gluten free cookies :-)

Ok I been messing around with some Phase Three cookies for Christmas

This is a very delicate cookie so be gentle :-) it's a modification of my families polish cookies.
Makes about 15 cookies.

Filling 1: Pit about 4 dates and pull in half.
Filling 2:
4 dried apricots (ok I cheated and used sulphured one cause they are prettier for the photo we were out I had to use the old ones )
1 tablespoon of hot water
1 table spoon of honey.
Soak Apricots in hot water till softened.
Blend in a blender with honey, till you get a filling like consistency.   Crystallized honey works best! so this years crop of drought honey was perfect. 

Cookie Dough:
2 tablespoons of Cream cheese
3/4 stick of butter
1 cup tapioca flour (also know as powder)
Parchment paper is almost a necessity!

Using a pastry blender mix the cream cheese butter and tapioca flour till it its crumbly and looks like pie crust. Then using your hands press it together.  It is a very soft dough.  Then follow the photos below.
Normally you would role the dough out into powdered sugar (a NO NO), so we will skip that step. I found it was firm enough to shape it by hand.

Using about a scant tablespoon shape them into squares 

make the square by gently forming it  

Now its ready  for a filling  

Add a scant half teaspoon full of filling  

Add then press opposite edges of dough together. 

You can do the same thing with dates.  

use half a date a whole one is to much  

The dough is very delicate but easily pushed back into shape   

This is how many cookies I got.  They do not brown up.  

 After 18 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees F.  I decide to pull them out.  I cooled them outside.  Cool before you try to remove them from the paper.  They get very hot! and will fall apart.
You could try a higher temperature for a shorter cooking time.  They ended up being a flaky and soft cookie.

Even tho these cookies have no sugar in them Sweet Potato declared them to be sweet! I found them very yummy.  Please note they are very very delicate, crumble and melt in your mouth calorie bombs. So let the SBP target eat most of them!

Little M's Evaluation :-)

Her last evaluation in the spring was a bit of a disappointment  I was bummed that she did not progress as fast I expected. As I look back I can see she was in the regression/reboot phase so I'm not surprised she did not preform well.

This time I restricted her to phase one foods for about 4 days before the evaluation, because I'm paranoid. Don't want any "Bad Mood Food" AKA Maganese and Phytates to effect her evaluation. She still snagged a few finger-fulls of my birthday cake when my back was turned. I was saving her a piece for after the evaluation!!

Wednesday was her evaluation and Jan was so pleased. She said Little M is blossoming, and that she could name all the Star Wars characters LOL!

We still need to work on removing the Babinski Reflex tho (so stubborn!) and a few more tactility things that always seem the last to go.  Her dominance is all lefty now Woooo hoooo lets hope it stays that way.

We still need to work on visual detail and conversations. I love how now her profile has so few yellow diagonal lines across it!!!!! And Jan kept saying Oh this one would be gone if she gets rid of "x" (one thing not many things.) Or this one will go when this goal above it is complete. This one will go when the detail in the other column is better. It makes me very happy :-) I'm  much encouraged by this all.

I feel a bit sad for people who believe Spectrum Issues like ADHD, ADD and Autism is NOT"cure-able or fixable, and will be a life long struggle for their child."   As I see Little M growing in ability,  slowly loosing her carefulness in tactility issues, looking people in the eye, articulating her feelings and emotions. Identifying how other people are feeling, being generous, compassionate. These things were almost non existent before. Now she wants to share! has fewer issues and is slowly but surely becoming more nuro-typical.   She is much less afraid of the the world. I like that I like it a whole lot.

Her reading comprehension is mid 5th grade and her math is slightly higher. So only about 6 months "behind her peers" so to speak  which makes me happy :-)

And we saw her orthodontist and they have managed to grow her bottom jaw to where it is supposed to be. So her eating and biting ability is much improved.

It's been a week full of bad news and wrangling with the insurance company and I sure did need this good news right about now.

Is it Enough?

Today I had the privilege of watching my friends kids. She home schools as well but she does it all her self. Shes one of those amazing women who plan and piece together their  own curriculum.  I know I couldn't do it and I'm so grateful for my open and go Heart of Dakota!

Mr. Comparison crept in my house today eeeekkk... need to beat him with the broom.  I caught sight of S's biology home work, she is the same age as Little M (DD1's new moniker).  S is reading this piece on Amoebae's with convoluted wording.. Really??  History is a building and people are the wing of a fly on the building.  But the author takes 4 sentences to say what I just said. Really??

Mean while my dd is reading a piece on elephant tusks... and she narrates to me that elephants use tusks to eat grass and use them to kill food.  Ok you all know me by now...  I'm busting a gut LOL inside, I turn my face so she can't see me starting to crack up.
I ask "Are elephants herbivores or carnivores?"
"Mom they eat grass."
I respond with so what kind grass do they kill with the tusks.. I'm barely holding on at this point...
She finally gets a good look at my face and Yells "MOMMMM!!! They don't Kill Grass!"  At which point we both burst out laughing, shes like wait they don't eat meat! they are herbivores!
Heaven help us! she ACTUALLY said "I think I need to read it again."

Two 12 year olds reading vastly different material... Mr. Comparison jumped up out of the wood work asking:  Are you doing enough? Shouldn't you push her more? Make her work harder.  She should be so much more advanced, She couldn't even read that biology.   But there Mr. Comparison is wrong, I gave it to her to read. She read it like a dream. She can read at a 9th grade level.  She just has no idea of what she is reading.

Ya know your kids gotta walk before they can run, and they have to crawl before their brains grow (ok that's a bit of Nuro devlopmental humor it's ok that you don't get it).  I can't expect her to be at the same level. She does have Spectrum issues. She needs interpersonal skills more than she needs to know; When 2 trains speeding at different speeds will pass each other in the night. When they are traveling in opposite directions.   (never.. tricked ya!).

Now the funny thing is after I got done sweeping Mr. Comparison out the door.  I ask S about her reading assignment.  She tells me it was on "Auh mobils" (amoebae), Oh man! it was as funny as My dd saying  earlier "I don't like 'buck in knees'  (bikini's) they are to skimpy."

And on that note I sign off. :-)