G-Free Baking

As many of you know our middle daughter, Iz, has Celiac Disease, an autoimmune disease causing all sorts of symptoms when she is exposed to gluten such as that in wheat flour.  Our little Iz seems especially sensitive so we've made a concerted effort to keep our kitchen almost entirely gluten free.

This makes Christmas baking especially difficult with a lack of available gluten free flours where we live.  However, this year we made an amazing discovery; Cloud 9 gluten free flour from Costco.  No, we don't have a Costco so almost every guest of ours has been bringing a bag or two in their luggage.  We think a bag or two is a fair exchange for a few nights stay :)

We've already made some amazing treats.  We are so thankful to have had the flour this Christmas season.  We made and shared all sorts of cookies with our friends and neighbours.  The girls even sang Christmas carols as we delivered them much to our neighbours joy.

Nice chewy ginger snaps

Super sweet sugar cookies

Ava & her friend & our language helper decorating cookies

Our Zoo

Yet another post about our little zoo.   It is so strange as honestly we were never a "Pet" family in Canada and yet here we seem to have this magnetism to pets.

Here is our latest story:

Last week we were walking home from school when I spotted something strange in the bushes near our apartment.  It was a hedgehog (the irony of the fact that we located him under a hedge was not lost on me)!  There are no wild hedgehogs here and, based on our neighbourhood's stray cat and dog population, he couldn't have been in the bushes for too long.

We immediately decided to rescue him before he became someone's lunch.  So I reached down and gently rolled him into a paper basket Ava had serendipitously made at school that day and carried him home.

The girls were so excited to have another pet in the house.  Ava drew the top right picture of her holding "Pointy" as we started calling him.  Iz made the wonderful water-colour picture on the bottom.  Sadly, our new relationship didn't end well.  Pointy passed away peacefully within a few hours and when the girls woke up the next morning Ava informed me that he must have fainted and assured me he would wake up soon.  I had my doubts.

One of our local friends was so sad to hear of Pointy's passing that he resolved to take me to a local market to buy three tortoises to make up for the girls' loss.  The next day my friend and I made our way to a local pet market to make our purchase.  It was a crowded noisy affair.  The market was full of parrots, pigeons, lizards, alligators and fish of every kind.  Not really wanting three tortoises in our house I convinced our friend on one little feisty one instead.  

It's hard to see in the picture but 'Mrs. Slow' is about the size of my hand.  True to her feisty nature she loves exploring our house and peeing when we try to pick her up.  So far Edee has developed a special bond with her and regularly carts her around the house or gently holds her while watching cartoons.  

While out with the girls a few weeks ago we made another discovery in the bushes nearby, a praying mantis!  

This one is about the size of my thumbnail and we decided to leave her in the wild as we agreed mom wouldn't appreciate us bringing extra bugs into the house.  Nonetheless a very cool discovery.