Baby steps… get it?

One of the weirdest things I have dealt with in my adult life… the mom bod. I say weirdest, not worst because if I’m being honest, I fucking love my body. (Sorry grandma if you’re reading this) but it’s true. I am 110% digging these sweet, colour-changing, shape-shifting marks on my hips and legs. I have an x-shaped one on my one leg, it’s like a nature tattoo. My hips are wider and every time I look at them, I am reminded of the life I created with someone I love. My sleeves may be tight, but my arms are strong from holding, comforting, raising my son so far.

All of this touching body positivity aside, I do need to exercise more. As I proudly told my doctor about my walking routine, he gently informed me that I would be on the right track… if I were 40. Fair. Walking isn’t exactly vigorous activity.

I started to rack my brain. How can I exercise while watching Riley full time and being on a budget? Fitness classes and gym membership are a little pricey and I’m not much of a runner. I figured I’d give yoga a try. Regain some balance, ground my intentions each day, improve my flexability, muscle strength and endurance. Cool, but I’ve never been a fan of yoga.

Well, guess what! I don’t know what I’m doing now that I wasn’t doing then, but I am really enjoying myself. It makes me feel energized and relaxed and strong!! I do wish that I could be a fly on the wall and see myself attempting some of these poses. I am not in my best shape.

Like I said, baby steps!

Daily Riley!

Guess who?! Not Riley… Riley’s daddy! Not a spitting image at ALL!

It’s like we 3D printed 5 month old daddy and stuck my eyes on.

Oh, happy day

I’m afraid I don’t have much to say today. Mr. Man here is teething again. Mama hasn’t had more than 3-4 hours of choppy sleep for a week, but by the looks of this snuggler, I might just get a nap.

Happy Tuesday, from a grateful, sleepy me!

Back to scobin’ around

Since I never updated on how my Kombucha brewing turned out, I decided to start another batch! Especially now that I know what I’m doin a little bit better…

The very first thing I do when starting a new batch is STERILIZE MY JARS. This is SO important when you are working with fermenting as there is very much bacteria present.

To sterilize my jars, I leave them to soak in hot soapy water for a bit (food grade) and then give them a good scrub. I then rinse with hot water and wipe down the inside and outside with vinegar. You can never be TOO vlean, but keep in mind your kombucba will be injested so I’d avoid chemicals.

Make sure your work area is sterile as well.

Next, you want to start boiling some water to brew your tea. I don’t measure exactly, however, 1 gallon of water, 10 teabags, 4 tbsp of sugar is a common recipe. The idea is to brww strong, sweet tea. Some people use green tea, some use black so let’s try a blend this time. I basically just filled up a big pot with water, tossed in 5 orange pekoe bags and 5 green teabags and turned on the burner and walked away. I add the sugar after the burer cools down.

Once it is boiling, wait a few minutes, stirring occasionally and then turn it off and leave it (bags in).

Here is my pot of tea. It smells ah-mazing by the way!

When your sweet tea is cooled (ALL the way) you will want to add your scoby and fill your jar with tea. I leave an inch or 2 on top because a new scoby develops with each brew.

*see my blog post about obtaining a scoby*

Those are my scobys. I have 4, but with the size of my jars, I could use 1 for all three if I cut it. I just use the whole thing!

Lastly, cover your jar TIGHTLY with a tightly woven breathable fabric such as a thin dish towel. I use a dollar store fashion scarf and rubber bands, but it’s your call. If you do not wrap it tightly enough or use a loosely woven fabric, you WILL get fruit flies.

My tea is cooling currently so I don’t have a finished photo, but I will update when he next step comes about. Happy Tuesday y’all!

Am I the scoby master?

In a previous post I talked about a scoby, what it is, how to obtain one, and why I wanted one. Somewhere in there, I mentioned that I had done it all wrong, but was going to see what happened anyways.

Something happened!!! With immense self control and not going to look at my jars 5 times a day, I finally got through 2 weeks of ignoring it.(as best as I could) And guess what?! There are young scobys in both jars! Even the jar that I thought wouldn’t grow one!(I used ginger Kombucha in it)

The photos unfortunately aren’t the best because my hand isn’t big enough to grip the jars so the photos had to be taken quickly.

My boyfriend is hilariously grossed out by this by the way. It’s great, he won’t even look at them, but he did say that he would test out my brew when it’s all done! I kind of get it. The scoby is not at all appetizing and when I get a tiny floaty piece in my drink, I definitely freak out.

Believe it or not, you can totally eat the scoby. If you wanted to, you could take a bite right out of it. I have read that it has the consistency of squid legs so no thank you. I don’t like that texture deep fried and dipped in whatever you dip squid in and I am not going to like it as a bacteria yeast blob.

So why the heck would anyone want to try to eat their scoby?

Well for one, they multiply everytime you make a batch so you really have nothing to lose if you messed it up when cooking. Mainly, it would be eaten for its health properties. The scoby is made up mainly of cellulose and bacterial yeast and before I lose you with technical terms, I’ll make it short and simple!

The bacteria and yeast of a scoby is what gives the finished kombucha its probiotic properties which will regulate your digestion and bathroom visits.

The cellulose of a scoby is actually an interesting one because it makes up the blob structure of the scoby. It’s an insoluble fibre and if I took anything away from highschool cooking class, I know that that is not the fibre that gives you energy, but is actually a carb… but it’s a good carb. (Yes that is a thing all of you silly dieters!) It cleans out the bowels and the gut and is claimed that enough of this type of fibre will help avoid IBS, heart disease and cancer.

So am I a scoby master? No, I’m still learning. I’m more of a scoby apprentice.

Daily Riley!

The best start to my morning is laying in bed as the sun comes up with my smiley little boy. He was up almost every hour last night and I am struggling to keep my eyes open. Thank goodness his dad is the best and stays up with him for a bit when he gets home from midnights so this mama gets a little nap! Enjoy this daily dose of cute!

Daily Riley!

I took this at the end of the day yesterday with every intention to post it, but a certain amazing boyfriend of mine offered to get up with him all night (on his day off) and this mama got 7 hours of sleep! So the delayed daily Riley is definitely worth it.