And In the Other Room

As I sit here on the computer, Lauren is in the other room quilting her little heat out. Yup. All by herself. As if I could even begin to offer much assistance; she knows more than I do by far!! How weird. I must learn to sew so that I can keep up with her.

Maybe.

OK, off to sort of facilitate. Not that I need to.

Crock Pot Yogurt

We eat a ton of yogurt here. I'm talking at least a half gallon a week. The girls (& me too) eat yogurt plain, yogurt with fruit, we make smoothies after school, they eat it for snacks, with lunch, we put it in oatmeal, I make yogurt cheese and use it in place of sour cream .... we eat a lot of yogurt! I usually buy Stoneyfield brand, which is about $4.00 a quart, so it quickly adds up over the week - we are talking around $36-40 a month for yogurt! Ouch!

I decided to make my own yogurt. I looked at yogurt makers, and they seemed to be around $30 each, which is not too bad and I figured even with high-end, $10 gallon locally produced, organic, vat-pasteurized, non-homogenized milk I would quickly save money. (By the second month even!) But, as my cooking guru hero, Alton Brown, says: No Uni-taskers! Really, I do not need yet another machine in my already cluttered kitchen!

So, I figured why not use the crock pot? I happen to have little inserts that I can use in my large pot and reduce the volume by half. Brilliant Idea Kay!! A quick research online, and voila - crock pot yogurt goodness!! Homemade yogurt is a bit thinner, but still yummy and good! And can I tell you the savings we are reaping in with this one?? At $5 a gallon for my normal organic milk that makes our yogurt costs a mere $10 a month, saving $26 a month or .... $300+ a year! Whoot!! Momma's going to Colorado with that money!!

Another 100 in 1001 down!

Tractor Square Dance?

OK, I've seen it all now!!

I was looking for tractor clips on YouTube for the little dude I babysit, and found this.

How MANY Birds!

I recently put up a suet feeder, and added black sunflower seeds to our bird feeder. It is amazing how many different birds I have spotted at our feeder since putting these up. From upper left to lower right: Red breasted nuthatch - they are cool because they run upside down on the tree, Cardinal - one of my favorites!, Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker, Dark Eyed Junco, White breasted Nuthatch, Blue Jay - not necessarily my favorite, but they are actually far an few between, Hairy Woodpecker, Tufted Titmouse. I have also some sort of sparrow - but I really want to identify the specific species before I claim it! And then there is some other bird that is slightly larger than the sparrow, looks much like it, but with sort of chartreusey yellow stripes instead of white. Still working on that; it may be a female finch.

Cranky Old Lady's Halloween Complaints

Handing out Candy and Drinking beer lead to a few Cranky old Lady complaints :)

One parent actually complained to my neighbor that he was not prepared enough for his kids! "Sir, you need to be more prepared. My kids were having a hard time waiting." You got to be kidding me!! When one of the first trick-o-treaters knocks on your door at 6pm, and you all set to go? Especially when you both work full time jobs and you are constantly trucking your teenage kids around? I think your kids can wait a minute while I am diggin' out the free candy to hand to them!!!

One parent was pulling her two kids (around age 3 and 5, I'd guess) in a wagon. OK, I live in a neighborhood with long driveways, and no sidewalks. I can see a wagon to help cart the kids. But, these kids NEVER got out of the wagon. She pulled them up to the steps, and made *me* come to them to give them candy. And then, I grabed two pieces from my bowl, one for him and one for her, and the boy tried to grab BOTH of them from my hand. When I said that the other one was for his sister, he got angry.

After the second beer was gone I waited for a lull in kids (not a hard thing, we had few kids this year compared to last year!) and then went inside to get my beer. Well, I set my bowl down on the porch (just not thinking, really) and came out to find one kid grabbing a whole huge handful. She put back some when I caught her, but protested that her friend took a handful too. And when I looked in the bowl, all the mini M&M's (for the little kids) were GONE. Greedy kid took them all. AND the parent with them apparently thought it was OK to do this!!

There were a few others, but by the fourth or fifth beer I did not care so much. And it was just fun to call my friends in CO or Livonia and harass them some more.

Kids these days, I'm telling you. And parents - they are worse!!!

Cranky Old Lady signing off.

Finding Ideas For My List

As of today I have a grand total of 64, scratch that, 65 things to do on my 101 items in 1001 days list. I am not great at math, but even *I* recognize that I am a tad short of the 101 things! I just cannot seem to find List-Worthy items for this.

I know some of you would have absolutely NO problem writing down 101 things to do. But I am not a list maker, so this is new territory for me. These are supposed to be "unordinary" things, or at least I am making that criteria. So I would not put my daily tasks, or errands etc. on this list. This list is for larger tasks and projects. And in truth, some of the items are long term projects, like me saving $20 a week from babysitting so I can go on the Wild Women Weekend, or having a monthly night out with just Bill. These things cannot be accomplished until the end of the 10001 days. Hmmm, slight flaw in my plan? Eh... I'll just have to count the things I am working on in the list too.

Hey - turns out I have quite a few things I am working on:

1. Decorate wood Doll house
2. Organize basement
3. Begin regular nature study each weekend
4. Save $20/week
5. Hand make one item for each family birthday
6. Organize laundry room
7. Deep clean one room a month
8. Have monthly night out with Bill

Still, I am a bit short on my list! Better keep thinking of those ideas.

Bill Bento

Apparently Bill has been the talk of lunch time in his office. He only has 30 mins for lunch, and because we are frugal as well, we pack his lunch almost every day. (Except for a long running Thai Thursday tradition he managed to start.) Since he has been working long before the girls started school, and thus I became turned on to Bento style lunches, I have recently made some changes in his lunch habits.

I have always cooked one extra portion of dinner and then packed it for his lunch. Just a simple way to save time, and provide him with something much better than frozen meals! Apparently not many people do this, and that alone was cause for some interest. But this summer I finally bought him a plate for his food to be heated up on in the microwave. (I hate reheating in plastic!) Apparently when you plop your food onto a plate the same food becomes more appealing and interesting to the onlookers!

Well, I also started packing more bento style lunches for him. I think that has thrown the crew into hyper drive! He comes home virtually every day and has some story to tell about how his co-workers are jealous and think we eat well. Maybe, but I think it is a combination of presentation and simple home cooked meals!

Lucky Bill!

(contents of Bill Bento: Pot roast (from a locally & humanely, albeit not organic, raised cow)with ketchup in one container, and horseradish in another. Butterfly shaped biscuits in a silicone cup - Bill, not me, made them with the girls! Other side is potatoes and carrots from our garden, a container of (homemade) strawberry jelly for the biscuits, and some leftover mini-M&Ms to help clean out last year's Halloween candy!)