Yogurt Making

Yesterday I made yogurt for the second time. It is so easy and I can't believe I waited so long to try making it! You might ask why I would bother making my own yogurt. 1. It is fun to see if you can make something from scratch. 2. For me, the reasons were health and economics. We go through A LOT of yogurt in our house. I have been buying various fruit flavors in the large container for quite a while. Since it was yogurt and fruit, I thought it was pretty healthy for us. Then one day I looked at the label a little closer and saw all the sugar and artificial ingredients added! Eating plain yogurt still takes a little getting used to when you have had the sugary stuff for so long, but we add a little jam or some granola cereal and it is really good. Give it a try!

There are lots of ways to make yogurt, but this is how I have been doing it with good results:

• First, I warm 1/2 gallon of milk to 180 degrees.
• Once the milk has reached 180 degrees, I take it off the stove and cool it to 110 degrees. I do this by filling the sink with a little cold water and put the pan in the water, careful to not get any water in the milk.

• Next I add the starter. The first time I used store bought plain yogurt and added 1 cup to the 1/2 gallon of milk. This time I just used some left over yogurt from my first batch.
• Mix well and pour into a very clean 1/2 gallon jar or smaller jars.

• Now this is where the magic happens! With the milk and starter well mixed, I place the jar in an insulated cooler with a heating pad wrapped around it. I turn the heating pad to medium heat and zip the top of the insulated cooler. I leave the lid off the jar (I don't know if that matters or not, but I don't want extra moisure in there). I then let this sit and incubate for 6-8 hours.

And there we have it-yogurt!

Crayola Factory

Last week was plagued by stomach illness in our house and today it looks like it has come back for a second round.
On Saturday, it appeared that everyone was on the mend-well enough anyway to take a little roadtrip to Easton, PA.  We had been planning to go to the Crayola Factory for several weeks, but something such the weather usually postponed our plans. The nice thing about the Crayola Factory is that there is another museum to visit in the same building and admission price includes both museums.

The Crayola Factory is set up with many different stations for kids-or kids at heart-to try out Crayola products and make different projects. They also have a little theatre where they do live demonstrations of how crayons and markers are made in the factory.

The National Canal Museum is housed in the same building as the Crayola Factory. Here vistors can learn more about canal history with lots of hands-on learning.

We had a great time-and can't wait for our next family roadtrip!

Valentine's Day

We had a busy weekend with lots of activity for the boys and a even a birthday party to attend.  We forwent the typical commercial valentines and decided to design and make our own valentines this year for Isaac's class party. Isaac got exactly 6 of 20 valentines done before he decided he didn't want to do anymore!  So, I finished them for him and then this morning he wrote his name and his classmate's name on them. They turned out nice and I am proud of him (and myself!) for sticking with it. When he came home today and we looked at all the valentines he got I was surprised to find he was the only one in his whole class to make homemade cards.
We did other homemade things this weekend, but more about that later!
Wishing you a very happy Valentine's Day :)

This moment..........

A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, lovely moment I want to remember. Inspired by soulemama.

Samuel spends his days pulling as much stuff out of bookshelves and cabinets as he can. When I put things away, it isn't long before he makes another round to pull things out again. Lately he is having lots of fun exploring the kitchen and discovered that pot lids make very good cymbals-maybe all that tagging along to big brother's piano lessons is going to pay off!

This moment..........

A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, lovely moment I want to remember. Inspired by soulemama.

Last night Isaac wanted to take a bath with his baby brother and he had the best time making him laugh by acting goofy.