In the Midst of your storm...

The girls are fighting, screaming at each other. The Tv downstairs drowns out some of the screeches of the expressions of sisterly love. "No its my turn, no mine" or " Your ruining it!" Having complete different personalities doesn't help with the always arguing over what they should play, who goes first, and who's fault "IT" is. Whatever IT is...
I lay down...My legs, burning from walking. My hands hurting and swollen. My eyes tired and red. My muscles aching from just being upright so long. The joints just yelling at me in my body, "why did you walk so much". Its frustrating in a sense to want to take your kids places and Need to go to the store but by the time I get to the store and walk in the door, exhaustion has set in and I feel an overwhelming amount of pain, and need to sit. My feet just hurt. Its the easiest way to describe the fiery fight my toes, arches, heel, and Achilles feel. The need to take the circulating blood out of my feet so I don't feel the pain anymore. Its most embarrassing when you are in a store and you have no other choice but to sit. When that happens it doesn't really matter where I am, today I sat on the floor. Don't mind me, just sitting in the middle of the aisle, yes I'm OK. Leave me alone. The girls climbing all over me, as if their existence on me will somehow take the pain away and their touch will set me free. I wish it was. Laying in bed contemplating how ridiculous life is right now. I have the overwhelming NEED to hit the reset button. I want to reset my life, be without pain, burdens, and responsibilities. Don't get me wrong I love love love my kids! I love their smiles, laughs, and snuggles. I yearn for those moments. I just don't want to be me right now.
But there has to be a lesson in here somewhere. Theres always a moral at the end of the story, people endure pain then the miraculous happens they get over it and move on. How do you deal with life when pain and frustration, disappointment are part of your everyday life? Everyday is not guaranteed to be a walk in the park. I have endured, lived, lost and am still enduring...
Some days it feels like one of those never ending cycles of when is it going to end? When we are in this cycle, we have to get out!!!
I wanted nothing more today than to just leave, leave everything. Have you ever had one of those days? Ever wanted desperately to have the "that was easy button". I don't believe I have ever had a day that I felt that I possessed the "easy button". God never said that our life would be easy though. Jesus for sure did not have the easy button. Who am I to complain? I have a roof over my head. I have a life giving church, and I have a few life giving friends. When I feel like all is lost I stop, drop, and roll!!
No, actually I don't. I couldn't get up once I get down...lol!
Yes Sometimes I have a sense of humor. So in essence I can smile, see, smell, and enjoy the life God gave me. I might not be able to take my kids to the Harvest festival, buy them ice cream, or take them to Disney like I dream, BUT when you have little I think you appreciate much. I appreciate every little thing someone does for me, says to me, or thinks of me. I enjoy the presence and the time I spend with my friends because they are so precious to me. I love feeling the light breeze across my face, and the gentle rays of sunshine that shine through the window in the car. I may get a rash from enjoying the sunlight a little too much but for that instant I feel God's warmth. I feel the heart. I look at the blue skies and see his miraculous work. If life always went the way we wanted we would be soooo bored. If all our wishes, dreams, aspirations came true what would we have to work on?

Where a Kid can be a KID

Having autoimmune conditions or allergies is exceptionally hard, but it is especially hard on children. Having two girls who have to  be gluten free too is often a reminder to them  how different they are. I've avoided Chucke cheese like the plaque because to me, it was a place over flowing with  delicious pizza aroma, uncontrollable laughter, and yet a reminder yet again to  kids who cant be included in the fun. I was elated to  find out that Chucke cheese has jumped on the band wagon to really make their slogan true, "Where a Kid can be a Kid". Chucke cheese has accepted that even kids with celiac and gluten intolerance want to be accepted and included in having fun. I spoke with the manager when  planning a small party with them and he was kind and compassionate, there was no attitude toward all my questions and he explained to me in detail on the phone and in person when I questioned him again to  make sure he was aware of cross contamination issues. Their pizza comes in its own container that can be cooked by itself  there by not allowing contamination. They did not even open it until it was on the table. I realized I had not brought my own pizza cutter and then to my surprise they have their own pizza cutters, also still wrapped in plastic that read gluten free on them. I was thinking that the kids might not like the pizza, but  both of my kids ate their whole pizza! I stole a bite and it  was actually tasty! They are pricey, normally 6.99 a pizza but we were blessed the manager comped our substitute for both my girls and really made our experience one to  remember. They also have gluten  free cupcakes available but I always make our own cakes so I'm not  sure how they are. I will be checking them out in the future though. I was so happy to  see my girls happy and enjoying their pizza just like everyone else. It will be an experience we will remember for years to  come!

Gluten Free Pizza! yummy and delicious!

Brianna's gluten free cupcakes and princess cake I made! :)

She loved it!!

Fun times! Being a kid!!

Gluten free cupcakes : ) I will do  another blog post with details about these! Have a  great day and  don't forget to live your life deliberately to have fun no matter what obstacles you are facing today!
 

Red Robin Review

Hubby and I decided to do a quick lunch date while the girls were in school. We went to Red Robin after hearing from several people how great they were. I have to say I am pleasantly surprised! The staff was very friendly from the moment we walked in. I have been given some looks and attitude at other places when asking for a gluten free menu but they didn't flinch. The waitress was very knowledgeable  I asked her about the fries and she informed me  they were fried separate and you can have them without the seasoning. They were yummy! I peaked at the list of gluten free items and ordered a burger, they even have gluten free buns (with an extra $1 charge). I was pleasantly excited when I saw how delicious the burger came out. The bun was nice and fluffy and not dry or burnt like some other places. The meat was fresh along with the lettuce and tomato. The burger wasnt greasy and just the right size. The fries were piping hot and freshly made. We even ordered another basket because its bottomless fries there! It felt so good to indulge in the little treasures so many take for granted. We will def be back there again in the future! 

Its been a while!

I've been lagging on my new found love of making recipes and tweaking them to my desire. I enjoy trying new things especially when they turn out yummy!! We got together with some of our friends who are also gluten and dairy free for Thanksgiving. It was one less stress not to have to worry about explaining why someone is contaminating my food. I had made some yummy banana cupcakes and decided to make pumpkin for thanksgiving. They turned out delicious  For the icing I made a Buttercream icing (not really butter) with Coconut Milk. My first icing was too watery because I used a different recipe so I went back to my basic recipe very close to Wiltons but tweaked with a few of my little touches.

I made gluten free stuffed mushrooms with glutino breadcrumbs instead of regular, I use fresh parsley but I think next time I will add more seasoning. This time I added some colby cheese on top but it gave it a weird taste so I will not use that next time. 

GLuten Free Minnie Birthday Party

From the time I was a little girl I loved Minnie Mouse. There is something about her laugh that lights up  a room and transform the  goofy nature of something into that which is magical  My youngest daughter turned 4 recently. She loves Minnie Mouse as well. I love crafts and baking. I love everything to do with both and wish I was more talented at certain things but each time I do better. Because I have such debilitating autoimmune conditions it took me 14 hours to make her Minnie Cake because my hands and feet cramp and hurt row by row by row. I pushed through yelling all day and night at this cake. I'm going to show you my step by step process. This is my Riley shown here. She loves Minnie Mouse! I created a board of her pictures over the years. Its so fun to see and to remind yourself how fast they really grow up! I ordered Minnie Mouse Birthday banner from etsy and printed them off at Office Max. Well worth it in my opinion.

This is the outfit that Riley wanted. I couldn't find this outfit at an affordable price so I got a black shirt and ordered the Minnie Mouse design iron on transfer from Etsy with a bow, cost around $2.50. Then I found the similar skirt shown here at party city for $10. She put some black leggings on and she was happy!

This is the sign the lady at ACmoore made for her after I told her our theme! She did an amazing job! I want a circuit so bad!!

Riley's board with pictures :) Now the board I got at the dollar store. The zebra background is wrapping paper that I found at party city. The Happy Birthday Minnie sign is from Etsy. I used pink card stock to tape my pictures to and cut the edges with a scalloped scissors.

I also had ordered and printed the water bottle labels. They were so cute and a nice touch. I got mini water bottles since most of the time people don't finish them. The napkins and table cloth is from Walmart and the pink bowl is from the dollar store. 

I was IN LOVE with this Minnie bowl. I got two of them on clearance at Target for $5!!!! 

We use them now as popcorn bowls now that the party is over. Just too cute to pass up! 

We had her party at Acmoore. They were awesome so much  fun! 

Ok, now about the dreaded cake...

We use Bob's Redmill Vanilla cake mix. Its just the best tasting vanilla cake I have found. I know Pamela's is better but Bobs is more affordable when you have three people in the same house gluten free! I believe we used two packages. I used the left overs to make mini cupcakes.

I use Wilton's round cake pans. I chose the 6in round pan for the ears and 10in pan for the Face. 

First step is to make sure the cake is completely cooled. I would use shortening or some non stick on the pan as mine did stick and I forgot to put some on the first time. I also didn't know how much  to put in the pan. So my first ear ended up being twice as tall so I had to cut the extra off of it so they would be the same size. Again, make sure they are cooled before. 

If you make your own icing I suggest using Wilton's butter cream icing recipe. 

http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Buttercream-Icing

You want to lightly frost the cake first with thinned icing because the butter cream used for piping is stiffer and does not frost well. I tend to use the store bought gluten free icing for frosting my cake. Now I used vanilla because I'm allergic to chocolate, however I would suggest using the chocolate in the areas that are black and maybe vanilla where you know its tan or you could use either for the whole thing.  

 Icing is no laughing matter. It is one of the most tedious and frustrating ingredients in making a cake. I always make the cake the day before, one because it takes forever and there's a ton of other things to do and two because if its a complete disaster then you have time to do plan B! 

Getting the right color icing is something that frustrates many. Getting black icing to be black and not gray is something that I have learned to experiment with each and every time I do a cake. I end up adding, red and copper. Sounds weird but experiment with the color before hand and find out what works for you. Also note that the color will darken as time goes on. This is good news when you want a dark color but keep that in mind when going for a light color. Icing that has water in it and not milk can be kept at room temp for 2 weeks in an air tight container. 

After you have frosted the cake and let that harden slightly you can begin designing your cake. I took a Minnie Mouse stuffed animal I had on hand and used a toothpick to make my own outline. Then I outlined the cake with black icing. 

This took A LOT longer than expected. 

I used a #16 I believe. 

I added some cheek lines and now this looks like a cute mickey cake :) 

 Also make sure you go through and fill in any gaps with black icing.

I have a tongue now! This would be a good mickey but we wanted Minnie so we needed a bow! 

I was done at 2 am so I was not about to fight with some Fondant to make a bow. 

Remember i said the color darkens? Yes, this turned kinda Orange but no one cared and  everyone loved it. We made a bow from fabric. For the mini cupcakes I used a 1M tip for the pink flowers. 

They were super cute and everyone loves mini cupcakes! 

Hope this helps someone!! Have fun! 

Toodles! 

Busch Gardens And Allergies

We were blessed with tickets to Busch Gardens this week. I was so excited and researched the food options. I have two girls ages 6 and 3. We are all on a gluten free diet. This makes for a complicated day of tryin to figure out what to eat. I found out that you cant bring food into the park. (Later on after the face I found out that you can in fact bring some) Nevertheless you dont want to be carrying a lot in the park anyway. I cant walk long distances so we rented a wheelchair which is challenging in and of itself. I do have to say busch Gardens does a great job of trying to accomadate people with disabilites. I would love to go back and know what I know now. On their map a restaurant called Grograns Grill is labeled Allergen Friendly. So I thought Great! Not so much! Grogans grill has pork loin, pork, and more pork with a side of cabbage...not so much for those of us that pork doesnt agree with us, or anything for my kids. the manager was very nice and even made our plates up, but then told me their is a restaurant on the opposite side of the park with gluten free pizza! AH! Why was that not listed on the map? I was also irritated because I had called the day before to speak with someone more about the allergy free options only to get a generic answer of speak to each manager before ordering. Really?! She gave me an email to email, and no one emailed me back. I emailed corporate and received an email two days later, a little too late...

My name is Joshua Rainville. I am the Group Supervisor for Ireland Culinary and represent the allergen resource team for Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The safety of your family’s dining is very important to us. Our supervisors and managers have been educated and trained in allergen management in association with The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) to ensure your safety. Although none of them are experts, they can help. They have an ingredient book that will be very informative to you.

The supervisors and managers at each of our restaurants have been trained to answer allergen related questions concerning their individual menus and ingredients as well as the items in the snack locations nearby. In addition we have designated meal facilities where the supervision has been trained to answer questions for our entire park, in order to better assist you in planning out your day. At Busch Gardens the designated meal facility is Grogan’s Grill and at Water Country USA it is Hot Spots Café.

Most of our restaurants carry foods that are easily modified to meet many if not all of the 8 major allergens. I urge you to ask for a supervisor when you arrive at a restaurant. You should also be informed that none of our meal facilities are free from cross contact. In order to ensure your meal is safe, please discuss the preparation with a supervisor. Based on your specific concern about gluten I would recommend Grogan’s Grill or Trapper’s Smokehouse as they both offer many gluten free menu options. For children I highly recommend Das Festhaus as they offer gluten free pizza. We also urge you to visit our meal facilities during non peak times so that you can be efficiently served.

Depending on the severity of your allergies, I would also urge you to speak with our dining room supervisors to assure that your table has been properly sanitized, to avoid potential contact. Your safety is our number one concern. If you feel that you would be best served by bringing your own food, please notify guest relations of your allergen concerns on your arrival so that you may be permitted to bring outside food in. You may bring a cooler, but it must be collapsible and able to be carried.

We look forward to your visit to SeaWorld Parks. Please let me know if I can further assist you.

Regards,

Joshua Rainville



It was awesome that he emailed me back but I was disappointed that it wasn't BEFORE we went to the park!

Macaroni grill new menu

Macaroni Grill has a gluten free menu!! http://www.macaronigrill.com/docs/nutritional/allergen-menu.pdf Even includes gluten free pasta. If you sign up for their emails and you will get $5 off coupon :) http://www.macaronigrill.com/our-story I havent tried it yet but look forward to dining one day on their yummy delicious italian food!!