Glutenfree Pancakes

It is official: Erik reacts to gluten, even if he tests negative for celiac disease. After his last doctor's visit on Thursday he is supposed to eat glutenfree.

 

Luckily nowadays there are lots of glutenfree items available, and it shouldn't be too hard for him to make the adjustment. It sure is easier than when we did the full elimination diet, because then there were so many other things we couldn't have either.

 

Today I used the King Arthur glutenfree pancake mix which is excellent. My kids liked them even when I substituted the eggs, the butter AND the milk. This time I didn't have to do that and they were really good.

 

After we move I'll figure out my own glutenfree mix, but for now the King Arthur mix works perfectly.

 

Quote of the Day

Sylvia at her first day back from camp, walking through the house, noticing all the cleaning, changes, and staging we had done while she was away. 'Mama? I figured out WHY you wanted to sell the house. You just wanted to live in a CLEAN house!'

 

Picture and hair style courtesy of Dawn.

Busy Busy Busy Busy

This picture courtesy of Dawn.

 

Life is totally busy as usual, made even more so by having the house on the market. We have had some showings, but no offers yet. Tomorrow will be open house, so we did tons of cleaning last night, and I got nice fresh flowers to have a welcoming and inviting house. Not only that, but I will bake bread in the morning, so they will have the magical smell of baking bread.

Talking about bread, Erik has a gluten sensitivity and is on a gluten free diet now.

I can't wait to sell this house, so that we can get rid of the house showing stress and start settling into our new place. We have two promising looking houses, and one house we could make work if needed. The only thing we need is a buyer for our current house.

Melting!

It has been hot hot hot here, which for sure beats all the snow, but I still am melting. Oh well, gives me time to share the different homecomings of Sylvia and Erik after their camps.

 

Sylvia immediately starting unpacking her backpacks, showing off all her new stuff and art projects, and helped me put away her clothes / put them in the laundry.

 

Erik dropped all his bags and totally ignored them even when I gently reminded him. Today while he visited his dad I decided to make a start at unpacking. It was FILLED with dirty stinky clothes, some of them still wet which made them even more stinky thanks to the current heat wave. No wonder he didn't want to unpack them! I have to admit that for a moment I contemplated just burning the whole stack, but I decided against it, even if I don't know anymore why. Maybe because I didn't want any burn marks on the carpeting while we have all the house showings going on.

The similarity is that both of them had a great time and came home happy and bubbly and that is what really counts.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit cooler, I am looking forward to it!

Dawn's Geocaching Pictures

 

While I was eating ice cream with my family, Dawn went out geocaching with my friend.

 

She made some awesome pictures to share with y'all.

 

They had a great time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Day!!!!

 

Yesterday was the last day of my Dutch family visiting. We celebrated it by going out for ice cream.

 

Today they left around a 10:45am in the morning and will be home tomorrow early morning in the Netherlands. Lucky ducks, they get to be in the air conditioned bus and then in the air conditioned air port.

 

We had a wonderful time and I am sad to see the go, even if it is also going to be nice to just be with our family again. At least, we will be once Sylvia and Erik return from camp tomorrow.

 

 

 

Damian got a bubble gum ice cream. Kasia thought that meant it would have the flavor of bubble gum, she did not realize that it had actual bubble gum in it and that he (and subsequently she) were both covered in the sticky gum.

 

All the pictures in this post were made by Dawn. More of her work on her Photographic Musings blog.

Erik Off to Camp

I took my Dutch visitors to drop off Erik at his camp in Vermont. It was a nice scenice drive, even more scenic on the way back when I told the GPS to take shortest route.

 

This is the first time ever Erik is going to an overnight camp. He is in the Cardinals cabin. Kate told me she was a cardinal at camp last year too (totally different camp, even in a different state). I guess there are only a limited number of New England birds to use for cabin names.

 

Damian enjoyed watching all the camp activities.

 

On the way back we made a stop at our favorite snackbar for a real American hot dog. Damian is used to hot dogs boiled in water instead of grilled, so he looked at it with a funny face and didn't eat much more than one or two bites. Luckily it was accompanied by a big portion of fries, so he didn't quite starve.

 

Kasia has developed an addiction to brownie sundaes, something you apparently cannot get in the Netherlands.

 

Oma and Kasia Visit

Oma and Kasia have been here for more than a week now. We are having a super duper good time, apart from when oma wants to get out of the thrift store NOW.

In between all the house cleaning and staging, we have done fun stuff too. We have gone to the playground, to two farmer's markets, to Vermont, to Erik's camp.

 

Today we saw a turtle cross the road, the first time they got to see a real life wild turtle up so close. Kasia got a picture, I was too late because I had to park the car.

 

They brought many Dutch goodies, we love them very much now.

 

And Kasia will have lots of space for her thrift store finds. Oma found two cute bunnies in the thrift store, glad it was not all negative for her.

 

I am so happy I get to spend all this time with them and that they can accompany me to new houses. We looked at two on Friday, and two more tomorrow. And of course they have been invaluable in helping me with this house. Another showing on Tuesday, keep your fingers crossed!

Dining Room Before and After

A few years ago I bought our dining room table. We have enjoyed it ever since.

 

But now... I have to sell the house and I have to pretend we have formal dinners here.

 

Like this.

 

Unlike this.

 

When I track back another few years, you can see that the dining room not always was used for dining.

 

I had so many little ones, that we used it as a play room. Worked pretty well back then. Wouldn't work so well now.

 

Quite a transformation from that old play room.