What We're Up To...

This is a post I could have titled "Why I Don't Blog Often".

Here I am soaking my feet in water and toddler.

That's okay, Simon, you can have it.

I finally made a smoothie the kids like! Hurray! The two older kids especially have been eating a ton of food, so this particular lunch I made them a ton of food. There was salad, a smoothie, and a plate of chips with hummus or avocado. Most of them outsmarted me by eating their chips and drinking their smoothie before saying they were full. Now smoothies are for dessert or frozen into Popsicles for after dinner. They still eat a lot of food!

It has been confirmed once again that I am really not born to read. There is just way too much other stuff to get into, like writing, playing with recipes in the kitchen, catching up in my Bible study homework, and watching our favorite TV shows with Brad. Cold Sassy Tree is what I'm reading now, which means I read it for ten minutes at bedtime before falling asleep.

So here is where I have gone a little crazy. I have dived into the world of fermentation with much drive and passion, but not much result. I made a pretty good batch of sauerkraut. It's kind of salty, but for my first batch I don't think it's too bad. Plus, my friend Joy likes it, so I call that a job well done. In addition to the sauerkraut I am fighting my way through Ginger-Ale. The first batch turned into more of a ginger juice, which is drinkable but in no way resembling the fizz of... well... anything. So, because I'm Janna I tried again. I now have four jars in my fridge of liquid ranging from juice to slightly fizzy. Kaeley thinks it's good, so I plan on giving it all to her before I start my next batch of hope-in-a-jar. However, if you are expecting and would like to experiment with the effects of fresh ginger on nausea, give me a holler and I'll share my "juice" with you.
Now the above is kefir. The bottle on the left is kefir grains in water. This presents me with two options: the kefir is taking a while to really do it's thing (which is possible) or I've already killed the organisms needed to make real water kefir. I continue to try though, because I'm Janna. The bottle on the right is water kefir with vanilla, which makes a cream soda flavor. Again, there was supposed to be a buildup of carbonation, but I'm just not having good luck with the fizz component. But! The flavor was really good! Alynna literally moaned into her cup.

Another reason I don't blog often is because I'm either busy cleaning or busy throwing my hands up in despair that suggests I might not clean ever ever again.

Kaeley finally stopped biting her fingers and fingernails, so we treated her to a manicure. She felt quite pampered.

Simon "helps" me shop at Joann's by being super cute and suggesting we buy various objects that would promptly be forgotten once home.

The days are warming up, so we'll be heading out to the park more often. Yes, people, I know by "warming up" the days go from low 70's to high 70's, but that is still technically warming up.

Another reason I don't blog often. The dreaded laundry. I did three loads the other day and then had a full load by the end of the night. I had two loads over the weekend until I cleaned out the girls' closet and found that Alynna was consistently putting dirty clothes back into her wardrobe. Now I have five loads of laundry to do.

If I could hire someone to take my place in one area of my life it would be tempting to go towards something rather vain, like a stylist, or practical like a housekeeper (live-in only). But another great option that would save me hours is a chef. And I'm not picky, I would accept a chef that only made picnic lunches!

And another reason I haven't blogged often is I'm just busy palling around with the Fab Four.