Monday, November 28, 2011

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie....

 

So we have a mouse in our kitchen. Well, at least that is where it has been spotted. On Friday, right before Evan went to work, Evan was standing by the refrigerator and sink. I was standing on the opposite side of the bar. As we were talking, I saw a dark something dash out from behind the fridge and run toward the sink along the baseboard under the cupboards and then go back. I asked Evan what he thought it was, I had no idea. I thought I was crazy. He helped me move the fridge and sure enough staring back at us were little beady eyes of a brown mouse. I screamed, dashed around the bar, and climbed up onto a bar stool.

I know, not the type of thing you would expect or me either. But I did. It is just kind of disconcerting and instinctual. Well, the mouse darted down the baseboard again into the opening that runs into the whole corner of our cupboards. (Probably why we have a mouse, there are several such weird holes in our house--not our house, our rented house. Really, don't ask.)

I called my nieghbor. She said to get traps. I didn't have access to a car, so I just fished the glue traps out of the garage that were in the kitchen when we moved in (bad sign, I know). So far nothing has been caught, so yesterday, I added a huge dallop of peanut butter.

So when this happened, Kyle told me, "Mommy, don't be scared. It is just a mouse. Not a monster." Yup, seriously good advice from a three year old. Then Kyle asked me if he could pet the mouse. Not good advice from a three year old.

Tonight, as I was sorting clothes in the living room, I thought that Aiden was in the kitchen eating rice from his dinner off the floor. I had forgotten that I left the gate open. Minutes later, Aiden comes waddling into the living room, with his hand stuck in the glue trap and eating peanut butter directly off the trap with his mouth. I screamed like a little girl. I was seriously freaked that he was ingesting whatever that could be bad for him.

I had to hard core rip his little hand off the glue trap and then use olive oil to get the stickiness of the glue gone. Then clean his face of peanut butter. He did not ingest any of the trap and is fine. I still don't think that this is a funny store, but Evan said it made his day as did my neighbor, who I called in a panic. So I hope it makes your day.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Home Again, Home Again

I am sitting here at my window waiting for home health, apparently they came 20 minutes ago and because we were downstairs did not hear them.

While I was gone my tree in the front yard emptied its leaves. I hope the neighbor boy comes to rake soon.

It took six hours to discharge today. Five of those hours were trying to get the different teams to do their parts and a lot of "that's not my job" by various parties. There was also a hiccup with the fact that our insurance did not want us to get a home pump.

Kyle did fabulous, except that he doesn't mind causing himself more pain by laying on his button and sliding along. Pain does not deter him. Also neither does morphine. He was well behaved and charmed everyone who came into his room. I got so many compliments on how they know of no other three year olds that swallow their pills. It may not be a wonderful skill like counting or reading--but we know how to do our medicine and deal with doctors (which is what Kyle called the doctors and techs). Our techs were so good and did not wake him in the middle of the night. And surprisingly, the recliner was not the worst to sleep in.

Best part was how wonderful the vanilla dryers ice cream was in the cafeteria. Seriously. And how Kyle convinced a child life specialist that Aiden also needed a car (even though Aiden was at home) so he could get two cars instead of one.

Even though I've been mostly sitting on my butt at the hospital. I am surprisingly defeated And although I took my laptop, I never used it at the hospital. I feel over come by the prep needed for Thanksgiving and all the laundry that needs to get done. But Evan reminds me I can always do that tomorrow.

I have pictures of the hospital and my perfect patient, but they will have to wait. Thank you all for the support.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Practical Foodie

I told myself that if I finished the dreaded budgeting and bill pay for the month, then I could post about this subject. Well, obviously, I finished because I am posting.

Tonight I made a creamy avocado pasta (brown rice pasta for Aiden) with bacon and roasted asparagus on the side for dinner with only a ten minute clean up. It was delicious beyond measure.

However, I've come to realize that I have no one with which to share these sorts of things. I eat most dinners, including Saturday nights recently, with the boys. Kyle gets to the table, looks at his plate, and says, "I think I'm done." Aiden will eat anything, including on not one but three occasions fecal matter. He eats after he gets down from the table, meaning that he'll eat all the food on the floor. Starting last week, he's even eaten out of the garbage. Evan will come home late, take the bowl that I've left sitting out for him for hours (he likes it that way) and eat in front of the TV. If I ask and he likes it, he'll state that it was good. But he has been known to eat day old or more hamburgers and he raves about chili dogs as much as anything I make.

So I feel like there is no one with which to share my passion. And it is a passion, although I've only come to discover this in the last few weeks. If you follow me on pinterest you know how much food I pin. I have spent the last six months only repeating 10 dishes because there are so many yummy things out there I want to try. I make goodies several times a week and I am constantly reading recipe blogs. I also watch every cooking show that is on Hulu.

I don't claim to know a lot about cooking because I am still afraid of most meat that isn't chicken or ground. I have just mastered the pork roast. I don't shop in fancy stores (except for my children) and I coupon and try to save as much money as I can. I try to use inexpensive, easily accessible ingredients. I am very conscious of how much time and effort is required too because I don't have a lot of that to spare. However, I modify like crazy. Kyle can't eat dairy and Aiden can't eat dairy or gluten. I am actually going to learn how to bake gluten free and modify those recipes too. My current question, is it possible to make gluten free yeast breads (albeit substituting the normal flour, any dairy, and adding xantham gum?

But the point of this, I am considering starting a recipe blog. I know how many hundreds of thousands of millions (did I just go too far there) there are on the internet. But I want mine to be for the elimin8 diet (no dairy, wheat, soy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, or sea food) and no corn as well. We are going on that diet starting in January and the recipe blogs out there are not designed for that. If I wanted to pay some money, I could gain access to some recipes. I found a website once, where you choose the things you were avoiding and it gave you the recipes it had that matched it. I can't find it now.

So my blog would be like that and after 3 weeks, we will add each element back in for a two week trial to see if there are any more foods that the boys react to. So not all the recipes would be for everything, but maybe I could have a way to group them or something. I want there to be better resources for those who have food reactions or allergies. And I want them to be normal sounding, looking and often substitutes for what most families do eat. It is nice to have a direct correlation between a regular cookie and something my kids can eat. As a mater of fact, we frequently don't take them to attend things where we know offending food will be if thee is no equivalent (like ice cream cake).

I frequently go to Whole Foods and even at the best organic, healthy, grocery store in the city I have a hard time finding food. If it is dairy free, it isn't gluten free and vice versa. We as an eosinophilic community need better resources and so do those who have problems with common foods.

What do you think? Would you read it? Do you think you'd make anything from it?

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Forgotten Thanksgiving

So Evan came home on Monday from work and stated that he had been flipping channels on the radio. On one of them, he had heard Christmas music. He may or may not have used expletives to explain how he felt about that. He said, "It isn't even Thanksgiving yet." I furthered the discussion by mentioning that Tai Pan Trading and several other stores have been over run with Christmas, Costco even before Halloween.

Evan said, "Thanksgiving is like Beiber's little brother. Or his baby. Totally forgotten."

It probably doesn't help that Evan can't stand Christmas music any time of the year.

Then yesterday, we had another conversation about Thanksgiving. Evan was telling me how much he loves Thanksgiving. His reasoning that, "It is a low maintenance holiday. I don't have to give any gifts. I don't have to remember to do anything. And because I'm a male, I don't have to do any cooking either. All I have to do is eat."

My sister, Heidi, also loves Thanksgiving. For her I think it is because she loves all the food stuffs. She loves turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and pie. I don't know if it is because her birthday falls around and sometimes on Thanksgiving, but it is her favorite meal and she will order Thanksgiving food at restaurants and request it for special meals.

I'm not opposed to Thanksgiving, but I don't care for the food. I don't like turkey that much, I hate gravy, and I don't eat left overs. It seems like a waste of a good holiday and too crammed between Halloween and Christmas. Maybe if it had some more time, I could enjoy it. But I keep thinking, why even put up my Thanksgiving/fall decorations. Why not just pack them away. I'll have to get these bins out again in just a few weeks for that anyway. I also feel like it is just another Sunday dinner. Nothing too special.

So we'll see how we fair this year.