Mondays…

Yes, today is officially the start of getting back to “real life” as it were. E is at work, the girls are at school and I’m supposed to be working.

And I have been… working that is. I went through the set list for this coming Sunday and emailed it over to PC to review before tomorrows meeting, I’ve exchanged some emails with customers (current and potential) and cleared out the old inbox. I also went through the pile of books beside my chair and posted some to PaperBackSwap.com (a great resource, that one!). I still have some misc. things to post on freecycle, but I need to make sure what everything is before I post it… clothing sizes, etc. And quite honestly, that garage is cold these days, so I really don’t want to go in there!

I must also confess that I have been sucked into the vortex that we lovingly call facebook. Oy vey. There are days that this machine sitting on my lap seems to take over life as we know it. There are people to check on, flair to send (only occasionally) a green patch to tend, status updates to be made… important things! (ha!) And this day held such promise.

BUT

I did try a new experiment with the kefir yesterday, and the results were quite satisfying! I put a spoonful or two of the grains into chocolate milk. Yeah baby! The result? Very tasty. It was less chocolate-y than the original, and I added 4 slices of peach and 3 strawberries to it in the blender, but my-oh-my was it tasty! I may just have to try that one again. Of course, I have no idea what the chocolate will do to the gains themselves, so I am only using a small quantity of them in a small jar to test it out. They appear to still be growing, however, so that is a good sign!

Which reminds me… if you live anywhere around here and want some milk kefir grains, let me know. They seem to be very, very happy around here. They are multiplying faster than bunnies, growing faster than weeds, etc. Yes, I have an abundance of grains, an plethora of probiotics to share. Please, I beg you, come take some! please?

As for the rest of the cultured life I was so pleased to post about…. well, the yogurt has gone the way of old boyfriends. It is now a thing of the past. Was it tasty? Absolutely! Did it take much work? Not at all. Then why did I move on so soon? Well, E & I were the only ones that were eating it, and it seemed suddenly to not like having things added to it… and I just don’t like plain yogurt much. Well, unless I’m using it in place of sour cream, but that stuff just wasn’t thick enough. Then it started to grow something on the top… not sure if it was a good something or not, so I fed it to the disposal. I know, what a waste. A waste of time, money and (possibly) very good yogurt. Yeah, but I didn’t want to get sick from something not-so-good being ingested. Since I just don’t know much about yogurt yet, I will be content that I tried it, and may again someday, but not today.

Yes, the bread starter is still going strong. And I now have 100 lbs of flour in my garage waiting to last us for the next 6 months or something like that. Mom took us to Costco before she left and filled the garage… I mean pantry with food. OK, so I really do mean garage. 100 lbs of flour, 75 lbs of rice, and many, many bags of dried fruit and nuts, 5 cases of organic chocolate milk and a case of 100% Hansen’s fruit juice later (among other good things) and I don’t have to go get any dried goods for at least 2 months! Yes, for a normal family it would most likely last much longer, but I can assure you that my girls will have NO PROBLEM going through it all in record time. The 2 months will only be if I can restrain them!

Thanks Mom! You rock. Oh, and good call on the extra car. I actually had an aide at the girls school ask me today if I actually fit “all of that stuff” into one car… apparently she almost came over and offered to drive the girls home for me. Yes, I did manage to fit all of my portion of the shopping extravaganza into the back of the subi… but Ryan had to take their portion over to their rental car to get the rest home. What, it was only 2.5 costco shopping carts! We were accused of hording food because of the snow! Not a bad idea, but not the reason behind it!

Speaking of snow… the white junk is STILL FALLING FROM THE SKY!!!!! Yes, we were in Mill Creek yesterday and watched it fall for a few hours before we headed home. Goody… slippery, snow-covered roads just in time for school to start again. After a THREE WEEK Christmas break. Happily by the time we got home it had changed to rain, and our roads are nice and clear. Praise God! So the girls went back to school as scheduled… well, they missed the bus and I had to take them, but they got to class just before the pledge of allegiance.

Yep, I dropped them off and I headed to get milk… can I just warn you that if you are leaving a school you need to pay attention to your speed? Especially when it’s the first week back to school after a long break? Do NOT under ANY circumstances think about your next stop until you are out of the school zone… you have now been warned. Yep, I was thinking “Is there anything I need besides milk?” as I came around the corner from the school entry, and glanced at the speedometer – then up at the police car sitting up ahead of me. They are kind of sticklers in school zones these days. And then I couldn’t remember if a school zone was 20 or 25… either way I was going almost 30. In a school zone. With an expired insurance card in the glove box.

I hate tickets.

Fortunately the nice policeman gave me a break on the insurance card when I explained that State Farm has yet to send us an actual card since we bought the subi in May. Yes, I have called and asked, yes, I’ve done it more than once. No, I didn’t realize that the temporary card that my nice agent sent me had expired in November. Thank you, Officer, for the warning that if you see this same card again you will give me a ticket for no proof if insurance that has a $550 fine attached. Oh, and thanks also for writing me out a traffic infraction.  Payable in full within 15 days.  There went my next 2 paychecks.

It could have been worse. I could have been thinking about a lot more than milk. And I could have gotten a less genteel policeman that wouldn’t have cared that State Farm won’t send me the appropriate proof of insurance.

And yes, I called State Farm as soon as I got to Safeway and asked (once again) for them to please send me an updated card and the actual cards that I am supposed to have.

Welcome 2009… you’re looking to be a great year thus far.

At least we are all healthy!

*sniffle*

Well it’s now time to head up the hill to get the girls from the bus. I don’t dare drive down there to pick them up today! I might get sidetracked again, and I can’t afford the one I already got, much less another one…

The first day of the rest of 2009 is nearing its end.  Let the games begin.

Have a good one… and watch those school zones!
Jennifer