Goofing around before bed

Hi there..

I was hiding under your porch because I loooove you...can I stay?

Silly face...x2 :)

More GFCF cooking

This weekend was a big cooking weekend.  I would like to plan maybe 1 weekend a month to really spend time in the kitchen and cook up a bunch of food for the freezer.  This makes it easy for everyone in our household, staff included, to grab something quickly out of the fridge or freezer for Aohdan.  It also makes it possible for me to stay OUT of the kitchen during the week so I can concentrate on other things. 

So far this weekend we have made...

2 dozen homemade 'Reese's cups'

3 pounds of chicken tenders

16 homemade pizzas, this is the dough during the 'rising' process

The assembly line..

I didn't get pictures of everything, but here's the tally of food made.

*3lbs chicken tenders
*3 dozen pancakes
*1 dozen reese's cups
*10 quarts pasta sauce
*7 quarts canned tomatoes (and 2 more bushels left to can!)
*16 homemade pizzas

Watching Tangled with my big brother

it has got to be hard for an older sibling to understand what goes on in the day of a life like Ava. I mean sure Aohdan has been around her since birth, and he does love her and asks about her. But often it is as if there are two worlds co-existing together under one roof. Aohdan is battling challenges of his own when it comes to PDD-NOS (or high functioning autism), so he just sees that his little sis gets an awful lot of attention. But sometimes, just sometimes, he snuggles up next to her and their worlds come together in a beautiful way....

Sunday Dinner...our way

I thought some of you might find it interesting to see what goes into a home-cooked meal at our house.  Although it may look like a lot of work, it's really not that bad once you get used to it.  Having a family meal after church on Sunday is a tradition at our house.  And we usually go to Bob Evans, but sometimes I like to just stay home and relax.  So today I decided to make Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic-y bread sticks.

This is what went into making it. 

First, I picked some tomatoes from my garden.  The picture below is a combination of my tomatoes and the ones I picked up in amish country.  There is about 1/2 bushel in this picture.  They were grown in organic soil with no pesticides, etc. 

Then I boiled them, peeled them, and began the long simmering process.  All of this was completed last night.  At least the boiling and peeling.  I let them simmer on low all night and then finished letting it cook down today after church.

Next, I browned deer hamburger.  Go head, get all your "Eeewwwws!" out.  A lot of people don't like deer burger but there are a couple things to keep in mind. 

1st:  Deer is naturally hormone-free, antibiotic-free, and they only eat good greens

2nd:  It is verrry low in fat.  It would be the equivilent to buying the 96/4 lean hamburger in the store.

3rd:  And it does taste good, so get over yourself and try it!

As far as the pasta I chose, I have tried different brands and to be honest most gluten-free does not have a great texture.  And I'm a big texture person.  This is my fav brand and as you can see it is free of all the most common food allergens..AND it is delicious with a great texture!

Next for the bread sticks I used a bag of Bob's gluten-free pizza dough mix.  One pizza mix made MORE than enough bread sticks for all 5 of us!  The cool thing is, since I am doing weight watchers, I calculated out the points values and, as long as I stay away from all the cheese, 3 breadsticks were only 5 points-yippee!!  So I made 2 pans with cheese and 2 pans without cheese.  They were delish!!

This is what they looked like before they went into the oven...

And this is what the finished product (with cheese) looked like...

Needless to say we all ate and enjoyed ourselves immensely!  The cool thing about today's meal was the dent on my wallet.  Eating healthy can be expensive, but here's the breakdown on today's meal.

Tomatoes = free from my own garden
Deer burger = ummm, yeah that was free.  Kenny shot a deer on the last day of hunting season out the back door of our house!  Lol!
Breadsticks = $4.69 for (1) Bob's pizza crust mix
Cheese = $2 and it was amish country made from raw milk!
Pasta = $3.69

Grand total for a great homemade meal for 5?  a little over $10=')

Oh and the best part is we had (5) gladware containers of the sauce leftover for the freezer.  And each container is enough for one dinner.  Very cool huh?

So the last picture, check out my homemade canned goods=')  I have 20quarts of organic canned tomatoes in the basement, and I'm getting ready to can probably 40 more.  It cost me $28 for 2 heaping bushels of tomatoes from amish country, which will yield 40 quarts.  This is MORE than enough to last an entire year and can be made into homemade pasta sauce, and a slew of other great recipes.  Tomatoes are so healthy too!

Aren't they pretty?

Praise and Worship

Ava loves praise and worship service, she always watches the band so intently.  This morning I looked up and Ava and our nurse were holding hands during the music service.  I just thought it was so sweet I couldn't resist taking a picture!

I'm just so tired...

I've always considered myself a pretty healthy person, but it seems over the past few years my system is less resilient than it once was.  I know that stress can weaken a person's system and allow things to happen.  I just feel sometimes like I can't quite catch my breath enough to stop and really take care of ME.  Ahhh...  And in this case it happens to be mental stress and worry.  After Aohdan's diagnosis I started to feel overwhelmed with all the things that needed done for him, school, possibly transporting him to Dublin every day, cooking all his food.  And sure enough, on Wednesday of this week I got sick.  Like laying around on the couch all day sick.  Then today I'm sitting at my brother's office and started feeling clammy and shaky like low blood sugar type symptoms.  And it didn't really go away until I got outside and walked around in the fresh air.  I HATE HATE HATE feeling unhealthy, like my system is weak.

I broke down crying earlier this week when I felt myself getting sick, I told Kenny "I cannot afford to get sick!  This family needs a healthy mom!"  He just looked at me and shook his head and asssured me that it was 'okay' if I got sick.  In my own little perfect world, I would like to only handle one bad thing at a time.  Can I order that up God?  Ahhh...I really miss my mom.  It just seems like everything hits at once ya know?  I get done with school, and then we're hit with Aohdan's diagnosis, medicaid trying to cut corners, and then my body decides to protest.  RRRrrrr!!!  Ok did I mention I need a beach?  On top of all this, I've been desparately trying to lose 30lbs.  I gained 30 lbs with Ava's pregnancy, then lost it, then gained it all back again.  Really?  And I have definitely figured out that stress does not have a good effect on my eating habits OR my ability to lose weight.  Besides WANTING to lose weight, it does not help any health issues I have right now.  Oh, did I mention I was diagnosed with GERD last week too? 

So I really need to catch a break.  I need to be healthy, I WANT to be healthy, to have the strength to fight the battles ahead with my kids and life in general.  I feel like these last few years have really aged me.  I used to take more pride in my appearance, now sometimes I got out in public in outfits that would make a teenager cringe.  Sometimes I feel like I run so much that there is no time for doing my hair, or shaving, or make-up,,what is that?  I remember one day last week I out on lip gloss, mascara, and actually combed my hair.  Our nurse looks at me and goes, "Awwww you look sooo pretty!"  It's because I NEVER get dolled up anymore!  By the way if whining bothers you, you should probably visit another blog.  Cuz I'm in a whining kinda mood tonight.  I feel fat, tired, old, and I wish I had healthy kids.  Ok pity party over...lol.

Lord please send some favor my way.  Show me what to do.  I pray Your hand guide me in all things.  Thank you Lord. 

Medicaid is re-assessing our nursing hours

I'm not getting worried yet. But since the State of Ohio is basically broke, they are cutting back everywhere they can. So I get a call from Ava's CareStar Case Manager asking me all these questions regarding her condition, her daily cares, etc. So I ask her, "they aren't cutting our nursing hours are they?" And she informs me that they probably won't but since we are so 'heavy' on hours (well, YAH, we have a vent-dependant daughter) they 'scrutinize' us more closely than other cases. We've kept Ava out of the hospital for 3 years now. And I feel it is because we have such an awesome nursing staff who not only follow strict aseptic technique, but they also know Ava so well.

Just pray that with everything else going on they do not mess with our nursing hours. I don't think they will, but let me tell you if they try...I will fight like a mad woman. I feel like we've entered a new season in life. With Aohdan's autism diagnosis, and the upcoming fundraiser, it just feels like our life has taken on a new dynamic.

Blessings everyone!

Vicki