Seriously, every time I pop on there, I stumble onto something that will just make everyone’s life a little smoother! This hop and skip visit started in my email though. I’ve been getting new followers often in the last few months, although I don’t post there regularly (nor here for that matter) but I always try to take some time to check out who’s decided I was interesting enough. My latest follower is, I’m guessing, the author of this WONDERFUL resource that I just HAD to share with all of you.

www.glutenfreemaps.com

It works with google maps but is targeted to search for gluten free restaurants in your area, or any other location of your choice. AWESOME for traveling! The only thing is that it seems that users are the ones that need to add restaurants in their area. So, even though there might be a plethora of restaurants that cater to the Gluten free clientele, they may not be visible if no one has added them in yet. Sounds a bit wikipedia-ish. Which isn’t a bad thing, just means we each have to do our part. Personally, I will strive to add every restaurant that we have found throughout our few travels and hope to see more and more appear from my area and across Canada! Enjoy!

You gotta love when you check out old resources only to see that they have more to give then before! Today’s researched was inspired by my medicine cabinet rummaging. Now WHY would I be doing something like THAT, in the beginning of September, when the weather can’t seem to decide what to do and I have 2 small children…. 2 guesses, but I don’t think you’d need them. Yup, we’ve been hit with a cold. Now, mind you, my eldest, and Celiac child, is a REAL trooper during the night. She’ll sleep through almost anything, cough up a lung while still sleeping. Ain’t that great? Right… But during the day! Oh dear, she is one very grizzly little bear. Her ears hurt because they are clogged, her nose is running like a faucet and even at practically 5 years old, she still hasn’t quite the hang of blowing her nose. Which invariably means her ears get more clogged and she sniffles and swallows (ICK!) more cold than is healthy. Then we have her 2 and a half year old little sister who’s a complete trooper during the day, has a runny nose but will just shout that it’s running while getting a kleenex. This girl could rival the big bad wolf! But at night, oh geez, she cannot stand to have a stuffed up nose and will cry every 10 minutes. She finally got the idea at, oh, 3am?? that she had a glass over water if she needed help swallowing (more Ick at drainage) and lots of baby facecloths as stand-in Kleenex’s for the night. Yeah, NEVER leave a toddler with REAL kleenex. You wouldn’t believe how small they can tear those suckers!

Back to subject. So, I was researching the two biggest brand names in fever & pain reducers and although I remembered reading on Advil’s website that all their products were GF, I wanted to double check it again. They still do say so and I was relieved. After some thought, I decided to check Tylenol’s again (last year they didn’t mention gluten at all on their website) because our health care services here in Quebec always say to use acetaminophen before ibuprophen as the latter is a little harder on the stomach. Imagine my surprise when I find that they are now saying that none of their products contain gluten! WOOT! And I even found a statement by the actual manufacturer of  Tylenol, McNeil, that they use Corn, Rice & Potato. Granted this statement is from February 2008 and is on someone’s personal website, so like always, take everything with a grain of skeptisism. Always check with your pharmacist and the actual source, the brand company itself.

And yep, I’m still totally off topic! Quite easy to do when you have a 4 year old hanging off of you because her ear hurts so much she cries everytime she burps, swallows and yawns. Basically, from Tylenol’s General FAQ, I followed a link back to the CCA (which originally turned up their old splash page with a choice of english or french). The old blue site used to be very basic and although it had a lot of information, it wasn’t quite interactive. This new site offers lots of new tools (although they aren’t yet active) that promise to be another great tool for Celiacs and their caregivers.

And that basically it, the CCA’s new website was a great resource in the beginning of our journey, but we quickly outgrew the stale information that was there. And now, with it’s makeover comes a promise of more interesting information and interactivity that will hopefully grow with the Gluten awareness that has changed so much in just the last 4 years.

Have a looksie and tell me what you think! www.celiac.ca

Catching up seems to be my trend this summer. Catching up with housework, renovations, friends, family, Twitter, Facebook and SO much more. I’ve added so many great blogs to my Google reader subscription, it’s quite insane really. Not that I truly have time to read EVERYTHING, but I peruse everyone’s blog and come across quite a few gold nuggets worth of Gluten Free information!

My latest find, how to make your OWN Almond Milk. When I first read that title, I was a little skeptical. Then I read the ingredients list and also the directions (a little too quickly though) and convinced myself I would have a go at it. Of course, once I read the directions clearly, I realized I didn’t have the special equipment she mentions… Well, Magic Bullet to the rescue! I worked it out with it and made some very tasty milk AND the left over pulp has been oven dried and needs to be Magic Bullet-ed (love to invent words if you hadn’t noticed) to a flour consistency. SO happy my mother decided to buy herself a MB, she got a 2 for one deal and I was the happy inheritor!

Here’s what my milk looks like. It is Oh so tasty, especially in a nice piping hot Chai Tea. YUM. It was also delicious in my morning cereals!

On another note, I’ve also gone GF & Sugar free myself. I had some very tasty and savory Pizza Hut Pizza for lunch Thursday (which has been happening often with the renovations when I made the girls a GF version). Although the other times it made me feel a wee bit bloated or over full, this time, I just felt down right wrong. It’s taken me most of this long weekend to feel better. Honestly, I’m still feeling off this morning and haven’t had gluten or actual sugar (well, except the 4 teaspoons worth in my two yummy coffees at a friend’s yesterday) since then. I’m hoping another week of this and I should feel MUCH better. I’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I’ll also start writing up all the great subjects I have that are trying to beat themselves out of my brain from this summer! With all the great reading, life experiences and new things we’ve discovered, I’m ready to get back into the swing of the Everyday, Gluten Free thing! Granted, Photography is still taking a HUGE chunk of my time, but I’m figuring things will calm down when the weather gets too cold for outside photography.

For your reading pleasure, the details are on my photography blog. With this journey coming to an end, hopefully SOONER rather than later, I have GF eating anecdotes, tips and stories to share galore. But first, I really MUST finish this fantastical project. Stay tuned, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, just been hiding out in my GF kitchen

I’ve been away for some time, lots of things going down in the next couple weeks, I’m going to be part of a hobby/work fair this coming Sunday to show off my up and coming Photography business (You can check it out here: Nayanna.biz). Then the following Sunday I’m running my first 5K ever. SO excited! And now, one more event I’m adding to the calendar for April 5th…

Yep, you read that title right, we’re going to the Sugar Shack! And it’s ALL gluten free!! Wahoo!

It’s closer to home than you’d think… it’s right in the heart of our family’s first “home”, in Ville Saint-Laurent! Check out the flier here and be sure to buy your tickets in advance at either locations if you want to enjoy this great activity! It will be our daughter’s first ever Maple Sugar experience, so I’m completely excited over all of this See you there!

I’M just dashing on! I haven’t abandoned this blog, my photography venture is simply taking over both my waking hours and some of those hours that I should truly use to sleep As posted here, I have a busy weekend coming up and I REALLY need to get a jump on things, so bear with me, it’ll be another couple of weeks before I can get back onto the posting bandwagon. In the meantime, I’ll plan out my next posts and come back with loads of stuff to talk about See you on the other side!!

Happy valentines everyone! And for me, it’s happy “birthday party PREP day!” As it will be until my “baby” moves out, in oh, hopefully less then 25 years My “baby” is turning 2 Sunday! Already! So enjoy your day with loved ones and I’ll be back next week with tips for birthday parties/special occasions and how to help your child not feel left out of all the partying!

I start this new adventure hoping to help as many families as I can reach through this medium. I’m no peer Counselor, I’m not a doctor, nurse or any other medical professional. I’m not part of the CCA or the FMCQ although I’m a member of the first. What I am a young mom to a 4 year old girl diagnosed with Celiacs in 2006. She was 22 months by the time all was said and done.

I want this site to help others breeze into the life changes that accompany a Celiacs diagnosis in young children. I explain the whys in more depth in my About page, feel free to check that out. Mostly I will share everything I can on how to make it hopefully easier to get information & all your resources together faster. It took me over 2 years to find out some things and although it’s a learning curve and you can’t force it on anyone, I’m hopeful this site will help many to find some solutions just that much faster then if they’d had to research it all themselves first hand.

I will NOT blatantly copy and post the wealth of information that can be found on the internet or digest all the information for you. But I WILL post all the links to websites, associations, foundations, stores, online resources, products, etc so that you can find your way that much quicker. My goal is to cut some time out of the equation for you to get to the information.

Every week I will post different things on different subjects. I’ll try not to go ON and ON and ON…. over each little thing and try to be concise, but rambling is also part of my personality, so please bear with me on this.

Every Monday I will post a little snippet about how our family got to know Celiacs, then I hope to find and link you to other articles that explains the history of this disease as well as new research and ongoing news information that I will come upon.

Tuesday’s will be all about the foods, restaurants or stores that we have come to love and rely on Everyday.

Wednesdays are dedicated to my personal feelings going through all this. I’m most likely not alone with these feelings and I want to reassure those that are going through them that it’s normal and to seek out support.

Thursdays would be our “eh” list. The things that just can’t keep our attention and that we simply don’t care about enough to buy more of. That said, not every tastes are alike, so take it all with a grain of salt and make your own tests and experiences.

Then TGIF, the lo down on What, Where and How much?! Links galore, new food places, new products and just anything you can think of.

Saturdays will be reserved to planning around school issues, outings, daycares & other things you don’t necessarily think of until you’re faced with the issue “in your face”.

Finally, something all mom’s to diet sensitive kids crave for sure, RECIPES. Things you can make that your kids will eat, or not, depending on how picky they are. Aat the very least I’ll tell you how each of our family members reacted to the dish and also how others, not on a Gluten-Free diet, enjoyed the item.

Stay tuned and get a wealth of information at your very fingertips!