Valentines Day

This year Mike and I were planning on having our kid's Valentine's party for all the neighbor kids but with my broken toe and a serious cold being passed around in our home we cancelled all plans and just kept it within our family. But it was still an amazing Valentines Day. 

First I want to post this picture of the gift I made Mike. I made him this scripture dog tag with Song of Solomon 3:4 on it. 

"......I found him whom my soul loveth...."

Mike liked it alot :-)

 After he went off to work I set things up for our kids. Each holiday is special in it's own way so this year I made them some Valentine's bags and Mike brought each daughter a pink rose in hopes they would keep their hands off my flowers (-:

 And nothing like balloons everywhere to add some extra holiday flare ♥ :-)

 Ducati was the first one up. She was so happy to come out and see this wonderful Valentines display that her squeals woke everyone else up.

Mason- he loved that he received "older" kid things. His favorites were the gift card to McDonald's, a painting project, a few candies, and a pair of cuff links.

 Hailey- her faves were a new journal, a nickname bracelet, a box of candies, and these candy earrings that I made her and Lily.

 Lily- she loved it all. She loved the owl socks, the candy earrings, the box of conversation earrings, and the "Lilly flower" coloring project.

 Ducati- I made her a candy necklace since she doesn't have her ears pierced. She didn't mind- she was happy to have a candy necklace. But above all she loved her craft kits.

 For breakfast I surprise my kiddos with GF cinnamon rolls. Mason loved his "Love Monsters" Much more boyish than hearts.

 And the girls got cinnamon hearts. From the looks of the photo you can see Cati couldn't wait to grab them.

 But after the kids were gone and off to school Lily ,Cati, and I went to the library for story time. They love going to story time. It's a great outing for us to add a small mix into our home schooling lessons.

 After story time and checking out tons of books we went home for a very special Valentines day lunch. Yesterday I made these heart ♥ shaped pizzas for everyone.

Mike, Mason, and Hailey all had these packed in their home lunches. It was a nice touch for this special day. All I to do was make the crust then use a heart shaped cookie cutter. Easy but very special :-)

When Mason and Hailey came home from school they tore open all their Valentine cards. Soon afterwards Mike was a home and we enjoyed some delicious gf spinach lasagna rolls. So yummy that I didn't even take a picture since it's so goooodddd!!!!

But to keep the evening calm and easy we had a great family movie night.

I know some people who just don't like Valentines day. It's commercialism, materialism, or some other sort of "-ism's" but honestly I've learned to love Valentine's day.
It's a day to celebrate those you love. Granted I love my family but today it helps me kick it up a notch and go all out to ensure that my family knows without a doubt that I love them. And after today I'm sure they do know. ♥ :-)

SubZero

Last week while I was out and about I seen a sign by SubZero that they were going to be on Shark Tank. So I was intrigued mostly since I had no idea what SubZero was. So when I tuned in to the show after about 5 minutes no sharks wanted in so they left empty handed. :-( 

BUT  I doubt they really left empty handed. This ice cream place had been popping ever since that show. 

So for FHE we went to SubZero. 

 Not sure what it is then here's a quick run down. You pick your size of ice cream, the base ( milk, almond milk, soy milk, custard, etc), the flavor ( about 50 different kinds), and a topping ( about 20 different kinds) and the little gals mix it then freeze it.

 With liquid nitrogen! So AWESOME!!!! Our kids loved it! They kept sticking fingers under the glass to feel the nitrogen. It's so neat to watch. It's like a mini science experiment. :-)

 So from beginning to end it took about 30 seconds for each person to get their custom made ice cream. I was so impressed with this place. They made our gluten free first with all new supplies to ensure no cross contamination. Plus I've never been to a place where I could get an almond milk, agave, and fresh berries. Yummy!

And yes- it's kid approved! Our kids loved that they could add marshmallows, gummi bears, bubble gum...whatever to their ice cream. This place made our favorite family list. Here's the link so you can check them out Subzero.

It's Not You; It's Me

This is a hard post to write but I want to remember the day when I told Mike that he was right. Hahaha :-)

What was Mike right about?

A couple of weeks ago Mike picked up some Krisy Kreme's for mostly me but he sacrificed his celiac and ate some too. And then it happened....

He was fine and I got sick.

Mike hasn't eaten gluten for more than 6 months and he was still having skin issues. After all the gluten free stuff in our house his hands still looked awful. So he's been using lotion every day and wrapping his hands at night and within a few days his hands were healed. So most likely it was ezcema.

As for me- I haven't eaten gluten for around 4 months.  I would eat something here or there but never a big helping since I was so concern that I would infect Mike or Ducati. But after those donuts the truth was revealed. I most likely have the gluten intolerance not Mike. Ducati's Celiac is genetic. So it's either Mike or me; there's no getting around that one. So after a few donuts I was bent over in pain, crying because I thought my stomach was going to explode. After about 24 hours later I felt better. But I thought it was a fluke so I wanted to test the theory again. [Yeah I know...what can I say- I'm one of those people :-)]

I was making the kids pancakes for breakfast last week and ran out of GF ingredients. So I grabbed the open box of pancake mix that's been sitting in the back of my cabinet for months now to make just a few. So I took this opportunity to test out the gluten theory and ate 1 pancake. Just 1! And I was sick all over again.

Mike took care of me and tried to shake me out of denial that Ducati must of gotten the gluten intolerance from me. Then everything came flooding back to me. As a kid I would scratch my legs until they bleed. And I even still do that to where Mike will grab my hands in attempts to stop me from scratching. I remember being so tired sometimes that I can't stay awake for the life of me. I remember having close calls of falling asleep behind the wheel. I can recall dozens of things from my research for Ducati that apply to me. Weight, fatigue, digestion issues, skin rashes, etc.

I know this seems simple but it's hard to accept. But it doesn't surprise me since my family health history isn't pretty. Diabetes, heart disease, lung issues, so why not add onto some intestine issues.

But once we get insurance from Mike's new job I really want to find out officially if I have this Celiac disease. So right now Mike is right. It's not him; It's me.

Milk Shampoo

After some deep thinking after reading more and more about Celiac the thought came to me that what might be causing some of Mike and Cati's skin rashes could be ME!

I love how my hair feels after a nice Deep Dove Conditioning. But when Mike gives me a hug or when I lay by him at night I might be causing a reaction. I'm not sure but after all the precautions I've made from only cooking gluten free. Making our own body wash, house cleaners, and yogurt....I could be it.

I know that after the kids took a shower the shampoo residue stood on the shower so if Cati took a bath then she would get a reaction. I've read where people are so sensitive to gluten that walking down the flour aisle or near a bakery it could cause a small reaction.

So to take this gluten-free lifestyle one step further so I searched for a homemade shampoo recipe. We've used the baking soda and water "No-'poo" method but it just make all our hair feel weird. So thankfully Pinterest had a few ideas so I tried this one last night.

Coconut Milk Shampoo- 2/3 cup of castile soap, half a can of coconut milk, 2 tbs of olive oil, and about 20 drops of essential oils.

I mixes it all together and divided it into 2 empty shampoo bottles. Mike was the first one to try this new shampoo and he loved it. But we're all loving this coconut shampoo. The only CON to this recipe is that it's only good for 1 month. So there's no stockpiling on this mixture. I can stock up on the ingredients instead but I'll have to make it every month. Plus the cost of all ingredients was $15. But figuring the math I can make about 8 bottles of shampoo so about $1.87 a bottle. For me that's pretty expensive since I'm use to getting shampoo free due to coupons. But it's a small price to ensure that it's gluten free.