What in the heck is mama cloth?

Okay this is by far the CRUNCHIEST thing I have ever attempted! Mama cloth is reusable maxi pads! Yes, there I said it out loud! Crazy idea to some but continue to read. I bought a bunch this past month and patiently waited to need them. Well the past few days have been my maiden voyage.
I have heard many tales of women suffering month after month with cramping....heavy bleeding....all symptoms disappearing once they began using mama cloth. The reason? The lack of chemicals that help absorb! The chemicals not only absorb but encourage more blood flow, cause irritation, and in essence cause cramping. Am I a believer? Yes.
So I started out my journey as any skeptic would and wore one over a regular pad. No leakage, no icky feeling, less flow. That's all I can say. Honestly I know it grosses people out to think about cleaning these but is it any different than any other body waste? Since I use cloth diapers it is actually a breeze. Rinse, launder, dry in the dryer.

Okay now on to something less ick-deoderant.
After each pregnancy I find that my deoderant stops working. Odd but true. The problem is that with 6 kids I am running out of options. Now years ago there was rumor that the aluminum in it caused breast cancer but this myth has since been dispelled. But ask yourself this. Do I really need to put chemicals under my arms? How many days do I sweat anyway and then smell like flowery sweat?
Here's the deal. I mixed coconut oil, cornstarch, and baking soda together and a few drops of lemon essential oil. I did fill an old deoderant container with it but it doesn't seem to be turning up so I may need to rethink that. Anyway, the bottom line on this is that my armpits smell like....nothing! As for sweating it appears that the less I try to prevent it the less I sweat! Makes sense that if you try to stop something your body does naturally it will try even harder to do it, right? This has been the same thing for the no-poo method for my hair. The more you try to take the oils off your scalp using harsh shampoo...the more oil it makes! More on that later.

It all started with a composter

So my first move into the world of crunch was the composter. I got it 2 years ago and let it sit last summer full of ...well stuff. So this year I planted a few measley cukes and lettuce and used the compost around the lettuce. Well low and behold that "stuff" was dirt!! In addition to some great yields of lettuce I also got a few bonus tomato plants! We are waiting to see what happens with those.
Nothing has been more satisfying than eating the free stuff from your own garden! Next year I plan to expand to more tomato plants via those hanging bag things, squash, more lettuce, and with any luck some berries or perhaps a fruit tree? The in ground pool takes up quite a bit of space.
With what we have gotten from the cukes I have done salad, mixed vegetable salad(squash, cukes, parsley, tomato with mayo and a bit of vinegar), and finally just cut up a few small ones and put them into left over pickle juice! The kids are thrilled that we might make our own pickles.
I have also purchased a grain miller and a 45 lb bucket of wheat berries. Will go into that, the fact that I have not used shampoo in a week, or deoderant for that matter, and that I am choosing to NOT replace the broken dishwasher!

Going Coach to Crunch

Here begins my life long movement to be more....granola! It all started in dribs and drabs 2+ years ago when a great friend mentioned that she was thinking of cloth diapering her newest edition. Hmmmmm....cloth dipes? I had looked into this when my oldest was born and it was not available in my area. Things have come a long way baby! It is called the internet! Cloth dipes of all shapes and sizes are available. So I dove in and found a site called Diaperswappers. There began my movement. I began to read about all the crunchiness there was! Composting, green living, mama cloth? Mama cloth? Yup , you got it. Reusable cloth sanitary needs!
Okay so I am approaching this slowly and did indeed cloth diaper my 5th for a time and have on and off done so with number 6. Due to budgetary needs I am now cruising the thrifty threads and there is a wealth of info.
Follow me as I go from a Coach purse, materialistic, brand name snob to a crunchy, homemade, green and earthy girl! You will not believe what you are about to read!

Forget being a fan....

I decided it would be easier to list some of the stuff that I would "not be a fan of" on facebook.
10. Assholes who drive, eat, and talk on the phone at the same time
9. Fat people who use being fat as the reason they have a handicap permit(neighbor)
8. socks that twist and the front is all crooked
7. when you go to the bathroom, think you are done, only to have to go back in
6. underwear that creeps up your butt
5. when your boobs pop over the top of your bra
4. that McDonald's food NEVER looks like the pictures
3. the best foods are the ones that are worst for you
2. Starbucks charges a shit load for coffee that is burned
1. Dreams that you are pissed off at someone and then you wake up in a bad mood
Not the best list but true for me!

I'm a fan of being a fan of being a fan of.....

So being a fan of stuff is all the rage on facebook. It seems that you can be a fan of almost anything and I find myself wondering just how you get to create a thing to be a fan of? I recently became a fan of "yelling at the car in front of me" since I do that a lot. Some of them are so ridiculous and make no sense. After drinking out of a styrofoam cup I rip it to shreds? Why would you even like that? Or girls can communicate with each other using just their eyes. Really? I can communicate with almost anyone using just one finger. Does that count? No, I guess not. Here are the things that I think there need to be fan lists for:
1. Having fat fugly neighbors
2. eating left overs b/c I am too lazy to cook
3. hiding from your family on facebook
4. hiding in the bathroom on the phone so your kids cant bother you
5.wondering how to spend your spouse's insurance money if he were to accidentally fall off a cliff
6. why did I have kids anyway
7. why the hell do people even become fans of shit on facebook
8. wanting to smack the hell of your mouthy teenager
9. having to take a test before being able to breed more of your kind
and my favorite...
10. I don't give a shit how you did it when you grew up I do it my way now bitch-who gonna check me boo?

Murder, sheep,fish,cook, breed, oh my!

The person who invented Facebook is evil. The person who invented Zynga games is just, well, a terrorist! Seriously! What better way to cripple the American population than to get them hooked on FB and all the stupid games! I STRESS! Animals need to be fed, crops need to be harvested, there are bad guys to kill and looting to be done, the fish might die, will my sloth breed okay, and is there enough food cooking to feed the guests because I need a bigger diner!!!!
Yes folks at some point I will have to abandon one or more of these games but the stress of leaving something undone makes me nuts! I visit my son's farm and then feel the need to login as him to take care of the crops he doesn't want to bother with. I train their animals for them too! Where does it stop? Sitting on the computer for hours everyday is just insane.
I challenge the population of the USA to go computer free for just 1 weekend. Could you do it? Walk away? NO CHEATING by using your phone either. I don't think most could do it and I think the drug, alcohol, and tobacco companies would profit as most would turn to some other sort of vice to get them through!
Really the best way to attack America would be to disable the internet. No need to kill us...we would ice each other in an attempt to recreate Mafia Wars!

Bed Bath and Beyond....

Okay the funny thing about blogging is that I tend to compose the BEST blogs in my head as I lay down at night. Hence I have not kept up my pledge to post daily!.
Bedtime is a nightmare for me. Most people lay down at night with the hopes of :
A. Sleeping through the night
B. Sleeping for more than 4 hours in a stretch
c. Sleeping without being kicked and rolled on
D. Sleeping in general
I don't get those high hopes. I know that within a few hours Tristan will want to nurse. Yeah, yeah he is too old to need this in the night but the fight.....just the thought makes me want to go back to bed. Then in comes Jeffrey and Delaney. I used to think a King was large bed.....
Move a child, push a child, shove a child-rah rah rah. It's like a bad HS cheer! I have come to realize that sleep is totally overrated. I have yet to sleep through the night since about Jan 1995 when I began multiple trips to the bathroom to pee when I was pregnant with Casey. Sad but true. I don't hold much hope for it getting better anytime soon as I approach the days of a driving teen and middle age! At least it bothers me less and I look forward to the joy of Facebook games and a good cup of coffee from my Kuerig!

Betty Crocker 1961

After watching my new favorite movie I was inspired to take a long look through one of my favorite cookbooks-the Betty Crocker 1961 edition! Yes 1961 is older than me! You really need to see pics to appreciate it so tomorrow I will take some and finish this post. Let's just say that 1961 was a very different and simpler time that I for one would love to return to. Woman's lib was a conspiracy by men to get women to go to work and run the house! WTF?!!
Til tomorrow....

Okay here is the nearly 50 year old book I am referring to!
It is the be all and end all of finding out stuff on cooking. Simple cooking for the most part. That is not what lured me in though. Here are the photos that, as a kid, had me spellbound.
These are bonbons! You know the thing ladies sit around and eat all day? This is them.
The best part of this book is the opening advice. It states, and I quote, "Every morning before breakfast. comb hair, apply makeup and a dash of cologne. Does wonders for your morale and your family's too! Have a hobby. Garden, paint pictures, look through magazines for home planning ideas, read a good book or attend club meetings. Be interested and you will be interesting!"
See ladies? There was a simpler time when your goal was to keep your house and cook for your family. Where did that time go? Why did women go to work and then come home and do all that crap as well? I am here to tell you that I am happy to be a "homemaker" and it is NOT at all fulfilling and easy most days. If you want to feel better about it I suggest watching Brothers and Sisters. Nora summed it up this weekend when she said that she only needed to look at her kids to know that her life's work was worth something! Amen Nora!

Julie and Julia

So here I sit in my comfy chair on a FREEZING day watching this movie. It occurs to me that as stupid as it seems this is quite a cute movie with purpose. I see Julie's ambition to achieve a simple daily task of cooking from a cookbook. Isn't this something we all strive for? Completing tasks? Not like making the bed or putting laundry away(which I should be doing). Just a simple task that means something to the doer! That is the purpose of my blog. I don't know or care who reads it but my goal, albeit a day late, for 2010 is to post SOMETHING daily!
We all do something like this I think. Facebook fanatics play on farmville, yoville, mafia wars...whatever daily. Makes you feel like you accomplished something.
Now of course comes the daunting task of trying to figure out what to write daily. It would be better for me to get off my ass and walk on my new treadmill when I have free time but that is a topic for another day I suppose. But anyway here's hoping for 363 great ideas to blog about for the rest of the year!
Til tomorrow!