Making Iced Coffee

Every single morning, I go to Dunkin Donuts and I order a Medium Iced Latte with skim milk ONLY and a wheat bagel with strawberry cream cheese.  I spend exactly $5.85.  Say in an average month I work 22 work days.  Yeah I'll do the math for you, that's: $128.70 a month just for breakfast.  I won't get into what I spend for lunch every day.  But for now let's start with breakfast.

Finally I decided this was getting out of hand.  I generally don't like hot coffee.  I will drink hot coffee if it's around and I want coffee, but I much prefer cold coffee and iced lattes are even better.  So my goal for 2013 is to make my own iced coffee at home and add lots of milk, effectively making it an iced latte.  I searched for recipes online and they were all pretty straightforward.  Cold water + a lot of coffee= iced coffee.  I have been practicing for a few weeks now and I think I have the perfect recipe.  So here it is.  I'll pretend I'm a food blogger and show it to you with pictures.  How exciting.

 

 

Step 1: the coffee.  You're supposed to use more coarsely ground coffee but I never find any at the store so I use whatever coffee we have in our house.  Currently it is this one from Costco:

 

 

Step 2: Here is the tricky part.  You have to figure out a good ratio of coffee to water so the iced coffee tastes nice and strong.  Especially if you're going to add a lot of milk.  Most sources say double the coffee/water ratio for hot coffee.  One source said do 1 part coffee to every 4.5 parts coffee.  So I went with 5 coffee mugs of water to 1 coffee mug of coffee.  So 1 to 5 ratio.  This seems to taste the best but you should experiment.  Here's the coffee mug I used.  Really I just wanted to show it to you.  It's a picture of me and my two girls when my littlest one was born back in January.

 

Step 3: Mix everything together in some kind of container.  I use a really fancy 51 oz Bodum Iced Coffee Press that my husband bought me.  It's pretty and green.  You can seal it up and then it comes with a press part that squeezes all the coffee down to the bottom leaving you with the good stuff.  This comes 12-24 hours later.  The mixture looks like hot chocolate.

 

 

 

 



 

Step 4: Put it away in the fridge with a nice tight sealed cover and wait 12-24 hours.  You will soon see the beautiful layers of coffee on top.

 

 

Step 5: After patiently waiting many many hours, using your plunger thing push all the hard coffee on top down to the bottom and enjoy!

 

 

Here is a stock photo of how perfect your coffee will look.  Except not really because that's hot coffe below.  Yours will look and taste better.  And I've heard it lasts a few weeks fresh in the fridge but mine is gone in one week.

 

 

Let's have a fun non-lawyer blog post shall we?

Things I have learned as a mom

1. People love seeing pictures of your kids.  (I think) So here are 2 recent pictures of my girls.  Enjoy. 

2. Use small nail scissors to cut your baby's nails, way easier and less dangerous than using the clippers.

3. If you have hardwood floors, don't let your toddler run around the house in their socks, they will fall on their face.

4. Try not to rock your babies to sleep (if you can help it).  It's not so fun later.

5. Go out to eat at restaurants and take your children and make them behave.  They have to learn how to behave in public.

6. As much as you will be bombarded with new and pretty things for your babies in the beginning, keep it simple.  Babies (if you're breastfeeding) need very little in the beginning of their lives.  Milk, clothes, diapers, blankets and you're pretty much set. 

7. Travel with your kids, expose them to new cultures, new foods, and new people. 

8. Buy a good carrier for when your babies are little.  Like an ergo.  I would pesronally stay away from bjorn style carriers where the babies face outwards, they look terribly uncomfortable for the babies and they HURT your back.  Ergos and other similar carriers are great for long trips and especially good in airports, like so:

9. Document your kids' lives.  Not necessarily by writing a blog, but try some kind of journal.  I just open a word document every few months and sit down and type for 15 minutes.  I write about milestones in their lives, whether they are sleeping through the night, what kinds of words they are saying, etc.  That's it.  It's simple but it's a great way to remember those details you will NOT remember later in life!

10. Finally, I've learned, to relax.  To chill out and go with the flow.  Kids are unpredictable and it's pointless to stress yourself over things that you can't control.  I keep my house clean but there are some things that I have just let go.  For example, my toddler took a red marker and drew all over our couch.  And you know what? It's ok.  Why? Because our couch is old and crappy anyway.  We'll just buy a new one once the kids are older. 

I've learned many more things, but I'm out of time!

Protecting assets in banrkuptcy

Lately I've had a lot of clients ask me whether certain assets are protected when you file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  The correct terminology is whether there is an exemption that can be applied to the asset.

Generally speaking the following assets have exemptions that can be applied to them so that some or all of the asset can be protected:

1. Homes
2. Cars
3. Personal property
4. Tools of the trade
5. Retirement accounts
6. Tuition savings plan
7. Life insurance proceeds/cash value of policies
8. Proceeds of a personal injury lawsuit
9. Back due wages
10. Public benefits

The question is always how MUCH of an exemption do I get in order to protect my assets.  The answer is: It depends on what state you live in.

Here in IL the following are a general list of exemptions and their amounts.  This list was borrowed from a wonderful source known as Illinois Pro Bono.  The link can be found here.

Type of Property	Amount of Exemption	Controlling Statute
Residence or homestead of individual. Includes farm, lot and buildings, condominium, mobile home or cooperative. Can be owned or leased.	$15,000	735 IL Compiled Statutes (ILCS)5/12-901 (735 ILCS 5/12-906 includes proceeds of sale for 1 year)
Necessary wearing apparel, bible, school books and family pictures. Prescribed health aids of debtor and dependents.	100%	735 ILCS 5/12-1001(a) 735 ILCS 5/12-1001(e)
Any personal property of the debtor	$4,000	735 ILCS 5/12-1001(b)
One motor vehicle	$2,400	735 ILCS 5/12-1001(c)
Implements, professional books, tools of trade	$1,500	735 ILCS 5/12-1001(d)
Proceeds and cash value of life insurance policies and annuity contracts payable to dependent of insured	100%	735 ILCS 5/12-1001(f)
Public benefits: social security, unemployment compensation, public assistance, veteran's and disability and illness benefits	100%	735 ILCS 5/12-1001(g) (1), (2), (3)
Alimony, support or separate maintenance	Amount reasonably necessary to support debtor and dependents.	735 ILCS 5/12-1001(g)(4)
Crime victim's reparation awards	100%	735 ILCS 5/12-1001(h)(1)
Wrongful death payments as a result of the death of a person who supported the debtor	Amount reasonably necessary to support debtor.	735 ILCS 5/12-1001(h)(2)
Life insurance payments from a policy insuring a person who supported the debtor	Amount reasonably necessary to support debtor and dependents.	735 ILCS 5/12-1001(h)(3)
Payments on account of bodily injury to the debtor or a person who supported the debtor	$15,000	735 ILCS 5/12-1001(h)(4)
Restitution payments made under Federal Civil Liberties Act of 1988 and the Aleutian and Pribilof Island Restitution Act	100%	735 ILCS 5/12-1001(h)(5)

The bottom line is that MOST people who are filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy can protect their homes as long as they don't have much equity, one or two cars depending on the values, and normal household items.

Some things that are considered "assets" that people usually don't think about:

1. Your anticipated Federal Tax Refund
2. Proceeds from a potential lawsuit claim you may have against someone
3. Lottery proceeds
4. Inheritances

I'll end this blog post with the usual lawyer-speak.  ALWAYS speak to a knowledgeable attorney about your assets before filing for bankruptcy.

More questions? Ask us.

www.schottlerlaw.com

BREASTFEEDING HATERS

Why oh why do so many people HATE on women who breastfeed? They say that breastfeeding in public offends them, or it should be done in private, or it's gross, or icky, or seeing a woman breastfeed makes them want to vomit, or makes them want to kick a woman in the face.

-this beautiful picture courtesy of the Fresno county Breastfeeding Friendly Campaign website. 

http://first5fresno.org/policy/current-projects/breastfeeding-friendly-campaign

I wish I was joking, or exaggerating, but sadly these are the exact reactions that people have been posting lately on twitter.  I follow some pretty kick-ass people on twitter.  Some of which make it a point to RT these disgusting and ignorant tweets about breastfeeding.  I try not to respond.  I try to control myself.  But as a breastfeeding mother who lives in a country that actually has several laws to PROTECT breastfeeding mothers, I can't help but respond.

If you read something that said: "Breast feeding in public is detrimental to my health, therefor should be banned!" wouldn't you feel compelled to respond? I can't find the source of that tweet but it was some idiot.

I do wonder if I'm wasting my time arguing with idiots on twitter, but I can't help but confront some of these people and their ignorant attitudes towards breastfeeding mothers.

In case you don't believe that people can be so stupid, here are some actual tweets I have seen in just the last few weeks that will convince you humanity is screwed.

But first here is a cool campaign in the UK to help promote and normalize breastfeeding.

http://www.beastar.org.uk/

And now.  The ugly truth:

Seriously.  The above tweets are real and have not been altered in any way shape or form, except that the tweets have been copied and pasted into this blog post and the responses to the tweets have not been posted.  Hey that's the beauty of a PUBLIC forum like twitter right?  Your ignorant comments can be memorialized on the internet FOREVER.

I'm done for today.

Happy breastfeeding.  In PUBLIC.  Or wherever and however you should choose to feed your baby.

Breasts.

Breasts.

Did that get your attention? It really shouldn't have.

So I think it's time for a new blog post.  I have been a terrible blogger.  Mostly because I work FT and I now have 2 children.  Count them: ONE.  TWO.  Well some days it seems like there are more than that.

Anyway I feel like I've come full circle since I first started this blog, but not in a good way.  I began the blog last year with a post about breastfeeding in public and how America is ass-backwards (excuse my language) when it come to BFing in public.  We just can't seem to accept that breasts' primary function are to feed children.  Why? Because breasts have become so sexualized by the media that we are just completely hung up on them and can't imagine they are used for anything else.  It's pretty sad really, that a woman can't BF in public without having to worry about people casting judgment upon her for merely feeding her hungry baby.

Now that I started a twitter account a few months ago, I have seen so many young women tweet things like "EW this woman is BFing at a restaurant! I want to throw up".  Really.  Tweets like this exist.  People actually think that a woman BFing their child is disgusting.  What on earth is wrong with these people?  I could rant and rave about how incredibly stupid and ignorant people are but I'm tired of it.  I'm tired of having to defend breastfeeding.

But unfortunately we have to keep defending breastfeeding, after all didn't TIME magazine just throw this cover in our face?

I know.  It's just a sensationalist attempt to sell magazines.  But it has provoked all kinds of discussion about whether BFing a toddler is wrong, and really makes mothers who BF their children past a certain age look crazy.  Not to mention, the article discusses Attachment Parenting as an "extreme" parenting method.  I cannot begin to tell you how much I HATE these types of parenting labels.

So here we are again.  Mothers who breastfeed their children keep having to defend themselves, in public especially, because people in this country are just hung up on the notion that breasts are for sex.

I am travelling this weekend to NY and we're going with our 2 kids- the almost 2 yr old toddler and our 4 month old.  She is exclusively BF and this is going to work marvelously on our trip.  I don't have to pack bottles, formula, or water.  I just have to take my ergo carrier and BF whenever she pleases.  This will mean I will absolutely be BFing at the airport, in a restaurant, and most definitely on a plane.  Why? Because I damn well please.  Oh and more importantly because when my baby is hungry, I will feed her.  And I will not care about other people's childish insecurities about breasts.  I don't cover up, but I'm also pretty discrete (I think) and I plan on breastfeeding anywhere.  Anytime.

I dare you to tell me to cover up while I BF my daughter.  I double dare you.

And as a final note, god I'm glad to be leaving Chicago this weekend during their crazy NATO summit.  See you in NY!