Where Did April Go?

So it appears they won't be handing me any Frequent Blogger Miles for the month of April.

Though you wouldn't be able to tell from my lack of blog posts, we have had some fun times and the month did seem to move by pretty quickly.  I really did mean to blog about Easter, but I haven't even downloaded those pictures from my camera. Now it just seems like really old news.

Remember I mentioned my computer is just about to give out on me? Yeah, I've been going with the avoidance method of dealing with that. Other than me doing a couple things in Photoshop and Brennan playing on PBSkids.org, it has just sat. Thank goodness for smartphones with unlimited internet access. :)

In non-computer related news, the we have had some nice weather days to go to the playground and take some walks. And last week, on a really nice day, we got to go on a school field trip to the Dinosaur Park. I do have lots of pictures of all the prehistoric fun, but, yep, they are still held hostage on my camera, too. Thank goodness for 16GB memory cards. :)

My parents should be here sometime in the next day or so. Yay! They have had a couple issues on the road so far, so I hope the rest of their trip is uneventful.  Keep them in your thoughts.

And finally, I designed this print last week and thought I would share it with you.  I really should do that more often, shouldn't I? I make stuff all the time, I just never think about passing it on. So, here you go. Click here to download your printable.

Home Is... 8x10 Print

Have a great week!

Adventures in Gluten-Free Baking

Since we've cut back on gluten, I've made cake and brownies, and even the little cheese breads I blogged about a couple posts back.  But cookies...nope, there have been no cookies. I've been avoiding them. Wait, let me take that back, I found one of those make-it-in-a-cup-in-the-microwave recipes on Pinterest for chocolate chip cookies. Yeah, that was a big mistake and a bad way to break in my new GF (Gluten-Free) Flour.

It was an awful, nasty tasting mess.

So today, while I was perusing my March copy of Everyday Food, I found a recipe for Maple-Oatmeal Cookies. They looked pretty yummy, and since the recipe called for mostly oats, I decided it was time to try my skills at converting a cookie recipe to GF.



It was a not completely awful, pretty good tasting mess.





The "cookies" ended up spreading all over the pan.  Since they were so thin, I had to hurry and scrape them off the pan right away or they were stuck like cement. That's why it looks like I was making granola in the picture above. I'm thinking the recipe might have turned out and actually taken the form of cookies if I would have made a whole batch (5 dozen). But since there are only two of us, and I was short on oats, I halved the recipe. I will have to try again, and maybe use different flour and leavening next time.



Of course, my trusty assistant was there to oversee the operation.



It wasn't a complete loss. I was able to make cookie balls with the mess I salvaged off the cookie sheets.



Brennan thought they were pretty tasty, (I did, too.) so I will definitely try to make these again. I'll keep you posted if I come up with a successful batch. :)

88 Days...

That's how long Jason has been gone.



The last few weeks have gone by in Groundhog Day fashion, another day, same as yesterday.

The weather has been dreary, cold and windy, with sporadic bursts of sunshine; typical of Utah this time of year.  Even with the crappy weather, we need to spend more time outside. I think I will make that a priority starting today.



I am behind on my photo project. I do have reasons, besides lack of motivation. First, our 6-year-old computer started acting up. In a really bad way. (Please keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't crash on me. It just needs to last a few more months. Thankfully, I have everything backed up on hard drive if it does, but it would still be a big pain). Then I had one of those moments, and stuck my memory card into my camera backwards. It shouldn't have even went in, but it did. I had to use pliers to get it out. Ugh. Between the two of those events, I've lost about a weeks worth of pictures. Thankfully, nothing monumental happened during that time, and I think I can patch my photo project together with other pictures that are on my computer and my phone. Remember...the Groundhog Day effect, or SSDD for those so inclined.

On the bright side, we are almost halfway done with this deployment! And in less than a month, my parents (aka: Nana & Papaw) will be out here and staying for several months.

It will be so great to be with family again.



Until then,
Just keep swimming...