HappyMama

I’ve joined the growing ranks of moms making home made yogurt. 

We buy a lot of it, everyone likes it and it’s good for you.  It’s one dairy food that doesn’t bother my one lactose-sensitive son.  I often serve it as “dessert” to the kids who eat their dinners - with frozen blueberries, and maybe something like a Kashi granola.  (Kudos to McDonald’s for the Fruit ‘n Yogurt Parfait idea!)  I don’t buy organic yogurt (too expensive) or the cheap Walmart kind that’s got artificial sweeteners and coloring in it.  I keep a quart of plain yogurt on hand for baking, it’s a good substitute for many things.

Making our own - which is insanely easy - will only save us about $100/year (a figure that I’m sure will climb each year, as the boys and the family grow), but here are the other advantages:

• It will always be fresh
• I will always know exactly what’s in it
• I won’t have to dispose or recycle about 80 of those plastic cartons each year, although I will have to purchase more milk, which also comes in plastic.

If anyone out there wants more info., feel free to ask away!

Lent is upon us!  I admit I was not especially looking forward to this season this year.   After all, St. JM Escriva once wrote something like “our mortifications should not mortify others…” and the effects of my current pregnancy are already doing just that.  I’m already grumpy, abstaining from alcohol, reducing my caffeine, and not eating many foods I enjoy because the thought of them still makes me want to gag.  [Although yesterday I was hit with an enormous craving for a Big Mac, which I indulged in for dinner - go figure!]  So the only thing “different” in my life right now is that I’m reading the daily meditations from In Conversation With God.  It’s an outstanding book.  I’m also going to quit blogging here for the remainder of Lent.  (And maybe beyond.  This pregnancy is really taking a toll on my mind right now.)  The only blogging I’ll be doing is here.  Ciao!

… is not always all that it’s cracked up to be!

My 15-mo-old in action: