)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">100g millet flour</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">100g chana flour</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">100g tapioca starch</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">100g cornstarch</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">100g sweet rice flour</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 TB guar gum</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mix together with a whisk or seive, store in an airtight container. Use in place of wheat flour in your recipes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Use as is for cookies, waffles, pancakes, etc. If making cakes, sweet breads, muffins or cupcakes, add 1/4 tsp of guar gum per cup measure of flour in the recipe. (This addition of guar is based on the addition of guar to the Multi-blend mix - I'm just continuing that.) I wouldn't recommend this mix for baking bread, as your ratio of flours to starches is one that needs to be more specific.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And now, my latest gluten free adaptation was a recipe that I got from the lady who actually trained me to cook for treeplanters, Kara. Her mum was (is?) a camp cook for a summer camp, and I do believe that this recipe for Cheddar Dill Bread was originally hers. Using the gluten free flour makes this bread very scone-y, so I'm calling them scones. I made them in muffin-top pans, so they even look kinda like scones too.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM1xYbu0k2fD84rs2Z7SEOjjlnxGY4N_fSMkVzO03sVCwCmo1cCj2_PHG3whMLsDKebfyfbjOuVBopJAw9XW79v5HZKQWGeHEe9ZgYLaUMBV3OYTYpL4_FDGiVTMHWYr2VE83X/s1600/scone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM1xYbu0k2fD84rs2Z7SEOjjlnxGY4N_fSMkVzO03sVCwCmo1cCj2_PHG3whMLsDKebfyfbjOuVBopJAw9XW79v5HZKQWGeHEe9ZgYLaUMBV3OYTYpL4_FDGiVTMHWYr2VE83X/s320/scone.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sorry, HORRIBLE photo, but it was taken at night. And they're still yum!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <b><i>Cheddar Cheese Dill Scones</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 c all pupose gluten free flour blend</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 tsp baking powder</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/4 c sugar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 tsp onion or garlic salt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 tb dill</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 tsp dry mustard</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 1/2 c grated cheddar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 eggs, beaten</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 1/4 c milk</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 tb veggie or canola oil</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/4 c water IF NEEDED</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oven to 350°F.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients, including cheese. Mix well. Add remaining ingredients, stir until just moist. Batter/dough will be tough, but if needed, add another 1/4 c of water or milk and mix in thoroughly. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop into greased muffin top pans. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With wet fingers, "smoosh" down the scoop of batter/dough so that it is fairly flat in the pan, wetting fingers anew before each smoosh. (I keep a small bowl of water next to where I'm working so I don't have to keep the water running, or keep walking over to the sink.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bake for 12 - 14 minutes, or until lightly browned. Best when eaten fresh. ;)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Makes 40 muffin top scones. YUM.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*** Notes: this recipe halves really well, and makes the PERFECT size batch to accompany dinner. ***</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, I know I am going to get this question, because *I* would ask if I were you! What kind of ice cream scoop do I use? It is a COMMERCIAL one that I got when my mum owned a café. You should be able to find this same kind, in varying sizes, in any commercial kitchen supply store. They are INDISPENSABLE for muffins, cookies, etc, keeping your baked goods equal in measure, and uniform in shape too (ie with no bake/boiled cookies). If memory serves, it was about $10 (give or take) about 15 years ago. If you find a place to buy one, especially online, let me know! I'd love to be able to pass the info on. ;)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPK6lE4Aqmkp6VIOaf8lEx9JwXcwn2ze7YMHyQCkgem0s6XzCqI-c58AsqnH0nUDOjDSR_zj1pIJSazSnC6nYfzEGmwTipylUANtdwoS_CNRIbadAkv-lHqWMM_TyuBZH_mMf2/s1600/scoop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPK6lE4Aqmkp6VIOaf8lEx9JwXcwn2ze7YMHyQCkgem0s6XzCqI-c58AsqnH0nUDOjDSR_zj1pIJSazSnC6nYfzEGmwTipylUANtdwoS_CNRIbadAkv-lHqWMM_TyuBZH_mMf2/s320/scoop.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The ice cream scoop I use for scooping muffin batter and cookie dough. <br />I believe it is a 1 oz size.</span></td></tr>
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<br />dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0Surrey, BC, Canada49.105897 -122.82795648.939578 -123.143813 49.272216 -122.512099tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-65596539132899194762012-01-18T08:31:00.001-08:002012-01-18T08:56:59.199-08:00Wordless Wednesday<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz-NhzNUhNcEC9bFnY5HbUiXDL-gyA5V3nup1vJieF4IXVMd2KGnKJwAT99yBSGoNynXfIYKjwjCWBiHvGyBeW37UsaI6WjcOvHzy-G-1D5GzP-IfnQBxsg3HNeSle2mrYRr0w/s640/blogger-image--1774763863.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz-NhzNUhNcEC9bFnY5HbUiXDL-gyA5V3nup1vJieF4IXVMd2KGnKJwAT99yBSGoNynXfIYKjwjCWBiHvGyBeW37UsaI6WjcOvHzy-G-1D5GzP-IfnQBxsg3HNeSle2mrYRr0w/s640/blogger-image--1774763863.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cuteness - playing with Daddy's phone</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0Surrey Surrey49.130309 -122.853386tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-63985824306510904002012-01-16T11:59:00.002-08:002012-01-16T12:01:20.086-08:00Blog Dare Post - Convincing children....<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So <a href="http://twitter.com/TheBlogDare">@TheBlogDare</a> followed me on twitter the other day. It's a group/initiative put on by <a href="http://twitter.com/BloggyMoms">@BloggyMoms</a>, and it's a "dare" to do a POST A DAY for the entire year. Oi. I struggle to get a post a month in! LOL. Don't know that I'll be able to manage EVERY DAY, but I guess I can just participate as the prompts stir a post in me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<a href="http://www.bloggymoms.com/group/blogdare/forum/topics/the-blog-dare-january-16-2012-link-up" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today's prompt</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> was: "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5b5b58; line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I convinced my children to...</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">hee hee. Convincing children? Herding cats? Correlation? YES. Absolutely. :D</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But... funnily enough, this IS something that happened recently.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">T and I are both "attachment-minded," natural-ish parents. That doesn't mean that we are full on, 100% crunchy hippies, but we try to be as engaged as we can as parents, and are trying to change the parenting cycle from how our parents were. We practice co-sleeping (until they want their own space, which for our kids was fairly early), baby-wearing, breastfeeding, all 3 of our boys are intact, 2 of our 3 kids have had no vaccines (and they're the healthiest out of the 3 too!), 2 of our 3 births were 100% natural (and one at home unassisted!), and we are doing our best to change what was modeled for us both, and spend more time with our kids in a way that is going to foster their development.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I want to interject here and say that most parents in the 70s and 80s, and even 90s did what they knew, and what they were modeled or taught, so not to say that my parents were bad, it's just that they didn't know the amount of info that parents today have at their disposal... can we say "internet?" Our generation of parents is, in a general way, far more educated about the more effective ways to parent, and raise secure, confident children. But that doesn't mean we don't love our parents anyway. ;)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyway, right now, we're reading a parenting book called </span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0307341607/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=dinnae-20&linkCode=as2&camp=15121&creative=330641&creativeASIN=0307341607" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Positive Discipline for Preschoolers" by Jane Nelson, Cheryl Erwin and Roslyn Ann Duffy</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. There is an entire series of books in the Positive Discipline series, and in a nutshell, it's about raising children who are "responsible, respectful and resourceful." Oh my dog. What an amazing book. And what a PARADIGM SHIFT for both of us. My mum often says to me that she BEGAN to change the cycle of parenting with me and my bro, and it's my job to finish that change. (She is SO supportive that way!) One of my biggest battles is how much I yell. I'm a yeller. My mum was a yeller. My grama was a yeller. And I don't for a second doubt that before she had herself committed, that my great-grandma was a yeller too. (Yes, that is part of my family history... but that's for another day.) Frustration is a daily feeling for me. But I'm working on it, and getting MUUUUUUCH better. I'm not so much a yeller </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">when dealing with the baby I'll add... somehow it's "easier" to attachment parent a baby than it is a difficult toddler, preschooler, or kindergartener. :P </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But ANYWAY. Something in the book talked about how, even with babies, if you ask them to help you do something you are empowering them, and they will understand that, and will be more than likely to accommodate you.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Riley is teething right now. First year molars. YUCK. Monday he had a low-grade fever, not enough for drugs, just warm. By evening though, he was shaking from the fever, had puked up his dinner, and was burning up. :/ (It was still a low fever though, not hospital-worth.) I checked to see if it was a tooth, and nothing, so I just assumed tummy bug. Out came the gravol and ibuprofen so that maybe he could be in less discomfort, poor bubba. We had a rough night, up every 1.5-2 hours, and the next day, he had these two HUGE bumps on his bottom gums. AWESOME. (But at least it wasn't gastro!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyway, when you have a grumpy, sick child, the LAST thing they want is medicine. The first two days were fighting and messiness and stickiness and YUCK trying to get the medicine into him. Then on Wednesday, I read the part in the book about asking even babies to "help" and empowering them. So.... I thought, why not, let's give it a try.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Riley, honey, can you please help mummy and take your medicine? Mummy needs your help baby. Will you help mummy?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, string me up and call me Sally, holy crap it WORKED. Not kidding. He's 14 months old. And he took his ibuprofen NO PROBLEM.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He hasn't had a lot of medicine since then, as I try not to give it to him too often, just when he's seeming really grumpy/in pain, but every time I have, since then, I've asked him to help me, and EVERY time, he has taken it with no fight.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oh, bless you Jane Nelson et al. BLESS YOU.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How have you managed to convince your children to do something lately?</span>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-81493974296143706442012-01-02T15:23:00.000-08:002012-01-02T15:26:31.664-08:00Back at it!<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">
Healthy living-wise, December was a rough month.</div>
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The first week was good, but then, Monday of week 2, my "aunt flo" returned after 22 months of absence. (okay, so that stretch ROCKS, but her return was still not welcome.) First cycle after 22 months of none was HEINOUS. I felt like I was going to die. LOL NOOOOO exercise that week, and holy Moses, I usually NEVER crave chocolate at my time of the month, but this go round? WOW, NEVER have I eaten that much chocolate in a week. :/</div>
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Then, the craziness of the last week of school, and all the stuff going on, the shopping, the INSANITY... The sniffles (everyone had colds again)...</div>
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Then the week before Christmas - holy crackers - 3 littlies at home full time again. WOW. It'll be awhile before I actually homeschool if I ever do (that was a desire of mine, but out of necessity - my sanity - I don't yet).</div>
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Then the week between Christmas and New Year's - I got an infected lip. Not just a little bump and sore, but I'm talking my upper lip swelled to THREE TIMES it's normal size. (Happened as a result of some tickling/roughhousing with my boys.) Went to the walk-in and got 'roids and abx, and finally, as of yesterday, I look normal again. It's still a bit infected, but I still have 1 more day of 'roids and 6 days of abx, so I should be all clear.</div>
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Monday is here, and now YAY! I just did my first workout in weeks. That felt freeeeeaaaakin' awesome! And today my healthy eating was good (so far). I'm excited to see what 2012 has in store for my body and my health! :)</div>
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Happy 2012 to all!</div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">☆。★。☆。★</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">。☆ 。☆。☆。</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">★。\|/。★</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"> Happy 2012</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">★。/|\。★</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">。☆ 。☆。☆。</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">☆。★。☆。★</span> </div>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-55887710626929316172011-12-28T20:46:00.001-08:002011-12-28T20:46:35.341-08:00Coloured Rice --- soooo fun!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5NuAo4bWfFMWX_kkbey2Rx5Q1okE7kgQSeZuH6JSasvTJDx4TC8zs1QGxPLNR5YXcqZ4YpCbnnPxz9oyaCsUneUsxhyzRPGSDUC7hxpwj4VwbQ-6sSw-yiCER9ggv1kCo_ZCv/s1600/rice.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5NuAo4bWfFMWX_kkbey2Rx5Q1okE7kgQSeZuH6JSasvTJDx4TC8zs1QGxPLNR5YXcqZ4YpCbnnPxz9oyaCsUneUsxhyzRPGSDUC7hxpwj4VwbQ-6sSw-yiCER9ggv1kCo_ZCv/s320/rice.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My tiny little pile of leftover grains of rice - this little pile made me giddy! Look how vibrant they are! (Except for the yellow and orange!)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At our old church in Williams Lake, there was this sensory play table with white rice and peas in it, and some animals and cups and vehicles... It was ALWAYS, WITHOUT fail, Shan's FAVOURITE place to be when he was in Sunday school. I've wanted to have a sensory box for ages, but never got around to making it happen. (Which is a shame, we had such an AWESOME, huge playroom in our townhouse in Williams Lake, now we are so limited space-wise!) My brother and sister-in-law had bought the boys a Step 2 play table (with roads and train track, etc, that has a cover to make it into a great craft table) for Christmas last year. I never set it up because we knew we were moving south, and a compact box is far easier to move than an awkward table. I knew that I wanted to set it up so that we could have a sensory play box sit under the table when not in use, and up on the craft table when it was. So this past summer, I bought a bag of white rice, a rubbermaid storage tote, and some bulk split peas (green and yellow), pinto beans and navy beans, to create a sensory play box for the boys. Near the end of summer, one of the crafts the boys brought home from day camp was a picture made with coloured rice (glued, kind of like glitter). I saw that and decided that before I would create the sensory box for them, I was going to colour the rice. 5 months later, and I finally get it done. :D (In my defense, I only JUST got the time and space to organise the office where the table and box now live - that was my boxing day... I'll post about that later, because I am SO excited about that room!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last night I googled "how to dye rice," and came up with a bunch of results. They were all similar: food colouring, liquid, and either a bag or a bowl. I tried two different methods (out of necessity, due to my different food colourings), and I thought I'd share what worked for me and what didn't.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Food colouring</span></i></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Options I saw were Koolaid (would smell yummy, but you would HAVE to use the mix that does NOT have the sugar in it), normal liquid food colouring (from the supermarket), gel food colouring, water colour paint. Try and get the gel icing colouring from Michael's or JoAnn, or some other craft store (they usually do NOT sell them in the supermarket - I've tried looking). I used regular food colouring for yellow and orange (blended yellow and red together), and to say it nicely, the colours just don't pop. Bluntly? They're DRAB. Very light. So drab that in the mix in the tote, they both look almost like there is no colour to them. In the gel colouring (I have Wilton brand), I used black, green, blue and red, and the colours are SO VIBRANT! I did not try Koolaid or water colour paint. From what I saw online, the Koolaid does not dye very bright (kind of pastel-y), and I guess the water colour or tempera paint would be ok too?</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Liquid</span></i></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Options I found were rubbing alcohol, white vinegar, and water. I did not try the vinegar. The theory with using alcohol would be that it would dry very fast. One would think. WRONG. The 3 that I did with straight alcohol took FOREVER to dry, and I had to spread them out on papertowels to dry. The one that I did a mix of (not on purpose), dried ok, but the straight water dried SO FAST. I didn't even have to dump it out. I just mixed it every 10 minutes, and it prevented it from getting too hard. My theory about that is that the water didn't need to evaporate, it was just absorbed by the rice. But it was such a small amount, that it didn't affect the rice. (1/4 cup to 6 cups rice.) ***NOTE*** Alcohol does NOT work with gel food colouring. I found that out the hard way. For whatever reason, it made the gel solidify into this hard, almost wax crayon/oil pastel like substance. O_o If you decide to go the alcohol route (which will make you cough, believe me), use NORMAL food colouring.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Method of mixing</span></i></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I saw it done in a quart canning jar, ziploc bags, and bowls. I used bowls with a wooden spoon, and it did the trick. More space than a quart jar (I did huge batches), and less wasteful than baggies. It was also very gratifying to mix and watch the colours change, rather than just shake the crap out of it. PLUS, I didn't need to dump it out to dry it, I just kept stirring every 10 minutes (with the water ones).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, without further ado, here's MY recipe. :D</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1uhV6bPYlM2as3qljuck77yoMtHC4IIQWw2yqPQ0CPftg_OSre6oYACKcIDsw_YvOJmQdDE15HqsrbiQvKagJ9jShZ7DYPqANQN5qetRoyImuXkZnxRHh59dLCvRBbhCtPjEg/s1600/ricebeans.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1uhV6bPYlM2as3qljuck77yoMtHC4IIQWw2yqPQ0CPftg_OSre6oYACKcIDsw_YvOJmQdDE15HqsrbiQvKagJ9jShZ7DYPqANQN5qetRoyImuXkZnxRHh59dLCvRBbhCtPjEg/s320/ricebeans.JPG" width="239" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">7 colours of rice, yellow and green split peas, navy and pinto beans = fun fun fun!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<b><i><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How to dye rice</span></u></i></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What you need:</span></b><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/4 cup water</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/4 tsp gel food colouring (or more if wanted)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">large bowl</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">wooden spoon</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6 cups white rice</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a few drops of essential oil (optional)</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pour your water into a small bowl, or even a half cup measure. Put your gel food colouring in the water, and mix it in well to dilute it. This is where you are going to decide how dark/vibrant your colour will be. Continue to add more colour if desired. Just remember that once you add the rice, with gel colouring you can't really add more, as it wouldn't spread well. You COULD use normal food colouring to get more colour if you wanted it, but you're better off adding another 1/4-1/2 tsp gel food colouring at this point. (Note: I used the back of my spoon to make it dilute faster, next time I might use a hand blender to get all the gel pieces pulverised.) Pour your colour mix into your large bowl. This is the point you would add the essential oil if you wanted to make it smell good. Lavender and sweet orange would be really nice, and both are good for kids.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Measure 6 cups of rice into your bowl. Mix with your wooden spoon. Mix WELL. Make sure you have no unused colour mix in the bottom of your bowl, and that your rice is fairly evenly coloured. You will hear the rice start to snap and pop (like Rice Krispies!) when it starts to dry, that is normal. Just keep stirring it every 5-10 minutes to prevent it from forming into a rock. That said, I DID forget, and came back - I was able to break apart the "rock" with my hands, no biggie. It was actually kind of fun. :D</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgla4KaizzkWuB85Za1lhVyGqc76w4MsYLRlPtGi7qlBnwhgRyEPN42lQ_6kshmUZbjX2vSfKFlW77yXZ4U8oOkhBsn5XtwQlmmgfkw75Nr1TwmQCoDSUkk3GCm2zIpiLYrdUbX/s1600/ricebowls.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgla4KaizzkWuB85Za1lhVyGqc76w4MsYLRlPtGi7qlBnwhgRyEPN42lQ_6kshmUZbjX2vSfKFlW77yXZ4U8oOkhBsn5XtwQlmmgfkw75Nr1TwmQCoDSUkk3GCm2zIpiLYrdUbX/s320/ricebowls.JPG" width="304" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From top left (clockwise): red - using alcohol and water combined/gel and regular food colouring,<br />orange - using alcohol and regular food colouring,<br />purple - water and gel food colouring,<br />black - water and alcohol and gel food colouring,<br />blue - water and gel food colouring,<br />green - water and gel food colouring,<br />middle: yellow - alcohol and regular food colouring.<br />The colours look so much more vibrant in this pic because I used the Camera+ app to take it, and the "vibrant" filter - the yellow and orange especially do NOT look that vibrant in real life - the others aren't too different.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I made seven colours: yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green and black. I kept aside 2 cups of each colour to use in crafts, and together with the boys, I put the other 4 cups of each into the sensory box/bin/tote (whatever! LOL). In our box, we also put 4 cups each of the other bulk items I bought (yellow and green split peas, pinto and navy beans). They had so much fun measuring each colour/item out, that the process of "building" our sensory box was in and of itself a fantastic activity. The had a BLAST burying my arms and hands (and each other's!) in the colourful mix. And it felt SO cool. :)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzoS0eBDO1q5FgZCSqSRqrL5-lPUz1EEQTvu6XuDPhyuWFREhzMORWoNooC0cEHuh2cRTvl91eS8p4hOYIuj5pxVaowZ5vUOlmIdIaOv7I6GDCHzZfpW9mp39sAg8dkFdbDxVi/s1600/sensplay.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzoS0eBDO1q5FgZCSqSRqrL5-lPUz1EEQTvu6XuDPhyuWFREhzMORWoNooC0cEHuh2cRTvl91eS8p4hOYIuj5pxVaowZ5vUOlmIdIaOv7I6GDCHzZfpW9mp39sAg8dkFdbDxVi/s320/sensplay.JPG" width="239" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Burying mummy's arms in rice and beans</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do YOU have a sensory play box for your child(ren)? What do you put in it? Do you change it up?</span><br />
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<br />dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-41331906075907374332011-10-18T20:05:00.000-07:002012-01-16T23:23:09.653-08:00GF meatballs<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Still on my quest to make easy, yummy meals that my two picky older boys will eat, that are gluten free for the man, and NOW, I have my NEW item to check off: relatively healthy so that I can eat more than a bird's portion. :P</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I made some hamburger rolls last night, like sausage rolls, except using ground beef and phyllo pastry instead of sausage meat and puff pastry. They weren't bad, and although high-ish on the calorie side (450 for 2), I used extra lean meat, and phyllo, so the fat was fairly low. :) BUT, I did learn that having them directly on the cookie sheet results in greasy phyllo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today, after a MAMMOTH amount of exercise (2 hours of wearing my 25lb baby walking around the mall and dancing him to sleep in the passport office and 20 minutes of one of my new FIRM Express DVDs), I CRAVED carbohydrates. Chippies! Haven't had chippies in awhile, and they're not too bad. (Baked!) What can I make that goes with chippies? Well, I forgot to take meat out, and we have about 20 kg of ground beef left in our freezer.... so, yeah, what can I make with ground beef? The man was stoked about chippies, and suggested "what about mini meatballs?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, using some Victorian Epicure Seasoning for Meatloaf, and Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats, I made me my first meatballs. Ever. I've never made them before, really. :D</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0_GwAinX8Dgt7FzrxWPfKk0B9TMpDVHaxcKpNjlYACwA2e-AfM4UuFdJRCw9BB3WmlhFLp6UNsWzbavJYB_PUnrlldVIblguBhYywia6z6ClAsSIgZxi5fPbdEjzv8BCTcpB2/s1600/gfmeatballs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0_GwAinX8Dgt7FzrxWPfKk0B9TMpDVHaxcKpNjlYACwA2e-AfM4UuFdJRCw9BB3WmlhFLp6UNsWzbavJYB_PUnrlldVIblguBhYywia6z6ClAsSIgZxi5fPbdEjzv8BCTcpB2/s320/gfmeatballs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong><u><em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dinnae's Gluten Free Meatballs</span></em></u></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 kg extra lean ground beef</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 large free range eggs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 cup gluten free old fashioned rolled oats</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 tbsp worcestershire sauce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 tbsp Victorian Epicure Seasoning for Meatloaf</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 tsp seasoning salt</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Preheat your oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you're able to, put a wire rack over a cookie sheet, so that you can place your meatballs on it, so the fat and juices can drip into the cookie sheet, keeping your meatballs as healthy as possible.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Shape your meatballs in roughly 2-3tsp portions, and place on wire rack.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven, thickness of meatballs, etc. To check for doneness, cut one of your centre meatballs in half. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Makes 50 meatballs.</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nutritional information (based on the sum of the ingredients):</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Per 8 meatballs</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">256 calories; 9g fat; 11g carbs; 2g fibre; 31g protein</span></em><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I served them with homemade GF beef gravy (leftover from roast night last Friday - thickened with potato starch instead of wheat flour), and of course, those carbs, shoestring chippies, and raw veggies and low fat dip. YUM! And surprise surprise, my boys inhaled them. Score!</span>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-90183339538092835922011-10-11T01:23:00.003-07:002011-10-11T01:27:58.691-07:00Reality check<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I'm expecting my <a href="http://www.firmdirect.com/firm/ecs/main/firm-express-get-thin-in-30.html">FIRM Express DVDs</a> to arrive this week, so I thought this weekend would be a good time to take my "before" pics. Today I got dressed in a sports bra and workout capris, and got dh to take a front, side, and back view of me.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">What a reality check. :(</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I KNOW that I'm big. I KNOW that I have more rolls than I ever have. And I KNOW that I'm actually clinically obese. (Wii Fit tells me that every time I do my body test. :P ) But to see that picture... that person is ME??? It's humbling.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Today (well, technically yesterday, as it is currently 12.30am Tuesday) is Thanksgiving day here in Canada. We went to a couple-from-church's house for dinner, and I was very careful with what I ate. I STILL went 500 calories over for the day, because I allowed myself a butter tart, but I had had a good week DESPITE a trip to Red Robin when one of my BFFs came to town. (ACK! Mesa chicken salad is YUM, and healthy-ish, but 1000 calories!!!) I felt ok after dinner, not over-stuffed like I usually am at the holidays.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">***Note: I'd like to say here that since I am a breastfeeding mama, my daily calorie goal of 1900 might be a bit low anyway, so I'm not HUGELY concerned if I'm 100-200 calories over -- I *DO* weigh 200 lbs. I read somewhere that in order to maintain your weight with a sedentary lifestyle, your weight in lbs x 10 is how many calories you need. Add in breastfeeding (200-500 MORE per day), and light activity, 1900 is a pretty low amount. (but still within safe levels for milk supply.)***</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Which is good. VERY GOOD. Because here I am uploading before pics to my profile on the FIRM Believers Club, and I'm feeling horrendous and disgusting right now. I'm disgusted with myself mostly that I've allowed myself to get to this point.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Tomorrow I will take my measurements, and I'm sure that will be another reality check too. The <a href="http://www.myfitnesspal.com/">myfitnesspal.com</a> app allows you to custom-pick which measurements you want to track, so I will be putting in the ones from the <a href="http://www.firmdirect.com/firm/p/Goal-setting.html">FIRM's Goal Setting article</a>... and checking those once a month. Realistically, knowing my history with working out and losing weight, I won't see the scale move as much as I will see those numbers on the measuring tape move, so I need to get those recorded before I start my FIRM Express DVDs.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">NO MORE EXCUSES....</div>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-88968040860950574992011-10-08T20:55:00.001-07:002011-10-08T20:56:51.753-07:00Emotional eating<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've always known that I eat when I'm bored. I've ALWAYS done it, I'm a late-night snacker, and I have a HORRENDOUS sweet tooth. (I am very into holistic nutrition, and I have NO DOUBT that I have some bad yeastie-beasties in my gut. :/ )</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And, I've SUSPECTED I was an emotional eater, but really haven't taken a close look at when I eat, besides the time of day.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last week I had a *ROUGH* one. My little one is teething and growing, so his immune system is down, and he caught a cold. Stuffed up babies don't sleep so well. Meaning? Mummies don't sleep so well either. Daddy ended up on the couch for 2 of the nights this week, and me and Ri ended up getting not enough sleep. When I'm tired, I'm grumpy, I'm cranky, I truly am a bear. And I can be mean. It makes me sad and depressed, I feel guilty, and guess what? I eat. :(</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As you may know, I have been experimenting a lot with baking bread and snacks for the man. Store-bought bread and snacks that are gluten free are heinously expensive, and usually taste like a$$. We spent $8 on a box of 5 nutri-grain-type bars 6 months ago, and we each took ONE BITE and threw the whole rest of the bar and box in the rubbish - they were THAT BAD. O_o But I digress. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> had bought a package mix (very unlike me, I'm a from-scratch kinda girl) of brownie mix, by Bob's Red Mill, to bake for him. The brownie on its own is actually very benign, but of course, chocoholic that I am, I HAVE to make the topping. Did you know that sweetened condensed milk is ALSO actually quite benign on its own in moderation? But that chocolate chips are, like, 3/4 FAT???!??!!! Anyway, I had these grand intentions of having one a day, to allow myself something sweet (so I don't binge)... but because of the rough days, I OF COURSE ended up having MORE than one each day. And EACH TIME I had more than one, the 2nd went down the hatch RIGHT AFTER having a blow up at my kids. :(</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I bought myself some carrots and some other veggies to snack on, but when I'm sad/depressed/bummed, it's not the actual ACT of eating that consoles me - it's the sugar. It is my only vice. And when I'm down, I need a "hit." (LOL!) I have to deal with my sugar addiction, but... baby steps. In the meantime, I need to think of achievable ways that I can circumvent my cravings, by maybe tricking my body into thinking that I'm having some crazy rich awesomeness. I have thought about buying a flat of coke zero too, but not for an always thing, just for those days of craziness: a coke zero is MUCH better than 640 cal and 14g of fat in brownie.... O_o</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do YOU have a bad sweet tooth? How do you, besides cold turkey, ;) deal with it without going into DETOX? Are you an emotional eater? </span></div>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-21847256400822423582011-10-02T19:45:00.000-07:002012-01-16T23:24:32.664-08:00Corn bread and a Kitchen Aid...<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
So, yesterday, whilst making GF bread for the man, I killed not one, but TWO el cheapo hand mixers. Yes, that's right. KILLED 'EM. (Only one of them was brand new though, and that one I was able to salvage to give away, but the other one? Had to actually throw it out, it had dough in the MOTOR. O_o)</div>
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Covered in dough, LITERALLY from head to toe, I sent the man some pics and attached a message: "if you want to continue eating GF bread, you head on over to Costco and get the KitchenAid mixer that is on sale."</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
:D</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
Regular $379, down to $289. The 575watt motor... hubba hubba. This Empire Red mixin' machine is HUGE, and oh does it ever work well!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Empire Red Kitchen Aid 575W Stand Mixer</td></tr>
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BTW, the bread I made yesterday turned out okay (millet bread), but I don't know if it fell hugely because of the mixer debacle or what.... </div>
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So, today, of COURSE I gotta give it a go. I decided to try this recipe I've used but make some substitutions, and WHOA MAMA... it is SO good!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Corn bread - YUM!</td></tr>
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2 1/2 c corn flour</div>
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1/2 c cornstarch</div>
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1/2 c tapioca starch</div>
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1 tbsp guar gum</div>
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2/3 c dry milk powder</div>
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1 1/2 tsp salt</div>
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2 1/2 tbsp sugar</div>
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2 1/4 tsp yeast</div>
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1/2 c warm water</div>
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1/4 c melted butter</div>
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1 c warm water</div>
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1 tsp apple cider vinegar (although any vinegar would probably work)</div>
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3 eggs (preferably at room temperature, or close to)</div>
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Combine the corn flour, cornstarch, tapioca starch, guar gum, dry milk powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Mix well.</div>
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In a small bowl, combine your sugar, yeast and first lot of warm water - stir to dissolve and let sit in a warm spot for 10 min or so until it gets all bubbly.</div>
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In another bowl, combine your butter, the second lot of warm water, and the vinegar. Add wet to dry, and then add the eggs, 1 at a time while mixing. Once thoroughly combined, add the yeast mix. Beat for 2 minutes on high (or about 3 or 4 on a KitchenAid ;) ).</div>
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Cover with plastic wrap (I spray with cooking spray first) and a towel, and let rise until doubled (your time will vary).</div>
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After the first rise, beat again for 3 minutes (high).</div>
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Grease a large loaf pan, and fill the pan about 2/3 high. Any extra dough, bake in muffin tins.</div>
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Put on a cookie sheet (in case of bubble-over) in your oven with the light on, and let rise until just over the top of the pan. (again, your time will vary, it took mine about 45 min or so.)</div>
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Once finished rising, turn your oven to 350 degrees F (do NOT take it out of the oven), and bake it for 30 - 40 minutes. After the first 10 minutes of baking, cover your loaf with foil, so the top doesn't get burnt.</div>
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*** This bread is VERY batter-y, almost cake-like. Do NOT be alarmed, it rises beautifully, and tastes SCRUMPTIOUS! ***</div>
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For those of you NEW to GF (gluten free) baking, corn flour is NOT corn meal, nor is it corn starch. I get mine at Save-on Foods in the bulk section, for those of you in BC and Alberta. ;)</div>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-10823572843544908722011-08-08T14:21:00.003-07:002012-01-16T23:28:06.828-08:00Why SEEING breastfeeding is important: My personal challenge to you<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<b>*** NOTE: *** </b></div>
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This entire post was written and composed by Emma Kwasnica. Unfortunately, this amazing, talented chica isn't blogging *yet,* so I'm posting it here to help get it out there... It was originally posted as a note on Faceboob that you can see here: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes/emma-kwasnica/why-seeing-breastfeeding-is-important-my-personal-challenge-to-you/436431689914">http://www.facebook.com/notes/emma-kwasnica/why-seeing-breastfeeding-is-important-my-personal-challenge-to-you/436431689914</a></div>
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* If you wish to re-post this, please do! (But please remember to credit Emma!!)</div>
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* If you wish to <a href="http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Just+ME+-+One+Post+at+a+Time%3A+Why+SEEING+breastfeeding+is+important%3A+My+personal...&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdinnae.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F08%2Fwhy-seeing-breastfeeding-is-important.html%3Fspref%3Dtw">TWEET THIS</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdinnae.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F08%2Fwhy-seeing-breastfeeding-is-important.html%3Fspref%3Dfb&t=Why+SEEING+breastfeeding+is+important%3A+My+personal...">FB SHARE THIS</a>, please, please do!!! </div>
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And I sincerely hope you enjoy what this passionate woman has to say. :)</div>
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<u><i><b>Why SEEING breastfeeding is important: My personal challenge to you</b></i></u></div>
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I'd just like to talk a bit about the bigger picture here for a moment, in that by Facebook taking this stance against breastfeeding images, and by creating such arbitrary obscenity guidelines as "no exposed areola or nipple may be shown" (I have seen many, many women whose areola covers up to a third or more of their entire breast - a baby's mouth could never come close to "covering" it all!), it is stigmatizing breastfeeding women, and shaming women into thinking that their breasts are much, much less than the amazing life-giving source they are. Nipplephobia has reached epic proportions here in North America, and this is to the supreme detriment of babies everywhere.<br />
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Just think for one moment, how many more women would breastfeed, or for how much longer, if only we rid society of the harmful practice of over-sexualizing women's breasts! And how much this, in turn, could benefit the BABIES. For whose voice do the most vulnerable members of society have, if not ours? Interestingly, we find cultures around the world where women's breasts are seen *only* in their functioning capacity, i.e., that of nourishing and comforting their young. I believe that we can get there, too (or at least try to find some balance), but we have to start somewhere, and I truly feel that there is never any harm to come from challenging the status quo (you're not surprised, I know ;-) ).<br />
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I've said this before, and I'll say it again: as a childbirth professional, but also as a woman, in general, it is absolutely crucial that one support ALL women to breastfeed their young. While you, personally, may have your own code of "decency" for how much skin YOU are comfortable showing while breastfeeding, it is important that you do not impose your own, completely arbitrary line drawn in the sand regarding "modesty" or "discreetness", onto any other breastfeeding mother. Period. Just like a woman who wants to cover up should be supported (and generally IS in our society....), we need to support those women who struggle --or those women who do not want, or care-- to cover their baby and their breast, and make life simpler for these women to, first and foremost, feed and comfort the baby!<br />
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Quite simply, this is about normalizing breastfeeding. The more we hide it away, classify it as obscene, shame mothers into covering up while feeding, and encourage women to retire to "private" rooms in order to breastfeed the baby, the less we see of it in public, and the less and less people are comfortable with the very idea of nursing in public. This is the sad reality of this pathologically hyper-sexualized (yet sexually repressed...) North American culture of ours. The solution, however, seems quite simple to me; breastfeeding (and/or images of breastfeeding) need to be seen every day, and I am convinced that SEEING more breastfeeding, wherever possible, is what will change our breastfeeding culture. Re-normalize it. Everywhere in North America (in all provinces in Canada, and in every state in the USA but two) women have the right to breastfeed in public, wherever they have the legal right to be. So women should do it. And they should feel completely free to do it. Lots of it. As much as possible.<br />
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If you want to be a part of the solution, here is one, simple thing you can do, each and every time you see a mother breastfeeding her baby in public : yes, give her a great, big smile, but don't stop there --go right *up* to her, and tell her what a wonderful thing she is doing for her child. I guarantee you, that if we all did even this simple gesture every time we saw a woman nursing in public, the tides would begin to turn.<br />
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I would also like to suggest in your daily life (outside the 'net), that you get out there and nurse your children in public. And do so with a huge smile across your face. Pretty hard for onlookers to say, feel, or do something negative in the face of a beaming, breastfeeding mother --n'est-ce pas?<br />
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Breastfeeding is normal. Normal. NORMAL. Say it, do it, show it.<br />
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Will you start by doing these simple acts right today? Indeed, I challenge you.<br />
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Warm regards,<br />
~Emma Kwasnica<br />
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<span class=""><span class="caption">Emma Kwasnica & her family at the 2008 Montréal Breastfeeding Challenge. This photo and article were published in Le Journal de Montréal, a major daily francophone newspaper. If a North American city of 2.5 million can handle this in their daily paper, why can't Facebook? (oh, and before you pass inane judgment, and tell me these kids are "too old to nurse", please read this and get educated/get your head out of the gutter :<a href="http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detwean.html">http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detwean.html</a>)</span></span><br />
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<span class=""><span class="caption">2010 Breastfeeding Challenge - notice the 11-month-old Would. Not. Latch. Not for the world. TOO DISTRACTED.</span></span><br />
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<span class=""><span class="caption">Mama love ~ nursing Sophie is such a joy</span></span><br />
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<span class=""><span class="caption">March, 2006 -- HOORAY FOR TODDLER NURSING (. Y .) (. Y .) (. Y .) Bitter sweet. My girlfriends and I and our three nurslings, just prior to our sudden and UNEXPECTED departure from Toulouse back to Canada (due to a stoopid competition clause kerfuffle with Seb's work at IBM). Christel, Christelle, and I found one another through our local LLL group. Our babies are around the same age and grew up around one another from 12mo through to 2.5yo (when we left Toulouse). There is nothing like finding yourself a like-minded "tribe" of mama friends who totally "get" one another. I will forever cherish being in the company of these two women and their babies, as I muddled my *own* way through, slowly but surely developing into the fierce mother I am today. Love you, girls ! xx</span></span><br />
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<span class=""><span class="caption">Montréal Breastfeeding Challenge 2009 "in the park". Torrential downpour for the event, but that didn't stop us "hardcore breastfeeders" from going ahead with our plans. I am 42 weeks pregnant with Chloë *to the day* in this photo; Sophie (2.5 y/o) nursing on cue for the official latch-on at 11am. Labour had, indeed, begun just a few hours prior to this moment, but I literally psyched myself out, and contractions petered right out at around 3am, because there was no way I could miss the Breastfeeding Challenge in front of my own house in the morning ! (Photo courtesy of Rowan Smith) <a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Breastfeeding%20event%20zapped%20H1N1%20fears/2056459/story.htm">http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Breastfeeding%20event%20zapped%20H1N1%20fears/2056459/story.htm</a>l</span></span><br />
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<span class=""><span class="caption">This photo was deleted by the "powers that be" of Facebook on Friday, July 16th. I've just re-uploaded it now. I do wonder if it is precisely BECAUSE my breasts are not being used to titillate men in this photo that it was found to be so offensive, offensive enough to be deleted. I mean, here is this nice-looking woman, hair done, wearing a somewhat dressy, funky, black top... looks like she could be heading out for a night on the town, right ? And instead of seeing her breasts all smooshed up into a push-up bra and a large line of cleavage displayed for all the hot-blooded men to ogle, we see a baby suckling at her breast. Could utter RAGE be the response on the part of (some) men looking at this photo ? On the part of the button-pushers behind their screens at Facebook, those who are deleting the photos, those who are responsible for insuring Facebook remains pure from all this sort of "filth" ? As ludicrous as this might seem, could they be feeling denied by the space occupied by this tiny infant EATING at my breast ? Disgusted by it ? I am devastated that our culture has done this to us, given us this mental disorder. But it has a name (Nipplephobia), and there is hope out there for people with it (therapy). Nipplephobia *can* be overcome; a large part of the therapy includes seeing more and more women breastfeeding their children, seeing more and more breasts EVERYWHERE, being bombarded by the image of breasts being used in their biological context --that of nourishing a child. I highly recommend you try it. It's also why I post the dozens and dozens of breastfeeding photos that I do, here on Facebook. Look at them. Over and over again. Please. It will do a world of good... </span></span><br />
<span class=""><span class="caption">********************************** Facebook warning Hello, You uploaded a photo that violates our Terms of Use, and this photo has been removed. Facebook does not allow photos that attack an individual or group, or that contain nudity, drug use, violence, or other violations of the Terms of Use. These policies are designed to ensure Facebook remains a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users, including the many children who use the site. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page at http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=wphotos. The Facebook Team</span></span><br />
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<span class=""><span class="caption">October 2010 -- The crazy-eyed lactivist strikes again. (I just put this sign up on my fridge, at home) </span></span><br />
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<span class=""><span class="caption">Nursing Sophie ~ 3 years, 11 months old</span></span></div>
</div>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-1625282030068076822011-08-04T23:12:00.003-07:002012-01-16T23:25:22.233-08:00Adopt a gluten free blogger - Gluten Free Gobsmacked<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookofyum.com/blog/adopt-a-gluten-free-blogger-july-2011-edition-signups-7408.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH4UPL2CKhBqyAi1c0hkK8wiD9MPk56BoPKPBHd6Bv7aaRgmcEL9GvlRLnR1Q2IAFyu0Pp1xVaJOrZaNqmOlzGfa2ZyH31iShygiQ9ylye2LouUPSOFThrj6Hc9N3ijkALT2Vs/s1600/event1b.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bookofyum.com/blog/adopt-a-gluten-free-blogger-july-2011-edition-signups-7408.html">Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger Web Event</a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And the GF adventures continue... </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Through my mad surfing, and my insatiable thirst for all info gluten free, I of course stumbled upon a NUMBER of blogs. The first? Kate Chan's blog over at <a href="http://glutenfree.wordpress.com/">Gluten Free Gobsmacked</a>. I love her style of writing, her passion for ingredients, that she's a mama like me, and the fact that she is a seasoned GF chica. She was diagnosed with celiac THREE WEEKS before her wedding (poor chick!) and she and "her love" have been experimenting and living gluten free ever since. Her DH is of Asian descent, so in that aspect, she kinda has it easy - so so many GF flours are regular, normal, everyday flours in the Asian menu. At least *HE* knew what he was looking for! ;) That said, I spend a LOT of time in the Asian section in our local Save-On Foods and Great Canadian Superstore... </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyway, back to Kate. She's very adventurous with her baking, and she's part of this wicked awesome thing called Ratio Rally - wherein a group of GF bakers are committed to using weight ratios for their baking rather than standard cup measures... and lo and behold, some amazing creations are coming out of it! They just did the most recent of Ratio Rallies, Cakes, on the 3rd... Can't wait to dig in to that one! Oh, and another reason why I love her writing? She has a sweet tooth like me! Oh be still my heart! One of her recipes that I'm *DYING* to try is for .... wait for it.... OREOS! If you know me, then you know that I loooooooove Oreos. If you don't, well, just get this - I have been known to polish off a whole bag of Double Stufs ON. MY. OWN. Anyway, I was going to try baking them this week, but necessity won over craving - the man needs bread for lunch. And it's just been one of those weeks that nothing else was gonna get baked this week. Pooh! Although... it seems that summer has finally arrived in Greater Vancouver - YES! Hence why we've been so busy this week - lots of time spent at the beautiful parks in the City of Surrey.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, why am I telling you about Kate? Well, I signed up for this <a href="http://www.bookofyum.com/blog/adopt-a-gluten-free-blogger-july-2011-edition-signups-7408.html">Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger Web Event</a>. Basically you "adopt" a GF blogger, do one of their recipes, photograph it and post about it. So... here it is!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As I said, the man needed bread for lunch. So I did a recipe of Kate's called <a href="http://glutenfree.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/gf-sorghum-flax-bread/">Sorghum Flax Bread</a> that actually has 3 different ways to make it. I have, in my bread baking over the last 3 weeks, made it all 3 ways. You can find her recipe <a href="http://glutenfree.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/gf-sorghum-flax-bread/">HERE</a>.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I gotta tell you a bit about my adventures with this bread. These pics are made the standard way with the recipe (eggs NOT separated, and WITH a sponge). To be perfectly honest, I didn't notice a difference in taste or look between the 3 ways. BUT. With a sponge and with eggs separated was the only way my dough didn't bubble up and over into my oven during the rise. (That was effort #2, NOT these pics.) Not quite sure WHAT I did... except that MAYBE with the sponge this time last time I didn't let it settle enough? I think that is *most likely* the cause of the bubbling dough debacle. Well, at least my oven wasn't *ON.* </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">***No smoke alarms or fire alarms were tripped in the baking of this bread.*** ;)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxb-NyMRT4kMz7hDuUthOB_t46NoTuOME50cwa8KhTtsDJHl4GEqayrQMpTK-nkwaySduhCzJTlcSugC89NPXmfVCZcbzsJQ3arlciMK9KMFVdj372V5yKzoJotejxdBLL1OMI/s1600/sfb01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxb-NyMRT4kMz7hDuUthOB_t46NoTuOME50cwa8KhTtsDJHl4GEqayrQMpTK-nkwaySduhCzJTlcSugC89NPXmfVCZcbzsJQ3arlciMK9KMFVdj372V5yKzoJotejxdBLL1OMI/s320/sfb01.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My "sponge" activating</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxQHhUBPrYtN1YxgbJ2Gj5pJmTLISkWKdjq-CmccHzhPAMdiG0-wjPJ-wrLPsQnJ_YQZ61LmSWe69aZCBfemFY9gB93fbLhJ8pj-6tiDVGg4gRzePGsm8cIRDhdsSvvwE1i9NE/s1600/sfb02.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxQHhUBPrYtN1YxgbJ2Gj5pJmTLISkWKdjq-CmccHzhPAMdiG0-wjPJ-wrLPsQnJ_YQZ61LmSWe69aZCBfemFY9gB93fbLhJ8pj-6tiDVGg4gRzePGsm8cIRDhdsSvvwE1i9NE/s320/sfb02.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My dough, all nicely patted down into my pan.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsOYcRffdHFm7KjNU_oS-GGhga47vGrbyJ-8C0Tbj2EbFz1FmJszS_BTigW08x-2ioVI71LgDhlyIRet9dUvTvL2HHcJwuqFi-kUo_bdgMueFf70A67leVgvGChXb37ZlmtnrH/s1600/sfb03.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsOYcRffdHFm7KjNU_oS-GGhga47vGrbyJ-8C0Tbj2EbFz1FmJszS_BTigW08x-2ioVI71LgDhlyIRet9dUvTvL2HHcJwuqFi-kUo_bdgMueFf70A67leVgvGChXb37ZlmtnrH/s320/sfb03.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My dough, not so nicely patted down into my pan... </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">oh, but rising! LOL!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_3LeO0KPr2UimVDtgYT7pcZCCfTfPPasSiNUytM00yzeoVMtUWj-POR_XX8rLVHtvZ3QnLQPJ1YrfWBLg_t5et6id4zlyfZQ8TIePN37M3r8YK1Krmpr6Ave7xwO3HaFu7NOQ/s1600/sfb04.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_3LeO0KPr2UimVDtgYT7pcZCCfTfPPasSiNUytM00yzeoVMtUWj-POR_XX8rLVHtvZ3QnLQPJ1YrfWBLg_t5et6id4zlyfZQ8TIePN37M3r8YK1Krmpr6Ave7xwO3HaFu7NOQ/s320/sfb04.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Make lemonade out of lemons? </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How about buns out of bubbling over bread dough?</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOVEkZkZ0DqYPeqfm882kJuObYLcORNe_rA36LWKyj5HMxJhNzSEQA6Ei-64QJKvEWz8Yk6YSvBmJ9BMxwJP49lerPxh7t2s9pnE1AzYcgTQHaWSOEQ0_WxnjaG6y9mtj0OzfU/s1600/sfb05.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOVEkZkZ0DqYPeqfm882kJuObYLcORNe_rA36LWKyj5HMxJhNzSEQA6Ei-64QJKvEWz8Yk6YSvBmJ9BMxwJP49lerPxh7t2s9pnE1AzYcgTQHaWSOEQ0_WxnjaG6y9mtj0OzfU/s320/sfb05.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">End result? Some darn good-lookin' bread and buns.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgttkkb6C3V1AXk50ovl_Dc93cNVuZTXFTuuOm0D6c8aQCAQx3-HQqtB0r1w4oKhVOPKxJs1bi46oyDqtWCc2ZjPD83sWu6rJBUxueuZPciYpIGI0VWSyUSONOa67Nc9Z33brnQ/s1600/sfb06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgttkkb6C3V1AXk50ovl_Dc93cNVuZTXFTuuOm0D6c8aQCAQx3-HQqtB0r1w4oKhVOPKxJs1bi46oyDqtWCc2ZjPD83sWu6rJBUxueuZPciYpIGI0VWSyUSONOa67Nc9Z33brnQ/s320/sfb06.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And a yummy chicken BLT... not bad!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And the verdict? Well, good enough that the man is happy with it for his sandwiches for lunch... and I enjoyed a slice with hummus this evening... Aw yum! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All yumminess aside, serious verdict is that this wholegrain bread has some good chew (not crumbly! yay!), a fantastic texture, and a little bit of a sweet undertone. I may mix it up a bit by making it a bit savoury next time - dropping some of the sugar, and upping the salt and maybe some spices in there. The texture is awesome, and I think it'd make a GREAT cheesy scone-type bun.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go check out the <a href="http://www.bookofyum.com/blog/adopt-a-gluten-free-blogger-july-2011-edition-signups-7408.html">rest of the posts for this AaGFB event</a>, you'll find them in the comments section of the post. :)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy bread making!</span><br />
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</span>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-84789159490833560942011-07-31T00:41:00.000-07:002012-01-16T23:26:14.544-08:00Multi Blend Gluten Free Flour Mix and WAFFLE recipe<i><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">REPOST:</span></b></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a repost of a Facebook note that I wrote on 20 June, 2011.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As some of you know, Todd is gluten intolerant, and so in order to make it better for him to eat, I'm having a go at gluten-free cooking and baking. Today being father's day, I made him gluten free waffles with a flour mix I found on the 'net.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's a VERY popular mix, on many sites, including <a href="http://glutenfree.wordpress.com/">http://glutenfree.wordpress.com</a> (where i found it first - kate is one hella-talented writer and baker!), <a href="http://celiac.com/">celiac.com</a> and many others. This mix is touted as a great "beginner's mix"... perfect for me!!! (and so many others too!) As gf bakers get more confident, they rely less and less on "cure-all" mixes like this, and get more adventurous, but I'm just learnin' so I'm gonna go with this for now. So, I'll put down the recipe for the flour mix and notes about the flour(s), and then the waffle mix, along with some notes at the end about how gf works with this recipe.</span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Multi Blend GF Flour Mix</span></b></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 c brown rice flour</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 1/4 c white rice flour</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/4 c potato starch flour</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2/3 c tapioca starch flour</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3/4 c sweet rice flour</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/3 c cornstarch</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 tsp guar gum (or 2 tsp xanthan gum)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">* I tripled this recipe, and it fits nicely in an ice cream bucket.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">* you can use straight brown rice flour instead of the white and brown - it's healthier actually, and in some opinion (I agree) tastes better. white rice flour is the one that gives items the chalky, gritty taste/texture, so you want to use the white sparingly. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">* you can use any combination of brown and rice flour that suits you, as well as "superfine rice flour". i haven't found superfine yet, so that might be just an American thing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">* you can use pure buckwheat, amaranth, or quinoa flours in place of the rice flours as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">* this mix can be used for sweets, tortillas, waffles, pancakes, etc.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">* if using it for the following, add extra xanthan or guar gum PER 1 CUP OF FLOUR MIX to your recipe:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> breads 1 tsp/cup</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> cakes/quickbreads 1/2 tsp/cup</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> cookies 1/4 tsp/cup</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*use CUP FOR CUP when wanting to replace traditional wheat flour in your recipes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*guar gum is the least expensive, but you can also use xanthan gum. (edited to add: I've read that you when using guar vs xanthan, you want to use 1.5 times the amount of guar. Ie: 2 tsp xanthan = 3 tsp guar.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*I found the tapioca (68 cents!) and sweet rice flours ($2.49!!!) at Superstore in the Asian section (I'm sure Save-on would most likely have them in WL folks), and white and brown rice flours in the bulk section at Save On Foods... the remaining ingredients I got at a local place called Organic Grocer. All told, my ice cream bucket of flour cost about $12 (and that is just an estimate, I can't remember how much I paid for the rice flours last year). Next shopping I'm going to check out T&T Supermarket (a biiiiig Asian grocery store here in the Lower Mainland), and I'm guessing I should be able to find other stuff there too.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*this mix will take LONGER TO ABSORB your liquid, so don't panic if it's SUPER watery at first, like I did this morning. :P I ended up adding extra flour to my waffle batter, the first thing I made with it, which it still tasted GREAT, but made for very thick, hard to pour/dish out batter. And coming from someone who makes waffles at least twice a month, I do *kinda* know what I'm talking about. LOL I will be trying it out on some cookies for T's lunch tomorrow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">****A lot of those notes above are a combination of stuff I've learned in some basic researching on the net regarding gluten free baking. Some GREAT sources that I've found are:</span><br />
<a href="http://glutenfree.wordpress.com/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://glutenfree.wordpress.com</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.celiac.com/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.celiac.com</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.cookingglutenfree.com/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.cookingglutenfree.com</span></a><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*OLD SCHOOL* Waffle Recipe</span></b></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">--> I'm calling it old school because it came from one of my mum's OLD cookbooks, and my mum doesn't even remember which book I got it from (but I remember what it looked like!), and SHE doesn't remember using a recipe with shortening in it, but I do... LOL I remember making them *myself * over 10 years ago, and have no clue where the recipe is from. I have compared it to other waffle recipes though, and the ingredients are pretty standard.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 2/3 c flour</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 tsp baking powder</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/2 tsp salt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 egg yolks, beaten</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 2/3 c milk</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6 tbsp shortening, melted</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 egg whites, beaten stiff</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">sift dry ingredients. beat together yolks, milk and shortening (do NOT add yolks DIRECTLY to shortening or it will cook them); add to sifted ingredients. beat until mostly smooth (there will be lumps of shortening though - just ensure your flour is all blended in); fold in egg whites.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*I usually double this recipe, and on my Belgian iron, I get 11 waffles with a doubled recipe. I keep the leftovers in an airtight container, and we toast them (like Eggos) and eat throughout the week. (and the boys LOVE just having a 1/4 of a waffle for a snack. ;) )</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*the first time you try these gluten-free, give your mix time to absorb - don't panic like I did and add extra flour. Mine still turned out great, but I think they'd have been fine had I just left the flour to do it's thing for longer.</span>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-20401701294317505532011-07-27T01:35:00.000-07:002012-01-16T23:26:48.478-08:00Gluten Free Adventures begin...<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So the man is gluten intolerant. Not celiac, we don't think, as he doesn't get violently ill, or rashy... just that his tummy doesn't gripe so much when he's off gluten.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And maybe me too? Maybe why I'm always so damn tired (oh wait, 'cause it's 1am right now.. :P ), bloated, cranky, eczema-ey... etc. I'm going to a naturopath next month to get tested... who knows, maybe our whole house will end up being gluten-free....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyway, we THOUGHT he had issues with yeast and just wheat, turns out it's pretty much just gluten. (Not that yeast is a good thing in excess, but he had to give up his beloved Vegemite before, now... not so much.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The last few months have been hairy - the decision to move south to the Greater Vancouver area, the move (whoa), unpacking (double-whoa), and adjusting to life with daddy away from the house for 11 hours a day (when previously, being self-employed, he was here 24/7 to help mummy when she was going batty). And maybe a bit of fb activism regarding <a href="http://www.hm4hb.net/">HM4HB</a> thrown in for good measure too (<a href="http://dinnae.blogspot.com/2011/03/breaking-stigma-of-milksharing-informed.html">see previous post</a>). ;) OOH, AND, fitting time in there to learn/research about being gluten-free. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been baking a bit, trying some new recipes, as well as adapting old ones.... and tonight I did the latter. I adapted MY banana muffin recipe. (yes, it's truly mine, I've been tweaking it now for about a decade.) But... I made a boo-boo. Part-way in to baking, I realised that I didn't have enough gluten free flour blend, so rather than wasting a schwackload of time mixing up another batch of blend, I improvised using the chana flour I'd bought today. (Boo hoo! Yeah right, I was stoked to try out baking with the chana!) The result was this yummy Banana Chocolate Chip Flax Seed Muffin that TASTES BETTER than its' wheat counterpart! REALLY! Sooooo excited. :) :) :) Pic and recipe below....</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Don't they look stinkin' scrumptious????</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <i><b>Dinnae's Banana Chocolate Chip Flax Seed Muffin</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 bananas, mashed</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 eggs, beaten</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/4 c oil</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/2 c sugar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 1/2 c + 2 tbsp gluten free flour blend (recipe below)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 tbsp sweet rice flour </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/4 c chana flour (aka chickpea or garbanzo flour - chana is the Indian name for it)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 tbsp flax meal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 tbsp flax seeds</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 tsp baking soda</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/4 tsp salt</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 c chocolate chips</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Preheat your oven to 350F. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray or line with muffin liners. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mash your bananas; add beaten eggs, sugar and oil - whisk together well.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a separate bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients except the chips.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Combine the wet and dry ingredients, mix well (get out all the dry lumps) but do not overmix.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fold in chips.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fill muffin cups 2/3 full, and bake until golden.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Notes:</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I used muffin TOP pans, so I baked mine for 7 min, rotated them (my oven is old-school and not even), and then baked another 4-5 min. Full size muffins would probably be about 18 - 20 min, give or take.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This can also be baked in a loaf, but I'd probably drop the temp down to 325F and then bake for 45-60 min.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I found the following recipe at a couple of different sources, but most notably <a href="http://www.celiac.com/">www.celiac.com</a> and <a href="http://glutenfree.wordpress.com/">GlutenFree Gobsmacked</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<i><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gluten-Free Flour Blend</span></b></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 1/4 c brown rice flour</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1/4 c potato starch</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2/3 c tapioca flour</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3/4 c sweet rice flour</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> 1/3 c cornstarch</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 tbsp guar gum</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kate (GF Gobsmacked) uses superfine rice flour, which I haven't been able to find here in Canada, and I also adjusted it for guar instead of xanthan gum. Xanthan is more expensive (like crazy so), and guar gum needs a bit more. On the <a href="http://www.bobsredmill.com/bobs-red-mill-faq.html#GF_7">Bob's Red Mill site</a>, it said that subbing guar for xanthan is ok, but generally one should multiply it by 1.5 to get the same consistency.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alrighty then, so there it is, my first GF recipe posted to my blog. I've posted a few to facebook (which I think will make their merry little way over here), but this is the first one I've done on here. Yay! Here's to more baking, and more posting yummy recipes and pics!</span>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-54269324077237052572011-03-12T15:35:00.004-08:002011-03-12T20:29:40.480-08:00Breaking the stigma of milksharing - INFORMED CHOICE<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 6px; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_2089267715"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgECye9TqwJq4Salk1yDtdQZTGiOpgC4VvK3IbDQuYI4tkhzhqwns_zkSxLvGlNy26S3Ei5rzfj4lm5etzlL6cOvSNmg4jrDeHcn1KFlx2ZSFppvI95P8pqonTL7hBoDk7TZUXm/s1600/hm4hbbc.jpg" style="cursor: move; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.hm4hb.net/">Logo for my local HM4HB chapter - BC</a></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Recently I posted a link to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.hm4hb.net/">Human Milk 4 Human Babies (HM4HB)</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> on my facebook wall. I am eager to pass on the information that there is a grassroots movement out there to encourage INFORMED, mama-to-mama milksharing! The group was recently re-named so there were a bunch of us posting the new name and new site to our walls.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Not long after I posted the link, an old friend from highschool posted on my wall: "This may be a silly question: But do people actually donate their breast milk to other moms who need it?"</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And of course, I replied. :) Then it got me thinking, I REALLY should blog about this, because whilst my facebook wall is only viewable to my friends list, my blog is viewable to the WORLD. Anything to get the word out!</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And my reply to her was this (edited to add links, etc):</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The simple answer: OH YEAH BABY! ;)</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And the more complex answer (picture me getting on my soapbox...):</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I'm actually in the process of giving over 100 oz of frozen milk I have to a mum in Kelowna with a baby about the same age as Riley (my youngest, he's almost 4 months old). I've been blessed/cursed with over-supply, especially in the first 3 months post-partum, with all 3 of my boys. This time around, within 10 days of Riley being born, I was pumping 8 to 10 oz per feed, and he was only eating 2 to 3 oz. For me, it can be a curse, because I am unable to feed naturally without pain (unless using a breast shield) for the first couple of months. Once my supply settles down (around the 3 to 4 month mark), I'm good to go. This being my 3rd baby, I was feeding naturally (without shields, and without pumping) by 3 months, which was just awesome to me. :D</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Conversely, with all the stresses in today's society (stress SERIOUSLY affects milk supply), limited support and education (at a grassroots level, ie: mum and aunties helping you, teaching you - which is a much better way to learn than just reading), and the "taboo" nature of breastfeeding ("ew, boobs are for sex, not food!"), some mums are finding breastfeeding nigh on impossible, at least without some supplementation. And until more grassroots support is available (ie: we de-taboo breastfeeding, daddies understand how IMPORTANT their support is to mama, and women don't feel inadequate by discussing their issues), donated ebm is the perfect solution.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Expressed breast milk (ebm) is the BEST source of nutrition for human babies next to straight from the source. Preemies and addict babies ESPECIALLY benefit from ebm - <a href="http://www.bestforbabes.org/2010/11/jenna-elfman-donates-breastmilk-to-save-sick-baby-beats-breastfeeding-boobytraps/">Jenna Elfman (aka Dharma) donated excess ebm that she had in her freezer</a> to a couple that had adopted an addict baby -- and the drs say that the only reason that baby is now thriving is because he got that ebm from Jenna. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90cK2bjS3Ew&tracker=False">Neil Patrick Harris was on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson talking about getting milk from a milk bank</a>, because his adopted daughter (one of twins) doesn't deal well with formula.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Basically, formula is either dairy or soy-based. <a href="http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/03summary.htm">Soy has been proven to have high amounts of estrogen</a> - not so good for babies (some babies even get boobies from it - boys included!!). Dairy is made for baby cows, not baby humans. Cows have completely different digestive tracts than humans (including FOUR STOMACHS!), so it's not surprising that MANY babies' tummies don't deal well with formula, and it causes many complications, including gas, reflux, and down the road, lactose intolerance, allergies, asthma and eczema... just to name a few. According to <a href="http://www.who.int/topics/breastfeeding/en/">the WHO</a>, bottle feeding a baby formula is a LAST DITCH option for feeding babies, it ranks number 5, after donated ebm, wet-nursing and even feeding formula from a CUP. And in their document, <a href="http://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/infantfeeding/9241562218/en/index.html">Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding</a>, it says on Page 10: "Infants who are not breastfed, for whatever reason, should receive special attention from the health and social welfare system since they constitute a risk group." That some pretty scary stuff, yet our western society chooses formula very nonchalantly, like it's no big deal.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Culturally, western society is having a hard time dealing with this "notion" because... ew, it's a bodily fluid!!! Ummm, hello? And what, pray tell, is dairy milk? Don't get me wrong, I loooooooove milk, we go through 3 4L jugs in about a week in this house, but if I stop to think about the fact that it's a bodily fluid from a COW... yeah, I'd much rather the stuff that was MEANT to be for humans. <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1141584/Salma-Hayek-breastfeeds-strangers-baby-Africa-mother-runs-milk.html">Salma Hayek nursed an African baby</a> last year... but our society was collectively "grossed out" by it. Because, ew, that's just gross, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/12/health-breastfeeding-salma-hayek">giving a baby much needed milk</a>. :/</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In the 80s, Canada had over 20 operating milk banks nationally. Now? ONLY ONE. <a href="http://www.bcwomens.ca/Services/PregnancyBirthNewborns/HospitalCare/Breastfeeding.htm">ONE, in Vancouver</a>. I don't know about the one in Van, but milk banks in the States CHARGE for ebm, and on one forum post I read about it, it costs about $120/day to feed a baby ebm from a milk bank. $120 a day!!!!!</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The lady behind getting <a href="http://www.hm4hb.net/">HM4HB</a> up and running (Emma Kwasnica) said something that a lot of people are quoting now: "Breastmilk is not some sort of scarce commodity; it is a free flowing resource." There are lots of mums out there like me, who have oversupply, and have a freezer full of milk (liquid gold! ;) ) that will go bad if it's not used... so why not provide that milk for a baby that needs it?</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">BM has probiotics, antibodies, antifungal and antibacterial properties, and ALL the goodness a baby needs (not just SOME, it is THE PERFECT FOOD).... and if a mama is unable to give that to her baby, she should have the option available to her to give her baby ebm from another mama. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I realise that there are mums who choose to formula feed, and that's fine, provided that they have all the information. <a href="http://chealth.canoe.ca/channel_health_news_details.asp?channel_id=1050&relation_id=95736&news_channel_id=1050&news_id=31301">National recalls were going on due to contaminated formula</a> - the companies were cutting corners to save a buck (rumours were flying that some execs KNEW about the contamination!) - and we're feeding this to our BABIES? No worries about recall from boobie milk. lol Formula is a necessity, many babies would die without it, I don't deny that, but it shouldn't be the first go-to solution (and the WHO most definitely agrees!).</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Okay, so maybe I should step down from my soapbox now. ;)</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Please don't EVER think any question, ESPECIALLY about breastmilk, or breastfeeding, is silly to me. (um, and including, natural birth, home birth, etc. ;) ) THAT is where the education and support starts - when people are honest and look to expand their knowledge and make INFORMED CHOICES by asking questions.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And her response was so awesome, and the reason why I decided to blog this: </span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"It is quite a concept. I have to admit, I was kind of like "ew, gross....feeding your baby someone else's milk" I'll admit it....kind of gross. But I guess the points you make are true esp. regarding the one about cow's milk being a bodily fluid! Pretty awesome that you are a milk making machine and that you can donate your milk to another mom in need. Thanks for the info....definitely something to think about :)"</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I just want to say thanks to MK for prompting me to blog about this... it's information that NEEDS to be out there: parents need to know ALL the options available to them.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Soooo....</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Looking for milk? Have milk to share? <a href="http://www.hm4hb.net/">Human Milk 4 Human Babies (HM4HB)</a> is a global network represented by community facebook pages for each state/province/country. These pages provide a space where families in need can connect with women who have milk to share. HM4HB affirms that human milk is the biological norm for human infants and children. HM4HB does not support the sale of human milk.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.hm4hb.net/">http://www.hm4hb.net</a></span></div>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-54656700331612982862011-02-28T12:18:00.000-08:002011-02-28T12:18:10.933-08:00Growing, teething! OH, and a marriage seminar.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, this adorable little bubba that I birthed less than 4 months ago is growing... and yes, teething.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">His poor poor rosy cheeks from all that drool!</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Teething means rough sleeps... and yeah, he's a baby, so theoretically, I should ALWAYS be having rough sleeps, right? WRONG. This bubba has blessed us in the way that our first bubba did too - he was already sleeping through the night when the stuffiness/teething began. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes, I know, you hate me. But HEY, in my defense, our 2nd little man, Shannon, didn't sleep through the night until he was over a year, so I've been there, done that too. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So back to Riley. Stuffed up, not sleeping well due to teething, AND, wait for it, he's ALSO to the point that I think he's wanting to get into regular naps, not just in between feeds, but real naps (= grumpy child until he's used to that). That's good, actually that's GREAT, but transitions are hard. I love this little monkey so much, but as the days go by, I'm getting more and more sure that I agree with the big man in my life, that we're done. Three little munchkins who light up my world are good enough for this family. </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My big boys need and deserve some consistency in their lives, and if we keep introducing little ones, that consistency is a far way off. Ri doesn't have a schedule, meaning the big boys don't really either, which is hard for them. They're both learning to tell time, which means that they want to be able to tell when it's snack time, when it's lunch time, when it's time for a bath, etc. It's fun, and I want to keep it fun. But it's hard to do that when I keep changing the times associated with those activities when I have a baby who needs to go down (add 20 minutes), who needs a feed (add 20 minutes), or maybe who needs a bum/clothing change (add 3 to 5 minutes). And I can't exactly keep Ri to the boys' schedule - when a baby needs to eat, poop, sleep, they need to do it NOW. And while the big boys may be learning how to tell time, they still don't get the concept of "in 5 minutes," or "in half an hour." On that note, I'm getting better at telling them "when the clock says 12:10pm, it's lunch time" instead of just saying, "sorry, honey, not right now."</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, marriage seminar.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Don't think "BORING!" Really, don't. 'Cause it wasn't! Our church put on a marriage seminar called <a href="http://www.laughyourway.com/">"Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage" by Mark Gungor</a>. It was absolutely, mind-blowingly AWESOME. I laughed so hard my face hurt, I cried, and I learned so much. And Todd had just as much fun - really, he did! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is a "Christian" curriculum, but as Mark states in the first session: "I'm not going to beat you over the head with the Bible." The curriculum is great for anyone, even atheists, and although he makes a couple Bible references, and references to God, he truly doesn't beat you over the head with the Bible. Mark makes the serious topics fun and easy to learn about, and he gave us all so many "aha!" moments.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The church did it up nice too. We got lunch and dinner on Saturday, and they even had candles going during dinner. After each of the 4 sessions, they gave out a "prize" that we all voted on who deserved it, depending on the category. T and I got a prize for the "least romantic honeymoon." (We went snowboarding with friends, and I was sick, so spent the entire weekend on my own in the chalet while T was out on the slopes. While it was kind of relaxing for me, I got to crochet and read, etc, and it was fun for Todd, it wasn't romantic in the least.)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This program was so paradigm-changing, that I truly think that this program should be in the highschools. Well, not as a marriage seminar, but definitely covering the topics he did, like waiting for marriage for sex (which I didn't do, but wish I had), how boys and girls think differently, how we operate differently, and how KEY sex is to a healthy marriage. Yes, he said it. He didn't say it was just important, he said it was probably THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT to a successful marriage. There was so much to be absorbed from this weekend, and I could seriously post for days about it, but I'll leave some surprise to it for you. Find it, and do it - whether you go to a weekend put on by your local church, or you buy the dvds online (on their site, $59.99).... make it a priority.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another busy, but oh so fun weekend... and I wonder why time flies so stinkin' fast???? We're off for an ENT specialist appointment for Xavier's tonsils this week, as well as my niece's THIRD birthday, oh, and then it's the weekend again. :D So much to do, and so little time.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hugs,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">D.</span>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-55173887695801334562011-02-23T16:55:00.000-08:002011-02-23T16:55:25.336-08:00Taking over the world...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One follower at a time!!!!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">MWAH HA HA HA!!!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Okay, slightly psycho, yes. But funny, no? C'mon, you know you laughed!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part of my bio blip is about getting used to tweeting, blogging, all these technological thingamajiggers so that I can remain a SAHM, and not rack up the debt of the century by placing my 3 kids in daycare. So, I've started tweeting more. I've realised that in order to be truly effective at tweeting, I need to do it more often, so I have twitter.com as one of my home pages. (I have 8 sites that load automatically when I boot up Chrome.) And my work is not going un-noticed... I hit 300 followers today. Now, that might not seem like a lot... but considering that, 3 weeks ago, I had about 150 - that's not too bad!!!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now... back to the post below, about balancing working at home with 3 boys... that big square thing is showing their favourite show right now. We SEVERELY limit telly in our house (ooooooh, their behaviour when we don't, ie: when I'm sick, etc, is ATROCIOUS), to about 1 hour per day (sometimes less); and that is dependent on what is on. Their two fave shows are the Backyardigans, and In the Night Garden. So, because those shows are on at a lovely time (4pm - dinner making time!), that's their tv time. So on days like today, when I am the SHIZNIT, and I ALREADY have din-din simmering on the stove... I have time to blog! Woo hoo!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another thing that will make life easier in that whole balance thing? We are moving soon (about 2 months from now) to Vancouver (6 hours south of where we are), and we'll be squishing into (compared to now) a 3 bed unit (suite, apt, townhouse, whatever)... so I will have a desk in the living room, and be able to supervise whilst being productive at the same time. Then it'll be easy to take a break to do the hokey pokey with my boys, and then get back at 'er. :)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That feels good ... to have a plan in place, ya know?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Love D.</span>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-28789036869567479662011-02-01T12:28:00.000-08:002011-02-01T12:28:20.968-08:00Working from homeSo.<br />
<br />
I have these 3 adorable little boys. Hubby is a web designer, and as good as he is, is getting frustrated with trying to run his own business - he's not a salesman, so getting clients isn't easy, ESPECIALLY in this economy. In a small town to boot! Although he DID just get a new client yesterday, completely out of the blue. Sooooo, he's looking to maybe get a J.O.B. In Vancouver. I LOVE VANCOUVER. But from a rental perspective, it is MUCH more expensive than where we are now.<br />
<br />
I want to bring in about $2000 per month. I am NOT going to put my boys in daycare, for 2 big reasons: 1) I want to be home for them - I loved having my mum home, and was DEVASTATED when she went back to work after my parents split up (plus I LOVE being a sahm); and 2) to put 3 kids in daycare would cost more than what I would bring in - ummm, can we say POINTLESS?<br />
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My dilemma is not WHAT to do from home (so please don't post your links to your MLM etc.) because I am a Stampin' Up! demonstrator (hobby demo) and a I am a Melaleuca Marketing Executive (have been a customer for 12 years, and am now going to build that business)... but rather, how to manage life with 3 under 5 WHILE working from home. <br />
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Example? Making calls while my 4yo and 2.5yo are fighting and hollering. Doing a presentation or card class while my 3mo is gassy and/or needing to be breastfed. You get the picture. Especially since DH is on the phone right now while making lunch, and the 4yo is yelling "I want some lunch. I want some lunch!" (Thank goodness it was just a mate.)<br />
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(Don't tell me I need to discipline my kids, because we're actually pretty much hard-a$$es to be honest. But they are kids, and the 2 bigger ones are LOVING testing the limits right now.)<br />
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I don't think that some more personal attention for the big ones would go amiss, but that's also hard with a 3mo. VERY hard.<br />
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Any suggestions?dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-37617461116765171822011-01-04T00:20:00.002-08:002011-02-01T12:12:57.958-08:00Riley Morgan's birth story<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the story of Riley's arrival into the world on 12 November, 2010 - my much wanted, much hoped for home water birth; my 3rd labour and birth.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My husband and I started trying to conceive the month we got married - July 2005... and in that process, I obsessed a bit - a birth junkie was born. Not long after, I "discovered" the concept of home birth, and consequently, water birth, and decided that I wanted both. I get pretty bad back pain during my period, so I knew that back labour would probably be something that I would have to contend with, and I knew that water helped immensely with back labour. (Little did I know how well!!) My first two labours/births were neither at home, nor was water really involved. Those two stories are for another time, because they are both interesting in their own rights. So, when I finally got my home water birth, it was over FIVE YEARS that it had been in my heart and something that I was passionate about. Now, because I AM so passionate about this, and because it WAS such an amazing experience... this story is long, but I hope you'll find it worth the read.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">IMMEDIATELY after finding out that I was pregnant with my 3rd child, I went about finding out if there was a midwife in town... which, to my dismay, there was not. In Australia, where I'd given birth to my first two boys, we lived in Melbourne, and had access to many midwives, and an entirely different system with how pregnancy and birth are "dealt with." Here in semi-rural BC, in a country where midwifery isn't as prolific as it should be, the midwifery shortage is much more apparent to me than it was in Urban Victoria, Australia. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To paint a picture, home birth IS covered by Medicare (again, here in BC), with a certified midwife... but if you don't have a midwife, then your only option for a home birth is UC (Unassisted Childbirth), which has a very broad meaning. Some take it that there is NO ONE but mama present... but that is rare. Most understand that unassisted generally means MEDICALLY unassisted - meaning that there is no medical professional present at the birth. At first, I was extremely adverse to the thought, and when I emailed two friends about my situation, both suggested UC. Initially that came as a surprise to me (since one has been a midwife for over 20 years, and the other is an aspiring midwife), but after some thought, I realised that they both knew that having already done this twice, I'd be fine... I just needed to figure that out myself. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I came into contact with 2 possibilities that would make a UC not necessary, but for whatever reason, NEITHER of those options panned out... and I took those as signs that THIS was what I was supposed to do: an unassisted home birth. I was confident that things would go as our bodies were designed to make them go, and that my husband and the 3 friends who I'd asked to help out would be more than enough support to get things done. I'm a Christ-follower, and very very confident in the knowledge that my body was created to birth babies, as women have been doing for EONS... and that faith kept me strong in the face of adversity (and believe me, it was THERE). I finally came to the realisation that because I'd done this twice before, I'm practically old hat at this, pffft!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because of the adversity that was there, hubby and I had some serious discussions about the "what ifs." Todd was confident in my knowledge, my own confidence and faith in my body and this process, but his biggest issue lay in the fact that IF things got hairy, he wasn't confident that he could get my knowledge out of my head, if, say, I was in transition, not able to focus, etc. He feared being the one responsible when it could possibly be my life and the life of our baby on the line. AND, because he knew how bad I wanted this home water birth, he feared that my view would be clouded, and I'd be too stubborn to go to the hospital if something DID go awry. So, we made a decision to be UNDECIDED - no definite, in-stone plan, but two strong options: hospital or home.... and we were prepared for both. I printed out a birth plan to take to the hospital with us, along with a packing list of things to put in the bag. We had our Aquaborn birth pool, and had purchased a home birth kit. We were set either way. And I promised Todd that if, at any point, he felt uncomfortable with the direction things were going, I would agree to go to the hospital. And obviously, if at any point I felt we needed to go, we'd go. Barring that, I'd labour at home as long as possible, to spend as much time as possible in the pool, because we knew our hospital wouldn't allow us to bring it in. This decision to be undecided gave us both peace (surprisingly!), and our journey to that decision made our relationship that much stronger.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_kkHF0PqWcYpyMrJfhMZCj6W91Ynqwr_mVVar_iSnT_s1fVXAPH9eHjDPYo5aSGOma6bJodM1dMxBHNVh6ugJg54mDmG9ykIbevqe_HXJxlzwHabDWQGI39OPgC1XxspZO6S/s1600/IMG_2422.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_kkHF0PqWcYpyMrJfhMZCj6W91Ynqwr_mVVar_iSnT_s1fVXAPH9eHjDPYo5aSGOma6bJodM1dMxBHNVh6ugJg54mDmG9ykIbevqe_HXJxlzwHabDWQGI39OPgC1XxspZO6S/s320/IMG_2422.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Belly henna - done by Jesse (my photographer during the birth - she's an awesome multi-purpose gal!)<br />
There are 2 large flowers (for me and Todd), and 3 little ones (for my 2 big boys and the little one in the womb).</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had been getting somewhat strong contractions from about 38 weeks, which was not a surprise, as my 2nd was 2 weeks early, and, with all three of my pregnancies, I had Braxton Hicks contractions from about week 10 onward. Each time I went in to the Dr, he'd show a bit of concern that Riley hadn't engaged yet (well, I knew that he'd had, he'd just moved back up each time), and actually started putting a bit of pressure on me, wanting to do a membrane sweep at 36 weeks. He was concerned that Riley was getting too big - he thought that at 36 weeks he was about 7.5/8lbs, and he felt that doing a sweep would result in me going into labour in roughly 2 weeks (with an unripe cervix - OUCH!). I held my ground on that - I felt that I'd birthed an almost 10 pounder, and a 9 pounder, I didn't NEED to go early. I'm so glad I did. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiSnQKhQL-2HmRitvTMDtx3943xI7fA_P0G4dQn1ZHb5-9v7oxFHhIqiHzN9oNSQnfz_HWteOvt0tObXgR4mPd-021vixUb1RcAXVBkFSfHFZKXtaMGIk7oOwDHjjIdvqULPGn/s1600/IMG_2523.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiSnQKhQL-2HmRitvTMDtx3943xI7fA_P0G4dQn1ZHb5-9v7oxFHhIqiHzN9oNSQnfz_HWteOvt0tObXgR4mPd-021vixUb1RcAXVBkFSfHFZKXtaMGIk7oOwDHjjIdvqULPGn/s320/IMG_2523.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">38 weeks</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At 39w5d, Dr checked my cervix, and said that I wasn't ripe at all, and that I wouldn't be going into labour that weekend. At 40w3d, I had my next appointment, and he said that I was ripe, but not dilated at all. He expressed concern that because Riley hadn't engaged, that maybe his head was too big. I told him that my first had a HUGE head at birth (40cm), and he came through my pelvis. He said that he'd see me again on Monday (this was Weds), and at that point, he'd refer me to the Gyno for him to assess whether or not he felt that I could birth Riley naturally. If not, then I would be scheduled for a c-section.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, to say that I was nervous is an understatement. I felt SO many emotions, including frustration with myself, that I was allowing a dr to tell me something that I knew as false and not accurate (in MY situation). After all this, I knew his concern stemmed from the fact that Riley wasn't engaged, but I ALSO knew that NEITHER of my two older boys fully engaged until labour either - that is the way that MY body works.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, I have to interject here to say that I am NOT anti-medicine. I firmly believe, and KNOW, that the medical profession has saved many lives, and that c-sections are a necessity. HOWEVER, I ALSO firmly believe that c-sections are a way to avoid liability and ensure that the medical profession has their collective ASS covered, and far far more c-sections happen every year than what are MEDICALLY NECESSARY. I also know, based on MY OWN EXPERIENCE, that a "cascade of interventions" is NOT made up, or a fairy story - it is a REAL PHENOMENON that I have had the misfortune to experience. I also know that for a low-risk mama, home birth is by far the best option for mama AND babe, and the entire family unit. Pregnancy, labour and birth are not collectively a disease or syndrome that need to be treated. They are collectively a biological, a physiological process that our bodies were designed to do... and the more we mess with it, the more messed up it becomes. Getting back to the basics is the key to empowering future generations of mothers.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, back to my story. Wednesday, the 10th of November was the day that I last saw the Dr, and he was confident that he'd be seeing me on Monday, the 15th. Friday the 12th, I woke up at 4am to my youngest son (oops, now my middle son!) crying because he'd had a bad dream. I went to him and comforted him, and then tried to get back to sleep. It took awhile, because my contractions (which felt like strong Braxton Hicks, nothing to get excited about) kind of kept me awake. At 5.10ish, I woke up to a strong (real!) contraction, and after 2 of those, I started timing them at 5.26am. They were still fairly distant (about 10 min or so), but enough for me to continue timing until 7ish.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had gotten out of bed around 6.30am - I wasn't sure if I was in for a long labour or a short one, as I'd had one of each (49 hours and 4 hours), and I didn't want to keep hubby awake in case it was a long one. I told him I was going downstairs, and that I'd holler if I needed him. My boys got up to find mummy already awake (a RARITY!), and as a treat, they got to watch some Treehouse (preschool channel - another rarity, the tv is usually never on in the mornings!)... so they knew SOMETHING was up. At this point, the contractions were strong, but not quite strong enough to cause pain, I just had to focus to get through each one.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I called my labour team around 7am - my girlfriends Carol, Jesse and Val - and told them not to rush, just have a shower, have breakie, and come over when they were done. No rush, I was just plodding along. (Jesse was my photographer, and Carol and Val would be there to help Todd with me, and with my two older boys, Xavier and Shannon.) Jesse arrived around 7.30am, Val around 8.30am, and because Carol was at work, I told her that I'd call her when things kicked into gear. At this stage, we started filling the Aquaborn pool, and realised that our hot water tank wasn't big enough to fill the pool... we ended up heating up pots of water on the stove to heat it up! :)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSa1cyjh2gbBeUFuZpQZJ2VQEKFjSG7rZFkD9nMBF57VReiVp3ZVDTnYRarYI2zaRXdKjdvI9X3k_taq2OVbUzEu5mQ9QkiJ-kWNvfvQB5RxCLgFdYkTtTJxvZ4UkuJTxPAW9v/s1600/DSC_0013-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSa1cyjh2gbBeUFuZpQZJ2VQEKFjSG7rZFkD9nMBF57VReiVp3ZVDTnYRarYI2zaRXdKjdvI9X3k_taq2OVbUzEu5mQ9QkiJ-kWNvfvQB5RxCLgFdYkTtTJxvZ4UkuJTxPAW9v/s320/DSC_0013-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boiling water to heat up the pool.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I went for a nap at around 10am, and slept through about half of the contractions, and fell back asleep right after the ones that woke me up. Just after 11am, I got up, feeling great after my rest, and excited that things were starting to ramp up. I called Carol to let her know that she could come over whenever - the contractions, whilst still not regular, were getting more intense, and I was ready to get into the pool. By 11.30am, the pool was ready, and I was able to get in.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo1KmJpQ24iFTO63Xj0PiqxY24xh8gqC-mYZG_9dd_0bafkWAn6M2V2MxtxUb1fWvXM0aQwt7SEZ4mykVfTBMgu19vI4ogD7t1cYBPjmk8x4nsAO4YMpH0NnjNByxePkpRiOSy/s1600/DSC_0041-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo1KmJpQ24iFTO63Xj0PiqxY24xh8gqC-mYZG_9dd_0bafkWAn6M2V2MxtxUb1fWvXM0aQwt7SEZ4mykVfTBMgu19vI4ogD7t1cYBPjmk8x4nsAO4YMpH0NnjNByxePkpRiOSy/s320/DSC_0041-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I hate pruney feet and hands! ;)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs4crp3qgIMMSpZLh1y7cyaTs6b3fUM6u0ZQCwGWSlbI-Ni1G7UgCHJ8U6c4twRlmEBdVchomBngArHzOBA9X0n-0zLM-_aHx5uE2R_qRgmLxvj5OgctlayaaPHrBuD0P5WXNE/s1600/DSC_0016-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs4crp3qgIMMSpZLh1y7cyaTs6b3fUM6u0ZQCwGWSlbI-Ni1G7UgCHJ8U6c4twRlmEBdVchomBngArHzOBA9X0n-0zLM-_aHx5uE2R_qRgmLxvj5OgctlayaaPHrBuD0P5WXNE/s320/DSC_0016-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and my ducky thermometre.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwnXEJzFVYyxLOyEzfwNCxnPfGwxR_udXUctTPGrMmeIHW_0Gye-IMrzhHsICTfVRdPfrl9cPbsQCsH6mseQkm2zOnu1RDLYaOnM62kNM0HSBWKuzaW1HkgVJLLR6Dq0tiE4ti/s1600/DSC_0020-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwnXEJzFVYyxLOyEzfwNCxnPfGwxR_udXUctTPGrMmeIHW_0Gye-IMrzhHsICTfVRdPfrl9cPbsQCsH6mseQkm2zOnu1RDLYaOnM62kNM0HSBWKuzaW1HkgVJLLR6Dq0tiE4ti/s320/DSC_0020-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cushy walls of my Aquaborn pool were GREAT to rest on!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I knew that water would help with contractions, but like I said before, little did I know how well! Instantly I got relief from the pressure in my back, and my contractions were just concentrated in my uterus. I think that part of the reason why I get back labour is because I get BIG in pregnancy, and the contractions are spread throughout my entire core... but with the weightlessness of water? BLISS. Really. Over the next 2 hours, I got out for 3 pee breaks. Each time, I'd get caught out of the water with a contraction, and WOW, the difference was mind-boggling. Stats say that immersion in water helps reduce pain during contractions by up to 50%, but I truly believe that figure is very conservative. In my case, I'd have to say that the water took about 80% of my pain away - and I'm not exaggerating. The exciting part of this, for me, is that I never "hit" transition. I mean, obviously, I dilated from 7 to 10cm at SOME point, but I didn't get crazy or panicky, didn't get irritated by noise (like I did with my 2nd) or light or conversation. Life was just peachy, and so long as no one spoke TO me during my contractions, whilst I was concentrating on the wave, I felt grand.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXPEXVdSyVDC-f47bIMbY-JjPCgsVPahn6xT6ynEWVnMzCiLQJR7Bd8Mm626jEd0ypv0kBXuBgD36RsaKlGtS2oo_a4ZSfkhzFbRtxyK_KMGzbaPubx2_n3yl9MwZg6g1IXAdH/s1600/DSC_0032-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXPEXVdSyVDC-f47bIMbY-JjPCgsVPahn6xT6ynEWVnMzCiLQJR7Bd8Mm626jEd0ypv0kBXuBgD36RsaKlGtS2oo_a4ZSfkhzFbRtxyK_KMGzbaPubx2_n3yl9MwZg6g1IXAdH/s320/DSC_0032-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shannon having a fun time in the pool with Mummy, during a contraction.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicWZoMThTYjm8akardaS3pRNU0k-a61d4iTjCULFYmAcso0S0ROt_r9WHNeccdceaa4lTgcn0bgGeR6sDkMyPS3VYoF1dNEzoDr3N28yYy0yQr4ZproKdRHwi4OMX4mc_YqkvL/s1600/DSC_0050-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicWZoMThTYjm8akardaS3pRNU0k-a61d4iTjCULFYmAcso0S0ROt_r9WHNeccdceaa4lTgcn0bgGeR6sDkMyPS3VYoF1dNEzoDr3N28yYy0yQr4ZproKdRHwi4OMX4mc_YqkvL/s320/DSC_0050-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ducky just chillin' with me. ;)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At 1.30pm, Todd and I discussed the hospital option. I had only JUST started vocalising through the waves, and only just low moaning. Consequently, he was still ok, not nervous at all, and he pointed out that my contractions were still quite erratic. Something I attribute to the water - I feel that my body was much more efficient when contracting, so the contractions only got consistent for just over 20 minutes. At this stage, I'd get 2 contractions a minute or two apart, only 30 seconds each, and then nothing for 6 minutes. We were using contractionmaster.com to time my contractions. It had been like this for the majority of the day, and it was only from about 11am that the intensity changed, not the frequency or duration - they remained erratic the whole time. We decided to continue on at home, and re-evaluate in awhile.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgclHOLQlRMqeTB9HSJy0iqdT3EWpAyRot89Bi4b93OlBJ3JIWkXB3rb-sx0oeiOZPh3CD3-BK-Bh_7qbW70I5xWUqLd0DPKUlhACp5vnAzkB4fKGn_j6Rp3nZ6vAOfSG_j_XiW/s1600/DSC_0057-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgclHOLQlRMqeTB9HSJy0iqdT3EWpAyRot89Bi4b93OlBJ3JIWkXB3rb-sx0oeiOZPh3CD3-BK-Bh_7qbW70I5xWUqLd0DPKUlhACp5vnAzkB4fKGn_j6Rp3nZ6vAOfSG_j_XiW/s320/DSC_0057-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My little thumb o_O ... don't worry, I didn't bite too hard.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At 1.35pm, I got the first of 7 REGULAR, consistent contractions. They were between 55 and 65 seconds long, and 3 1/2 to 4 minutes apart. At about 1.55pm, I had to take another pee break. While I was out of the water, I got 3 HARD and FAST contractions, and while in the bathroom, I started to grunt, and feel pushy. I reached down, and lo and behold, I could feel a squishy noggin. (What I realised about 5 minutes later was actually my bag of water, with skull just past that.) Todd said to Jesse "he's going to be here in about 15 to 20 minutes - we aren't going to the hospital now." We got me back into the pool, which was a struggle, because the contractions were coming so fast and so hard, I needed the help to stand. They were so intense that in between, I just needed to rest, and climbing over the side of the pool was no small feat! At 2.02pm, I told the gals to stop timing, because he was coming, and there was no point in timing the spacing anymore.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNEv-aYnpzqS16XA4vecrP49vgozopwRTtBIeusFWS6wBZHoEfYpBWzTl9VXvkzDnDtS571RI40RWAf9qZwBzGBluakiMhhOqJ7cIumEfg67JYUsbfq6qN15qbDPbUyv18BfAi/s1600/DSC_0064-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNEv-aYnpzqS16XA4vecrP49vgozopwRTtBIeusFWS6wBZHoEfYpBWzTl9VXvkzDnDtS571RI40RWAf9qZwBzGBluakiMhhOqJ7cIumEfg67JYUsbfq6qN15qbDPbUyv18BfAi/s320/DSC_0064-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pushing out Riley's head - Todd was putting pressure on my perineum with a washcloth.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWQ1qEGXkM6xtKFmz_R5sBWC8Gdv3xSof0l3jcwzZ6ATIa41z34UDEj1KPyj0gYA3go1uBRHlgJJlCGrZeSnQsjVvJCOaQICLj5w_vJOJx0_6EYoQz0HYpD7S8X33J8RSggogp/s1600/DSC_0069-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWQ1qEGXkM6xtKFmz_R5sBWC8Gdv3xSof0l3jcwzZ6ATIa41z34UDEj1KPyj0gYA3go1uBRHlgJJlCGrZeSnQsjVvJCOaQICLj5w_vJOJx0_6EYoQz0HYpD7S8X33J8RSggogp/s320/DSC_0069-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Riley's head coming out - still in his bag of water.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I leaned on the wall of the pool, and Todd put pressure on my perineum with a washcloth, while I maintained pressure on the front of my vagina, to give me some relief from the burning. It took me about 5 pushes to get Riley's head out, and I DID have two moments of, not doubt, or fear, but more just, "damn, I need RELIEF from this!" I thought at one point: "what the HELL was I thinking that I wanted to do this again?" and I DID say to Todd: "I don't think I can do this." His response was perfect, amazing, and a testament to how awesome my man is, DESPITE his lack of self-confidence, he really stepped up to the plate: "You CAN do this, and you ARE doing this. You're doing awesome honey, you almost have his head out, you can do it baby!" THAT was all I needed - support, belief and encouragement from my soul mate. Riley's head was out at the next push, and then Todd continued to cheer me on, giving me the play by play: "ok D, his shoulders are almost out, just a couple more pushes, you're almost done!" All told, my pushing was just over 20 minutes from when I FIRST started to feel grunty in the bathroom.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEVNE0oz1als1_HrjxOUS4R0lNHsPvvEay_a9Ml5uStcCPHkhDupxizoIZx1LXeD-zAbAjx5BA7y8Ctn3jXenjBmnXB7rZHnCPAHs0HcTBQKsa0DuS55bfmydsOQ_ibREk4wYs/s1600/DSC_0070-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEVNE0oz1als1_HrjxOUS4R0lNHsPvvEay_a9Ml5uStcCPHkhDupxizoIZx1LXeD-zAbAjx5BA7y8Ctn3jXenjBmnXB7rZHnCPAHs0HcTBQKsa0DuS55bfmydsOQ_ibREk4wYs/s320/DSC_0070-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Xavier and Shannon looking on while Riley was being born.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At 2.22pm, Riley Morgan Galloway was born - in the water, en caul (in his bag of waters), caught by Daddy. Present and watching in AWE at his birth were his two big brothers, Xavier and Shannon, and "Aunties" Carol, Jesse and Val.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrnehmw1bSDKLRdlWjm4tPlWdb1KXC5gxq0M6QvON5mQeZ-aR2TPt9j3XQQ-90ln_vncJ5ldHbFuqii3TOWHkFm_S8AHWYsTO-ZjapywVSLcd7W03BrV7iMXssSUb7X_7lHKWD/s1600/DSC_0084-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrnehmw1bSDKLRdlWjm4tPlWdb1KXC5gxq0M6QvON5mQeZ-aR2TPt9j3XQQ-90ln_vncJ5ldHbFuqii3TOWHkFm_S8AHWYsTO-ZjapywVSLcd7W03BrV7iMXssSUb7X_7lHKWD/s320/DSC_0084-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Todd and I taking our first good look at Riley Morgan, our 3rd son.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Todd passed Riley through my legs to me, and I pulled open the membrane sac to pull Riley out, and onto my chest. Todd and the girls were a bit... nervous, because of his colour, and the fact that he didn't scream or cry right away. Riley just laid on my chest, grunting, gurgling, and making faces until he cleared out his airway (I helped a bit by putting my mouth over his nose and mouth and sucking to get some of the fluid out - I did this by instinct!)... and when he let out his first little cry, they breathed a sigh of relief. I kept telling them it was ok, it's normal, but tv and movies have done such a good job of showing us that babies are pink, clean and dry, and screaming right out of mummy's womb, that it's hard to digest at first, unless, like me, you've seen a billion photos and youtube videos of birth.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After Riley was born, Todd called the hospital to find out when we should come in. (I wanted to be checked for any tears, and really wanted to know how heavy Riley was.) We were told to, instead of driving the 5 blocks to the hospital, call the paramedics for transport (ONLY) to the maternity ward. They told us it'd be easier for us. Whatever. The medics came in, took over, and to make THAT long story short, they wouldn't let me eat or drink the second they walked in the door (not even water), they put a 16 gauge IV in me (I still, almost 3 weeks later, have the mark), wouldn't let me get dressed, or even let Todd grab me clothes (I went to the hospital in nothing but my wet sports bra and a blanket)... AND, wait for it... they made me stop breastfeeding Riley so they could MOVE me from my air mattress on the floor to the transport chair WITH my placenta HALF-DELIVERED. (Yes, I'll be writing a letter of complaint about THAT one.) The mat nurse was confused as to why I had an IV, why they tried their damndest to move me before delivering the placenta, and why they wouldn't allow me to eat or drink. (I birthed Riley's placenta on my OWN, much to the paramedics' chagrin, at exactly half an hour after Riley was born - WELL within protocol.) But, that was the only negative part of this story, and although it needs to be told, I'd rather continue on, and finish this novella.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We were only at the hospital for 4 hours. I got checked and fed, Riley got checked and fed (boobies!), and we were discharged by 7pm. The mat nurse, Tegwen, and her intern, as well as the nursery RN were just AWESOME. I had only two tiny 1st degree tears, so no stitches, and although there was a piece of the placenta torn (probably due to being made to MOVE with it half hanging out of me!), it was complete. Riley had a smidge of meconium in his hair (probably passed while he was on his way out), but then, my other two had it as well, so I wasn't concerned. Riley was 4.912kg (10lb 13oz) and 56cm long (22"), with a head circumference of 37cm. My labour was just under 9 hours long, with only half an hour of HARD labour, and then just over 20 minutes of pushing.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLqS6MKtwriHq78V6_B3zPTb9v5jqAY7E5HeYjxLxXq3hCs9XG_PBf54n-RMHhI8gBvw4t9DVeGp5Y0Ex0ixlrKcEbjVNJqWYXsfhHgOU1FYzgZUdgJ6QPtAp-SDexD5hx5xej/s1600/DSC_0136-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLqS6MKtwriHq78V6_B3zPTb9v5jqAY7E5HeYjxLxXq3hCs9XG_PBf54n-RMHhI8gBvw4t9DVeGp5Y0Ex0ixlrKcEbjVNJqWYXsfhHgOU1FYzgZUdgJ6QPtAp-SDexD5hx5xej/s320/DSC_0136-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Riley having a feed at the hospital after being checked out.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am so overjoyed that after all the adversity we'd faced, God had given me one of my heart's biggest desires - a home water birth, with NO COMPLICATIONS. I believe that God's given me this passion in my heart to pass on to other women, and help them find the confidence they need to birth with conviction, courage, and strength. I hope that women will be inspired by my journey - one from a birth with a cascade of interventions, to a natural hospital birth to a home water birth. It was an amazing journey and one which I will never forget.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL3de5T7v2XRrLFy4yTJGHgYGADhBTCxS7WjcmIo6Tl2d_6ublXEyjJgkmDsabYNDZC906D9jXn4udkCzfi8hIsuLkkWN4ghNtGfQwQxbZN-XqTB4yQXkHfPIA072ATjPrlvtw/s1600/IMG_3110.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL3de5T7v2XRrLFy4yTJGHgYGADhBTCxS7WjcmIo6Tl2d_6ublXEyjJgkmDsabYNDZC906D9jXn4udkCzfi8hIsuLkkWN4ghNtGfQwQxbZN-XqTB4yQXkHfPIA072ATjPrlvtw/s320/IMG_3110.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Riley Morgan (1 month, 1 week old)</td></tr>
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</span>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-52104762681805524772011-01-02T02:16:00.000-08:002011-01-02T02:16:30.507-08:00Happy New Year!!!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wow, 2011.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have a 7 week old baby boy, my husband is doing interviews for jobs in Vancouver, and that means the 5 of us will be south bound at some point in this year.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wow.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The wheels of change, they are 'a turnin!' </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's been a long time coming, and man, are we ever excited. T leaves on Tuesday to head south and do a technical skills test/interview for one job, another left a voice mail while we were out of town that they wanted to set up an interview, so that will happen next week as well.... and the aim is to get as many interviews set up as possible while he's down there. Kill as many birds with one stone as possible... and if he has to stay down there for a week, so be it. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'll have to get used to that, anyway... the whole being on my own with 3 kids thing. o_O Yeah... I don't envy single mums, or other mums that do their job with their partner away. T and I are very much partners, and having him away is gonna be hella-hard. But, I'll do it, and get through it, because we have to, and because in the long run, it's gonna be awesome.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I foresee doing one thing that I've ALWAYS had a hard time doing: accepting help. We've had so many people offer (as I'm sure SO MANY people get as well, from their loved ones) to help - to take the bigger boys, to clean, to do stuff... but it's hard to accept, because you know they have their own lives to live, and helping me/us would take them away from their own lives... ya know? But, I also know that I myself love to help (which I should try harder to do sometimes), so I also know that they are usually genuinely offering that help. And with the situation changing in our lives as it will be, I am thinking that help is going to come in SUPER handy in the coming months.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because after T lands a job, he will move south, and we will stay here.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes, we're crazy.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No, not really. ;) We have reasons for this decision. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. We want to make sure that he is in a job that he likes, and they like him, before we commit to that big move. Especially when house-wise, we are super happy where we are; and money-wise, we're doing okay here (not great, which is why we're moving, but we're not grossly in the hole or anything, like we would be if we moved down there, and then T's new job didn't work out).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. We'd like to save for our move, save to pay off debts, and get a new vehicle (ours was rear-ended the day after boxing day, and if we take the claim, it is a write-off).... all of which would be harder to do paying the higher rent that is characteristic of Greater Vancouver.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. Before we move, I HAVE to go through the mountain of boxes in our basement and PURGE of unnecessary items. ONE BOX PER NIGHT is my goal. I've had that goal for ages, but I'm not so good with it. I'm the type of person who wants to do too much, so I wind myself up into a tizzy, and then I get overwhelmed, and instead, procrastinate, when REALLY, one box is no biggie, would probably only take me, max, half an hour, and that's a BIG box, with LOTS of little, different things. Some boxes may only take me 10 minutes!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This purging is necessary, because when we move, we're doubtful we'll land a place with storage as awesome as this place... so all the junk that I've accumulated must go. Only needed junk is coming with us. :D</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So yeah, only 3 reasons, but 3 very valid reasons.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">New vehicle... that's another wheel of change turning... I'm a smidge excited, because we're going to go new. After putting in 2 new transmissions into this vehicle, and it needing work, and now it being rear-ended (well, really, the corner was clipped, it was parked), we don't want to be nickel-and-dimed to death anymore. Purchase planned? Grand Caravan. :) Lots of space for 3 growing boys and car seats, road trips north to see family, and down the road, bikes, snowboarding equipment, hockey equipment and friends.... oh, and trips to crops for me with all my <a href="http://dinnae.stampinup.net/">stampin' goodies</a>. :D</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All right, time to go to bed. Riley fell asleep about 1.15am, and now that it's been an hour, it's safe for me to go to bed now.... and I really should. The holidays drain me.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hope you and yours had a good one, and here's to the wheels of change in 2011!!!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hugs,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dinnae</span><br />
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</span>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-79823741399774818832010-12-09T18:21:00.000-08:002012-01-16T23:30:31.360-08:00A new bubba... Riley Morgan<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ahhhh, such a crazy crazy whirlwind the last 27 days has been... oh, and even the weeks, months, and dare I say it, YEAR before then too!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Friday, 12 November was an EPIC day for us - our newest little man, Riley Morgan, joined our family earthside at 2.22pm.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpLtshhEVVZQkwFBDM6N11wn613AE4Cs615gz-Oun37A5Mo5d5oKaZ-A8VdLNw9I9i1CTk31DI4upwgQIWWg6C7UIrPxc0-b_R8cen5khcBSqkMg1YHUoBtA2thNtrnfz4-Cgp/s1600/DSC_0109-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpLtshhEVVZQkwFBDM6N11wn613AE4Cs615gz-Oun37A5Mo5d5oKaZ-A8VdLNw9I9i1CTk31DI4upwgQIWWg6C7UIrPxc0-b_R8cen5khcBSqkMg1YHUoBtA2thNtrnfz4-Cgp/s320/DSC_0109-web.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Riley Morgan - 10lb 13oz, 22" - 12/11/2010</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My little monkey is 27 days old today, and surprise surprise, I'm madly in love with him. He's a snuggle-bum, and sooo squishy... I'm addicted to newborn snuggles. I wish we could bottle them and have them forever.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Life with a newborn, a toddler, and a pre-schooler is fun... hectic right now, since my newborn has baby gas, and life is tough for about 4 hours in the afternoon, and about 3 at night.... but we're getting into a routine. I'm happy to say that I'm finished typing out Riley's birth story, and that I will post it here with a couple of pics in the weeks to come, along with Xavier's and Shannon's birth stories, as part of a series to depict my progression from a cascade of interventions (my first) to a natural hospital birth (second) to an unassisted home water birth (third). But, being that I want to have them posted as a series, I will wait until I've finished typing up the other two as well. I had hand-written both the other two in their journals, so I've managed to type out Shannon's, and I'm just tweaking it now... but Xavier's journal, book 1 (I'm on notebook #2), is somewhere... so I may have to type it anew... meaning that may take a bit longer than I'd anticipated.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For all my birth junkie friends: they will be worth the wait.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Love and hugs,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">D.</span>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8757253.post-69244559704086398962010-10-22T23:25:00.000-07:002010-10-22T23:25:15.184-07:00Adding to the family<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Today is 37 weeks and 5 days... and baby, has time FLOWN. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Every day that goes by, I feel goes by quicker than the day before. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It's 22 October, and holy hannah, it feels like we just rang in 2010 last week... It feels like I just found out yesterday that I was expecting my 3rd child (March)... It feels like just yesterday that I won a competition with my <a href="http://www.nutz4stamps.com/">Stampin' Up!</a> business that got me a "Workshop of a Lifetime" with <a href="http://www.soshelli.com/">CEO Shelli Gardner</a> (March)... It feels like just yesterday I finished up at work on early mat leave (May)... It feels like just yesterday my hubby and I celebrated 5 years of marriage (July)... It feels like just last week we got back from a week's vacation in the sunny, hot region of Okanagan, BC (July)... It feels like just yesterday that my dad was here visiting from Portugal (August)...</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Where has 2010 gone????</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And like the title of this post, we are adding to the family, soon, as baby is due in 2 weeks and 2 days, although could LITERALLY come at any day now, since boy #2 was born at 37w6d.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Is it a trait that comes with AGE, or with PARENTING, that time seems to fly at an unnatural pace? That life seems to happen whether we're ready for it or not... that quote from John Lennon sums it up best:</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Life is what happens when you're busy making plans."</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Oh YEAH.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">So anyway.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We have plans. We have BIG plans. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">- Baby is going to be born at HOME (oh how I've wanted this one for soooooooo long!!!! Since boy #1!!!).... </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">- Hubby's biz is going in a COMPLETELY different direction (very good though! More details and a link, well, repeated links, to his site once it's up and running.)... </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">- We won't be staying tooooo much longer in Small Town, BC (read: 12 to 24 months)... </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">- Homeschooling starting next year (ok, this is kinda' scary, but so exciting - I BEGGED to be homeschooled as a kid!)... </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">- And me? As a STAY-AT-HOME-MUM??? (Man, I **LOVE** that title!!!!) I have business plans. Yes, in addition to getting back to running a house (haven't done *much* of that the last 6 months - this pregnancy has been tiring.), homeschooling, I also plan on maintaining my Stampin' Up! business (more as a hobby though, I just love being creative), and earnestly exploring two options for earning income from home - Melaleuca (a great company I've been a customer of for almost 12 years), and a publishing business (no name, as it's ALL MY IDEA, and I don't want to spoil it until I have it all planned out).</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Will I have time for this? I pray so. If it's part of His plan for us, then the time will be there. If not... well, we'll see, won't we. ;)</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Okay, off to bed... always seems that I go into labour in the middle of the night AFTER I've stayed up too late... (yes, both boy #1 and boy #2 started into our lives that way!) I just wanted to post, since I've been so slack (yeah, 6 month gap is slack, you can say it), and I felt inspired for WHATEVER reason - I ain't gonna argue!</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">much luv,</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> D.</div>dinnaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05134273252051397973noreply@blogger.com0