MommyCoddle

Going green and healthy :: with my laundry :: part 1

After Elizabeth was born, and I had a new set of sensitive skin in my house, I knew that I wanted to begin to address something that I'd been thinking about for quite awhile--a greener and healthier approach to doing laundry. Not only did I want to try to find some laundry detergents and products that were safer and gentler--free of all kinds of chemicals and dyes, I wanted to find ways to make my laundry more efficient, cost-effective, and in the end, perhaps a little more "green".

So let's start with the healthy part. One of the main reasons, as silly as it may sound, that I shy away from natural, free of everything cleaners is because I'm addicted to the smell of clean. I know it sounds silly, but that is how I judge how clean something is, by how it smells. If my clothes don't come out of the washing machine and dryer smelling like Tide Mountain Breeze and Bounce Outdoor Fresh, I think they must not be really clean.

But once I started using some of these products, my perspective on what clean really is, changed.


I have to admit, that I was very skeptical of these green cleaning products. For starters, I feared that they wouldn't do the job as well as their chemical, full-of-everything counterparts. But I was wrong. The first product that I tried was Nellie's Laundry Nuggets. They are pre-measured hypo allergenic laundry nuggets that you drop into your wash--no measuring required. I love the no measuring, no waste part because I always get a little fidgety about how much to put in--is this a full load? a medium load? do I really need THAT much soap? What's the minimum amount of soap I can get away with using? So, these little nuggets were really exciting to me. I know, I know I get excited about simple things.

My only critique of the nuggets--some of them broke open and I had to measure how much was in each one in order to use up the loose powder at the bottom of the bucket. No biggie, but when the selling factor is the little pre-packaged cuteness, measuring isn't as exciting.

So the bottom line? I love the nuggets. I'm a convert. I've discovered that clean can be a smell--Nellie's Nuggets do have a mild fragrance--but clean is also the way my laundry feels. I wouldn't have believed it, until I tried it, but the first thing I noticed is how soft my clothes feel. They feel awesome. When I ran out of Nellie's Nuggets and started using Tide again, I was shocked at how scratchy and grimy my clothes felt when they came out of the wash--they felt like they had a residue or film on them. The didn't feel soft and fresh and new or clean. I was honestly shocked by the difference. And that difference sold me. Oh, and couple that with the fact that Mary and Dan both started having fits of itching once I switched back to Tide. Mary was in tears some days because she felt itchy all over her body. I can only believe it had something to do with the switch back to our old detergent. **edited to add: Nellie's Nuggets are front-load, HE compatible.**

And for the record, no, I don't work for Nellie's. I'm just one of those people who love sharing new, good finds.

And I still have a few more finds to share with you on my journey to cleaner, healthier, green laundry. I'll share them with you here, in the next few days. **edited to add: for those of you asking, I'll be talking about one more laundry wash product and then two dryer products.** Followed by a few laundry line tips I've "inherited" from my grandmother. Because I truly believe that we should look to the habits and practices of that generation to see what living green and living healthy should really look like.

Happy Thursday.

things I've learned, please be sure to read no. 3

1. There are certain milestones you look forward to your children reaching--first smile, first tooth, first time they reach for you to pick them up, first shaky steps across the floor...however, the one milestone I'm less than thrilled about Elizabeth reaching this week is how to pull herself up on to the sofa. Where she finds it quite comical to stand up holding on to the back, then let go and allow herself to do a free fall plop down on to her rumpus, and/or back, depending upon how she sticks the landing. And of course a baby masters how to climb up on the sofa without a firm set of safety precautions established in her repertoire, or a means for getting down from said sofa that doesn't require tears and bruised cheeks, or help from her mother. I've been spending a lot of time on my sofa the past few days.



2. You will always be able to find someone else in a situation that is worse or harder than what you are going through. But that doesn't diminish or negate what you are experiencing or feeling. When a person needs a shoulder to cry on, an ear to complain in, be that shoulder or that ear. And in that moment, don't remind them that other people have it worse or harder.  It's like the person who has one child and is experiencing a struggle can't complain to the person who has three or four children because how could her simple life, with only one child ever be as complicated as the person with three? That's just not fair. And life can't be broken down so simply. You have a right to feel what you are feeling, to struggle where you are struggling. And you have the right to be comforted and to give comfort.



3. You all do number two perfectly. I'm not sure I can say that I've ever read my blog comments through teary eyes, but this weekend and this morning, I did. I just needed that little bit of 'chin up' understanding and encouragement that came through in your words. When I talk to people who don't know blogging, the first thing I remark on is the community. But not the kind of community where the neighbors growl and groan behind closed doors about this person's noisy kids or that person's weedy front garden. But the kind of community where people wander from front porches, and linger together on the sidewalk. And share a cup of coffee, or pass along an extra quart of strawberries, or pick up their neighbor's tipped over garbage cans that have blown into the street. It's a community where people go out of their way to be nice, to encourage, to support, to help. Thank you. Over and over.

4. Is there much in this world that tastes better than strawberries that are still warm from being plucked from the vine? I don't think so.

hello again

I disappeared for awhile last week, didn't I? Just feeling bogged down with the usual--getting close to the big move, Dan working long and late, homeschool review, "working" the farmers' market, and other things that would make a real downer of a blog post.

We did not move in this weekend. It was a break your back trying to move in this weekend, or have a smoother move in a little later. We opted for later. I'm so ready for this to be over. It is really wearing on me lately. It's been a rough few days, for some reason. Without getting into the details I've had two people say different things to me in the last few days that really hurt my feelings and offended me. One about my parenting, the other about my struggle with missing Dan while he's working at night. So this morning while my kids play outside and Elizabeth naps, I'm escaping to the comfort of my blogging friends, and then I'll probably call my sister and wah-wah to her about my woes. And then, I"ll shake it off and move on.
 


But, BUT on a happy positive note...we've officially adopted our first new member of the Thomas Run four-legged community. "Rosie" was one of the first batch of kittens we found born here on the farm this spring. Emma and I loved her from the start. But then, her mother moved her kittens away and we didn't  know where she was. Several weeks later, we discovered that she had moved them to some brush across the road. We watched and waited and hoped there would be some way to catch this wild little kitten and give her a good home.

A few days ago, Emma came running inside to tell me that the mother cat had moved the kittens back into the milking barn but they were still wild and impossible to catch. But the night I walked up to the barn to look at them, Rosie just happened to scurry into a tube that was blocked on the other end and we scooped her up. She came home hissing and spitting and growling--scared and fending for her life. But after some good food, the comfort of our tiny little bathroom and Emma spending a whole day sitting on the bathroom floor cooing and calming her, she has gone from feral to friend.
 


Emma has this knack with the kittens and cats around here. It is almost magical to watch. She is patient and quiet and calm...For five! hours on Friday, she sat on the bathroom floor making potholders, thinking of names for her kitten and making a fast friend.

Yesterday Rosie fell asleep on my neck while I read and napped. I woke up to her licking my cheek, chewing on my earrings, and purring at deafening levels. Welcome to the family little Rosie.

This afternoon we're headed over to the house to put down some rugs and move around some furniture. And then we'll have our own little party on the back porch, I think.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Happy Monday, friends. Thanks for listening.

 

morning has broken

Sweet, dear, curious-about-everything Elizabeth broke my favorite kitchen dish this morning. A wedding present that some of my favorite recipes go into--baked zucchini, a family-sized batch of apple crisp...it looks like they aren't making the exact color anymore. And right now I'm not sure I can justify replacing it. Silly sadness over a blue oval dish. Moving on...

There has been lots of other sweetness in my morning today. Catching this moment between sisters. They sat there for quite a long time. Emma doing such a good job of carrying on conversation with her sister's squeals, clapping, and warbled attempts at new words like kitty, dog and go. She is such a good big sister.



And then of course, we closed the door and broke her heart. Until we could distract her with her favorite food--strawberries. I've given up keeping her in clothes that aren't stained by smears of red strawberry fingers. She's definitely my daughter--the stained clothes part, and the love of the berry.
 

I can remember the house we used to go to when I was younger, to pick up strawberries every year--a white house, on a busy road with a huge field of strawberries. On the way home from picking, I'd scooch down in the back seat of our orange VW Bus and polish off a whole pint before our wheels were even back in the driveway. (And for the record, if someone showed up at my door with a VW bus, vanagon, eurovan...I'd trade in all the amenities, and bells and whistles of my current car for that VW, and never look back.)

In other news, life is busy. We are pushing to move in this weekend. I need to get over there and take some more pictures to share. Dan has made some good progress over the last week and a half--finishing our bedroom, painting floors...Sometimes, at random moments in the day I get these little, okay big, flutters of excitement in my stomach.

And other flutters of the nervous kind--I found out my homeschool review is coming up next week. I'm nervous. I admit it. But in a way, it's been affirming to start gathering things together from this year, reminding me that yes, we did make progress. It's also great incentive to get some stuff finished--like figuring out a way to sum up all this horse learning overload that we've been talking about all year...

Happy Wednesday, everyone. It is Wednesday, right? Oh, yes. It is. Of course, because Emma is already dressed for her 4:30 riding lesson.

cutting room floor :: may 16

the final freezer bag of last year's tomatoes going into spaghetti sauce for supper

the lazy-man's way to net butterflies

taking a break from the overwhelming task of weeding at the new house

how each morning begins for elizabeth...a girl-party in her crib. usually there's one more little pair of feet in there, too.

mastering the climb into the rocking chair and feeling pretty proud of herself

mastering the reach (and dump) of the can of markers. they were on the floor about twelve seconds after this was taken.

and lastly...you don't have to watch these videos. Really, you don't. It's like sitting through someone's home movies or slideshow from their trip to the Grand Canyon. But they crack me up, because it's my children. And I get weak in the knees at every coo and squeal. And I melt at every chubby hand and wrinkled foot. And someday (like in six months), I'm going to look back at this and long for the days when she crawled across the floor and laid herself spread-eagle at the front door of the old apartment to tease the cats sitting on the porch hankering for a taste of our kitty food just inside....
**and for the record, I don't know what's more embarrassing: the scratched up, peeling paint dirty front door, the little green dresser missing its knobs, or the overflowing baskets of shirts and hats and riding boots...welcome to my world.**

Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo.

in search of a do-over

I barked at my children a few too many times this morning...
I woke up to Emma standing at my bedside in a teeshirt, shorts, half chaps and riding boots, asking if her outfit was okay for her riding lesson. (Her riding lesson that starts at 4:30 pm, that we've been counting down to since the drive home from lessons last Thursday.) Mary has plundered the hats and mittens basket looking for her helmet light, unearthing a crumbled up baggie of dry cereal in the meantime, tossing it and all its crumbs on to the floor.  And someone has accidentally let one of the barn cats into the house and it is whining for food somewhere in this apartment. Maybe it will find the cereal crumbs. And Elizabeth? She's cooing and laughing in her crib, waiting for me to come and swoop her up. My sanctuary in this little early morning storm of busy, messy, single-minded, creative, obsessive, curious, goofy children.
So I'm making my coffee and going to find them. Somewhere outside. No doubt checking on kittens or setting up bicycle obstacle courses in the driveway. I need a do-over. And joining them in their morning excursions is probably a good place to start. Even if it just means being an audience to the latest gymnastics show.

....Elizabeth just knocked over the cat food....at this point, though. It's all comical.....
Happy Thursday, everyone....

****On a completely different note--my sister is heading out on a long road trip with her three kids tomorrow. What's your favorite road trip activity, craft, etc.? What tricks do you have up your sleeve for the long boring ride? I'd love to pass some of your ideas on to her....

someone has to stay home and knit the dishcloths

That's what I told my husband last night, when he walked in the door at 11:00pm, after putting another two and a half hours of work in at the house after dinner. He found me kicked back on the sofa, putting the final stitches on another dishcloth, watching the finale of....ahem, this is hard to admit in public and might lose me some readers...The Bachelor. Shhhh...please don't tell anyone else.

The past few months of bachlorette-hood for me while Dan puts in evenings at the house, have meant that I've done some serious damage in the world of girlie movies, bad TV and my dishcloth stash. Knitting needles and the redbox have been my pseudo husband on nights I found myself alone in an empty house, but for sleeping babes in the back rooms. Dan asked me the other night, as I was finishing up Juno if there were any movies left in the RedBox that I haven't seen...It's not so much that, as it is that I'm running out of movies I want to see in the RedBox.

So armed with the only skein of cotton yarn I could find in my stash, a simple, knit-without-looking pattern, and some good (and bad) movies, I've got myself a nice collection of knitted dishcloths and an answer to the question I often hear from my sister and mother, "have you seen any good movies lately?"

I've never knitted dishcloths before and it really is quite addicting. And now that I've started using these beauties, I'm not sure I could go back to the stinky blue sponge that I'm currently using. I knit mine up on slightly smaller needles so they are more hand-sized and have a tighter stitch. And I love them.

They were inspired by THIS picture. And the pattern can be found HERE. It's called "Grandma's Favorite". Is there really any more that needs to be said?

the weekend report

Emma and I watched some college gymnastics on Saturday which inspired a whole weekend of  flips and routines. Emma doesn't miss a detail when she watches these things, hence the paper number on her back, the hair pulled back in a bun, the focused, dramatic pause before each routine, the arms-raised bow after each dismount. She even got out baby powder and chalked up her hands. Dan threw together a make-shift "bouncing beam" at the house to complete the shows I've been watching all weekend.

I finally remembered to take my camera over to the house to show some floor progress. It was pretty crappy weather all weekend, so they're not the best shots. But the fact that there is now a floor where there was only logs before? That's progress. We put a few pieces of furniture around in the living room for fun. And all of a sudden our things are looking very colonial. But I like it.

So my mother's day was another work day for us. (or for poor Dan. I was on kid-duty.) It was a bit of a disappointing day, but I think that maybe I was just having a pity-party for myself. As I was sitting in the chair putting Elizabeth down for a nap yesterday I was reminded what a gift it is to be a mother. To feel so full and satisfied. To love it so much. To wake up to something new every single day. It is really a privilege. And that is what is most important to me. My three girls are really the best gift, as cheesy as that might sound.

And before I forget...books! My good friend the random number generator picked out Sam and Ali for the two Shackleton books. Sam, I'm sending you Trapped by the Ice, and Ali, I'll send you Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. So send me an email with your address and I'll wrap them up and put them in the mail. 

I hope you all have a lovely Monday. It's rainy, cold and WINDY here! Yuck. But I think we might make the trek to the hardware store for a mailbox for the new house, despite the weather. My sunflower seeds are coming to the new house, and there's no mailbox to deliver them to. Yay for house progress!

good eatin'

Thank you for all the book suggestions, folks! I just sat down and created a huge checkout list from my library. My local library can be accessed online. I can reserve books and have them "sent" to a drive-thru window where I pick them up and checkout. It's pretty much what keeps my reading life alive b/c any time spent at the library is usually spent downstairs in the children's department. Now if I could just find a grocery store with a drive thru window....

Strawberries aren't quite in season here, but were are just on the cusp. So I'm getting ready because I'm pretty much a strawberry fanatic. My grandmother told me that you should only wash the serving of strawberries you are going to eat because they spoil more quickly after you've washed them. So armed with that wisdom, I now only wash a handful at a time. This ritual had me thinking how much I wish I had a tiny collander to wash my one serving of berries. So I emailed my genius potter friend, Melissa and described what I was looking for and offered a swap for her design and potting services.

She sent me this beauty in the mail last week and it is just perfect. Perfectly sized for a large handful of berries--enough this morning for my cereal, a few in my mouth right away and some extras for my berry-lovin' babe, Elizabeth who was tugging on my leg and grunting for more. Melissa, I love it. And if you want one of your own, she says she'll be making more later this month. So go favorite her etsy shop and keep watch. And Melissa, your swallow mobile is in the works.... :) **edited to add: she's making more next week!**

And on the topic of food, I made this snack for the girls today which is straight from the latest issue of EDF's after school snack section. Oh.My.Man. as my children would say. It is so good--cinnamon swirl bread, toasted. Plain cream cheese. Apple slices. Oh geez. Try it.

Yesterday, I called my mom on the phone. The woman makes the best salads in the world. So as I was making out my grocery list this week, I called to ask what key ingredients I needed to make a mom-esque salad...She really doesn't know exactly what makes them so good. They're these clean out the refrigerator, never the same twice kinds of salads. But her guesses were the cheese--feta. The olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Salt and pepper. Those were the base of almost every salad. So today, I made one for lunch--using the same base and adding some leftover grilled salmon, and some black beans. It was really, really good and filled me up for the rest of the day. (It's 4:30 right now.) Now if only I'd made some crackers to go with it.

I'm still doing my weekly meal planning and I'm not sure I'll be able to turn back. It is so helpful. (Although this week, I was a few days behind on my big shop and had to leave a "Dear John" letter on the fridge for Dan about his breakfast that wouldn't be there for him.) But unfortunately my grocery bill keeps creeping higher and higher. Gone are the days of the $79 shopping trip. These grocery prices are making me want to add an extra acre to my garden. I saw a gallon of organic milk for seven dollars!

a few good reads for you, for me

A good family friend, Sarah, has just started blogging in the last few months as she courageously (and with a lot of spunk and style) battles breast cancer. Yesterday, I was catching up on her blog and I read a post about how good it felt for her to do "normal" things. She was just starting to feel better after a recent treatment and was so excited to be able to vacuum and change sheets on the bed. Reading that post was the reminder I needed this week. Here I am dragging my feet and grumbling through my "normal" day's activities but reading Sarah's blog entry quickly brought everything into perspective for me. It was a much needed little kick in the pants, slap in the face. Thank you, Sarah.
************
When Dan and I moved from Wisconsin to the farm apartment, we only brought the necessities. We were putting our house on the market weeks before everything fell apart and we blindly thought we would be reunited with our stuff in just a matter of months after the house sold. Hahaha!!! So here we are, two years later and the reunion has just begun. (though not because we've sold the house!) But one of the things we didn't intend on leaving behind were several large boxes of children's books. It wasn't until we started unpacking and saying, "Where are all the girls' books???" that we realized we'd forgotten them. So this week, Dan has been bringing over a box or two in the evenings for the girls to dig through. Oh, it's so much fun!

Since my pre-mommy days were spent as an elementary school teacher, I have quite the collection of books and I'm finding many multiple copies as I dig through boxes. So, as I come across them, I figure I'll share some of those extra copies here with all of you. The two I found in the first box, ironically, are about the same topic--Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition whose goal was to cross the Antarctic continent on foot. If you don't know this story, you must read a book on it. It is an amazing story of willpower and strength and courage and leadership and adventure. Dan and I have this book which you should definitely check out, if only for the amazing photography.

But moving on, I have two children's books about this story to share today. The first is called, "Trapped in the Ice", which you can read about here. It is an easier read, soft cover picture book.

The second is called, "Shipwreck At The Bottom of The World". It is also a soft cover book, but definitely more in the young adult category or maybe a read aloud. Read about it here. It has some of the amazing photography that you'll find in the book Dan and I have.

So if  you're interested in one of these books let me know in the comments. If there are more than one or two of you, I'll just draw a name again.

Now do me a favor...I looking for a good book to read. What are you reading these days? Any suggestions?

truths I believe to be universal

Children become engrossed in their most creative, independent, cooperative play just as one wants to put them down for naps, or take them to bed.

At the moment, it is well past  their usual nap time but because they are dressed in fancy dresses (Emma in my circa 1991 glittery homecoming number) wearing white washcloths on their heads as caps, drinking tea, and talking about things that are "splendid", they're getting some extra time.

Children are their most irresistible in the middle of the night, when they come to your bedside all doe-eyed, drowsy and whispery-voiced asking to snuggle.

Mary has been showing up at my bedside quite regularly the past few nights asking to sleep in between me and Dan. She kicks like an angry cow, throws arms and elbows around and has a mean pair of what is known in our family as "thermal thighs", but darn, she's too cute to turn down. At least for now.

The best thrift stores are in sleepy little towns where the ladies sit behind the counter watching soaps, and bounce your baby on their knees and feed her bright orange peanut butter crackers while you shop.

It was fill your bag for five dollars. I didn't fill mine all the way so they only charged me four. But I brought home this tattered quilt top. Think there's some pillows in their somewhere? Or maybe a little kitchen window curtain? And the ladies held Elizabeth until her 26 pounds of chubs became too heavy for their frail laps and fragile arms and she slipped down their legs onto the floor to happily dig in the hanger box.

Kittens are cute.

kitten update 5. 6. 08 from molly balint on Vimeo.

Wrestling kittens are even cuter.

Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo.

video mode in the hands of an excited six year old

Well, hello there! The nice thing about a giveaway is that I get to meet so many of  my "quieter" readers. So many of you de-lurk to say hello. I love it. And for that, I'd say it IS better to give than receive. Thanks to the random number generator, the winner of Amanda's book is.....

MANDY of sewspun. Mandy, send me an email with your address and I'll get it in the mail to you, asap.

I have two more books to give away this week--children's books, so I'll try to get to those tomorrow.

This weekend was another week of work at the house. It was one of those, "the house is killing me" weekends. But the floors are getting close to being completed and we're at the point now where I think we'll just move in and work on everything else once we get in there. The house takes Dan away from us so much. It's really wearing on all of us. Saturday night, we gave up watching the Kentucky Derby to take a surprise picnic dinner over to Dan. I could tell he just needed to have his family running around the place while he worked. So we christened our back deck with its first meal and then walked around and explored more of the property after supper. 

Emma discovered the "movie" setting on my digital camera and I gave her full reign while we were hanging out after supper. I was casually observing the footage she was recording and I was really excited to download the things she had filmed. She was getting some great stuff on there of herself, her sisters. I couldn't wait to see. Looks like I'm going to have to give her a little more instruction about how it works. She must have gotten a little crazy with her trigger finger--there were only little ten second segments of video. I guess she was "taking pictures" instead of letting the thing just run and record. There's really nothing that earth-shattering about these videos, I just like to put them up on my blog every now and then. A little change-up...some live footage is always fun, right?

A little background for her clips: our friend showed up in the driveway in his tractor. A  boy that hangs around the farm a lot and plays with the kids. Emma got a tad bit excited but still managed to maintain her commentary to the camera. (hold on to your stomach while you watch...) **I think the videos are coming up as private. Let me work on that...**

Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo.
Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo. Try to ignore the junky yard and big old wood pile dumped in the driveway...work in progress, remember? Happy Monday, everyone.

off the cutting room floor

The back of my National Geographic magazine has a page that shows one picture that didn't make the cut. One picture that was tossed aside and didn't make it into the preceding pages of stunning photography. Yet there was still something special about the photo. Special enough to rescue it from the cutting room floor and share it at the close of the magazine.
When I go through my week there are many posts that get written in my head that never make it to the blog. And there are many pictures that get taken but never shown. So today, I decided to rescue a few of those shots from my past week or so and share them here together--off my "cutting room" floor, if you will...

There is the picture that is one of my favorites I've taken in a really long time--shot holding my camera out the car window, feeling warm and blessed for the beautiful place where I live and wide open spaces.

The sunset shot, on the same evening that really captured the colors my eyes were seeing.

A day of lingering in the parking lot of the farm, watching the girls roller skate. The lingering that put me in the right place at the right time, to hear someone's cries for help, who was seriously hurt.

The post that made me notice and appreciate an early morning with all my girls in the kitchen with me.

The climax of the Star Magnolia tree outside my grandmother's porch.

The pillow--made for my dear college girlfriend--who sent me "the" envelope--and asked me to put together a package that would reveal the surprise to her and her husband. The pillow says, "oh boy!".....

The rainy day of math disguised as games...that started out so fun, but soon turned to attitude problems and then ended with me, sitting on the floor by myself wondering what happened.

Sometimes it makes me sad, when an idea or a moment, doesn't get shared. Because more often than not, I forget those moments. I've been keeping a five year journal now for the past six months. When I flip through old entries, I'm amazed while reading those four or five lines I jot down each night, how much I've forgotten. It's just the nature of life, I suppose. So maybe I'll start doing this a little more often--rescuing a few photos, a few stories off the cutting room floor at the end of the week. Then just maybe they won't be completely forgotten and that simple sentence or picture will remind me of a moment, a lesson learned, or a beautiful view that I don't want to lose.