Gummy Bear Science

Yesterday, Tuesday, is science day here at preschool home-school. I went to my favorite resource, Pinterest, and looked up fun science experiments. There are tons of cool choices, and yes, I've made a pin board for future classes and ideas. 

The Gummy Bear absorbtion experiment was the one we could do with supplies here at home. 

Luckily, the gummy bears that we had on-hand were from the Carter administration, so they were adequately prepared to take on a good bit of water for a drastic change.

The hardest part of the experiment was keeping the little's hands off them, keeping them from eating the control group, keeping them from eating the experiment, and keeping them from stirring the gummy bears.

I used a clear plastic reusable container and put a few inches of cool tap water in it. Then placed the rock solid (they honestly made a thump sound when they hit the bottom) gummy bears into the water. 

The 5 year old and 3 year old were really very good about the experiment. They would go running to check on it every 30 minutes or so, exclaim over what they saw, then go back to building with their blocks or coloring.

I started to throw it out last night after they went to bed, thinking they would dissolve completely in the water over night, but I didn't throw them away, and they didn't dissolve. The picture above is from the next morning. Both kids were very excited to see what happened over night, and we're very impressed with how much water they had absorbed.

The very next thing they said was, "can we eat them now?". 

We also learned that gummy bears that have been soaked in water for about 20 hours are very soft and squishy.

And slippery!

They're pretty hard to pick up, in fact.

VERY HARD to pick up.

Mommy ended up helping...

And then they were gone. The control group was left. Both little's wanted to try to eat them, but both spit them out. I would have to guess we were more along the side of the consistency of Jolly Rancher's than gummy bears, at this point in their life cycle.

So there we have the gummy bear absorbtion experiment. I need to pick up food coloring for next weeks class, so keep an eye out for our color experiments.

Have fun, and remember to play with your food!

Sewing Knees

I needed to break out the needle and thread the other night to patch a favorite stuffed animal. Emergency medical sewturing was needed, so as a little girl with huge blue eyes looked on, I carefully sewed up a lambs front paw.

This sudenly sparked the sewing bug, so I got out a project I've been meaning to tackle for a long time. Our son is rough in his jeans. The knees are almost always blown out before he grows out of them, but I keep him in them as long as I can. I'm cheap. I don't want to throw away a perfectly good pair of jeans that just need a bit of mending. Plus, I can just patch the knees and then his little sister can wear them.

Remember the cheap part? I also keep just about every random article of fabric for "projects". I'm SURE I'm going to make a T-Shirt quilt for my husband from all his 2,000 antique T-Shirts. I also want to make blankets for the kids out of their old baby blankets and uber cute baby clothes that were "special". This being said, I still have crib sheets too because they are nice large pieces of fabric for these "projects" I have in mind.

So I have blue jeans with holes in the knees and pink Minnie Mouse fabric from a crib sheet. Viola! Knee patches. I found the spot in the elastic where it was sewn together, made a small snip in the hem to get to it, then pulled it free in one long piece. (Kept, of course, for another project.) I then cut 2 squares from the sheet and folded them into 4 pieces for durability, and sewed them to the inside of the holy knee. I used purple thread, and left it looking hand done. I didn't futz over making it look professional or exact. And I think they are PERFECT! Here are pictures from the 2 pair I've finished.

Day 5 of GNC "Detox & "Cleanse", and it's over because it's crap.

In my carbohydrate and sugar overload last night, I realized after climbing into bed that I had forgotten my PM pack. I took it this morning, and haven't noticed ANYTHING different from yesterday. In fact, after discovering the gluten in the 2 pills, and eliminating them from the collection, there is really nothing to report...shall we say...biologically in the plumbing.

The good news about the ridiculous dinner I had last night is that I didn't gain anything. I didn't lose, but didn't gain, so I call that a draw. Not a win, and not a loss.

Woke up early this morning and couldn't go back to sleep, so I came on downstairs for coffee, a fire, and the morning news. I made bacon in the oven, and it was the BEST BATCH EVER! My 3 year old disappeared and was quiet for too long before I realized she had helped herself to the chewy batch I made for my Honey. He likes it a little less "done" than I do. I like mine about 4.12 seconds shy of burnt. I don't want any "give" in my bacon at all. 

The kids had cereal and bacon for breakfast. I just had my coffee and bacon. 

We dropped Boo off at martial arts practice, and then GG and I drove across town to the drive through Starbucks. I ordered a sugar free vanilla skim latte, then we drove back to pick up The Boo. Perfect timing, and he was VERY excited that he got to use 2 nunchucks today. 

It's 1:30, and everyone has had lunch. The kids their favorite versions of PB&J. GG likes hers sans J. Boo likes his "triple decker" style, which I made one day when we had 5 pieces of bread left. 2 went to GG's sandwich and with 3 left over, I made Boo a 3-piece sandwich. He LOVED it. I had my regular lettuce roast beef wrap and seltzer water.

Supper was a hamburger patty at the neighborhood Halloween block party. And gin and 7-up. 

The next morning, after eating almost nothing, and drinking the hard stuff, I was not feeling very awesome. Sunday was a fairly normal day, a lot like the others. He kids wake me up, I feed them, have coffee, then have some breakfast a little later, or skip on until lunch. Supper was flank steak and baked oven fries.

On Monday, I wasn't feeling well, but not like the headache from Sunday morning. My tummy hurt. Up early with the kids, let my Honey sleep in, then went to a Dr appt check up, then home to work on projects with the family. Upon coming home, I spent most of the rest of the day running to the potty. My husband took the kids to the gym around mid-afternoon, and I was feeling so awful. That I thought I may have caught the flu. I checked my temp, and I was normal, but I sure wasn't feeling normal. Everything hurt. Skin, hair, tummy, and I was COLD. I'm never cold. The back door was open, and I finally shut it and went to the thermostat to verify my suspicion that it was clearly in the 40's in the house. Imagine my surprise to discover it was 71! 

I considered putting a chicken in the oven, then sending my Honey a text to tell him I was going to bed, and that dinner was in the oven, with a reminder of what temp to cook the bird. While I was prepping the chicken, I felt nauseous, and really thought I was going to barf all over the kitchen. But slowly, I felt better. I even had supper with the family, and it was delicious. But, 20 minutes after supper,  I was back in the potty feeling terrible again. Off to bed for me.

Today is Tuesday, and things are the same. After eating, I feel terrible. Then after several hours, I feel well again, and even a little hungry. I eat, and feel horrible again for a few hours, then a little better, then fine. Then I eat, and it starts over. The scale-obsessed side of me doesn't mind so much. The mommy that needs to get things done, who can't go to bed because her kids will destroy the house, and is counting down the minutes until Daddy comes home (181 until he's off work, then another 64 after that before he's home), is quite over this bug, and is looking forward to a happy tummy, hopefully tomorrow.

Oh, and the detox & cleanse set was nothing more than a gigantic waste of time, money, and hope. If anything, it cleaned out the things in my system that would have fought off this bug. 

Day 4 of GNC "Cleanse & Detox"

It's 11:21 am, and I'm just now having my breakfast Shakeology shake. I took my AM vitamin pack when the boy woke up and wanted his breakfast. I had my coffee while he was eating his breakfast, then the girl came down for hers. The kids started playing with play dough and I went up to switch, fold, and put away a load of laundry. I vacuumed the master bedroom floor before starting so I had a dog-hair-free place to fold and sort. Dishes are done, kids have now had their lunches, and the dryer is telling me it thinks it's done with this load. It is not done. It takes our dryer at least 2 full cycles to really dry a load. Especially if it has jeans, sweatshirts, or towels in it.

I lost a little again yesterday. I think I'm down 2 in 3 days, which isn't bad. 

Lunch was my triple decker lettuce and roast beef wrap. And what is this? It's 5:30, and I didn't have celery and peanut butter today! Whoop Whoop! Today has been a day of tieing up loose ends around the house. Complete (well, a solid 93.68%) laundry "doing", folding, hanging, and putting away. I sewed pink flowery patches into my sons holy-knee jeans for hand-me-downs for my daughter. I swept a lot. It seemed like I was sweeping a good part of both yesterday and today. Inside, the back deck, the deck stairs, the front porch, the front steps... And yet there is still dog and cat hair, and rouge play dough nuggets still in sight. 

Tonight's supper will be flank steak, unless my Honey vetoes and wants to order in. The only things for a gluten free couple to eat via delivery are freakin' expensive, so as much as I love the ease of ordering out, I feel both guilty about my waist line, and the pocket book when it's over.

Well, he didn't want flank steak, or ANYTHING when he got home, so I made gluten free spaghetti noodles with butter, olive oil, pepper, and fresh rosemary. Then a bowl of chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate sauce, toffee bits, and Reese's pieces. Half way through I was already feeling nasty, so I gave it to our son. 

I feel GROSS!! Ugh. Bad idea Carter Ann! BAD IDEA!

Day 3 of GNC "Detox & Cleanse"

Let me be clear, I am NOT following the suggested daily eating plan in the package. I picked one that would still allow me to eat pretty much normally. Normal for me is meats and veggies. I'm not a bad eater, I'm an A LOT eater. Portion sizes are my issue. Our kids were asking in swimming class what their favorite flavor of ice cream was, and neither of them answered. They actually looked over at me to see if I could help with the answer. Snacks in our house are cheese and fruit. 

The scale this morning showed a re-gain of 1.8 of yesterday's 2.0 loss, but with the amount of peanut butter I ate mid-day, and 3 glasses of wine last night, I'm not surprised. But again...remember...this is why I like weighing daily! I now know EXACTLY what peanut butter and wine do to "my" body. Also, please remember that EVERY "body" is different. Chemistry is different and unique in each creature, and comparing ourselves to one another is about as useful as comparing a swimming pool to a coffee table.

Kid 1 was up before 7:00, so we came down for his breakfast and my coffee. I took my AM packet and picked out the one with the wheat. I've had 1 cup of pumpkin coffee and sugar free pumpkin creamer so far. I'll be getting another as soon as I finish my morning notes here. 

If you're like most people, when you hear of a "cleanse" you think about the poops that will ensue. Here's a brief update. If you don't care to know this much about the process, skip to the next paragraph. Day 1, I felt the need to go, but no cramping, gas pains, or other ill effects. Day 2, each trip to the potty was met with a little poopies, but it wasn't an, "Oh my God! I have to go NOW!" In fact, there hasn't been any of those at all. I'm perfectly capable of going about my daily activities without fear of being out running errands and needing to immediately find a potty. And then, keep in mind, that on days 1 and half of day 2, I was taking the vitamins that contained wheat, so part of the past 2 days potty visits could have been attributed to that.

It's 1:00, and we're home from the gym/swimming. The kids have swim lessons and I wore my suit today and swam laps while they were in class. After making the kids' PB&J's, I made a triple decker roast beef lettuce wrap. Leaf of romaine lettuce, mayo, thin sliced deli roast beef (x3) stacked and rolled up. AWESOME. However, I'm still hungry. Trying to think of what else to eat...

I had more celery and PB. It's my favorite snack. Soft, crunchy, warm, cool, sweet, salty. Lordy it's awesome.

Dinner for me was a left over pork chop from last nights supper, cut up and put on a bed of chopped romaine lettuce with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Green tea and seltzer water to drink. I remembered my dinner time vitamins, minus the one with gluten, of course, and then my Honey and I went to bed and watched 2 episodes of Scandal on Netflix. We're about mid-way through season 2 now.

Leftover Stew

Tonight's supper wasn't so much a recipe, but a method. We had leftover pork roast from last night's slow cooker awesomeness, and both leftover pork tenderloin and leftover roasted chicken from this week all in the fridge. There wasn't enough to give everyone at the table the same thing of any one of the above, but by combining them, I was able to make an AWESOME stew. 

I started with your standard onion, carrot, and celery mixture in olive oil, and started to soften them over medium heat. I buy the celery bunches that have the tops still on them. They are cheeper than the "hearts" only, and I always use the leaves and tops in soups, stocks and stews. I chopped one onion, about a cup of celery tops, and about another cup or 2 of chopped baby carrots, which we always have around for the kids snacks, and my Honey's hummus addiction. While they were happily mingling in the Dutch oven, I cut up the leftover meat trio and then put that I as well. I took a quart of homemade chicken stock out of the freezer and placed that in the pot too. Yes, still frozen. It will melt while the veggies continue to soften, and eventually everything simmers beautifully. I added salt to taste and a little jarred pesto, then covered it and left it alone while I went put back to push the kids in the swings.

I checked on it after about 30 minutes, and it seemed a little "flat", so I added liquid smoke. It seemed a little thin, so I took a bag of gluten free crackers that were mostly crumbs anyway, and I began to crush them. My 5 year old thought this looked like TONS of fun, so I gave him the bag, and he helped me crush the last of the remaining crackers. He then got his stool, and added the crumbs to the pot. I stirred, and it instantly reminded me of chicken tortilla soup...but with 2/3 pork.

When my Honey got home from work, I put on a pot of brown rice, and tasted the stew again. It needed a touch of both acid and sweetness. So, one of my favorite ingredients went in, balsamic vinegar. When I went back to theAnd then, it was PERFECT! 

We each ate it a little differently. The 3 year old liked hers "separate". Rice on one side of the bowl and stew on the other. The 5 year old boy liked it mixed, but nothing added. The Daddy person liked it with crushed red peppers, and I put black pepper and olive oil on mine.

There is enough for him to take it to work with him tomorrow for lunch, and more that I can freeze for his lunches later this fall too. I just have to remember to label it! I'm terrible about forgetting what I put in the freezer...

So remember, a meal can be just the beginning. Someone else's recipe is nothing more than a good start. Eat what you like, and it's ok if you don't always like what you make.