Adventures in Yogurt-Making

Since leaving my full-time job when my daughter was born three years ago, I am constantly looking for ways to make things or do things inexpensively. In the last year or so, Pinterest has been my go-to way of finding recipes or instructions for these experiments. I still Google specific things I am looking for, but many times Pinterest has inspired me to do things I never would have thought possible.

Yogurt-making was never something I intended to do on a weekly basis, but thanks to Pinterest, I make a batch of yogurt nearly every week. I use my crock pot, making it super-easy to transform milk into yogurt. There are no strange ingredients to buy in order to get started. I've talked to people who use their oven and coolers, but I'm not that ambitious, so this crock pot method is perfect for me! Here is a link to the web site that I use:http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html

I was reluctant to try making yogurt because I had heard that homemade yogurt is thinner than commercially-made yogurt.  I love Chobani Greek Yogurt, which is extra-thick and creamy, so the thought of runny yogurt just wasn't appealing to me.  At $1.25 per cup, however, it is a bit costly when both my daughter and I are eating it on a daily basis.  I can usually buy a gallon of milk for $2.50.  I am able to make a half-gallon (~10 servings) of yogurt each week, costing just $1.25...the same as one 6 ounce serving of Chobani.                                                                                    

At first, I was discouraged with the consistency of the homemade yogurt, but have since discovered that adding slightly more "starter" (plain yogurt) during this process makes it much thicker, almost as thick as Chobani.  I don't measure anymore, but I add ~3/4 cup instead of 1/2 cup.  I don't add fruit to my yogurt until we're ready to eat it.  In fact, we usually eat it plain, as it has a much milder flavor than traditional plain yogurt.  We also like it sprinkled with granola or my daughter sometimes likes mini chocolate chips or M&Ms in hers.

This is how I make Homemade Yogurt, adapted from the instructions using the blog I referred to above:
Ingredients:
8 cups (half-gallon) of 2% Milk

1/2 cup live/active culture plain yogurt (I used Dannon Natural Plain Yogurt)

Instructions:

Plug in your crockpot and turn to low. Add a half gallon of milk. Cover and heat on low for 2 1/2 hours.

Unplug your crockpot. Leave the cover on, and let it sit for 3 hours.

When 3 hours have passed, scoop out 2 cups of the warmish milk and put it in a bowl. Whisk in 1/2 cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt. Then dump the bowl contents back into the crockpot. Stir to combine.

Put the lid back on your crockpot. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around the crock for insulation.

Let it sit for 8 hours.

Chill in a plastic container(s) in the refrigerator. Your fresh yogurt will last 7-10 days. Save 1/2 cup as a starter to make a new batch. 

A Christmas Blog Post in January :)

Every day, I am amazed at how God provides for my family.  Seriously.  Every time our family needs anything, we pray continuously and wait and God always shows us His providence.  My husband and I reflect often on how truly, abundantly blessed we are. When our family needs something, somehow God makes it happen. 

I try not to be a Scrooge, but I really have a strong desire to "simplify" Christmas.  We worship Jesus and celebrate His birth all year long, not just on December 25th.  My husband and I have had many arguments discussions about the necessity of giving our kids elaborate gifts and can't seem to agree on this issue.  In November, my children began talking about Christmas and which gifts they would like to receive.  As I listened, the gifts grew in price--my daughter wanted a Toy Story Woody doll, my youngest son wanted a really cool baseball bat and some throwing knives (I know, my thoughts exactly!), and my oldest son wanted a Taylor acoustic guitar.

In case you are unaware, Taylor acoustic guitars START at $600.  I immediately told him to choose something else because it isn't happening. Our son helps our children's librarian at our local library run a guitar club for kids and they give free guitar lessons to around twenty kids every Thursday and Friday.  He is a responsible, obedient, godly young man who loves the Lord, works hard at homeschooling and helps out around the house like no other teenage boy I've ever met and he loves playing the guitar.  We went to Guitar Center and let him play a bunch of different guitars and our good friend and worship leader brought over some guitars for him to play.  The joy on this little boy's face while playing these guitars was priceless. He even offered to put $100 towards this gift.  But spending this much on a single Christmas gift just didn't make sense for our family. 

My family jokes that if they need something, that I am usually able to knit them whatever it is or find a way to make it using Pinterest.  A few days later, we agreed that we would pray about this and see what God would do.  That's when the Etsy orders started rolling in. I was knitting non-stop and couldn't keep up!  I shipped birds nests and golf club covers and slippers and bunny rattles and hats all over the United States in December.  My sister got orders from some people locally and I knitted more slippers and more hats and gloves and stuffed animals.  A dear friend asked me if I would like to cater a brunch for her mom's group. More friends bought hats and birds nests.  A random check for $20 came in the mail because I'd purchased a certain kind of toilet cleaner (weird, right!?). I love that, in a way, I was able to knit my son a guitar!

During this time, other non-monetary bonuses kept popping up.  I "bought" Amazon gift cards with my Swagbucks balance.  If you haven't signed up for Swagbucks yet, please feel free to use my link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/sarahrobinson.  I used them to buy the really cool baseball bat and the throwing knives (these may end up being a temporary gift that is confiscated until he's a bit older!).  I even had enough left over to buy a Polly Pocket helicopter, two books, and a guitar tuner.   Then, Meijer had an mPerks offer for $30 off of my next general merchandise purchase.  Woody from Toy Story costs $39.99, so just $9.99 after the mPerks!  At this point, I am astounded that I've only spent roughly ten dollars of our "real" money on my children's Christmas gifts and gotten them everything they wanted.  I bought them a few other things as well, but I didn't spend anywhere near the amount I anticipated. 

Homeschooling 2012

Today is the end of our third week of homeschooling this school year.  A recent conversation with a friend who also home schools her children (and who has been a tremendous source of inspiration and encouragement!) made me think about my family's homeschooling journey.  Three years ago, after much prayer and research, my husband and I made the decision to home school.

Three years ago at this time, I was overwhelmed, holding a newborn baby, reminding my children to pay attention for the millionth time, traveling back and forth to the hospital to visit my husband who was recovering from yet another surgery, and certain that I made a terrible mistake by choosing to home school.  I thought back to the summer when we made this decision and was sure it must have been a moment of pregnancy craziness.  Everyone knows you shouldn't make life-altering decisions during the third trimester!  But, here I was in a big, heaping pile of the chaos as I tried to make sense of our homeschooling curriculum, grade books, planning, and teaching, while nursing a newborn, keeping my house semi-clean, going to soccer practices, doctor visits, and spending time in surgery waiting rooms.  It was one of those places in my life when I was doing lots of things, but none of them were being done well.  I've been in those places more than once and they're not a fun place to be!

I am glad that I had many family members and friends praying for us during that time!  My husband eventually came home from the hospital, the newborn baby adapted to our family and the process of planning and teaching and record-keeping became less-intimidating.  Three years later, I am sure that I heard God clearly when he spoke to my heart about homeschooling.  I feel very confident that I am not going to "mess up" my children's education.  I'm not easily frustrated when my lesson plan and actual school day do not even resemble one another.  I'm okay with giving my children Honey Bunches of Oats for lunch or knitting an Etsy order while one of the boys reads our Science lesson to save time.  I've found a Math curriculum that practically teaches itself.  And if my three-year-old empties her dresser and tries on every bathing suit she owns while I'm teaching History, that's fine by me.

The Robinson's house is much more relaxed these days.  When I remember those first few weeks of homeschooling and the circumstances surrounding them, I am reminded of how blessed I am today.  My husband is as healthy as he can be (seasonal changes are never easy for Crohn's Disease) and he's not in the hospital.  My kids are all three becoming responsible, respectful, intelligent, kind, compassionate, wonderful warriors for Christ.  I am keeping busy with just the right amount of Etsy orders.  And most importantly, God is in the center of all of this.  We still have our days when nothing I do can make my children remember how to spell the word "substitute" or no one can remember what the lowest common denominator means, someone older than age five asks me if December comes after October and I wonder if a mother's brain can actually explode.  I have moments when I feel like I am not teaching the right material or that I don't have enough time to teach my kids everything I want them to learn.  Experience and time have shown me that I need only to trust God and everything will work out just the way he planned.

Our memory verse this week was Philippians 4:19: "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."  I'm grateful for His faithfulness and his provision in ALL circumstances.  Thankfully He gave me just enough strength and hope to continue teaching our kids.  It would have been extremely easy to give up on homeschooling and send my kids back to public schools, where they would receive an education, along with exposure to the undesirable things of this world that we work so hard to protect and shelter them from.  Homeschooling is hard work, but the rewards are better than anything I ever imagined.  

My Would-Be Due Date: August 29, 2012

Since my miscarriage in January, not a single day (hour maybe?) has gone by that I haven't thought about it.  Most of the time, it's just a passing thought, as I think about how far along I'd be or how big the baby would be.  But sometimes, it overwhelms me so much that I find my heart breaking all over again.  This week is proving to be especially hard for me since our baby was due on August 29th.  Seven months later and the thought that I should be getting ready to bring a baby home from the hospital is still floating around in my mind.

Yesterday, as I played baby dolls with my daughter and watched how loving and sweet she is with pretend babies, I lost it.  She often asks me for a friend and points out that Ian and Brodie are friends, but she doesn't have a sister.  Ellery asked me if I was crying because I missed Great Papa. I know she was trying to remember a time in her life when she had seen me this upset and my grandpa's funeral came into her mind.  I told her I was just sad and she said, "It's okay, Momma.  You will see Papa again someday.  He's with Jesus."

I thanked God for the comfort he sent to me in the words of a two-year-old.  I had the World's Most Wonderful Grandpa and I thought of him holding my baby in Heaven.  A few days before he died in June, he told me he wanted to hold my "other baby, the baby girl."  When I told him Ellery is the only baby girl I have, he told me I was wrong and he would hold my other baby later.  This delightful old man said lots of things that didn't make sense toward the end of his life, so I didn't think much of it.  But now I'm thankful for his seemingly crazy talk.  And I am thankful I have a grandpa who walked with Christ, who is now in Heaven loving on the baby I haven't gotten to meet yet.

Often, I wonder about those who don't know Christ.  How do they make it through each day?  How do they endure a miscarriage with no hope of ever seeing their baby in Heaven?  Anger and sadness must overtake their lives.  Even on my hardest days of healing from this loss, I know that God's hands are wrapped around my life and He loves me.  How amazing and wonderful to know that the Creator of the entire universe has chosen me to be His child and he holds every tear I've ever cried.

I always seem to turn to Psalms when I need encouragement.  There is always a verse that speaks directly to my heart.  Psalm 62:1-2 says:  "Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.  From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I."

What an awesome reminder that when we are feeling overwhelmed, we need to seek God and his wisdom, rather than attempt to figure it out on our own.  I may never know why my miscarriage happened, but I know the One who does.  And I trust Him.

Target Loves Me So Much They Pay Me To Shop There...

I love Target.  The Target store nearest to my house is just close enough to shop there frequently, but just far enough so that I am not tempted to go there daily.  Last week was an especially fun Target shopping trip for me because it's "Back-to-School" sale time and they were giving things away...after coupons anyway.  Here is what I got for free last week, in addition to cheap toilet paper, granola bars and diapers:  (2) packages of Papermate pens, (3) twin-packs of RoseArt glue sticks, (6) 24-packs of RoseArt crayons (technically 9 packages of crayons, but I shared one of my coupons with another customer so that she got 3 packs for free), (2) Up & Up brand eye drops, and (2) packages of Hershey's Simple Pleasures chocolates.

My sweet cashier, Libby, even had another employee bring me the two packages of chocolates at the cash register because I couldn't find them while I was shopping.  For a Momma shopping with three children, one of whom was barefoot, covered in Dora the Explorer stickers that she found in my purse, and is eating one of the granola bars we haven't bought yet, this act of kindness is VERY much appreciated.  She also is a super-fast coupon scanner.  Libby deserves a raise. 

These fun freebies made the purchase of new soccer cleats for Brodie a little less unpleasant.  Dunham's never has their $17.99 sale-priced cleats in stock in Brodie's size, so we always end up with the more expensive kind.  Why do little boys' feet grow so quickly!? 

Farmer's Markets and Knitting

Pre-Farmer's Market table set up in the living room.

My kids and I decided to try selling some of the items from my Etsy shop at our local farmer's markets this weekend.  Friday, I set up a booth in Plainwell and sold absolutely nothing.  I did barter with another vendor who wanted a rattle for his newborn son, so my family got some cinnamon swirl bread to enjoy.  There were not many potential customers, though I did share a few of my business cards with people.  I also finished knitting some slippers that I'd been working on.  And the little girl in the booth next door was so intrigued with my knitting that she spent the entire day watching me and talking to me.  She was eight years old and my favorite quote from her after she asked me how old I was, "Oh, when I think of people who are, like in their thirties, I think they're usually taller than you are." :)  She also shared with me *possibly* too much information about her family and I shared with her the love of Christ, so overall the day was a success.

Saturday morning, my three sweet children awoke early and helped me set up a booth at the Otsego Farmer's Market.  I made chocolate-covered pretzels and watermelon-shaped Rice Krispies treats for them to sell, along with a few dozen eggs from our backyard chickens.  Since they only played video games the night before while I prepared these treats and they got to keep all of the profits, I'd say this was a good deal for them!  Armed with My Little Ponies, baby dolls, books, crayons, and snacks, I envisioned my smiling boys selling treats, my daughter playing quietly nearby, and people buying up all of the items from my Etsy shop before lunchtime.

Instead, I sold just a few items from my shop and my boys sold all of their treats and brown eggs.  I did meet a lot of people who loved my work and want to place special orders for things that I was selling in different sizes.  I learned that people don't bring lots of cash to farmer's markets, so purchasing sweaters and hats is difficult. Thankfully, many people took business cards and seemed truly interested in making a purchase.

 My boys were fascinated by the older man next to us, though I only found this out later in the evening when they were sharing the details of their day with my husband.  His name was Mel and he was a watermelon expert.  He was a character of a man who gets his watermelon seeds from Arkansas.  He gifted us with a watermelon because "those kids are so nice." As we were packing up, a couple of other extremely generous vendors shared cucumbers and sweet corn with us as well.

I decided to wrap things up a bit early when I noticed my daughter playing in the back of our vehicle...without her clothes on.  Naked toddlers and farmer's markets aren't a good match.

                                                                                                                        

A Saturday of Groupons, Free Underwear, $3 Target Shirts, and Owls

I love Saturdays when our family is able to have fun and not spend tons of money.  This past Saturday was one of those.  While some of us may have had more fun than others, we were all together, doing something.  This summer has been a HUGE blessing to our family, mostly because this is the first summer in three years that my husband has not had to endure abdominal surgery.  For a while, we were spending both spring and summer vacations in hospital rooms and doctor's offices. So, no matter what we do, at least we aren't cooped up in a hospital!

Last month, I purchased a Groupon for an annual membership to the Kingman Museum in Battle Creek and we needed to go there to pick up our membership cards.  The cost was $19, which is a GREAT deal, but I had a $5 off offer from Groupon, making it just $14!  It's the little things that make this Momma happy.  The Kingman Museum is just an "okay" museum.  But, with this membership comes a reciprocal membership to many museums in every state, including the Field Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.  Our plan, when we began homeschooling in 2010, was to go to the Chicago-area museums during the first week of school every year, as a kickoff to the school year.  Thank you, Groupon for saving us a lot of money on this upcoming trip!  If you use my referral link (http://www.groupon.com//raf/UserReferral_rp/121015/10r1act/lk/uu27177111) I earn $10 when you purchase YOUR first Groupon. :)

Our first stop was a nearby mall.  I despise the mall.  We were only there because Victoria's Secret sent me a coupon for a free pair of underwear and Bath & Body Works had a Facebook offer for a free bottle of lotion and we were already in the same area as this mall.  My oldest son also had a gift card for Dunham's Sports and needed to go there to buy a ShakeWeight and a pair of shorts.  These items will likely end up in a garage sale for a quarter in a few years.  I imagine his future apartment will be cluttered with all kinds of those "As Seen on TV" products...and airsoft guns and fast food wrappers. As I'm thinking these thoughts, I try to be encouraging about his decision and we joke about what huge muscles he will have "in just seven minutes a day".

After collecting my free gifts, my children were hungry.  I stopped at Target to pick up "picnic food", aka: a loaf of bread, some lunch meat, and a bag of Target brand snack mix.  While I was there, I found two shirts on sale for $6 each.  I had two $3 off coupons, making each shirt just $3!  After ignoring discontent teenage comments about going to Taco Bell like normal people, we had a lovely picnic lunch at some picnic tables outside of the museum.  There was a big hill that Ellery loved running down.  She also decided that this was a lovely spot to poop, so after a diaper change and a couple of family pictures, we made our way to our original destination.  

We gave our membership information to the adorable, friendly volunteer at the Kingman Museum.  She gave each of our children a sea shell and a tiny piece of dinosaur bone.  We savored the air conditioning for a few minutes as we took a quick look at the exhibits, before venturing back into the 92-degree day. 

When we arrived home, I sewed the finishing touches onto an owl I had knitted and listed it in my Etsy shop.  This owl is slightly different from the owls I've made in the past, but I think I like it better.  I'm thinking about making these owls in different colors, but haven't had time to experiment yet.  Here is a link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/104405736/knitted-chocolate-owl