A Mother’s Journal

Good Monday morn, dear readers! Today is a rainy day here. Gray. Cold. But the little Rose Cottage apartment is warm and cozy inside. I am counting all the things this morning that I feel happy about — lots to be thankful about here in America.

Enjoying the Alice in Wonderland tree.

Over the weekend, I went into Target to see about boots that might be on clearance. You know, friends, the department stores are already putting out swimsuits? Yeah. Swimsuits. So, looking for a winter-something, I totally, completely lucked out!

You see, there is a pair of fur-lined boots here at the apartment that I found (looking just about brand new) at G.W. Boutique a year ago, and Michaela and I have literally worn them out. The back part of the sole is coming away from the boot, which exposes the heel of the foot, and what is the point of wearing them? They are similar to the Ugg boots, only an off brand. I just wanted something to replace them with. I do not have to have official anything, especially not fur lined boots.

So I went to Target.  I had just about given up on finding any, when I knelt down to look into the back of a clearance shelf down low, and there they were — just one pair left!! — a pair of size 8, brown, fur lined boots for 10 dollars. I also got a similar pair of fur-lined slipper boots which are perfect for me around the apartment complex during the day, for only 5 dollars. That was a big score!  Something to be happy about.  But let’s talk food, shall we?

I am also happy about a gluten free pizza I made over the weekend. Folks, unless you have gone gluten-free and been without pizza for a long time (a year plus), you just don’t know how much you miss the occasional slice of chewy bread covered in veggies, pepperoni and cheese… Hmmmm. So, I have been looking for websites and have found one that I have tried a couple of things from: Gluten Free Goddess. Everything I have read on her site makes sense. The things I have tried from there have been great. Including the pizza. Mind you, my children could tell the difference in this crust compared to traditional white-flour pizza crust, but I think it was great!

First of all, here is the recipe.

Here is the dough in process.

Hmm.  I am terrible for leaving cabinet doors open when I am cooking.  See all the vitamins?  And mortar and pestle for grinding them up for smoothies?  I digress.

This dough was really easy to work with, and I followed the recipe instructions for wetting my hands and smoothing the dough out on the baking pan.

One thing that was a little tricky to me was that the crust seemed to split around the edges.  But I took a spatula and pushed the dough in around the edges, over and over, smoothing it and making sort of a rim around the edge.  It seemed to work fine.

Finally, my gluten free pizza, all ready to eat.   Yum!!!

One thing I will say is that I might have done well to use a bit more water and work the edge more.  Also, I felt like the dough was too thick in some areas, so I need to spread it more evenly — it’s drier and more dense than what I am used to for pizza crust, you know, back in the good ol’ days when I could eat gluten.  Michaela called it “crumbly” but it was not.  I think she was just not used to the texture.  For moisture’s sake, I added more tomato sauce and toppings to the second one I made.   But overall, this recipe gets a huge thumbs up from me!  I won’t tell you how many slices of pizza I had yesterday.  Oh, okay.  Five!

And while we are talking about eating, and overeating, and loving every bite of it, I may as well show you what I have been hooked on lately.  You may not even be able to tell what this is…

That, friends, is a sweet potato fry, dipped in a mixture of local honey and Newman’s Own Ranch dressing.  There is something about that mix that I LOVE.  I often eat a plate of these fries for lunch.  (Someone roll me to the treadmill.)

Finally, let’s talk crafts.  One of my new millinery pins got lots of compliments over the weekend, as I wore it on my dress all day yesterday!  It prompted the transaction of handing out two business cards.  Some day, my dream is to work only with my crafts — my dolls and accessories — and whatever else I feel like making or growing.  (If I can dream it, I can do it.)

This is not the best picture — fuzzy, flash fades everything, I know, but anyway, in addition to the flower this picture also shows you the latest G.W. find.  A beautiful sweater in excellent shape.  Another 4 dollar score as my other faithfully-goes-with-everything, winter white sweater is just about worn completely out.

Friends, can I squeeze in one more thing?  Just look how sweet Michaela’s game board looks framed?  It is so cheery and bright, I love it!  I think it needs not just a poster frame, but a REAL frame.    Okay.  Well.  That’s all.  Being quiet now. Sort of.  In just a minute more.

I want to close with a comment someone left for me that ended up in spam, and well it should have.  I get hundreds of comments that do go straight to spam.  Read this and you’ll know why:

We are a gaggle of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community. Your site offered us with valuable info to paintings on. You have done a formidable task and our entire neighborhood will likely be grateful to you.

So, folks, somewhere there is a gaggle of volunteers and an entire neighborhood grateful to me.  Wow.

Enjoy this day!