Progress pictures from yesterday's daycare mural painting day...

I had the kids bring their school lessons along and work on them before playing...here's Bonnie helping Noah with his reading lesson. So sweet!



And here's Caleb working on his math...



The word "Storytime" was colored in yellow, arched over the barn, and a cute little tree was also added in the first couple of hours..


Then I just started adding little cartoon animals...




And another tree...




It's hard to get a good picture because of all the toys in the room, but here is what it looks like right now... I'm sure I'll be back sometime next week to work on this some more.    I just love the little barn prop they have in there! 

I talked to the lady in charge of the baptistry mural, and she was hoping I could change the color of the rocks to more tan colors, and to have a little less contrast between rocks- as well as changing the mortar color to a tannish color as well.   So I went to church early this morning and got started.  



After about 3 hours, here is what it looked like:


And here is a closeup:


As soon as I got finished with this, I headed towards the store to buy some paints - I have another project to work on before the baby comes!   It's a preschool- childcare center that is in the process of being established.    Check out all of the toys and books in the room I'm working on.     The kids were extremely happy to be able to play in here while I worked, and had a blast.





Bonnie took this picture of me as I was painting the sky...


There will be a farm scene, to go with the little barn prop that is in the middle of the floor there.   Above it, I'll have arched lettering that says, "Storytime", and there will be cartoony farm animals and trees, etc on the scene.




See Bonnie in the picture, among the toys?


I painted some clouds and the sun on the wall, along with a white fence to go with the barn. I think it looks cute but there is a lot more work to be done.   I was exhausted by the time I was done, but am looking forward to getting started again when I have some more energy.  

Here are some more progress shots from the baptistry mural- it should have a wooden cross hanging in front of the center of it, so all I had to do was the stone background. 













Caleb, Bonnie, and Noah did their homeschooling studies at the table while I was working- when they were done, they got to watch  Tom and Jerry cartoons, eat snacks, play with balls and and lego blocks.    I made a pot of white beans with sausage for dinner while I was there at church.    Cheaper than going out afterwards!


I need to talk to the lady in charge of this mural project and see whether she wants anything changed or added ...if she likes it the way it is, I think I might be able to call it finished.    I am really curious to see what it would look like with the wooden cross!

It has been hard doing without pasta!   I love it so much.    But today, I found a great recipe for homemade garbanzo flour pasta that I thought I would try.   I was afraid it would taste too "beany", but it couldn't hurt to try it anyway.

Here is the flour that I use:


I used a pasta machine for mine, and they are a little stickier than regular pasta is, so use enough cornstarch to keep them from sticking to the machine if you do it this way.



You only have to boil the noodles for about 2 minutes, and they're done.  Put a little olive oil in the water, and it helps separate the noodles!     Here is what my noodles looked like when they were done...Mmmmmm


These were surprisingly good!!  I put butter, salt, pepper, and italian spices on mine.   I didn't expect them to taste so much like regular pasta, but they DID. 

I guess it's because garbanzo beans are more bland than other beans?  - I think I can make spaghetti with these noodles and no one in my family will ever know the difference. In fact, I plan to do that this week!     It's great having alternatives.

I highly recommend these noodles!!  Very simple to make, and really delicious- and helps curb that craving for carbs without the guilt! Very, very good for you.     And for those of you who are searching for gluten free recipes, this is gluten free.    (along with most of the other low carb recipes i've posted!)


Here's the recipe:

BEAN FLOUR PASTA

1 cup garbanzo bean flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp xanthan gum
2 eggs
cornstarch for kneading

Directions:

Combine flours, cornstarch, xanthan gum, gelatin powder and salt in large bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil and water until thoroughly blended and light yellow in color.   Add egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir together.  Work the dough into a firm ball.  Knead for 1 to 2 minutes.  Place the dough on a board or firm surface lightly floured with potato starch flour.  Roll the dough as thin as possible.  Cut into desired shapes, very thin for spaghetti or fettuccine, slightly wider for noodles. MACHINE SHAPED PASTA: If using pasta machine, mix dry ingredients and liquid ingredients, separately.  Follow directions on machine.  Use 1 teaspoon canola oil.

Our church has asked me to paint a baptistry mural for them before Easter. After finishing the mural for the city, this seems so small that this task doesn't seem as daunting!  And hooray for no scaffolding being necessary!

I am supposed to paint a stone wall- the church will be having someone build a wooden cross to be displayed on the center of the mural.  I hope I can do it justice! 

Here are progress pictures from today.  I brought the kids to church with me, and they played in the fellowship hall while I painted there- they had so much fun and were really great.     I love being able to take them with me while I paint! : )



The background (mortar) was the hardest part, because the canvas soaks up so much paint that I had to glob it on over and over and try to spread it as much as I could.   It took a couple of hours just to paint this gray background. 





Drawing the rocks didn't take nearly as much time.  I had them all freehanded within about 1 hour.








Painting those in took a couple more hours!














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At this point, I was trying to add highlights and shadows to some of the stones...I finally got tired and put up for the day.   I'll be going back to work on it again soon! 

I'm finding all kinds of ways to enjoy my low carb diet - sometimes I do splurge and allow myself to eat something sugary, but only rarely. It doesn't seem to count on my blood sugar as long as it's just a tiny bit and I work it off right afterwards. 

And I'm finding that I actually LIKE decaf coffee with half and half and no sugar.  Amazing. I never thought that would happen!

Anyway, last week, I had read somewhere that you can use Daikon radishes as a substitute for potatoes and make them into french fries- they're supposed to taste so much like the real thing that you'd never know the difference.

I'm not sure where you can get the Daikon radishes, but I did have some regular radishes in the refrigerator, and I decided to just fry them with a little bit of butter and oil and see how they tasted. They were surprisingly good!

They don't taste anything like radishes once fried.  They lose that "heat" and turn into something completely different.   I would say they taste sort of like a combination of potato, and eggplant.   I think that these would taste absolutely delightful with some onions and cabbage thrown into the frying pan as well.  Surprisingly tasty!   I need to find those Daikon radishes now and try my hand at radish "french fries"!  

I got the nicest email a few weeks ago from a reader in Japan...her name is Sarah Joy Albrecht.  She has a really great blog that I recommend highly...check it out and bookmark it if you get a chance!

Sarah had asked me if she could send me a set of chopsticks for the family...how could I refuse that?   What a nice thing for her to offer.  Today I received this wonderful little package of them and just had to show them off... They are adorable!



She even included a fourth pair of children's chopsticks for baby Ian!



Precious!!

By the way, I know everyone loves giveaways, and I noticed that on Sarah's blog, this month she is hosting a March giveaway for these CUTE little Japanese canvas tote bags!  


If you would like to have a chance to win these, all you have to do to enter is post a comment on her blog entry, (following the rules contained in her post, of course!)... or if you have a blog of your own, make a post about it for another entry!   You can even tweet it for another chance.   You can enter HERE to win. 

Good luck!!!  

I have to share this recipe from KarenHurd.com- I've been trying so many great recipes from there.    Without being able to eat breads and pastas made with regular flour, it's so nice to find a substitute- and that is exactly what this garbanzo bean bread is.  I never would have thought that you could make bread with beans before.  Amazing.

It is a TERRIFIC substitute for regular bread....very tasty....it is absolutely delightful when it is served warm with some butter.   It almost reminds me of cornbread- hard to describe really.   I'm going to have to make this often.     Every single one of my kids loved it and asked for more. 

 A slice or two of this bread counts as a serving of beans too!

Here is a link to the recipe.

I absolutely LOVE this recipe, and can't get enough of it.  



I got it from KarenHurd.com.  Here is the recipe:

And so good for you too. 

Today was a beautiful and warm day...perfect for painting!  

The rental place was able to raise the scaffolding for me this morning, and I finished the oval top in less than 30 minutes.  Once the scaffolding was moved, though, James came by and noticed that the oval isn't just right, so sometime next week (it will be raining the rest of this week), we'll go back and fix that. It shouldn't take any more than 30 minutes to an hour.



I'm sure most of you have noticed the Dry Cleaners' sign on the top right side of the mural.   The owner of the building contacted me the last time I was painting, and asked if I could help make it look better, since the mural makes it look more faded and old.   He wanted it to match the colors in the mural.  

I decided that since the scaffolding was already up, I would have them moved over just a little, and get that done today.  It took about 4 hours to complete. (I actually made a little bit of money with this one). 

Here's what the sign looked like before:


My mom came by and took this picture of me while I was working on the sign.  I could see my kids in her car, looking up and saying, "WOW, it's SO HIGH!"  (because the scaffolding was raised twice as high as before).  


When the sign was finished, here's how it looked:


Whew!  I feel relieved that everything has come together, and still weeks before my due date.