Flu's got us

:( But, we're slowly coming around.

Feeling good

-Wellshire turkey ham and Earth Balance mayo on Rudi's gf bread
-Favorite smoothie in the sili (again!)
-Honest kids apple juice

I wanted the kids to keep hydrated since they had been sick for a couple of days, and they don't tend to drink a lot of water at school. I had a request for a second day of their favorite smoothie, which is great since it has protein and fruit, as well as some extra hydration. I tossed the juice pouch in there for good measure. This is the first substantial lunch since catching this nasty little bug, and I'm happy to see my littles eating well again.

Sick day cuddles

 -Favorite smoothie (in the sili)
-Half sunbutter & strawberry on Rudi's gf bread
-Apple pie millet, based on an oatmeal recipe I found on pinterest (we can't eat oats)

-Homemade trail mix with cashews, golden raisins, goji berries, & a few mini vegan chocolate chips

This ended up being a home lunchbox since the kids didn't feel well and stayed home from school. The girl loved the apple pie millet, and I'm thrilled to be able to add a new grain to our menu. The boy still isn't sure about it, but tried it twice. I'm so proud of all his tasting! He also didn't want the sb&j, but his belly was bothering him. We ended up making a huge nest on the living room floor with pillows, blankets, and the crash pad, and hanging out in front of a couple of movies all day (we did some reading too). They got some much needed rest, and I got my fill of hugs and cuddles.

The week of eating less, and eating more

Day after thanksgiving lunch

-Mashed potatoes
-Pumpkin muffin
-Grain-free bread (so good!)
-Boiled egg
-Turkey

-Honest Kids lemonade
-Dried cherries and coconut macaroon
-Baked pumpkin french toast
-Bell&Evans organic frank

Only one lunch, since the boy stayed home sick

-Dried apple chips
-Pumpkin muffin
-Dried cherries and coconut macaroon (left over from the day before)
-Baked pumpkin french toast (also left over)

-Glutino pretzels
-Clemintine halves
-Sunbutter and strawberry jam sandwich on Rudi's gf multigrain bread

Only 3 lunches last week since we had some sort of bug that passed from one of us to the other. Both kids had a few days of very light eating, and stayed home from school. By Friday, we were all back to normal, and ready to tackle the weekend. The boy has been on a trying new foods kick. Since thanksgiving, he's tasted fresh cranberries, brussels sprouts, french toast, mashed potatoes, black pepper (on eggs and potato), hot cereal, polenta, clementines, corn, and shrimp. The most amazing thing? All of those have moved to the "yes list" except for the fresh cranberries and brussels sprouts. These are all things that he's liked in the past, but hasn't been able to eat recently. Though he's had a self-limited diet for years, within the past 8 months or so, he's been loosing foods pretty dramatically, and was down to about 9 foods that he'd consistently be able to eat. However, during the past 2 weeks, he's made a major turnaround and is willingly tasting, and even requesting new foods. I'm crediting the yeast protocol we've been doing for the past month. The first two weeks were really rough, with lots of behavior issues, poor sleep, and a constant desire for sugary foods. It was fairly consistent with what we expected to see during the yeast die-off period. After that, we started to see an increase in his patience, fewer outbursts of frustration and anger, and much more flexibility (of routine) then is usual. He's been making lots of progress, and I'm very excited to see where we'll be able to go from here.

Sick, but making the best of it

While it was never fun getting sick as a kid, I still remember how great it felt to be able to get into my parents bed and stay there all day, warm and cuddly, watching tv and eating toast. With two 4 year olds running in circles around me, it's usually not quite as relaxing now as it used to be. How sweet it is, that the mister stayed home yesterday, and I got to stay in bed. I've set up camp in the room that passes as our guest room, since it's the only room in our house with both a bed and a door. I've got a down comforter, a few books, and the laptop. Every once in a while, a little loud visitor comes up to see how I'm doing. It's like a little vacation, and I think I love it. Well, except for the searing pain in my throat, ringing in my ear, and the coughing that wakes me up every hour or so.
With this sudden free time, I've been clicking around on Pinterest, and found a few recipes that sounded like they'd go well with my current state. Thursday night, I made this carrot ginger soup. The only changes I made to the recipe was to add a couple of cloves of fresh garlic and a whole chopped pasilla pepper. I figured the spicyness would help blast some of the germs out of me, and the pasillas have a ton of vitamin C. It was quick to make, and was super tasty.

Source: joythebaker.com via karma on Pinterest

Then, last night, I needed something cold to help put out the fire in my throat. We'd baked a giant squash earlier in the week, so I thought I'd use it in place of the pumpkin in the pumpkin pie milkshakes.

Source: wearenotmartha.com via karma on Pinterest

I had to do some fiddling with the ingredients since we are dairy and gluten free, but it turned out pretty well. I used coconut milk and soy ice cream, and replaced the graham crackers with Envirokids animal cookies. I would have preferred to use the gluten-free craham cracker crumbs that I used to make the s'mores, but didn't have any. It tasted exactly like pumpkin pie, but colder and much more soothing.
An optional part of the pumpkin pie milkshake recipe is a caramel drizzle made by melting caramel candy. To keep ours dairy free, I called on another Pinterest recipe that I recently found.

Source: alwayswithbutter.blogspot.com via karma on Pinterest

I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make this one dairy-free, but I did! In place of the heavy cream I used Mimicreme, and it worked perfectly! I also used raw sugar in place of refined sugar, and cut the whole recipe in half in case it turned out badly. It didn't turn out saucy, I think because I cooked it too long. Since the raw sugar is already darker in color, it was difficult to know when it was finished cooking. So, the finished result was definately not able to be drizzled, but was so unbelievably yummy crumbled up and sprinkled on top of our milkshakes. I guess I'll just have to try making this one again to see if I can get it to come out the way it's supposed to. Darn.

Sick of Spring

I've always been a very healthy person, rarely sick. Even if I did get sick, I'd get over it quickly and be on my way in no time. This spring is a totally different story. It seems like we're getting every little cold or stomach bug that comes around. It couldn't possibly have anything to do with lack of sleep and the inability of the weather to decide if it's summer or winter. Pollen is insanely high this year, too. I'm ready for the pestilent season to be over. Bring on summer! Of course, then it will be too hot and humid :)

A hard week, but fun to come

Again with the sickies. This winter has been harsh and the kids are getting over sniffles again. It seems like a lot of the families we know are getting over another round of yuck. Not sure what that's about. They are also still teething and wanting to nurse a lot. Made it really hard to work on customs. I finished 3 of them today though. I'll start the last one tomorrow, and then I'll start working on stuff for the Open Market. The Open Market is a WAHM business event that a friend of mine put together last year. It was so successful that it's going to be an annual thing. I wasn't able to participate last time, but I'm really excited to be a part of it this year. There are so many talented people who will be selling their wares there. There are a few others who are fiber-related, but there will also be handmade bodycare items, jewelry, paintings, wooden toys, baby carriers, and others that I'm not remembering. It was fun to see what my community had to offer last year, but I know that it will be even more fun to be on the other side of the table this year.
The countdown begins; 3 weeks until the twins are a year old!!

Yuck!

We've had the sickness from hell for the last week. Puking, poopy babies and sleepy, hungry mama. I've been so busy nursing and changing clothing, sheets and diapers that I haven't been sleeping or eating enough. The mister got it too, but so far I've managed to stay relatively healthy. I did feel absolutely horrible yesterday, but I'm guessing that it's more about lack of sleep than germies.

It's been a while...

since my last post. It's been a busy week. There's been a tooth grown, some signs learned, knitting finished, and sickness gotten over. The girl now has 6 teeth. Three on top and three on bottom. But they are off center, the top three are the 2 middle teeth and one on the right, and the bottom ones are middles and left. It's cute. She also just started to do the sign for daddy. She also does the same sign when I ask her to say mama, so for the moment it may mean "parent". She just started doing it yesterday though, so I'll cut her some slack. The knitting that I finished (finally) is a pair of wool soaker pants that I started when I could still nurse and knit, before the kidlets got grabby. At least I planned ahead and made them really big. They fit now, but also have plenty of room to grow. And, this house now has no one sick living in it!
The weekend ahead is also jam-packed full of activity. We're planning on going to the zoo to watch the elephants jump over the fence, I mean, play with pumpkins. The animals are given pumpkins as a special halloween treat every year. I've never gone, but I've been wanting to. We also are picking up some baby gates, and I'm planning to finish some final touches on a few things for my website. I hope my to-do list is all crossed off by Sunday evening!!

Sleepy Saturday

I haven't had a day this quiet in a long while. Everyone is napping, it's totally silent except for the sound of the fan in my laptop and the occasional car going by. Both babies are asleep (at the same time!!), and my husband is feeling sick so he's napping on the couch. Even the dog is in her bed. I just hope the phone doesn't ring. I know it won't last, but it's so relaxing while I have it.