When Teeth are Shattered

In my oldest son's eighth year, he had just gotten his permanant front teeth in.  They were so big and beautiful and big!  He was also experiencing the joys of the big kid playground at school and how glorious a game of tag could be with more room to run.  One such game of tag, ended the existence of his newly aquired teeth.  I imagine him laughing and running, then throwing his head back in glee, huge smile on his face as he looks over his shoulder to seen how close his attacker is only to then turn just in time to smash his beautiful smile into the pole of the outdoor patio cover.
The call I got from him at school was timid and I could hear that he had cried a little.  He was more concerned with whether I would be mad at him for causing careless damage to himself rather than the fact that he had shattered his two front teeth and they were barely hanging in his gums.  I wasn't mad and felt so bad for him.  They were as new and perfect as teeth get and now they were forever ruined.  I was sure he would have a broken face too, but the only damage was to his teeth.  He must have been having a marvelous time to have that big of a smile on his face.  The prognosis was that he had not only completely broken out a moon shaped section of his two teeth, but the part of the teeth that were left had microfractures all over them.  When the Dentist told me this, I was reminded of those cartoons where the character gets hit in the mouth and his teeth fall out in sections onto the ground leaving nothing but jagged shards.  That is kind of how he looked.
What did I learn?
First, when you go to the dentist with an emergency, they can bill it out under your medical plan usually.  This way, the cost is significantly less.  I had an emergency dental copay that was $60 instead of having to pay the 20% for the entire reconstruction.  My son needed two porcelin venirs for his teeth and the cost of that for us was going to be $1200 under our dental plan.  But under the medical plan we only paid two $60 copays.  One for the intial visit to have his teeth x-rayed and prepped and then the second visit to apply the venirs.  I wouldn't have known about this were it not for the dental office receptionist mentioning it.
The down side to going this route is the dental office didn't get paid for six months because the medical insurance requested more proof for the work than the dental plan would have.  The dental office was patient and I had to call the insurance company a few times to make sure they were processing the claim.  Ultimately, if the insurance company had denied the claim, I would have to pay the bill.  It is always the patient's responsibility to know what their coverage is and what their part of the bill will be.
If you find yourself in a dental emergency, check with your medical plan to see if the cost of the coverage is better than under your dental plan.

Canning Applesauce

READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

You may be wondering if home canning is worth it.  There are several reasons why it is.

1. It is the only sure way to control what is in your food.  There are no chemicals or added dyes. 

2.  Knowing how to home produce your own food is an essential skill that can help you save money for your family when times are tough.

3.  Once the initial investment in equipment is made, the cost to home can is pennies on the dollar compared to ready made food from the store because the jars and equipment are used over and over again.

4.  It is so rewarding to look in your pantry and see it full of foods you made for your family.

5.  It tastes better than you can imagine.

6.  It is the only way to utilize home grown foods so they don't go to waste.

7.  Grocery stores aren't open when disasters hit, knowing how to prepare food from scratch and preserve it can save you in an emergency.

Here is how to make homemade applesauce.   

EQUIPMENT

Canner

7-9 Quart Jars with lids and rings

Canning Accessories Kit

Hand Mixer

Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer

16 Quart, Heavy Bottom Pot

Liquid Measuring Cup

Measuring Spoons

Dry Measuring Cups

Sink or Counter Top Wash Basin

Clean Dish Towels and Wash Cloths

Links for purchasing equipment online you don't have are listed throughout this post.

Before starting the applesauce making process, be sure you have jars that have lids and rings.  The recipe you will get from this post will make about 7-9 quarts of applesauce.  Some of these have the lids stored upside down which is why they look weird.  I store them this way so the lids don't get altered by the top of the jar.  Complete jars with the rings and lids can be purchased at grocery stores in the cooking accessories isle.  Walmart is pretty good about carrying them all the time in our area. 

 

Other than jars, you will need a clean sink, a large trash bowl, a sharp pairing knife and an apple peeler/corer.  They run about $20 and can be purchased online easily.  Here is a link for one I found:

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=apple+peeler%2Fcorer%2Fslicer&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=3153991271&ref=pd_sl_43bos174id_e

This is on the Amazon.com website and will offer a variety of prices and types.  I highly recommend getting the kind that will vacuum stick to your counter rather than the kind that clamps on the side of the counter.  They are sold in stores too if you don't want to buy online.  Just check around.  Pampered Chef has one too.

 

This is a hand blender.  It really is a must when doing home canning.  It is so much easier to work right in the pot rather than having to take the product to a blender then put it in a bowl, etc.  It is much less messy and gives you more control over the consistency of your product.  Check out this link at Amazon.com for hand blender ideas and prices.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_0_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=hand+blender&sprefix=hand+ble

These can also be purchased at your local department store.

APPLES

This recipe calls for 20lbs of apples.  I recommend a variety of apples, hard and soft, for a good flavor.  I have 4 kinds of apples I will be using for this recipe.  Two are hard and two are soft.  Don't use the red delicious apples.  They are very grainy when cooked.  Use apples you cook with.  Such as Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, Honeycrisp, Gala, etc.  There are many varieties to choose from.

If you are buying your apples, try to get the first round of the season in the grocery stores.  Apples can be expensive, but they will marked down considerably when they first come out.  Check your grocery ads to buy at the best price.

PREPARING THE FRUIT

 Start by peeling and coring your apples.  Put the peeler/corer next to the sink for ease of use.  If you don't have that kind of room in your kitchen, your local dollar store should have a portable dish wash tub you can use.  Just make sure you rinse it out before using.

 Fill the sink or dish tub up 1/2 way with water and add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of lemon juice.  This helps keep the apples from turning brown while you are cutting them up.

After you have cut up all of your apples, make sure you clean up your work space.  If you don't clean things up as you go, you will end up with a huge mess at the end.  I scrub my peeler/corer with a brush that has some dish soap on it.  This gets all those little apple pieces off and then the apple juice doesn't have time to set on there and stick.

THE COOKING PROCESS

Pour 3 cups of water into a very large pot.  The pot should be at least 16 quarts and have a heavy bottom.  Thin pots will burn the apples while they are cooking and require you to stand over them more.  

 Put the harder apples, such as Granny Smith, in the pot first.  They will take longer to cook so you want them closer to the heat.

Then add the rest of the apples to fill the pot.

 

Put the pot on the stove and set the heat on high.  Let the apples cook for 1 hour.  Stir after about 30 minutes.

 

After 1 hour you will notice the apples have cooked down considerably.  Stir them again and turn off the heat.  Be careful, the apples are hot and may spit out at you. 

 

Using your hand blender, begin blending the cooked apples until the desired consistency is achieved.  Sorry for the blurry picture, I was holding the camera and mixing.  If you are happy with the flavor then leave as is for canning.  If you want it to be sweeter add White Sugar 1/2 cup at a time and cook on medium heat for about 5-7 minutes to let the sugar melt into the sauce.  Taste between additions and don't add more than 1 1/2 cups sugar.  It will be too sweet.

  

If you want to have cinnamon applesauce then add:

3 T High Quality Vanilla

1 T plus 2 tsp Cinnamon

1 1/2 C White Sugar

Turn the heat back on Medium Low and cook for another 10 minutes to combine final ingredients.  Stir continuously.

CANNING THE APPLESAUCE

  

There are many ways to keep your jars hot.  Some put them in a low temperature oven and pull them out as needed.  I find that heating them in the microwave for two minutes on high achieves the same results.  I clean them and the lids and rings first in hot soapy water then rinse.  Then I put the jars in the microwave.  My microwave is over my stove so it is a convenient place for me to keep them while I am filling them with whatever I am canning.  

  

Place the hot jars on a towel while working with them.  This protects your counter top and prevents the jars from sitting on a cold surface and cracking.  Using a canning funnel, spoon the hot applesauce into the hot jars.  Make sure you don't fill them all the way up.  There should be a one inch head space at the top.  This means leave an inch of room at the top of the jar.

Here is a link for a canning accessories kit.  I use the tools for more than just canning.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_2_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=canning+kit&sprefix=canning+

This link also has the canners themselves on the page too. 

Take a clean cloth and wipe any excess product of the rim of the jar.  You don't want to leave any residue on the rim because the lid won't seal properly to the jar.  

Place the lid and the ring on the jar and tighten.  They don't have to be super tight.  Just firmly secure. The rings hold the lids in place during the processing time so the lids can seal properly to the jar. 

 

Place full jars in canner and process on high heat for 20 minutes.  The time is the same whether you use a water bath canner or a steam canner which looks like this one.  I prefer the steam canner because it uses less water so is less cumbersome to move from the sink to the stove.

 

When the jars are done processing, take them out of the canner and place on a towel to cool.  Make sure it is out of a drafty area.  As the jars cool the lids will make a popping sound indicating they are sealed.  Push down on the lids to make sure they have sealed.  If they give some they aren't sealed yet.  Wait 24 hours to see if all of the lids have sealed.  If you still have one that is not sealed down, use that to eat first or you will need to reprocess the jar with a new lid.

If you choose you can store them without the rings because they are no longer needed to hold on the lids.  Don't throw them away, the rings and the jars are reusable.  You will need to get new lids each time you can something new.

The applesauce will keep for 1 year in a cool, dark, dry place.  I store mine in the basement storage room. You could probably keep them longer under these conditions, but I try to use mine up in a year.   

Silver Polish

I recently aquired a small silver spoon collection from my late Grandma Ada.  I love these spoons and wanted to display them on my wall but they are were all tarnished.  I don't have any silver polish and, at the time, didn't have any money to buy some.  So I scoured the internet for ideas and found two.  I tried them both and here are the results.
1.  Use white toothpaste to polish silver.  Put some toothpaste on a soft cloth and polish like you normally would.  Rinse off and presto, shiny! 
This works like a charm.  However, I have noticed the tarnish comes back rather quickly and I spent most of the day polishing those spoons.  I think I am going to have to buy some real silver polish.  In a pinch, the toothpaste will work.  Such as the Queen is coming for tea and you need your silver polished quickly and you are out of silver polish and your maid is off for the day and polishing silver in not in the butler's job description.   Just buy the polish.  It will save the headache of having to do it again too soon.
2.  Put some baking soda in water on the stove.  Heat it up and place a piece of tin foil in the pot all around the sides and bottom.  Put your silver in the pot and let the tarnish cook off.  The silver must be touching the foil. 
Yes, this is as big of a pain as it sounds.  And, it really didn't work that well.  Again, just buy the silver polish.  I didn't bother with pictures for this particular tip because it just isn't worth the time.  You can find  pictures if you google this technique if you really want to try it. 
 

"Mommy's Coming Baby!!!"

Tucson was a wonderful home for us but our neighborhood didn't lend itself to letting the kids just run out and play on their own.  Luckily, there was a huge, beautiful park in the middle of our neighborhood that was directly across the street from the elementary school.  A tradition developed of meeting at the park on Fridays with all of our friends to let the kids play for as long as they wanted.  It was a chance for the adults to get together and the kids and just relax from the busy week.  There were moms and dads that would come and we even had friends that had moved away come each week because it was so much fun.  We all brought snacks and drinks for the kids and stayed for hours.  The sun stays up for a long time in Tucson so there was plenty of time for the kids to really get their energy out.  I miss that now that we have moved on from Tucson.  It was wonderful. 
This idealic experience wasn't without its bumps and bruises and we made sure to bring first aid kits too.  One such day, my then seven year old son was just learning to master riding a Razor Scooter.  He was borrowing a friends and scooting around the little circular sidewalk next the play ground equipment.  I was up on the slide with my daughter, helping her develop her courage to slide down when I hear a scream.  My son had fallen and smashed his face into the sidewalk.  He did one of those slip and falls where there wasn't anytime to catch himself.  He just went down hard.  My maternal instincts went into overdrive and I grabbed the bar that you hold onto to get situated before sliding down the slide.  I  launched myself down this slide and realize just as I was coming to the bottom of the slide that I was going to catch some air.  I am don't think I even touched the slide till the bottom.  Sure enough I hit the bottom of the slide and went air born.  I went so high I actually hung in the air for a moment.  It is amazing what we are capable of being aware of all at once.  I hadn't taken my eyes off my son this entire time and was thinking simultaneously, "I am going to wreck myself and I have to get to him, Mommy's coming baby!".  I hit the ground with a splat and found myself on my belly for a moment, then desperately crawling on my hands and knees gripping the ground to try and get to my screaming little man.  You would think my spectacle would have distracted him a bit, but he is very focused about his angst and wasn't the least bit deterred from his pain. 
After crawling for a few feet I finally was able to get to my feet and run over to him.  It was one of those stumble, stumble, walk, stumble, run movements.  The entire time, the dad that was closest to my son was so alarmed by my gymnastics he was just standing there with his mouth open.  He had completely forgotten about the little guy for a moment and was worried he was going to have two people to attend to.  I finally reached my son and was able to tend to his fat lip.  My friend came out of his alarmed trance and walked over to help and just looked at me like I really was crazy.  I apoligized for my antics and he just started laughing.  I believe I have mentioned before, my name is not Grace.
I am sure everyone else at the park saw what happened but were kind enough to not bring it up again.  I was rather embarrassed about my over reaction.  Especially since I could have just climbed down from the slide in the same amount of time.  I suppose the show wouldn't have been as good if I had responded like a normal person.  My son's lip was fine and I didn't buy him his own scooter until he was ten years old and more coordinated. 

Leave Broken Windows to the Experts

My children like to remind me on occasion about my mishaps, and of course giggle.  It usually goes something like this.  "Mom, remember when you got glass in your eye?".  "Hee hee!".  These conversations are usually preceded by some new klutzy thing I have done to injure myself.  There is a tremendous resource of life experiences for my children to draw on in my little and big emergencies.  I suppose now that I have brought it up, you are wondering about the glass in my eye?  Alright, I will share.
In our old home, old meaning previous but also very ancient, we had windows that were comprised of many small panes to create the one large window.  The window panes were single pane glass and provided little protection from the outside world.  They were also held in by something called glazing.  Glazing is a putty type product that you roll between your hands and make long snake like pieces.  It is like working with play dough.  The glazing is then pressed and smoothed into the frame on top of the glass and molded into the corners to hold the glass in place.  When it dries it becomes very hard and becomes airtight, if done correctly.  This hardness makes it difficult to get a pane of glass out that has been cracked or broken and needs to be replaced.  Real window pane experts will also use very small tacks to help keep the glass secured to the frame which makes freeing the broken glass even more difficult. 
I was in our bathroom moving something long and skinny around and I hear a pop!  I had broken the window.  This really wasn't that big a deal because there were several broken windows at all times in our house.  If the wind blew too hard a window would crack.  I decided I would save my husband an addition to his "honey do" list and fix the window myself.  It couldn't be that hard, right?
I pulled the larger pieces of the broken glass out and started scraping the glass that was bonded to the frame by the glaze.  In order to do this the only effective tool to use was a Flathead screwdriver.  I am feeling pretty good about myself at this point.  I am replacing a window pane.  I am sooo cool!  There is a reason safety glasses are recommended equipment when doing home projects.  You just never know how your enthusiasm is going to get the better of you when you start really going at something.  Well, I was getting frustrated with getting this glass cleaned out of the frame and really went at it, without any eye protection.  I was scraping like a crazy person and all of sudden, I feel something ping/stab me in the eye.  My first reaction was to freak out but I didn't.  I just stood there holding my eye open waiting for inspiration to come as to what to do next.  I was probably making a bit of a commotion because my oldest son ran into the bathroom and screamed, "I'll call 911 Mom!".  He looked like Kramer from the "Seinfeld Show" entering the room.  His eyes were a bit crazed and his voice cracked.  I thought he was going to have an accident himself.  He had the phone in his hand and started to dial, because he has had to do it for me before, while I am yelling at him, "No! No!, I don't need an ambulance!".  It was then the idea hit me to flush my eye with water.  I ran into the other bathroom, because the one I was in was under construction, and began throwing water into my eye.  If you have ever had to not blink for a while, it is really hard.  Those muscles work independent of regular brain commands and I had to hold my eye lid up so it wouldn't come down and move the glass shard around on my eyeball and cut it up.  Happily, a cool head prevailed again and the glass washed right out.  It was pretty big for an eye ball and I was relieved no medical personnel had to be involved.  My eye wasn't even sore because it came out pretty quickly.  I then had to calm my son down and reassure him no damage had been done. 
So what are the lessons here?  Stay calm and listen to that voice that God sends to tell us how to handle things beyond our abilities.  Teach your children how to dial 911 and how to check if you are unconscious.  This saves them from calling if you are taking a nap.  Wear protective eye wear when doing household repair jobs or anything where something could fly into your eye.  Also, Try to evaluate whether what your are attempting is going to help or cause more work for the person that actually knows how to do the job right. 
By the time my husband had come home from work, I had picked up all of the broken glass and taped a file folder into the window for him to repair.  And yes, I apoligized for "helping" him.
I am happy to report, I have had no lasting effects of the glass in my eye and that I learned how to properly replace the broken windows in our house just in time to fix the five other broken panes before we moved.  I wore protective eye wear this time. 

Food Bar Codes

Want to buy US made products?  BUY USA by watching for "0" at the beginning of the number. 

 

This may be useful to know when grocery shopping, if it's a concern to you.        Can you differentiate which one is made in Taiwan or China ? If the first 3 digits of the barcode are 690, 691 or 692, the product is MADE IN CHINA. 471 is Made in Taiwan. However, you may now refer to the barcode, remember if the first 3 digits are: 690-692 … then it is MADE IN CHINA . 00 - 09 … USA & CANADA 30 - 37 … FRANCE 40 - 44 … GERMANY 47 ... Taiwan 49 … JAPAN 50 … UK