Maria's Blog

We're moving!

2016-04-12T00:15:00.001-05:00

Or the blog is moving, at least. I've never really liked the name Downright Domesticity-- a solid five minutes of brainstorming for a name translated into many years of slight embarrassment for my blog. And since it's been so long since the blog was active and most of my readers have undoubtedly left for bigger and much, much better blogs, this seems as good a time as any to abandon ship. Hopefully the five minutes I spent thinking up my new blog name works out better this time!

You can catch all the new posts at Momonym. Hope to see you there!

Cici's First Birthday!

2016-04-05T15:10:00.000-05:00

Happy one year to my beautiful daughter, Cecilia!

Cici stats:

Weight: an informal weight check shows around 22 pounds.
Clothing size: we are well into the 18-month clothes.
Teeth: Just four total-- two top and two bottom. It gives her such a funny little smile :-D

Gross motor: loves cruising, is thinking about walking. She can stand by herself and stand from a squat, and actually pivoted a couple steps the other day!
Language: Can say "Dog" and "Dat" (cat). Says "Dad" (Granddad) when she sees my father. Lately, she has been HUGE on pointing at objects.
Social: Loves waving bye-bye. She has repertoire of several different waves, and she go through every one of them when saying goodbye. Gives lots of big, sloppy, open-mouthed kisses. Tries to share her food with everyone.
Favorite foods: Goldfish, apples, peppers, Cheerios, ham, fried eggs, stir fry, oatmeal, cranberries
Favorite activities: Climbing up (but not down) stairs, looking at books, meeting new people at my parents' restaurant, hanging out with Grandma and her dogs and cats, dumping things out of their containers, sneaking away to play in the toilet, listening to music, watching the washing machine do a load.
Favorite toys: Allen's Hot Wheels cars, our wooden dinosaur teether, the xylophone, measuring spoons, alphabet blocks (we stack 'em, she knocks 'em!), a little wooden doll from a set I painted for the kids a couple years ago.

Cici's birthday was on Saturday, but we had a lot of stuff going on that day, so we had a little party on Sunday evening. My parents came over, and we ate a sumptuous feast of abundant Totino's pizzas and salad. Oh yeah, we went all-out on this party, haha. Adam, our cake-baker-in-residence, made Cici a cute dog-shaped cake, as well as a small purple cake for the express purpose of getting smashed by the birthday girl.

Angry that she is not face-first in her cake already

Oscar and Allen were kind of confused about the cakes at their first birthdays, but not Cici! She dug around and squished frosting through her fingers and generally destroyed the cake in a highly entertaining fashion. Definitely worth the price of admission!

Easter Time!

2016-03-31T09:35:00.004-05:00

Usually Easter weekends are pretty low-key for us, but this year made up for the rest of them! First, Adam started a new job in town this week, so we were adjusting to that; my cousin and his wife celebrated their tenth anniversary on Saturday, and I helped run the party; and my parents had a big Easter Sunday brunch at their restaurant, and I helped with that, too!

I also recently became the organist for a church in town, so this Easter I got to do the music. It was so fun! Easter has the best music of the ecclesiastical year. I got to the church early so I could be sure to play all the extra Easter music as preludes.

Between the church service and then dashing off to the restaurant, I took a minute to snap a picture of the kids in their Easter finery:

Maybe next year, I'll actually get a picture with someone looking at the camera!

This was the first Easter where Oscar actually got the concept of the Easter Bunny, and it was pretty magical for him. He might have been able to understand last year, but that Easter was kind of cancelled because Cici was in the hospital at the time. Funny how this holiday works-- Cici isn't turning one until this weekend, and yet this was her second Easter!

Oscar's first year schooling, in review

2016-03-23T21:49:00.000-05:00

I hesitate to call this our first year schooling, since it has been very informal; but since Oscar is kindergarten age, and I actually did throw a few textbooks in this fall, we'll go with that!

My dearest wish was to put Oscar in a Montessori school, because he has really thrived with that style of learning; however, the nearest Montessori school is forty minutes away, so it's not an option right now. So this year we have been homeschooling. It's highly recommended for first-time homeschoolers to use a pre-planned boxed curriculum the first year to dip their toes in the pool, but having been homeschooled myself, I was born in the water, so to speak. So I was pretty comfortable taking a more eclectic approach. There are three somewhat disparate schooling philosophies I borrow heavily from:

Unschooling. I'm a huge believer in following the interests of the child, because I think people learn best when they are actually interested in the subject at hand, and it's complete drudgery for all parties involved when the child is not interested. I try to teach Oscar on his terms, not on my terms or a curriculum publisher's terms. So I introduce him to lots of ideas and concepts, run full steam with the ones that spark his interest, and back off the ones that don't stick until he's ready for them again.

Montessori. The Montessori method emphasizes learning with all five senses, developing independence and concentration, and learning lots of practical life skills. I also love how works are presented on trays, as well as the excellent math manipulatives like the Bead Stair and the Pink Tower.

Common Core. I haven't yet met a homeschooler that doesn't think Common Core wasn't an invention of Satan himself, so maybe I'm an anomaly here. I do have some serious concerns about how it is implemented and tested in the public schools, but I have no issue with the Common Core as a set of guidelines and a base for a shared body of knowledge among a country's schoolchildren. So I have been trying to touch on all the Common Core kindergarten subject material with Oscar as the year goes on.

Here are some of the materials we have been using this year:

Home Learning, Year by Year by Rebecca Rupp. An excellent guide on ideas and subjects to cover for each year from preschool to twelfth grade. Organized by year, then subject, with lots of book/website recommendations for supplemental material.

What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know, by Ed Hirsch, Jr. Covers all the Common Core subject material, much of it typed out in a story format if you'd rather just read straight from the book to your child. A huge portion of the book is dedicated to nursery rhymes and classic children's literature. I've been marking the different concepts with Post-It tabs and then removing them once we've introduced it.

Modern Curriculum Press Phonics, Level A. This is actually the phonics curriculum I used when I was growing up, and I looooooved it! Favorite subject ever. Unfortunately, Oscar doesn't seem to enjoy it quite as much as I did, so I've only been pulling it out when he hits a sensitive period for language, like he has this past month, and wants to learn how to read/write more effectively.

Singapore Math, Book 1A. This one is actually more of a first-grade level because Oscar's always had a natural aptitude for numbers. Like phonics, this is a stop-and-start kind of book for us. When we were going through subtraction, Oscar was having a hard time grasping the concept, so we just put the book away for several weeks and tried to demonstrate subtraction through hands-on examples until he was comfortable enough to continue in the book.

(The subtraction breakthough, by the way, came the week of Halloween when we sat down with paper and a large pile of candy corn. I'd write something like "10-5", put down ten candy corn pieces, and subtract [eat] five. A bag of candy corn later, and Oscar was a subtracting genius :-D)

In spite of having a textbook, however, the bulk of his math education has actually come in the form of dinner conversation, because Oscar really loves to talk about math at mealtimes for some reason.

Handwriting Without Tears, Kindergarten level. If I could do it over again, I would not have even touched this book until about now in the school year. We struggled and struggled with Oscar's handwriting grip, even though he was interested in learning the material, and we were almost all the way through the uppercase alphabet before I realized that Oscar's fine motor muscles simply weren't strong enough for the task yet. Prior to starting handwriting, he never doodled or sketched or just plain handled any writing implements at all; he was much more interested in building stuff and handling manipulatives. At that point I dropped handwriting like a hot potato and beefed up the fine motor activities, such as working with playdough, tearing paper, and using tweezers and pipettes. Now these past six weeks or so, drawing/writing is all he's been wanting to do from sunup to sundown, so he's catching up now in his own time. :-)

Adam and I also do a lot of reading aloud to the kids, which needs its own blog post, so I'll talk about that another time.

So in an nutshell, that's what we've been doing so far, and I've been pleasantly surprised with how it's been working out this year. We still have a few months till the typical school year-end, although since we've kept everything quite informal so far, I can't see us actually having an ending to the school year. I'm predicting that we'll just keep up the learning continuum through the summer, but we'll see!

Oscar's New Activity...

2016-02-23T09:35:00.004-06:00

... is READING!

I am one excited mama.

A few weeks ago, Oscar suddenly got very interested in spelling out his own C-V-C words. He wanted to go to our dry erase board and write list after list of rhyming words with me. He has been able to figure out how to spell things phonetically for probably around a year now, but it was laborious and leaned more towards encoding than decoding. A few weeks ago, however, something clicked and he could sound out/spell words very quickly.

Then Adam introduced him to the words "The" and "is", and suddenly, he was all about making his own sentences.

It has been so exciting watching his reading ability bloom like a rose! It's been a lot of fun guiding him along. I would say my educational style leans heavily towards Montessori and unschooling, so I have been very light-handed with formal education so far. Instead, I concentrate on reading LOTS of books with the kids, providing a rich learning environment, following their interests, and trying to introduce new concepts into our everyday conversation. I haven't been pushing Oscar to read, so it's really neat to watch him hit a sensitive period as far as reading goes and let him run with it.

As soon as I recognized he had hit a sensitive period, I made a bunch of magnetic words for the fridge so Oscar could make his own sentences. His current favorite movie is Ponyo, so I included a "Ponyo" tile. He thinks it's hilarious to put it in sentences.

Pro-tip: don't use Crayola markers because any contact with water will make the words melt away!

We borrowed the first couple sets of BOB books from the library, and are working our way through the series. They are extremely basic mini-stories that beginner readers can read all by themselves, which is great for getting kids to identify themselves as readers. I asked him the other day, "Oscar, do you like BOB books?" "I love Bob books," he replied.

One morning last week, Oscar got up and immediately sat down with paper and markers. I thought he was drawing mazes (another obsession of his at the moment), but he was actually writing his first essay! A whole pageful of a story about Great Sleeping Bear. There was tons of misspellings, and not a single space between words, but he's writing! I'd take a picture, but I should have published this post a week ago already, so I'm going to wrap this up here. We've got a new set of BOB books to work on.

Meeting Miss Cici

2016-02-05T10:31:00.000-06:00

So, between the time that I stopped blogging and now, another branch to our family tree appeared:

Cecilia Marietta (we call her Cici for short) was born this past April. We have had Cecilia picked out as our girl's name for a very long time- before we were even married, I think- so we didn't have to scramble for several days after she was born for a name, like we did with Allen! Music has always been a big part of our lives, so having a namesake for Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music, seemed appropriate. Marietta is an old, old family name on my side that goes back to at least the 1880's. My great-aunt Marietta passed away a few years ago, sadly, so it was time for someone new to carry the name!

What she likes to do these days: get into Oscar's building creations, hang out with Grandma, and ingest every little delicious particle she can find on the floor. Cici also has quite the vocabulary!

Mama = MAMA!
Dog= DAH!
Cat= DAH!
Doll= DAH!
Book= DAH!
Adam= DAH-DAH!

She is ridiculously fun, and we are so glad she's here with us (most of us, anyways. Allen still has deep reservations about this whole new baby business).

Clearing out the cobwebs! Hello, is anybody there?

2016-01-26T15:18:00.000-06:00

Whoa, it has been a LONG, long time since I have updated the blog. Holy moley. I think I lost my chutzpah in early 2013, one of the darkest times in my life, when we were unemployed, malnourished, and a couple months out from moving in with family several states away. I stopped writing because there wasn't really anything about my life that I wanted to write about anymore. You would never be able to tell what was going on from reading the blog posts from 2013, but that is social media for you. Speaking of social media, the reason I'm back is because I have been off of facebook since January of last year. I am really loving it, but the main thing I miss about it is that I'm not documenting the family life, or putting up pictures of my angelic children for posterity anymore. So I thought maybe I'd dust off the ol' blog and get back to archiving my life! I'm not sure if anyone is even reading this anymore, so this is for future me. Well, I can't think of much else to add right now, so here's a picture of a Valentine letter I embroidered for a customer this week, probably one of my favorite M's to date.

The things that STUFF promises you. Minimalist Miniseries, Pt. 3

2013-09-19T16:03:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, we don't even realize that we keep things around because of the promises they hold for us. The items in question are not useful for us now, but we hold onto them because we are somewhat sure that they are going to give us awesome experiences in the nebulous future. A great example of this is clothing that is too small. "I plan on losing the weight someday!" says everyone; however, the vast majority of us stay our current size and let the small and increasingly out-of-fashion clothes govern our closet space for years. But, you see, hanging onto those clothes is our promise that we will lose the extra pounds one day.

A real-life example is the decrepit, old, craigslist bicycle trailer that Adam absolutely refuses to get rid of. Never mind the fact that it is now missing pieces and covered with mold, or that Adam hasn't ridden his bike in nearly a year, or that our current living situation would make a bike trailer ride a logistical nightmare. But, you see, as long as he has that broken trailer in his possession, he still has the chance in his mind to go take his children out for awesome, warm-fuzzy father-and-son biking adventures.

Wait... where's little Jimmy? Shoot, I KNEW I forgot something at the park.
photo source

When you're deciding whether to keep or toss a particular item, sometimes you have to take off the Alternate Reality goggles and be very, painfully realistic about what will most likely happen to the item in question. Sure, it may have potential for you, but will you take advantage of it tomorrow? Next week? Next month, or anytime this year? If you don't have a definite date when you will use that item, or there is a long string of events that have to happen first, it's time for reevaluation.

Maybe the item actually was useful to you at some point, but now it's damaged or superfluous to your needs. Embrace that seasons change, that you are only a human with 24 hours in a day, and that your priorities don't leave room for this object anymore. It is hard sometimes, because it may feel like you're abandoning a dream... but if it is really meant to be, you will get the necessary equipment when you are truly ready to undertake it. Meanwhile, why not free up your space and mind for the real future that unfolding in front of you now?

Mental Clutter. Minimalist Miniseries, Pt. 2

2013-09-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

A huge part of what got me on the path to drastically reducing my possessions was the sanity factor. For our entire married life, we have been living in small spaces, so we don't have room for excess. I didn't realize this when we were living in Oklahoma, and really jammed our 725-square foot apartment with stuff, stuff, stuff. I remember lying in bed and looking at our bedroom/library/craft room/junk heap corner and feeling positively claustrophobic; but I couldn't quite put my finger on the problem, so silly little me packed up all that crap and hauled it all the way to Virginia. The turning point happened when I first set foot inside our bare, fresh, and empty VA apartment, and thought, I want to keep it like this forever. For what felt like the first time in ages, I could think clearly. My mind wasn't assaulted by half-finished projects, mail, and tons of items in need of dusting or organization; on the other hand, everywhere I looked in my Oklahoma apartment, my eyes rested on something that screamed, PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! I resolved to make Virginia different.

Photo source

Excess possessions not only clutter up our physical living space, but they create mental clutter, as well. Every time you see something that needs to be put away, or repaired, or completed, it either gets put on your mental to-do list or creates negative feelings if you can't actually take care of it anytime soon (worse if it's something you realistically can never do-- think of a broken plastic part you may be holding on to that just isn't going to work right, even if you do actually get around to trying to glue it).

My advice? If you can do it immediately, DO IT. Don't let that mental clutter accumulate. Take the extra minute to put away this thing or that. Time yourself. You'll be surprised how quickly you can take care of the little detritus.

If you can't take care of it immediately, but it's still important to do at some point, put it out of sight. If you can't afford to forget about it for a while, then- back to the beginning- do it as immediately as possible. You don't want this stuff staring you in the face, stressing you out.

If you come to the conclusion that you will realistically never get it done, or that it's not important enough to spend your time on, get rid of it. Don't feel bad. You weren't going to get it done one way or another, so you may as well not get it done while enjoying the extra space and peace of mind.

Which, of course, brings us back to the amount of stuff we own to begin with. The more things we have, the more we are going to see and think about, even if it's just for a fraction of a second. Even the knick-knacks, which generally require little to no upkeep, are attention-grabbers, which is why I like to keep them to a minimum. The fewer things you have lying around, the more you will free up your mind to focus on real living.

My style of minimalism. Minimalist Miniseries, Pt. 1

2013-09-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

If you were to look at my house, you would probably not even think to label me as "minimalist". There are toys everywhere, and knick-knacks in some places. My house hardly looks like the typical stark white interiors bared of everything except maybe a desk and chair, which many automatically associate with minimalism.

I have two toddlers. Enough said.
Photo source

If there is one thing I have learned from all the reading I've done on minimalism, it's that everyone's definition of minimalism looks different. While most people would agree that it involves reducing things to the barest yet most effective state, everyone lives it differently-- in design, or actual number of possessions, or anticonsumerism, or search for inner peace. So for me, here are the things that are important on my journey:

~Keeping only objects that are either useful or special

~Reducing the mental clutter that excess objects bring

~Creating specific places for the objects I choose to keep (A place for everything, and everything in its place!)

~Reducing the amount of stuff I bring into the house

~Understanding why I keep the things I do-- and it had better be a darn good reason!

I'll try to expound on the above during this miniseries, as I have the time.

Changing Seasons, Changing Clothes

2013-09-14T11:55:00.001-05:00

It seems that this season of my life is dominated by STUFF. From packing my entire household into a boxes, to sorting the entire contents of my husband's recently deceased grandmother's house (where we are also currently living), to helping my sisters-in-laws sort through their stuff, I have been spending a lot of time dealing with material possessions. As a result, I am constantly thinking about my philosophy on possessions and organization. And what better way to organize these thoughts than a miniseries?

Other than, you know, actually keeping the house clean?
Photo source: blalank

I thought it would be easy to start off with a repost. This is the time of year when people are starting to change out their summer wardrobe for cold-weather clothes, so here is a post I wrote last year on how to clean out your wardrobe:

Closet Cleaning Tips

Good luck with that wardrobe!

What to Get When You're Expecting-- Part 2

2013-06-26T10:53:00.000-05:00

In Part 1, I tackled some of the big-ticket items that we did or didn't need for our babies' first year. This post will be about some of the smaller stuff. As before, some things on my list won't work for every family, so take what you want and leave the rest!

YES-- a good rocking chair/office chair. If you breastfeed, you will be spending a lot of time sitting down. Get a comfortable chair. Don't be like me and use chairs that make me feel like my butt has been formed into a perfect cube shape after a nursing session.

NO-- Baby bath tub, baby soap/shampoo. For the short amount of time that a baby bathtub will be used, it is a big waste of space. I always either sponge bathed my baby or took him right in the shower with me. I am also a firm believer in preserving the skin's hilariously-named horny layer, so I don't wash myself or my kids with soap in the bath unless we have visible dirt/sweat/poop on us. It is almost always enough just to scrub and rinse off under the shower. For the occasional real dirty skin or hair, I have a small bottle of Bronner's baby castile soap, which runs about $3.29 per bottle and lasts forever.

YES-- The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. The official handbook of La Leche League, this is your one-stop book for breastfeeding help. I have done it all as far as breastfeeding is concerned, and I still reference this book all the time-- I was just looking something up in it last week, as a matter of fact! Buy it and read through it BEFORE the baby is born, if possible. Reading up on breastfeeding beforehand is probably what saved my bacon when things went awry at Oscar's birth.

The cover of the newest edition

NO-- Baby food makers or baby food. Now, I'm not recommending that you starve your kid, lol. However, the true low-budget, no-fuss-no-muss approach to feeding solids is Baby-led Weaning. Basically, the focus is on introducing baby to whole, unprocessed, nutritious foods, and exploring is more important than ingesting. For Oscar, I'd cut up soft foods like avocado or cooked sweet potato into chunks (or peel a banana) and set it in front of him to feed himself or push around the tray as he pleased. I was lazy with Allen and pretty much just let him nibble on whatever I was eating at the moment-- his first food was lentil and ham soup. Since they were eating family foods, I never bothered with purees, rice cereal (which is the nutritional equivalent of feeding an adult white bread), or jarred baby food. Neither of my kids ever had choking problems, although they did occasionally gag, a perfectly normal baby reflex which actually prevents choking. If you're looking for an easy area to save time and money, this is an excellent one.

Black beans-- one of baby Oscar's first foods.

YES-- Swing, high chair booster seat, Dr. Sears' Baby Book, jogging stroller. All of these have been really helpful, although the stroller was pretty much just a diaper bag holder until Oscar got too heavy to wear in the Boba comfortably. :-)

Remember, there are a lot of companies that stand to get rich by convincing parents that their products are a necessity. Truly, the only thing a baby needs is milk, diapers, and a caregiver to snuggle with. Take a good hard look at any item that doesn't further these objectives and decide whether that item will truly make your life easier or just be more stuff to throw your hard-earned money at.

Veteran moms, what would you add to the list?

What to Get When You're Expecting-- Part 1

2013-06-15T15:02:00.000-05:00

Whew, it's been a while since I posted here. What's new? Adam lost his job. We moved to New York. Allen turned one last week. It's been an interesting 2013 so far. Anyways, a cursory glance at my facebook feed tells me that EVERYONE I know is pregnant, most of them first-time parents! So I thought I'd pass on my top list of baby do/do not buy (good news! You don't have to spend as much money as Babies R' Us would have you believe!). I know everyone's list is different, so feel free to disagree with me, but this is my slightly minimalist list of parenting purchases for baby's first year.

YES-- a baby carrier. Every mom needs a baby carrier-- it's a hands-free way to do what you need to do while simultaneously filling your baby's need to be close to you. Allen is what I jokingly refer to as my velcro baby-- he has a more intense need than most babies to be near me, and screams bloody murder nearly every time I put him down. My back-carrying Boba has been an absolute lifesaver-- if I had to throw out EVERY baby item- diapers, clothes, toys- and save only one thing, this would be it. Sometimes, I even chuck Oscar in there when he's being rowdy in a public place. A ring sling is great for the newborn stage, and a soft-structured carrier (SSC) is great for 3 months and onward. Just make sure to get an SSC with a good, wide bottom that supports the entire bottom and thigh (like Ergo, Beco, or Boba) instead of dangling baby by the crotch (Baby Bjorn, Infantino).

Old picture of Adam and the boys going for a walk! Oscar's face is great.

NO-- a crib. This isn't for everyone, but my family has personally done great without ever owning a crib. We just slept with the baby in our own bed. I recommend co-sleeping if you're planning on breastfeeding-- I had a couple months of getting up in the middle of the night to feed Oscar when we were on the learning curve, but since then, I have never gotten up in the middle of the night to feed. Having figured it all out with Oscar, I actually found Allen's newborn stage to be extremely restful-- I got up once a night to change his diaper, and that was it. The rest of the time, I woke up for the ten seconds it took to latch the hungry Allen on, and fell back asleep. I especially recommend co-sleeping if you'll be breastfeeding and working-- sometimes, when mom works, baby does something called reverse cycling where they sleep a lot during the day when mom is gone and wake up a ton during the night to feed and reconnect. Bring baby to bed, and voila!-- mom gets to sleep, baby gets the closeness s/he craves, everyone wins. This means I recommend taking the money you'd otherwise spend on a crib and YES--Queen- or king-sized bed.

If you decide to take this route, be absolutely certain to research safe co-sleeping practices!

For naps, we had a crib mattress on the floor, for reasons which tie into the next item:

NO-- a playpen or exersaucer. I am a strong believer in babyproofing the house so my babies can move freely to explore. I want them to be a part of my world and learn- while I'm there to watch and guide them- appropriate behavior around table edges, breakable objects, and stairs. It gives me peace of mind; it helps them develop motor skills and investigate things that interest them, instead of viewing it all from behind a mesh curtain or a chair that limits their movements. If I really can't spare the attention to make sure Allen is safe, I put him in the baby carrier.

YES-- Sensorial toys. One little joy of mine is being on the lookout for toys that will give my babies the biggest sensorial bang for the buck. By that, I mean toys that give them exposure to all sorts of different sounds, textures, smells, tastes, patterns, and timbres. For this reason, I avoid purchasing plastic toys-- they all pretty much feel, taste, and fall on the floor the same. Instead, I look for things around the house or in nature for the kiddos to explore. Out of all the stuff in the house, Allen's favorite toy right now is... get ready for it... a PINECONE!! You REALLY, truly don't have to go big-budget for toys.

Allen enjoying his little sensory basket. Right now, it has a wooden dinosaur, a pinecone, a wool yarn ball, a sea shell, a metal ring with old metal keys, a felt embroidered letter, a fabric/wood bead teething ring, and a lavender sachet.

YES-- a good kid's TV show. Science has proven that TV makes children aggressive, stupid, cancerous, and insert bad adjective here. But sometimes, I like to take a shower unaccompanied by the pounding of four little hands pounding on the door. Sometimes, I'm working on something hazardous and need both of them out of the way. Sometimes, I like to enjoy a little "grownup time" with my husband, interruption-free, secure in the fact that my kids will stay glued to one spot. If the price for a little parental sanity is that the kids have to watch half an hour of Thomas the Tank Engine, then I think it's a good tradeoff.

Read Part 2 for bath time, feeding accessories, and more!

The one-track mind of a toddler

2013-02-17T11:05:00.001-06:00

Today, Oscar and I had this conversation:

Oscar: Oscar wants some blue applesauce! (He's referring to some blueberry applesauce we recently had)
Me: You want some applesauce?
Oscar: BLUE applesauce!
Me: Well, I'll see what I can find...
Oscar: Find blue applesauce.

What a silly.

Sharing his precious blue applesauce with Allen

Why Reduce Plastic?

2013-01-29T18:17:00.001-06:00

It's no secret that I'm just a little bit of an environmentalist hippie. The other day, a family member asked me, "Why reduce your plastic usage?" Reducing my plastic consumption is something I am highly motivated to do, and here are a few reasons why:

~ It's healthier. Plastics have chemicals in them that are known endocrine disruptors, which have been linked to cancer, obesity, and hormonal problems. The recent unpopularity of BPA (a type of plastic) is due to the fact that we now know that it has endocrine disruptors, and BPA is found in a LOT of food-related items, such as plasticware, tin can linings, and jar lids. It is particularly problematic when plastic is used to store oily foods like meats or sauces, because those types of food are a perfect medium for plastic chemicals to leach into.

~Recycling is not a great solution. Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't recycle. You absolutely should! However, recycling is not a great solution because most recycling is downcycling. A plastic water bottle is not recycled into another plastic water bottle. Oftentimes, it is recycled into a lower-grade product, which is then downcycled even more, until it is eventually not suitable to be recycled anymore. Every time a piece of plastic is created, it all ends the exact same way: sitting in (hopefully) a landfill for the next several hundred years or more. The best solution is to just not buy plastic at all.

~It's good stewardship. I'm sure that everybody has heard about the problems with trash in the wild, or about the massive Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's a fact that many species, particularly sea turtles and waterfowl, are declining because they mistake plastic bags in the water for fish or jellyfish, and then eat them or feed them to their young. Animals are regularly found dead, stuffed to the gills with plastic. Here's a picture of an albatross chick carcass filled with plastic water bottle caps and other plastic debris (warning: graphic).

I have run in conservative Christian circles for most of my life, and it astounds me how Christians can say with a straight face, "The earth is the Lord's; and everything in it!" and at the same time have absolutely no problem with trashing said earth. God calls us to be good stewards of everything He's given us; He has given us dominion over the earth, but not a free license to waste it away. It really ticks me off that many conservatives refuse to be environmentally conscious because that has traditionally been an issue championed by liberals. Folks, taking care of our children's future world should not be a partisan issue, and people who wantonly create waste just to stick it to the liberals are being irresponsible and petty.

I have also encountered the mindset that it's okay to let the world burn because Jesus is coming back any day now. But who's to say He won't wait another 2,000 years to return? And even if He came back tomorrow, wouldn't all Christians have to account for how they have taken care of His earth?

Those are my top three reasons to reduce plastic. Wondering where to start? In all my research on plastics, the #1 action recommended by experts is to stop using plastic grocery bags. That is the most prolific and harmful type of plastic waste, so getting rid of them would be a great start! I'm not in favor of governmental plastic bag legislation, but I would absolutely love it if stores voluntarily enacted plastic bag bans or charged a fee for plastic bag usage. Either way, once you get into the habit of using reusable grocery bags, it is easy to get hooked. They are way stronger than plastic, so you'll never have to worry about bags ripping or having to double-bag. There are gazillion different designs to buy (or make at home!) and so many of them have cute designs.

Anyways, Adam is asking me to end my rant so that the computer will stop smoking, so I'm going to end it here. Maybe later I'll add some plastic-free living resources for everyone to check out if you're interested!

Car Seat Safety Tips

2013-01-17T09:49:00.000-06:00

Last week, my parents and sister came into town to cuddle some babies. There was a lot of this

and a little of this.

Much fun was had, and my parents got to relive all over again the joys of getting peed on by a potty-training toddler. Whoops, sorry, Mom!

At some point during their visit, we transferred Oscar's car seat to their car, and then back to ours, which brought the subject of car seat installation to my mind. Over these past couple years, I have discovered piece by piece how very little I actually knew about car seat safety in the beginning. Car seat safety is one thing I never hear discussed, which is ironic, considering that this actually is one of the real life-and-death decisions one can make as a parent. I am increasingly more and more thankful that we haven't gotten into a wreck, because the majority of the time that we've been using car seats, we have been using them incorrectly!

So here is a little FYI post of tips I have picked up over the course of two years for car seat safety. Maybe everyone already knows these, and I have just been living under a rock, but if they help just one person, I'll consider this post worth the time it took to type!

1. Children should avoid wearing puffy coats in their car seat during the winter. They can compress during an accident and possibly cause the child to slip entirely out of the car seat. Here's a video talking more about it.

2. The chest buckle needs to be up high, around the child's nipple or armpit area.

3. Straps need to be tight enough around your child so that you can't pinch the slack. "Snug as a hug" as is the saying that keeps getting tossed around.

4. When installing the car seat, it's best to actually get in the car and press down on the seat with your full body weight.while tightening the restraints. That car seat needs to be tightly embedded in that seat! If the seat can shift more than 1" in any direction, then it's too loose!

5. Forward-facing is illegal until one year of age, but the AAP recommends rear-facing until two years, or even longer. In Europe, it's not uncommon to see kids rear-facing until three or four. The chance of serious injury from a car crash is significantly reduced by rear-facing. More on that here. The footage of a forward-facing crash test as opposed to rear-facing is definitely worth seeing!

6. Children should stay in a harnessed car seat until they are at least 4 years old and 40 pounds; then, they should use a booster seat until they are 8 years, 80 pounds, or 4'9".

7. Not sure if your seat is installed correctly? You can talk to a local Child Passenger Safety Technician (CPST), usually at a fire or police department, and have them look over your setup. Find a CPST here.

I'm sure there is more, but these were the big ones I didn't know. Happy driving!

The difference between starting solids with Baby #1 and Baby #2

2012-12-07T12:44:00.001-06:00

Baby #1. One by one, I carefully check off the biological readiness signs: at least six months old, can sit up unsupported, has lost the tongue-thrust reflex, has the pincer grasp, et cetera, et cetera. Finally, I set the stage for his first food-- I lay down a large sheet to catch any spilled food, set up the baby seat, make a special trip to the store to buy an organic avocado. Slightly mash it to the perfect consistency- not too chunky, not too pureed- set it in front of Oscar, and eagerly watch as he pokes at it. Take lots of pictures.

Baby #2. At dinner, a few days after he turns 6 months old, I say, "Eh, close enough," and fish a carrot out of my lentil soup for him as he sits on my lap. There may or may not have been a lentil attached.

Re-entering the work force after being a SAHM

2012-11-19T12:23:00.001-06:00

I haven't been as active on this blog this month as I wanted, but that is mainly because most of my online time has been devoted to job hunting. You heard that right, I am (hopefully) going to be gainfully employed soon! We were surviving on one income, but- this sounds so cliche, but it really is true- rising healthcare costs have completely eaten away what little wiggle room we had. So it looks like the Downright Domicile will be joining the ranks of two-income families once again!

Since it makes no financial sense to put the kiddos in daycare, I am going to be working from home.

Just replace that bench with a couch, and there I am!
(photo source)

I have much experience in administrative duties, and have some killer English skillz (see what I did there?), so I'm focusing on freelance writing and virtual assistant-type work. I loved doing independent contractor work with the symphony and opera company in Oklahoma, and I'm excited to do something along those lines again!

So if you're wondering why I've been so scarce this month, that's the reason why. Wish me luck on the hunt!

A Day of Cloth Diapering: Oscar Edition

2012-11-12T20:43:00.000-06:00

I ran across this idea yesterday, and thought it would be fun to show a day in the life of a cloth diapered kid. Right now, Oscar is 26 months and a little under 35 pounds, and this is what he wears nowadays.

We start off the morning with a Bumgenius 4.0 pocket stuffed with a Joey-Bunz hemp insert. I loooooove me some hemp because it absorbs a ridiculous amount of liquid! They are pretty much the only insert I use in Oscar's diapers these days.

Today was sheet-washing day, so the mattress is bare!

Next up, we have a fitted that I made out of an old T-shirt a while back. Oscar has super delicate angel skin that breaks out into a rash if you just look at it wrong, so I like to keep him either in a stay-dry pocket, a coverless fitted so I can change immediately after he pees, or butt naked.

Training pants that I made from fleece over some Gerber training pants. Alas, I'm afraid that Oscar is a ways off from potty training, but I like to get him used to the idea of pulling his pants up and down.

I just love that chubby little hand.

Here, we have a Knickernappies Custom Fit large. These are far and away my favorite diaper-- I have six of them for Oscar, the most of any single type of diaper in our crazy eclectic stash. Surprisingly, this was the only one he wore today, but that is mainly because I like to save these for going out, and we were homebodies today.

Right before naptime, I changed Oscar into a Thirsties Duo pocket, stuffed with the original microfiber/hemp insert. I've never really understood all the fuss about having a super-absorbent naptime diaper, so I just grab any old diaper and slap it on for naps.

The very tired boy.

After he woke up, he got another Bumgenius 4.0.

*******

For the late afternoon/early evening, he went bare butt-- all that remains of our failed EC experiment. I like to give him some naked time every day because it helps keep any rashiness at bay, and EC isn't a total failure if he still has diaper-free time every day, right? Right??

*******

The next diaper was a Mother-Ease one-size fitted. Whenever I think about the babies that Mother-Ease fitted these diapers to, I imagine Barbie babies with matchstick waists. I can't even get both snaps on both sides to snap around Allen, let alone Oscar, so my toddler has to wear it with just the very outer snap attached on either side.

Finally, bedtime. For bedtimes, I stuff a pocket with a Thirsties hemp duo prefold, and that does the trick for night-long absorbency. This Tiny Tush diaper is one of Oscar's favorites, because of all the " 'tars".

I forgot to get a picture of Oscar wearing it because I was most eager to put that boy to bed!

I'm hoping to do the same thing for Allen tomorrow, so stay tuned!

My favorite ways to reuse aluminum foil

2012-11-10T08:24:00.001-06:00

Well, I am failing fantastically at NaBloPoMo, but here I am again! I thought it would be easier to get a post out if I just wrote out something short and sweet, so here it is!

I try to reduce the waste we produce around here, but sometimes, when the choice is between being eco-friendly or sane, I choose the latter. For example: cookie sheets. Cleaning cookie sheets is a major pain here because the kitchen sink is so tiny, so maneuvering a cookie sheet to scrub it usually sends water streaming all over the counters and the floor. It's a messy process. So I used to put off cleaning the cookie sheets, and I'd have a bunch of dirty cookie sheets hanging around, taking up valuable counter space. Eventually, to save my sanity, I started using a fair amount of aluminum foil in my cooking, so that cleaning the cookie sheets just involved lifting out the foil lining and maybe doing a quick rinse.

I feel bad about the extra consumption, so I try to make the foil do double duty before it gets tossed. Here are two of my favorite ways:

Scouring non-stick pans. Sprinkle some baking soda in the dish, wad up some tin foil, and scrub away! It's safe on teflon, yet removes all the encrusted stuff easily. Maybe I should just learn to be a better cook and stop making stuff stick to the pan, but this is my go-to cleaning method for now!
Catching cooking grease. Line a bowl with a sheet of foil, and use it to hold the cooking grease you pour off meat. Once it's cooled to a solid, you can just lift the whole thing out and toss it.

So those are my two trusty methods to reusing aluminum. However, I almost always have extra foil to use, so I'm open to more suggestions! Have any more ideas?

Go, Dog, Go!

2012-11-05T18:11:00.002-06:00

Today, we were sitting at a stop light. Oscar was in the back, babbling about something. Suddenly, I realized what he was saying:

"Stop, dog, STOP! The light is red now! Go, dog, go! The light is green now!"

It's the little things that catch me off guard. What a funny kid.

NaBloPoMo

2012-11-02T21:52:00.001-05:00

I decided... oh, about 10 P.M. last night, that I was going to informally participate in the NaBloPoMo event this month. And then promptly got busy doing other stuff and forgot to write a blog post yesterday. Wow, it takes special talent to fail something like that on the very first day!

Can I trade it for a cooler talent like this, please?
(source)

Whoops, I started this post this afternoon, and then never remembered to finish it, so I'm just going to post as-is before missing another day. This is going to be an interesting month of blogging, I can tell already. :-P

How I told Adam about Baby #2

2012-10-31T18:39:00.001-05:00

It is not news that I got knocked up a second time. In fact, it's such old news that I'm not even pregnant anymore, and the result is going on an adorable five months in a few days.

It was exactly one year ago today when I found out that Al was on his way. I had been feeling like I was on death's door with the most violent cough/fever combination I've ever had. In fact, it took me a good four weeks to get over it. Yuck! But one year ago today, on top of the usual symptoms, I started feeling a little sick. Hmmmm, weird. And then I suddenly realized that my monthly friend hadn't visited in about 7 weeks. Uh oh, something was definitely afoot.

So I took a pregnancy test, and the darn thing showed a big, fat positive almost instantly.

In between bouts of hacking, coughing, and lying down with the chills, I slapped that test in a hand-scribbled card and presented it to an unsuspecting husband. "I got you a very spoooooky card," I said.

He should have been suspicious right there-- a supposed Halloween card from the wife who may or may not wait to get his birthday card until a couple hours before he comes home from work on his birthday? Not that that's actually happened or anything. ;-)

This was about where the recognition dawned

Adam was super happy, of course, and pleasantly surprised. Frankenstein had nothin' on me that Halloween.

*Please note that we don't really think there is anything "worse" about having kids. It's an inside joke between us. :-P

I which I eat my words

2012-10-06T08:17:00.001-05:00

As someone who does a lot of things outside the mainstream norm, my mantra is, "Don't knock it till you try it!"

However, there are some exceptions.

So when I wrote a post a little while back, basically saying that quilting is dumb, there was no chance I'd have to retract that phrase, like ever, right?

My word-eating process began when I realized my fabric scrap collection was out of control. In an effort to tame the streams of scraps spilling out of the closet, I went through all the scraps and sorted them into plastic bags by color, to be stored in a box.

Really high-tech, I know.
But you wouldn't believe how fast I can find the fabric I want now!

This was all the cotton scraps that were too small to be wrapped on bolts like the scraps in a second box. Not to be confused with the third box of scraps that holds all the specialty fabric, like fleece and jersey knit. Hi, my name is Maria, and I have a fabric addiction. Anyways, I looked at all these bags of cotton scraps in every color, wondering, how am I EVER going to use all this stuff up? How would the thrifty and resourceful pioneer women of old deal with these scraps?

Oh. Oh... yeah.

So I am working on a new project on the weekends.

Yes, that is 100% made up of stuff I pulled out of the closet. It's pinned up on the walls because 1) there is no other convenient place to put it, and b) it looks ridiculously awesome. The wall art that will eventually replace the quilt has a hard act to follow! Here is a chart of what the finished product will look like...

And I am actually enjoying myself. The meticulous measuring, cutting, and matching seams is right up my alley. In an attempt to keep this a low-budget endeavor, I decided to skip the Quilting Basics class and reference the internet for technique. Living in the Information Age is such a wonderful thing! :-)

So here is what you'll most likely find me doing on the weekend nights after the kiddos are in bed. It's fun because my work bench is opposite the room from the computer desk, so usually Adam will be surfing the web while I sew and showing me all the silly stuff he finds online.

So no, quilting is not dumb.

Revisiting Circumcision

2012-08-28T09:49:00.000-05:00

In light of the decidedly pro-circumcision statement released yesterday by the American Academy of Pediatrics, I thought it would be a good time to repost something I wrote last year on why we chose not to circumcise. A major criticism I keep hearing about the new AAP statement is that it fails to address the ethical issue of circumcision, which is the main reason many parents, myself included, choose to keep our sons intact. I am extremely reluctant to permanently alter my child's body without his informed consent. I wouldn't give my baby a tattoo or piercing or electively remove any other healthy, functioning organ just so he can match his dad, or because our culture deems it acceptable; that goes for his privates, too. Anyways, here is my old blog post on the reasons we left our sons intact:
http://downrightdomesticity.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-we-chose-not-to-circumcise.html

A good critique of the new AAP statement by Doctors Opposing Circumcision:
http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/pdf/2012-08-26A_Commentary.pdf
And another: http://www.circumcision.org/aap.htm

I think what sealed the deal for me was learning about the functions of the foreskin-- it's not just a flap of skin!
http://www.drmomma.org/2012/08/the-aap-2012-circumcision-policy.html

Also, keep in mind that the AAP is not infallible. There are many medical organizations that do not agree with the AAP's stance.

So I guess this is my yearly circumcision post. Above all else, be informed!