Cramps

A while ago I posted about how much I love my Diva Cup. Well, I have something else to add. I don't get cramps anymore. That's right, none. This has nothing to do with using the Diva Cup and everything to do with NOT using normal store bought pads and tampons. I don't even know when my period is coming. I used to get really bad cramps for the first two days of my cycle. I would always know when I was going to get it. Now I don't and I have some personal, very non-scientific evidence as to why that is.

I started getting my period at the age of 10. The first time I got it, I had no cramping and after that I always had pretty bad cramping for the first two days. I had to take Advil every 6 hours for two days. Fast forward to my first child. I discovered the Diva Cup when he was a few months old and it took a while to get the hang of it so I always used a pad with it until the last two months or so. I only used it alone for a couple of months, then I got pregnant with my daughter and did not have to worry about periods for a while. After I had her, I used pads for a few months until I decided to go back to the Diva Cup. While using pads I had my normal cramping. After three months of using ONLY the Diva Cup, I stopped getting cramps.

At first I thought this was a fluke. Just a one month thing, then it happened again and again and I remembered that many of the women that reviewed it on Amazon, said that they had no or less cramping then before. That was not proof enough for me though. I started taking an exercising class that required me to where a pad for um "leaks" (women who have had children know what I mean). I used normal brand name pads. That month I got cramps. Really bad ones. I went out and bought the natural organic pads and threw away the others. This month, no cramps, not one. To be honest, this pisses me off. So for years I had really painful bad cramps and they were caused by my PADS??? As I said before, this is in no way scientific, just my own experience. And I grantee there will never be any research put toward this idea. Who would pay for it? But I will say that my daughter will never use "normal" pads or tampons. I will pay the extra money for the natural ones for her.

Summer Love

I love summer. There are so many things I can do now that I can't the rest of the year. Most of these things happen to save me money. I love going to BBQs where I only have to bring one dish and can eat a whole dinner. I love putting my clothing out on the line. It is very relaxing to me. I love that I don't have to touch the heat and it never gets hot enough to wish I had AC for more then one day. I love to pack up the kids and head to the beach which thanks to our wonderful Pacific North West is only a 15 minute drive.

I love going to farmers markets even if I never buy anything because I never carry cash and everything cost so much. I love all the verity of Washington grown veggies in my CSA box I get delivered to my door once a week. I love picking veggies out of my own small garden. This is the time of year my family goes camping and Aaron and I get to go somewhere for a whole weekend by ourselves for our anniversary. This year Aaron and I tried river rafting. It was wonderful and surprisingly cheap. $65 per person bought us lunch, all our gear and 2.5 hours on the river. Summer is short around here but it is very sweet.

Chickens

I have wanted backyard chickens for a long time. I really want access to cheap, extra nutritious eggs. Yesterday a friend of mine brought over some of her dad's chicks to let her mom friends take pictures of with the kids. All was going well until my son and his big new rain boots stepped on one of the chicks and killed it. He did not seem to notice despite me trying to make him understand but I was totally traumatized.

I was however renewed in my effort to get some chickens (full grown ones) for our own yard. I know that my city lets people have up to 6 chickens, no roosters. So I set to work trying to figure out if it would save our egg eating family to have chickens. In the past I have heard both that having your own chickens saves you money and that it does not. So I looked for the best deals on coops on Craigslist and found a deal where you get five, 6 month old chickens, a coop and everything the chickens need for $300. That seems to be a good deal. Then I looked at what feed would cost for 5 chickens. About $16 a bag and we would need one bag a month. This alone is more then we spend on eggs in one month (about $10), even if we bought all organic, cage free eggs. That does not even take in to consideration the start up costs, possible vet costs, and lack of egg laying in the Winter.

So there goes that dream. While I could look at them as pets, I have a firm rule against introducing anything else in my life to take care of unless it gives me some value. And by value I do not mean something nebulous and undefinable, I mean saves me money.

First Cheese

Last week I attempted my first cheese. I used the 1 gallon Farmers Cheese recipe from the website I posted. I warmed up my milk and added the yogurt and let it sit all night. In the morning I warmed up the milk and added the Rennet and then waited, and waited, and waited some more. No clean break. I began to suspect that I let the milk sit to long before adding the rennet.

I was eager to try again so this time I warmed the milk, added the yogurt and only let it sit for 3 hours before adding the rennet. Nothing happened. I did not even get a messy kind of break. Nothing, it still looked like milk. I decided to warm it up an make something else with it. When I came back to check on the milk it was firming up just like it was supposed too! I kept it warm and followed the rest of the directions and put the curd in to my homemade cheese press (also found on the website). I let it press all night and then took it out and wrapped it in a handkerchief that I had boiled to serialize and put it in the fridge.

This is the hardest part, waiting. I can't help but check on my cheese all the time. I really try not to but I can't help it. It seems to be drying just like it is supposed to. When it is dry I will wax it and wait some more. The sad part is that I will not know if I got it right for a few more weeks!

First Yogurt

I did it! I made my fist batch of yogurt. All kinds of things went wrong but the yogurt still turned out just fine. I used the cheap 2% milk found a my normal grocery store. I used a candy thermometer that I already had. A normal pot and 8 oz canning jars. I used the half gallon recipe because I did not want to waste a whole gallon of milk if I did it wrong.

Most of the cooking went fine except that the milk scorched on the bottom of the pan but I just did not scrape it and the yogurt tasted normal. I tried to pour the milk in to the jars from the pan but ended up getting it everywhere. I put the milk in to a pitcher and had much better luck. Then I had more milk then jars so I had to use a clean spaghetti sauce jar. Then there was not enough room in the cooler for the big jar. Lucky for me, I found a very fat thermos that worked just as well. Then I fell asleep and let the yogurt sit for longer then 3 hours. At 3:30 am I tip toed down stairs and looked at my yogurt. It was solid! I had done it! I put the yogurt in the fridge and went back to bed. Then next morning I served it to the kids with honey in it. They loved it.

Yogurt and Cheese

According to my husband I have finally gone off the deep end. The other day I was listening to Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbra Kingsolver (with our MP3 player that we got for free) and I heard her talking about making cheese. I love cheese. I like it just as much as chocolate. My mom and I even go to a free monthly cheese class at a high class market in our city just to hear about and taste different cheeses. I always assumed that cheese making was super hard and never something I could do in a cost effective way. But to hear Ms. Kingsolver talk about it, it really is not that difficult. So I looked in to it and it turns out she is right. It is not that hard. I even found this great website where the author is committed to making cheese, yogurt and other things using all stuff you would find at a normal grocery store or already in your home.

I was so excited. Husband thought I was so crazy. Why? was all he could say. Because it is cheaper, better for you (no weird additives) and because I can. I love to cook and I also love a good challenge. Besides wouldn't it be way cooler to give cheese at Christmas instead of cookies?

Here is the website I will be using to make yogurt and cheese with -

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese_course/Cheese_course.htm

He even has nice pictures for every step.

Holiday Burnout

It is just a few days away from Christmas and I find it really hard to get excited this year. I feel like I have put in way to much work for this holiday and it has left me wondering "Is it really worth it?". It seems that the mom always get stuck with the holiday chores. It is my job to get all gifts for my husbands family, my own, the kids, wrap them, distribute them, figure out what to put in stockings, what to eat on the big day, fill out and mail cards and packages, get the business cards picked out and mailed and so on. I will admit that I used to enjoy this so I took it upon myself but now that I have two very young children, and a business to help run, I want to step back. I don't want to do everything. I don't even want to do half of it. This years holiday work has resulted in some bitterness on my part. I will admit to reading cards sent to us, smiling and then throwing the picture-less ones away just because I don't want them cluttering up my bar. I have no interest in getting the kids pictures done with Santa or doing any holiday activities that require any waiting in line. So my goal for the new year is to figure out how to step back and not spend so much time on the holidays. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.