Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Updates

There's been a pretty long hiatus here, filled with my studying and taking my first (of three) comprehensive exams and caring for BabyG & GreenDaddy's superhuman efforts at working full-time and going to school.

So much has happened since we dropped out of blogdom. Here are some updates on old stories:

1. BABYG: started babbling (about saving the earth)
2. EC: We got so good at EC that we only had to wash diapers once a week, two or three weeks in a row...
3. EC: That phase ended and we're washing every four days, now. BabyG smiles through pees instead of screaming through them, which has thrown us for a loop.
4. NATURAL CLEANING PRODUCTS: The house has been spring cleaned with lots of vinegar and I have many updates on the home cleaning products which I am liable to share in a later post.
5. BABYG: Smiles and giggles and communicates incredible amounts.
6. GREEN LIVING: I am everyday more and more happy about the water filter a plumber attatched to our sink. That's the best green thing we've done.
7. GARDEN: Though squirrles killed most of our tiny garden, there is a giant chard that regrows everytime we cut the leaves off and eat them, there is a giant dill weed which is a fantastic looking plant, and there is a fairly twirpy looking leek doing its best.
8. CHRISTMAS TREE: Christmas holly is looking nearly dead because we never took it out of its bucket and planted it.
9. PRAIRIE, COMPOST: When we thought his parents would be visiting, GreenDaddy mowed the lawn & raked & put the scraps in the compost. Before that, I was fond of telling people that we were trying to reintroduce prairie into our back yard. In fact, I said that so much that I convinced myself it was the truth and was incredibly disappointed when GreenDaddy mowed.
10. COOLER THAN THOU: We're managing to use less than one kitchen garbage bag full of garbage a week...we compost, recycle, and use the Freecycle network to dispose of the rest of the would-be trash.
11. FREECYCLE: I have been stood up by seven or eight members of the Freecycle network who said they would come get my stuff. I called one a dip in an email to a moderater, and she acted like I wrote &#$%!, not "dip." The second round most everything was taken. I still haven't given up on Freecycle.
12. COUCH: Even though Kate gave us her couch, I didn't give away The Ugliest Couch You Have Ever Seen. Instead, I decided to use it as an experiment. I dyed one side of it by smearing shredded beets and beet water into it, then ironing it dry. It is a weird pink. I'm going to work on dying the rest of it in different vegetable or herb based dyes. Beet side looks pretty good.
13. GARDEN: One Christmas gift I gave GreenDaddy was some crystalized fox pee, to scare the squirrels away from the garden. I am excited to use it and I am aghast that I forgot to mention such an exciting acquisition earlier.
14. I HAD ANOTHER GRATUITOUS CHILDHOOD FLASHBACK THAT OSTENSIBLY HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH GREEN: It involves kittens and square dancing.
15. BABYG: Can turn from her back to her side and can grab things.

16. BABYG: Has written a series of poems to the Boob. Percy the cat has written one snide little piece to it, as well.
17. PLASTICS: Woe are we who cannot wean ourselves from plastics.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Found Poem

here is a list of the keywords people have used to find the green parenting website this month. it gave us quite a chuckle.

grizzlybird
garten verein galveston
yoga coffee compost green ideas
organic cotton blissed out mama s milk
cheap organizing ideas
latex nuris
hippy fabric
harilal gandhi
ethanol made of banana peelings
statistical graphs for sweatshop workers
pressed wood musty smell
how to eliminate mildew odors from old dolls
yellowing tupperware
photos of hindu wedding
copper stains on shower stalls
fruit wine stains
pride of houston yaupon tree
eucalyptus for deodorizer inside shoes
background composting science fair
atoning for sin
removing decomposing bodily fluids from wood floor
breast cancer keychain called boob a thing
seven mangal fera meaning
tilak hindu ceremony
picture of a ilex vomitoria stores plant
drain uncloggers
hasta melap
fabric softener dishwasher cleaner
non-acidic lime dissolver
grizzly eats human
toxiclove.mp3
free lactating stories of men that enjoy suckling from women
mahabhumi
pictures for rot proof finish in textiles
deoderize washing machine
images of pride of houston yaupon
removing bird poo stain
parenting a 3 month old what is the objective
natural toilet uncloggers

Thursday, March 09, 2006

How To Wash Cloth Diapers at Home

Many of my family and friends are surprised to learn that we wash Lila's dirty diapers at home. In fact, I was skeptical before we tried it. So I have put together this pictorial guide. It's ridiculously easy to wash cloth diapers if your baby is only fed breastmilk and you have your own washer and dryer.

Not everyone has seen what cloth diapers and diaper covers look like. Here's an unfolded "Chinese prefold” beside an empty cover:



You fold the insert and place it in the cover. There are many ways to fold the insert. We fold ours the way you do a letter and that works well for our girl.



The baby wears the diaper and soils it with either urine or breastmilk poo.



Put the soiled insert into a medium sized garbage bin with a washable bag. If the cover is dirty, put that in too. The size of the bin should accommodate about two days worth of diapers.



When you're ready to wash the diapers, empty the bag directly into the washer. That's right! Just dump them in. You do not have to rinse the poo diapers of breastfed babies. Breastmilk poo is 100% water soluble! (Wash the bag with the diapers.)



The diapers really do come out clean.



Put the wet diapers in the dryer. You might need to run your dryer longer than usual. (I'm in Houston where nothing is ever truly dry.)



If you follow these simple steps, you will have accomplished a feat that many people think is disgusting, vile, and beneath them. In case you are wondering, our water and electricity bills have not gone up by a noticeable amount. We use cloth diapers in combination with elimination communication. I highly recommend this combination if you can manage it. You save money, you save environmental resources, and you're more emotionally connected with the baby.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Here's What's Fishy

The fact is, over at Green Parenting, that I have one of three PhD exams coming up March 20th and Raj is working double time. So for the next couple of weeks our posts will be lite...

In the meantime I have lifted the following information from Co-Op America's site because I thought it was interesting enough to repeat. We are on and off vegetarians...but when we are eating fish, I always wonder what's the right fish.

Now I know.

And if you go to Co-Op America's site you can print this out on a wallet sized list so that if you forget it won't matter.

"Overview of the Safe, Sustainable Seafood Guide
(T = High Toxin Levels, E = Environmental Issues)

Safe to Eat

Anchovies, Calamari, Clams, Crawfish, Dungeness crab, Fish sticks, Flounder (summer), Haddock, Hake, Herring, King crab, Lobster (spiny/rock), Mid-Atlantic blue crab, Northern shirmp (US-farmed), Oysters, Alaskan salmon (wild), Perch, White shrimp (US-farmed), Sardines, Bay scallops (farmed), Sole, Spot prawn, Stone crab, Tilapia, Whitefish

Caution (Limit to One Serving Per Month)

Blue mussel (T), Bluefish (T)*, Bonito (T)*, Channel (wild) catfish (T), Cod (except Atlantic) (T), Eastern oyster (T), Gulf Coast blue crab (T), Lake trout (T)*, Lake white fish (T), Mahi-mahi (T), Pollock (T), Porgy (T)*, Rockfish (T)*

Avoid

Catfish (farmed) (T), Caviar (wild) (E), Chilean sea bass/toothfish (E), Cod (Atlantic) (T, E), Grouper (E), Gulf Coast Oysters (T), Halibut (T, E), King mackerel (T), Largemouth bass (T), Marlin (T), Monkfish (E), Orange Roughy (T, E), Pike (T), Pacific rockfish/rock cod (E), Salmon (Great Lakes) (T), Salmon (Atlantic and most farmed) (T, E), Sea bass (T), Shark (T, E), Shrimp (wild, imported) (E), Snapper (T*, E), Sturgeon (wild) (E), Swordfish (T), Tilefish (T), Tuna (canned) (T), Tuna steaks (T, E), Walleye (T), White croaker (T)"