Eggs And Injuries

Now that we have all recovered from picnics and fireworks, settled back in to routine and had a moment to breathe... let's talk about eggs.  July 5th was a pretty typical day in the modern family household.  Girls were up by 8:30 this morning.  I know, I know.  That is pretty late actually.  Usually they sleep until 9am, jealous much?  So I am barely climbing out of bed when they are up and ready to play.  We get in to the normal routine, warm vanilla milk, sesame street and a bit of play time before we start breakfast.  I take my time getting to the kitchen and right about the time I am actually awake was the moment I noticed the eggs.  Or rather the egg carton.  Just a small detail really, maybe something most people might miss.  Not Modern Mommy.  And especially not on a day when I did not get a blog post up early enough, and you know that means that I am still looking for material at 10am.  Sad?  Yeah, just a little.  So, the eggs.  I am halfway into cracking the second egg when I see something printed on the inside of the package.  A scripture.  In Psalms.  I did not get the chapter and verse, but the whole thing struck me as funny.  Who doesn't need a little religion at this hour?  I know.  It's not that early.  Play along here.  It's not like I do not find eggs to be inspiring on their own.  On the contrary.  Eggs can and do move me to be a better person, a kinder mom and a gentler wife.  Eggs have been doing that for centuries.

 

I can think of several occasions in American History alone where eggs have played a major role in the development of our country.  Why just this year Craig Schindewolf of Egg Harbor Township High School, Egg Harbor Township, NJ was awarded an honorable mention in the coveted Gilder Lehrman Prize in American History for his piece on The War of 1812.  You laugh but the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is no joke.  Neither is Egg Harbor Township of New Jersey.  To look down at the Egg Harbor River today one might have difficulty conceiving this waterway as a bustling artery of commerce over 400 years ago.  Read up people this is good stuff.  How about the medieval technique of tempera painting?  I never get tired of this story.  Seriously.  The word "tempera" derives from the medieval Latin "temperare," meaning blending or mixing. Today, the word indicates a medium bound with emulsions, combined with dry pigments and water. The exhibition considers techniques using both egg yolk (egg tempera) and milk proteins as principal emulsions.  Researched and wrote that by myself, mostly.  This next part is pure plagerism.  "Eggs also have the properties of foaming, coagulating, emulsifying, and coloring, which make them useful in cakes, custards, meringues, mayonnaise, and other foods typical of American culinary taste. Among their nonfood uses: eggs and eggshells are used in fertilizers; fertile eggs are used in the production of the vaccines for canine distemper, mumps, and yellow fever; and egg yolks are used to preserve bull semen for artificial insemination."  Priceless though right.

Now that you are totally grossed out, and forgive me for the adult cow content (can you imagine the Google searches this post will return?  I cannot wait, and I promise to again share the latest search keywords in the next  few weeks!) but the shock and awe was too good to pass up.  I will never eat, prepare or paint with eggs again, but hey who is not up for a learning experience, I was!  I wanted to mention also several injuries I have suffered already today.  The first of course was due to falling out of my chair while writing this post.  Subsequently, I have been whacked in the nose (Modern Pre-schooler) punched in the eye (Modern Toddler) and (completely serious now) cut my finger on a rather sharp egg shell.  Don't even say it.