Friday Stuff

So, you know how we have Quirky Thursday and Wordless Wednesday? Well, my recently increased blog-reading has led me to several more of these things, some of which I wish to add here as well...

Grateful Friday
This week I am grateful for:

• Hubby being home!!!
• good friends
• making a lot of sewing progress and adding several new things in my store
• my knitpicks order shipped (yarnny love coming my way!)
• my cheerful baby
• my health
• the sunshine we got on Wednesday. I needed that.

In recent weeks I have been much inspired by the lady at Throws Like a Girl, who is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Last week she initiated the once-a-month Feel Yourself Up Friday, reminding all you ladies out there to do your breast self exams! She found a lump barely a month ago, and has already had a masectomy, because the lump appeared so fast and grew so quickly that they could not wait. This isn't something to take lightly, so go feel yourself up right now!

...and Haiku Friday I will ignore, because I'm no good at Haiku, and don't really like them anyway. :-)

Not My Laundry Day

Just in case you got the idea into your head that I was some kind of Laundry Queen, let me set your mind at rest--I am not. I have been taught how to excell at this...but I don't actually do it very well. Last night, at 9pm, I realized that the load I had put in the laundry at 8:30 am was still sitting in the washer...still wet, and now a little, erm, special smelling... I had to run it through another rinse before I could move it to the drier (at nearly 10pm) and I didn't go collect the clean clothes until this morning.
This is a normal occurance at my house. I SHOULD do the single-laundry-day plan, because then i'd keep it moving, but I do the one-load-a-day-on-some-days-and-two-loads-on-other-days-and-skip-some-days method.
Right now I do have to tromp downstairs into the cold basement to do laundry, but even when the washer was right across from my sewing room I always forgot about the laundry. It's just how I am I guess. (In college I was VERY on top of things, but then I had a regular laundry day and did it all at once...)
I have regularly been known to grab the huge heap of clean clothing and pile it on my sewing desk so I could climb into bed at night. I also follow the principle of "if it won't wrinkle, there's no need to fold it" and so there are more than a few clothing drawers in our house that are just stuffed, not stacked. Hey, the stuff is clean, and this is faster.

By the way, as a postscript to my other laundry post...I wanted to add the comment that I am NOT a fan of having everyone do their own laundry. I think each person should learn to do laundry, yes--but they can learn by helping with the family loads. If you have each person do their own, then 1--they need more clothing to be able to make a whole load with only their stuff. 2--more loads need to get run in a week (taking more time, using more soap and water, etc). 3--unsupervised children washing laundry is more likely to result in pink socks and shrunken sweaters....let them learn by helping you, rather than dropping them in to swim on their own.

Childhood IS Life

I did not find this myself, it was shared by my friend over at Pondering Parenting...

Childhood is not preparation for life; childhood is life. A child isn't getting ready to live; a child is living. No child will miss the zest and joy of loving unless these are denied by adults who have convinced themselves that childhood is a period of preparation. How much heartache we would save ourselves if we would recognize children as partners with adults in the process of living, rather than always viewing them as apprentices. How much we could teach each other; we have the experience and they have the freshness. How full both our lives could be.

~~John A Taylor

I've been mulling over some things I want to post here about my (ever-developing) philosophy of parenting. This quote seems like such an excellent way to kick all that off...

I Won!

I'm all warm and fuzzy inside! I won a contest!

One of the MDCetsy moms made a new soap and had a contest to name it, and I won the contest! (she's sending me a bar of it as the prize!)

Here is Moonlit Snow

Just in case you wondered, I was inspired by walking home from the library one night. When I made the suggestion I told her that, and when she announced that I won, she said it was because "the image of Alaskan snow under a full moon stuck in [her] mind."
So yay!

Laundry Day

So, Kate, the Picklebum Mum is doing a series on organization...I go read her blog and then feel the need to write about the same stuff...so you can blame her for this post.

Also, you can blame the fact that I truly don't mind doing laundry. I accept that I'm abnormal in that...but I also suspect that the enjoyability quotient of doing laundry is directly linked to the organization of the process...

:-D

First of all, I must issue the disclaimer that my mother is the Queen of Organization. She is concrete sequential and very on top of things. She taught me everything I know, and I don't begin to compare to how well she pulls everything off... She has 9 children (I am the oldest). She homeschooled the lot of us, taught us all how to keep a home and run a house, and all on a single school teacher's income. My mom is amazing.

Secondly, the question has been raised about whether having more (or less) clothing makes laundry easier or harder. My experience has been that when you have more clothing to wear, you will wear it, and procrastinate on the laundry, leading to the virtually insurmountable Mount Laundry...on the other hand, if you have fewer things, then you will do laundry more often, BUT, it will be easier each time you do it, because there will be less to do. So I hold to my basic less is better theory.

I will begin by discribing my Mother's brilliant plan of attack. This is not to suggest that you, gentle reader, need to do the same thing...just a discription of one way to keep on top of massive amounts of laundry without losing your mind!

MY MOTHER'S BRILLIANT PLAN OF ATTACK
With 10 people in the house, mom had about 15 loads per week, so it was very organized. Laundry was done on certain days (M/W/F when I was in high school). There were 4-5 loads per washday, so she got it started early. She always scheduled outside appointments (dentist, lessons, etc) for non-laundry days. On laundry day, she was home, and could keep things moving along... That is essential! You will not get 5 loads done in one day if you are gone!

1--All laundry baskets were collected in the basement bathroom (where the washer and drier were) and it got sorted into loads all across the floor. Loads were as follows:
a--whites (underwear, white socks, light/white linens--hot wash)
b--lights/delicates (paler colors that won't bleed, bras, nylons, dress clothes--warm wash)
c--darks (jeans, dark tops, most socks--cold wash)
d--medium (as needed--stuff that falls between 'light' and 'dark' if those loads are too big--cold wash)
e--dark linens (dark towels, sheets, etc--done once a week--hot wash)
f--dark & dirty (as needed--grubby jeans, work clothes, etc--cold wash, extra rinses)
g--diapers (when applicable--usually done on their own schedule, not with other laundry)
(I still sort this way, and it drives me nuts if a white t-shirt goes in with the whites instead of the lights...I have accepted that this is not really a life-or-death situation, so I do not complain to Hubby about it, but it does make me a little bit crazy!)
2--one load would get sorted straight into the washing machine...the first one was usually going by 9am.
3--every hour or 90 min during the day, she would go down and 'move the laundry.' Whenever weather permitted, she hung them out on the line; when it did not, she used the drier...
4--all clean laundry got dumped on her bed. She had one small clothes basket for each family member--our names were written in marker on the basket. As she folded, she would drop our items into our basket. (If you dont' care about folding, so much the easier!). I think this is about the simplest, easiest way to do it. If you prefer, use those square laundry baskets, and give each child a place where they can keep the basket and just use it as clean-clothes-storage rather than a dresser...save a step, make happy kids...I don't see why we make life so complicated for ourselves anyway. (Mom always said 'handle paper once' and the same applies--the fewer steps in the process, the less it wears you out!)
5--mom delivered the baskets to our rooms, but each child was then responsible to put away their own clothing. She put away linens.

SCHEDULING
Some people, like my mom, prefer to assign laundry days and get it all done then. Some people just do one load per day (doing whichever load needs it most at the moment). I think either way works, so long as you pick something and stick to it--isn't that the definition of 'routine'? I think the method you pick should reflect your personality--does it bug you if something is 'never done'? Then do it all in one day and have it 'done' even for a few brief hours! Are you constantly on the go, needing to leave the house every day? Then the one-load-a-day may suit you much better.
I used to have a set day when I washed all our clothing, but once we got our own machine I stopped doing that. I only have 2-3 loads to wash per week (plus diapers every third day) so it is not hard to keep up with it. As we have more kids, I will probably assign days. Currently, I do something more like the one-load-a-day, although not every day. We also have the rule that if you grab the last pair of socks or undies or pants from your drawer, you tell mom and she makes sure to do that load today. Wolf (age 7) is REALLY good about this. He had to wear dirty socks one day because he'd neglected to tell me, and I hadn't done the wash...and now he never forgets. Anyway, it breaks down to about once a week for whites, once a week for darks, and one other load (light/dark/medium, depending what we wore that week!) Every few weeks I do a load with the sheets etc, but there are few enough of us still that towels and washcloths just go in with the undies/socks.

CLOTHESPINS
Picklebum Mum made a comment about clothespins (she's down under and refers to them as 'pegs'), so I thought I'd give my take on them.
I don't use pins on things like sheets or tablecloths that will stay up by themselves.
I do not leave pins on the line, but just drop them all in a little pocket apron that I made. (something like the one pictured which I found here on etsy.) I tried leaving them on the line, and found that it took longer for me to unclip then re-clip them each time, rather than just grabbing a handful out of my handy apron...
I pin items up in whatever order I pull them out of the basket--with the single exception of socks, which I pin in pairs, by the toe. As I am taking down the socks, I roll the tops together, then remove the pin, and they fall into the basket already folded!
I overlap my pinning--which saves time and pins. By that I mean that I start with a towel, one pin on each side...but then as I put up the next item (say, a t-shirt), I use the second towel pin as the first t-shirt pin. So the fabrics overlap an inch or two on the line, and one pin holds the edges of both items. It does not seem to affect drying time, and it makes pinning up and taking down go much faster.
I do not fold as I take down, though some people do...for me it's easier to just drop it off the line and then carry it in to fold it, but not everyone agrees.

IRONING
As for ironing--well, I don't like the effort of waiting for the iron to heat up, getting out the board, etc just for one item. SO, for the most part we don't get things that need ironing. The one exception is Hubby's work shirts. I still dont' want to do the work for one or two shirts though, so I just hang the wrinkly stuff in the back corner of the closet until I have 5-6 things there. Then I iron them all at once. I have a routine for ironing them (learned from my costuming days); it takes about 30 min to get it done, and is a once-a-month kind of thing. I told Hubby from the beginning that I would do it that way, and that if he needed a certain thing for a certain day to let me know, but that if he didn't tell me, then he could either iron it himself or wear something else. He has not done any ironing that I am aware of, and has only asked me for a certain thing twice.

STAIN REMOVAL
The best tip I can give on stain removal is to get to the stain immediately--before laundry day. My son has been known to eat half a meal shirtless because he ran to put his spilled-on shirt in the sink mid-meal. Most any stain will come out easily if treated before it gets a chance to set. If it's very fresh, wash with hot water; if it's not so fresh, soak in cold water.
Somebody, (I think it was America's Test Kitchen) did a test of about 15 different types/brands of stain removers. They got lots of white t-shirts, and made spots of 6 classic stains (tomato, wine, chocolate, mustard, etc), and then used a different product on each one. The winner by far was Oxy-clean. Yes, the brand name--I rarely buy brand name anything, but this is one that is worth it to me. Oxy-clean requires you to soak the stained item for 30+ minutes before washing it, so you do have to plan ahead, but the results are worth it. I have gotten out 'set-in' stains with it on several occasions. Second runner up was basically any type of squirt-and-scrub cleaner, with plain sprays being last. I throw a little oxy-clean in with my white loads to help keep whites bright, and I also throw in a little with a grungy load when I have one.
For grungy loads (or just to make your soap go farther) consider adding cheap salt to your wash. Salt will help open up the fibers of the fabric, which helps the water get in and the dirt get out. I know people who wash with only salt and they say it is very effective.

A few specific stain treatments:

• For blood (or other biological matter stains): hydrogen peroxide--put it straight on the stain, without water, and let it fizz for a minute. Rinse and repeat until stain is gone.
• For grease: Dawn brand dishsoap--get area damp, scrub in a tiny bit of Dawn, scrnub scrub scrub, rinse. Repeat as needed. (Works on oven hoods as well as clothing!)
• If you do not have oxy-clean, or want a little extra 'muscle' on something, try using a little powdered detergent mixed with just a little water. Make a paste, and then use it to scrub the spot...This is the budget stain remover, and works as well as most of the fancy sprays or scrubbers.
• If clothing is really dirty (ie, actually has a lot of dirt in it), do a cold rinse prior to washing. Yup, just like diapers.

Well, so there you have it--another novel from me about how to make your life better...or more organized...or something.

:-)

Alaska Joke

I just love this joke, so I had to share....

A Texan was boasting about his home state. He went on and on about how it was the biggest and the best... eventually an Alaskan stepped in and corrected him.
"Alaska is actually the biggest state."
The Texan was flustered and frustrated.
"Well, if all the ice in Alaska melted, then Texas would be the biggest state!"
The Alaskan smiled.
"If all the ice in Alaska melted, Texas would be a lake!"

A Dozen Reasons to Have a Ring Sling

Thank you to the several people who gave me permission to use their photos here!

I was starting to work on this post last summer, and then uprooted and moved in a great hurry...months of sporadic internet access and simply having a lot to do have delayed its fruition...but here it finally is.

This is the post where I tell you that you need a ring sling...and then I show you why!

1--most commonly seen--newborn cradle carry

2--kangaroo carry
3--nursing cover4--upright on the front (even with a newborn!)
5--cuddle with dad
6--go exciting places

7--hip carry (for older babies/toddlers)

8--changing pad (with super-cute mommy-made diaper!)

9--provider of shade10--naptime snuggly11--chew toy
12--playmat/protector of baby from pokey grass

See, I told you that you needed one too.

Next I want to do a post with pictures of wrap uses...if you've got one you're willing to share, please let me know!!!

Quirky Thursday--Got Water?! (updated)

Another quirk to share with the world...
I do not drink milk. I don’t really object to milk, I'm not vegan, I'm not allergic or even lactose intolerant. I just don’t drink it. I eat butter, ice cream, cheese, and yogurt. I use milk in cooking, in my cocoa, on my cereal, but I can’t stand it straight out of a glass. With my last pregnancy I was working hard on drinking lots of water to stay properly hydrated, so I just never had any room for milk, and I guess I just got out of the habit…Hubby is entirely supportive of drinking water, but thinks I’m odd to not want milk at least with brownies or cookies…so I tried a few ounces of it last month with brownies—it was disgusting.
Upon consideration, while I find nursing a perfectly wonderful thing, weaning is also a natural part of the cycle, and all mammals I know of give up milk sometime during childhood...except humans. We just start drinking some other mammals' milk... I'm not saying that I see this as a bad thing, because actually I'm not sure what I think. I have just observed....

For what it's worth, we were drinking local, organic, and even raw when I finally gave up milk. I didn't like milk at all as a child, but in my pre-teens through young adulthood I drank a LOT of it. Then I developed a milk intolerance (as in, it turned my stomach) during one of my pregnancies. I could eat yogurt and cheese, but plain milk (even just the little bit on cereal) made me feel really ill. So I stopped drinking it (I won't touch psudo-milks like soy milk, especially when pregnant...but I'll have to blog about the evils of soy some other time!). Even after that pregnancy I never drank as much as I had before...I didn't have that intolerance with subsequent pregnancies, but with this last one I was working so hard on drinking water (summer in Utah!) that I didn't have any room left to drink milk...and you know, I just never re-developed the habit!



On a somewhat related note, if you haven't visited my cooking blog, you might want to...here are some photos of recipes that have gone up lately...

What they Don't Tell You...About Those First Hours After Birth

(My favorite Anne Geddes photo EVER!)

A few hours after giving birth to *Bear,I noticed movement in my abdomen. It felt just like when the baby moved around--a very familar feeling by that point--except that the baby was in my arms and I did pretty clearly remember having pushed him OUT, so I knew it couldn't be him! What, then, could be moving around inside of me? I finally figured it out (I was having a brilliant moment, truly!): It was all my internal organs settling back down into their normal places after having been pushed and shoved all over creation during the final months of pregnancy.
I was so glad I figured it out. NONE of the books talk about this! And yet it must happen to everyone...it was such a strange sensation, and would have really scared me had I not determined what it was.
So, yeah, since probably nobody told you either, after you get the baby out, everything inside will play musical chairs for a day or two. It's ok. It's normal.


*yeah, so I got tired of initials. It's true. S's middle name is Bjorn, which is a common Norwegian name, but literally translated is 'Bear'...after some months of calling S "Bear," W decided he needed an animal nickname too, and dubbed himself W Wolf. So now I have two preditory children. It has on occasion caused me to pause and ponder... Hubby joined the game and became "Daddy Dragon" (he is a green dragon, in case you wondered--hobbit blood is strong in our family!)
Yeah, and I'm just a little bee. Hmmmmm. (Although Hubby says I can be a fox!)

Finished the Stranded Hat!

This hat is my first experience with stranded knitting (which is knitting with two or more colors, and carrying the strands along inside the work when not in use). KF said I did really well with keeping my tension even (the biggest concern with stranding, as too tight will make puckers, and too loose will snag). Here it is from the inside. See my pretty stranding!

And here is the outside. I figure that's the part you actually came to see...

I had found several patterns online, but ended up deciding to design my own, because I wanted to feature both colors more evenly. I also hope to be able to sell the hat, and most free online patterns are copyrighted. Now that I have a pattern as well as a hat, I am thinking of selling the pattern too! I need to make it again, make sure I don't have any kinks in it, and then I think KF is going to give it a try, and see how well another person can follow my pattern...but assuming all goes well, it'll be going up for sale in my store in the not too distant future! Yay! (I am thinking of adapting it slightly--expanding the purple section at the top so that it's a little more prominant, more equally balancing the grey at the bottom...thoughts?)

***NEWSFLASH***
I have decided what the prize is for my who-reads-my-blog drawing! I love etsy, and wholeheartedly believe in supporting handmade cottage industry etc, SO, the prize is a 'gift certificate' to etsy. I know, there isn't really such a thing, but the way it works is I grant you a dollar amount, you browse around and let me know what you want from there, and I will buy it and have it shipped to you! You can buy from ANY etsy store you like! I decided this was more practical than choosing an item myself, because my readership is pretty varied, and I don't think any one thing would appeal to everyone...