Great Good Fortune

I have been giving a lot of thought to what I would like to become of this blog. One thing that is clear to me is that I still want to write, so I am hoping I can hit upon the proper inspiration. Maybe a bit of change will help… what do you think of the new format and visuals?

Bear with me as I feel it out a bit (and thanks for your patience and input).

Grandma gave my girl an Easy Bake oven this year, along with some gluten-free Betty Crocker mixes. She also got a GF alternative-flour baking mix that had a coffee cake recipe on the back, and of course that is what she actually wanted to make.

Tonight, we had “breakfast for dinner” and she was all fired up to make coffee cake “for everyone!” With a knowing grin (an Easy Bake pan is about 4″ across and 1/2″ high, barely enough for a couple of little servings), I walked her through the process. We customized this “crazy cake” recipe (substituted Hodgson Mill’s Multi Purpose Baking Mix, reduced the sugar to 1-1/2 tsp., and added a sprinkle of cinnamon), and voila! She was a very happy camper. She says that she will be making something for us every day from now on.

For anyone else who might try this, it appears that an Easy Bake oven pan will hold about 2 Tbsp. of dry mix (which requires only a few tsp. of liquid). As we experiment, I’ll post tips on how I divide up larger GF mixes into Easy Bake portions.

My daughter began getting bullied in school a few weeks ago. This is in first grade, by a girl in her class.

If you ever held the belief that girls were sugar, spice and everything nice, you’ve never spent much time around groups of girls older than 4 years. I swear, some of the controlling, power trip behaviors I saw coming out at that age were frightening! I thought we’d have until Jr. high before we had to think about that crap.

As for the bullying, we are glad that she goes to a zero-tolerance school. It is absolutely NOT okay in any form. EVER. The teacher has been helping coach both children, and I also met with my daughter and the other girl and her family a week ago to discuss what has been happening.

I think we were able to get some things out in the open, and set some agreements about behavior and expectations. It has been two days back at school since this meeting, and so far, so good. I really got a good feeling from the other family and have a lot of respect for how sensitively they helped to work things out.

The unfortunate thing I’ve seen is once you show kids your weak spot, more will jump on board. Today, she was bullied by four boys! Give me an effing break!!

I was constantly teased as a child, so I am hyper sensitive to this. It breaks my heart that she’s dealing with it, too. My hair was red (WAY before it became kewl to have red hair), and I was always the new kid because we moved a lot. My girl is pretty normal in nearly every other way, except she frequently doesn’t read social cues correctly and she is really sensitive. This makes it hard to develop and keep friendships.

I am hoping we can find ways to help her assert her worth and right for protection from such behaviors, and also learn to ignore the minor stuff. I never thought we’d have to deal with this kind of stuff in first grade.

We had a nice weekend with family. Can you guess what the Easter Bunny brought? (I am not ashamed that I was definitely more excited than the kids!)

Miracle Girl loooved her dress!

Channeling Vanna

It’s more fun to clown around that smile for the camera….

“Mommy, it’s the Easter Bunny!!!”

He did not let go of his Easter loot ALL DAY!

Happy Wiister!