Gluten Free Fried Chicken

This was so good!  Recipe here, on Gluten Free Mom's website.

This Week

Yesterday Luci and I got our hairs cut.

Luci, 7 years old, was admiring herself in the mirror at the beauty salon.

I look older now!  I look...(long, dramatic pause)...eight!
 

The kids' Christmas stockings; they each know for certain that they are my favorite!

And all ready for the New Year!

Christmas Eve

 Christmas Eve Eve

The girls' table....wait, is that Bryan in there, too??

The kids' table during lunch.  Maggie, Sophia, Luci, Haley, Sara.  Do you see why the grown-ups didn't get very many olives?  Every girl but Luci had enough to put on every finger.  (Luci does not like olives.)

Sara

 Nathan

The only photo I could get of all 5 girls.  The neighbor's stinky dog was on our porch....

 Luci being all goofy.  I like this shot because it shows some of the pretty fireplace, and that gorgeous rug John brought home from Afghanistan.

 Christmas Eve

Today's big dinner.  Luci set the table and did a fine job.

 She even made place cards for everyone.

 Ready for a feast!  But wait...where is the fruit salad?

 JT and Luci playing chess.  This set was a gift from Dawn, one of my Feingold friends.  It's a spectacular set with hand-carved pieces.

 Luci with her favorite present (so far!  Santa comes in the morning!).  This is the first Asian doll of any sort that I've seen that truly looks Asian.  I think it even looks like Luci used to, but those cheeks are certainly chubbier on the doll.  Luci named her, "Minjie," which was Luci's Chinese name.

Our Christmas Card

Okay, so I didn't get the cards sent.  Here is our Christmas Card/Family Brag Letter for 2011.

Bryan graduated from high school in the Spring!  He got his braces off in the Fall.  Bryan also got his first-ever real job (meaning the paycheck did not come from mom and dad), teaching gymnastics.  

Luci continues to bring us joy.  She's learning to read and learning to bake.  A winning combination!

JT is doing well in his high school studies.  He is enjoying the continuation of his Tang Soo Do training, in which he has a black belt. 

All three kids work with Susan at the Friendship Center at church every week.  Susan continues to homeschool JT and Luci.  John has several part time jobs .  He likes to keep busy...retiring from TVA and the Army Reserves left him with lots of time!  We went to Idaho to see Susan's family in June.  John's folks moved to Alabama in October so we get to see them more often than we used to.

I left out all the arguing that happens here between siblings and the two successful surgeries (shoulder and knee) that John had.  Maybe I didn't leave them out after all.  Mostly we are a normal family just doing normal stuff.  Nothing too exciting here. 

Please leave a link to your family's news.  I'd love to see how you are doing, too!

He shall be called John

Luke 1:63

This is the little boy Luci wanted to name Jehoshaphat.

He is with the same foster family that had Annie.  He has mal development of the brain.  And he's adorable!

Jumpin' Jehoshaphat!

Annie, the little girl we've been sponsoring through Love Without Boundaries, has been adopted!  We are so happy for that news.

Today we were asked to sponsor a little boy who is also from Luci's orphanage...and we get to give the boy an American name, which he will keep until he's adopted.

Luci and I went through popular names (Justin! said with much giggling,after Justin Bieber, in case you didn't know),  family names (Bryan, JT, John),

and then I suggested, "What about a Biblical name?"

Luci's answer?

Jehoshaphat!

We settled on John--both familial and Biblical.

Pizza, Gluten-Free Style!

Today I made my first gluten free pizza crust. It turned out great! I used the recipe (and the flour mixture) from Pamela's Products.  Click here for the recipe:  Chewy Pizza Crust

 

Why go to all that bother?   Because of this boy, here:

Isn't he cute?

Daisies

I'm posting these photos here so I can copy them to my computer--they will be smaller (my geeky teen who knows how to do this isn't cooperating, so you are blessed/bored with this post!).  Then I can move them to Facebook so my Daisy Troop friends can have them.  Sorry if this is wasting your time!

Tuesday

Yesterday at Daisies. This is Luci with Ava.

We learned a little bit about Santa Lucia today. Luci and I will make some sweet rolls this afternoon, in the spirit of the celebration.

Luci was surprised to learn that she is the "oldest daughter," and so gets to wear the crown of lights.  She always hears, "you're the baby," so hearing that she's the oldest girl was mind-bending!

Another Sunday Morning

Luci has her own fashion sense.  She is using the belt as a hair bow!

This dress is from Robin, at Red Thread Stitches boutique. 

Robin is a mother of children from China, too.  She uses her talents to help others bring their children home.  Our purchase is helping someone else--I love that.  And Luci loves, loves, loves her dress!

It's cold out here, Mama!  Hurry!

We really do have the prettiest daughter!

Message from Santa

Luci totally loved this! .

Message from Santa



Get yours from portablenorthpole.tv

Christmas Math

This time of year is so much fun. I love doing this kind of math with Luci...measuring, baking, and it's art, too.

First we made some applesauce ornaments.

3/4 cup applesauce
4 oz ground cinnamon
2 TBS white glue

Mix well,  then roll out to 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut with cookie cutters, then poke a hole near the top with a straw, for hanging later.

Lay out on waxed paper.  It will take several days to completely dry the ornaments.  Turn them over each day, so they do not curl up.

When dry, you may decorate with glitter glue, as we did.

JT's snow man

Today's math lesson for Luci was making some sugar cookies!  Yum.  This was our first try at making gluten free sugar cookies, and they are a big hit.  (Feingold friends, I did not use approved frosting or decorating sugars.)

With the leftover dough, I made little ropes and put them into my mini-doughnut pan.  They made adorable little wreaths.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

• 1 stick plus 2 TBS butter, softened
• 2/3 cups white sugar
•  1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups gluten free flour mix
• 3/4 teaspoons baking powder (omit if your baking mix has B.P. in it already)
• 1 teaspoon salt

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat again.  Mix in remaining ingredients.  Chill dough for at least 1 hour.

Heat oven to 400*.  Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness, and cut with cookie cutters.  (I had to use extra flour to keep the dough from sticking, and I picked up each cookie with a spatula to place on the cookie sheet.)  Place on UNgreased cookie sheet. 

Bake for 6-8 minutes.  Let cool on pan for 1-2 minutes before placing cookies on cooling rack.

Decorate to your heart's content.  Or, let your 7 year old do it, because she'll have 'way more fun than you will!

Sunday Morning

Field Trips

The next time I take my kids on a field trip, I think I’ll go by myself.

Whine, whine, whine!  And most of the whining wasn’t even from me! JTconstantly getting into my space and (gasp!) touching Luci. Luci  every second, “Mommy, hold me! I don’t want to see that, it’s scary! Make him STOP IT!”


Not to mention how spoiled we are, getting to chose to visit places when crowds are low–and then we get personalized attention from the docents at whatever museum we are visiting.  Until yesterday.


Bother!  The children’s science museum is wonderful.  But when we drove up to it (in our little Prius, saving gas all the way!), there were SEVEN school buses.  SEVEN.  Sigh.


It was a madhouse the entire time.  I even pulled out my Teacher Voice (cultivated over seven years of teaching in Texas) to make two boys stop whaling away on another boy with part of an exhibit.  I was looking around for their teacher or chaperone when finally they left, to go somewhere where no busy-body  mother would get in the way of their having fun.


My kids would wait politely to use some of the equipment when wham! eight or ten school kids would crowd in front of them.  And no chaperones there, either.  Grrr!  Finally, when we were in the bubble zone (or whatever cute name the museum gave it), I told one girl to back off, it’s JT’s turn.



One good thing to happen:  Luci was in the right spot at the right time to have Channel Six’s weather man do a report from Santa’s Workshop!  She’s in there somewhere, trust me. I used Luci’s cheap-o camera so I wouldn’t have to lug my big one around.  Next time I’m taking my big camera.

JT making a big bubble. Right after I shooed a sixth-grader away. Just about the only photo that turned out half-way decent.

Then, today was a Daisy outing.  The Festival of Trees, where we are to learn about different cultures’ celebrations of Christmas.

Oh, my!  That sounds educational.  Sort of like Social Studies, I’m all into this outing!


Until we get there.  There are NO trees, except the one that the church had blocked off so we wouldn’t be able to ruin it in all of our Daisy-frenzy.

The Daisies made Christmas tree ornaments with a wish inside–Luci asked how to spell “pony.”  Good luck with that, Luci, I’m doing good to have a hamster.


Bird feeder made with peanut butter and birdseed, decorate a paper sack with scrap paper, make Christmas cards for a nursing home.  What on earth does this have to do with Christmas celebrations around the world?  I did love the Christmas cards for the nursing home…that was a sweet, sweet thing for the kids to do.  But really?


I guess I am getting too old for this stuff.  I would have had so much fun finding things from around the world for them to learn.  (ssshhhh….don’t let them know, I really am happy not being any busier than I am!)


And why does this camera say we did all our activities in the early, pre-dawn hours?  I’ll never know.