Kombucha 101: the journey continues

So we WAIT! 

I told you once we transferred it into a large mouth glass container we would re-post. So as promised, here it is. On February 24th we started our Kombucha Creation Quest. We started our batch with out the Mother Scoby they suggest - so we knew it would take quite a bit longer.

We are 2-1/2 weeks into the journey and we can see (and smell) the kombucha making in action. The liquid is a little milky right now with the obvious beginnings of  a MOTHERLOAD... 

• SYMBIOTIC
• COLONY 
• Of 
• BACTERIA and 
• YEAST

Not sure the photos give you an idea of the progress we are making - but the floaties are growing and there is a translucent gel like layer growing on the top of the jar. We are loving checking it, but being careful not to disturb it too much. 

At this point (taking a wild stab here) I am assuming that the actual liquid in this jar will not be something we consume. It is smelling strongly like yeasty vinegar...YUM right? I think we will grow the scoby and reserve some of the liquid to start a fresh batch for our first consumption experience. 

We shall see though...

KOMBUCHA 101: Best Homeschool Experiment Ever

OH.MY.WORD! Have you tried Kombucha? It is SOOOOO good! Now, I am talking FLAVOR here. I absolutely LOVE it! Not to mention the supposed health benefits:

• DIGESTION 
• DETOX
• IMMUNE BOOST
• JOINT CARE 
• LIVER FUNCTION
• CANCER FIGHTING
• MENTAL CLARITY
• MOOD STABILITY
• IMMORTAL HEALTH ELIXIR??? 

               (as the ancient Chinese called it)

YES PLEASE!

Whether these factoids are true or not - the drink itself is delightful. A little glass of probiotic bevie  that’s been fermented by a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast. I mean who wouldn't want to sip on that all day long? Okay so perhaps that doesn't sound all that appetizing - but it really is. 

Bad News: It can break the bank. 

So what's a gal to do? Every good homeschool Mom knows (hee hee)  the goal is to get your kids to be self-sufficient. That's right. We are going to learn how to make it ourselves. 

So, I will consider this our NUMBER #1, most important homeschool lesson of the year (Perhaps most important lesson of a lifetime - after all if this is as successful as I imagine it will be it is a triple-dee-dipple benefit for me) .  Not only that, it will cover Science, Nutrition, Home Ec, and perhaps we can squeeze in some Photography and English projects with it. 

WOW - I just impressed myself with how great this project of ours really is. Let me take a minute and soak in my brilliancy....................... yeah... it's GOOD! Now that I am thinking of it, maybe we should start working  on a physical therapy unity study too where massage is the first thing to master. AND a taste testing best cheeseburger in the world study. Hey - here's a thought, what about a complete house care cleaning unit? Yeah, my humor is giving me the chuckles. But still...perhaps it does deserve more thought.

Anywhooo - I do believe this Kombucha is an inspired and well-supported idea. It just so happens since we BREWED to BREW (brewed the idea to brew the tea - clever right?) God has provided two unknown to us support systems. In the 3 days since concept we have been in the presence of 2 different women who make their own. This is CRAZY as we just met one of the women, and the other one we haven't seen in over 6 months. One gave us the starter  pictured above. The second actually has a full grown scoby (mushroom looking ditty) she said we could have. She has been making her delicious blueberry green tea Kombucha for 3 years. Not only that - she brought a jug of hers to a girls night we were at and it was SO YUMMY!!! Makes us all the more excited to get  doing the KOMBUCHA dance and CHUG!  

So here is where we are at right now - we have the starter in a large mouth mason jar (needs to be glass not plastic) that has a cheesecloth topper on it with a ring to hold it in place. This allows for breathing without yuck-o-muck getting in it. Step TWO will come tomorrow as we try to develop this into a mature scoby. So keep checking back to see how we are progressing. 

When we receive the mature one we may just get two batches going. I have a feeling our family will soon be known as the KOMBUCHISTS> 

Here is looking forward to a happy glass of Kombucha! Cheers!

Our Trunk - Your Treat... Flintstone's Style

For years, when the eldest girls were younger, our family was known for it's wacky creativity. We had so much fun with dressing up in a theme for the whole family. It wasn't until a couple weeks ago our youngest, Nate, brought to our attention our desperately low rating on the dress up fun factor. Instantly I was humbled by a few factors: 1) I am getting old  2) I am getting tired, and  3) I am not as fun as I used to be.

Well we simply could NOT have our Nate Boy
missing out on the richly dressed Ryan Family Heritage.  Our Natester deserved to have some fun fanatical family memories. So we signed up to be a trunk at our churches annual community TRUNK or TREAT. A Halloween event in a BIG Ole parking lot FULL of decked out cars, where adults in costumes dole out candy to the thousands lined up for the event.

Okay now that we had signed up for the festivities it was time to get to work.... Let the creativity begin. After a family meeting we all voted in the FLINTSTONES theme. So being limited on time we ordered the costumes on Ebay and another discount costume site. We found some fabulous deals on our outfits that could not have possibly been created for the same low cost. Now for the trunk....

We gathered some BIG boxes of cardboard. Next was time to surf the net for Flintstone Images. We took the images and enlarged them in a design program - then printed them out in panels. Super simple, super cheap.

A lot of cardboard, some printed computer images, tape...we were on our way to a GREAT beginning. After getting our cave walls created we needed another boost of creative juice. Next we needed signage (I grew up in a family sign business so you know we HAD to have a sign) and so I found a piece of old styrofoam and some spray paint - painted it up like a rock.  I printed out the "Flintstone" logo surrounded it with some battery operated Christmas lights - VOILA. Check that off...hmmm....what next....We had a white fur rug in our girls room. Took a battery camping lantern and made a mock shade for it with animal print fabric. A large artificial tree... we were getting close to completion. Pulling this together was ending up pretty simple, inexpensive and fun for our whole CLAN!

Look past our goofy selves and see if you can spot barney in the back - he is watching a tv which is attached to the back of a box and placed about 2 or 3 ft in front of him in the cave. We put a standing flashlight on the back side of the tv so it would appear to be lit up as if he was really watching it. See the glow? It also provided light for people to see inside the cave.

For a very low budget project I am SUPER proud of how our cozy litttle CAVE turned out. The response from the crowd was heartwarming. The parents who are usually in a moping state of mind as they walk their kids around in the windy, rainy weather would arrive at out Trunk and hear the Flinstones Theme song playing... they would start bouncing to the beat and smiling. Next thing we knew many wanted their pictures taken in BEDROCK with their Flinstone friends. So precious.

You know what was the VERY BEST about it? Our family had so much fun TOGETHER! AND... we have the photos to prove it! So Nate won't be looking back anytime soon and saying... "Why don't we ever...."

• We have
• We did and... 
• We will continue to make FUN a family priority

YABA DABA DOOOOOOOO

-Simply SUBLIME