Slippery elm

Slippery elm, as a little googling will tell you, is a herb made of the inner bark of a tree (a particular one, but I don't remember what it is called) which makes a mucilage with water which is soothing ones innards.  Laksmi recommended it for Fionn a couple of months ago.  Since then, we've added it to the porridge Monday - Friday.  A couple of times in the last month I have seen the early signs of an imminent asthma attack, particular kind of sensitive, tearful, dark under the eyes and tired than would reasonably be expected which is a typical precursor to an asthma attack for Fionn.  But asthma hasn't resulted.  The slippery elm is the only different thing we have been doing.  So I'm inclined to carry on with it.

Brighid, who has endless sore tummies, and myself, who is the grumpiest person this side of Arthurs Pass who also has a sore chest from/causing coughing, do not like porridge.  So I set out to find a way to get slippery elm into us.  Day one I added a tablespoon to a cup of hot water with some lemon and honey.  It was absolutely disgusting.  Days two and three I added about a teaspoon to a yoghurt and fruit smoothie.  Yummy, but not quite cheap and fast enough to make on the run during the week.  This morning I made peppermint tea and added half a teaspoon of slippery elm plus some honey to the tea for me and it was quite drinkable.  Brighid and I added half a teaspoon to her usual morning yoghurt with cranberry powder.  We added some blackberry jam to obscure the taste of the slippery elm.  It worked.  Tonight I added some slippery elm to Barkers blackcurrant cordial with some vitamin C powder for good measure.  It was fine, though some of the slippery elm seemed to stick to the sides of the cup rather than go down my throat.

The one thousand project is doing my head in.  One hundred and ninety five dollars at the supermarket tonight and not even a week's worth of food.  Obviously I could switch to us eating lentils and pumpkin every night.  Equally obviously, that's not what I purchased this evening.  Still, one foot in front of the other is how everything is achieved.

I started a practise run on the Miette knitting pattern last night.  The world of online knitting is the most fantastic invention.  I found the FAQ on the website of the designer and identified what I was doing wrong and then googled the technique and learnt to do it properly.  Another test run tonight, if I don't fall asleep grumbling first.