These are our budding musicians on the night of their first concert of the year. To see Noah in something other than a t-shirt and jeans was a major thrill for us.
I couldn't get a picture of her during the concert (the darn strings teacher was standing right in front of her the whole time!) so I had her do a pretend shot.
Miracles never cease. In the span of two days I successfully altered a recipe to make it gluten-free AND I hemmed a pair of pants. What next?? Making my own croutons? (GF of course) Well, I doubt that will happen. It seems utterly pointless to me to make my own croutons when they come in a bag at the store really cheap. But who knows, at this rate anything could happen.
The recipe I altered was for corn bread. And the kids really liked it! Points for me! It's not exactly high on the gourmet scale, but still it was a regular recipe that needed changing and I didn't have a gf recipe to use and I figured it out all on my own. Well, with the help of a book. But on my own with a book! Although when I said I was making gf cornbread Katya said to me in her best "duh" voice, "But it's made of corn." Um, and flour. "Oh." Clearly a lot more education is needed in regards to what makes something gluten free. Did I mention that Tommy at goldfish crackers in his class on Sunday? Yeah. A LOT more education is needed. And Mr. I'm Not Supposed to Have Sugar tried to score a sucker..."for someone else." Right.
And believe it or not I have never (before yesterday) hemmed a pair of pants. I'm not sure how I've avoided it so long...maybe never buying something that needed to be hemmed...or waiting until my mom was visiting to ask her to do it... But I got Noah a pair of pants for his band concert and they had to be hemmed. I'm actually hoping to be able to have him wear them through the upcoming growth spurts so I left a large amount of fabric to be re-hemmed at a later date. Which will undoubtedly be my second pants hemming in my life, because I don't plan on making a habit out of it.
Speaking of the concert, there is nothing like a rousing rendition warm up scales and "Hot Cross Buns" to really stir your heart. I think I speak for all of the 5th grade band parents when I say I am utterly thankful that he won't have to practice Hot Cross Buns ever again. For about two weeks he only knew that one song and yet was still required to practice for 20 minutes a day. WHAT??? How many times over and over do you suppose you can play Hot Cross Buns in a 20 minutes timespan??? Too many to count and just enough to drive me insane. And I'm quite certain he was not playing about the gluten free variety.
And this post wouldn't be complete without a few precious words from Tommy. He was using good grammar skills when trying to determine the meaning of some of his spelling words this week. One of them is "research." He looked up at me and said, "Does that mean when I look for something again?"
God is so gracious to me. In the midst of my, well, less than positive attitude regarding this whole gluten-free situation we find ourselves in, God is providing resources in terms of friends and acquaintances who have headed down this path previously and figured out all of the stuff I don't feel like figuring out! How cool is that??
I actually just figured out that I just need to have a type A person who attacked this gluten-free problem and conquered it to give me all of their information! I don't want to be the one who is trying out new recipes in the hope that they aren't nastified, but I'd be happy to take my type A friend's tried and true recipes!
The amazing thing in all of this is how many people have someone in their family who cannot eat gluten. Seriously, this is way more people than I ever imagined. I think this is going hand in hand with the epidemic of peanut allergies these days. I mean, everyone I knew as a kid ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Everyone. Not these days. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone who is either allergic to peanuts or gluten. And you definitely couldn't say that when we were kids.
Noah: Mom, Tommy left our bedroom window open.
Mom: Tommy why did you even have the bedroom window open when it is over 100 degrees outside?
Katya and Tommy: Because we were making a video and it was too dark.
Mom: So, you opened the window?
K & T: Yes.
Mom: Not just the blinds--the actual window with GLASS in it?
K & T: Yes.
Mom: And it got brighter in the room because you opened the glass window?
K & T: Yes.
Mom: I really wish my eye would stop twitching.
This gluten-free/sugar-free diet may just be the end of me. Eating out specifically is going to be very interesting. (Not that we go out very often, mind you, it's just that this will make it that much more difficult and that much less common. And I'm the one who likes to eat out because that means someone else is cooking and cleaning up!) Even foods that are typically gluten-free are not necessarily gluten-free at a restaurant because of cross contamination. Which makes it that much more difficult to order something. So, kids, how does water and carrots sound? Yum!
We went to Costco today and got lunch after church. We got Katya and Tommy hot dogs which we intended for them to eat without the bun. Tommy opened his and immediately chomped down on the whole thing, thankfully in full view of Emily who swiftly pointed out he was not supposed to eat bread. Oops. So, he had to spit that bite out into a napkin in my hand. That is one of the things you do not anticipate as you become a mom--the whole spitting things out into your hands thing. At least I had a napkin. Without it he would have had to hold that nastiness in his mouth for a long time while I went to go get a napkin. We're talking significant chewing that took place before he processed Emily's admonition and ceased chewing. So anyway, Costco's food court is not exactly a gluten-free haven. They can have hot dogs or sausage or salad. And Katya would probably rather starve to death than have salad. And one hot dog without a bun does not really fill you up. At all. Nor does it take long to eat. So they finished very quickly. Had a second bunless dog and then sat and watched everyone else eat. Gee, eating out is fun!
And yesterday I took Tommy for a hair cut. As we were leaving he said to the lady with his cute little upturned face, "May I have a sucker?" Thankfully I was there to throw myself in between him and his "crack" before he had it in his hot little hand. "Tommy, what is a sucker made of?" "Um, sugar?" "Yeah, just a little bit." Here's a carrot for sitting so nicely for the haircutter lady.
And this Friday Katya's class is having a reward party and they are going to have pizza and frozen drinks from Bahama Bucks. I think she can have the drink because they do have sugar free options, but the pizza is out. Which means she has to have different food than the rest of her class. It's supposed to be a reward, but it looks like she is going to get the reward of making her own yummy lunch. I can't think of a food that she would see as a reward outside of the pizza party her class is having. More carrots? Mmmmm.
As if I needed one more thing to have to manage in my already oh-so-empty-schedule. I also had to send in some sugarless treats for Tommy to replace the ones the teacher gives out as little rewards as well as something for him when kids bring in birthday treats. Luckily Tommy is easier to please than Katya. I found a package of individually wrapped dried apricots and plums that I sent in for his replacement (I suppose more kids will eat "dried plums" than "prunes") . I think in the end he likes the additional attention that having a special diet brings his way. He repeatedly tells people that he eats "healthy" and implies that he really prefers it that way. Right. Katya, on the other hand, doesn't want additional attention, she just wants a cupcake. Or two.
So I am having to expend way too much thinking power for things like meal planning and grocery shopping. Thinking power that I most definitely did not have extra of. I'm actually reading labels now. (Shawna S. is laughing really hard about now.) This is way too complicated. If only I liked to cook and come up with nutritious, yet tasty, gluten and sugar-free options for my whole family to enjoy. But, I don't. Not even a little. And even if I wanted to I can't because I am spending so much time trying to wade through the ingredients list of every product I purchase that I have no brain cells left after that! It looks like Katya and Tommy are going to need to learn to enjoy carrots. A lot.
The other day one of the kids asked me why my parents' house is right by a cemetery. I responded that there was a cemetery there and then the builder started building houses nearby. To which another child responded, "A cemetery?? You mean with dead people?" No, this one is special. It is reserved for live people. Specifically ones that ask ridiculous questions. We'll have to stop by next time we're in town
Katya and I had a safe trip to Yuma. It was actually very nice to get away with just one child. It was so very quiet. We listened to the Chronicles of Narnia on the way there and back--which did indeed make the drive go by faster. We stayed in a hotel, well, a motel really. I think that's what you call the run down, two-story, pool-in-the-parking-lot-in-front joint we stayed in. It backed up to a gas station so there was quite a bit of noise coming through the 300 year old bathroom window. We just kept the door closed to muffle it.
I got to catch up with a few old friends that I hadn't seen in years. That was fun. I surprised one friend at her office (she had no idea I was in town) and we had a very fun time catching up. Her daughter used to babysit Emily and her daughter is now a beautiful 27 year old woman. Yikes.
We also got to see the world's most idiotic, ridiculous movie. Katya really wanted to go see a movie, and try as I might to tempt her with cable TV at the Happy Travel Motel, she was hoping to milk this "being by myself with mom thing." I fell for it and we went to the only movie that was playing that was age appropriate: "Mr. Bean's Holiday." After the movie, Katya walked out and said, "That was strange." If she thought it was strange--and let me tell you that her standard for a good movie is pretty low--then you can understand why I sat through it with my mouth gaping open in shock and awe at the utter stupidity. Noah called me in the middle and I willingly went out to the hall to chat with him. Thankfully Katya filled me in on the scenes I missed. She didn't understand that I didn't want to know what happened.
After the movie we went shopping at Yuma's new mall. Ooooooooo. When we lived in Yuma (during Sam's 6 year Marine Corps career) it was the equivalent of Retail and Restaurant Hell. Seriously. Unless they had it at Kmart or Sears you couldn't get it. And let me tell you that it was a very old Kmart. Very old and very icky. And I remember vividly the day that Red Lobster opened in town--there was a line around the building waiting for them to open the doors. Very sad, I know. I watched it happen with a mixture of pity and horror. So, the fact that they have an actual mall with actual restaurants and a theater with more than 4 screens is pretty impressive. I actually forgot I was in Yuma while we were there. And Katya successfully spent some of her birthday money on some clothes and jewelry. She is a jewelry addict at this point. The good news is that we found a store with a bunch of jewelry on clearance.
On Wednesday when Katya was done with her testing we even took some time and went to the Yuma Territorial Prison. Always a good idea when it is 110 or so to visit something that is predominantly outdoors. Thankfully there is a museum with a/c so we spent time in there cooling off. It was actually very interesting to read about some of the convicts and very educational for Katya since she was missing school. Am I a great mom or what???
Katya's testing went well. We won't find out the results until the tester compiles the results into a report which takes her about 20-30 hours to write. Yikes. The more I learn about dyslexia the more fascinating it becomes. It's not at all about people reading backwards but it is a language processing disorder. If she is dyslexic it would explain a lot of the problems she has in acquiring new vocabulary and finding the right words in a conversation. I'll be sure to let you know if she is or not. Regardless I saved myself a bundle by driving to Yuma for the testing. If she isn't I won't feel as bad as if I had spent the over $1000 to have her tested. That's like when I take the kids to the doctor when they are sick--I find myself seriously hoping they have an infection or something to justify my co-pay. I hate paying $25 to hear that they have a cold. So spending over $1000 to find out that she doesn't have dyslexia would probably send me over the edge.
We ate at several restaurants while we were in the Big City o' Yuma and I made some assumptions about what food had gluten in it and in some cases I clearly guessed wrong because whatever we ate on Wed. caused Katya to be sick on Thursday and to have to come home from school. I think it helped her see more clearly why she is on the special diet though. So in the end it probably ended up being worth it for a slight attitude adjustment regarding the "I can't eat anything and I'm not happy about it" diet.
And Tommy's teacher says he is doing much better, which I can only attribute to his new diet. He has not brought her to the point of wanting to run out of the classroom screaming for at least two weeks so there is a great deal of improvement. Way to go Tommy!
Well, I'm off to watch a movie. We are babysitting my favorite baby in the whole world, Jackson(who to be honest is actually almost 2, but in my eyes still a baby), and I need to wait up for his mom and dad to come pick him up. And then in the morning we have week #2 of two soccer games a couple of hours apart. Rachel's is at 11:40 this week so it should be nice and cool. Sure, maybe I'll bring a jacket.
Ok, it didn't even take me a month to have something to write about. Tonight one of our children did something quite humorous that I must share about. Sam and I are still laughing. I will change the names to protect the not at all innocent.
A child came down to say goodnight and Sam noticed lip gloss of some kind on their lips (which gives away the gender in this case--either that or we have some very weird things going on with our boys). "What do you have on your lips, Child?" "Oh, it's a chapstick that Sibling gave me." When Child came to see me to say goodnight, having overheard the conversation and noticing the high sheen and fruity scent on said lips, I queried, "What did you say you had on your lips?" "It's a chapstick that Sibling gave me." "Looks too shiny to be chapstick," I say. "I'll go get it and show it to you." So Child proceeds to run upstairs to fetch the chapstick that she insisted she was wearing to prove that it wasn't lip gloss as I was so rudely insinuating. She comes back downstairs and hands me a tube that looks like chapstick. Only it isn't. Child didn't take the time to look at what she said her Sibling gave her before coming up with her lie to cover up putting lip gloss on. It was "Cork & Tuning Slide Grease" that had apparently gotten left out by our fifth grade trombone virtuoso. For some reason she felt she needed to avoid having us tell her that she shouldn't wear lip gloss to bed--a punishment worthy of fear to be sure--so she decided to tell us it was chapstick instead and felt confident that she could produce the "chapstick" she had seen as "proof" and thus not get caught. Oops. Slight miscalculation on her part. Next time she'll probably remember to read the label. Or not.
Once again, I'm not really sure when my life became a constant merry-go-round ride, but I am confident that the ride started spinning faster the day I became a mom of five. And the fact that I truly thought it would be no different to have five than it was to have three just proves the fact that I am certifiable. I mean, really, not a day goes by that I don't think back to my thoughts of "what's the big deal about five kids?" No, I'm not very smart at all.
Hmm, where to start with the latest edition of "What's happening in Melindaland?"...
Well, we had our first soccer games of the season today. Noah's was at 9:20 and since we remembered to bring our beach umbrella, we were actually relatively comfortable in our portable shade. Sadly Noah's team lost--but there was a controversial goal that they scored but the referee declared it to "not have crossed the line" or some such thing. Our boys vigorously declared it had crossed said line. So in their minds it was a tie. They'll be talking about how they were robbed for weeks.
Rachel's game was at 12:50. Yes, you read that right. Soccer at the peak of the afternoon in 100+ weather in Phoenix. I don't know who the genius was that thought of that schedule. The parents were melting on the sidelines and it is a wonder that the girls were able to remain standing let alone run up and down the field. At each break the parents were dousing the girls with water and getting them to drink as much as was humanly possible. Apparently our team was better hydrated because we won in the end. We should have had a kiddie pool for them to jump in and splash around between quarters. Maybe next week. I'll put in a call to the team mom. Which is most definitely not me. She is a lovely, very organized woman with only two children. She probably takes naps every afternoon and remembers her own name all of the time. But my life is "richer," and remembering your name is highly overrated.
The current state of hecticness (is that a word? not that I wouldn't use it if it isn't, I was just asking) in our home is caused by the frequent soccer practices that have occurred over the last few weeks leading up to today's opening games. We waited quite a few years before allowing our kids to join organized sports and now I remember why. They both love soccer though and seem to be pretty good at it, so this might be our lot in life for a while. Tommy would like to play football someday as soccer doesn't really interest him. He is going to have to take a number though because he'll need to wait a couple more years til I get the hang of this 3 nights a week of practice business. He plays one-on-one with Sam in the backyard so that will have to suffice for a while. We'll have to start having him watch games on weekends so he can learn by observation.
I'm certain the fact that I have substituted 8 out of the last 9 school days has contributed to the feeling of hecticness (hectarity? hectivity?) as well. The problem was that I had committed to covering for a teacher who was gone for a week to go get married (at the Graceland wedding chapel in Vegas no less--two Elvis impersonators sang at the wedding--ah, to each his own...) long before we knew when soccer practice would start and what days it would be on. Needless to say I will be scaling back on my subbing during soccer season. For my sanity and the sanity of those around me.
This week I had to teach a group of 1st graders the concept of contractions. It wasn't pretty. I mean I had it all going on--the apostrophe "eats" the 'wi' in will and we are left with 'I'll' kind of thing--or so I thought. When I asked them what the contraction of 'I will' is (after going over this ad nauseum) I got a variety of answers: I'wi, I'will, I'wll. Yeah, nevermind. Your teacher will be back later to deal with this mess. I've given you all I've got. So we moved on to our next worksheet which confused about 1/2 of the class as well. Clearly I am not called to be a first grade teacher because I don't have the patience for that much confusion. Sadly, several of them didn't seem qualified to be first graders!!
We went camping over Labor Day weekend up near Payson. We went with four other families and it was a lot of fun even though it rained--downpoured actually--the first night. Thankfully our friends had an extra tarp that we could hang over our tent that was filling with water. And thankfully our friends had campers so a couple of our kids could sleep with them so they didn't have to sleep on the wet floor. We only had two air mattresses so that would have left the floor people floating--not to mention very wet. Rain always makes a camping trip interesting--and memorable. Oh, and I think the entire metropolitan Phoenix area was in or near Payson for the weekend because it took us a whopping 4 1/2 hours to get home. It does tend to take a while to anywhere when you are in bumper to bumper traffic moving at a whopping 15 miles an hour. Thankfully we had a cd set of Chronicles of Narnia and we listened to The Horse and His Boy and Prince Caspian and as a result could have cared less how long it was taking because we were so into the stories.
Katya's birthday was also Labor Day weekend. She is now 13. She wasn't overly excited to celebrate her birthday while camping, but we made her food requests (mashed potatoes and corn--her annual starch fest) and had a gummy worm/bear/bug "cake" (a 9x13 pan filled with gummies that was a real crowd pleaser with the kids) and so I think she was ok with it.
She is actually having her birthday party tonight. She has some friends sleeping over. They've had dinner, painted their nails, played Dance Dance Revolution and a karaoke type game on Playstation, watched a movie, eaten junk food and giggled until they fell asleep. I'm certain some of those activities will be repeated in the morning when they awake. Thankfully we moved the playstation downstairs so we won't have to hear them if they decide to start very early.
We discovered last week that Tommy is intolerant to gluten and so he is now on a gluten-free diet. Sugar is also like crack to him so we have taken him off of that as well. He eats carrots and water now. Well, not really. There are a lot of foods he can eat, we just have to choose more carefully. This new diet should help alleviate the problems he has with his lack of focus and impulsiveness. He has been doing a great job in school since we took him off of his "crack" so I am hopeful that this may have been an underlying cause to some of his problems. He had a post-birthday party sugar high one Monday and his teacher was ready to throttle him by lunch time. Once we learned about the sugar-crack connection it made sense as to what caused the erratic and incredibly frustrating behavior that day!! Sugar binging on Saturday!! The doctor said that gluten intolerance is genetic and so we have put Katya on the same diet, much to her chagrin (she has some of the same focus problems that Tommy has).
I am taking Katya to Yuma this week for some testing for dyslexia. A tester down there is going to test her for free in order to get certified as a dyslexia specialist. The testing would normally cost $1000 or more so that would explain our willingness to drive to Yuma for it. I'm looking forward to having some hang out time with Katya as well. We'll be listening to the remaining Chronicles of Narnia cds so the drive will be over in no time.
I think that's all I can think of for right now. So I'm going to bed. Apparently this is now a once a month blog so I'wi...I'will...I'll see you in October.
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