Productive Sunday

I worked during the day yesterday, instead of at night as I usually do, and then we planned on taking the kids and Elyssa to see Madagascar 2. Carl and the kids headed to town while I showered and then I was supposed to meet them at the theatre. As I was hurrying around the house, I ran into our bedroom door with my pinky toe and it hurt like CRAZY. I kept thinking it should feel better any time, but it just kept getting worse and worse. 

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So, we have decided that we think I broke it. How stupid, seriously. Who breaks their toe by stubbing it on their bedroom door? So, the movie was a little un-fun -- especially when CeCe stomped on it in the middle of "We like to move it, move it!". The kids danced like little Village People, ate their weight in sugar and generally enjoyed themselves immensely. CeCe lasted through all but the last twenty minutes of it, whereupon I took her in the hallway and she ran to her little heart's content. It was fun, despite the throbbing in my stupid little toe.

Tonight, I made the most DELISH dinner, penne pasta with vodka cream sauce. You

 seriously have to try it out. It was SO easy, and everyone loved it! I used Tinkyada rice pasta, so it was completely gluten-free and I felt wonderful afterwards. I also use this chicken sausage from Costco that is the absolute best - it is sundried tomato, basil and provolone flavored. Gluten free, nitrate free and organic. I love it, and the kids now eat it in place of hot dogs. They also love it, so that makes it even more popular around here. The pasta is the absolute best gluten free pasta. I cannot even taste a difference in this pasta and regular wheat pasta, and I've served it to people who eat gluten and they cannot taste a difference either. It's so fun to find yummy tasting, gluten-free foods! So if you need a super tasty, super easy, super FAST meal anytime soon, try this one. 

We have been working on installing a wood stove for some time now. We are installing this Vermont Castings stove, but have been preparing a hearth pad and the wall behind it. We decided to use slate, since that is what we have used in other areas of our house and really like the look of it. I mortared the wall tiles today, so they are all in place and we have half of them grouted. It was actually really a fun project. I was really scared to do it by myself, but I did it and so far, so good. My mom is helping me with the grout, but after this project I feel much more confident in my tiling abilities. Next, I want to tile a backsplash in my kitchen! I'll post some pictures tomorrow of the slate tomorrow!