The bend in the road

Yogurt making was an abject failure.  My sister makes it sound so simple.  Just 1,2,3...done. Easy peasy... if you're Liz.   I swear everything like this is easy for her.  I, on the other hand, was not cut out for yogurt making, bread making, or anything like it.   I was doing fine with the yogurt up until the part where I was supposed to keep the mixture at 100 degrees.   It's so cold in my house (we keep our thermostat at 64), the yogurt kept dropping down to 70 degrees, so I'd turn the crockpot on and heat it up to 100,  then it would get cold again, and I'd turn it on again.

And yeah, there are only so many times I can successfully remember to do that before the unicorns in my brain distract me and I forget.   I inherited the curse from my mother, who got it from her father.   Jim doesn't always believe me, but I actually don't have the worst case of it.  I have siblings who have far more terminal cases of absent-mindedness. Truly.

Anyway, all that to say, I didn't just destroy the first batch of yogurt, but the second and third batch as well.  That takes talent.  And I think I proved it's going to take something a lot more foolproof than a crockpot for me to make yogurt successfully.

Charlie was so disappointed about the yogurt (which we were going to add to our diet after the 30 days).  I tried to console him with apple patties and roasted carrot fries.  At least mommy can cook, right?  



Girls and boys are so different.  Since I teach a class of all girls (5-7 year olds), but am a mom to all boys, it's always adorably awesome how different the two can be.   I counted it a huge success yesterday, that we got through a study of the Renaissance artist Durer without any tears.   Heaven forbid anyone make so much as a teensy mistake or it's drama on the high seas.  They all try so hard to be perfect.   Jamie on the other hand comes out of his class with "Great day mom! I only got two warnings."



We do a kids Bible story hour with some good friends.   Jamie and Charlie adore these girls, even though I think the girls get frustrated sometimes with my sons lack of knowledge.   I mean, how can Jamie and Charlie not know what a barbie is?  But the tables turned when Charlie whipped out his lightsaber yesterday and both girls gasped.  "What is that?"  My kids stared at them in disbelief.   What kind of dull life would it be if we went so much as one day without a good riveting conversation about whether or not Darth Vader is in heaven?  When we got to the park yesterday after CC, my kids not only had on their cloaks and lightsabers...they also provided their own theme music.  Which meant I made a smashing entrance with our picnic lunch to the Ramsey-boy beatbox version of the Imperial March.

We finished our Whole30-food-elimination-diet-cleanse-thingy today.   I feel oddly ill at ease about tomorrow.  I've gotten used to cooking this way, and feel kind of overwhelmed at where to go from here.   I didn't tell Jamie today was our last day, but at around lunch time he must have suddenly figured out it was the 30th, because he's been an unending stream of chatter ever since then.

"Mom. CHEESE.  We can have CHEESE.  Won't that be amazing?  CHEEEEESE!"
"Oh man, and cereal!  We can have cereal.  Don't you remember how delicious cereal is?"
"You know what I want for breakfast?  Burritos.  I think I could eat burritos forever and ever."

I don't have the heart to tell him he may never get to eat any of those things on a regular basis again.  But truth of the matter is, I don't really know what was triggering his ADD and dyslexia.   Cutting everything out was the easy part.  Adding stuff back in seems like it's going to be a lot harder.

But hey, at least my kitchen is clean again.  And we did it!  We ate nothing but fruits, vegetables and meat for 30 days!