Day 2 - Going for Clean

Alright, I survived the first morning of my new routine. So far so good! One thing I wish I had done differently was lay out my clothes the night before, so that getting dressed while half-asleep wasn't such a big deal.

Making the bed was a good idea, even though I had to kick Jakob out to be able to do it. He moved himself to the couch, where he fell back asleep long enough for me to have my shower and breakfast in peace!

The desire to crawl back in disappears when there's pillow removing work involved!

Thanks to this guy, I have been getting out every morning into the fresh air, and I love it. Our plum trees are in absolute bloom, and the smell is incredible. I love his worried, little face, and big puppydog eyes. I can't believe how quickly puppies grow!

Sitting pretty

 You might have noticed, I bake a lot. It would seem our nurses have noticed, because two have commented on it. I'm always happy to share, and happy to have feedback. This morning, while Ellie had a morning nap, and Jakob coloured in an activity book, I decided to do some quick baking. Seeing as I started the day with a clean kitchen, it was easy to bake and be done before anyone noticed what I was up to.

The cupcake du jour is a Devil's Food Cupcake, gluten free. I'm waiting on DH to wake up in a bit, so I can run to the store for more eggs, to make a Marshmallow frosting. Yum!
I overfilled the cups, so that was a learning lesson. I am thrilled with how they turned out, however, and they're most definitely going on the Ellie's Tea Party menu.

Devil's (Gluten-Free) Food Cupcake

 Devil's (Gluten-Free) Food Cupcakes:
These are easy. Actually, everything I've been making lately has been easy. I think they're easy, because they're just modified cake-mix.
You need:
-Package of GF Cake Mix. My go to right now, is a locally made mix by Gluten Free Addicts. It's inexpensive ($3.99 vs $6.99 name brand), and scrumptious.
-3 tbsps cocoa powder
-1/2 cup buttermilk (I make my own with milk and a splash of lemon juice)
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-3 eggs
-a pinch of cinnamon

Mix everything in a bowl, I used a whisk and mixed by hand, channeling my grandmothers :) I made the mistake of overfilling the paper, and these rise rather substantially. Next time, I will put less than 1/4 cup of batter in each cupcake spot. Bake at 350F for 22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
I'll update with the Marshmallow Frosting recipe later in the day!
*Update* I tried not once, but twice to make this bleeping frosting. I rarely fail in the kitchen. THIS WAS A COMPLETE FAILURE. I have a feeling it's because I cheated and tried to use Simply Eggwhites, instead of using actual eggwhites fresh from the egg. I could not for the life of me get the stuff to form stiff peaks, and if I had taken photos of the distaster, it's possible I would have ended up on a Fail blog. The results were that bad! So... hmmm, I need a new frosting to go with these. I'm thinking White Chocolate Cream Cheese. For another day, another batch of cupcakes. My husband is asking me to please stop baking!

Back to the Going for Clean challenge... Today, on DAY 2 I'm going to add laying out the clothes I want us to wear tomorrow, before I go to bed, and I'm going to set the breakfast table when I shine my sink. I'm also conscious of taking the extra few seconds to put our clothes in the hamper instead of leaving them anywhere but there!

Three Easters

2011

Hard to remember that she was once so very little

The beginning of our journey <3

2012 - just before her readmission to the ICU

2013 - Thriving!

Can't forget the proud Big Brother. He's pretty adorable, too!

All photos by Bella Photography in Ladner, BC!

Frosting

I'm a month out from Ellie's birthday, and I'm on to planning my desserts. I am trying out various gluten-free baking mixes in search of the right AP Flour blend, and the best cake mix. Can't have cake without FROSTING, so I'm also working out the perfect recipe to go on my little cakes.

My options so far are:
Plain buttercream
Italian Meringue buttercream
Marshmallow frosting

The first is easy, peasy. The other two require cooking, and boiling sugar, and fear. But, they're also likely to be incredibly delicious, and that's how I like to roll.

 I want something that's going to pipe well, and I have a sneaking suspicion it's going to be the Meringue that wins out. Going to try all three, though, and let my taste buds do the talking.

I've also decided to make chocolate meringues, because they're delicious, and fill them with my favourite (new) chocolate cream cheese frosting. .5c chocolate cream cheese .5c butter, 2 c icing sugar!

Today we tried the plain buttercream on a fresh strawberry, gluten free cupcake. My apologies for the crappy cell phone photo! My guest liked the icing, as did the minions, but I think it was a little too sweet. My recipe called for .5c softened butter, 3 and a bit cups icing sugar, two teaspoons vanilla extract, and 2 tablespoons heavy cream.

Marshmallow Frosting Attempt #1: complete failure. BIG mess.

Marshmallow Frosting Attempt #2: less of a mess, still a failure. I give up!

Day 1 - Going for Clean

The internet is chock-full of tips for organizing your life, and making cleaning less of a chore. Once upon a time, I subscribed to FLYlady, but I gave it up when they started giving me more work to do (like dealing with a kajillion emails a day). I did implement their suggestion of shining the kitchen sink before bed, so that you're greeted every morning with a sparkling sink. I love that idea, it's easy, although I don't always get to benefit from the effort, especially if DH comes home from work in the middle of the night and leaves his late-night snack dishes on the counter. I try!

I figure that this journey for me is going to start at the beginning of the day, and work through to the end of the day. I figure if I make a change at the beginning of my day, I will think about things I can change throughout the day. Who knows how it will work, but here it goes!

For Day 1, the first thing I'm going to start doing is setting my alarm clock to go off half an hour before I know the kids will be up. I'm incredibly blessed to have solid sleepers, and they don't like getting up early. I feel for those of you who have early risers! Ellie's nurses leave sometime between 6:30 and 7:00am.

My goal is to get out of bed between 6:00-6:30am (depending on the day), immediately make the bed, and hop into the shower. The goal is to start the day feeling clean, unhurried, and refreshed; without wanting to get back into bed!

The Weekend!

On Friday, my mom and I took the kids to the ski hill, and Jakob had his second ski lesson. It's amazing how quickly they learn when they're young! I can't wait for next season, when my healed (hopefully) ankle lets me hit the slopes again! It will be amazing being able to ski with my boy!!

On Saturday, DH and I had an awesome date night. I wanted to try something different than just going to the movies, and he was game to do whatever I wanted. We went pottery painting! Remember those paint studios from when we were growing up? I hadn't been to one in ages, and we spent two hours chatting and painting away. DH painted a Batman mug, which is sure to impress Jakob when we pick it up on Friday. I painted this teacup and saucer set:

Can't wait to see it fired!

Today was *spectacular*. We took the whole family up to one of our local mountains, so that Jakob could go to his third ski lesson.


Seriously, the perfect day to be up on the slopes!

 DH and I took Ellie and the dog for a long, long walk in the snow.
 

Phoenix LOVED the snow!


It was beautiful outside, the weather was perfect, and we just had the greatest time.


Ellie loved being in the backpack, and stopping for a snack :)


I feel so much better about myself when I'm outside, and when I'm active, so I'm making a pledge to myself to get outside every single day, rain or shine, to enjoy the great outdoors!

Since I will soon have a lot more time on my hands, I am also planning on embarking on a 31 day cleaning challenge, to make cleaning a habit, instead of a chore that I dread. I've read a lot of blogs, and haven't found anything that fits our house the way I'd like, so I'll be making it up as I go. Stay tuned!

Mornings in our Home

For some reason, my friends seem to be under the impression that I do a lot. I'm crafty, and I love being in the kitchen, but I think when it all boils down, I'm just pretty good at multi-tasking.

Here's an example of a typical morning in our household (typical being a day where DH is either at work, or sleeping). This was March 20th.

Good Morning, Sleepyhead!

Make Oatmeal

Make coffee

Give the kids a quiet activity

Have coffee!

Maybe bake something yummy, like gluten-free scones!

Plan an evening activity, like messy bath

Decorate the scones with a mix of clotted cream and jam. Piping is fun!

Scold the dog for being up on the counter...

 

Have Jakob help with messy bath prep

 Clean the kitchen, get dressed, and on with the day!

March 19th

I was going through my Family Management Binder, and came across some sheets I printed off a long time ago from imperfecthomemaking.com for Blog Planning! I've written out what I want to write about this week, and it looks like I can get myself organized a lot more easily if I can just find the time to sit down and actually write!

Today was busy. Ellie had an endocrine appointment in the city, and I was on my own with the kids. We left a little early, so that we could stop at Michael's to buy the things we needed for some crafting.

Ellie's appointment went really well. She's 8.79kg and 75.4cm, or about 19lbs and 29.75". I need to update the Flash plug-in on my computer, but she's around 0.1%ile for length, and 3rd for weight. Baby girl is finally in the right bracket weight-for-length, but they're concerned that she SHOT up from 1st to 30th percentile w-f-l in three months. So, no more whole milk, and less bananas :(

We came home and made a Rainbow Sensory Box!

Star confetti (BIG mistake), felt, ribbon, feathers, construction and tissue paper!

While Jakob was playing with glass beads and homemade playdough, and Ellie was ignoring her sensory box in favour of a nap on the kitchen floor, I started making Yarn Dryer Balls. I'd heard of these before, and recently almost fell off my chair at the price they cost to buy! OMG. They're like $10 EACH, and you need about four of them! Not cool. So, I bought some wool yarn, wound it into balls, threw the balls into pantyhose, washed, dried, POOF, my own laundry balls at a fraction of their normal retail price.

Sleepy!

Yarn Ball in Progress

Pre-Wash

Dinner wasn't particularly exciting. I was tired at the end of the day, and we have no nurses this whole WEEK, so I found something unlabelled in the freezer. Turned out to be leftover yam casserole soup from Christmas, to which I added some Jasmine rice. The kids loved it.