a home for my heart

Saving the world less than one green scrubbie at a time

2012-02-04T01:53:00.000-08:00

If you spend very much time with me, at some point you'll hear me confess "I'm kind of a hippie." But not the LSD and shower-avoiding hippie! I'm an LDS, shower-loving hippie. I believe in being a good steward over the earth and doing my best to be as sustainable as I can.

It is easier to be green in Humboldt County than it is to be green in a suburban metro area, so sometimes I struggle with how not green my lifestyle is. But I've come to the point where I'm content to do what I'm able to do, and to save the big things (e.g. a grey water system, a compost heap, solar panels) for another season of my life.

One of the ways I work towards sustainability is by using less than the "recommended" amount of products. Like dishwasher soap. You don't need to fill the whole soap compartment to get the dishes clean. And you can use less water to rinse them if you use less soap.

Recycle. Reduce. Reuse.

I use green scrubbies to scrape our dishes before loading them in the dishwasher. But after a while the scrubbies get super gunky, especially if they've been used on the cast iron skillet, or the kitchen aid bowl after it has mixed bread dough. When they're super gross I throw them out (not green). But instead of using the whole big scrubbie as it comes from the manufacturer, I cut it into quarters and just use one quarter of the scrubbie at time.

Cutting up the green scrubbie also saves me money. Instead of getting two scrubbies, I get eight! And instead of throwing away one giant scrubbie every couple of weeks, I'm only adding a big scrubbie's worth to the landfill every four to eight weeks.

... oh dear, when I say it like that is sounds like a lot. But it is less than it could be, and for now that is what I can do. Maybe, when I have a compost pile I can find scrubbies that are compostable! That would be great.

Visit Sorta Crunchy's Your Green Resources posts
to find more great posts about sustainability and thriftiness.

Fashion Friday: Pink & Denim

2012-01-27T05:30:00.000-08:00

I posted this picture a few days ago. But I just love this outfit so much I couldn't resist. A friend of mine does a Fashion Friday post, with an outfit and tips from her little fashionista and I thought, well, if I'm going to work on my outfits, why not work on Baby 2Flowers too? So here she is!

Dress by Carter's; Tights by Gymboree;
black onsie by The Children's Place; boots by Walmart/Faded Glory

When you're on the go; busy moving product and connecting with customers, you've got to have functional fashion! This super cute jean dress, a Christmas gift from GiGi M., is perfect for looking good and getting things done. An understated black onsie provides great layering options for keeping warm. Colorful tights provide great color contrast as well as protection from winter chills. And Pink cowboy boots are a must for every wardrobe.

A couple of notes:

Those tights are size 2-3 years! Baby 2Flowers is only 1 1/2 years, but they fit perfectly. I hope they last a long time because they are great tights (nice and thick, and not scratchy at all)!

We get lots of compliments on those pink boots. We bought them on our first attempt to hunt a wild Christmas tree when we discovered we'd forgotten to bring any shoes for her at all. You can't have a busy little toddler out in the snowy forest with no shoes! They make just about every outfit even cuter than it started.

What I Wore: Bright Blue Tights!

2012-01-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

Among many things I have tried after reading about them on Megan's blog Sorta Crunchy is wearing brightly colored tights (she's been wearing and talking about them for at least four weeks now).

Top: Mossimo/Target; Skirt: thrifted; Tights: no brand, hand-me-alongs

Megan participates in What I Wore Wednesday, so every week she talks about an outfit or two that she wore that week. She frequently wears colorful tights, and since I happened to have a pair of bright tights (a hand-me-along from my sisters) I finally decided to wear them. I actually shaved my legs in the middle of winter to wear the tights, which is NOT something I would normally do. I wore this outfit to church. I felt pretty daring, but I also felt really cute.

What is What I Wore Wednesday?

So, this is my first official What I Wore Wednesday post. Hosted by The Pleated Poppy, What I Wore Wednesday is "a weekly linky party for those of us who want to get out of the yoga pants rut and feel a little better about ourselves by putting in a few extra minutes to get dressed in our morning routine." Huh. Well, I've only recently started doing the pajamas-and-no-shower-all-day-in-favor-of-being-productive-while-I-have-the-chance, but I have been in a rut with not feeling good about my clothes.

My Why

See, none of my tops fit anymore. I'm a nursing mama and all my tops are too small around my bust (so I can't wear a small anymore), or too large around the armpits (so I'm not a medium either), and if they fit okay, then the neckline invariably shows my nursing bra. I don't like that.

After reading Megan's post on The Carefully Curated Closet I realized that I needed to figure out what I wanted to look like (3. The curated closet has a vision) and get clothing that fit my vision (4. The curated closet shops with intention). When Megan mentioned that she followed some style blogs I was floored. Now, I can see my sister, Megan, doing that. But Megan from Sorta Crunchy? I think she is more like me (or me like her) and I'm not the style type. But if Megan from Sorta Crunchy can look at style blogs and feel good in her style, then maybe I can too!

Then in one of her What I Wore Wednesday posts, Megan said "I kind of wish I would have worn a belt over this top. Live and learn. (or more accurately, take outfit photos and learn.)" (emphasis added) and I was impressed to realize that you can learn about how you want to dress by taking photos of yourself.

So between looking for my new style (Not my Humboldt County style. And not my pre-mama-body-student style.) and realizing that taking photos of myself could help I am now attempting to participate in What I Wore Wednesday!

Ta Da!

P.S. Just in case you lost count, there are three major thought processes or actions that Megan at Sorta Crunchy influenced me on through her blog. And that is just the ones related to clothing. Just in case there was any doubt about whether female bloggers are influential.
_

Singing about Elephants and Spiders

2012-01-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

Running with books can be dangerous. Like running with scissors. At the library Baby 2Flowers pulled a great big book off the shelf and was running around with it when she tripped. The book was almost as tall as Baby 2Flowers and one edge hit the floor before she finished falling while the other edge slammed into her face. She had a big bruise over her eye for about a week and you would think we'd leave the book at the library. But no, we checked it out.

The book Baby 2Flowers found is De Colores and Other Latin-American Folk Songs. I love the songs, and she loves the pictures. The pictures have lots of bright colors and children in them. The songs are Spanish childrens songs, printed with sheet music and English translations.

I was particularly excited to find the song "Los Elefantes" (The Elephants) in this book because I learned it when I was a missionary, but only remembered a few lines of it. It is a wonderfully nonsensical song:

Un elefante se balanceaba (one elephant balanced)
sobre la tela de una arana, (on the web of a spider)
Como veia que no se caia (and when he saw that he didn't fall)
fue a llamar a otro elefante (he called another elephant)

Then you start the next verse with "dos elefantes..." ("two elephants...") and so on until you're ready to stop, then the third and fourth lines go like this:

Y como veian que si se caian (and when they saw that they did fall)
No llamaron otro elefantes (the didn't call any other elephants)

I also found "Los Pollitos" (The Baby Chicks), which my family calls the "Pio Pio song," and "The Isty Bitsy Spider" in the book. We've already re-checked out the book a few times. I don't want to take it back! My goal is to buy this book when we get a piano so we can play the other songs I don't know and sing them. They are so fun!

Sorry about the volume... it is our first video and we don't have a mic yet.

De Colores and Other Latin-American Folk Songs.

Selected, arranged, and translated by Jose-Luis Orozco.

Illustrationed by Elisa Kleven.

ISBN: 0-613-19510-8

A Tupperware Wish

2012-01-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

Dear Tupperware,

You know that really big storage container you sell?

No, not the Super Cereal Storer.

No, not the Modular Mate Rectangular 4, either

The REALLY big one, that can hold a ten pound bag of flour or sugar and that is only available online in December. Yeah. I want some of those. Like maybe five of them. Could you sell them in April or June instead of during Christmas? I really appreciate it.

I guess I could buy them for Lost Boy for Christmas, but I'm not sure he would appreciate getting one each year for the next five years.

Thanks.

So much to say that is slipping away...

2012-01-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

I have had so many things I wanted to say in the past month. I read a whole bunch of books in November and I experimented with homemade body products like crazy in December. And I have opinions that I want to share about everything! I think blog posts almost daily, but writing them is another story and if I don't write them down they slip away.

Life is always busy. When I was in school I always felt like I ought to be doing homework instead of doing other kinds of writing. Now I have room to think about things other than school assignments, but there is no homework time to write in. There is no escaping to the library. There is no hiding out in the bathroom. 2Flowers is running and climbing and pulling EVERYTHING off every shelf she can find. She is also putting her head in front of the computer screen, pounding the keyboard, and walking off with the mouse. Crazy things randomly happen to the computer and sometimes a program (or the whole computer) will suddenly blink out of life. What key combination did she press? I have no idea. I think the computer just got confused.

I know a lot of blogger moms work when their children are sleeping, but if I'm not asleep, neither is 2Flowers (except for right now... amazing!). My daily rhythm is even more upside down than it was when I wrote my Rhythm post. But I have hope. The holiday craziness is over and the associated stresses are gone (mostly... I still have to send out packages to faraway family since I missed getting them out on time). I know that every little step I take to push myself back toward a healthy rhythm helps. By small and simple things do great things come to pass.

P.S. Yes, I waste too much time playing games on Facebook. But I'm only playing one or two!

Rhythm

2011-12-13T09:23:00.000-08:00

It seems odd that I should struggle with rhythm. I had five years of band in high school and I loved marching. Once, my director stopped the field show rehearsal because I was had been running to get to my next place. I wasn't supposed to be running. At least, he said, I was running in time. I like dancing too. For me dancing is all about forming shapes in space with the rhythm dictating the speed and accents.

So why is a daily and weekly rhythm so difficult for me to follow? Perhaps it is because I have to have a rhythm to follow. But my days and weeks are arbitrarily arranged, there is no music to give them shape and structure. I know that others struggle with setting up and following a routine, but when I'm not reading a blog post about it and am struggling to be productive and proactive I feel very alone and lost within myself.

I can make daily and weekly schedules for myself (I love Excel), but why is it so hard to actually follow them? Life is so much more enjoyable when there is a steady rhythm of eating, sleeping and waking, cleaning, and playing. But I can't hear the music to follow it. Is it even there?

* * *

I searched "rhythm" on Pinterest for some inspiration (searching by images work really well for me). Here are some posts that I'm thinking might help me find the music:

A Kids Day: Visual Schedules and Routine Charts (via Play At Home Mom)
Rachel of LuSa Organics: Weekly Rhythm Chart
Chocolate Eyes: Daily Rhythm & Chart (Note to self: ponder the clothespin chore chart thing.) and Nightly Tasks in Pictures
Old Recipe for a New World: Ordering the Stars: Housekeeping Rhythm (This type of rhythm isn't working for me, but her first paragraph perfectly describes how I feel.)
Candace Rider's Daily Rhythm Pin

Book Review: Real Moms Love to Eat

2011-12-08T20:13:00.001-08:00

At first I was skeptical whether Beth Adlrich’s book Real Moms Love to Eat would apply to me. I don’t love to eat, and the byline “How to Conduct a Love Affair with Food, Lose Weight, and Feel Fabulous” includes the kind of phase that makes me turn off my attention; I don’t need to lose weight and for most off my life I’ve needed to gain weight. But when I scanned the table of contents I was impressed; all of the topics were sound principles of healthy eating. Beth sets her conversation about food in the context of having an affair - spicy, exciting, and enticing, but having an affair with your husband. She says "you know he’s good for you, so you bring back the joy, the excitement, the flavor of your first exciting encounters. You can trust him. Food isn’t a quick fix, a fling—it’s a marriage, but it can stay spicy forever." Hmmm.... maybe this would be a good book for me! I have a good relationship with my husband, but not with food.

As I read the book I concluded that Beth’s approach is great for people on the lower end of the weight spectrum as well as those at the higher end, because among other topics Beth focuses on your relationship with food and provides exercises to help you get in touch with your inner child and food memories. Beth also talks about the importance of hormonal balance, how to work toward it, and how to make healthier food choices. Those choices don’t include “low-fat;” she encourages you to eat real food, not just real foods, but high quality real foods (in moderation).

These are just a few of the topics that Beth addresses. Her friendly best-girl-friend tone is easy to read and reminds you not to take things too seriously (except for the bit about the artificial sweetners). Each chapter is informative and encouraging, and Beth’s ten week program helps you implement good eating habits that you might not have down yet (like drinking more water).

This book is a must read for any woman* interested in being healthier or looking for more energy and balance in her life.

Think it might be just the thing for you?
You can preorder Real Moms Love to Eat right here.
But if you order through this link: http://www.realmomslovetoeat.com/sweepstakes/ you'll be entered in a sweepstakes Beth is doing, and she's got great prizes!

*The information and encouragement in this book would benefit men too, either directly through their own habits or by helping them support the women in their lives.

What I'm into: October 2011

2011-10-31T12:29:00.000-07:00

Books I'm into:
I read A Sweet Disorder by Jacqueline Kolosov. The book is set during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and is a light historical fiction that highlights how little control women had over their lives and how that was changing through the influence of women in power like Elizabeth. It was a better read than I thought it would be.

Lost Boy and I are read The Penderwicks at Point Mouette (#3) by Jeanne Birdsall. If you have never read the Penderwicks you must find them and read them! These are the only books I've read in a long time that make me laugh so hard I have to stop. It is usually Batty who makes me laugh. The story follows four sisters, ages three to thirteen (in the first book) on their summer adventures. At Point Mouette, the oldest sisters, Rosalind, isn't with them and the youngest, Batty, is five years old.

TV/Movies I'm into:
Again! I can't make this a habit or you'll never believe me when I say I don't watch TV! We discovered SesameStreet.org this month. They have 2-3 minute clips and you can watch them in playlists (there is one on the main page that changes once in a while, or you can create your own based on topics, theme, or muppet). So Baby Two Flowers gets her own computer/TV time for a few minutes each day while I'm nearby.

I've also been watching The Nine Lives of Chloe King with my teenage sis-in-law. She watches most of the episodes, but she keeps me updated and I watch bits of it with her, and occasionally a whole episode. We watch this via Netflix, which I don't have a subscription to, we borrow my bro-in-law's account... thanks D1!

Snow White is my favorite in this show!
I don't remember where I got this image...

I also started watching the new show Once Upon a Time on Hulu. The pilot was this week and I liked it! The premise is that Prince Charming and Snow White have a baby girl, but don't get to live happily ever after because the Evil Queen creates a curse that sends them all to the real world with no memory of who they really are. The baby girl, Emma, is saved from the curse (by a magical wardrobe) and grows up in the foster system. She has a baby who she puts up for adoption and who comes looking for her ten years later because he has figured out that he lives in the town where all the fairy tale characters live, under the curse. He was adopted by the Evil Queen and he wants Emma to save them. I don't think the series will go on for very long, it just doesn't seem like the kind of show that the networks will keep for more than one or two seasons. Maybe I'm pessimistic because the networks don't seem to like the kind of stories that I like.

In November
In November I'm planning to read The Dirt on Clean because I didn't finish it this month. I'm also going to read Real Moms Love to Eat by Beth Aldridge, which is due for publication in January of 2012. I'm also going to review it, so I'll tell you more about it later.

A major project in November is to get back into a regular routine. Recovering from my ear surgery derailed my groove and it always takes longer to find a groove than to lose it. Also, Christmas is coming and it is already time to mail holiday packages to missionaries (especially if they are serving in another country)! So I'm thinking about traditions and holiday preparations and my plan is to act on my plans in November instead of waiting until December!

Plans change

2011-10-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, being a good mom is hard. I had a big night out planned. A Harvest Party, a Trunk-or-Treat, and a small grocery trip. I have a cute costume for Baby Two Flowers, and a car. But as I was picking up the house this afternoon - doing my nightly pick-up early since we'd be out later - I was going back and forth in my head. Baby Two Flowers threw up this morning and has seemed hot off and on throughout the day. I can tell she doesn't feel her best. What if she has a bug? If I take her out to the parties then I'm 1.) exposing lots of friends to her potential bug and 2.) putting her in an environment where she is less comfortable physically (car seat, stroller, cold air) and where it is harder for me to give her all of my attention (driving, walking, socializing), and if she really is sick then physical comfort and extra attention are two things she needs most!

I've been wanting to go to this particular Trunk-or-Treat all month. It is done by the stake* I used to live in before I had Baby Two Flowers. I really wanted to see my old friends and share my baby with them! So I kind of compromised, in my head: We would go out, but we would only spend a short amount of time at each place. I would try to keep the evening to under an hour and half. We were nearly ready when I realized that it was too early to leave so we snuggled and nursed for a little while. She had been needing to nurse, but being unwilling to hold still she hadn't gotten much mommy milk into her (mommy milk = immune boosters). She had taken a short nap early in the day and I suspected it wasn't enough. So it was no surprise that she fell asleep right when we needed to walk out the door.

This is where the good mommy part is. I could have woken her right back up, put her in the cute ladybug costume** and gone out the door. But I didn't. I let her sleep. She is still sleeping. I know she needs it more than I need to show her to my friends. There is a Trunk-or-Treat at the Elks Lodge tomorrow, and there is handing out candy at Mom's on the 31st, so I will still get to put her in the cute costume.

So far I don't feel terribly disappointed. There is something amazingly peaceful and calming about watching a baby sleep. Her tummy is going in and out with each breath; she hasn't learned how to breath incorrectly yet. Her lips are puckered and moving as if she were still nursing. Her little legs that work so hard at the new skill of walking are relaxed and resting. All is peaceful.

The grocery trip has to happen though. We are out of milk. Maybe I will nudge her a few times, gently. If she wakes up and seems okay, then we will go out. If not, well... it is nearly bedtime...

*A stake is a collection of congregations of my church in a geographic area.
**I know I said she was going to be Tinker Bell, but my mom-in-law found the ladybug costume and it fits this year. The Tinker Bell wings will fit next year, and the next...

Five things I have too much of

2011-10-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

paper
paper
paper
clothes
Tupperware

Pre-Op

2011-10-07T22:51:00.000-07:00

I had a pre-op appointment this morning. Again.

I was scheduled for surgery in June. But everything fell apart the week of my pre-op appointment. Our health coverage changed and we found out there had been a mistake in the scheduling. My surgeon would show up at one facility and I would show up at another, and we had to scramble to get temporary coverage in place. After going back and forth for weeks with no surgery date, I finally decided to start the surgery process all over with our new health care providers.

So here I am again. I was eager for the surgery last time. Not for the experience, but for the fix. I am still eager, but I'm afraid to jinx it. I don't want to spend another several months saying "What? I can't hear you" and missing interesting conversations.

I feel a lot more prepared this time around. My new surgeon gave me lots and lots of information. I know, in detail, what she is going to do and how she is going to do it. I have a better understanding of what is going on my ear both before, during, and after the surgery.

So, next week I'll start saying "Could you please keep it down?" instead of "Can you please speak up?"

What I'm into: September 2011

2011-10-05T20:11:00.000-07:00

I've been following a new-to-me blog, Sorta Crunchy, for the past few months and every month she does a post about what she's into. I kind of like it, so I thought I'd try it out. Here goes:

Projects I'm into:
I started Aby Garvey's online workshop Organizing Your Paper Clutter. I love it! I am learning how to make decisions about my paper and I'm actually sorting my backlog of paper.

I started washing my hair with baking soda toward the beginning of the month. I read about it on Simple Mom and with very little preamble decided to try it out. I think I'm through the transition phase (where your scalp gets used to not having to overproduce oil to compensate for what gets stripped off by shampoo). The result is ...different. I think I like it. My scalp feels less oily in general and that was what I was shooting for. I keep wanting to write about it, but the words haven't surfaced yet.

Books I'm into:
I read my first Shannon Hale book this month (in less than 24 hours, of course... I have very little control when it comes to fiction!). I read The Goose Girl and was very pleased. It didn't have cliche phrases or plot movement. I hardly noticed the words, or the author's voice as I read, which is very rare. My sis-in-law is reading another Shannon Hale book and I told her I have dibs on it when she's done, and before it goes back to the library.

I've also been reading The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History by Katherine Ashenburg, which I thought was about the history of housecleaning and cleaning products. It's not. It is about the history of how people bathed. So far it has been interesting, although I decided I'm going to start skimming because in the current chapter 'A Steamy Interlude' there are all sorts of dalliances happening in public baths that I don't need to know about (this is after the Roman Empire, but still a long time ago). I'm interested to see if Ashenburg addresses things like the Oil Cleansing Method later in the book, because I'm interested in trying it.

Lost Boy and I finished reading The House of Many Ways by Dianna Wynne Jones. Howl and Sophie are always fun to read.

TV/Movies I'm into:
It is odd that I should put this up my first time around because we don't watch TV and we very rarely watch movies. But Lost Boy and I watched the web mini-series 'Arc' on Hulu and got totally hooked ...except there is only one season and the episodes are all less than ten minutes, so we're done now.

Blogs I'm into:
Like I said, I've been reading Sorta Crunchy. I found it through the Simple Mom post on being shampoo free. I've really been enjoying Megan's style. She shares herself, her faith, her weakness, and her growth. Even though I only know her through her writing, I feel like her authenticity and crunchiness could rub off on me. That would be cool.

What I'll be into next month:
I'm pushing to finish The Dirt on Clean before I have to re-check it out again. I also have the first Codex Alera book checked out on Lost Boy's library card so I've got to get that read before he owes overdue fines!

A major project is Halloween costumes. Baby Two Flowers is going to be Tinker Bell. I've already thought extensively about her costume, but I'm sure I will be missing a vital piece of it on the day of the Trunk-or-Treat and have to scramble to get us there all dressed up. Also, since Lost Boy has Halloween off work I actually need to come up with something that will make him look like ... a lost boy! He maintains that he will wear his red pajamas, but I was envisioning a teddy bear hood and something with fringes (I don't know why). Guess who I'm planning to be?

An ongoing project is my Paper Clutter class. And smack dab in the middle of the month I'm having ear surgery! Yay!

Moving Forward Peacefully

2011-09-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

Small events can impact your life in unexpected ways. On his way to work two weeks ago Lost Boy was pinched between a curb and a car turning right. Stopping fast, he and the slowing car still managed to bump each other and Lost Boy fell. He got pretty scraped up, and broke his wrist (his bike is fine). It took some time (hours) for his wrist to start hurting. Then some more time (a day and more hours) to get in to see a doctor. Then some more time (a week) to get in to see a bone specialist and have a cast put on. It isn't a straightforward break. It is a little fracture in the middle of a bone that doesn't get very good blood circulation and tends not to fuse back together. Surgery is a possibility. But we're optimistic.

However, losing the full use of his hand (his dominant hand, at that!) has been hard on the Lost Boy. He is a very self sufficient man and is used to doing things for himself. Some things are manageable, like writing, though it is awkward. Some things are very difficult, like tying his work boots and stirring the brownies. And some things are not an option, like hand washing the dishes. While this is very frustrating for the Lost Boy, I have experienced some unexpected benefits.

There are many more opportunities for me to serve him than there were before, and it is easier to get him to let me do them.
I've found it in me to step up and do some of the things that he usually does that I could do but don't usually bother (such as meal preparation).
As a result of #1 and #2 I feel like I've leveled up somehow.

With a new level comes an unfamiliar territory. I'm building on skills I already have, but finding out where the new ones need to be developed. I'm exploring a familiar landscape, but there are previously unnoticed challenges to discover and adapt to. I'm working harder to accomplish more because now I know can. Sometimes this puts my mind and body into a frenzy of sorting and prioritizing tasks, projects, needs, and time schedules. It can be quite exciting, though it makes it difficult to pay attention and enjoy what time I have with Lost Boy and Baby Two Flowers.

Last evening and tonight I have been able to keep moving forward and accomplishing things, but peacefully and gracefully (mentally) moving from one space to the next without pushing myself or promising myself I could collapse in a nap later. I have just as much to do as ever, I have just as little energy as ever (though more than I've had in a long while), and I am as tired as usual. But something is different.

Maybe it is the weather. The evening air that I moved back here for is coming soon, with the cool delta breeze and a scent that brings good memories. Maybe it is the fact I got up before 8:30 these past two mornings and made progress on a long term project. Maybe it is because the house is mostly clean, with project areas tidy and moderately under control. Maybe it is all of these things. Whatever it is, I must keep doing it. I love the feeling of being satisfied with what I have accomplished and being cognizant of, but not overwhelmed by, the work I have left to do.

I love this. Moving forward peacefully.

_

Ubuntu. Say it, it's fun!

2011-08-31T12:28:00.000-07:00

I have lots of adventures and thoughts on recent changes running around in my head lately. But whenever I try to write about them (which isn't often enough) the words just seem stale. Maybe I've let them sit in my head for too long.

Maybe I'll tell you about a fresh new adventure that is happening right now. Lost Boy installed Ubuntu (Linux) on my laptop! I frequently complain about how slow my laptop is. It is pretty old. I try to uninstall programs that I don't need, but I'm pretty sure the registry needs to be cleaned up and freeware just isn't fixing the problem.

So we decided to wipe my hard drive.

I transferred ALL of my documents, my favorite programs, and my Chrome profile to our external hard drive (EHD) last week. (By the way, Lost Boy found our hard drive on sale. It has a terrabyte of memory. That is super huge. I have about 27 GB of data on the EHD and we have way more than 27 GB of photos and audio files on the EHD, but the drive is less than three quarters full!) There is nothing on the computer that I'm worried about losing.

Lost Boy installed Ubuntu two days ago, and we've been playing around in it. It is fun to explore new menus and see what new programs are available. Ubuntu isn't as different from Microsoft Windows as Mac is, so it has been pretty easy to find all of the stuff I want to use (Internet, spreadsheet, etc.). One of the great things about Ubuntu is that it is Open Source, which means it is free. All of the programs (and games) available for Ubuntu are free too.

I usually prefer my computer not to make noises at me. So I set the sound scheme to silent. But Ubuntu makes sounds like African drum beats and rain makers. I'm not tired of them yet, so I've left them on. Ubuntu is an African word and philosophy. It is kind of deep, and I'm still digesting it, so here is a quote from Ubuntu's documentation,

Ubuntu is a South African ethical ideology focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word comes from the Zulu and Xhosa languages. Ubuntu is seen as a traditional African concept, is regarded as one of the founding principles of the new republic of South Africa and is connected to the idea of an African Renaissance.

A rough translation of the principle of Ubuntu is "humanity towards others". Another translation could be: "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity".

Pretty neat!

Windows is still on the laptop, so the next step in this adventure is to learn how to wipe the hard drive. We've downloaded Killdisk and the 31 page guide. I started reading the guide and learned that whenever we delete things or move them to the recycle bin, they're not actually getting deleted or overwritten. They are still hanging out on the computer somewhere. If you know where to find them you can restore them. Killdisk completely overwrites whatever you're wiping so it can't be restored. I think we're going to take it slow and just try to wipe folders that we know aren't important to practice. Unless I get impatient and decide to try a huge chunk of the computer all at once.

Wrinkle Free

2011-08-03T18:03:00.000-07:00

Photo: Microsoft Images

I'm ironing Lost Boy's new dress shirts today. They smell coming off them as I iron is the smell of a brand new college campus building. I love that smell!

However, I'd like to complain about the fact that I'm ironing these shirts. I just bought them and they're labelled "wrinkle free." They came with some very stubborn creases, which I suppose might be from the tightly folded and pinned way they're packaged. But I washed them and hung them up right away!

I just noticed that the water I've been spraying on them isn't absorbing very well. I sprayed them a few minutes ago so the water could soak in and get them slightly damp. When I ironed Lost Boy's old dress shirt there was no problem. It was the perfect amount of dampness and the creases faded away quickly under my iron. But these new shirts still seem kind of dry! I tried spraying one with water, then rubbing my hand over it to make the water absorb and spread out, because I'm ironing it right now! But the water just beaded and scuttled away under my hand. Strange!

There must be some kind of chemical on the fabric that hasn't come out in the wash yet. I wonder if it is the "wrinkle free" chemical? Whatever it is, it's thwarting me!

Interactive U.S. Census Map

2011-07-27T17:03:00.000-07:00

As you know, I love maps. The Washington Post created an interactive map of the United States made with Census data from the last thirty years. You pick which theme you want mapped (population, density, family type, etc.), which year, and which geographic level (state or county) and voila! It is a fun toy ...er, I mean, it is a great tool! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Click on the picture to go to the map's site.
Found via @GeographicalMag on Twitter.

Image Editing Like Crazy

2011-07-23T19:54:00.000-07:00

I am so thrilled! I love being able to do exactly what I want and be successful!

When I create things like binder covers and newsletters, I like to include images and I usually know exactly what I want the image to look like. A website that has enabled me to do this is Microsoft Office's image website: http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/images/. It has good images for free (most free clip art is mediocre at best).

Even with the good images from Microsoft* they often aren't quite right for what I have in mind. For example, I usually need images to be black and white, but most of the images I like best have a little bit of color. This is where Irfanview comes in. It is a free image editing software that lets me "fix" the images I find. Here is an example:

I loved this flag for a July newsletter I did, but everything in the newsletter needed to be black and white. You can probably do this in Paint, but I think it is easier in Irfanview. Here is a different example:

The original image has several butterflies, but I only wanted one. Irfanview let me cut out the butterfly I wanted, edit the background, and rotate the image just perfectly.

Tangent: I think that if I had the money to buy Adobe Illustrator or something I could get the functionality I want all in one program. Right now I sometimes have to open an image in up to three different free programs to make it look like I want it too. That's okay with me for now, but someday it would be nice to have a program that did everything (provided such a program exists).

So the thing that I'm thrilled about today is that I recently learned how to create a transparent background. I have been trying to figure this out for, um, possibly years. I was looking at a tutorial on Kevin and Amanda's blog about how to create a cute blog signature and BAM! It was right there! How to create a transparent background! THANK YOU, AMANDA!! The secret? You have to save the image as .PNG (Portable Network Graphics). But you also have to have a program that lets you select a transparent background. I don't think Photoscape can do it (at least I haven't figured it out if Photoscape does). But Irfanview lets you covert a white background to a transparent background, and Pixlr Editor (a free online image editing site) lets you create an image with a transparent background. Hallelujah!

Okay, so this is what I did today that I'm so excited about:

I started with two images, removed the color and made the backgrounds transparent, inserted them into a word document, and overlapped them! Yay! (Figuring out how to save them as a combined image was a chore! I think you can do it in Microsoft Word using group, but I have Open Office and there must be a bug or something because I had to "Select All" to select them, then cut and paste them into paint to make them into a .jpg. Whew!)

Here is my new blog signature made in Pixlr Editor. The font and star (which is actually a font character) are from Kevin & Amanda's free font blog Fonts for Peas (which I love).

Elastic saves the day!

2011-05-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

I emptied the bathroom trash today - which is the one we throw the diapers in. I relined it (I have very strong opinions about the importance of lining trash cans!), but was feeling kind of bugged at the prospect of having the liner fall inside the trash can when I throw the first diaper in it. (I do have liners that won't fall in, but I only use them when I've run out of plastic grocery bags.)

I thought about trying to put a rubber band around the mouth of the trash can to keep the bag in place, but we don't have any ginormous rubber bands hanging around and I knew I would get frustrated trying to unsuccessfully fit a normal sized rubber band on the trash can. But then I remembered that I just bought five yards of elastic at Joann's ( ♥ )! I could make my own rubber band! So I measured the can and cut my elastic. Sewed it together moderately cutely, but mostly functionally. And put it on my trash can. Yay!

Now the test comes when I throw a super soaked and heavy diaper in it...

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Bins, Babies, S'mores, & Dirt

2011-05-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

We have a goal to go camping every month between February and November this year. In April we went Bin Camping (meaning we packed everything in bins instead of backpacks and we camped close to the car instead of hiking to a campsite.) See that bin in the top-middle picture? I packed all three of us into that bin! I was so proud of myself! We did take one other bin - our camping gear bin - which held the tent, food, lantern, and other campsite stuff.

Baby Two Flowers did pretty well. She stayed warm and didn't mind hanging out in the tent. Next time I think she is going to be crawling around the campsite, so I'm mentally preparing myself to let her get dirty and explore the ground!

We had some awesome s'mores. It drives me crazy to have waited forever for a marshmallow to toast only to have my s'more crumble into a sticky mess at the first bite because the chocolate bar is never soft and the graham cracker can't handle the pressure. So we switched from chocolate bars to chocolate frosting. Way better. Creamy chocolate, sticky marshmallow. It just works better. We tried giant marshmallows this trip, but concluded that the regular large marshmallows are just fine and a better bite-size.

There were some abandoned dogs hanging around the camp ground while we were there. We were very sad that someone had just left them there. They were sad and lonely and hungry, but we didn't have any dog food and didn't really want them hanging around our campsite. When we went for our hike in the morning we forgot to put our food bin in the tent or car and when we got back to camp we discovered that the dogs had raided the bin. They ate our leftover marshmallows and the whole can of chocolate frosting (which I was planning to eat on graham crackers when we got home). Very sad. And angry at the people who abandoned them. They also tried to eat a package of baby wipes.

Our campsite was next to a creek, which is always lovely. Lost Boy chopped a lot of wood for the next campers. During our hike he put Baby Two Flowers on his shoulders and I had to hold his hand tight so I wouldn't fall off the trail because I couldn't stop looking at them. They were so cute and happy and wonderful. On the whole we had a good camping trip. It was very renewing. I even wrote in my writing notebook!

We didn't go camping this month because I'm all worn out from traveling, and we won't be going next month because I'm having ear surgery the week we were going to go camping. Hopefully we'll get our July camping trip in!

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Laundry Line

2011-05-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

Before I got pregnant with Baby Two Flowers I was making my own laundry soap. I haven't done that for a while. But now that the weather is nicer (in general) I am starting to dry our clothes on a line. I used to do that at our old apartment, but we didn't have any outside space there so our line had to be inside. I would read other blog posts or comments about how much softer laundry was if it was dried on a line instead of in a dryer, but I've always felt that dryer-dried laundry is softer and line-dried laundry is, well... crunchy! Now that we have a line outside I'm happy to say that our line-dried laundry is less crunchy than before. Now my only problem is that I only have enough line to dry about 1/2 of a load at a time. Sigh.

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Five things I love about my mom.

2011-05-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

She is a pioneer; a strong, determined woman.
She makes and keeps good wholesome food at her house.
She listens to and follows the prophet.
She loves playing with her grandbabies.
She works hard.

Touch Wood. Hear Wood.

2011-05-05T19:49:00.001-07:00

Sometimes people have the most wonderful ideas. And it is wonderful when they make them into a reality. Even when the purpose is more whimsical than practical.

via Design Mom

Good Things happen in April

2011-04-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

A couple years ago I read a post by Whitney at Whisker Graphics about focusing on the positive things that happen in our day. She created this awesome printable booklet to help her family (and us) focus on and record 5 Good Things every day. It has been a while since I used the booklet, but I was thinking about it the other day and thought I might post some of my good things once in a while.

Here are 5 Good Things from this week:

Lost Boy got a Safety Monster (a.k.a. bike helmet) to keep him safe on his commute to and from work.
Listening to Baby Two Flowers' adorable babbles and growls.
Qvar and Chlorpheniramine (which ~~banish~~ reduce allergy and asthma misery)
Nice warm sun and nice cool breeze (a break from the rain!)
Hiking with Lost Boy and Baby Two Flowers. I think I spent most of the hike smiling, which is more than I smile in a regular day!

What Good Things happened to you this week?

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What does it take to become a Mom?

2011-04-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

Becoming a mom is like becoming an adult. Just because you turn 18 doesn't mean you know how to be, or feel like, an adult. I think I started to feel like an adult (sometimes) around 23.

I am starting to feel like a real stay-at-home-mom now. Part of it is due to Baby Two Flowers' increased variety of activities and mobility. She is getting ready to crawl! Much of her floor time is taken up in puhsups and downward facing dog poses. Though she isn't moving much on her hands and knees, she can cover distance with the army crawl! Today I realized that her territory is expanding farther than I thought it was:

      My number one priority every day is picking up the floor and making sure her territory is safe to explore. I have more and more floor space to worry about every day... she hit the kitchen for the first time this afternoon...

     The stay-at-home-mom feeling is also due to the fact that Baby Two Flowers is starting to demand some kind of schedule. If I keep her up to long, she lets me know that it is nap time, or that it is past her bedtime. I have been working very hard on establishing a daily routine for us. I'm not very good at consistency, but as I improve I'm starting to feel like a real (responsible) mom!

     The feeling is also coming from my increased craftiness, I have been sewing a little (Yay!) and working on preparing for holidays BEFORE they arrive (for example, I'm working on a ceramic nativity set for our house for this Christmas.

     I've also been keeping my house cleaner! Hooray! After months of just sitting on the couch or lying on the bed all day, and then months of running out of energy super fast, I'm finally almost keeping up with things! And, I'm making teeny tiny dents on the mountain of boxes in the Project Room!

     Oh, and it was finally dry enough and warm (hot) enough to go to the park this week. That made me REALLY feel like a mom.

What kinds of things make (or made) you feel like a real mom (or dad)?

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