2nd week of April

Thinking back on what's been happening since we got home from our trip, the thing that stands out the most is I've been sick.  I don't know why, but I have been sick more than I have been healthy this winter.  Every time a virus encounters one of our family members, they're sick for a few days while I struggle on with it for a week or more.  These daily green smoothies are supposed to boost the immune system, not destroy it!  Currently, I'm battling a cold/sore throat and I have a very sore spot on my back that I suspect is MRSA.  Fun!

Kefir
In an attempt to increase the nutrition in my green smoothies, I started using Kefir last month.  Kefir is a pro-biotic drink full of healthy bacterias (30-35 different types) and yeasts.  Compared to yogurt, it's actually better for you.  Yogurt helps feed the healthy bacterias in your gut.  Kefir can actually help colonize those bacterias.  You can make milk kefir or water kefir. 

It's easily made on the counter with just a glass jar, milk (or water and sugar), and some "kefir grains".  I bought my grains from Cultures for Health.   How easy is it to make?  The water grains are idiot proof.  I just dissolve 1/4 cup of sugar in 1 quart of water, add the grains (which look like translucent pieces of rice)  and leave it on the counter for 48 hours.  The grains eat up the sugar and turn the water into a beverage with a slight fizz and yeasty flavor.  I've read that I could take that beverage, add juice, tightly cap it and make "soda pop".  I haven't gotten that fancy yet.  I just use it as the base of my green smoothies. 

The milk grains are also easy to use.  I add the grains (which look like small curd cottage cheese) to a quart of milk, leave it on the counter for 12-24 hours and the milk gets thick and tangy.  I strain out the grains through a mesh strainer and can use them right away to make a next batch.  The milk kefir isn't hard to make, the trick lies in realizing when it's ready.  If I wait too long, the kefir gets really thick and it's harder to strain out the grains.  The grains will last indefinitely as long as I keep up the process.  If I want to take a break, I can store them in the fridge and they "go to sleep". 

I was ending up with too much kefir so I started blending the milk kefir with frozen strawberries and maple syrup or stevia.  It's a thick, tasty, slightly effervescent drink.  Shockingly, Isaac loves it.  He will drink almost a quart of it at once.  Isaac is my child who loves fried food and hates both fruits and vegetables.  His idea of a perfect meal is two McChickens from McDonald's with extra mayo and no lettuce, french fries, and a shake.  Getting him to eat anything slightly healthy is a struggle.  I'm so pleased to have found something healthy that he enjoys. 

It's Raining, It's pouring
We have had a lot of rain around here lately.  We've had 17 1/2" so far this year (3" more than normal).  Rarely a day goes by without some wet stuff falling from the sky.  The poor lawn is so wet, parts of it are underwater for weeks at a time.  The stream was the highest we've ever seen it.  Dode thought it'd be a hoot to get a photo of one of the kids going down the zip line over all that water, but he couldn't think of where to stand that would be safe.

As of April 18:

•Seattle has yet to reach 60 in April. Seattle has never not reached 60 degrees in April. The record fewest are two set in 1954.
•Seattle has just two days over 55 degrees this year.
•The average high temperature this April so far (50.4 degrees) is a full degree lower than this past March's average (51.4), which was below normal in and of itself.
•March's rainfall was 6.29" -- 7th wettest on record at Sea-Tac Airport and 2.5" above normal. Of March's 31 days, 24 had measurable rain and four others had a trace.
•April's rain so far was 3.13" -- already the monthly quota. And it's rained on 15 of 18 days in April.
•The last official sunny day was Feb. 25, defined as 30% or less cloud cover through the day. The streak is at 52 days through Monday. The longest stretch in the last 15 years was 73 days, and that was in the heart of winter.
•Snoqualmie Pass had over 450 inches of snow this season -- already above the average of 431 inches with more to come. Crystal Mountain said they were 150" above average for seasonal snow fall and will be having spring skiing on select dates through June 12!
•Mountain snowpack in general is running 130-150 percent of normal, with many sites actually reporting more snow on April 15 than they did on April 1.
-Komo News Weather Blog

Geography Conference
Dode spent Tues-Sat. at the Association of American Geographers Annual Conference in Seattle.  He wasn't very excited to go because they were going to be extra long days away from home and in his experience, at these type of conferences the presenters don't teach how they do something, they are more of a show and tell "see what I've done" thing.  His feeling is always, "Great!  How do I do that?"  At this conference he'd noticed that many classes were a series of presenters with five minutes per presentation.  What could they present in five minutes that would be of value to him?  But, Dode isn't the one that gets to decide what conferences he goes to, his boss is.  And she was excited that the annual meeting was happening so close to home.  There was no way her department was going to miss it. 

One thing Dode has discovered in working for a government is that they love titles and acronyms after names.  Dode currently has two acronyms that he can add to his signature: PLS (Professional Land Surveyor) and CFedS (Certified Federal Surveyor).  There are only 400 people in the nation that carry both of those, but he is employed as a GIS Analyst.  One title he'd like to add to his name is GISP (Geographic Information System Professional).  When he does earn that one, he would most likely be the only person in the nation with all three of those acronyms.  Add on his pilot's license and he's truly a one-of-a-kind kind of guy!  One of the vendors at the conference was the CEO of the GISP certification organization.  He spent quite a bit of his free time talking with her and figuring out what he needed to do to gain his GISP.  When she learned that he was a land surveyor, she got very excited and said she needed him.  Unfortunately, she's from the Midwest and I think it's a bit too far to commute!

Dode's co-worker John, the GISP CEO, Dode

Burns large and small
Isaac built a small fire in our outdoor fire pit to ceremoniously burn a birdhouse Anastaya made in wood shop and earned an "F" on.  Miriam was sitting near it and enjoying catching the small pieces of ash that were floating away.  Unfortunately, one of the pieces still had an ember on it and she burned the tip of her finger pretty badly.  She spent most of the next two days with her finger in a cup of cool water.  We forgot the water when we went to take the kids up to speech therapy.  We weren't far from the house when she started screaming.  It was going to be an hour  until we got home and I didn't think I could deal with an hour of crying so I diverted into the McDonald's drive in at the last second and bought a hamburger so I could get an ice water.  Then, no one in the car wanted the hamburger!  As Miriam was feeling really sorry for herself, I told her that when her dad was little, he'd suffered a burn that was much worse and much bigger. 

When Dode was five years old, he suffered third degree burns to his right torso and arm. It was a warm spring day. He asked his mom if he could help burn the trash. She told him it was too hot out to burn the garbage. She was getting ready for a meeting at church and ran down to the church less than a mile away to make some copies. Dode was home with his siblings, who were watching TV. He decided he wanted to help his mom out so he went outside to set the trash on fire. As he was leaning over the barrel, he caught his polyester shirt on fire as well. He ran inside where his older brother Randy (seven years old) quickly saw the flames and rolled him on the carpet to put out the fire. Randy then ran a cold bath for Dode to get in until his mom could get home. When Sheri (4) and Janice (3) saw the bath going, they stripped down ready for some bath fun.

Sharon arrived home to find Dode in the bathtub with his shirt melted to one side of his body, Randy with burned hands, and two little girls in their undies wanting to get in the bath and play. She bundled Dode off to the hospital where he would spend the next five weeks, enduring multiple skin grafts and debridements. He bears the scars to this day but the kids don't see them very often since they're hidden by his clothes.

Arlington Times article about that day

Miriam really spent some time thinking about how much her burn hurt and realizing what it must have been like for her dad. She kept bringing it up and soon the rest of the kids got to hear the story again.  They all got a good reminder that they need to listen to their mom, and that there dad is one tough guy.