Yes, We Have No Bananas New Pajamas

We've actually been pretty boring around here recently. That's the way I like it. No drama. I don't do drama. We've mostly been hanging out, playing, coloring, and experimenting with new food ways. The children are willing testers.

And yes, they do have new pajamas.

And then there were...

FIVE:

That's right. For those of you who don't know yet (I'm not very good at secrets), it's official. The third Sommers baby is on the way. What's not official is the due date. By the ultrasound, they're saying April 2, 2010, but we all know that my babies never pay much attention to silly things like estimated due dates. So far, Mercy and Judah not only missed their EDD's, they completely missed the months they were supposed to be born in all together. Let's see. Mercy's EDD was February 14, and she showed up on March 7, and Judah's was July 17, and he showed up on August 3. Since this little one is supposed to show up in the very beginning of April, I hope we at least make the month, though I hold out no hopes that he/she will actually be here the beginning of April.

And that's all for now. What? You wanted more news? Good grief. I'll post pics of the other Sommers children this weekend, since I know that's what everyone wants to see anyway.

Foodie Friday

Another Foodie Friday already. I really do have new pics of my kids to post, and I'll get to that soon. I promise.

The pictures here were my first attempt to make pavlova. Where have I been all my life? I had never even heard of this heavenly confection before. The bottom layer is a meringue. And I'm not talking about those dry chalky storebought things either. This was slightly crunchy on the outside and marshmallowy on the inside. Topping the meringue is sweetened whipped cream. On top of all that is blueberries and wineberries in a tropical sauce. Oh. My. Stars. This was arguably one of the best desserts I have ever eaten. And it's inherently gluten free. (Oh, yeah. Did I tell you I DO have celiac?)

I don't think anyone is quite sure of the origin of this dessert, though I can see why the Aussies and Kiwis fight over the country of origin. I asked my online friends from Australia and New Zealand what other toppings they serve on pavlova. They said if it was delicious, they tossed it on top. They showed me pics of double-decker pavlovas...two meringues with whipped cream and fruit in between and on top. One suggested chocolate shavings in the meringue, chocolate in the cream, and chocolate shavings over the fruit. Another suggested bananas and caramel. I'm thinking pavlova will be a staple dessert in our house, as I try new toppings and combinations. Yum.

Foodie Friday

(Sorry about the crazy picture...I can't get it rotated). Some of you may remember my posting a few months ago about finding out that I had severe b-12 and folate deficiency and have been getting shots. Our diet is great. It made no sense...until I read that the two deficiencies together signal celiac disease (inability to break down gluten). My dr. agreed and sent me for the celiac panel. I'm still waiting on the results, but if I have it, we're having the kids tested as well. We're pretty sure, with their history of severe reflux and other factors, that they have food allergies, but we haven't been able to pinpoint the problem foods yet. Celiac may be our answer.

To that end, I've been trying out some gluten-free recipes. I made these adorable little cookies the other day, and the children love them (and my dear husband, who can eat large quantities of any form of gluten thought they were tasty as well!) I love fall and fall food, and nothing says fall like gingerbread. I modified this recipe from another site, because I can never leave a recipe alone, and also because I wanted to do cut out cookies with my sweet new autumn mini-cutters. My first attempt at rolling out the dough and cutting out the cookies was disastrous, even after adding guar gum (to hold the dough together) and refrigerating it, so I tried another tactic: cutting out the cookies AFTER they were baked. Here's the recipe.

Gluten Free Gingerbread Bites.

6 eggs
1/3 cup butter or coconut oil, melted
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup molasses
¾ cup rapadura sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup sifted coconut flour

1 teaspoon guar gum

Blend together eggs, butter, salt, molasses, sugar, and
spices. Stir in coconut flour and mix thoroughly.
Batter will thicken slightly as the flour absorbs
moisture. Refrigerate until dough is firm. Line a large baking sheet with parchment and press the dough out evenly on parchment, about 1/4 inch thick.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 12-
14 minutes. After cookie sheet comes out of the oven, use small cookie cutters to cut out cookies (all of mine stuck inside the cutter, and I just gently pressed them out onto a cooling rack.) Crumble the scraps, cover and refrigerate. I'm told they're delicious over vanilla ice cream. If there are any cookies left, refrigerate them as the coconut flour tends to draw moisture if left out.

"God Doing?"

Mercy likes to know what everyone is doing at any given moment during the day. A typical conversation goes something like this:

Mercy: "Mama doing?"

Me: "I'm doing laundry, Mercy."

Mercy: "Daddy doing?"

Me: "Daddy's at work."

Mercy: "Dudah doing?"

Me: "Judah is tearing my art supplies out of the cupboard."

Mercy: "Mercy doing?"

Me: "You're talking to mommy."

Mercy: "Eemals (animals) doing?"

Me: "Probably eating or taking a nap."

And if I don't answer repeated questions because I'm distracted or just tired of answering questions, the conversation sounds like this:

Mercy: "Mama doing?"

Me: "I'm washing dishes, Mercy."

Mercy: "Mama doing?"

Mercy: "Mama doing?" "MAMA DOING?" "MAMA DOING?" "MAMA DOING?"

Her questions increase in rapidity and volume until I finally answer her (loudly and exasperatedly.)

This morning, both children were up early, of course, since it was Benj's day off. Not that we have any delusions about actually sleeping in, but sleeping past 6 am would be nice on a day off. Mercy came over and got in bed with Benj and me. She sat up between us and chattered. Finally, she declared, without any provocation, "God made Dudah. God made Mercy." Benj and I both told her that was right. Then...

"God doing?"

Oh Mercy

Last night Mercy was standing on her daddy's chair at the dining room table coloring and playing with her new beading/lacing set. Benj and I were in the living room, and we heard her counting..."one, two, three..." the whole way through, continuing in a sing-song counting voice..."ten, eleben, something, something, something, something..." Benj and I laughed our heads off. I guess we need to work on 11-20.

Labor Day Fun

Unfortunately, because he couldn't command all the sick people to go home since it was a holiday, Benj had to labor on Labor Day. After he got home, though, we loaded up the children and headed to a nearby park for a picnic with my parents. It was a beautiful day, and the children played hard on the toddler playground.

Mommy, I helping Judah!

Boys and dirt. He was so filthy we had to strip him down to his diaper to put him in his carseat!

I have discovered a truth

Actually, I think I've known it in my heart for a long time, but I just fought against it and tried to disprove it.

The truth: I can cook. OR. I can clean. OR. I can do laundry. OR I can keep the children from killing themselves, the dog, and each other. But I CANNOT do all of these things at one time.

Recently, I have been cooking. Meals the past few days have included marinated venison filet mignon, scalloped poatoes from scratch, baked zucchini, and pumpkin cobbler. Salmon cakes, broccoli cheese barley. Homemade pizza. And last night, I made lentil sausage soup (homemade turkey sausage), biscuits, and apple crisp. Doing all this cooking while Benj is at work is a challenge. Mercy and Judah are usually doing one of two things: whining and hanging on my skirt/apron, or getting into mischief. Now, I know that millions of mothers worldwide cook without their children burning down the house or fishing in the toilet, but I haven't figured out how to do it yet.

So yesterday, I was busy in the kitchen, and I missed Judah. I went to investigate, and apparently, Mercy had forgotten to close my bedroom door after she was finished washing her hands after using the potty:

Now this would have been cute, except that Judah can't get down quite as nimbly as he can climb up, and the porcelain throne was a little too close for comfort if he made a misstep. And in the picture, you can't see the body of water big enough to be named on the counter and floor, compliments of Mercy, which makes getting down off the stool even more treacherous.

Later, Mercy called, "Hey, Mama, gook Dudah!" (Hey, Mama, look at Judah!) This is never a good sign. I looked in the dining room and saw this:

Note to self: always put the tray back on the highchair after removing child.

I have a very large heavy picture on my living room wall. It is the entire play King Lear on a single page that Benj gave me for my birthday years ago, and my grandfather framed it. It hangs nearly from the ceiling to about two feet from the floor. Judah has discovered that he can reach the bottom edge of the frame and bang the whole picture against the wall. I fuss him whenever he does it, and so far, it has never come unattached, as it's on the wall pretty securely. Yesterday, I heard Judah start banging, and I happened to be nearby, and arrived just in time to catch it as it fell off the wall. I guess railroad spikes are the next logical step for keeping it securely on the wall.

Around 7:30, I was STILL cooking, trying to get the biscuits made as well as the pizza for Benj's lunch the next day. The children had been into everything, but were finally playing quietly for a moment (that should have been my first warning). About this time, I heard a mighty crash and shattering glass. I raced into the den, since the glass sounded like it fell on bricks. There stood Judah on the hearth, in a sea of shattered glass from a jar candle he had pitched on the bricks. There were many things wrong with this scene, the first of which being that he's not allowed on the hearth and is disciplined for that at least 10 times a day, the second of which being that he would not have been able to REACH the jar candle if he hadn't been on the hearth. I snatched him up and rinsed the glass off his hands and feet. He cut his hand and it was bleeding rather profusely, even though I never did see more than a small nick on his finger. I had to stop what I was doing and after penning the children in the utility room with Hawthorne (parakeet), since they wouldn't stay out of the glass, I had to vacuum up the huge mess. You know how glass is though. Even though I vacuumed twice, I've still gotten glass in my feet twice since them. Needless to say, two tired, whining, bloody (well, Judah was bloody anyway), hungry children met Benj when he got home from work.

And yes, since I've been cooking, the house is a mess, the laundry is piling up, and the children nearly met an early demise on several ocassions.

On a good note, Mercy is now completely daytime potty trained (and nearly there at night/naptime). We did create a bit of a monster by letting her go bare bum for about a week. After it was clear that she had the hang of it and wasn't having accidents, we started putting her in underwear. Well, Baby Girl likes being naked. She doesn't like underwear. We find them discarded by the potty or wherever else strikes her fancy (Sound like someone you know, Pam?)

I think she also somehow missed the PURPOSE of underwear. Yesterday, she ran down the hall, and said, "Mama, I pee-peed in the potty." I said "Good! But why didn't you wait for mama to come dry you?" (She is very self motivated about going to the potty without being reminded, which is great, but we're trying to teach her to call us and wait till we come back and dry her so she's not leaving a dripping trail down the hall.) Mercy looked at me and said matter-of-factly: "Panties on!" Her tone said, "Silly mama, I don't need you to dry me...that's what panties are for." Sigh.

Here she is in her new toddler bed with the much coveted Baby Molly that was promised her as soon as she used the potty.

Oh, and did you know that rubbing alchohol takes permanent marker off countertops? Ask me how I know.