Staying Home Today

Oh my! I just looked at the calendar this morning and realized that there are only two months left until Christmas! I would love to have all gifts made/purchased by the beginning of September, so I need to get started on that. Also, I have decided to make an ornament for each of my children every year of their lives until they are eighteen (to give to them when they leave home/get married), so I need to plan what I'm going to make for 1-year-old's this year.

I have been walking a lot lately, and I think I've overdone it. I am having muscle pain in my belly and legs whenever I walk (even around the house) or pick up 1-year-old. So I am planning to stay home today and take it easy. I hope I will find enough things for 1-year-old to do to keep him occupied. I usually take him on one or two outings a day, mainly for diversion's sake. He is more content and seems to sleep better when he gets some out-of-the-house stimulation--different things to see and do and think about.

1-year-old's digestive system doesn't seem to handle wheat well, so I've been trying to figure out some things to bake for him that don't need wheat. Yesterday I made him some cookies with 2 cups of oats, a jar of sweet potato baby food (sometimes I use applesauce, but we were out, and I had to use up this jar sometime anyway), an egg, some cinnamon, cloves, and ginger, a pinch each of salt, baking powder, and baking soda, a splash of milk, a bit of stevia, and raisins. I baked them at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. They came out kind of rubbery (because of the lack of wheat), but 1-year-old loves them, so I guess that's what counts.

I have also been trying to branch out in the things I make for dinner for Hubby and myself. Pioneer Woman has a cooking blog with step-by-step directions and lots of photos for every recipe she posts, so I've been trying out some of her recipes (please note that I don't endorse all the content on her blogs).

I enjoyed Candy's tour of her home, especially since our home is also around 900 square feet, and I am considering doing a tour myself, once we get our camera fixed (for some reason, it won't accept any memory cards, so I can only take three or four pictures at a time on the internal memory, transfer them to my computer, delete them off the camera, take more pictures, transfer them, etc., which gets tedious).