by Diane Cretin
Recently my 9 year old granddaughter Olivia asked my husband Lee if he would make gummies with her. He agreed, so they made a shopping list and I went to the store.
I first thought my post would just be about “how to make it”. But as usual, God brought something to mind as I thought about what I saw Lee and Olivia doing. At one point, I asked Lee what they were doing. He said, “Skimming off the foam.” Zing! God immediately brought to my mind that I had some “foam” that I could skim off.
The “foam” I needed to skim off or eliminate was harsh speech to those I live with. My mom died November 23 at 90 years of age. I felt like I did not get to grieve her well that week because there was so much to do to get ready for Thanksgiving. Because we have not had anyone over for a long time due to the Corona virus, we had not kept the house in good shape. Also, I am currently into decluttering our house and garage, which is a big task.
My daughter Casey and son-in-law Danny as well as Olivia were great helpers with the Thanksgiving meal. I was the house cleaner. On Sunday of the Thanksgiving weekend Lee said he would cook the meat we were having for dinner but everything else regarding the meal was up to the rest of us. However, Casey and Danny stayed in their room all day while I worked on things, including fixing the rest of dinner. As they came to eat dinner, Danny asked if he could do anything. I blasted him verbally, saying it was too late and more. Not one of my finer moments.
As we sat uncomfortably at the meal for a few minutes, I realized I needed to apologize for being harsh. Had I asked them why they had been incognito all day? No. Once I apologized, they let me know that Casey (who is pregnant) had gotten sick three times that day. Danny does a great job of tending to her. Our house is big enough that I had not heard any of this.
There were several realizations.
- I put the pressure to get certain things done on myself. Some of them had to get done in a certain time period, but I may need to slow down my expectations for when others will get done.
- No one in my family had anything to do with my mom dying. Taking out my grief on them was is no way fair.
- Good communication is vital. Without it, we make up scenarios in our head, with unkind thoughts like “They are just being lazy” rather than understanding the real situation.
- I, and probably many of you, need to take more down time. I am an introvert, meaning that I restore by peace and quiet. When I don’t experience quiet time for many days in a row, I get crabby. So I need to handle my schedule better.
I am richly blessed with the family God gave me. They need to not doubt that I believe that.
Now on to gummy making.
You need the following supplies:
1 small (3 oz) package of jello
1 package of Knox gelatin
1/4 cup Karo light corn syrup
1/3 cup water
optional 1/4 tsp citric acid
(Olivia and Lee did not use this)
Silicone molds
The process is very easy, just a little monotonous.
Combine ingredients, stir gently to avoid getting a lot of bubbles (foam!!)
Let rest 5 minutes, then stir
Microwave 30 seconds, stir, rest 15 seconds
Microwave 15 seconds, stir
Microwave 15 seconds, stir
Microwave 15 seconds, stir
Microwave 15 seconds, stir (So you have done this 4 times now)
Skim off the foam/bubbles
Let rest 10 minutes. Spray molds with cooking spray. Fill molds. They used a measuring cup to pour the liquid into the molds.
Let rest 30 minutes.
Refrigerate 30 minutes. Pop out of silicone molds onto wax paper or something like it.
For the tiny molds like the bears, it said you should let them dry standing up for 2 days, then laying down for 1 day. Olivia did not do that. All of the gummies were eaten before 3 days passed. Olivia made raspberry the first time, then lime the following day. She will make more again soon as she really enjoyed making them and the entire family enjoyed eating them (although we don't normally eat a lot of things with corn syrup).
As I close, let me encourage you to have some quiet time and see what "foam" you might need to skim off of yourself. It actually feels good to get rid of your foam.
Continued blessings,
Diane