Living Ordinary Life in a Hilarious Way

The Problem with Foil

2014-03-23T20:19:00.002-07:00

Hi all!

This is a quick, non-thorough, non-comprehensive summary as to why you need to STOP COOKING WITH ALUMINUM FOIL right now. No, not when the roll is gone. No, not when you have time to "figure it out." Now.

Why?

The most convincing argument I've found is THIS study published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Electrochemical Science. It's 12 pages and quite readable, as far as scientific journal publications go. I took the time to read it. Really, really read it. I majored in biomedical engineering and cannot possibly buy into a journal article without combing it over. The science and math is pretty impeccable and convincing for me as a consumer, mother, and cook.

Here's the abstract and about all you really need to know:

The results clearly indicate that the use of aluminum foil for cooking contributes significantly to the daily intake of aluminum through the cooked foods. The amount of leaching was found to be high in acidic solutions, and even higher with the addition of spices. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the obtained values considered to be unacceptable.

Finally, excessive consumption of aluminum from leaching aluminum foil has an

extreme health risk effects. Aluminum foil may be used for packing but not for cooking.

Through a variety of experiments, they determined that for most foods cooked with or near foil, the amount of aluminum that leaches into the food is significant. Of course, it is dependent on serving size, but the article discusses how easily one could ingest far more than the maxium 1mg of aluminum per 1kg of body weight recommended by the World Health Organization.

Furthermore? Cooking is not generally our only exposure to aluminum. Some estimates show that without cooking with foil, we already are exposed to amounts greater than the WHO recommendation.

Ok, what else? Well the toxicology report was released in 1996 on aluminum. It's ridiculously long (393 pages) and can be found HERE. I'll be honest and admit that I haven't read the entire report.

What I have found so far is the answer to the comment, "Everything in moderation." No, sorry, cooking with foil does not count. Here's why:

You are always exposed to some aluminum by eating food; drinking water, ingesting medicinal products like certain antacids and buffered analgesics that contain aluminum, or breathing air. You may also be exposed by skin contact with soil, water, aluminum metal, antiperspirants, food additives (e.g., some baking powders) or other substances that contain aluminum Analytical methods used by scientists to determine the levels of aluminum in the environment generally do not determine the specific form of aluminum present. Therefore, we do not always know the form of aluminum a person may be exposed to.

So what? Why is it so bad?

Sometimes these people developed bone or brain diseases that doctors think were caused

by the excess aluminum. Some studies show that people exposed to high levels of aluminum may develop Alzheimer’s disease, but other studies have not found this to be true. We do not
know for certain whether aluminum accumulation is a result of the disease or its cause.

And for our children?

Children may be exposed to high levels of aluminum in drinking water. Brain and bone disease have been seen in children (...) Bone disease has also been seen in children taking some medicines containing aluminum.

The toxicology report also details how to avoid other sources of aluminum and lists: processed foods containing aluminum additives, cooking acidic food in aluminum pots and pans, antacids, buffered aspirin, and soy-formula for babies (Page 7).

Page 29 talks about the neurological effects of inhaled aluminum noting:

...significant correlations between urinary aluminum levels and memory test performance and between plasma aluminum levels and visual reaction time tests were found. Additionally, quantitative EEG changes, similar to those found in patients with aluminum encephalopathy, were also found in the welders. Hosovoski et al. (1994) and Sjogren et al. (1990) also found significant alterations in performance tests assessing reaction time, eye-hand coordination, memory, and/or motor skills in aluminum foundry workers and aluminum welders, respectively, and Rifat et al. (1990) found impaired performance on cognitive tests in miners exposed to McIntyre powder. Higher incidences of subjective neurological symptoms (e.g., incoordination, difficulty buttoning, depression, fatigue) were reported in two studies of aluminum potroom workers at an aluminum smelter (Sim et al. 1997; White et al. 1992) and in a study of aluminum welders (Sjiigren et al. 1990).

So by know, you're potentially crying out, "ALRIGHT! I GET IT! NOW WHAT?"

Well, let's start with a quick summary:

1. Foil is not for heating on or near foods, especially acidic foods.

2. Foil may safely be used as food packaging for non-acidic foods, as long as it is removed before heating.

3. Time to throw out aluminum cookware and utensils.

How to live without it?

1. Parchment paper! A great eco-friendly, non-toxic option for lining the bottom of your pans.

2. Silpats. These are thin, silicone lined mats that nothing can stick to! Some people debate the safety of cooking with silicone, but as of now, there are no recognized safety issues.

3. Creativity.

Examples: I used to cook my ribs in foil packets. Now I cook them in a deep baking pan with a cookie sheet as a lid. I get an impressively tight seal with this method, but you can always weight the cookie sheet down with a glass dish or piece of stoneware.

Pie crust burning? Pick up a steel or silicone shield.

Parchment or baking paper can also be tented over the top of baked goods to keep them from burning when you'd traditionally use a foil tent.

I do quite a lot of cooking and not a lot of baking but we haven't used foil for cooking in over two years. Holler if you have a conundrum with eliminating foil from a recipe!

Babies and Sleep, Version 1

2014-02-27T23:01:00.001-08:00

When it comes to babies and sleeping, everyone has an opinion. So here's mine. Honestly, if you disagree, that's OK. If you feel like leaving a comment, that's OK too, but please be respectful and keep this in mind: I am a mama, not a doctor. If you disagree with me, that's OK too. Bottom line. BE RESPECTFUL.

The first thing you need to know (if you don't already) is that babies need sleep. Lack of sleep hurts babies physically, mentally, and emotionally. It also makes being a good parent difficult if you're exhausted as well. If you don't believe me, pickup a copy of "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby" by Weissbluth. He cites study after study after study that prove kids who don't get good sleep early on face real struggles later on. (Disclaimer, he also describes how to use a cry-it-out method that I do not approve of.

The next thing you need to know is that every baby is different. I URGE you to realize that you know more about helping your baby have healthy sleep than you realize. Have a cup of coffee and think about the coping mechanisms you already know and use. Perhaps baby likes to be held a certain way, have a certain kind of pacifier, or to be rocked at a certain speed. Keep those things in mind! And remember that each baby does things at their own pace.

The third thing you need to know is that babies should not be left to cry for EXTENDED amounts of time. But, there will be crying. (I will elaborate later on.)

I will eventually get around to a blog that starts at the beginning, from birth. But this particular one is for parents of babies who are older. It's hard for me to pinpoint the exact age but this is directed for babies at least 5 months old, and probably older. Babies this post is for should be rolling over in at least one direction, sitting fairly well, giving a large amount of social interaction (enjoying smiling mama, grabs at toys mama is giving attention to.) These babies should also be able to be soothed to sleep by dad but perhaps NOT by mom if they are still nursing.

Ok now that that's out of the way, I KNOW I haven't made everything clear and I hope to one of these days.

Here's the method: it's centered around the idea that babies can self soothe but may need a tiny bit of crying first. You, as the parent, need to pick your threshold. Also know that the threshold can change from nap to nap, night to night, or day to day depending on your mood. There are bad days where I cannot listen to the baby cry for more than 5 minutes, and other days the full 15 don't bother me one bit. (15 is the MAXIMUM, by the way.)

The basic idea is that you do almost your full effort to put baby soundly to sleep before setting baby down (or leaving alone) in a safe place. If baby awakens, you leave and wait the allotted amount of time before you go back in and put baby back to sleep. (If this sounds like cry it out, you're right! But instead of 2 hours of crying, we limit it to 15 minutes. We also don't do silly things like try and pat their back or rub their face when they're worked up and crying.) When baby wakens in the night, if it isn't time for a feeding, you let them cry the allotted amount of time, and go put them back to sleep.

This method can take several weeks to be effective and you may get really tired of continually putting baby back to sleep. However, I find this method to be extremely gentle. Yes, baby feels very alone if she is fully awake and crying, but I have discovered that babies are quite capable of looking and sounding extremely upset without being fully awake. Even if they are awake, the longest they cry is 15 minutes before you go soothe them completely back to sleep or as calm as you can.

And that's it, really. At some point, baby will wake for food. Please feed! Then either let baby fall asleep at the breast or bottle, remove, and put them down. If they wake, start the cycle all over again.

Ok, so that's not "really" it. There are other fine nuances that I think are important. Babies need to be warm but not too warm at night. Long sleeved pjs and a sleep sack accomplish this well unless your house is extremely hot/cold. Then add a heater or subtract the sleep sack. My baby also needs a cheap white noise machine. It helps mask the sounds of us doing housework and such. Babies also need a very strict bedtime routine. Ours is pajamas and bedtime diaper, sleep sack, a bit of snuggling/playtime on the bed, a pacifier and toy for story time, lights out, nurse both sides, get pacifier again, listen to a short story/poem, listen to two verses of "You are my Sunshine" while being held on her left side and gently rocked. We do this EVERY night. As soon as we get her sleep sack zipped up she rubs her eyes and starts yawning. Quite often she doesn't make it through her story before she tries to curl up and lay down. When I set her in her crib, she's often fairly awake but I sssshhhh her and rub her back until she settles enough for me to leave without instant tears.

Also, I think it's REALLY important to have lots of time touching mama or papa before bedtime. It refuels their need for touch. And when you go in to soothe them, use as little light as possible, do it as quietly as possible, and don't talk!

So, let me know what I've left out if you plan to try this method out. I know that it has worked extremely well for at least a dozen other mamas and I got tired of retyping it or retelling it for each of them so I decided to type it up.

Our nights used to be really tough. We used to wait until G was grumpy to start the bed time routine (major mistake) and by the time I tried to read her a story, she'd be crying and upset. Then I'd fight her just to get her to lay in my arms. On a good night, I could bounce her enough that she'd stop screaming and then she'd cry herself to sleep in my arms. Then I'd sit and rock her for an undetermined amount of time before she'd be soundly asleep enough for me to set down. An hour or two later, she'd wake, I'd feed her, then she'd be wide awake, and I'd have to repeat. I was exhausted. It turns out that I was feeding her when she didn't really need it. Once I tried just soothing her back to sleep, it was a miracle. She basically melted in my arms a minute after I'd pick her up. Times when I picked her up and she instantly started rooting? Well, the baby was truly hungry!

Our nights now are so much better. I do the bedtime routine (takes about 20 minutes total) and set her in her crib. Sometimes she's out cold. Other times she needs a bit of back rubbing to get her relaxed. Then I leave. Once in awhile she cries for a few minutes before settling,but most nights, she wiggles a bit and then is asleep. She usually sleeps 11 hours straight, with at least TWO crying jags that never last more than 10 minutes. She isn't truly awake during these, even when she stands up. WEIRD but true. I know because if I go in there and pick her up, she startles and her crying changes.

Even when she was teething, she'd wake up more often and need help going back to sleep maybe twice. Usually one of those times she would want to nurse.

So, I know it's killer to listen to a baby cry for 15 minutes. I do. Try turning off the monitor and starting a timer. When time's up, check the monitor. If baby is still crying, head to the nursery! Just remember that most traditional "sleep training" methods encourage you to let baby cry for HOURS which is horrible. When baby does fall asleep, it's because they're exhausted from being alone and crying and feeling abandoned. When we first started my method with our daughter, she was 7 months old. I think the earliest we could've started was 5.5 months with her, but that might have been too soon. It took a solid month before she would go to sleep and stay asleep on the first or second try but her night wakings decreased significantly. She is now 10 months old and she sleeps through the night! Yay!

My final note is that I don't believe that some babies can go to sleep successfully without crying ever. My daughter cries before she sleeps NO MATTER WHAT. If I nurse or rock or wear her to sleep, she cries a little. My goal was to come up with a method that allowed her to self-soothe without crying any more than she does when I soothe her. I think I succeeded!

Blessed

2014-02-02T11:58:00.001-08:00

What does being blessed sound like?

It sounds like the furnace and the dishwasher and the washing machine running /

While a baby bangs a wooden spoon in a pan /

And a husband who fries fresh eggs on the stove.

It sounds like dogs barking at the mailman /

While mama plays hundred year old songs on a fiddle /

And the rooster crows in the yard.

It sounds like coffee percolating /

While the phone rings /

And the calendar fills up.

It sounds like the creaking of a sturdy house in a storm /

While food thaws for dinner /

And the neighbors wave hello.

Sweet Potato Breakfast Bowl

2014-02-02T11:08:00.002-08:00

Good morning!

Let's talk about breakfast for a second....I'm one of those crazy people who cannot start their day without a big, old fashioned, hot breakfast. Cereal? Oatmeal and fruit? NO. First, I don't find them satisfying in any capacity. Second, I find myself starving less than an hour later, no matter how much I eat. And I'm not kidding; not too long ago I ate six packets of oatmeal for breakfast, left the house to run errands, and helped myself to some Panera about 50 minutes later to get my loud stomach to be quiet.

Most days I find myself frying up hashbrown patties from Trader Joes. They are NOT healthy at all, take forever to brown, and are always soggy in the middle. Then I also fry two eggs, eat some homemade yogurt, and drink four cups of coffee. This usually sates me for a few hours.

Anyways, I'm here to share with you my new favorite breakfast.....the sweet potato breakfast bowl. It's delicious, pretty, aromatic, and really, really flexible. And easy.

This is a big, moderately heavy breakfast and it makes a HUGE portion (think a few cups of food.) Scale back or share or have leftovers if you are a bird at breakfast.

Sweet Potato Breakfast Bowl:

Ingredients:
-1 medium organic sweet potato
-Organic olive oil for cooking
-Seasoning (salt, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, etc.)
-1/4 to 1/2 cup cooked meat or protein (bacon, sausage, ground anything, beans)
-1 or 2 eggs
-Optional: onions, chives, garlic, other root veggies, greens, spinach

Directions:
-Cut the sweet potato up into quarter-inch squares. Personally, I like to slice it into round discs about 1/4in thick, then stack three of similar size up, cut some of the skin away, and then cube.

-Precook the sweet potato a bit. An easy way is to microwave for 2 minutes. If you're anti microwave, you have two good options. The first is to boil some water in a kettle or hot pot, pour it over the spuds, and then drain after 4 minutes. The second is to put them in a pan with some liquid (water or broth) and steam for 4-6 minutes. The goal is for the cubes to be easily pierced by a fork but not fork tender...you should be able to stab them but they will stay on the fork tine. If you use either of the last two methods, drain the potatoes well in a colander or on a tea towel.

-Heat olive oil in a 10 or 12 inch skillet on medium and add the potatoes. Flip every 5-7 minutes until they're cooked almost to your liking. Then add your meat/protein. I like my spuds pretty browned on one side so I let them sit for almost 10 minutes before the first flip. Don't forget to season!! I love a good savory meal but adding some ginger and cinnamon is to die for with sweet potatoes.

-If you are adding other optional veggies, be mindful of how long they take to cook! Add your onions and root veggies with or before the potatoes but add your greens and spinach with the protein since overcooking creates bitterness.

-Pour everything into your bowl. Add more oil to the pan and cook your eggs up.

-Top your bowl with the eggs and feast!

These breakfast bowls are very simple and can be tailored to each eater's tastes. To speed up the process, I like to chop the potatoes the night before and set everything (potatoes, meat, veggies) side by side in the fridge. It's an easy dish to prepare while you're getting ready for your day...you can get the potatoes started and go brush your teeth or change a diaper or search for your mug of coffee that you perpetually lose.

**MAMA NOTES: Stinky Baby eats what we eat as a general rule because I'm lazy. The cubed taters were too small for her to eat safely so I also cut some of the sweet potato rounds into "fingers" and cooked them in the pan with the cubes. She licked the ginger and cinnamon off and then pretty much was over the sweet potatoes but the salty sausage she loved (of course). It was Adell's brand and really yummy and has no unnatural nitrates or junk fillers so I decided it was OK for her. :) She also had some egg yolk.

The Baby Who Stole Christmas

2014-01-10T21:06:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a very, very merry Christmas, Happy New Year, etc, etc.

This year, Christmas was very different for all of us. We had it at our house for the first time in a very long time and my mom and brother flew out to join us. Oh, it also happened to be baby's first Christmas. But no big deal.

Only ten thousand photos of her were captured. Most of the gifts under the tree were for her. A normally leisurely day was full of chasing her around, showing her new toys, and keeping fake pine needles out of her mouth.

And can I say it was heavenly!? She's still too little to appreciate (or demand) all of the trappings of the holiday but old enough to recognize new toys and things.

This year we put the tree up on a big round wooden table to keep it out of her reach. The table was big enough for all of the gifts too, so they too were conveniently out of her reach. I only spent a few quick hours decorating...the mantel got a live pine bough garland and various real and faux hurricane glass items. And...that was about it for decorations...just enough to "feel" like Christmas!

Wrapping paper? Well, I failed to plan ahead enough to have canvas bags on hand for all of the gifts so some of them were gift-wrapped. Last year I found huge rolls of holiday paper on sale for less than a dollar so they've been lingering in the attic, waiting to be called upon. I had hoped to avoid using it because I feel like it is wasteful, despite being recyclable, but I'm not sweating it.

Stockings? My goal this year was to not put any junk in the stockings. The adults exchanged only a few small things so the stockings were a main part of the "gift" side of Christmas. The guys got an assortment of things like tiny Moleskine notebooks, favorite candies, a mind-boggling 3D puzzle, and the like. Fun but decidedly not junky.

Gracelyn? I tried...really I did, to not spoil her. She still ended up with far too many gifts so we pared down and set some aside for her birthday this spring.

From my parents, she got an Anatex Play Cube. Made in the USA of mostly wood and metal, and just so fun. Truly a toy that will "grow with her" since it has the spinning alphabet blocks on one side and lots of good "fine motor skills" activities as well.

Lucky baby, right!? Uncle Taylor said it best: "When I wanted to play with a toy this cool, I had to go to the dentist!"

Gracelyn also got a stuffed turtle from the LeVoys which she promptly chewed on and abused as much as possible. She also got a rolling wooden giraffe from my parents and a wooden submarine teether from us.

She also got a few Priddy books from us that have animals that have textures which seems to be her newest fascination. Maybe we can teach her to pet the cheetah gently and thus pet her live dogs gently?

She got three outfits as well...my favorite is a navy blue dress with anchors and her name embroidered on it. The other two were little cotton play clothes.

It some how eluded the camera but she got a crazy organic stuffed cat from us as well as the cutest crochet giraffe known to man from our friends in Idaho.

Her big gift from Santa is a 1-2-3-Grow With Me walker toy. It converts to a little push bike and later a shopping cart. Cool, right?!

To be honest, there were other gifts and things that I'm forgetting about because I don't have photographic evidence on hand to remind me AND I'm sleep deprived.

G got some exceptionally cool PlanToys from Don's mom including blocks that she pushes around in her walker and plays with every day.

So, hope everyone else had their heart's stolen this holiday season. Love to you all!

Maple Brined Pork Roast Recipe

2013-11-10T16:40:00.002-08:00

Hi everyone!

Sorry in advance for no photos...I wasn't expecting this recipe to turn out (explained below) so I didn't bother. What a pessimist.

Before I jump into the actual recipe, can I tell you about my relationship with roasts? It's a long and boring one but I'll try to be succinct.

Well, I love the idea of roasts, especially in the crock pot! I love photos of roasts being carved...my mouth is literally watering just thinking about them on Pinterest! I love buying roasts and hefting a huge hunk of marbled goodness into my cart.

But....

I am a terrible roast cooker chef person. TERRIBLE. Can I just say it again? TERRIBLE. They're either overcooked or dry. Or just weird in texture. Or they will be cooked to perfection and have a tough ligament running down the middle. Or they juices smoke up my house as if to threaten spontaneous combustion. Seriously. Thank GOD for a husband who eats just about anything without protest.

So, want to hear a recent roast story? Got a beautiful beef roast. Got it all dressed up. Got it in the oven. Directions say to check it after 90 min for cooking temp. At 90 minutes, we check, and it was THIRTY DEGREES OVER. Yeah, bad. We carve it, and it was like eating leather.

My other half says, "Can we just be honest and not keep the leftovers?" This is the first time I've ever heard him have anything other than nice things to say about my cooking. My feelings, however, are not hurt because my jaw is too tired from eating a tiny sliver of this old boot to care. (Don't worry, I didn't throw it away....I stewed it, which softened it up immensely!)

So when I sat down to find a recipe for a pork roast that we intended for other things but then had extra, I wasn't feeling that confident. Hah. I was actually feeling like I wasn't allowed to cook another roast ever again. But, I stumbled upon this Maple-Brined Pork recipe and figured it was worth a go.

I watched the thermometer with an eagle eye. So did dear husband. We were both pretty invested in not messing it up, I think. PTSD from Mr. Leather Boot Beef Roast, perhaps?

Well it turned out great. We ate the entire roast. I'll tell you that it was only a 1.4 lb roast to make myself feel better, but yeah, we pigged out on the pig roast. Delicious!

Here's the link: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Maple-Brined-Pork-Loin/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=boneless%20pork%20roast&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

And here's what I did:

Ingredients:
-1.4 lb boneless pork sirloin roast
-2 cups water
-1/3 cup salt
-1/4 cup maple syrup
-1.5 tbsp minced garlic
-2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
-1 tsp dried rosemary
-10 turns of the pepper mill
-1 tbsp olive oil
-1 tbsp dijon
-1 tbsp maple syrup again

Directions:
Mix everything except the last three ingredients together in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate 8-10 hours. I wouldn't go over 10 or it'll get salty.

Heat oil in dutch oven and brown on all sides, about 10 min total. Preheat oven to 325F.

Use a DAMMED THERMOMETER and pull it out at 100F. Combine the dijon and maple syrup and spoon over roast. Put back in oven until roast reaches 145F. Don't get distracted. Don't forget about it. Just don't.

Remove from oven. Let sit for a few minutes. Carve and pig out!

Soup in a Pumpkin!

2013-10-14T19:32:00.001-07:00

Well, fall is my favorite. Besides sweaters and no shaving, I'm in love with all things pumpkin. (Except for pumpkin lattes. Ick.) Anyways, pumpkins are for more than carving! We eat as much pumpkin as we can and then we freeze a bunch more.

This soup in a pumpkin was a fun recipe I tore out of a magazine. It might've been "Redbook" but I'm honestly not sure. Anyways, I almost never follow a recipe as written, so I'll share the magazine page and then share how I did it. Happy Harvest, everyone!

"Original recipe" from unknown magazine

Ingredients:
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 small sweet onions, roughly chopped
1 large spoonful minced garlic
3 celery stalks, roughly chopped
1 large tomato, seeds discarded, roughly chopped
2 tsp dried thyme
2 stocks fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper
2.5 cups stock or bone broth (I used homemade chicken bone broth)
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 sugar pumpkins (2-3 lbs each)
*This is one of those recipes that is super easy and affordable to go all organic with. Except the darn pumpkins. Organic pie pumpkins are elusive and far pricier than they're worth.

1. In a dutch oven, heat oil and butter over medium. Add onions, garlic, celery, tomato, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Cook until onions begin to be translucent (8-12 min)
2. Add in broth. Boil. Remove from heat. Slowly stir in cream. Preheat oven to 375F.
3. Carve up the pumpkins....cut the top off and clean out insides using a spoon. This is pretty messy, especially if you have big hands, so you've been warned.
4. Set pumpkins on a cookie sheet. Season insides with salt and pepper. (I found this sort of impossible so I shook a little of each inside and said, "Whatever!") Ladle soup into bowls carefully. It's molten. Discard the rosemary.
5. Put the lid on the pumpkin and roast for 60-90 minutes, just until flesh is knife tender. If you let them go any longer, the entire pumpkin turns to mush and molten soup goes everywhere.
6. EAT. So delicious. Scoop out pumpkin flesh with each bite of soup and be happy.

How to Braid Your Woven Wrap

2013-09-27T13:41:00.002-07:00

Quick photo tutorial on how to braid a woven wrap.

Why would you want to braid your wrap? Well, the act of looping and pulling helps to "break it in." You'll notice the more you braid, the tighter your braid gets....proof your wrap is softening up!

STEP 1: Tie a knot at one end that pinches a loop

See the short tail? That was the "end" I tied closest to. The long tail that goes out the bottom of the photo is the rest of the wrap.

STEP 2: Stick your hand through the loop you just made. Ideally you want the loop to be *just* big enough for your fisted hand to move through. No bigger, no smaller. If you're loop is WAY off, adjust, otherwise, leave it and try for a better size next time because it's not that vital. Now, stick your hand through the loop.

STEP 3: Grab the long tail of your wrap. Keep a hold of it, and pull your hand back out of the loop. (Sorry for the blurry photos.)

The next photo shows the new "loop" you'll have made by pulling only part of the long tail through.

STEP 4: Put your hand through the new loop you just formed, grab the long tail, and repeat until you run out of wrap!

This is what a finished "braid" looks like on a size 4 wrap:

The end of the wrap is just sort of tucked under the braid at the bottom in this photo. To unbraid, just grab that loose end and pull! The whole thing will come undone.

One last photo....the wrap on the left is a barely broken-in size 4. The one on the right is a very broken in size 6. Due to fiber content, the wrap on the left will never make a braid as small and tight as the one on the right, but it will make a tighter braid than pictured and will start to lay flatter when braided.

Wishlist for G

2013-09-22T22:05:00.002-07:00

Hi everyone!

Just a fair warning, this post is not for you. Hah! Well, it might be if you were planning on asking us what we wanted for Christmas. If not, then that's fine too. Don't feel obligated to get us a gift now just because I shoved our wishlist in your face.

Also, I'll be updating this periodically so apologies in advance for making you read this over and over.

For those of you who are going to ask what we want for Xmas, the truth is that we want things for our daughter, for the most part.

The next truth is that we are a wee bit picky. Next, I'm going to tell you why we're picky. It doesn't really make up for the fact that we're picky, but maybe it'll make you less annoyed by our pickiness.

1) G is so young she doesn't care what her toys and possessions are made of. She isn't coveting a Barbie or other toy made of plastic. As long as she doesn't care, we don't need to be giving her things that are toxic.

2) G still puts everything she grabs in her mouth. Again, why bother with things that are toxic?

3) We live in a lovely house with almost no storage. We don't have room for junk or things we don't love or use. I know that sounds blunt and harsh but such is the way of the world.

Ok, glad we got that out of the way.

Next up is a general overview of what we love and use:
*Unfinished, sanded hardwood toys and teethers. They can be finished with beeswax or other organic type waxes and even water-based food dyes.
*Food grade silicone
*100% cotton items. Organic is ideal if it's considered a "teether" but plain old cotton will do just fine.
*Made in the USA! Not only is it great to support our local economy, but it's safer.

Things we avoid:
*Plastics of any kind. Even if the package says "BPA free" there are still other chemicals that leach out.
*Microban and other antimicrobial coatings
*Polyesters (which are often doused in flame retardants)
*Anything scented or dyed with unknown dies. RIT dye is NOT safe for babies, for example.
*Toys "older than her age" like play makeup.
*Toys that use batteries, light up, or make annoying sounds. She's going to want them sooner or later so let's not rush into the annoying toy phase any earlier than necessary!
*And, of course, anything that is a potential choking hazard.

OK, so now I'm sure you're thinking, "What a party pooper! How will I find anything that makes this nincompoop happy?" So now I'll give you some examples! **FAIR WARNING** the links I am providing are to goods that are usually handmade, often on etsy. These things are NOT cheap. Please don't get 10 cheap gifts when you could get one awesome, handmade in the USA, organic gift. We are all about quality over quantity for sure. And we totally know the value, monetarily and morally, of the gifts. Also, clicking on any of the etsy photos should take you to the listing, and prices exclude shipping.

First up: a wooden teether with organic cotton "ears." I think these are adorable. We have a similar one that doesn't have ears. Instead it has a pocket that holds ice cubes. Genius! I would love one more so I can wash one and still have one for her to play with.

From Bunbunbabydesigns on etsy. Organic cotton and organic maple wood ring. $12


From Rewoodtoys on etsy. Wooden teether. $13. We love any thing like this!

Next up: organic cotton "stuffed animals". I love the clean, simple aesthetic!

From Soulrole on etsy. Organic cotton bunny. $15


From StarBrightBaby on etsy. Organic cotton giraffe. $18

Next, neato toys for when she's a bit older:

From SmilingTreeToys on etsy. Two sided wooden puzzle $15.

From LittleSaplingToys on etsy. Organic wooden blocks. $15. Can I say these are my absolute favorite? If anyone buys these, PLEASE let me know because I think I'm getting these for her for Christmas!


Also from LittleSaplingToys. Stacking rainbow. $40. LOVE!

Next up: Quirky, fun clothing. I'm particularly crushing on bold, modern prints!

From FableBaby on etsy. Organic leggings, handprinted. $43. (Ouch on the price!)

From downhomeamy on etsy. Organic bibs. $19.95. (I'm crushing on all of her bibs SO hard. I might have to splurge on one or two if she's eating solids before Christmas.)

From Zmunki on etsy. Baby kimono!!! $25

Stuff for mama and papa:

From TheVintageHoneyShop on etsy. Teething necklace. $18. (I love these. G rips my shirts or hair while she eats so these have been a real life saver. And they're just lovely, aren't they?)

Gifts for when she's much older:

From CakeInTheMorn on etsy. Toy map. $10. HOW CUTE.

Any felt pretend play toys! I can't wait to play with these myself, hahaha. These are all from CreationByM on etsy with varying prices. Tell me these aren'te the cutest, most creative toy foods you've ever seen!!!!!

OK, OK. I'm done with the food! For now.

Be Better

2013-09-19T15:13:00.002-07:00

When you know better you do better
-Maya Angelou

Parenting should really just be called, "Making lots of choices in a sea of overwhelming information that everyone else will judge you for no matter what you do."

Let's face it, no two people parent alike. Even spouses have big differences. We should celebrate the fact that kids are all unique because of how they are parented. Instead, as parents, we judge one another, disrespect individual choices, and attach guilt to things that are truly none of our business.

I'm an outspoken mama with big opinions. I know I come across as overly confident, but honestly, that's because I don't do wishy-washy or uncertain very well. It's a side of me that stays off the blog...

I'm also quite an extremist according to some, and I'm OK with that. I don't wear any of my choices like proud badges, really, I don't. If I blog about them, it's for the sake of education. I get lots of questions and a few "Why the hell would you do that?!" comments, so I blog. It hope they help people who are wondering how/why I do somethings, and I don't blog to defend myself.

OK, that said, there are some parenting choices that completely pain me to see other parents make. I don't say anything unless something they're doing is blatantly illegal. I even bite my tongue if what they're doing is potentially dangerous because their choices are none of my business, in the end.

All I ask is that you do your research, don't rely on what you find on Facebook or even a cursory Google search, and ignore your friends' tidbits for the most part. I know it takes more time than listening to comments on facebook, but isn't your kid and family worth more than that?

Here are the "big" ones for us that I urge everyone to really research:

1) Car seats: Make sure they're properly installed, make sure you're fastening the harness correctly, and make sure you are confident in your choice to be rear-facing or front-facing.

2) The products you bring into your home and use on your children: Just because you get it from your doctor or from Target doesn't mean it's safe and non-toxic. If you can't pronounce an ingredient, leave it be. Babies have a much higher surface area to volume ratio meaning things absorbed in their skin affect them much more.

Fun facts:
I learned the prenatal vitamins that my doctor had prescribed when I first was pregnant contained nearly illegal amounts of LEAD. Seriously.

BPA isn't the only dangerous chemical that leaches out of plastics. Minimize plastic use at all costs. Don't let your kids chew on plastics. There are so many other options. Avoid using plastics in situations with thermal flux such as heating leftovers or a water bottle left in a car.

Monday

2013-09-16T09:49:00.002-07:00

I keep this blog as true to myself as I can. I'm an upbeat, zany mama with a crazy sense of humor and a very short attention span.

So I was tempted to pen a snarky blog about the amazing hipster dinner I made last night and leave it at that, but Google is pissing me off royally by not loading my photos, and honestly, it's not Google's fault.

The fact of the matter is that I'm upset today and looking for someone (something) to take it out on.

Here's why I'm upset.

This is what I woke up to:

ONE GUNMAN IS DEAD and police say there may be two others at large in the shooting of at least 10 people — including 'multiple victims that are deceased'— at Washington Navy Yard at a building housing the Naval Sea Systems Command Headquarters, above. The AP is reporting six fatalities, but there are conflicting reports on the number of victims, and the number of gunmen. -FOX NEWS

Yes, people are murdered, gunned down, every day. Probably every minute. But I just sent my husband off to work after saying some not-so-nice things to him in a not-so-nice tone of voice. I sent him off to work to the Navy Shipyards here on the West Coast.

You might say, "Andria! Washington State is not Washington DC. Be happy! He's fine!" And I say to you this:

"Every morning I see him off to work. Every morning, I tell him that I love him and silently hope he'll be home sooner than later. I never, ever entertain the thought that he might not come home. I never consider the fact that perhaps one of his own colleagues might somehow bring a gun into an area with relatively high security measures to gun down fellow sailors. And now? How can I ever send him out the door without thinking about that? My small sense of ignorant happiness is pretty much gone. I can't help but sit here, stunned, and think that he's probably safer underway than walking around his offices on land. I can't help but add "gunman" to the list of things I have to be afraid of for him.

I'm afraid of a lot of things. Maybe I'm not afraid of more things than the average person, just different things than the average person.

Speaking in public? No problem.

Needles? Bring it on.

Driving in pouring rain during rush hour in downtown Seattle? Turn up the radio!

Flying? Love it!

Heights? Please, let's go up on the roof!

However, I'm terrified of Halloween decorations, the thought of a tsunami washing over my house, wet things touching my skin, clowns, car accidents, dirty velcro (seriously), not having steak in the freezer or fridge, getting a paper cut on my eyeball, and most of all, losing my loved ones.

The things I just listed? I'm not scared of them. I'm TERRIFIED of them. They occupy my thoughts and my dreams. They make my palms sweat. I cried walking into Goodwill last year when a goblin thing was motion-activated and had glowing eyes and started moving. I yelp in pain if I step on a wet towel left on the floor. I flinch every time I take a bill out of an envelope. I'm subscribed to NOAA alerts that let me know every time there's an earthquake and if a tsunami might happen as a result.

I cope by breathing, hugging my dogs or my baby, and by stress eating. (Again, not a joke.) I also cope by pretending none of those things exist or can ever happen to me. Yes, I get by because I have the "teenage-not-ever-gonna-happen-to-me-so-what?!" attitude.

Things that make me realize that my fears actually COULD happen to me really shake me and mess up my day.

The point of this whole weird, downer blog isn't to make you depressed or want to not be my friend anymore because I live on Planet Weirdo. I just want you to hug your loved ones, never take for granted that they'll come home, and for heaven's sake, stop posting horrid news stories on your Facebook!

I'm off to eat my second and third breakfasts of the day while simultaneously hugging my dogs and baby.

Long Time, No See, BIG CHANGES!

2013-07-22T14:15:00.002-07:00

Hello blog land,

I see my last post was on 4 April 2013. Since then, we've had a baby! Started landscaping! Replaced a sewer pipe! And redid our back deck. Whew.

Baby G and her dad on the back deck

Honestly, I'm not quite ready to blog about baby other than to say that baby G is the awesomest baby to grace planet Earth and there will be many blogs about her soon.

So off to the other fun topics. The landscaping/sewer pipe are in progress and not very well documented because I'm terrible at remember to take pictures, so let's talk about the deck. :)

When we moved in, there was a 10ft by 12 ft wooden deck on the back of our house, accessible via the sliding glass door off of the kitchen/dining. On the right side of the deck, there were three stairs down to a small square of concrete and the back yard.

When I first saw the deck, I fell in love with it. After we moved in, love quickly downgraded to "like" and then to "get rid of this thing!"

Here's why we didn't love it:

1) Maintenance. Wood decks require lots of maintenance. If ours had been in good condition, we probably would've been willing to do the work, i.e. power wash it and either paint or refinish it. BUT, the railings were horribly wobbly and the corners that were most exposed had some rot. (Funny story: when we moved in, before we had our fence, I tied the dogs to the railing and they ripped a huge chunk of it off. Oops.)

2) Size: 10x12 was really awkward. Not quite big enough for a large table and chairs unless you wanted to perpetually be walking around them. Also not big enough for the dogs to have a place to sunbathe unless I folded the table and chairs up. Also, we needed to store other things under the eave such as propane tanks and some random gardening stuff. And the grill was down in the yard which worked out alright but wasn't fabulous.

So here's what we brainstormed:

1) Have the existing deck get a facelift (new railings and new floorboards) and then expand it. The bids for this work were over $3,000.

2) Deal with it as-is. Nope. I really wasn't OK with it as-is. And I wasn't willing to put in the work to clean/paint it when it was rotting and falling apart.

3) Replace it with something cheaper. But what?

Well, we found out that replacing it with concrete was going to be cheaper. But was it going to be uglier? In my opinion, no. As you'll see we found a contractor who did decorative concrete so it wouldn't just look like a big grey slab.

Believe it or not, the concrete work came in at about 60% of what the deck repair bid came in at. Sheesh! And concrete is muuuuuccchhh lower maintenance. We should seal it every few years and clean with mild cleaner when mishaps occur. No sanding. No staining. Yay!

My sunbathing beauties on our ugly deck.

The photo above was taken out the back door. As you can see, it's pretty weatherbeaten. And the three dogs all but take up the entire space. Please don't mind the hammock stand or any of the other detritus.

First we saved ourselves a few hundred dollars by tearing out the deck ourselves. And when I say "we" I mean Don and a friend. It's great to have friends! The guys made quick work out of it. They ninja kicked down the railings, then cut it in thirds. They shoved the thirds in the back of a huge pickup and that was that! All that was left was all the rocks/trash from under the deck, the stairs, and the little concrete slab at the bottom of the stairs.

Right after the deck was torn out! The stairs are not in their original position.

Next, we decided that we wanted to salvage as many of those dark grey rocks as possible to landscape the south end of the house with. They aren't pretty but they're free! Don pulled the landscape fabric out from underneath them and then used a big rake and shovel to put them in buckets for later. Hard work, husband!

Mr. H probably won't be happy about having his photo up but I can always delete it, right?

About halfway done collecting rocks.

All done rock collecting. The dogs were exhausted just watching him work.

There was a fairly significant drop from the back door to the ground with the deck gone. I didn't measure it, but maybe 30 inches? Don affixed a ramp covered in shingles so the pups could traverse it without breaking their necks. He originally built the deck when Barley blew his knee (oh yes, forgot that happened too, since I last blogged!) and it went off of the left side of the deck since he wasn't supposed to use stairs. You can see a sliver of it in the left side of the photo above.

All that was left was for the contractors to work their magic. And magic it was!! They leveled, framed, poured, leveled and smoothed. A lot of work and precision! But the real magic was when they did the stamped border. It was an elaborate process from adding the coloring and the stamping to hand troweling to make it look like stone. I couldn't help but just stare out the window and be in awe of how art-like it was. (And how time consuming it was as well!) It definitely added a few hundred to our final budget but I think it was very, very important since most people will tell you not to get rid of the deck for resale purposes. No, a concrete patio is not as inviting as a deck, but a concrete patio with a beautiful border and some planter boxes is the next best thing.

It's framed!

They still haven't removed the framing but we are using it and loving it.

Ta da!

A close-up of the corner. We went with exposed aggregate for the main part because it's more durable than other finishes (read: can be pressure washed!) and isn't slippery when wet. It also stains less and hides what stains it does get.

A close-close-up of the border.

Snazzy, no? Oh, and I forgot to mention that the concrete patio is nearly triple the size of our old deck!

All that's lift is figuring out how to arrange things on it. And maybe conning Mr. H into buying me new patio furniture! Hah! Maybe not.

Mom's Cheesecake Cupcakes

2013-04-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:
-3 8oz package cream cheese
-1 cup sugar
-5 eggs
-1/2 tsp vanilla

-12 oz. sour cream
-1/4 cup sugar
-1/4 tsp vanilla

Directions:
1. Bring all ingredients to room temperature. Line muffin tins with 20-24 liners.
2. Preheat oven to 300F. Mix 1 cup sugar with cream cheese in mixer on medium.
3. When well blended, add eggs and vanilla. Blend until mixed together. Batter will be lumpy.
4. Pour into cupcake liners about 3/4 full. I find a medium-sized ladle works well.
5. Bake for 25-30 min until tops are a bit puffy and lightly golden brown.
6. While they bake, mix up topping (the remaining three ingredients in the list). I usually do a cursory rinse of the beater and mixer bowl and mix up the topping in there.
7. Remove cheesecakes from the oven. Let cool for 5 min and top with 1 tbsp of the topping.
8. Put back in oven for 5 min.
9. Allow to cool in muffin tins. Once cooled, remove from tins and refridgerate.
10. Garnish with cherry or other berry pie fillings.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

2013-03-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

CHEEP!
CHEEP!
CHEEP!

We are now the proud owners of four little chicks. Fluffy, yellow, adorable little chicks!

16 March 2013: Our four girls on their way home. Three days old.

We've been mulling over the ideas of raising chickens for awhile. At our old house, it was legal to own three hens, but we really didn't have the room in our tiny backyard for 200 lbs of dog and a coop. Since we've moved to outside city limits, we're pretty much unregulated by the county. This is our first full spring/summer cycle at the 1240 house so we've made the leap!

On Saturday (16 March 2013) we bought four Russian Orloff chicks from Farmland in Silverdale. (Sidenote: I sort of detest that store for the way they treat their puppies, but it was our only option for instant chicken gratification. I wasn't completely comfortable with mail-order chicks.)

Since we are crunchy hippies, we brought the birds home, released them into our house so they'd be "free range" and that's that. Just kidding.

We learned (thank you, Google!) that they need a safe, warm place to live for the first 6-8 weeks. Most people use a "biddy" box or a "brooder." They're both essentially the same thing. You want a space for the babies to run around, eat, drink, sleep, poop, and be warm.

The container: Most blogs/how-tos suggest 2 square feet per chick and walls at least a foot high. We opted for the biggest clear, plastic tub sold at Walmart. It is 95qts and was $11 with a lid. We have since learned that the girls will be able to hop out of a tub this short within a few weeks without something to keep them in or a taller box. P.S. you will not be using the lid or you risk suffocating the chickens in their own gasses.

This bin is on amazon.com and costs double what we paid at Walmart, but you get the idea.

The "lid": We purchased a few feet of hardware mesh from the feed store. Don cut it a few inches bigger than the top of the bin and covered the poky edges with tape. The mesh can sit over the top of the box to contain the chicks without suffocating them. The mesh also allows the heat of the lamp to still warm the chickens without fire risk. Right now we don't need the lid so we don't bother with it. We'll throw it on when they start to get rowdy.

Sample of hardware mesh

The bedding: You don't want to use anything except for pine bedding. Newspaper is too slippery and can cause major leg issues in your chickens. Almost all other types of bedding are toxic if ingested and/or inhaled. We found a little package (meant for rodent cages) at Walmart for $3. It took about a tenth of the package to put down a 2-inch bed for the birds and it needs to be changed out every few days.

Bedding sweeper: I grabbed a small handbroom and dustpan set on a whim at Walmart. It was a few dollars and will make getting the bedding out of the bin easy.

Food dish and food: We found a bird feeder at Goodwill for a few dollars. However, the feed store sells perfect little feeders for $2. We also got medicated starter feed at Farmland. The 25lb bag was about $13 and I don't have a good feel for how long it will last. It seems the chicks are currently eating about a half cup a day, total. You will also need somewhere to store the food because it is perishable. We threw the whole bag into a big plastic bin we had sitting around in the garage, but a metal trash can with a lid would work. You could also portion it up into smaller containers like old coffee cans. I definitely recommend that you don't skimp on a dedicated chicken or bird feeder because young chicks have a hard time distinguishing feed from their bedding. If they eat too much bedding, they can get sick. If you try to feed them in an open fashion, they will probably just poop in their food and kick it all over.

You fill a jar full of feed and screw it in upside down. The birds eat out of the holes but can't poop in their feed. Silly birds.

Waterer: We bought the waterer base at Farmland for $2. You fill a mason jar, screw the waterer on it, and then invert the whole thing. Similar to the feeder, you can't just put an open thing of water in the box. They will find a way to poop in it and then drown. If you don't want to buy a dedicated waterer, you can use a small, shallow dish (like a peanut butter jar lid) and put glass aquarium rocks in it. It will leave enough space for them to drink but not enough for them to drown. They will still poop in it, however. Also, you want to elevate the waterer by half an inch or so because they will kick too much bedding in it otherwise. We put ours up on a wood scrap we found in the garage.

You fill a mason jar with water and invert it on this thing so they don't die of thirst.

Heat source: Mother nature planned for the chicks to stay warm by having a mother hen to run under. Well we don't have that. Instead, we got a heat lamp base from the hardware section at Walmart for $9 and a 100-watt incandescent bulb. We put a board across the top of the bin and clamped the lamp on it. It works like a charm. Depending on where you plan to keep your box, don't forget an extension cord! NOTE: The heat lamp is a FIRE HAZARD. Please make sure it is secured well and that the cord is tucked away from kids, etc. SECOND NOTE: As your chicks grow, they will be capable of hopping up to roost on things. I have read several accounts of heat lamps being pulled down because the chicks decided the power cord would make a lovely roost. As soon as you see them start to roost on things, you need to secure the lamp and the cord in two places.

Heat lamp fixture

The Set Up: Wash your bin with warm water and mild soap. Rinse well, dry, and spread a 2-inch layer of pine bedding. Wash the waterer and feeder with warm water and mild soap, rinse, dry and fill. Place them in one end of the bin. Add a bulb to your fixture and decide how to hang it over the other end of the bin. The chicks actually need to keep very warm the first few weeks so you'll find clamping it to a board that spans the top of the bin will work the best.

Is it working? Add your chicks gently to the bin and leave them alone to acclimate. Sit back and observe.

Observe that each chick drinks water and eats feed. Most of them won't eat right away until they calm down and they are much like lemmings: what one does, the others do out of curiosity. If they don't start drinking, dip the very tip of the calmest bird's beak into the water then let her go. If they don't start eating, gently tap on the base of the feeder. They will be drawn to this noise and should find the feed in no time.
Wait until they all calm down and see where they group. If they huddle together directly under your lamp, they are cold and you need to find a way to increase the heat. Either lower the lamp or put a higher wattage bulb in. Make sure there are no drafts over the bin. If they "pant" and settle down far away from the lamp, they are too warm. Move the lamp up or reduce the wattage. Make small changes and give them 30-40 minutes to change their behavior.
Birds who are happy with the temperature with snuggle with each other on the perimeter of the lamp "halo" and will happily wander away from the lamp for food and water.
Don't be alarmed if your chicks fall asleep standing up and start to fall over or if they fall asleep on their faces. They're silly babies and they're alright.

Silly girl sleeping on her chin while her sister contemplates her reflection in the waterer. (3 days old.)

Getting used to their lovely home! Note the two on the left are sleeping on the edge of the lamp "halo" which indicates they have a good temperature. (3 days old.)

Barley was VERY excited about the birds...he's going to have to learn better chicken manners.

My five-day-old sleeping beauties.

Five-days-old and sleeping like she's dead.

The next chicken post will talk about daily upkeep and preparing for their lovely chicken futures.

Part 2: Cleaning Out the Toxic Products at Home

2013-03-19T21:11:00.002-07:00

Here are the biggest reasons why our lives are full of toxins:

1. It takes a lot of time and devotion to research products, companies, ingredients, and options.
Here's the link to Part 1.

2. It is expensive.

3. We live blindly with the belief that if a doctor recommends it or if it's sold at Target, it must be fine for us.

Part 2 will address the second reason and my suggestions.

2. It is expensive.

I touched on this in my first post, but the biggest way around this is to realize that most of the household products we buy, we don't really need. Sounds too good to be true? Keep reading.

Are you willing to pay more for a product that has "green" or "natural" or "organic" claims on the label? Stop! Really, most of them are misleading scams and you are actually hampering your quest to get rid of toxins by spending more of your budget on things that are still toxic.

A great example of a "greenwasher." This product was rated a 7 by the EWG...it's NOT safe but touts itself as natural!

Ask yourself how what people used to get the job done 100 years ago. The answer, for me, is usually that I have no idea. But let's be honest: our grandparents and great grandparents got along just fine. They weren't stinky Victorian-aged ruffle wearers who only bathed once a year. (Well, maybe yours were or still are, but I promise not everyone lived that way.) 100 years ago, folks lived with much less in general, but they still had clean houses, clean laundry, and clean bodies. You know what else they had? A much lower incidence of autism, asthma, environmental allergies, food allergies, etc. It absolutely makes sense to see if we can go back to the "simple" times and still get the job done without much heartache. No, I'm not asking you to have a pot of lye on your stove for making your own soap. Whoa. Let's not go back quite that far! Here's my list of "simple" ingredients and I use them for 99% of household jobs:

White vinegar
Apple cider vinegar
Citrus vinegar
Blue dawn dish soap
Castillle soap
Baking soda
Bleach
Ammonia
Rubbing alcohol

Is that list too good to be true? Sometimes, yes. But most of the time, no. You can clean any surface in your house with some combination of these ingredients. I'll post recipes in a later post or two, but you can google recipes for every surface. Here we clean walls, windows, doors, carpet, microfiber couches, laminate floors, laminate counters, appliances, metal sinks, porcelain, doggie paws and faces, the washing machine drum, dishes, hair, skin, etc using these ingredients alone.

Disposable = costly and wasteful. We rarely use napkins and paper towels anymore. They've been replaced with dish towels, cloth napkins, t-shirt rags, and bamboo-cotton "paper" towels. Has it saved us thousands of dollars? Nope, not yet. But I honestly can't tell you the last time I purchased paper towels or napkins. I don't miss them either. We keep a roll of paper towels around for really icky or greasy messes. Other than that, there is a cloth option for everything else. And it barely adds to our laundry. Oh, and it makes eating Chinese leftovers that much fancier when you get two wipe noodle grease off of your nose with a cloth napkin! We used to go through a pack of Costco paper towels every three months. That equates to $80 of paper towels per year.

Who can resist the charm of these "unpaper towels"?? Soft and absorbent, they snap together to pull off the roll just like your normal paper towels. We use a mix of a similar product and a smaller towel made of birdseye cotton. Gets the job done BETTER than regular paper towels.

So what do I still pay for? Dishwasher pods, laundry detergent, body wash, body lotion, toothpaste, coffee filters, face oil, toilet paper, contact solution, q-tips, cotton balls, and loofahs. That's what I could come up with off the top of my head. Most of these items are on this list because I haven't had time to research a suitable substitution...but I'm working on it.

Dishwasher pods: I've tried several homemade recipes to no avail. I think a combination of my unwillingness to use borax, our crappy dishwasher, and our water quality makes it hard for homemade recipes to succeed. I found that most of the time, only half of our dishes would come clean at any time, even with vigorous pre-rinsing and generous spacing of the dirty dishes. For now, we are using Method Smarty Dish Plus pods, which I linked to in an earlier post. They work well and while I question some of the ingredients, they're the safest effective option available right now. Oh, I also have a bag of Honest Co. dishwashing pods. So far, they seem to work equally well, but neither product is great when it comes to being safe and non-toxic. They are better than your average dishwasher pods, though.

Laundry detergent: Sort of the same story as the dishwasher pods. I tried a few recipes and they didn't work. It's probably my fault, but let me let you in on a little secret. Being non-toxic doesn't work for me if it involves laborious, time consuming steps. So no, I haven't ground up any bars of castille soap or fels-naptha. Probably the detergent recipes with these ingredients would work better. My other hesitation comes from the fact that we will be laundering cloth diapers soon and I want to NOT being doing science experiments with our detergent on the diapers. I would be heartbroken if I ruined any of our diapers (because they are SO stinkin' cute) and I'd be even more upset if my experiments caused a rash on baby. For now we're using Country Save powdered detergent and vinegar in the softener drawer. That's it. I don't even use dryer sheets, but I'm hoping to pickup some WAHM dryer balls in the next month to play with. I will also admit that I'm hoping to switch to soapnuts as soon as I can find them for a good price because they're CD-safe (cloth diaper safe) and completely natural.

Body wash: Full-disclosure...this paragraph might gross you out. That's fine. I don't use shampoo. I don't shower every day. Eeew. Gross. There you go. If I do vigorous activity, I shower. I still don't use shampoo, though. So what do I do? Well, if I feel like my hair needs more than water, I will dissolve some baking soda in a squirt bottle and hit the roots. Most of the time, water is all I need! The major exception is after swimming in chlorinated water. I definitely like to use a little Dr. Bronner's Baby Castille. The stuff is fantastic and gentle. I will also use a half/half mixture of apple cider vinegar and water for a conditioner. But when it comes to body wash, I don't feel like I'm clean unless I use something with bubbles. I found the Bronners a little too harsh for my skin so I picked up a bottle of Method Naked Body Wash one day when I was feeling desperate. I don't love it and I don't hate it. I have a bar of wash on order from the etsy shop called GudonyaToo and I can't wait to try it out. When it's gone, maybe I'll have the courage to try my own recipe based on some other recipes that I've found which use a mix of coconut oil, essential oils, and castille soap!

Toothpaste: I currently use and love Earthpaste. Super safe, super yummy and easy to get from vitacost.com. I know lots of people make their own, but I'm picky on flavor and texture and that isn't a burning building that I'll be running into anytime soon!

Coffee filters: I've actually seen great alternatives to disposable paper filters on etsy made of unbleached cotton and finished with French seams. BUT, my husband is the primary coffee maker in the house and we both decided it isn't worth the hassle of trying to scrub out that pesky coffee dust every morning. That would sort of sap the joy out of that first steaming cup. Besides, the filters we use now are organic, unbleached, cheap, and something with a low environmental impact from start to finish. We can feed 2 used ones per week (with the grounds) to our composting worms and will probably be able to feed even more once it warms up and the wormies find bigger appetites.

Face Oil: I can't live without maracuja oil and argan oil. Oils in general are something I will always have to pay for, and I'm alright with that. I get my face/body oils from amazon.com or vitacost.com and buy the mid-priced, organic, cold-pressed versions ideally in dark glass bottles with glass dropper lids. Since stumbling upon face oils, I no longer need or use any other face moisturizers except for sunscreen and the occasional hit of toner on bad days. If you think your skin is too greasy for an oil, you're wrong! Start with a lighter oil (like argan) and see how it goes.

The last items on the list (toilet paper, contact solution, q-tips, cotton balls, and loofahs) are there because they are things that I can't make efficiently or safely, for the most part. After I recover from the baby, I am switching to using single-ply flannel instead of toilet paper for pee only. If that grosses you out, just remember that after baby comes, we will be doing a load of laundry every day or every other day full of soiled diapers and soiled wipes so a dozen extra squares with a little adult pee on them won't be a big event for us! It'll save lots of toilet paper too because I can never seem to keep too much from unspooling. Finally, has anyone tried using natural sponges instead of loofahs? I keep hearing mixed things (like they fall apart really quickly) so I need to do more research on that one.

Well, I just realized that this post was supposed to show you that being non-toxic can be inexpensive, but instead I spent hours rambling on about the things that I still spend money on. Oops. Hopefully you picked up on the idea that we no longer buy most cleaning "solutions", beauty products, or paper towels. We will also be purchasing much less toilet paper. I'll post more "substitutions" in further posts to hopefully give you more ideas and solutions.

Part 1: Cleaning Out the Toxic Products at Home

2013-03-12T11:21:00.000-07:00

I've decided to do a several part series on how I am slowly getting rid of the toxic products in my home and life. The first three parts will examine the biggest reasons (in my opinion) why we have so many toxic products in our lives and how to deal with each issue.

Here are the biggest reasons why our lives are full of toxins:

1. It takes a lot of time and devotion to research products, companies, ingredients, and options.

2. It is expensive.

3. We live blindly with the belief that if a doctor recommends it or if it's sold at Target, it must be fine for us.

Part 1 will address the first reason and my suggestions.

1. It takes a lot of time and devotion to research products, companies, ingredients, and options.

Believe it or not, companies know that the appeal of green or organic can help sell their products and they take advantage of that by adding leaves to their packaging and throwing around terms like "all natural", "simple", "pure", "clean and clear" and on and on.

Do those words mean a thing? No, not really. Some words are regulated like "low fat" when used on food packaging but for the most part, it's all marketing. Luckily, the internet is on our side. The Environmental Working Group (ewg.org) is a good place to start. They have shopping guides, eating recommendations, and a product database with a rating system. (ewg.org/skindeep) Please visit the database and take it for a spin. All you need to do is type in the brand name of a product you use or know about and see what the EWG has to say. One shampoo I recently looked at, for example, rates as a 2 which means that overall, it's a fairly safe product. A perfectly safe product rates ZERO.

Sample of a shampoo that claims to be VERY safe and non-toxic on the EWG database. Note the score of 2 in the upper left corner. This means that it is actually a relatively safe product, but has some issues.

Please also note something very important about EWG ratings: the EWG often doesn't have very much information to go off of when rating a product. They are very clear about this and display it right below the safety score. This particular product has a RED "limited" rating which means the EWG is scoring this product based on incomplete or changing data. Basically, they're encouraging you to take it with a grain of salt. Scroll down for more information on the product or to see why they gave it the rating that they did.

In this case, this shampoo has one ingredient of concern.

You can see that this shampoo has one ingredient of concern, potassium sorbate. Again, the EWG lists beneath the rating of "2" that their data is limited which means there isn't a lot of information about the particular ingredient. It is known to be an allergen/immunotoxin.

Full disclosure, I actually use this product right now. Once it's gone, I will not be replacing it, but that's a whole different post. Overall, I think that it's a safe product. I like how it smells and how it performs, but I'm phasing shampoo out of my life completely so I will have no need for it.

If you have a smart phone and need to buy a product ASAP, it can be worth a few minutes of your time to step into a quiet aisle and look up what you are thinking about buying. Alternatively, you can do you research once you get home if you are OK with returning the item. Most of us don't have the time for this.

Besides the EWG, dozens of great websites exist for researching your options. I personally love this site http://ecofriendlyusa.wordpress.com/ because it is run by a mama who doesn't have any agenda other than to find great, safe products for her family that are made in the USA. She also has a facebook page and is amazing about offering up suggestions if you can't find an answer on her site.

I often find myself just flat-out googing a product, brand, company, or ingredient to see what arises. Case in point? California Baby....they make mostly safe stuff but as a company have done some things that are ethically questionable. Will I be buying their products? Sadly no. It really does make me sad because their products are some of the few available locally at box stores like Target. I learned this by googling one of their products which led directly to a blog.

Slanted Information: Above all else, always, always keep in mind where your information is coming from because anyone can publish anything on the internet. Don't believe something until you can find it in multiple sources that are reputable AND backed by legitimate science. Generally legitimate science comes in the form of a peer-reviewed, published journal article that is older than a year but no older than 10. Oh, and while I'm on this soapbox, screw Dr. Oz and any other celebrity doctors who make claims. Unless they provide you with sources and science publications to back what they spew, FORGET them and forget what they have to say.

I always check out consumer reviews on amazon.com for any product I'm considering. I worry less about the "star rating" and more about what people are actually listing as pros and cons for a product. As a general rule, ignore the worst and the best and focus on the average. Keep in mind that honest reviews should play a role in your decision making but should also be taken lightly.

I still don't have time for this! OK, now that I've given you some good leads on where to start your product search, you're realizing that they're worthless because you still don't have time to look up every product in your house. Well, don't. My solution is for you to keep an eye on products you use frequently. As they hit about the halfway point, start your research. Grab a notebook and take notes so you don't confuse yourself and have to repeat research. You'll find some products are harder to flesh out than others. They joy of starting research early is that you get to quit and come back to it the next time you have a few minutes. Keep track of products you have ruled out, products you are considering, and their prices. Keep track of ingredients you've looked up and whether you've determined them safe for your home or not. I got tired of having tiny pieces of paper everywhere that said things like "sodium cocyl isethionate is a coconut oil-based salt that is used as a surfactant. probably ok" and have finally started just using one notebook!

Remind yourself that it's worth it. Really, it is. There are great products out there that are safe and effective. If you're pregnant like me, you'll be comforted knowing you're keeping your baby safe from things that will hurt it down the road. The benefits are not immediately apparent but can mean the difference between your child developing asthma or some other disease years from now.

I'll touch more on this when I get to part three, but be open minded when it comes to alternatives. You don't need to buy a product off of the shelf for all of your needs. 99% of my cleaning issues are handled by one or a combination of the following:
-white vinegar
-apple cider vinegar
-citrus vinegar (white vinegar with citrus rinds in it)
-blue dawn dish soap
-baking soda
-bleach
-ammonia
-rubbing alcohol

And I only use the last three in dire situations!

Safe Bathtub Products

2013-03-03T11:21:00.003-08:00

Well, we are pretty much ready for baby to be here! All of the big components are in place including the crib, the name, and the layette! It's too early to pack my hospital bag completely, but I'm starting slowly. I have this weird, nagging feeling that she's going to be here early. Might as well be as prepared as we can, right?

My latest nesting phase has been bath stuff! I know, I know, we won't be needing much of it right away. But then, all of a sudden, we will!

AND....here's the thing about trying to rid your house of toxins....you can trust NO ONE. Every purchase you make has to be well-researched. It takes time. It takes energy. It takes mental acuity. I will have none of these things while living with a newborn. Heck, I barely have them now! Honestly, I'm sitting in my bathrobe drinking a cup of coffee just to make it through this post. So I'm trying to be proactive now.

Here's how it's going so far:

1. Oh, here's a great product! It has no BPA, pthalates, PVC, or other ickies in it!
2. Sweet, I can afford it.
3. Poop! It has horrible reviews! Next!
4. Oh, here's a swell looking thing.
5. It has great reviews and I can afford it!
6. SHIT, it's full of toxins.
7. Where's Don at? He's better at this than I am.
8. Why is my coffee cup empty?
9. Why is it a called a "mug" most of the time, but when it holds coffee, it's a "coffee cup?"
10. Why haven't I bought a baby bath yet?
11. This is dumb.
12. Do kids even need baths?
13. Let's just hose her off in the back yard.
14. SHIT, that means I need to find a lead-free, pvc-free garden hose.
15. Forget this. I'll just go back to finding a baby bath.

So what I'm trying to say, is that the easiest way to buy baby products will likely bring lots of ickies into your home. If you are OK with that, then please, just buy the top rated item on amazon and call it good. If you are like me and are very worried about plastics and your infant (especially plastics that undergo thermal cycles with hot water) then I hope that I make your life a TINY bit easier. Maybe.

Baby Baths:

What to avoid:
-Plastics with the number 3,6,7. These contain BPA, PVC, polystyrene based plastics, or chlorine.
-Anything inflatable....inflatables are made with PVC. Even pthalate-free PVC varieties still off-gas toxins and are not worth it.
-Anything with other physical safety hazards, usually found in customer reviews.
-Anything that doesn't fit your life-style. (See "other notes" below for examples.)

Necessary features:
-For newborns, the bath needs to be soft and cushiony. No newborn will appreciate being set on rigid plastic.
-For newborns, the bath needs to provide good head support.
-The bath needs to work for you. Think about if you want to bathe in the sink, bathtub, or both. Some models are even stand-alone models that work on the floor or counter. Many moms appreciate the sink models so they don't need to bend over AND so that they can bathe baby in the sink while an older child gets clean in the tub.
-The bath needs to be easy to clean and dry. Many come with drain plugs or are machine washable. However, read the reviews as some seem to mildew no matter how often you wash them!
-The bath needs to work with the size of your house/bathroom so consider where you will store it.
-Consider the life of the bath. Is it meant for newborns only or older babies only? Is it important to you to be able to bathe two children in it?

Other notes:
-We are looking for a newborn bath. Obviously the longer it works for baby, the better, but something that works well, right away, is key for us.
-We are looking for something that will not mildew.
-The bath must be easy to store and not take up too much space.
-Obviously the bath must be non-toxic. Something plastic free would be perfect.

Recommended products:
Up for consideration:
1. Puj Flyte: This handy guy is $34.99 on Amazon with an average rating of 4.5 stars. It is only available in white but is a Prime item. It is free of BPA, PVC, and pthalates and has been independently verified to be non-toxic. Biggest complaints are that it doesn't work with some sink/faucet combos, and that it's pretty shallow. We have very tall faucets that swing out of the way, so this is currently my first choice. Biggest complements are that it hangs flat to dry, is TINY, and works with tiny newborns.

Puj Flyte

2. Leachco Safer Bather: This bathing cushion is less than $16 and replaces the old-school foam pad. It has an average rating of 4.5 stars with hundreds of reviews. It seems to be pretty non-toxic but exact specifications are lacking. The biggest complaints are that it mildews no matter how many times you wash it and that the stuffing bunches up. People also disliked the way it cradles small babies. The pros for this item are that it is machine washable, cute, lightweight, small, and can be used as a seat cushion in the tub as baby grows bigger and more independent. I think we will end up with the Puj Flyte because out here, it is so humid that this thing will never dry out.

Leachco Safer Bather

3. Puj Tub: Sells on Amazon for $45 with 3.5 star average rating. Made of the same safe material as option #1, but it folds up in an origami-type fold and is bigger than the Flyte. The biggest cons (and the reason we aren't getting it) are that the magnetic folds don't always stay secure (scary!) and that baby slides down into the bottom. The perks are the non-toxic material and the fact that it unfolds flat to dry.

Puj Tub

4. Well, that's pretty much all of the ones I strongly considered. Everything else out there is made of questionable materials and I'm just not comfortable with a plastic tub. We have also considered buying NO tub, but if there are any birth complications, then I won't be able to sit in the bath with baby which then makes everything difficult.

Faucet Covers:

There are dozens of models out there, but I found them much easier to shop for than bath tubs!

What to avoid:
-It seems like it's impossible to completely avoid plastic products in this case, so look for manufacturers who advertise "safe" plastics that are free of BPA, PVC, and pthalates. Your child will not be chewing on this product, but they are soaking in water that passes through this product when fairly warm. You can bet that if there are chemicals in the product, some of it will leach into the bathwater.

Necessary features:
-Must stay securely fastened.
-Must be easy to remove and replace for cleaning.
-Must be easy to clean!
-Must be soft and rounded to avoid knee and head-owies.

Other notes:
-I love the options that make your faucet into a gentle waterfall for playing and rinsing hair.
-Some dispense bubble products. We will not be using bubble products until baby is old enough to enjoy them because they're not necessary and safe, non-toxic bubbles are pricey. Also, surfactants and foaming agents can be hard on baby's skin and genitals. However, when she's old enough to have fun with bubbles, a dispenser could be awesome or a nightmare depending on how easy it is to fill and how often she decides to push the button. I'll report back in a few years!

Recommended products:
1. Boon Flo - $13.50 on Amazon with average 3.5 star rating. Many people said that the bubble dispenser just filled with water and then mold/mildew, but people love the soft waterfall it makes and the rounded design available in three colors. It is free of all the toxins listed above.

Boon Flo

2. Skip Hop Bath Spout Cover - $12.50 on Amazon with average 4.5 star rating. Customers complained that it slipped off the faucet too easily and that it gets moldy quickly. Others love the design, how well it protects, and how easy it is to use. It comes in a whale or duck shape and is non-toxic.

Skip Hop Bath Faucet Cover

Honestly, we'll wait on a faucet cover and see if a better option arises in the next year or so. I just want something protective, non-toxic, and mildew resistant that makes a soft flow.

Other bath items:

There are lots of good, non-toxic choices out there. We won't have a ton of bath toys because they aren't necessary, but Boon makes some great options that are all free of BPA, PVC, and pthalates including adorable scrubbies, floating "bugs" that you scoop up with a net, and submarine appliques! It'll be fun to stock up as I find them on sale.

Boon Scrubbles

Boon Floating Water Bugs and Net

Boon Bath Tub Appliques in "Dive"

Boon Duckies **The ONLY non-toxic duckies I've found so far!

Disclaimer: Always confirm and verify information on products that I suggest.

Foil-Free Ribs!

2013-02-22T12:55:00.001-08:00

Well, this post is a bit overdue, but I tried out a modified rib recipe, and I'm here to report that it was a SUCCESS!

Actually, there's nothing special about the recipe, but the method is different and I'd like to preserve it here since my baby-brain seems to preserve nothing these days.

No-Foil Oven Baby Back Ribs

Ingredients and Supplies:
-1 rack baby back ribs
-Half a bottle of your favorite bbq sauce
-Rectangular cookie sheet
-Roasting pan about the same size as the cookie sheet, roasting rack removed
-Spoon

Directions:
1. Bring ribs to room temp by warming on the counter or in the sink for a few hours.
2. Preheat oven to 300F.
3. Remove white membrane on the underside of the ribs. Usually I can get a finger or knife underneath it, grasp it with a papertowel, and remove. There are several good youtube videos if you are still confused.
4. Slather both sides with BBQ sauce and set on cookie sheet, meat side up. Cover with roasting pan.
5. Cook for 1 hr. Add oven-safe dish with 1-2 cups of water to the oven.
6. Cook for 1 more hour. Uncover. Add more BBQ sauce to the meat-side (the side that is up already).
7. Cook for 40 min. Remove from oven, rest for 10 min and eat!

A few notes: Some people like to broil at the end to get a really glazed finish. I find that it isn't necessary for our tastes. Also, you can remove the membrane and slather with BBQ and marinate for up to 24 hours before cooking.

These turn out super tender (you can eat them one-handed with a fork!!) and this method is a good starting point for other fancy things like dry rubs, etc.

Living without Aluminium Foil.....

2013-02-15T13:12:00.001-08:00

THE PROBLEM:
Well folks, it's official: The Head Zoo no longer cooks with aluminium foil. I posted the link to the actual study done in Dubai on my facebook, but the gist of the study is that it is NOT SAFE to cook with foil in any capacity. It's not safe to have it touching the food or even not touching. The acidity of the food doesn't matter all that much; more acidic foods (like tomatoes, vinegar, citrus) are worse but even non-acidic foods are bad enough.

The study concluded that enough aluminium migrated from the foil to the food, which is then ingested, to cause alarming levels of the metal in our bodies. Furthermore, the study reviewed past studies showing that there is NO SAFE amount of aluminium for humans to ingest. Pardon my all caps phrases, but this is just one of the billion things that I'm learning about that is scary, scary, scary.

Aluminium buildup can cause a number of issues in the body, but by and far the biggest issue, is that it has been implicated in Alzheimers and other degenerative brain diseases.

THE ANNOYED ANDRIA:
I think another reason why this study bothers me so much is because we use foil for EVERYTHING. I'm serious. If I can avoid scrubbing by slathering on a layer of foil, then roll it out. I love to wrap any number of foods in it (beets, other veggies, meats, fish....) and use it to cover food.

The most annoying part of all of this is that there isn't a simple solution. In the past, if I found out my handsoap was bad for me or my family, I'd research a different brand and have it shipped to the house a few days later. Simple. Easy. Worth a little extra money. But foil?? There just isn't another magical material that comes on a roll with the same low-cost, easy-to use, love-this-stuff convenience.

THE SOLUTION:
Well, I haven't found a perfect one. I'm working on it.

For lining my pans, I did find that true parchment paper is oven-safe up to 425F for an hour. Sweet. Easy, cheap, available in most grocery stores. (I found ours at Albertsons and didn't even note the price once I noted it was oven-safe.

For roasting veggies....yeah, still haven't found a really good alternative. My goal is to research cloth roasting bags this next week when I have the time, I guess. Until then, we'll be trying to steam/bake/saute/any other cooking method for our favorite veggies instead of lovingly wrapping them up in foil as gifts to our tastebuds.

For my super easy, super delicious, makes me feel like Martha rib recipe.....UGH. Well, the plan was to make ribs tonight until I realized the trick to making them awesome is to slather them in acidic bbq sauce, wrap them in foil, bake for an hour, unwrap, and bake for another hour. Can I tell you how tempted I was to hold up my middle finger in the general direction of Dubai and just make the damn ribs in foil?! But no, I cannot. I just cannot. I am pregnant so the world no longer revolves around me and my tastebuds. I'm sure baby G will enjoy the taste of the ribs so much that she won't mind the extra helping of aluminium, but they do say that babies in-utero have twice the number of tastebuds as adults so maybe she would taste the offending metals and be annoyed? Plus, her brain is still forming. I may not be able to protect her from picking gum off of the sidewalk and sticking it in her mouth in a few years, but I can protect her from aluminium now.

So, this is what I've decided: I'm going to put the ribs on a baking sheet and cap them with another baking pan, perhaps a pyrex? It seems like this will seal in the juices reasonably well, right? I might be embarking on a mission to ruin $10 worth of meat, but guess what? I'm super blessed with a husband who will happily eat anything I cook, even if it sucks, so it won't be a total bust. Wish me luck. Oh, and send me your best foil-be-gone solutions, ok???

Nursery Walls are DONE!

2013-02-05T15:44:00.001-08:00

Well, for those of you who have read the past two nursery blog updates found here and here, I'm proud to announce that the walls are FINALLY done. Yes, I did drag my feet a lot, but that's ok.

The room started as builder basic with white-ish walls, and small baseboard trim in a faux oak. We tore out the trim, painted the upper walls green, and the installed all new baseboards, wainscoting, chair rail, and trim around the window, closet door, and door.

Don did 99% of the work on the wood installs. He carefully measured each piece and then installed them with glue and nails. The worst of it was working with the beadboard because we went the cheap route and got the pressed sheets. They aren't square in anyway and they are really difficult to get straight cuts on because they are floppy.

After that, I ignored the room because all of the work left was for me. Every nail head needed to be tapped in deeper and then spackled. EVERY crevice needed to be caulked. After drying, everything needed to be sanded and examined for imperfections before painting could even begin. I think the worst part and the reason why I avoided it for so long was using caulk and spackle on my hands and knees. It's hard work for a pregnant lady! I would finish a few feet and be huffing and puffing and sweating. Gross.

Well, two coats of semi-gloss no VOC paint later, its BEAUTIFUL. I seriously didn't want to put the furniture back because it was fun to just stand there and bask in the glow of our made-over room. It looks like a million bucks and makes the rest of our house look dingy and sad.

Oh, and I got a new phone that has a nifty panorama maker, so I took some panoramic pics of the nursery. Please, please ignore the clutter. The next few weeks are devoted to organizing, decorating, and beautifying, but I couldn't wait to share some photos. Also, please ignore the weird colors from the low-light. The green does NOT look like split pea soup, I promise.

The door is missing because I still haven't painted it.......

Still have curtains to hang above window and in closet, among 5483290 other cosmetic items to address!

Dishwasher Detergent Chronicles

2013-01-20T13:22:00.000-08:00

Well, as many of you know, I am on a slllloooowwwwww quest to rid my household of unnatural toxins. Here are my guidelines for now:

1. Use up what I have that works for me now or find a good home for it. The idea is to minimize waste.

2. Replace with well-researched options from companies who conduct themselves with morals and values that align with my own and with an emphasis on supporting local small businesses.

3. Replace with items that are effective!

4. Remember that keeping costs low is a priority, but not THE priority. Sometimes it is financially worth it, to me, to support a great company and a great product.

5. Aim for simple and homemade but no lamenting when my homemade option stinks.

6. No fretting when a good option isn't available, viable, or practical. The grand scheme of things is what matters in the long run.

So, where did I start?

Dishwasher: We didn't have a dishwasher at our old house so that was one of the first things on my mind when we moved to the 1240 House. First, I bought dishwasher cleaner. It is a small bottle with a wax seal on the top. I don't remember the exact instructions but you put it upside down over a tine and run the dishwasher empty on the hottest setting. It supposedly cleans, freshens, and disinfects. I didn't really care what kind of chemicals were in it because the only thing I find more disgusting than cleaning chemicals is other people's ick and filth. I did run three cycles on hot with copious amounts of white vinegar to make sure all of the toxic-ness from the cleaner was washed away.

As far as day-to-day detergent goes, we finally have settled with two options after SIX failed attempts. Yes, I had dirty dishes coming out of the dishwasher for a very long time because I refused to throw away the failed brands. I started with a non-toxic liquid detergent from Target that only worked about 80% of the time. We thought that maybe our older dishwasher model was just a piece of junk, but then I tried a homemade version with NO borax in it (I'm just not comfortable using Borax on food surfaces) and it did a slightly better job. Stubborn foods like avocado, cooked eggs, and some dairy never really came off so I ended up washing about 5% by hand. We also tried Seventh Generation tablets which didn't fare much better. I slowly worked through all of the non toxic liquids and tablets sold at Central Market (a local co-op type grocer) and Target. The two brands we use now that work wonders are the Honest Co Pods and the Method Smarty Dish Plus Pods. Note: none of the other Method products worked well for us!

I wish I was one of those people who was awesome about keeping track of prices, but I'm just not. Especially after so many failed attempts, I didn't care how much the pods cost once I found a kind that worked.

So preferences....I don't prefer one option over the other, in the end. I honestly haven't done much research on either company but the ingredients and packaging of the products both meet my standards. When they run out, I'll pay attention to prices, I promise!

Here's the link to the Method product on Amazon. They look to be about $0.30 each before shipping.

Method Smarty Dish Plus, Fragrance Free

And here's the Honest Co link: Honest Co Dishwasher Pods

95 Days

2013-01-20T12:38:00.000-08:00

95 days until our due date. How on earth did it all go by so quickly? When we first found out I was pregnant, the due date seemed forever away. I could blame it on hormones, but I actually cried in October because I felt like I was going to be pregnant and bloated forever and ever and ever and never get to meet the baby.

And now? I'm feeling the opposite; I'd like to keep this bun in the oven for more than just 95 more days. It's miraculously easy being the BEST mom in the world right now. My job description is to eat, sleep, hydrate, waddle, and nest. That's it!

I'm sure when I'm full-term and truly waddling that I will say otherwise. I'm positive I'll be begging baby to make her appearance, but for right now, I'm already feeling sad that she won't be in there, kicking around, for much longer. I'm already feeling sad about how empty I will feel (physically and emotionally) when she's born into the big, scary world.

Then again, I know how completely excited I am to meet her, smell her, and hold her. Maybe 95 days is just the right amount.

Stuffed Zucchini and Cauliflower Bites

2013-01-13T20:35:00.001-08:00

Well, I have a few minutes on my hands for once, so I thought I'd share tonight's dinner.

(Also, in case you were wondering, Don is in the garage, working on a new project that isn't any of the ones I put in my last "Project Ideas" entry. You'll have to be patient and find out whenever I get around to posting again!)

Tonight we had Quinoa Stuffed Zucchini and Cauliflower Bites. Both turned out awesomely and made for a super-hearty, vegetarian meal.

(Also, also, in case you were wondering, neither of us are vegetarian, but we do try to incorporate several vegetarian meals into our meal planning to save money and for the health benefits. Many of them turn out dismally, so it was nice to have a good one tonight.

A disclaimer or two: I always, always line pans with foil because I'm lazy and I hate doing dishes by hand. If you don't want to, don't. If I forget to mention it in every recipe, assume I do. Finally, please forgive the quality of my photos....they are taken on the fly with a camera phone and are for general entertainment only. :)

Quinoa Stuffed Zucchini Recipe

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed (I used organic Bob's Red Mill quinoa which doesn't need rinsing)
-5 medium zucchini, about 8-9 inches long
-1 15 oz can of beans, rinsed (I used cannellini tonight and we didn't love them....trying black beans next)
-2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered
-1/2 cup chopped almonds (about 2 oz, but I was generous)
-2 cloves of garlic, chopped (or about two tablespoons of the jarred stuff since I'm too lazy to chop garlic)
-3 oz grated parmesan (I used organic parmesan/romano blend from Trader Joes)
-4 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:
1. In a large pot or pan, boil 1 cup of water. Add quinoa, give a quick stir, reduce heat to medium, and cover. Leave for 12 minutes or until the water is absorbed. Don't let it cook after the water is gone or you'll get the wonderful opportunity to cook it twice! Remove from heat, fluff (I don't actually know what this means...I just stir it), and cover.

2. While quinoa cooks, rinse and halve the zucchinis, carefully. They are tricky little suckers that like to roll around. Science, please make me some square zucchinis!! Cut off the ends and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. I did several passes because it was hard to actually see the seeds in the zucchini that I had. I left about 1/4 inch of zucchini "meat" in the skin. Put the zucchini in baking dishes lined with foil.

3. When quinoa finishes cooking, preheat oven to 400F. Fold beans, tomatoes, almonds, garlic, 2/3 of the cheese, and 3 tablespoons of the oil into the quinoa.

4. Spoon/stuff the zucchini with the filling, making it slightly mounded over the top. Top with remaining oil and cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 10 minutes more until golden brown. Enjoy! Or cover with foil to keep warm and enjoy whenever you can convince your husband to come in from the garage. Also, we weren't sure how to actually EAT these, but it turns out you can just cut the whole thing into bite sized pieces with a fork and eat! The zucchini flesh is soft.

Cauliflower Bites

Ingredients:
-1 head cauliflower (organic heads always last longer in my fridge and are worth the cost to me for that reason)
-1/4 cup olive oil, give or take. I don't actually measure out the volume.
-3 tbsp lemon juice. Again, I don't measure.
-2 cloves of chopped garlic or two tbsp minced jar garlic.
-Salt and pepper

Directions:
1. If you're doing these with the zucchini, I started after the zucchini went into the oven. Break down the cauliflower into florets. There are some good youtube videos showing how OR you can just cut it into quarters and sort of cut out the stemmy parts and rip off the florets. Either way tastes the same. I learned that this makes a big mess either way you do it so next time, I'll do it over the sink. You can throw your florets into a large roasting pan lined with foil.

2. If you're like me, then the timer just went off for the zucchini, so pull the foil off and avoid steam burns. Now back to the cauliflower. Drizzle with olive oil generously. Spoon the garlic overtop in a haphazard way, pretending like you sort of care that it is equally distributed. Turn the spoon over and gently pour your lemon juice over the spoon to give the florets a little citrus shower. Top with salt and pepper.

3. Whenever your zucchini get done hogging your oven (if you are a person with two ovens, I don't want to hear about it!!) then cover them up with foil to keep warm and crank your oven up to 500F. Bake the cauliflower for 15 minutes, stirring every five or so.

4. That's it! Eat!!

Here's the quinoa, bubbling away, the SECOND time.

Masterfully carved zucchini. I ended up using two pans to make it all fit.

Chopped almonds...I used a Pampered Chef chopper which is a Godsend!

Rinsed beans with chopped tomatoes thrown on top.

Bahahaah. I forgot to take pictures of the cauliflower.

Gratuitous cute dog picture.

Project Wishlist

2013-01-10T14:45:00.001-08:00

Well, now that we have basic mastery of our table saw, I'm excited to design and build things for around the house to my specifications and in my limited house budget. Here are some ideas:

I'd love to put our beloved coat tree and matching bench from my parents in the garage since we don't really have room for them in our current entry way. Instead, I'd love something flatter than hangs on the wall and would have a mirror and some strong hooks for coats. Someday we'll live somewhere with space for my coat tree again! I saw a photo in a magazine (pardon the horrid photo) and have been musing on it since:

Actually, I think this is straight out of a Pottery Barn catalog and the price was insane. I think it'd be easy to find a good-sized mirror from Goodwill or Habitat for Humanity Shop and build around it. Instead of those shelf cubbies, I think a plain shelf across there would be dandy. I also want to put in a small, discreet hook up in the corner so Don can hang his cover there. Where's a good place to get hooks with character?

The other project on my mind comes from Pinterest and is a tribute to my neglected master bedroom. The master bedroom is arguably the nicest room in the house because it is huge and full of light. However, it has been at the bottom of my list when it comes to decorating. We'll get there...someday. I spend so little time awake in that room, that I'd rather put my little house budget towards the living areas. Anyways, I'm looking forward to having matching planters for our matching dressers that look like this:

Pretty!

I like how they add a lot of impact but don't take up much real-estate. I'm hoping to find some good tutorials for how to make them look like vintage crates with black paint or something similar.

The next Pinterest thing on my list is a giant letter H for my mantel similar to this one:

I'm pretty sure from reading the tutorial months ago, that this one is cardboard with the design painted on in Elmer's Glue with a coat of black paint, a coat of white paint, and light distressing. Sounds good to me. Except no cardboard. Things need to be durable to survive in this house.

After that, the projects get bigger and more involved like custom built-ins in my office. Eeek! Let's hope we're here long enough to have time for something like that, especially once baby comes.

Nursery Progress!

2013-01-10T14:21:00.000-08:00

Don was hard at work this weekend so I decided to devote a post to all of his hours of labor and to give everyone who is curious a little sneak peak inside the nursery.

First, here's a little history on the nursery:

Our upstairs has the master bedroom, master bath, two extra bedrooms, and a guest bathroom. When we first found out we were expecting, I chose the bedroom at the end of the hall, closest to the bathroom and farthest from the master to be the nursery. It's a bright room and I liked that it was close to the bathroom. The next weekend, we spent hours moving around furniture, trying to make everything fit right in the nursery and the guest bedroom. It was dismal. We quit only because I was sweaty and tired and knew Don was on the verge of divorce. (Not really.)

However, I was not happy with the layout of EITHER room. They were both tough puzzles to crack. The nursery had to hold the crib, dresser/changing table combo, a full-size bed, a book case, and a glider with ottoman. I wanted the crib to be far away from the window and not within reach of anything else, have the changing table near the crib, have the book case near the glider, and have a little floor space to boot. In the guest room we needed to fit two large dog crates, a large dresser, and a queen sized bed! EEK. It all technically fit but something just nagged at me.

I ended up finding a nifty, FREE tool on pinterest called The Make Room which lets you build your floor plan exactly and then try out different furniture arrangements. You can customize every little detail including window sizes and which way the door swing to make sure it will work in real-life. You can find it here!

I spent about thirty minutes measuring the rooms including the windows, closets, and doorways and then another twenty minutes measuring all of the pieces of furniture. It's a good idea to be generous with your measurements to help account for baseboards, furniture anchors, and general human error. I then put another two hours into using The Make Room and scowling at the computer until it all looked perfect.

Poor Mr. Head. He came home after a full-day at work only to have me spring my "fictional" computer rooms on him. (By the way, I forgot to mention that after tinkering on The Make Room, I decided that the rooms needed to be switched completely!!!) He let out a sigh and slowly walked upstairs. What a good sport, my husband.

But you know what? The Make Room worked. I only changed ONE thing after we assembled both rooms and that was to rotate the bed a little.

I went back to Pinterest for some design inspiration and we both agreed that a vibrant green was the answer, especially since we didn't know the gender yet.

I'll stop boring you with all of this text and share some pics now. They don't really give a good idea of the finished product since it's still mid-construction, but I think you'll be able to tell where it's all headed!!

Pre-construction, the entire house had faux oak trim and doors. ("Faux" because it isn't even real wood....it's like press-board with a plastic veneer made to look like oak.) In many places, the sun has made the stuff fade from "oak" to "pink gross crap." After my dad sent us home from holiday vacation with a table saw, we decided to start replacing trim in the nursery.

"BEFORE" shot of fake wood trim and door.

As you can see, there's nothing technically wrong with the trim or door as-is but they're bland and very cheap feeling. I am more of a lover of substantial white trim so this is about the opposite of what I dream about. Was I excited when Don said he wanted to help do new trim? Ecstatic.

Here's a photo off of google that shows the color truer to life than my little camera phone does:

A google photo of Benjamin Moore Basil Green

Here's the nursery with all of the trim removed and the upper walls painted. The color is a bit off thanks to my phone cam but you get the idea. The actual color is Benjamin Moore Basil.

We both love the paint color we chose. It's actually a bit bolder than either of us were initially comfortable with, but it really is lovely. Since this house is going to be a rental someday, we were aiming for something gender neutral and happy. This fits the bill!

The first thing Don did after ripping all of the old trim out was to research, research, research. I really had my heart set on a very plain, craftsman-style, ribbon trim. We ended up choosing 1x6 pine for the baseboards and 1x4 pine for around the doors and window. I bet you're also wondering what we're doing with the bottom half of the walls?! Ok, you might know from past posts, but we're putting up beadboard wainscoting.

This will probably win an award as the worst blog pic ever, but that's OK. Here's a first look at the door trim and baseboard. I can't wait to see it all painted white!

Not bad, eh? I don't have a great imagination when it comes to things like this, but once the wainscoting and chair rail are up and I paint everything white, it's going to look smashing. Oh, and that dangling light fixture will get some love too.

Almost there...all of the beadboard is up!

See that long board leaning in the right corner? That's the two-inch chair rail that will cap off the top of the beadboard. We have it all cut and ready to hang, and I'm soooo anxious to see it all up and together.

After that, I have a loooootttt of work ahead of me. I'm the lucky girl who gets to fill every nail hole with spackle, caulk all of the seams, sand, and make every inch beautiful. Then I get to paint. Joy! I'll post pictures eventually, when it's all done. We have 12 weeks until this baby is full term, so please pray that I get my act together and get it done sooner than later.

So what did we learn?

1. Cutting long boards and sheets on the table saw takes two people, minimum. Since neither of us knew what we were doing, a third probably would've been even better.

2. Always use eye and ear protection. And if you're pregnant, get a good mask for fume and dust protection.

3. Don't let Lowes cut down your giant sheets of beadboard. Their saws are not very accurate and we wish we would've squared off all of the sheets before hanging them. There are gaps at the bottom that will hopefully not be noticeable once I caulk...hopefully.

4. If you know you have a big, stupid dog who is afraid of loud noises, DRUG HIM IMMEDIATELY before you begin cutting or using a pneumatic nailer or you will find him huddled in a corner shivering and drooling everywhere. Poor guy. I have Xanax from the vet that fixed that right up.

5. Trim work is much easier than beadboard and chair rail, but if you have a little gumption and the right tools, you can do it yourself! Really, you can!

Well, I can't wait to see the finished product. We already love the trim so much that we're considering redoing all of the trim in the house.

It's always nice to finish off the post with some sibling love, right?