Drive Through Carwash

The drive through car wash is the best idea of a monster that we can come up with . Especially a "day" type monster. It's loud. It's wild. You feel a little "stuck" and can't go anywhere while your car is stuck in its' mouth. And then, after many tears and sometimes hysteria, the monster calms down and spits you out, drying your hair a bit as you go, and all is well in the world.

All of my kids cry at the car monster. They stare at the windows and the loud SHUSSHING sounds and start getting more panicky by the minute. This time was Miley's first time. As you can see, she's not in the photo. She really could have cared less what was going on or even noticed any noise at all. Michael, on the other hand, who had reported BEFORE the experience that he was not going to cry...had to shed just a tear or two. He couldn't help it. And as all of his siblings looked on, his eyes and ears were intently focused on the windows of the car, the shaking and rattling noises, and the loud SHUSSHH sounds. Miley just tried to yell and giggle louder than the noises surrounding the car. Isn't it funny?? We are either focused on the SHUSSHING WHOOSSHING sounds, or we are relaxed in the car seat of God. Giggling, kicking, trusting, waiting for our car hair to get dried and spit out to the next errand. That's where I want to be spiritually....in Miley's carseat....knowing and trusting that God's got this thing, and whatever the wild noise is and the monster mouth idea surrounding me is about, it's just temporary. I'm safe, and the next season is just around the corner.

Weddings and Soap

The photo is of a soap I just finished for a wedding shower. It actually took a total of HOURS to do this soap. It wasn't the soap itself, but it was the darn tag. I wanted to print the tag myself and it just takes time getting the right fonts and the right colors and the right wording...but I enjoy a challenge, because on the other side of every challenge, when correctly and properly embraced, is a deeper knowledge of the subject and a tip or a change that could bring me to a higher level or have a deeper compassion for a friend or open a door that I normally would not have had opened if I was not ready for the challenge a second time. Now, when I do another wedding shower (or wedding favor), I have it in my hand within a few minutes to do. The hostess wanted it to be rough cut around the edges, but I COULD not get a rough cutter in Branson, and besides, the paper is so thick on this bugger that a rough cutter may not have done the job. Plus, the nature of the background already looks rough cut. So, I just cut the hang tags with a paper cutter and then corner cut the four corners with a romantic corner cutter. Oila! It turned out great. The one thing that has been a big blessing is since we have moved to Branson, the doors keep opening and opening for my soap. I've made the soap for five years, but never could see how to package it or how to produce it in too much bulk, so I didn't ever get that inspired to put it into a bunch of stores. When faced with a need for 1200 bars in January, it was just another one of those "challenges". It took a lot of extra time and dedication, but in the end, the challenge (being a larger challenge in the soap department than ever before), opened up all sorts of doors. They came off the hinges. Suddenly, I'm able to make lots of soap, which I have done, and boutique owners are requesting colors and flavors which has opened MORE doors. I was always concerned with producing hundreds of bars, and now, I see the need for testing fragrances, and for making up small batches in different fragrances for certain occasions, so I need different molds for this type of deal...but God is just working out every single detail along the way, with time to spare. He's so good. Today I made homemade sweet rolls for tomorrow's "Pink Friday". All ladies are invited! It's the first Friday of the month and I host a little ladies breakfast from 10AM to Noon and it's just food and fellowship. But, as I was making the sweet rolls, I could not get my mind or my eyes off of the soap and I realized that I have the grace to make soap, and make it every single day and make it in colors and fragrances....and it's definitely a grace. I didn't realize how big of a deal it was to me until the doors started opening and I realized how enjoyable the whole process is. Oh, and if you have a fat friend who LOVES sweets (she doesn't have to be fat...I am quite thin and would love this gift), check out soapcafe.com That girl makes soap cherry pie, doughnuts, chocolate bunnies, all in soap!!! What a cool and fun gift to get and give!!! I'm working on some chocolate soap myself and will produce photos when the final product is ready. Thanks everyone who likes my soap for liking it...it has so encouraged me to continue on this journey that has seemed like a strange "happenstance" along parts of the way, but has been a huge blessing in my life.

Swimming

I love this picture. The last time we were in San Antonio, we heated the pool and took a little "dip". Michael has on one of the girls' swim caps and he kept it on the whole swim. I love how happy all of the kids look in swimming pictures. There's something about swimming that melts away the gray and brings out the brightest most vibrant "colors" of life. I remember some of the happiest childhood moments were spent in the pool. The worst moment of those days was the one where mom said "it's time to get out!" and we all pretended we couldn't hear her anymore and suddenly lived on the bottom of the pool, emerging only for short breaths, trying to keep just our lips above as we savored the teeny tiny last moments of pool time. The next best thing to the pool was how darn hungry swimming makes you and the after pool snack. YUMMMMM. That was the best tasting food in the whole world....still is.

Teething....again....

Teething with all of the kids has been sort of a non-issue. Sometimes when I talk to moms I can tell they think their children are in some sort of immense pain and need drugs, but for the most part, it's a fleeting few hours and boom, they pop in. After five, I've finally begun to recognize the signs and not get too freaked out about the moodiness. With this one, she got six teeth in a period of 4 or 5 days...maybe more like two weeks, and then she got nothing for two months. Her mouth has been dry. no drooling. It's been really nice. All of a sudden, she started drooling and chewing a finger and I realized, here comes another tooth. The main thing teething seems to affect is sleep. It's hard for them to sleep sometimes because of the irritation and that's where I think moms find the comfort of Tylenol, well, comforting. This time around I approached it a little differently than in the past and had GREAT results. I just don't let her nap much at all. She can't really nap anyway, so I let her lie down about mid-day, but other than that, i just keep her really busy with food and toys and walks and more. She's not crying the whole time, just a little fussy, so I keep her up and as busy as possible. I did this last time and it worked well with the six teeth, and now, it worked just as well. Last night she was so tired she fell asleep at the breast. She hasn't done that in a couple of months it seems. I put her down, and the boys were wild and woke her up about an hour later, but I let her cry for 20 mins. or so and she slept through the night. This morning, her tooth was there...it had pushed all the way through and was cute and newly budded. Hurray! Her nap would have been perfect today, no fussiness, had I not smothered her with wool socks, wool blankets, and robeez shoes. I'm always over-blanketing my kids....

Another easy cure...Castor Oil...Eczema and More

I just wanted to blog on castor oil for a minute because I've recently researched a tiny bit and it's worth mentioning. It's cheap. Get it and have it on hand. It's for insomnia, eczema, and more....you can use it on pets or humans and you make a pack out of it and apply it externally. You just take a piece of fabric, soak it in the oil, cover the area affected (extreme bruising, swollen joints, varicose veins, moles, upset stomach, constipation, pink eye, just google it to find out more), cover the cloth with plastic wrap, and then put a hot water bottle on top of the plastic wrap. This will heat up the pad and make the castor oil go in through the skin. I have not tried this remedy myself yet...but after reading all of the testimonies on both vitacost.com and amazon and a site called earthclinic.com, I realized it was worth looking at. I stumbled on it accidentally as I am working on some shaving soap and castor oil is highly recommended.

Soap Nuts Update and Cloth Diapering Revisited

Well, I've washed some diapers with the new soap nuts and I have to say. They are fresh, clean, and soft. YES! Tide is about .20 per load, soap nuts are about .07 per load. This sounds little until you are doing 4 loads per day. Now, we are talking .80 cents versus .28 cents per day.

The instructions say to let the bag dry out between washes, but I'm washing so often that I don't think I fall into that "group". I did buy extra muslin bags in case I need them or something. If you did not read the last article, my midwife recommended soap nuts for washing your clothes as opposed to detergent. I ordered a bag from naturoli and they really work! I know they really work, because my diaper load smells like a funky skunk on a bad day, and even on the 2 hour front loader wash, I often have to wash them twice to get them clean. Today, with a single wash and some soap nuts, they smelled fresh.

On another note, I have to revisit cloth diapering. For those of you who may not know, I used to have a cloth diapering company. Therefore, I am very fond of cloth diapering and actually prefer it over disposables. I have fallen to the wayside a couple of times and used disposables, but, I always come back. When Miley was first born, we moved to Branson, and I was so overwhelmed with everything, that I immediately cut the cloth out and started both Michael and Miley in disposables. (actually, Michael was already in them), to help with laundry. This was nice for about 6 weeks, and then I had some real leakage issues at night with Miley. Disposables seem easier until you are washing sheets daily...hence, the time savings reverses.

In the meantime, I got a new assistant who has been really diligent with the laundry and helping me get it put away every day. I realized that I was o.k. plopping down tens and twenties for diapers....for about 6 weeks, and then it started eating on me. I just don't like spending money on trash. The main issue was not Miley, the main issue was Michael. When babies get to be toddlers, their poops get HORRIBLE and sometimes they will poop five times a day. When they hit that point, I switch to disposables, and I think it's worth every penny. But all of my babies potty trained between 1.5 years and 2 years old.

Michael (now 2 and 1/2 years old) proudly airs his bum full of poop and acts as if this is a lifetime habit. He (of all my children) never really liked the idea of "Infant potty training" AT ALL, so it looks as if it might be a few more months of laying down the tens and twenties. Alas, I had to come up with a backup plan....I'm not cheap, but I'm not dumb, either. I'd rather have dark chocolate goji berries in my grocery cart than huggies....so with determination in my soul, and my face set like flint, I have darkened the shadowy, grim corridor of cloth diapering a toddler once again. And, actually, it hasn't been too bad. Aside from secretly wanting a fireman's garb and mask as I rinse out the poopy cloth diaper, I have actually enjoyed cloth diapering him. I don't know what it is about cloth diapers...for me, the whole thing is sort of baby therapy. The clean cotton, the tight wrap that I do, and the pretty perfect capability of my diapers to hold everything just makes me feel good. Like, I'm doing the right thing.

Anyway, the way I deal with Michael is as follows. I have a great big countertop in the laundry room with a sprayer. I keep a changing pad in there and when it's poopy, I march him straight to the laundry room, lay him down on the counter, and start taking off the layers. His poops are so nasty that even top layers of clothing will retain the smell for days...so all of it goes in the washer. I toss the pajama bottoms and tops in the washer and carefully pull down his pull-up pants (these are on sale by the way at www.Bumkins.com...look in the clearance section...normally they are $14.99 and they are on sale for $9.50 or so....my favorite covers by far). THEN, I examine the situation. If his bottom needs no less than 50 wipes, he needs to be hosed off before I take care of the diaper. I turn the water faucet on the very coldest it can possibly be (which, in Branson in the wintertime is FRIGID). I then put him in the laundry sink and use a rag to help me while I hose him down. If the diaper has raised my blood pressure, I just hose extra body parts to get even. I hose him in the front, in the back, in the front, in the back, in the front, in the back, with sufficient LOUD screaming all in between, as the water is VERY frigid. Then, I use the rag to make sure he's all clean. Finally, he gets to lay back down on the changing pad and I don the extra thick blue gloves from Lowe's. I now turn my attention to the diaper that one would be tempted to burn in the fireplace, and I rinse it as well as I can. I use my gloved fingers to sort of push everything down the drain, and then take the wet soppy diaper ball and throw it in the washer. I let it hang out in there for hours sometimes as I gather more whites from around the house.

It's very therapeutic. You save money. You help the environment. You make your child pay for every slimy outgassing poop that you've had to change. And best of all, you secretly know that if your child has the smarts of a donkey, he will one day very soon wake up and realize that the potty is the most attractive appliance in the home, and he will want to make friends and share moments of intimacy with the porcelain throne.

Soap Nuts

O.K. So, this is a new one for me, but after researching, it looks like it's for real. My midwife, Holly, is SUPER sensitive to every chemical on the earth. She gets skin rash from all sorts of things (EXCEPT FOR MY SOAP, LOL). Anyway, we were talking about cloth diapering as it sounds like she will sell cloth diapers in her new birthing clinic and her new website. We talked about what to wash the diapers in, and she said she had been using soap nuts and really liked them (not for cloth diapers, just for all her clothes.) Long story short, they are some sort of fruit with saponins in them and they get the clothes really clean. I use Tide which is super expensive...but I kind of scratch my head every time I'm looking at the detergent section. I just haven't found anything that I really liked that much and I'm always distrusting a brand that advertises during the super bowl. I don't want to pay for that...I really just want good product. Anyway, I just ordered the soapnuts on Amazon and we shall see. Holly said they last her about 7 washes and then she tosses them. Her clothes get really clean and they are super soft.

To use them, you just put 5 nuts in a little muslin bag and toss the bag in the wash. When the nuts get squishy and gray (??), you toss them (into your garden if you have one-not me). I'll have to review the soapnuts when I get them. Also, Miley went off of her nursing strike exactly 7 days after she started. Every day I tried introducing my breast again and she cried about it. Finally, the morning of the seventh day, I woke up a little late and she was already hungry and crying. I didn't have time to pump before she ate, so I squirted some milk into her mouth from my breast....she cried for one second and then decided the boob was good enough for her. Babies can be so funny, sometimes.