A Russian Stomach Culture

I was first introduced to Kombucha in the early 1990's by a family friend and Pastor.  He offered my mother a glass of an odd looking juice and the way the story was told and evolved over the years is that when she was skeptical, he showed her the scoby in a new batch of brewing healthy goodness.  My mom, aghast and almost grossed out, asked the friend what it was and was informed, with a perfectly straight face, "Its a Russian Stomach Culture" and it tastes yummy (OK that last part is likely just lore...  but he really did claim it was a Russian Stomach Culture).    Later we would be informed that historically it was used in Russia to combat hangovers and alcoholism, but I don't think he was able to explain his joke or the history that day.  My mom may have even called my father to come get her because the friend was harvesting stomach cultures.  *Laugh*  So, ever since in our family Kombucha has laughingly been referred to as the 'Russian Stomach Culture"  (I remember one time, when we were on vacation in the spring on year in Southern California,  my mom believed my dad when he said that the oranges were stamped with "Sunkist" while on the trees in the orchards still--she is just a tad on the gullible side--LOL). 

From:  Beginners Guide

Well after years of having nothing to do with Kombucha (my mother did finally get a scoby and it was brewed and drank at home--though not by her.  She could never get over the stomach culture business) a friend gave us a scoby and we are on our second brew.  The first batch brewed too long and I am going to try 10 days this time and see how we like it. 

So what are some of the benefits of Mrs. Kombucha?  It is suppose to support better digestive health.  Mrs. Kombucha is full of active enzymes and has a pH level that matches that of your stomach in a good way.  It supports the immune system, mostly I believe, from helping one have a healthy digestive tract.  It also is believed to help in liver detoxification.  It also fights an overload of candida albicans, which is a naturally occurring yeast in the digestive tract.  It's fine at the controlled levels but when it goes overboard you get frequent yeast infections, depression, chronic fatigue, etc.  So if you drink a lot of soda pop, have a stressful life or a stressor event, or have been on antibiotics the candida may just go haywire. 

So just with these few things, we decided Kombucha was a drink for us.  Our second brew will be done any day now.  Its exciting!

Some Kombucha links: 

brewing-kombucha-beginners-guide

Kombucha Kamp

Good video on making Kiombucha

Some more links to Kombucha and other health stuff

And a book I recently purchased:  Kombucha.  By Diana Allen and Woodland Publishing.  Kombucha book link

great snowballs batman...

Here in the great Pacific Northwest we are looking at several snowstorms back to back.  This makes for interesting play times outside.  Try keeping a 4 year old in inside when snowflakes are just right outside the window.  Sunday night she ran from her bed to the living room window to check on snow all night long.  Monday was worse!  Tuesday night she didn't want to sleep either, the one desire of her heart was to make sure it was still 1) snowing and 2) getting deeper on the ground.  Sunday afternoon much of the snow melted before dark and it wasn't until she finally woke up today, Wednesday, that she seen enough snow to actually have a lot of fun in.  And boy has she.

Daddy stayed home today so she had both of us entertaining her.  We built a snowman, shoveled walks and then she decided her ATV was much more fun than a sled.  She had a blast and didn't want to go inside, even after almost 3 hours of outside play.  She cried and bemoaned the fact that we were cold, her cheeks were red as well as her hands inside wet mittens, but she was happy and full of fresh air and snow flakes.  The hot chicken soup waiting for her was but a small enticement. This week I guess our mud time has been snow time.  :-) 

Mrs. Kombucha is almost ready.  Both Bob and I tasted it tonight and we think it needs a few more days.  She has a nice scoby forming on top.  I think next time I will do a half gallon instead of a full gallon, but we shall see how fast we drink this batch. 

We have been progressing slowly with the weather on getting through our challenge.  We have removed close to 18 bags but aren't nearly done.  The attic and basement are going much slower because of the weather.  It is also making it very difficult to get the bags we are donating out of the house. 

I have decided that we will be labeling some objects around the house with their names to help Sarah with words and recognizing letters making up words.  We have had her bed room door labeled for some time and it was fun for her to pick out the letters and say what the label said, so now we will branch into other house hold items like the TV, bathroom, stove....  I really have been hesitant to do this and I can't really put my finger on why, but I think we will give it a try. 

We also bought a storage bin thing from Ikea for Sarah's toys and so far it is helping.  We still have a ways to go though and I know I will have even more items to sort and donate from her room, 3 bags later.  This is quite the task we have undertaken.  Saturday I am spending the WHOLE day in the basement, regardless of weather. 

 Along with the storage bin for Bear's room and toys we also bought a step stool for her for the kitchen.  No more chairs or containers of wheat for her to have to stand on.  It's on the tall side but it will be so handy for her and cooking with me in the kitchen.  We have already used it several times and she loves it.  She helped Bob put it together and the little stinker did a lot of it herself.  I think some real tools, not her toy ones, are in her future very soon.  A small tool set with a hammer and some wrenches and screwdrivers would be very good for her I think.  She was so proud of helping her daddy.

Lately she has been very much into telling jokes and stories as well.  Her stories are generally retelling of ones she has been told already but that is wonderful as well.  We are trying to learn some new jokes now.  Do you know any?  Clean kid jokes?  Please share them with us!

Have a wonderful week!

The show goes on

We are still trucking right along.  I have thus far gotten 10 large kitchen bags of donated goods out of the house and 9 small grocery size bags out of the house and that's not counting the numerous bags of assorted recycle paper waste from receipts, letters, etc that we really have no need for.  I know we have made a dent but not sure one could tell.  Sarah's room will be tackled this week as will a start on the basement. 

I am convinced it's time to let go of certain things as well.  Sarah's toy kitchen, our stroller, highchair, kelty back pack and toy swing.  Those will be hard items to let go but we have no use for them.  I will for sure be going to JBF this year unless craigs list turns out to be an option.



Mrs. Kombucha

In the meantime, we have a new "member" living in our home.  We finally have obtained a Kombucha scoby and she is hopefully happily growing and doing her thing as I write.  Learn more about Kombucha here:  Brewing kombucha : A beginners guide.   I am sure we will be hearing more tales from Mrs K as time goes on.  Life in our home, with an active and spunky 4 year old is anything but boring and I am sure Mrs. K will provide some tales and fun in months to come.



Kneading bread dough in our
 "classroom"

We started off our week diving into some fun projects here at home.  Cutting curves to work on fine motor skills.  Both with paper and play dough.  Then to work on strengthening our fingers some we worked on making bread.  We made a really nice cottage loaf of Dilly Bread.  A yummy recipe that made a really nice loaf to go with our soup dinner.  Then since we were on such a roll we made desert.  This allowed us to  practice following directions and again motor skills.  We did pretty good, although we really do like to control things in a 4 year old way and had to learn a couple times that directions and rules must be followed or the item we were making would not turn out.

This was followed by evening Bible studies with Bob (a practice he and Sarah has been doing for a while now).  It's so nice to hear her asking questions.  She is even telling me about coats of many colors and wanting one of her own.  LOL



The rest of the week will see us sorting more and working some outside if weather allows and getting back into the groove of writing letters again after the break.  She balks but wants to do it too.  Funny girl.

I found some interesting print outs we are going to try for tracing and cutting.  She, like the typical 4 year old, has periods of time when she follows directions really well and when she doesn't she doesn't very well, and wants to be the "leader". LOL   I pick my battles wisely, I hope, but sometimes it can be very hard.  I am happy though, we have been working hard on cleaning up our mess before going on and while I have to remind her it is getting better.  It's a slow long hard road, but no one ever said it would be easy.  :-)  We have been "retelling" more and more.  I was worried about that but I think I was just expecting too much to soon.  She can be so cute when talking about her day to some one, but be careful, secrets are no where to be had.  *Grin*

We are also going to be incorporating a mud play time into our week.  I know, GASP, what mother in her right mind would do this...  well I think it can really enhance her love of outside and exploring and really, right now, that's all we can get outside around here!  I see more pet worms in our future. 

I want to also give a little plug for the one program I really don't mind that she watches anymore and that's "Wild Krats".  It's really pretty good and engages kids on their level for learning about animals.  Sarah loves it and it leads to us exploring and learning more.  Just yesterday she was telling me about the slime that worms have on them and how the use their bodies to move in the dirt.  Remember, we can't throw the baby out with the bath water as far as TV. 

Anyway.....  here's to learning and sorting this week!