Double standard

I got (indirectly) called a hippie at a barbeque on Memorial Day weekend because I am making cloth diapers and wipes, and making a rag rug from the scraps of material for the diapers and wipes. One person asked me if I was going to start using an outhouse like a hippie after I mentioned these various projects. Everyone laughed, even me, because it was funny. It was only the next day that I realized what had really happened.

I reflected on this situation and, like I always do, thought about a question I should have asked my accuser: Would you call your grandparents hippies? Because I am only doing things they had to do in their lives.

Disposable diapers, disposable wipes, disposable nursing pads…these are all relatively recent inventions. But a lot of people don’t stop to think about what their grandparents did, and even some of their parents, did. I was cloth diapered as a baby. Our parents were cloth diapered as children. Disposable diapers only came about in the 40s, and then it was a luxury. Generations past used only what they needed, reused what they could. That is what I am trying to do…not only is it more economically sound, it is more environmentally sound. So now there is a double standard: when our generation does this it makes us hippies, but when our grandparents and parents did it, they were just doing what they had to do because there were no other options.

I fear that this lack of planetary/environmental awareness is rather pervasive in my generation, and this makes me sad for my kids and the planet they will inherit.

A busy start to our summer

I love summer. There are always so many possibilities. There’s baseball, softball, and great weather. Plus, there are special events, like graduations, birthdays, concerts, barbeques, parties, weddings, family reunions, festivals...

So here’s what went down last week.

Monday, May 18 was Cody’s, our nephew, 8th grade graduation. We were the last of our family to get to the middle school in Centralia (we are usually the last to arrive anywhere), but they saved us some seats. As we waited, Trinity got fussy and wanted to nurse, and of course that was only moments before they started the procession, so I couldn’t see Cody because I was sitting. Cody got a couple of academic awards, though, and when he walked up to receive them I could see how handsome he looked! He seems so grown up now, as I am sure his mother would completely agree. The 8th grade band members also performed a song with the rest of the band, and they sounded great (much better than the rest of the band performing Pomp and Circumstance without the 8th graders).

It was a very to-the-point ceremony, lasting about 45 minutes, which was great because it was getting warm in the auditorium and Riddick was getting restless. Speaking of Riddick, he went to the ceremony wearing underwear and told Wayne twice that he had to go potty, and did not have an accident! Woohoo!!!

Afterward we all went over to the pool hall and had a dinner that was truly amazing. To steal a phrase from Katy, my sister-in-law is a domestic genius. I wish I had half the cooking talent she has!

On Wednesday, May 20 it was my birthday. Wayne’s parents bought us tickets to the Willie Nelson concert. My sister-in-law came to babysit and brought a Pyrex dish variety pack for my birthday present, which I LOVE because the dishes are glass. She also brought me some scissors that work great as a seam ripper (I’ve already tested them out!), and a magnetic pin holder so I don’t have to worry (as much) about dropping pins on the floor. Anyway, we went to the concert and had a great time. Willie puts on a fabulous show!

Saturday, May 23 we went to a wedding. It was interesting. A Catholic priest came to a Presbyterian church and split the ceremony with the Presbyterian preacher (?). It was a nice ceremony nonetheless, and I hate to make fun, but I have to. Apparently at Catholic weddings, the priest raises his right arm to bless the couple, and everyone in the audience follows suit. In this particular ceremony, the priest did that, and a lot of people in the audience did the same. Except that the people who weren’t Catholic were also doing this…with their arms straight out…like Nazis…as the priest was giving the blessing. To see this en masse at a wedding was absolutely hysterical.

In other news for that day we went to a BBQ after the wedding. It was quite enjoyable, even if I did have to hold Trinity 2/3 of the time. Everyone brought a side dish and the food was all good.

Sunday, May 24 we went to my dad’s for another BBQ, this time with my brother and his family. My brother was assigned another tour in Korea (this will be his third tour in Korea, and he has been to Iraq twice), and wanted to visit before he has to leave. We hope this time he will be allowed to take his wife and young son with him, but I am not sure if it will happen or not due to the escalating situation with North Korea. Anyway, we all had a pretty good time, once again, good food. I learned about a recipe for dump cake from my dad’s fiancé, Rena. How could I have not known about this wonderful concoction? It is so delicious and EASY! I am totally going to try it out. Also, I learned that for some reason, Riddick does not like to go pee in the potty at my dad’s. I have no idea why.

Monday, May 25, Memorial Day, was our day to finally rest. I think I did a load of laundry. Maybe picked up a few things off the floor. That was about it. It was a fun, crazy week and we were exhausted, but it was a great start to the summer!

Update on the to-do list

So a couple of blogs ago I listed many things that I was hoping to accomplish. Here’s an update.

1. I got another cloth diaper made for Trinity. I now have the prototype and one that actually fits her. Wayne and I have both noticed that these diapers are rather bulky. Too late to switch materials, I already have several old T-shirts destroyed to make the diapers and I WILL make more of them. The one I did finish worked just fine yesterday. Apparently Trinity likes to save all her poop for one diaper, and it held it all nicely.

2. I did get finished with the massive amount of reading I had to do for the meeting in which I was supposed to present two papers. On the day of the meeting, as I was walking into my office, my advisor called me to tell me that the meeting was postponed. This was about 10 minutes before the meeting. We have yet to reschedule…Fred (my advisor) is in Denmark this week, and the other person we are meeting with is doing something that takes up so much of his time that he can’t even send me a quick email.

3. The blanket I am making for Trinity is a rather simple one: four colors, 9 squares of each color sewn together. I have completed 6 of the 36 squares, and I am almost done with number 7 of the purple.

4. Yesterday after I did a pitching lesson I went to the store for a few things and bought some sweet potatoes for Trinity. I got 2 pounds at 65 cents a pound. I used ice cube trays to divide them up once they were all pureed and froze them. They work quite nicely and I think two cubes are probably close to one jar of baby food. So this is definitely WAY more cost effective than buying it in jars.

Trinity is so funny when she eats solid food, especially sweet potatoes. It’s like a dog getting a treat. She sees the spoon, and gets all wiggly and giggly with excitement, and her eyes and mouth get all big, and she grabs my hand to get the spoon to her mouth. It makes me laugh every time.

5. I am currently in a frustrated mode regarding making butter. I did try it the same weekend I made the yogurt, but I bought ultra-pasteurized half and half, failing to notice that the instructions said not to use ultra-pasteurized cream to make homemade butter. I realized this after half an hour of the cream being in the mixer doing nothing but swirling around being cream. Today at the store I noticed ALL the heavy whipping cream there was ultra-pasteurized, as was most of the half and half, causing me to curse under my breath. It’s a damn conspiracy!

6. I got a little more done toward the project I am working on at school. It seems like I should already have all the data collected, but then I remember that I am only in the lab part time and I have only been working at it for a few months. It just seems like it is taking forever.

7. I have made no progress on the container garden or the hats I am supposed to be knitting for my brother and sister. I do not feel upset by this in any way.

8. I have started a rag rug with the scraps from making cloth diapers. Because everyone knows I need another project.

Other news: Riddick is almost fully potty trained. It is truly a miracle. I never thought the day would come. He still wears a pull up at night because he isn’t night trained yet, but he has had only a few accidents since the last blog, none of which involve poop. He has been to the ball field during one of my games with underwear and did not have an accident, but this was because my husband taught him how to pee outside at the playground at the ball field.

And Riddick is talking. A LOT. I even get the play-by-play from the bathroom (Mama, pee! Mama, I done! Mama, I flush! Mama, pants!). Most of it is comprehensible, but he still has those words that he says that make Wayne and I look at each other with that question in our eyes, “Did you understand a word he just said?” And then we just smile and say ‘ok’ or ‘yeah’. He loves to watch Diego and Dora, the Backyardigans and Wonderpets, and any cartoons involving superheroes. He seems to pick up new words every day when he watches morning cartoons.

Trinity is rolling from her back to front and back again in both directions now. She is getting closer to sitting up on her own, and is also getting closer to pushing herself up on all fours. At her 6 month checkup on the 12th she was 20 lbs, 6 oz., which puts her in the 97th percentile for weight. Still. She was 26 ¼ in long, putting her in the 58th percentile for height. Her first “word” is ‘dada’ which she says NONSTOP. She has started getting upset when she can’t have/reach an object she wants, and gets even madder when you take something away from her. She is sleeping “through the night”, which basically means she sleeps for a 5 hour stretch (like 11p-4a), which also means I am still tired.

So that’s the update on my to-do list. Although it is slow, progress is being made.

Making yogurt

So I decided to try and make my own dairy products because they typically come packaged in plastic and I am trying to reduce my/our plastic consumption. I searched the internet for recipes for homemade yogurt, butter, sour cream, and cream cheese. A few weekends ago I attempted to make yogurt. This is that story.

Friday: started at 3:30 pm
I found a really neat recipe for making your own yogurt in a crock pot here. The instructions seemed really easy, and there was a lot of down time, which is perfect for my life because I have two children who demand a lot of attention.

Ingredients: 2% milk, one container of plain live active culture yogurt

Details to be aware of:
1. Don’t use ultrapasteurized milk.
2. Use 1 oz of store bought yogurt for every cup of milk you use.
3. Once you make your own, you can use it for starter culture to make more yogurt instead of buying a container from the store. I have no idea how long you can do this, because at some point the bacteria die off and you will have to buy another container from the store.
4. The site I found directions on says the yogurt is good for 7-10 days.

Procedure:
1. Add milk to crock pot and heat on low for 2.5 hours.

2. Turn off crock pot and let sit 3 hours.
3. Remove two cups of the milk to mix with the yogurt.
4. Put the milk mixed with yogurt back in the crock pot and stir it up.
5. Wrap a heavy bath towel around the crock pot and let it sit overnight.

6. Open the crock pot and view the magic that has occurred while you were sleeping.
7. Eat with fruit, unless you like the flavor of plain yogurt.

Saturday: 8 am
SUCCESS!!! This recipe is sooooo easy!!


The yogurt had a layer of liquid on top, and I tried my best to spoon it off, but most of it got mixed in with the yogurt. I also attempted to drain it with a coffee filter in a colander, but a lot of it got stuck to the filter, so I just quit trying that. It really isn't that big a deal. The crock pot yogurt is pretty much the consistency of low fat yogurt. I mixed some yogurt with some peaches I had and it was DELICIOUS. Most of it I froze, and I kept out a little bit for me, since I am the only one who will eat it. I might get Riddick to try some if I mix in some blended berries.

I will definitely do this again. I totally can’t wait for there to be all sorts of wonderful fruits at the farmers market to try with my yogurt!

Too much stuff

So yeah, I am not so great about keeping up with this blog. My life is literally a whirlwind of activities, only a few of which get accomplished, and blogging is a pretty low priority. Here is a list of things I am trying to get done:

1. reading a massive amount of material before I have to present a couple of papers tomorrow to my advisor and a collaborator so we can talk about a thesis project. I was the last to find out about this meeting, but I guess that is what happens when you are low on the totem pole.

2. making cloth diapers for Trinity. I have a prototype completed, but cannot get the others made because I cannot get any sewing done without my husband taking care of the kids.

3. blanket for Trinity that I started knitting 9 months ago.

4. knitted hat for my brother that was supposed to be a Christmas present, and now is looking like it will be a Christmas present this year.

5. knitted hat for my sister that matches the scarf I made for her, also was supposed to be for Christmas.

6. making baby food for Trinity. She REALLY likes sweet potatoes.

7. starting a container garden. I think I’ll start with tomatoes and green beans this year to keep it simple.

8. making butter.

9. data collection for the current research project I am doing.

10. blogging about all these things, complete with photos.

11. keeping up with household stuff.

I have mentioned in a previous blog that mornings are pretty much only good for a couple things—keeping kids entertained and maybe doing a load of laundry…blogging if I get lucky. Afternoons are spent in the lab or reading stuff pertaining to research. So that leaves evenings, which involve very little of the things listed above. Maybe I will try to incorporate a day into my week where I try to do something that gets me closer to completing the projects listed above. That means sacrificing a research day, though, and I don’t know if I can afford to do that at this point.

Not being able to get these things done sometimes stresses me out. It stresses me out because some of the items will save us some money if I can only get them done.

In other news, Riddick is no longer fighting with me to wear underwear and is going pee in the potty by himself regularly. And he has to inform me every time that he has to go pee. And he also has to inform me that he needs to turn on the light, when he has finished going pee, that he needs to flush, and needs to wash his hands. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes exasperating. However, he still refuses to poop in the potty. Completely exasperating. Trinity no longer hates being on the floor on her belly and is trying to get up on all fours. She still only rolls from her back to front in one direction, but she is almost sitting up by herself. She is also easily distracted, and we have lots of distracting things to look at and examine, especially when she is nursing. I love the feeling of warm breastmilk dripping down my side while she squirms around to look at her brother. And when I say love, I really mean hate. But like anything else, this too shall pass.

So as soon as humanly possible, I will post about my recent experience with making homemade yogurt (hint: it went great!), which will be in a few days, at best. We have the baby dedication and a wedding this weekend, so maybe early next week.

***Update 9:45AM***

Riddick did it! He went poop in the potty by himself while I was laying down in bed with Trinity trying to get her to sleep. He didn't say anything, he just went in the bathroom, sat down, pooped, and then yelled to me that he pooped.

I wonder what else will suddenly happen if I blog about it...