Kaileigh has had acid reflux since she was born and was put on Zantac
syrup at 5 months. Back then it was easy to medicate her. Squirt the
liquid into a bottle with a bit of milk and she was good to go.
Jump forward to 18 months and we have a toddler that hates the minty nasty
syrup. Seriously, what toddler likes mint? We tried different flavors
available at the pharmacy and they were all bad. I tried sucking up Tang into the
syringe but still yucky. Then we tried mixing it with chocolate milk.
Behold the power of chocolate!

Kaileigh is now 4, she knows the meds are in the chocolate milk, and still
she drinks it down like a trooper. I was never happy with the chocolate syrups
or powders on the market. So I started using Alton Brown's chocolate sauce recipe. Love it.
Jump forward a bit more and you have a 4yr old that loves to help me cook.
I double the batch usually. Today, I was busy trying to answer questions
that were spewing forth from Kaileigh. Before I knew it, I had dumped in
waaaay too much cocoa powder. Grab your buckets people and stop on by. I
have a vat of chocolate sauce sitting here cooling. If you are too far
away to stop on by then make up your own sauce.

Alton's Chocolate Sauce to the rescue

1 1/2 cups water
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

In a small pot, bring water and sugar to a boil and whisk in cocoa,
vanilla, salt, and corn syrup. Whisk until all of the solids have
dissolved. Reduce sauce until slightly thickened. Strain if needed and cool to room
temperature. Alton says to put it into a squeeze bottle but I like just using one of my pint canning jars.

Free is good.

I put the word out in my family that I was looking for canning jars. Have you all even looked at the price of those darn things recently? So I scored quite a few of them from my mother in law. Yeehaw!

Free is good. Free can also be dirty. These jars had been in the attic for who knows how long and they had a funky film on them that would not go away no matter how hard I scrubbed. I ran them through the diswasher once. Then I brought out the scrubby pad and tried that. Nope. Sorry. No can do. Try that same scrubby pad with some dry baking soda and woohoo. We have clean jars. Clean FREE jars.

Now I can store my bulk spices and teas. Oh and maybe can some of these perfect pickle sized cucumbers that are growing in the garden. Awww, I love summer.

Get Your Fluids Here!

I know you all know how important it is to keep the fluids flowing when you are sick but a electrolyte replacer such as Pedialyte is darned expensive. $5-$6 a liter is just plain silly especially when the stuff really doesn't taste so great. I have yet to see a kid just suck it down either.

I found several recipes for a homemade version but none of them tasted all that great. Adding sugarfree koolaid or crystal light helped but eh still not all that. This week I had the lovely chance to make enough batches of the stuff that I found one that works for my family.

1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 C Juice Drink Mix (from the Bishops Store House)
1 1/3 Liter cold water (yeah, odd amt of water but that is the size of my container)

Mix it all up and chill.

If you don't have access to the Bishop's Store House then you could try another sweetened beverage but I honestly have not found a match. Store what you use and use what you store.

As the Stomach Churns...

Ah the joys of being sick. A week ago, Kaileigh had an insanely high fever that lasted for a day. The next morning she totally rebounded and went back to bouncing off the walls. Few days later and I have a fever too. After a week of being sickly, I am finally getting over whatever it was that attacked my tummy. Now poor Chuck is in bed. Ircing me making pitiful requests for sustenance and warmth.

Last years spree of illnesses introduced us to Wiggy's Poncho Liner. Yeah, I know. What in the world does a poncho liner have to do with pneumonia? Have you ever had the freezing cold shakes that come along with an illness? This will cure what ails ya. Chuck grabbed two of them for us and I have to say that I have never had a warmer blanket. They certainly aren't the cutest things ever but screw cute when it comes to warmth.

I just ordered a few more for our 72hr kits too. Oh and I am not sure if it is something Wiggy's worked into it or not but they shed water well. So pour yourself a tall glass of homemade electrolyte replacer and cuddle up.