It takes a village . . . to make pancakes

When this Celiac journey began, my Big Pa, wise man that he is, said to me - Kris, it gonna take a village to do this, and the village will respond. (or something to that effect!) He obviously could see into the future because that is exactly what has happened.

First off, my mom has been an invaluable resource to me. She has researched, researched, and researched some more. She has made me books filled with things that are safe for Luke and has spent countless dollars on things that Luke can eat. She has been my support, meeting with dietitians and going to support group. She has experimented with recipes until we have finally found THE chocolate cake recipe that actually tastes like chocolate cake!! yay!! She has answered more questions and discussed more food options than I ever knew existed. Thanks Mom, for all your help! You've been invaluable to me!!

Second, my extended family has been so good to us. Big Pa and Grandma have brought us lots of new foods to try and made Luke some yummy GF cookies. You guys enrich our lives in so many ways! Kudos to Aunt Deb who is making Luke some great sweets almost weekly. She also introduced us to the Sunflower Shop where we will be spending some money on a regular basis!!

Finally, my sweet friends have been, well, very sweet!! Deneise and Shellee got me an amazing "Gluten Busters" shirt!! I'm not exactly sure where I'll where it, but it definitely made me smile!! And my good friend, Jenny made Luke some very yummy Monkey Munch!! Go here to read about her and Brody's adventure in making it! Jenny also brought some GF pancake mix and this was really where this post began.

We finally had the right time to make it tonight and, boy, was it funny!!

I knew that I needed to keep Luke's mix and pancakes separate from everyone else's, but I hadn't thought much past that. When it was all said and done, this is what we had:

2 bowls of batter (1 regular, 1 GF)
1 large griddle (the 2 kinds never touched!)
2 butter containers (1 regular, 1 free of stray bread crumbs)
2 syrup containers (1 regular, 1 GF)
2 spatulas (1 for Luke, 1 for the rest of us)

At times, I felt like I was working the breakfast shift at IHOP where everyone in the restaurant was waiting on pancakes and I couldn't remember which spatula to use!! It really wasn't that bad - but it was kind of comical at times.

All that to say, they were actually pretty good. They were a little heavier, which wasn't a surprise at all, given some of the other heavy things we've eaten. They almost tasted like what a dense, whole wheat muffin would taste like. Luke didn't seem to notice a difference. Strangely though, when I tried to flip the first 3 of them, they all slid off the spatula back onto the griddle, as if to say - you're going to have to work a little harder if you want to flip me!!

To end this long, rambling post, much thanks goes to everyone who has supported little Lukey through all of this craziness. I've met a couple of new friends out there (strangers before) who live with this with their kids and they've assured me that we will survive!! I knew we would, but it's good to hear it from people who really know!! Thanks, everybody!!