Erbert and Gerberts Gluten Free Subs- Review

I don't know if its because I haven't gotten a sub in so long or if it was just that good. I loved the Gluten free subs at Erbert and Gerbert. I had known there was one in my hometown for about 2 years but I never walked in the store. Probably because I had never heard of the place. Last week I saw that they had gluten free subs from Savvy Celiac http://thesavvyceliac.com/. I HAD TO GET ONE.

This is the Comet Morehouse. I had wanted to order a Flash but the cashier told me that, that sub is not totally gluten free :( 

Also I has a cheddar broccoli soup, that was marked Gluten free on the sign, but after looking at it online it says that its not gluten free. I haven't had any reaction yet so I assume its a different soup than the one with  the information online. Always ask which soup/which toppings are gluten free, and make sure that they use different gloves and don't contaminate. The franchise that we visited was pretty dead, we were the only ones there so it wasn't hard to watch how they were preparing it.

Verdict: The sub was delicious, I'm thinking they used Udis bread because it tasted very similar. The soup was disgusting. Maybe it was because it tasted so much like cheese...I don't like the strong smelly cheese taste. I told Nick that it tasted like Nacho cheese sauce with a little broccoli mixed in. (Not enough though) I saved it to put on a baked potato or use with tortilla chips for nachos :)

Potholder Loom -Montessori Toys

We bought a Weaving toy for the girls. It says ages 6+ but Hayli could do it. Kairi (4) didn't have the patience to try.

I had one of these weaving kits when I was a kid and I just love it. The one I had was plastic and I didn't have one of the metal hooks to make it easier. The plastic one that I had the grooves on the side broke off. I definitely recommend the metal one though. I even had to "try" a few loops.

In about a week, she is almost finished with her first potholder.

I'm so proud of her. She's had so much patience with it. Its not perfect but I know that beautiful first potholder will get used. 

We got ours from http://www.harrisville.com/product-p/fp.htm

This is not an endorsed or sponsored review, All opinions are my own.

Mulberry Tree and Backyard Foraging

Do you have a mulberry tree by you? Did you know you can eat them? I personally love this time of year, The first few weeks of July because we have 2 mulberry trees in our shared backyard. The girls love to be able to run out back to eat them.

I just give them two bowls and let them have at it.

Kairi is the eater, Hayli is the berry saver. Maybe this will have some affect on their future spending habits? I'm not sure

Lots of Berry Faces and Purple Hands

Yay, Backyard Foraging. We even knocked down some berries for the Bunnies. Not really on purpose though.

Having a Hypothyroidism in your 20's

The thing about getting a chronic disease in your twenties is you lose that sense that no one is sick, death doesn't happen for a long time and getting old will happen much later. Having a prescription medication that isn't for just a week makes me feel like a senior citizen.  People my age generally don't understand about aches and pains. They are just finishing college or starting their careers at 25. I was diagnosed at age 25. We (My husband and I) were figuring out how to begin our lives as a  family. I went through a period of grieving the health I assumed I would have for a longer time . It is now something that I don't take for granted. Health is extremely important to me as is what I eat.

When I was a kid I read the Babysitters club books and I just loved the character Stacy. She had diabetes, and for some reason I wanted it too. I wanted to faint and HAVE to eat sugar, that sounded great to my 10 yr old brain. I didn't understand what diabetes really meant, the finger pricking watching how much sugar you eat etc. Not that Diabetes is the same as Hypothyroidism, it isn’t. They say thyroid is the easiest to treat, yet it takes a long time to diagnose. I also think it takes a long time to feel normal, and not want to just go take a nap.

Sometimes I imagine what it would have been like 300 yrs ago, Kairi my second daughter would have been stillborn from Intraheptic Cholestasis of Pregnancy, I would have died 2 or 3 years later from thyroid disease. I guess I’m lucky I was born at the right time and the right place to have survived, and I feel blessed. I also think of what I'd have to do in a zombie apocalypse, I mean I'd have to tear out pigs thyroid gland dry it crush it to survive. Or I guess raid all the pharmacies.

I've realized that I can live with this disease now that I'm gluten free and have iron and vitamin d regulated, it doesn't drastically change my life day to day like it did in the beginning, untreated. That year was hard for all of us. My whole family, the worst is that I didn't feel like myself, I'm one of those people who like physical labor, I like mowing the grass, running far etc. I couldn't do those things, I got really anxious running, which previously released stress. It was like having mono for a full year! Though I've never had mono, but I heard it saps your energy.

I would tell all thyroid patients, it will take you at least a full year to feel completely normal, with the right treatment for you. Even longer if you didn't find the right medicine or treatment right away, give yourself time to feel better, don't expect everything to change in a day, you didn't get sick in a day, it got gradually worse....well....most of you. There is no absolutes with Thyroid diseases.

Read more about my Thyroid Journey here

http://gettingbacktorandom.blogspot.com/2013/06/my-thyroid-journey.html

My New Blue Door

My Girls have been at VBS all week and I've had a project of my own. Painting and Stickering the Front door.The color I went with was a color match to Martha Steward Living Azurite.

The sad part is that I bought a quart and probably could have gotten by on one sample, which is only like 3 dollars. I also found a DIY blog that did a Moroccan privacy screen with contact paper on Pinterest so I thought I would try it. Heres a link http://7thhouseontheleft.com/2011/08/window/#.UcxVg_m1EfU They also have a stencil pdf on that site that I used. http://7thhouseontheleft.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/7hl_windowstencil.pdf The first day of VBS I did a lot of cutting.

Like two movies worth of cutting. Until I had about 72 patterns cut out

I tried it out on the door because I wanted to see what they looked like.

I don't know if you can tell but they had a lot of bubbles. So I decided to wait until my husband (Who does vinyl stickering at work) to come home to help me out. His suggestion was to use soap and water under it so that you can move it around and a vinyl squeegee thing to smooth it out.

WARNING DO NOT USE SOAP with CONTACT PAPER! It doesn't seem to work as well as with vinyl. It left soap drips

So if you decide to do it that way try with just water and let it dry for a couple hours and see if it drips. I do like the overall design with the stencil though. When I get the gumption again maybe I will start cutting.

Heres the stencil from inside the house, much more privacy.

Before:

After:

Our New front door

Our Growing Potatoes Update

A little over a week ago we planted some carrots and 1 potato from our compost. In this post http://gettingbacktorandom.blogspot.com/2013/06/green-girls-and-their-favorite-outfits.html
The carrots all died after being transplanted and went back to the compost heap. The potato on the other hand seems to be doing very well. (Its probably GMO)

Our little potato on the first day. I put it on the very bottom of the pot. I was told that as they grow, you put more and more dirt on it, till it gets to the top.

The potato plant in the middle of the week with some added dirt.

This is our potato today. The dirt is almost to the top of the container. I've never tried to grow potatoes before but they grow a lot in a week.

Our New Door Project

We got a new door! Our old door had a dog door on the bottom and we haven't had a dog for 4 years.

The Dilemma is that the new door is glass (Privacy) and needs desperately to be painted. 

Its a lovely light purple with cream trim door which coincidentally almost matches our gate door (which we cannot change.)

 I think for the color I want blue.  The two I like are

I really like this Robin egg blue, but it is also almost the same color as my bathroom. 

I like this royal blue. The color will always remind me of Kate Middleton's Engagement dress

Our other problem is the Glass. You can see down our whole hall.

Of course this invites silly smashed faces on the glass.

My husband actually works for a vinyl company and they make window decals etc. So my first thought was to get some frosted glass vinyl and cut out some sort of design like this. 

The other option is getting curtains, but that seems like too much work.

Any Ideas of what you think I should do?