I had great plans for this week. Really I did. Was going to get things going with a bang, this first few days of 2008.

Well things aren’t working out quite as I had planned.

The thing about it is this. Most New Years Eve resolutions don’t make it past the end of January. With all the best intentions in the world, life just doesn’t go as according to plan when it comes to resolutions.

There are ways to get those Resolutions to stick. Taking them in small chunks is first. Let’s look at one of my resolutions. To write 80 articles a month for WRG. Think about that one now and my stomach does flips.

Well that is only 20 a week. Still sounds like a lot. Break it down even further that is 4 a day. That I can do. That is only 1000 words a day. I can surely handle that. OK will stick to that resolution.

Next thing to do to help with that resolution. Life happens. I can’t write these articles if I can’t research. Seems that is difficult in days like yesterday when I have no internet. Opps didn’t see that one coming. Didn’t see that they changed their submitting would change this week either. So now it is Friday and I only have 1 out of 20 done. Well that is a bit discouraging. I lost all of Wed and Thursday.

So you need to readjust and be flexible. OK so I can’t get my 8 articles written. If I think I will get my 4 today plus the 8 I am behind done today I am even more discouraged. Instead take the 8 and divide them up between today and the 5 days next week. That is just a bit of an extra article a day. That sounds a bit more doable doesn’t it?

My point is this, find ways to stick to your resolutions by breaking them down and then being flexible. Don’t give up at minor set backs. We are always going to have those. Learn to flow with punches and you will see come February you will still have your goals and moving ahead!

Tomorrow is the day! Now I know you are thinking, we know it is the last day of 2007. That isn’t what I am talking about. Tomorrow I finish my Business Mastery Course. Yeah Me! This means that I can be holistic life counsellor. It seems like I have been studying forever. So now I have a certification in Nutrion and BodyCare, Advanced Aromatherapy, and Holistic Health training.

But this has really made me think, especially the business mastery class that I am completing now. And it is with this in mind that I am taking down this site.

OK don’t panic now, ~to blog~ is staying where it should. I have put a lot into this blog. Blogs may come and go, I have/will put in a business blog, but this is my personal blog, of sorts.

But what am I? I am an aromatherapist, I am a soap maker, I am a writer. This site is supposed to showcase that. And it does not do an adequate job at it. So I am going to change that. Take it in a new direction. So the main part of this site will be coming down. For the moment it will be just pointed at the blog. I need to find a design that will be fitting for it. It may take me a few days.

I’ve considered two things. PLR and content writing work.  With my writing for WRG I don’t get a lot of writing in my expertise but with these two things I may be able to turn around the direction of my writing. That will be a good thing. While WRG provides me a much needed income, I need to start doing what I love.

Also on my “todo” list is a detailed business plan and plan of action. More on that later. But I need defined goals, and plans of action to get them done.

So stay tuned for changes in 2008! It’s going to be MY year!!!

One of raw milk’s best kept secrets is the ability to turn it into cream cheese and whey. We all know what cream cheese is. But many of us have never heard of whey, other than a part of that quaint nursery rhyme about Little Miss Muffet who sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey…

Cream cheese is actually just one of many kinds of cheeses made from milk. It is probably the easiest to make. Whey is the byproduct of all cheeses made from milk. But it is hardly a waste product. Whey may be one of the most valuable assets coming from milk, other than the milk itself. It serves as a starter inoculant for all manner of lacto-fermented fruits and vegetables. It helps acidify water for presoaking whole grains to make them more digestible. It can also be a tonic which can be consumed to aid in digestion, though it does take some getting used to (or doctoring up) the taste.

Best of all, it’s easy to make. You don’t even need to have access to raw milk to make whey and enjoy its many benefits. You can use any kind of yogurt with live cultures, homemade or purchased from the store. In fact, I recommend starting with yogurt because you have more control over the souring process, and therefore the taste of the cream cheese.

To begin, line a strainer over a bowl with a dishtowel or cheesecloth. One type of cloth that works really well is the highly porous bird’s eye diaper. Just fold one of those in half. Pour in a quart of yogurt and cover with a dinner plate. Within minutes the whey will begin dripping out. The curds of the yogurt will start drying out. After a couple hours, gather up the cloth and tie off with a string and hang over the bowl. Alternatively, you could gather up the cloth and then drop the bundle into a sprouting bag and hang that up, eliminating the need for string. The whey will continue to drip out for several hours. Once the cloth no longer drips, the curds in the cloth can be considered cream cheese. A quart of yogurt will yield around two and a half cups of whey. The whey should be stored in the refrigerator and will keep for several months. The cream cheese can last from a couple weeks to a month.

Another method for making whey is to take a quart of raw milk and allow it to sour at room temperature. When the milk has solidified and begun to separate, you pour it through the cloth-lined strainer just like with the yogurt. As I mentioned before, I prefer making the yogurt first, then turning the yogurt into whey and cream cheese because I have more control over the culturing process. I use a specific type of yogurt to inoculate my milk and I culture the milk at a specific temperature. This results in the cream cheese having a consistent flavor and consistency that my family enjoys. When you sour milk on your counter top at room temperature, you have much less control over the culturing temperature and the dominant microbes. I’ve had my cream cheese come out absolutely perfect, even better tasting than with yogurt, but I’ve also had it come out with a rather unpleasant, though still edible sharp flavor.
Of course, if you make any other type of cheese, you will be inoculating your milk with some type of cheese culture and following a specific protocol for culturing the cheese, which will also give you more control over the final outcome. I have found that whey is whey, regardless of how the cheese it’s separated from comes out.