Day 7.b

Returned from church to find the 2nd starter of the day looking like a cornmeal hockey puck. It was removed from it's bowl in one piece - with a fork. You get the picture.

I have another starter going - back to Susan's recipe in the electric skillet which is most definitely the best, most consistent heat retention method so far. Since it's going all day, I've been able to better check the temp and think it's closer to being at a consistent 110 degrees. I hope, anyway. I still don't see any bubbles or anything remotely resembling fermentation - but it's only been 2 1/2 hours. If I end up being at sponge stage around 9 tonight, that's fine. I'll stay up and bake into the night and sleep in tomorrow. And wake up to wonderful toast!

B. did a couple of the big chores - cleaned the wheels of the van, power washed the garage doors (all of them). We've also fertilized both lawns, taken Chloe to the groomer and surprised the kids with an IHOP brunch after church. They whined a lot expressed concern that we didn't go out for dinner once this week - except Taco Bell - so we did brunch instead of dinner. Our June expenses included $335 for B.'s car A/C repair and $335 to replace B.'s broken cell phone. We'll get $100 back in a rebate - but that's a chunk of change for things we weren't expecting. My answer to this is to try to lower all our other expenses as much as we can. It's always amazing to me how little we can spend when we put our minds to it. It's just hard to convince the two teenage consumers in the house that a month or two without multiple dinners out (go out once every other week instead of weekly, for example) and a moratorium on unnecessary purchases (like clothes, hats, belts, etc.) is survivable. Back to school shopping will commence soon enough - we need a couple months to recover from cars, phones, etc. before we shell out the hundreds of dollars required for updated clothing. Thankfully, though, their growth is slowing a bit so things they've been wearing still fit. At least for now. We're pretty sure H. is still heading upward - but we'll see. He is already at least 4 inches taller than his older brother...and that is not a popular subject in the house. So we're hoping for a 'catch-up' phase for B. and a 'slow-down' phase for H.
The air quality is improved. Saw blue sky today for the first time in a week.

Tomorrow, I'm meeting a friend in Manteca for an early lunch. And I have to drop off permission slips at church for the boys to attend 'Wake Board Wednesday' - the pastor and other church parents and teachers will take kids out on the Delta for skiing, wake boarding, tubing, swimming, etc. I will also drop off 4 dozen cookies we were asked to contribute for a memorial service of a parishioner who was killed in an auto accident. We don't know this person but were happy to help when they called and asked if we could bring finger foods of some kind. When she said 'I really need cookies', I said 'of course'. And added them to our Costco list. No other plans besides those trips. Will try to work around the house some. Culling closets, helping the boys tidy up their rooms a bit - school is only seven weeks away and their desks need serious work before we restart into another hectic year. B. will be a senior....wow, that's hard to grasp. And H. will turn 16 at the end of his sophomore year! And be driving. YIKES.