Never fear, gluten-free pizza is here

Don’t be scared.

Yeast does not bite.

Toss aside all those silly notions that baking with yeast is difficult. It is not. Remember to check your yeast expiry date (it is on the back of the package or jar) and store yeast in the refrigerator to keep it fresh. It is that simple. Now reward yourself with a slice of hot slice of zza.

Check out LeeAnne's amazing recipe for gluten-free pizza recipe over at Don Mills Diva Recipes and Reviews...

Soon I shall sleep

I am worn out these days.

So very worn out.

I mentioned I have a two-year-old right? And a great new job that requires a longer commute and increased brainpower? And this blog. And this one. Did I mention my husband is on a new television series, working 14-hour days and is only home to sleep during the week?

Yeah, I'm worn out.

And, as lovely as you all have been, I'm sure readers have noticed that the quality of my writing here at DMD has slipped ever-so-slightly the last month or so.

And that bothers me, really bothers me.

Luckily I have a plan: I'm taking next week off to recharge my batteries and get my creative juices flowing again and while I'm gone I've arranged for some of the funniest, wittiest and most talented writers in the blogosphere to entertain you.

That's right, next week I'm handing the keys to my joint over to her and her and her. Also her. And, God help me, her.

It's going to be such fun, I'm a little sorry to miss it. But I do need to rest and I do need to let some ideas marinate before I come roaring back with the diva attitude you've come to expect.

Before I leave on my stay-cation I have some awards to acknowledge, some people to thank and some shout-outs to do. Let's get right to it:


This lovely Blog of Distinction award came my way via the effervescent JCK over at Motherscribe. I had the pleasure of spending some time with JCK at BlogHer last month and she really radiates the same intelligence and quiet confidence you'll find over at her site. Thanks JCK!

I'd like to pass this award along to Karen at One Day At A Time , (we are having drinks in September Karen I swear!), Jen at Juggling Life (she just seems so together, she deserves an award) and Jobthingy's Jungle (this blog is chock full of attitude, just how I like 'em!)

Next up we have this little beaut...


This award come from Angie over at Seven Clown Circus who has five (yes, five!) beautiful children and the most gorgeous red hair I have ever seen. Oh yeah, she's a great writer too - thanks Angie!

I'd like to pass this along to some whose beautiful photos always make my day - Corey at Living and Loving Every Minute of It.

It must be true folks! Great minds do think alike (and fools seldom differ, but anywhoo...) I received this brillante award from not one, not two, but FOUR of my favorite bloggy friends...


Many, many thanks to Shellie at Little But Loud, Zoom at Knitnut, Texasholly at June Cleaver Nirvana and April at It's All About Balance. Thank you all ladies! Since all four of you have honored me I think it's only fitting that I pass it along to four deserving bloggers - cheers to the outrageous Tranny Head at Law School Sucks and So Do Lawyers, the thought-provoking Vered at Mom Grind, the adorable Colleen at Mommy Always Wins and the Sarah Palin doppelganger Amy at Milk Breath and Margaritas!

My next fancy-schmancy award is from a fellow Ontario gal and new friend Mary Lynn at Riding In A Handbasket...

Thank you Mary Lynn - it's gonna look incredible on my mantle. I'd like to pass this award along to yet another good old Canadian gal - one of my favorite reads - Zoeyjane at Mommy is Moody.

My last award is from the fabulous C over at Random Thoughts and Musings from The Island - that lucky gal who lives in one of the most beautiful spots in all of Canada...thanks a lot!


Before I sign off I wanted to tell you about a really fabulous dinner party to which I was recently invited. It was all the brainchild of one of my lovely guest posters Auds at Barking Mad. In the spirit of promoting inclusiveness and friendship in the blogopshere she recently challenged some of us bloggers to issue "dinner" invites to 10 bloggers with whom they would love to share a meal.

I love Auds' idea. There are lots of people out there who you and I adore and everyone adores but, along with my favs, I wanted to welcome to our table some bloggers out there who may be new to you. Here all the folks with whom I'd love to break bread:

1. Laura at Walking the Lunatic Fringe - one of my first-ever readers, we have a ton in common and I know we'd get on like gangbusters
2. Christine at Flutter - she's brave and she's beautiful and her writing takes my breath away
3. Kittenpie at Life of Pie - I have met her and she's knows she's lovely,plus she's a librarian and I love to talk about books
4. Jen at Lords of the Manor - she always leaves such interesting and thoughtful comments, it's obvious she's one smart, opinionated cookie
5. Kristen at Mighty Morphin' Mama - she is an inspiration - writer, home schooler, mom of many - whew!
6. Shannon at Whiskey in My Sippy Cup - she's cool and fun and you know she's gonna get the party started!
7. Toostie Farklepants at Vintage Thirty - she's gorgeous and she's hilarious: her name alone is an icebreaker - it's Tootsie Farklepants for gawd's sake!
8. OHMommy from Classy Chaos - trust me my dinner parties are usually sorely in need of a touch of class...
9. Busy Dad from Tales From Dad Side - a touch of testosterone is always good and plus I've met him and he rawks.
10. Backpacking Dad - so Busy Dad doesn't get too overwhelmed by all that estrogen and also? He too rawks.

Just make sure you all bring lotsa wine 'kay?

Whew!

See why I'm so freaking exhausted? I hope you enjoy a fabulous holiday weekend. I'll be putting up a new recipe soon and then leaving you in good hands until September 8th.

Enjoy my wonderful guest posters and try not to miss me too much...

Okay, miss me just a little.

M-WAH!

I Will Not Be Broken

I have never actually stepped on a land mine.

Unlike Jerry White I have never been physically been blown apart just when I least expected it.

But emotional blasts? Ah yes, I've survived a few. Like everyone else, I've had to confront my fair share and as I've slugged my way through I'm always reminded of the old saying "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."

Jerry White not only agrees with that statement, he wrote a book detailing how you can actually make the old proverb your truth. White is the author of I Will Not be Broken, 5 Steps to Overcoming A Life Crisis: I agreed to write a plug for his book because I think his work with American military veterans is an inspiration and I think sometimes we all need to be reminded of how to turn lemons into lemonade.


Read more about Jerry White, Survivor Corps and I Will Not Be Broken over at Don Mills Diva Recipes and Reviews...

What would you do?

I played God last week.

I made a life-altering decision regarding the health care of one of my oldest and dearest friends.

And I'm still not sure I made the right decision for the right reasons.

This is Horace.


You don't have to look too closely to see that Horace has a rather pronounced growth under his left eye. Up close it's about the size of a marble and resembles a blister, but it's firm. He's had it for about a year now. We thought it was going away at one point but he scratched at it and it swelled up large and angry before settling down to its current size where it's remained for a few months. It doesn't seem to bother him in the slightest.

I like to think of Horace as my first born. I swooped him away from a litter when he was five weeks old because I feared neither he nor his mother were being cared for properly in a party house inhabited by a rotating group of young 20-somethings.

Horace became instantly, inordinately attached to me, accompanying me daily to work and on errands and weekend trips to my parent's house. He was there that Saturday night when I invited in for a nightcap the shaggy-haired guy who had driven me home from a party on his motorcycle. Only after that shaggy-haired guy made a big fuss over Horace did I realize he might be the future father of my child.

Horace's vet says the growth probably isn't cancerous now but could very well become cancerous in the future. She also said that, because it's so close to his eye, the only way to remove it would be to knock him out completely with general anesthetic.

The procedure would cost over $1,100 and Horace would be at the vet's for two days.

Horace is 11 and a half years old. Horace is a homebody who hates to be out of our sight for more than a few minutes. Horace also has a heart murmur - something we determined a few years back, after several hundred dollars of tests.

Horace is not going to get his growth removed.

I can't face it, quite frankly.

I can't face watching him shake and cry (yes, he sounds just like a baby) with stress when I leave him to a doctor who will administer an anesthetic from which he might not ever wake (putting older animals under is always risky), to remove a growth that he's lived with happily for a year.

Animals don't understand that certain things we subject them to are for their own good: they don't understand that sometimes short-term pain now staves off long-term misery later. I cannot rationalize this to my Horace: all he will experience is sheer terror and confusion.

And Horace is getting older. And Horace is my baby. And I can't do it.

And $1,100 is a lot of money.

Rob thinks I am making a mistake. He thinks the growth could turn cancerous later and then it will be too late to operate. He thinks Horace has many good years left and that I will never forgive myself if he dies prematurely because I didn't give him proper treatment when he was still relatively young and healthy.

But Rob is deferring to me, because ultimately he knows that Horace is my responsibility and my baby. But I know he thinks I am making a mistake. I know he thinks I am taking the easy route because it is easier, cheaper and more convenient right now.

I wish I could be sure he was wrong.

Paging Art Linkletter

Upon waking yesterday...

Graham: "Uh-oh mama, uh-oh, UH-OH!"
Me: "What is it? What's the matter?"
Graham: "I've got some strange poopies down here."

At dinner last night

Supermodel/ waitress to Graham: "How are you doing, cutie?"
Graham: "I HAVE POOPIES!"

Upon leaving for the babysitter's this morning:

Me: "Are you ready to go sweetie?"
Graham: "Yes mama, I have my belly button and my penis and I'm ready to go!"

Diva's guide to fall fashion must-haves part 2

The end of summer is nigh and we all survived another bikini season!

Time to put away those hair shirts and embrace the comfortable bulk that is fall. Now that you all know to avoid leather pants and flood pants and most especially, leather, flood pants, let's take a look at five more of the hot 2008 fall and winter fashion trends as per Elle magazine.

I'm pretty sure we've got some keepers this time...

To check out part two of this scintillating series click on over to my Shooting For Hip column at Better Than A Playdate...

The post where we both learn something

Did you even know there was such a thing as "sight words"?

I didn't.

Despite the fact that my mother was a kindergarten teacher for 40 years, I had never even heard the term.

For my fellow cave dwellers, sight words - of, and, he and you, for example - are words that don't follow basic decoding rules and must be memorized by new readers. Kids who learn early to memorize these words - also called instant, star and high frequency words - find learning to read much less frustrating.

I only learned of this whole concept when the Parent Bloggers Network offered me a chance to review a DVD designed to help teach kids how to memorize sight words. Rob and I have been reading to Graham on a regular basis since he was a baby but I've never really considered the logistics involved in him learning to read for himself, so I thought perhaps it might be a good idea to give it a shot.

Click on over to Don Mills Diva Recipes and Reviews to read about our experience with Meet The Sight Words 1...

Do you believe in magic?

What if I told you there is a delicious and easy dessert you can make in less than half an hour that is gluten and lactose-free and uses no eggs or butter?

I am not lying! And while they're not magic, LeeAnne's gluten-free crispy honey almond bars are pretty darn close. Check them out over at Don Mills Diva Recipes and Reviews.

Lesson learned

Reason 9,841 why I'm proud of my father.

It was Sunday afternoon. We were standing on the dock chatting while he pumped water out of the floats on his plane. A boy, about 10 years of age, approached across the lawn. He was visually impaired, tapping his way with a cane and assisted by an older man, his father.

He shook hands with my father - bush pilot, hunter, banjo-player, dog-lover - and presented him with a bottle of wine and a note, written in Braille and English.

"Dear Mr. Graham, Thank you for letting me go up in your plane and letting
me fly it the first time. I hope you have a good summer. From Cameron."

And just like that, my father taught me that sometimes doing a favor for someone else is the greatest gift you can give yourself.

Best blogoversary present ever

I don't want you to feel the least bit guilty about forgetting my one-year blogoversary yesterday, because I forgot all about it myself.

I was too busy finally enjoying a perfect summer weekend - the kind I feared had been left behind in childhood forever - to reflect on how Don Mills Diva has changed and grown in one year of existence.

Suffice to say this past weekend was a perfect way to celebrate:

Hercules stands guard at the campsite.

Good friends attempt to outwit the fish

An angel chases minnows

A diva realizes there's still a little bit of summer left in her after all...

Diva's guide to fall's fashion must-haves

Remember when fall meant hitting the mall with your mom in search of the perfect back to school outfit that would instantly transform you into the most sought-after girl in junior high?

Well, fall is right around the corner and just because you're not heading back to school doesn't mean you can't hit the shops in search of fall trends that will make you feel like a schoolgirl again.

Okay, maybe not exactly like a schoolgirl. I mean, there are some cool, wearable trends on offer this fall but they aren't, you know, magic clothes.

And really, who wants to feel like a schoolgirl again anyway? Not me. I was many years removed from academia before I got truly in touch with my diva side.

But it's not about me anyway. It's about the clothes. I picked 10 fall fashion must haves from Elle magazine's September 2008 issue and I'm gonna look at five this week. Ready? Let's do this thing.

Click on over to my Shooting for Hip column at Better Than a Playdate to read the rest.

I'm here to save your Sunday dinner

Tell everyone you'll bring dessert this week. And then click over to Don Mills Diva Recipes and Reviews and check out LeeAnne's latest fabulous offering - an easy-peasy, gluten-free, lemon-almond cake.