making butter

I had some heavy cream left over from a 1/2 gallon jug (that's how it comes at Costco!!) so A. suggested I make butter with it when it looked like I wasn't going to be able to use it all up. I mean, really, what do you do with a HALF GALLON of whipping cream, besides get arteriosclerosis?

So this morning after making waffles, I decided it was time to give it a shot. But how? A. suggested put it in the mixer on low. Then I remembered waaaay back when I was teaching, the 2nd grade teacher actually made butter with her kiddies by pouring cream into baby food jars, and having the kids shake the jars until the butter formed. I thought that was worth a try. So into a tupperware bowl the leftover cream went!

I've spent my afternoon shaking the cream, off and on. A little ways into it, it stopped shaking and sounding liquidy. I pulled off the lid: whipped cream. Not good enough! So off and on again, I went back to smacking the bowl around. And HEY! it worked! Finally it started to sound watery inside the bowl, and voila! I now have butter and buttermilk!

So now I have to decide what to do with said butter. But still, cool!

My computer just made a thunderstorm sound at me. My weather.com alert went off. High winds on Saturday with wet, soggy soils means trees down and power outages, according to the National Weather Service. Fun!

The "best" windstorm ever was on Bill Clinton's inauguration day in January of 1993. I've never experienced anything like it. It was so powerful and awesome.

I do want to be careful here. I know that the Gulf Coast states experience this thing all too often and that most people certainly would not use any words like "best" in association with a wind event, and that I really have no clue as to what a "real" windstorm (hurricane) is all about.

But with my limited experience, I'd never witnessed such raw power before, and it was exhilarating; both fear-trembly and exciting at the same time.

My dear son is sitting next to me on my bed, grousing about math and school in general. Addition with regrouping (carrying over) is the current bane of my--and my children's existence. We're spending lots of time but not getting very far! All in good time, I suppose.

Meanwhile, A. has found his sermon title for Sunday: "Another Night With the Frogs." Moses is the current Sunday morning message series, and this is a reference to Pharaoh begging Moses to withdraw the plague of frogs from the land. Moses asks Pharaoh just when he would like them removed, and Pharaoh responds, "tomorrow." WHat's up with that?! Why not, "RIGHT NOW!!" ?

I'm out of here. I'm going to the gym. My jeans do not fit!! rgh.