Random Bits

Seems things always get busier as the holidays close in upon us, doesn't it? At work EQII is getting ready for Game Update 54 and the release of Sentinel's Fate and Free Realms has a big update coming mid-month, so things are busy there. At home we're trying new ADHD meds for Kiddo and getting ready for the holidays. Hubby is finishing his first semester of college, and Junior is making progress on potty training. Just a really busy time.

So here's some tidbits that aren't really enough to make a whole blog by themselves.

Caffeinating Your Kid

I never ever thought that giving my kid caffeine would be a good thing. Kiddo has hyperactive ADHD, and sometimes he just needs a little extra help keeping control. With ADHD kids stimulants suppress their symptoms (it's like they work backwards and slow them down). Caffeine is easy and readily available. Since we've been ramping him up to a target dose on his new meds we've needed a little help.

Problem is, Kiddo doesn't like hot drinks. Coffee tastes foul no matter how I hide it and he doesn't like hot chocolate. Tea was rejected, iced tea tolerated only with insane amounts of sugar added. We ended up giving him diet soda, which just makes me cringe and caused jealously issues with his little brother. I was at a loss, having rejected giving him NoDoz (it just seemed wrong, the kid has to take enough pills).

A couple weeks ago I had a burst of inspiration: tea-infused juice. Sure, juice still has sugars, but they're natural sugars and there's at least vitamin benefits. Black tea has too strong of a taste so I went with green tea. Bring a couple cups of water to a boil. Remove from the heat (if you boil the tea bags it gets bitter) and steep four bags of green tea for about 20 minutes. This gives you a green tea concentrate. Use this to reconstitute juice concentrate according to the juice instructions, making up any shortage with water. If you use a strong flavored juice (I like the Dole blends) you just about can't tell the difference.

Reading Instructions

I do a lot of laundry. Lots. Lots and lots and... good gods, I'm going to make everyone go nekkid. How can one kid under three feet tall generate four full loads of laundry a week?

Anyway, I felt like I was going through laundry soap terribly fast, even given the vast quantities of laundry in my house. I use All Free and Clear. I tried a lot of detergents because of Kiddo's dry, sensitive skin and I've been very pleased with results I get from the All. This time I bought the really big container because I felt like I was running to the store for more all the time. Here's what I discovered as I threw out the empty bottle of 2x:

The larger containers of All laundry detergent all have the same measuring cup. But read the instructions: there are four measure lines on that cup and the different concentrations of All use different measures.

Doh. The 3x uses line 1 for a regular load. The 2x uses line 2. Using line 2 with the 3x I was literally using twice the soap I needed to. Talk about a money-waster!

Flat-Rate Boxes

I've mentioned these before. If you're mailing a lot of Christmas presents you really need to look into the USPS Priority Mail flat-rate boxes. These now come in three sizes at different rates. I find them awful handy because a fruitcake and jar of jam together weigh over two pounds. You get fast service (parcel post no longer has any kind of guaranteed delivery time and get shoved to the back of the plane) and you can save a lot of money. They determine the price by which zone you're mailing to and from. An additional bonus: the boxes are free, and you can have them sent to your home from the USPS website. If you're very organized you can estimate and pay the postage online and they'll come pick them up.

I'm not quite that organized, but today I took seven medium-sized flat-rate boxes to be mailed. They cost me $10 and a bit each. For fun I took the last one and had the machine calculate it as though it weren't in a flat-rate box, and determined I saved $7 per box. That's almost $50!

I'm off to do laundry (grumble), go to the post office, and take Kiddo to Barnes & Noble to choose a book for being sheerly awesome with his little brother all week (we're liking these new meds!). Remember in your holiday dash to stop, breathe, and remember that it's not about presents and doing, it's about loving and sharing.

Busy Busy!

Yeah, that's always my excuse, isn't it? Work's been very busy lately, and since I work online from home, it tends to eat every spare minute I have. See, last week we launched the complete re-do of the EQII ZAM site. Never mind the details, but for the month before that we were pretty much burried in the beta of that site. I'm very pleased with it.

The very next day my boss calls me up and offers me the Senior Content Manager position for our Free Realms site. In addition to my EQII job! Free Realms launches tomorrow, so I went from crunch time right into crunch time. It's a daunting project, but I've got a fantastic team and I'm more tired than stressed.

Needless to say that leaves very little time for blogging or doing anything interesting in the kitchen. But I do have a fast recipe to share.

Kiddo can't have any Red 40 (a USDA approved food color that's been banned in Great Britain and many European nations) because it aggravates his ADHD symptoms. This is a serious bummer, as it takes odd things out of his diet. The other day I was getting all cheesed because he can't have red Jell-o, just yukky flavors like lime. All but a couple flavors of Jell-o have Red 40 in them.

So I got on the net and figured out how to make my own "gelatin desert".

Not Jell-o

It's not Jell-o because that's a trademarked name. But your kids won't know and this is healthier, no added sugar! Be warned, this makes a HUGE bowl.

3 envelopes gelatin (like Knox)
1/2 c cold water
2 c boiling water
2 c cold water or fruit juice
1 12-oz can frozen juice concentrate
4 c fruit - pears, peaches, bananas, etc.

In a 3-quart mixing bowl, soften gelatin in 1/2 c cold water. Pour boiling water over gelatin. Stir until completely dissolved.

Add cold water or juice and frozen concentrate. Add fruit. Let set in refrigerator until firm.

I thawed the frozen juice in the fridge so it was pourable but cold. Like Jell-o, you may want to let it soft-set before you stir in the fruit. The flavor was strong enough that you probably don't need the two cups of cold to be juice.

Easy!