Archer Farms Monster Trail Mix Recipe (With Regular-Size M&M’s OR Mini M&M’s) PLUS Cost Comparison

Post 1 on this topic: Figuring Out the Proportion of Ingredients in Archer Farms Monster Trail Mix
Post 2 on this topic: Figuring Out the Proportion of Ingredients in Archer Farms Monster Trail Mix: DO-OVER!

You may wonder why, in the title, I make a point about M&M size. It is because, when I was for some now-forgotten reason reading the reviews on Target for this trail mix, I saw a LOT of comments complaining about the switch from full-size to mini M&M’s, along with a number of comments praising the change. I just want to make it clear I take NO STANCE on this obviously very controversial issue, and am currently using the regular-size M&M’s because my grocery store is not stocking the mini ones.

In case you are here for the recipe and not for the post (I have heard all the arguments FOR and AGAINST lonnnnnnnnnnnng posts before you get to the recipe, but if it’s on a blog I don’t usually follow, I generally scroll rapidly down to the actual recipe), the recipe is:

7.9 ounces unsalted roasted peanuts
4.2 ounces milk chocolate chips
7.2 ounces raisins
4.0 ounces peanut butter chips
4.9 ounces of either regular-size or mini M&M’s.

(I’ve linked to the ones I’ve been buying, except in the case of the M&M’s: they have not been available for shipping lately so I’ve been buying those at my grocery store. Also, I usually buy Party-size bag rather than Family-size, but assumed most people wouldn’t want to commit to that big of a bag of them.)

Anyway, here is how I make it. First, all set up on the counter: my kitchen scale, which I have tared to include the measuring bowl; my big mixing bowl; the empty container of trail mix we keep reusing; and the recipe.

And, on a nearby kitchen stool: the box of ingredients, boxed in the hope that it will keep the children from snorfing up all the ingredients before I can use them; also, one cat (optional) (not recommended).

 

Here is how it looks after I’ve weighed all the ingredients but right before I put my (freshly-washed) hands into the bowl to mix it all together:

After I mix it, I tip it all to one side of the bowl and use the container to scoop a good deal of it up. Then I pour the rest into the container, using my hands to coax the mix into a narrower pour than it would by nature be inclined.

And here it is tucked tidily into its container, ready for the children to consume the contents and leave the empty container on the counter to be refilled:

The thought may be crossing your mind that I could have the children make the recipe and refill the container themselves. It will not, I hope, surprise you to hear that that idea has already occurred to me: it’s not a difficult recipe or idea; I don’t love seeing the empty container waiting for me; and I don’t eat the trail mix, so it doesn’t make sense for me to be the one to make it. But within seconds of thinking of that idea, I thought of a serious flaw, based on remembering being a child: as a child, given this recipe to assemble, it is absolutely certain that I would have gone wayyyyyyy light on the peanuts and raisins and wayyyyyyy heavy on everything else. Also, I would have eaten many, many M&M’s and chocolate/PB chips as I worked—possibly just as many as I used in the mix. And one of the main reasons I don’t mind the children eating a trail mix full of M&M’s and chocolate/PB chips is that they are ALSO eating peanuts and raisins (unless they are discreetly dumping those into the trash, in which case I am happier not knowing about it). Therefore I am in charge of the mix. Plus, it’s relatively fun to make, once I nudge aside the resentful feelings.

Now! For the cost comparison. The container of trail mix is selling at my Target for $7.99 right now. I used to wait for it to go on sale before buying it, but that was In The Beforetimes, so $7.99 is the price we will be comparing the home-assembled mix to. Here, once again, are the ingredients I use:

7.9 ounces unsalted roasted peanuts
4.2 ounces milk chocolate chips
7.2 ounces raisins
4.0 ounces peanut butter chips
4.9 ounces of either regular-size or mini M&M’s, or what I’ve been buying, which is the Party-size bag of the regular-size M&M’s.

Using today’s prices (U.S. dollars) on Target.com (because I have not been in a Target store since March):

• The peanuts are $2.79 for 16 ounces, which is $.17/ounce. I use 7.9 ounces, which is $1.38.

• The milk chocolate chips are $1.99 for 11.5 ounces, which is $.17/ounce. I use 4.2 ounces, which is $.73.

• The raisins are $2.99 for 20 ounces, which is $.15/ounce. I use 7.2 ounces, which is $1.08.

• The peanut butter chips are $2.39 for 10 ounces, which is $.24/ounce. I use 4 ounces, which is $.96.

• The Party-size bag of regular-size M&M’s is $9.59 for 38 ounces, which is $.25/ounce; I use 4.9 ounces, which is $1.24. The Family-size bag of regular-size M&M’s is $4.99 for 19.2 ounces, which is $.26/ounce; 4.9 ounces is $1.27. The Family-size bag of mini M&M’s is $4.99 for 18 ounces, which is $.28/ounce; 4.9 ounces is $1.36.

So TODAY’S trail mix cost:

$1.38 peanuts
$0.73 chocolate chips
$1.08 raisins
$0.96 PB chips
$1.24 M&M’s

A total of $5.39.

But we can’t compare that to the $7.99, because my mixture weighs less: the Archer Farms container holds 36 ounces, and I made only 28.2 ounces. The Archer Farms mix is $.22/ounce, and mine is $.19/ounce. If I’d made the same amount as the Archer Farms container held, mine would cost $6.88 for 36 ounces, assuming all those many maths check out.

So! Mine is cheaper! Which is gratifying! But! When I used to buy it on sale, it used to be about $6.99. So mine is not enough cheaper to justify making it at home in Normal Times, UNLESS I had specific reasons for wanting to do it, like wanting to adjust proportions.

Egg Holders; Creative Pandemic Cancelled-Vacation Comfort; RSVP

The other day we learned that Edward, age 15, thinks that tongs are called “egg holders.”

 

One of my friends goes with her husband and kids to Disney every year, and it is one of those things that is a big part of Their Family Identity: they are A Disney Family. Annual matching family t-shirts, mouse-eared family stickers on the car, using a Disney family photo for their Christmas card, etc. I tell you this so that you will understand why the necessary cancellation of this trip is especially disappointing for them: it’s the blow felt by everyone who has had to cancel a vacation/event due to the pandemic, plus the additional blow of losing something that is an important ritual for them, plus the additional blow of breaking their streak.

To somewhat ease this disappointment, they are doing something that seems fun to me, though I could see how for other people it might hit as extra sad. But to me it seems fun, and this is what it is: they are doing an at-home version of SOME of the things they would be doing on their Disney trip, using a schedule of what they WOULD have been doing each day. It’s not at all meant to replace or compensate for the lost vacation; it’s more like…finding a few little happy things in spite of the disaster. So for example, on the day they were supposed to have left for this vacation, my friend posted that normally they would be packing the car and heading out at 7:00 a.m. with one last stop at [particular favorite local coffee shop] to pick up breakfast on their way out of town, and so she got curbside pick-up at that coffee shop and brought it home, and that’s what they had for breakfast. She said they always stop for lunch at [particular chain restaurant] on their travel day, so she went online and found a dupe recipe for what they always order, and she made it at home and they had it for lunch. Meanwhile they are playing all their Disney CDs as they usually would in the car on the way there, and they have their usual car activities (magazines, travel snacks, puzzle books, Disney trivia cards) on the dining room table, and they are watching all their Disney movies, and they have all the photo albums out of previous trips. I don’t know, I can see how it could feel a little bleak, but it comes across more like salvaging what they can + remembering other fun trips + the diverting and creativity-stimulating project of thinking about what they can do/make/eat that would be reminiscent of those trips.

 

We had our first awkward situation of needing to RSVP a no for an in-person birthday party. I’d been kind of dreading it. “Dreading” is overstating it, but I can’t think of a milder word. Perhaps I could have said “anticipating it warily.” Anyway it happened: Henry was invited to a birthday party at the kind of place that hosts children’s birthday parties, followed by an indoors restaurant meal. Happily the mom who contacted me did so by email so I had time to work out how to respond, and also happily she included a list of precautions they would be taking (masks, hand sanitizer, only three children and one adult at the party) but also said she completely understood if we didn’t feel comfortable, so I didn’t feel like she was someone who though the pandemic was a ridiculous hoax and/or someone who would scoff at me for declining. I was actually more worried that by declining I would accidentally send the vibe that we disapproved of their plans/invitation. Sometimes my social anxieties are unfounded, but from the careful wording of her invitation I DO think there was a chance she was worried about that. So I responded with happiness to have received the invitation, a sorrowful inability to accept (with a brief, non-identifying mention of an immunosuppressed person in our household), and a cheerful instruction to wish the child a happy birthday from Henry and me.

Social interaction can be so tricky. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could beam over a little mental packet of what we INTEND to communicate?

Low; Keto; Wish Lists

I am still pretty low. The upcoming presidential election is well on its way to being fully compromised. And apparently we are going to have a do-over of the whole “a non-white political candidate must not have been born here” thing. The United States Postal Service, which I love, is in serious jeopardy. And Congress…went on a break? I guess? See you later, folks! Don’t worry about us!

Meanwhile, our school system is still planning partial in-person school, and they do have a remote option but the remote option is that they MIGHT have some teachers teaching only remotely but they don’t know which teachers will be doing that or which classes will be available, so if we want to we can make our own separate plans, homeschooling or classes through a different online high school, and can we please let them know right now which way we are going to do it. WE CANNOT MAKE THOSE CHOICES WITHOUT MORE INFORMATION. Whenever I feel like going into a full freak-out about this, I remember most of us are in the same boat: there just ISN’T the information we need. Wringing my hands doesn’t result in the creation of more information.

Also I have gone back on keto, which I was reluctant to tell you about because of how I would have felt when I was off keto if someone had said they were going back on it. (PRETTY BAD.) It was a combination of two things, and I hope those two things will relieve your mind: i.e., that you will be able to think “Ah! Yes, perhaps if I had those two things, I too would go back on a diet during a pandemic, but I do NOT have those two things, and if Swistle had not had those two things, she would not be on a diet either, so we are still on the same page.”

The first thing was the much smaller thing, so I will mention it first, and it’s that I hit a weight-gain level that felt less worth it. Up until that point, I’d felt shruggy: I could not feel it was important enough to worry about during a pandemic. Also, I have a pretty wide range of weights I feel comfortable at, and I was still comfortable. But I FELT myself go past that mark, and I was no longer comfortable. Still, if it hadn’t been for the second thing, I would still have been shruggy about it: yes, I’d prefer to be a different weight / more comfortable, but it is not important enough to justify the actions that would need to be taken to achieve that right now.

It was the second thing that really mattered, and it was this: I stopped feeling the thrill of the unrestricted food options. For MONTHS, I would wake up feeling bad in one way or another (discouraged! angry! anxious!), and then I would remember I could have a bagel or cereal with breakfast, and/or sugar in my coffee, and I would perk right up and go humming into the shower. Mid-day I would remember I had to make dinner, and then I would remember it could be something delicious and I could eat it too, and I would perk right up and start looking through my recipe file to see what I might like to eat. After a delicious lunch (with potato chips! and/or coleslaw! and/or potato salad!) I would have a cupcake and I would RELISH it and feel so lucky and happy. And all of those things stopped happening. I still ENJOYED the food, but if the thrill level had been at a 10 for all those months, now it was at about a 2. The situation went from WELL WORTH IT to NOT well worth it.

Also, many of the practical/logistical considerations had cleared up: eggs, meat, and cheese are no longer restricted or hard to acquire. I’ve gotten accustomed to shopping less frequently, and I’ve become less stressed about it. I don’t feel anymore that cruising-for-disordered-eating feeling of needing to dramatically reduce how much I eat of the precious supplies. And Paul went on a diet, which first of all thanks I hate it, and secondly means I felt pretty resentful to have gone off my restricted foods list in order to make grocery shopping simpler and less stressful, and then have him make it more difficult and stressful again.

I thought about it for awhile, wondering if it was something I actually wanted to go back to, and then I got to that magical and hard-to-manufacture point of Feeling I Was Ready To Do It, and then I did it. It has been a rough week. When I was doing keto before, I could even take off, say, five days for a vacation, and then go right back to it with maybe just a slight Low feeling the first day. But after more like four and a half months, it was like starting all over, with the queasiness and exhaustion and everything, and feeling like there’s nothing I want to eat. Well, I remember it from last time, and I remember it stopped being like that and then it just felt normal, so I am leaning on that memory.

And it might not TAKE. I might do this for a couple of weeks and then think NOPE: too hard to shop, too hard to cook food I can’t eat, too hard to cope with the news without kettle corn, too hard to handle five kids doing school at home if I can’t start the morning with a bagel and end lunch with a cupcake. Or maybe I will be on it until the next time I feel the desperate need for the support of delicious unrestricted foods—in, say, November. We will just see.

Sorry again for talking about dieting during a pandemic. I know it can be discouraging to hear about. Even when I AM dieting during a pandemic, I find it discouraging to hear about other people doing it. But also, I don’t feel right when it seems like I’m keeping something secret from you, and I can tell that’s happening when I go day after day after day without writing anything: it’s like I have to tell you the thing first. So I thought, let’s get it over with, and then we can go back to normal.

Let’s talk about something else. Tell me something that’s on your birthday/holiday wish list.

Why Did I Order This Book?

I was about to write a post asking if by any chance anyone knew why I had ordered a certain book, but then I tried one more idea and that was the one that let me figure it out.

Here is what happened. A book arrived for me in the mail; I wasn’t expecting a book but I wasn’t NOT expecting a book, either: I’ve ordered a few used books from eBay and Amazon recently, and sometimes they take a long time to arrive because of media mail being slower and also because of the current administration sabotaging the United States Postal Service. So I opened the package, interested to see what it was, and it was this:

(image from Amazon.com)

A Jeweler’s Eye for Flaw, by Christie Hodgen. I didn’t recognize it at all. No bells ringing. “Maybe someone sent it to you?,” suggested Paul, and I thought that was possible, but there was no gift information on the receipt. I looked in my email inbox for the name of the company and the name of the book—no match. I looked in my Amazon orders—and there it was, an used copy purchased from a third-party seller. So I’d ordered it. BUT WHY.

The order had been placed just over two weeks ago, so I thought it MUST have been as a result of the book recommendations post. But I searched the comments for the name of the book and the name of the author: no matches. I checked on Twitter, because sometimes people comment there instead of on the post: nothing.

Maybe my sister-in-law recommended it? I don’t remember her recommending a book lately, but on the other hand I’ve been pretty distracted with all the news about schools putting a bunch of people together in closed rooms during a huge outbreak of a virus that appears to spread primarily via shared air. I searched my OTHER email inbox, the one I use for family: nothing.

Well, who ELSE might have said something about a book that made me immediately order a copy? Maybe I saw it on Shelf Love? No. Maybe Nicole recommended it? (HI NICOLE.) No.

Could I have read about it in a news article? Maybe there was recently a story about it? Feeling like it was a real long shot, I searched online for the title of the book, but just got a bunch of hits for sites that would sell it to me and/or sites that had reviewed it; nothing looked familiar. Then, just in case, I searched the name of the book again but added the word “Swistle.” And there it was, the person who had recommended it to me: ME.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was writing that recent post looking for book recommendations, I went through my blog archives looking for any mentions of books I’d read, to see if I could add more to my “Books I’ve Liked” list. I found my old review of Christie Hodgen’s other book, Elegies for the Brokenhearted, which apparently I’d loved, and I’d said in that post that I was going to get her second book from the library and, if I liked it, order the third book, which our library system didn’t have a copy of. I have no idea how that whole thing turned out! I wrote the review in 2012, and never wrote anything about how I liked the second book; and I looked up the second book just now, and I have no memory of reading it. (To be fair, I don’t remember the first one, either.) But I thought, “Oh, that seems like the perfect kind of book to order during a pandemic, since our library doesn’t have it so I’d have to buy it ANYWAY,” so then I impulsively found a cheap used copy and ordered it and went back to writing the post and forgot all about the order! Perhaps now I will read it and remember I already did this same thing back in 2012, didn’t like the book, and got rid of it!

Cleaning Out My Sock and Underwear Drawer: THE SEQUEL

I had to clean out my sock and underwear drawer. Again. Last time I did this, I said that I was not someone who rotated clothing seasonally. I am still not. But this drawer is so frustratingly full, and it’s so hard to find things, but I still like and wear pretty much everything, so I am willing to ATTEMPT seasonal rotation. We will see if I can maintain it. My money is on Perhaps.

Here is the drawer as we begin our journey, too full to close:

 

And here it is after I took everything out and put it on the bed, except for the back-up bottles of L’Artisan, which have expanded since the last time we peeked:

 

Here is everything sorted on the bed (it’s a little misleading, because the D pile actually came from a different, smaller drawer, which didn’t seem interesting enough to mention except then I added a list to the end of the post that means the clarification is necessary), with a map key below the picture:

A: Underwear I dislike and wear only one week a month
B: Underwear I like
C: Underwear I like, but it’s a little too big
D: Nylons, dressy socks, shapewear, cartwheel shorts
E. White cotton crew socks, worn year-round
F: Socks without twins
G: Fleecey and wool socks of the kind I wear over other socks for extra warmth
H: Ankle socks, worn only in hot weather
I: Crew/boot socks, worn only in cold weather
J: Wool socks I can wear without another layer underneath
K: Holiday/theme socks

 

I had more pairs than I needed of Group A underwear, so I got rid of a few, and I put Group C up in storage with my other too-big clothing. I set aside Group F (single socks) in a bag that hangs from my closet door handle and serves as a last-chance area before I throw the socks out. I evaluated Group G (fleece and wool), realized I’d bought too many when we moved to this chilly house, calculated that I could get rid of half and still have plenty, and did so. I looked through Group K (holiday and themed) and got rid of a couple pairs.

But things were still pretty good from the last time I did this, and these minor edits weren’t enough for the kind of significant results I wanted to see. Systemic change needed to occur.

The nylons, dressy socks, shapewear, cartwheel shorts—I wear such things HARDLY EVER. Like, once or twice a year. But when I DO need one or more of them, I don’t want to have to go BUY them. This was the perfect use for a Hello Kitty shoebox I’ve been saving:

I put it up in my closet next to the shoe boxes of dress shoes I wear hardly ever (but don’t want to go out and buy when I DO need them).

 

Next, finally, a reluctant and tentative commitment to seasonal rotation:

I almost accidentally labeled the box “cold-weather socks” but then realized “out-of-season socks” means I can use the same box for whatever socks I’m not currently wearing. (If I’d accidentally written “cold-weather socks,” I would have written “warm-weather socks” on the other end of the box, and then I could have just put it facing a different way in my closet.)

 

After:

This is the best it’ll ever look, since the hot-weather socks take up less space than the cold-weather socks.

 

And the trash can:

 

And a list of things found in the different, smaller drawer that contained the nylons and shapewear and so forth (which I apparently didn’t go through the last time I did this project):

• An iron-on Jeep logo, apparently torn out of a magazine.

• An old packing list that included “powder.” It’s been so long since I’ve worn powder, I couldn’t even think what the word referred to at first, and only figured it out because it was in the same list as lipstick and under-eye pencil. Matte skin used to be very In, which was difficult because I am naturally rather dewy. Happily, trends change.

• A 2005 packing receipt for nursing bras, which I saved because they were hard to find and I didn’t want to forget which ones they were if I needed to order them again later on.

Possibly Unnecessary Back-to-School Shopping in a Pandemic

I am weepy because I got an email from Target saying items I ordered YESTERDAY will arrive THIS MORNING already, and one of the items was something someone should have put on the list before my last grocery store trip but didn’t, and I went to the store recently and am not going back for awhile, so I was feeling some despair about how can I keep the house stocked during a pandemic IF PEOPLE CAN’T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO PUT THINGS ON THE LIST, and now I am feeling so GRATEFUL to online stores, and to warehouse workers, and to delivery workers, and *WEEP*. So clearly the emotional fragility continues.

Shopping is one of my coping methods, and another recent example of this is that I impulsively ordered a whole lot of notebooks and folders, even though I don’t know if the kids will even need them or use them. Mostly it seems like school supplies are for carrying information back and forth between home and classroom, but also they’re for keeping things organized, and if I were doing classes online I would still want to have a separate notebook for each class, and ideally a folder to match that notebook, and so forth, and buying school supplies is so fun and I’m sad at the thought of missing it, and also I was worried about things selling out and this is not really the year for going from store to store, and so I placed the order.

The three younger kids were all in bed (these days they go to bed about when I do, but I was up late because I couldn’t sleep) so I couldn’t ask them what colors they wanted as I usually would, so I just got two each of every color and we’ll let them cage-match it out: there’s a certain fun in choosing your own stuff, but there’s another kind of fun in figuring out how to divide pre-chosen stuff. Normally I would buy Mead notebooks and folders in hopes of higher durability, but this year I got the store brand of both. These supplies don’t have to survive being shoved into a backpack/locker every day, and I don’t even know if we’ll USE them, so I went cheap: paper-cover notebooks, vinyl cover notebooks; and folders (on clearance!) with and without binder holes (we still have some serviceable binders from last year).

We don’t really need anything else, I don’t think. Normally I want/need to buy more pencils and pens, but we have tons. Normally I would buy new erasers and new pencil cases and new highlighters and basically new anything that seemed fun or was on the teachers’ lists, but this year I don’t have that impulse.

Low; Teachers in a Pandemic

One of the interesting things about my boring blog-fixing project is seeing how very predictable I am with my mood slumps. I work on a month’s worth of posts in a day, generally, and it seems like in every batch there is just ALWAYS at least one post about how low I feel and what I’m doing about it with food and exercise and moping and shopping.

I am in another low time now, and I am coping by re-reading Maeve Binchy books, buying too many kinds of tea, eating extra vegetables and extra treats, buying extra non-perishables, and openly weeping while listening to Michelle Obama’s podcast on walks.

Our school district has taken a step in the direction of rejecting the hybrid option (which, as commenter Liz aptly put it, was actually “a 40-page document explaining why they just can not open at all”). They haven’t come to the final decision yet, but my feeling is that one way or another we are going to be going remote: either from the beginning, or after we try the hybrid option and a lot of people get sick and we have to shut it down.

But apparently first we are going to do the intermediate step of making sure teachers and other school employees know how little we care about them and their families, and to what extent we consider them daycare workers rather than educators, and how entitled we feel to that daycare, and how entitled we feel to normality even when normality is not currently an option. Some parents are threatening to sue the school district, the principals, the school board, the teachers themselves. One parent said that in her opinion teachers and other school employees should feel grateful to still have their jobs when so many people are out of work, and another parent responded that they didn’t see why teachers and school employees should get to stay home when other people have to work, and that was when I gave up on having a happy life.

Considering ALL the options are terrible and there is NO good option where things are normal and there’s no pandemic and everyone keeps their jobs, then surely choosing the option where we turn this whole thing against teachers/schools is our worst and most short-sighted idea yet; and it won’t even WORK. We will lose some of the teachers and other school employees at the very start, as they quit in the face of parents/administrators insisting they go back when it’s not safe; this alone may be enough to leave the school too understaffed to open. But if, after the first wave of quitting, we still have enough staff to open, we will lose more teachers/employees shortly afterward, as they get sick and/or die, or else quit from the stress; at that point, the school will certainly be too understaffed to remain open, and possibly now too understaffed to do effective remote learning. We will have pushed pushed pushed to get schools to open, and it will result in schools being closed anyway soon afterward—but only after losing people we didn’t have to lose, and traumatizing/demoralizing the rest, and leaving the whole school system worse off than it was before.

Old Dentist Appointment Fret; New HIPAA/POA Fret

I had a low day yesterday, and then had trouble getting to sleep even though I took benadryl, and then at 2:00 in the morning my phone rang and that is just never going to be good news. And I could see on the screen that the caller was my eldest son, which was weird; this happened once before, though, when he’d gone outside to get something out of the car and locked himself out. But when I answered, he didn’t say anything, which gave me visions of him badly hurt (calling me RIGHT BEFORE LOSING CONSCIOUSNESS!!) and/or kidnapped somehow. But no: butt-dial. Time it took for me to get back to sleep after this drama: roughly 1 hour 45 minutes.

I have what I find to be a pleasing though boring update on my fretty dentist situation. That post is just a giant tangled ball of stress, so I suggest NOT clicking the link, and instead I will summarize the relevant part by saying I’d canceled Edward and Henry’s routine dentist appointments, then regretted it because Henry has braces and it really seemed as if he ought to have a cleaning, especially since the DAY I canceled the appointment we got a pre-appointment letter from the dentist that made it sound really really safe. And anyway it made me feel as if every decision I make is wrong, and I’d continued to fret about it, but felt too sheepish to call the dentist and ask for a new appointment for Henry. Then I saw Elizabeth’s routine cleaning coming up on the calendar, and I called the dentist office and asked if it would be possible to give Henry that appointment instead of Elizabeth (I’d been planning to just cancel it), and they said yes, so now the kid with braces will get his cleaning, and I feel better.

A friend brought to my attention that kids 18 and older have to sign HIPAA authorizations and possibly medical power of attorney forms, or else their parents can’t have access to their information or make medical decisions for them if they’re incapacitated. That seems…rather crucial, in a pandemic or even not in a pandemic, and had not occurred to me at all. My hope is that at some point someone ELSE, like the kids’ colleges, realized that this was something that needed to be done, and that Rob and William have already signed such forms. Looking at the HIPAA form, I vaguely remember them being given one like it (with some ceremony about it, like, “Now he’s 18 he gets his own HIPAA, Mom!”)—but I don’t FULLY remember if that happened (1) at the pediatrician (as opposed to at an eye appointment or something), and (2) if they filled out our names on it, and (3) if it happened for both Rob and William. So there’s my new/current fret.

Grocery Shopping; Two Coleslaw Recipes

It has been awhile since we have checked in about grocery shopping! Partly it’s because there’s been less to report. Supplies have seemed steadier overall, with a few persistent exceptions: usual bread still not available, usual pizza sauce still not available, disinfecting wipes/sprays and my usual disinfectant cleaning spritzes still not available, still only a few kinds of chicken nuggets, still very little yeast, still only unfamiliar-brand hand sanitizer in what looks like water bottles. Frozen fruit is still patchy, but better. Vegetarian meat-equivalents have been VERY patchy, but I’ve been able to find enough to get by.

I don’t think anything at my grocery store is currently limited to a certain number of items per customer: not the meat, not the flour, not the sugar, not even the toilet paper or paper towels. In fact, the paper products aisle is STUFFED FULL, with extra paper towels taking up space in the still-depleted cleaning-supply section.

I’m noticing a LOT of store-brand merchandise, including for products that didn’t used to have a store brand (or perhaps I just hadn’t noticed the store brand, and/or it wasn’t so prominent before). I’d heard online that soy sauce was hard to find, so I checked for it, and on the shelf was one single extra-large bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce, and the rest of TWO ENTIRE SHELVES was filled with store-brand soy sauce. And they were out of our usual pasta sauce, and that area of the shelf was filled with a store-brand equivalent I don’t remember ever seeing before. Most of the abundance of paper towels and toilet paper are the store-brand.

Eggs have been oddly small. We’ve had some dozens where some of the eggs are regular size but maybe half of them are so small I use three eggs as the equivalent of two.

Flour variety is still patchy. Last week I went to the smaller branch of our grocery store that’s nearer to us (during the pandemic I’ve been going more often to the larger branch further away, because they have better supplies and wider aisles), and they had only two kinds of flour, and also I noticed they were charging SEVEN FORTY-NINE for it. I know such things vary regionally, so for comparison this was for the more-expensive-brand flour that is usually right around four dollars at that exact store. I wonder how long I might have been paying $7.49 without noticing? I am normally a price-noticer, but the last few months I have not had the available neurons for that—and also, with some products out of stock and others filling in the gaps, it can be hard to even find the price. Today I went to the larger branch, and they had MANY more kinds of flour (even the unbleached version of one brand), and they were charging normal prices for it. But it makes me wonder if the reason our grocery bill has been high is not just that I’m buying more per trip, but also that things have been priced higher than usual without me noticing.

I have been craving coleslaw, so I bought another bag of the pre-shredded cabbage blend to make it with, and when I got home I noticed it said “Use by July 28” on it. (Today is July 31.) Not even “sell by,” but USE by. (Checking expiration dates is another task I don’t have the available neurons for.) It didn’t seem slimy, just extra cabbage-fragrant; I made coleslaw out of it anyway. Do you want my coleslaw recipe? It’s based on my dad’s recipe, but he uses Miracle Whip so I changed it to accommodate mayonnaise. Here’s my dad’s recipe, if you use Miracle Whip:

Swistle’s Dad’s Coleslaw Recipe (Miracle Whip)
1 lb. shredded coleslaw mix
3/4 c. Miracle Whip
1.5 T. sugar
1.5 T. vinegar

Mix all ingredients together. Refrigerate awhile to allow flavors to blend.

 

We used to use Miracle Whip, too, but then I was on keto so we switched to mayonnaise and we haven’t switched back, at least not yet. I looked up how to substitute mayonnaise for Miracle Whip, and found several LONG and INVOLVED recipes, including one that wanted me to COOK the mayonnaise with the additional ingredients (honey, no), but looking at a bunch of different recipes it seemed as if the gist was that if I used mayonnaise I should add some vinegar, sugar, and salt. Since my dad’s recipe already calls for vinegar and sugar, I just used more. I also added salt. And then I impulsively shook in a little bottled lemon juice. So here’s my recipe, if you use mayonnaise:

Swistle’s Coleslaw Recipe (Mayonnaise)
1 lb shredded coleslaw mix
3/4 c. mayonnaise
2 T. sugar
2.5 T. vinegar
a good pinch of salt
like a teaspoon or so of lemon juice

None of that seems like it has to be super precise. I put in more like 1.5 T. of sugar when I made it today, because 2 T. just seemed like kind of a lot; we’ll see if it makes a difference. [Update: It made a difference. Not a good difference. I added more sugar. I like non-sweet coleslaw recipes, too, but this is a sweet/tart one and it needs the sweet to balance the tart.] I like to mix everything except the bag of shreddies in a big plastic bowl, then add the shredded stuff and stir it, then spatula it into a 1.5-quart lidded glass bowl. I know that makes for an extra bowl to clean, but I don’t like to have to be careful when I’m stirring, and coleslaw is fun to stir, and the extra bowl is quick to wash.

 

For the past FOUR trips (remember we’re still talking about grocery shopping), the store has been out of the Gardein Beefless Ground I use for the vegetarians in our household. We have tried other brands, and none of the ones we’ve tried have been anywhere near as good. This time they FINALLY had it back in stock, and I bought three bags—but now they’re out of the Morning Star faux-chicken patties and nuggets.

I am still doing the shopping before my daily shower, so that afterward I can shower off the real and imaginary germs without feeling as if perhaps I am going a bit far with this. Also, I am much more tolerant of being hot/sweaty if I know I’ll be showering soon, and it’s always hot and humid now. Also, because of the heat/humidity, I need to get the groceries inside and put away QUICKLY, which means I end up even hotter and sweatier and stressier. A nice cool shower is a good reset button. (And I count the shopping and putting-away as my exercise for the day.)

Speaking of the heat and humidity, I was explaining to Elizabeth that I would not be able to successfully purchase the Klondike bars she was hoping for: the grocery store I was planning to go to is 20 minutes away, and I don’t like to count on the ice cream making it that long in summer. She suggested bringing an insulated bag, and I reminded her that the store is not currently allowing customers to bring in their own bags. “…But you can still use it in the car,” she explained gently. My goodness, imagine having all those fresh youthful brain cells!

So I DID bring the insulated bag, with several ice packs in it. Normally (normally during a pandemic, I mean), when I come out to the car after shopping I triage the groceries a little, putting things that don’t mind the heat so much (toilet paper, flour, cereal, canned stuff) into the trunk, and the rest of the stuff into the air-conditioned interior (this helps me prioritize things to bring in / put away soonest when I get home, too); and this time I added the extra step of putting some of the frozen stuff (the Klondike bars, the frozen fruit) into the insulated bag. It was GREAT. I have added “insulated bag and ice packs” to my pre-grocery-shopping checklist. I might purchase MORE insulated bags.

 

How has your grocery shopping been going lately? Do you have a coleslaw recipe you like?

At Least We Tried: School Planning in a Pandemic

WOW SCHOOL PLANNING IS A GIANT MESS RIGHT NOW! UNDERSTANDABLY!

Our school district recently released a 40+ page document about their plans for partial in-person schooling. They did a really good job, under the circumstances, and you can see a LOT of people did a LOT of work to come up with these plans; but it is clear to me, after reading the whole thing, that this can’t work. I could be wrong! Maybe it will work beautifully! But. The first part that made me yell out “What are we DOING???” was the part where it said that if a teacher becomes ill mid-day, they will open the door to the adjoining classroom, notify that classroom’s teacher that they are ill, ask that teacher to take care of both classrooms, and leave with all their possessions by the nearest exit. BY THE NEAREST EXIT. WITH ALL THEIR POSSESSIONS. AFTER JOINING THE AIR OF TWO CLASSROOMS. AND ASKING ANOTHER TEACHER TO TAKE CHARGE OF THE STUDENTS WHO HAVE BEEN SHARING AIR WITH THE TEACHER WHO IS NOW ILL.

(This is all assuming there is enough staff to even start the first day, let alone take over each other’s classrooms. The entire document is full of “*assuming adequate staff,” and that’s understandable, and I’m glad they seem to be aware that that could very well be a considerable issue. Already our district was very short of substitute teachers, and now they are even more short of substitute teachers and also short of bus drivers. It appears there are not many people who want poorly-paid part-time hours with no benefits and lots of people-exposure during a pandemic. And as we approach the scheduled start of school, I suspect more and more school employees will opt out. UNDERSTANDABLY.)

There is a LOT about how the school will be cleaning the living hell out of all surfaces, all day and all night, which I guess is supposed to be reassuring, but is less so with a virus believed to spread predominantly through shared air, and we are going to put the children and teachers in closed rooms with shared air, and they will have lunch in their classrooms and will have to take off their masks for that. TELL ME LESS ABOUT HOW YOU PLAN TO CLEAN THE SURFACES AND MORE ABOUT HOW YOU PLAN TO CLEAN THE AIR.

Then I got to the part where we learn that if someone in the school system is exposed to someone with a positive Covid-19 test, they and all their family members and “everyone they have close contact with” must leave the school system for 14 days, and/or until they’ve had a negative Covid-19 test. Well! So. Let’s say a teacher’s spouse has a positive Covid-19 test, so the teacher will be out for 14 days. Also the teacher’s two children will be out for 14 days. And then, what does “close contact” mean in an in-person school environment? The students in the teacher’s classroom? (That might NEED to happen, if there are no subs.) The students/teacher in the teacher’s children’s classrooms? The bus driver and other students on the teacher’s children’s bus? How many people are out for 14 days for each exposure?

The gist, which was in the 40s of pages when most people might have stopped reading, seems to be that one single positive Covid-19 test in the school system will likely mean closing down the entire school district. Maybe not! But probably. So what we are doing is spending a lot of time and effort to create a system that is expected to collapse, in order to make everyone feel that at least we tried.