Haggard Mom

I.Hate.Being.Sick.
Haven't received my Thieves yet. I really need it right now. :-(

I was really looking forward to my NyQuil-induced death sleep last night... except that it was interrupted by my son. Three times. I really need to figure out what is up with that...

Feeling a bit guilty, since the preschool was (somewhat) unexpectedly minus a parent helper today, and I had some other things to do so I didn't stay...

Also feeling a little annoyed that I have to listen to The Husband SNORE while I am here on the computer... I was temped to go yank on his foot and say 'GET OUT OF BED, YOU BUM', but decided that would probably be mean. :-)

Coralie still hasn't gone to the bathroom, this is day #4. She had about 10 oz of a blueberry smoothie with yogurt and flax meal yesterday, and pineapple with her breakfast this morning. Gave her 6 Pedialax tabs last night (the maximum dose) but still no go. I am not liking where this is going... (or not going, depending on how you look at it) :-(

Got my tuna today, yay! 12 cans of regular, 5 cans of smoked, all LOCAL. Yum-o.

Up too late again...
It was an ok day today, I did all the things on my list and left it at that. It was a nice feeling, to be able to say 'Well, that's all I needed to do today, so it's ok to stop there'.
Coralie and I had a pretty good day until after she got home from Girl Scouts... I knew she hadn't gone #2 today, and I could tell she needed to go, so I told her she really needed to do it. At that time of day, it's pretty much guaranteed to be an argument. It was. But I decided that I was *not* getting sucked into her melodrama. So, when she started to complain about how she was 'tired of sitting on the can' etc. I ignored her. When she started to get loud, I left the room. She followed me around the house, trying to bait me. I just said, 'I am upset, and I really don't feel like talking to you right now'. I went about my business. She started playing with her toy cars in the bathroom, and I asked her to take them out, which she did. At the speed of snail. Eventually, I said, 'Wow, look at the time, you sure are going to be tired tomorrow.' She asked me what time it was, I told her, she decided it was too late to read and that she better get ready for bed. By this time, I've decided that she can be in charge of her own business this evening, so I got my pj's and got in the shower. She asked me if she could put her self to bed. When I was done, she was in bed, with her alarm set. So, in the end, she didn't go to the bathroom, but we didn't have a big blowup about it either. Why can't I let this go??? Truly, I don't know. All I know is, I have a child who is almost 7, and is in some ways still toilet training. I wish I knew how to get past it, or to summon the strength to completely let go and let her deal with the consequences. I suppose part of my problem is that I don't want her to make herself sick. People might say that a child wouldn't do that to themselves at this age, but those people don't know my daughter. Child has a will of steel, seriously.
Once again I've been thinking about how I can have a stronger boundary with the kids regarding our bedroom. Inspired by having to round up a bunch of toys in there today. I think, 'How did this happen? When did our room become theirs too??' I don't want them to feel like they can't be in there, but I sure would like to have my own space. I remember that I would never even dream of actually playing in my parent's room when I was a kid... it was just an unspoken thing, that was their space. But how is it that I knew that then, but my kids don't now?? I don't know...

It's true, I have rescued the nut yogurt! A dish towel in a sieve and another trip through the blender, and voila!
Some hard-core-sour raw cashew yogurt.
Of course, because of the straining, I went from 5 jars down to 2...

Today was a pretty good day... I got some time to myself, so I worked on my meal plan and schedule for the week. I never quite finish, but at least I get a partial framework going. So, *some* days will be sort of organized, LOL.

Made a loaf of banana blueberry coconut bread. Left out the walnuts, added some almond meal, used some of my failed nut yogurt. Had to bake it for a realllly long time, because the recipe just said '2 bananas', but my two bananas were way huge. Still, it came out really good.

I also made oatmeal for the week last night in the crock pot. I was able to throw in the remains of two open jars of applesauce too. It tastes fine, but I think next time I'll try steel cut oats or Irish oats. Regular oats just get too pasty for me in the crock pot. Still, it will be easy breakfast this week.

So, the nut yogurt didn't turn out. Well, not for the purpose I intended, anyway. It didn't set, so what I have is basically sour nut milk. I can use it for cooking, no problem. In fact, I am going to use some today for banana blueberry muffins...
I've been doing some more research on cultures, and have come to the conclusion that I am just going to have to go back to the goat milk and try a different type of culture. A lovely friend of mine directed me to Cultures for Health, so I believe I will try their Chevre starter. Apparently, if I omit the straining step I will have a nice goat yogurt. And, I won't need the yogurt maker (which, I think, is the source of all my troubles anyway).

Some interesting things I saw today... Coralie got me up at the unholy hour of 7 am (damn you, daylight savings time!), which is so wrong on a Sunday... anyway, I went downstairs, and saw a Sharp-Shinned Hawk sitting on my back fence. I have never seen one down so low, usually they stay at the tops of the trees. It eventually went after something in my neighbors yard.
Also, there was a Spotted Towhee on my corn cob feeder... this is unusual because they are ground feeders, and this is the first year that I have actually seen them go up to feed. They have been in the suet feeder too.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

So, the story goes, you can make yogurt out of raw nuts. So, there is cashew yogurt in the yogurt maker. We shall see if this pans out. If not, it will be my fifth and final attempt at making my own non-cow's milk yogurt, after which I officially give up. Besides, that So Delicious coconut milk yogurt is awfully good and Keelan loves it... he doesn't know that it's coconut, I think he would have been suspicious of it (he won't eat shredded coconut), but he can't read yet so I'm just going to let it be. :-D

I am enjoying reading and trying recipes from this blog- For the Love of Cooking
I made the granola, and it is *wonderful*. Well, Keelan and I like it, Coralie said it was gross. :-) Not enough sugar, probably...

Keelan is sick... this is the first one he's had in many months, which is good. Still, because of his past health history I remain unsure of how to treat his symptoms... it *is* cold and flu season, so it would be perfectly reasonable for him to have caught a cold, and there haven't been any dramatic changes in his diet, still I find myself wondering if he's had too much dairy, cumulatively. He's got a runny nose, and now a productive cough, still no fever. He was supposed to go to the pumpkin patch today on a school field trip, but with the onset of the coughing and three trips out of bed last night, I kept him home today. And frankly, after three night-awakenings and listening to him cough in his sleep, I really didn't want to go anywhere today. In fact, I arranged a store-pickup grocery order at New Seasons, because I really need some stuff (bacon- important! :-) but I just don't feel like shopping today. Didn't make it to the gym either. The upside is, since I've bailed out on a couple of things today, I won't be frantically racing around this afternoon. Got my dairy order out, I'm at home so I won't be late for Bible study trying to get Keelan home from school in time. I'll get Coralie from school this afternoon, and we'll go pick up the groceries from New Seasons.

New Adventure in Breakfast Food: a modified cake recipe. I have this fantastic new cookbook of Amish recipes. In it is a recipe for pumpkin cake. Now, the Amish eat a *lot* of fat, which is ok for them because they aren't sedentary. So the original recipe calls for 4 eggs, 1 1/2 cups of oil, and 2 cups of sugar. I kept the eggs, used 1/2 c of oil, 1 c of applesauce, and 1 c of sugar. I also added about 1/2 c of protein powder. I made 18 muffins (or would that be cupcakes??) and one loaf. It turned out quite good... I felt that I was able to cut out at least some of the fat without making them rubbery (which is why I hate low fat muffin recipes). I figured with that many eggs, a reduction in the oil wouldn't hurt. I also used whole wheat flour and threw in a handful of flax meal. We're all enjoying them.

Another recipe I tried was for eggplant. I really don't like eggplant at all. It's mostly a texture thing. This recipe was not low fat at all, but it did get me to eat eggplant. I had to modify the recipe some based on what I had, but it was a scant 2 c mashed cooked eggplant, 1 1/2 c shredded cheese, 1 c toasted bread cubes, 1/3 stick of butter, 1 egg. I put it in ramekins with buttered bread crumbs on top. The original recipe called for more butter and a lot more bread, but I just didn't have it on hand. Didn't need it anyway. It turned out well, but I think if I made it again, I'd puree the eggplant. I just can't stand the texture of it. The kids both tried it and said they didn't like it. (surprise!)

Something to check out: Jack's Country Store. We are seriously considering a vacation to Ocean Park, WA so we can visit the physical store, LOL. I love buying from them.