Gloria in Excelsis Deo: Final Week of School Break

Holiday Festivities

In our third week off of school, we became very busy again with numerous appointments trying to get things accomplished before the crush of our school schedule resumes. However, festivities continued as well.

Our family joined with friends to decorate gingerbread houses and eat a taco lunch together.
The girls attended a Christmas tea ornament exchange and a Nutcracker Christmas party.
John hosted a speed cubing get-together (can't call them "play dates" when the kids is 15 years old).
Mama even left the house twice to join a girlfriend for breakfast and to attend a Mothers' Night Out mug exchange. I think those were only the third and fourth times I've met up with friends in the ten months since Thomas came home from the hospital.

We even took Nicky with us for our visit: he loves traveling!

New Recipes

I've been intending to add a running section of my blog highlighting some cooking experiments I have done for Thomas's needs. Restaurant food and processed food are fraught with risks for him, and I so much want him to enjoy the food he is eating, so I'm highly motivated to learn how to make healthier but tasty food for him. I try, try so hard and face many dishes that "fall flat," but what can I do but keep trying?

At a restaurant, Thomas tried pork carnitas--which he calls "Mexican chicken"--and liked it, so immediately I set out to learn how to make it at home. Any new kinds of meat he will eat are excellent to add to our rotation.

I'm learning how to make egg white pancakes for him. I've tried so many types of pancakes it is very hard to find one that his body can tolerate and that tastes palatable.

I'm currently trying a recipe in which I whip up 4 egg whites, fold in one egg yoke and a splash of heavy cream, and cook low and slow, then serve with sugar-free syrup.

Thomas told me encouragingly, "Mama, this tastes only a little bit weird!" We have not achieved true success yet, but we keep trying.

Pizza is another very tough one. Our best success is simply to buy the Jet's cauliflower pizza. The store-bought cauliflower shells taste fairly off-putting to a little kid who is not a grown adult making a purposeful self-denying choice for better health.

Thomas had an idea to make a pizza using a tortilla. I use a high-fiber tortilla that is only 4 grams net carbs for the whole thing, sprinkle on low-sugar sauce, cheese, and pepperoni, and toast in the toaster oven. So easy and quick!

Epiphany Delayed

This report gets filed in Mama Truly Cannot Do It All. On the eve of Epiphany, I had to inform our children that I simply could not manage to order gifts in time and we would be celebrating a few days later on Sunday. You see, in our family, we parents give small gifts on St. Nicholas' feast day--although a big gift this year: Nicky, the puppy!--and then we give bigger gifts on the feast of Epiphany, January 6. We leave Christmas for other relatives to give gifts to our kids. So, telling our kids the night before that I still didn't have gifts for them--and not for lack of trying--was a blow to my ego as a Catholic homemaker. I appreciate that the children were as understanding as they were and not more visibly sad than they were.