Hearth and Home Notes - 4/4/11

It's been a busy day here, and it's been Monday all...day...long!

Overnight I experimented in making a double-batch of yogurt, but, unfortunately, it didn't work out so well. I think there should probably be adjustments made in how long, initially, to heat the milk, etc. The yogurt tastes okay, but it is extremely thin and kind of clumpy...almost curdled...looking. I will still use it...probably more in cooking than for fresh yogurt. I will purchase another container of Oikos Greek yogurt and start another batch as soon as possible and, from now on, I will only make one batch at a time...even if I do have to do it twice a week instead of once.

First thing this morning we had a refrigerator crisis. When I got up everything in the refrigerator was warm and several items in the freezer were defrosted. The fan was frozen in a block of ice, but in just a short time I had the cover off, the block of ice removed, and the fan running. I was so thankful that the motor wasn't burned out. The freezer was working great, but, after cleaning the fridge out I discovered that there was still ice blocking the flow of cold air to the refrigerator part. At the suggestion of a friend, I used a hair dryer to melt the ice and that seemed to do the trick. The fridge is now cool and running well. Praise the Lord!

As part of trying to use up items in the refrigerator and freezer that had thawed and/or needed used up right away I baked four loaves of bread, baked six dozen banana, oat-bran muffins, and made a big pot of beef stew. I froze part of the muffins for later, saved some for breakfasts this week, served the stew and bread for supper at home, and delivered stew and bread and muffins to two other households for supper as well. Very little of what was in the fridge had to be thrown out.

Despite all of this I managed to get in a good day of school with ds, ran errands for our own household, and my dad's, as well, and did two loads of laundry. I am very thankful to the Lord for keeping everything up and running...including ME! He is so good to us!

Well, it's been a long day and I'm going to say, "Good night!" I pray that all is well with you and yours. God bless all here.

Love and Hugs,
~Rebecca