30 Day No Waste Challenge

Happy Earth Day, everyone! It's my favorite day of the year!

Since it is a special day to celebrate, appreciate, and protect our lovely home planet, I thought it would be a great day to start something I've been meaning to for a while.

I'm going to challenge myself to not throw away any food for the next 30 days. Since I got pregnant last June, my habits of wasting food have been a little sad. Being super sick, fatigued, and hating vegetables resulted in a lot of food going bad in the refrigerator. Then the heartburn made it so that I couldn't eat certain foods, which were really weird at times, so that didn't help either. Things have been better since Eddy was born, but I still forget stuff in the fridge because I've been cooking a lot less. Granted, in the grand scheme of things I think I'm actually doing ok, but any food thrown in the trash is too much food in my opinion.

Did you know that the average American throws away over 200 pounds of food per person, per year? Though that number can vary depending on the source, whatever it is, the fact that it is more than zero isn't ok. I think most of that is from the food service industry (that's another can of wasteful worms,) but we're not exempt from some of the blame. Cliche moment of the day: Think of the starving children in Africa! (Or in Seattle, for that matter.)

Seeing food get tossed is a huge pet peeve of mine. Working with kids and having this issue is really hard. Kids throw away so much food. They just don't get it. I've seen my students and campers toss whole bananas, unopened granola bars, and apples with one bite out of it, right into the can like it's nothing. There have been countless times I've picked perfectly good food out of the trash and tried to get some sense out of the kids. And they look at me like I'm crazy. It drives me crazy. I will definitely instill this value in Eddy, you can bet on it.

Why is this important? The other day, much like a fourth grader (sad face), I threw away an entire avocado that I let go brown and mushy in the refrigerator. Let's think about this one avocado. It grew from a tree, was picked by some dude, packed by another dude/machine, loaded into a truck, used fossil fuels to get to the store where I bought it, and unpacked and put out into the produce section by someone else. That's a lot of energy, effort, and hours used to get it to me, just so it can go into the compost. I definitely feel some guilt about that. And that's just a piece of unprocessed, uncooked produce. Imagine how much more wasteful it would be to throw away a loaf of bread, or a piece of meat, or a granola bar that has had even more fossil fuels pumped into it in production.

This is important to me and I think we as a society that is constantly drowning in food just aren't used to the idea that food is energy.
Food is fuel.
Food is resources.
Food is sacred.

This challenge is going to make me change my lifestyle a bit.

Tangent - Currently, I am team teaching a class at the community college with my dad called Sustainable Business. This is a class that looks at various industry and discusses the different ways businesses can be more sustainable. Making changes in the name of sustainability isn't just good for the environment, but also has economic as well as social benefits as well, that in turn, help the business itself become more efficient and profitable. It's a great class. One of the first assignments we gave the students was an ecological footprint assignment where they took an online test to see how sustainable their home lives were. After they took the test they were asked to pick 5 (out of the dozens) of possible lifestyle changes that the results page offered. Most people were thoughtful about their choices, but the answers of one lady blew my mind. She started her paper by saying that she thought she was already doing everything right. (Her result was not that of someone even trying to live sustainably.) Then she continued to say that it was really hard for her to come up with five lifestyle changes because all of them required a little bit of sacrifice on her part. THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT YOU CRAZY WENCH! It drove me nuts, but I had to give her full points for the assignment for doing it. Ok, thanks for letting me get that out.

So my sacrifices (that I'm willing to make because I know how important it is):

1. Buy less food - If I only have a few options, then I'll eat what I already have, and won't forget about something that's in the back of the 'fridge.
2. Meal plans - Have a plan for everything I buy. The avocado went bad because I liked the idea of it, but didn't have any plans for it.
3. Don't go out as much - I threw away some french fries last week because the burger I got just came with them and I couldn't eat them all. We all know day old fries are nasty.
4. Eat something that might not be the tastiest - Take responsibility for acquiring something and just eat it. As long as it hasn't gone bad it won't make me sick. 
5. Eat the thing that will go bad over the thing that can wait - If the dinner options are vegetables in the crisper vs. vegetables in the freezer, always go for the fresh ones, the frozen ones can wait.

Here are the rules I've set for myself:

1. Food counts as trashed if it goes in the garbage, disposal, or compost.
2. It does not count if the chickens eat it. (It turns into more food and fertilizer to grow more food.)
3. Peels and things that a normal person won't eat don't count either. (I'm not going extreme here.)
4. If it has gone bad, I suck, but I don't have to eat it.

So we'll see how it goes. I think this will help with my overall health, as well as keep a few dollars in the pocket since I won't be throwing them away. I have some slightly wilty carrots in the crisper that I should do something with before they get to the point of petrification.

What sacrifices can you make in the name of Earth Day?

Hoopin' it Up

The greenhouse that I salvaged last year finally died. So we were faced with the decision to buy something that's going to die again or go for a different system. We went for the new system.

Turns out this new system is way cheaper and will probably last a lot longer.

So grandma Kathy was called to babysit and garden season 2014 commenced. (Better late than never, huh?)

I've always wanted to build a hoop house since it is like a greenhouse for plants that are already in the ground. This gives plants like tomatoes and peppers a chance in our cooler, shorter summers. Also, early in the season, it can be used as a greenhouse for starting seeds.

Here was our supply list:
*10ft 1/2 inch pvc piping (x4)
*PVC clamps (x8)
*Screws (x8)
*Garden cloth (10ft x 12ft)
*Random bits of long wood (two 8 ft poles-worth. 2x2's or crown molding works great.)
*A few bricks (or other heavy items to keep the sides down)

*Some clothes pins or other pinchy things to close the ends

*Staple gun
*Screw driver

I think we spent about $25-$30 on the supplies to cover a 4ft by 8ft area of one of our garden boxes.

The building part was a cinch. First we stuck the two ends of each PVC pipe into the edges of the garden box and secured them to the sides with the clamps and screws. Then I scrounged my wood pile and found some old pieces of trellis and wrapped the edges if the garden cloth around them and stapled them down. This makes it easier for one person to cover the hoop house on a windy day because they act as a bit of a weight and pulls the whole cloth over at once. I also put a few bricks down on top of the wood to really secure it. Then I gathered the cloth at each end and closed them up with some clothes pins. We chose to go with the cloth over clear plastic because plastic is gross and the cloth also breathes just a little bit, which results in not as much heat being trapped in. This also prevents overheating when we forget to open it up on a hot summer day, which I have been known to do.

Open...

and closed.

Keeping the seeds (and Gus) warm.

I plan on putting my peppers, eggplant, and tomato plants in here. (Once I get my hands on some starts...)

Oh, and we finally were able to harvest some chicken shit compost. My dad and Shawn did some heavy digging in the compost pile and harvested about two garbage can fulls of super compost which was filled with worms (which the chickens enjoyed immensely. Sorry worms.) A nice layer of it was turned into the soil, so I have high hopes for our harvest this year.
 

I've also seeded for kale, bok choy, peas, cilantro, and potatoes, all under a another sheet of the garden cloth. It works great to keep the soil just warm enough to speed up germination. I still have a lot more to plant. Even though I'm home all day, it's really hard to find the time to go out and work in the garden without a babysitter because it turns out babies don't really like to be put down, and wearing a baby on the front makes bending down to plant stuff really difficult.

Hopefully I haven't started all this too late in the season.

Finally, here's Eddy enjoying the fresh air while we were working. Seriously. Adorbs. Totes cray-cray adorbs.

Cloth is Our Friend

Watch out! Mom post here!

Cloth diapering is a big deal, people. There are lots of opinions and options out there and I know some people who are obsessed with the process as well as trying all of the different combinations to find the best solution.

I knew from early on that cloth diapering was my goal. When I was deciding what system to go with, I did some internet research but mostly asked other mom friends. I didn't want to go down the internet rabbit hole and get even more confused by the TONS of options out there.  What to go with? All-in-ones, prefolds, inserts? And which brands? Fuzzibunz, Bummis, Thirsties, Prowrap? There are so many.

After some limited research and mostly friend interviews, I decided to go with organic cotton prefolds with Snappi fasteners, and several brands of diaper covers (Bummis, Thirsties, and some others on loan from friends.) It also helped that Amazon has a limited selection, which helped me make my decision.

So I am not as obsessed with cloth diapering like some.

But I love it for several reasons.

#1. The environment. Duh. There's no garbage. The amount of trash (that goes to landfill) that results from disposables is insane. We used disposables for the first 8 days of Eddy's existence because of her umbilical cord and the cloth diapers rubbed the area too much. Even with those 8 days of tiny newborn diapers, it was crazy how much garbage we created. It was nice to be able to make the switch as soon as that disgusting little stump of stinky necrotic tissue fell off. Gross.

#2. Health. Disposable diapers have a very strong perfume-y odor. (Well, the mainstream ones do anyway.) Why? I get that it's probably to mask the odor of the stink that comes out of a baby's butt, but it's not necessary. And what of the chemicals that make those odors? I would rather not have my tiny fragile human offspring to be exposed to that on a constant basis, thanks.

#3. Cute covers. Diaper covers are cute. Babies butts are cute. Put them together and they're double cute.

Cute baby bum alert!

#4. Saving dough. Yes, the initial price upfront is much more for the cloth diapers, but once you have them, you can use them forever. (Though you do need several sizes.)

#5. Potty training. I've heard cloth diapered babies are easier to potty train eventually because they feel the wetness and the discomfort that comes with it and are more eager to get out of them. We'll see about that.

Cloth diapering does have its disadvantages also.

#1. The laundry. It happens almost every day. Annoying, but ok since I'm home all day, everyday. For now. It's also not so bad because her poos are still breast milk poos which are highly washable so dirty diapers go directly into the machine without having to preclean them by hand. (But the diapers do need one rinse cycle prior to the regular wash cycle.) Oh and this whole thing can be avoided by hiring a diaper service, which we didn't opt for since it costs money we don't have.

#2. Water and energy wastage. Yeah, it is a lot of water to do a load of laundry almost everyday. But think about the water it would take to make each and every disposable. I'm sure the amount of water and energy that goes into the manufacturing of each disposable is comparable to the extra amount needed to wash the cloth ones. (And I like to add a few gallons of rainwater to each load so that offsets some of the negatives.)

#3. Changing more often. It's amazing and a little creepy how much liquid disposables can hold. Cloth just gets wet and stays wet. Who wants to wear wet underwear? Not babies, I'll tell you that.

#4. An extra step. There are two things you have to attach to your baby (prefold and cover) vs. the just one of a disposable. And when you have an hangry baby on the changing table, you can't get that diaper on fast enough. (But this can be avoided using an all-in-one.)

Like I said, I'm not obsessed with cloth diapering. Sometimes we run out of clean prefolds and I don't have the time to do laundry so we may use a couple disposables for overnight. We're ok with that. Eddy is finally getting big enough to where she can start wearing the size 1 prefolds (and not just the tiny newborn ones) so we now have more prefolds that we can use so we won't have to do laundry as often or use disposables.

Our setup: wipes in the container, diapers in the basket, happy baby with a dry bum.

The thing about cloth diapering that people don't really talk about is cloth wipes. Disposable wipes, though much smaller, also are a piece of garbage that can be avoided. Now I really like these. I have about 30 wipes that I keep in a tupperware on the changing table and use one for each change and just wash along with the diapers. I bought a bottle of a concentrated natural wipe solution that I make and keep on hand as well that smells divine. I thought keeping up with the wipes would be a pain, but it really isn't and I love it. I still use these even when she's wearing a disposable.

Seriously, it smells so good.

So that's the cloth wearing scoop on Eddy.

Now on to me. Men, this is your cue to stop reading, as it doesn't really pertain to your daily lives.

Yep, I've been sporting the cloth too! Remember the testing I was going to do on reusable menstrual pads? Well, post partum bleeding is a great excuse to test those out! Hooray!

My small collection. From L-R: Domino pads, Diva Cup, New Moon pad. (Not pictured: Gladrag.)

For the first few days after delivery, I did have to use the super mega pads that the birthing center gave me, but once things settled down to a more "monthly" level, I switched to these. I didn't get to use the Diva cup though, since I'm not allowed to use anything internal for the first six weeks. So the testing for that will have to wait until a normal period, and after I get a new one since women who've given birth require a slightly larger size cup.

Ok, so of the three brands of pads I tried, I would recommend two: the Domino pads and the New Moon pad. They are both awesome. They stay in place, are absorbent, and don't bunch. They also wash off super easily, and haven't stained at all. (It must be the material they're made out of.) They are also really soft and comfortable. I might like the Domino pads a little better because of the slight tapering in the middle, but they're both awesome. The Gladrag I've had for a few years now and it really isn't my favorite. It doesn't stay in place and bunches too much, making you feel like you're wearing a diaper. Yuck.

Washing them is pretty easy too. I just give them a little cold water rinse and throw them into the cloth diaper pail and wash with them. If you're in a public restroom, you can use a wet bag to store them until you get home and do the same.

So go out and green-ify your periods, ladies. It's surprisingly comfortable and easy, and it feels nice to do a little favor to our environment. Oh, and they're kinda cute too.

Here are some links:

New Moon Pads

Domino Pads

Luna Pads and Diva Cup (I'm gonna try these next. They're the most expensive though.)

Meet Eddy!

I posted the the 20-point pregnancy shit scoring system on a Saturday.  Early Sunday morning, I was awoken by pre-labor contractions. On Monday, February 24th, at 4:07pm, after a difficult labor that did not go according to plan, we welcomed Baby Eddy into our lives.

At 6lbs 5oz, she's pretty tiny, but she has all of her parts (and a little chub) and they work great. From her dark hair to her long finger toes, we think she is absolutely perfect.

I'm working on the birth story, so stay tuned for that.  In the meantime, you can melt your hearts away with these:

A few hours old... look at those feet!

1 day old... after our first night together.

2 days old... snuggling with Gus.

 5 days old.

We love her sooooooo much.

Pregnancy Recap: The 20-point System

I think I need to write a little ditty about this whole experience growing a baby. If not to inform my readers about what I've learned throughout the process, but to also to write something down to remind myself what it was all like. I've been told that I should journal about my experience so that I can "remember this magical time," but I'm not a natural journal-er so of course, I've haven't done a speck of it. Not to mention it hasn't quite been magical. I've also joked since the beginning that I need to write a letter to myself about how horrible some of it has been so that I think about the consequences before deciding, in a fit of love hormone-filled insanity, to try it again.

So let's start with that.

Dear Future Hana-

So you're thinking about getting pregnant again. Are you effing kidding me? Do you remember how horrible the first 3 1/2 months were? The sickness, the fatigue, the ugly-face crying? You could barely walk to the bathroom without gagging and crying. You could barely walk anywhere for that matter. You hated vegetables. Even the thought of green vegetable matter made you sick. Remember that time you touched a garlic scape and went into a fit of uncontrollable gagging? Horrible. And don't get me started on rotten vegetables.  Remember how even thinking about bacon and pho sent you into a fit of uncontrollable gagging because those were the things you ate just before all the sickness started? You could barely watch TV because of all the Applebee's commercials that made you sick. You would come home from work and lay out on the couch like a worthless slug and had to make Shawn do everything. This time you have to take care of another human at the same time. How are you going to do that? How about the heartburn? Maybe you forget what it's like to have heartburn EVERY DAY for 8 months straight. Let me help you: it sucks.

You think about these things before you make your decision.

Sternly yours,

Past Hana

Ok so that's out of the way. I doubt it will work since I've heard those hormones are awfully strong. Oh well, all I can say is I tried.

Also, how about we not let my future self read the rest of this post.

Despite the fact that the first few months were arguably the worst of my life, the second half of the second trimester and the first few weeks of the third were absolutely lovely. I felt like I was back to my old self with normal energy levels, I started showing a belly, which made me feel more legit, and I was back to eating mostly normal foods. I was even able to go to the gym once a week for a few months. Of course, as mentioned earlier, the heartburn has followed me throughout the pregnancy which has been pretty terrible. I can't eat any spicy foods, I need to watch out when I drink water, and I was worried about developing kidney stones with all of the Tums I was chewing. A few months ago I was introduced to papaya enzymes which work just as well without the worry of taking too many throughout the day.  It helps neutralize the stomach acid without making your stomach feel like it needs to create more soon after. It just soothes. And they taste good. It's totally win-win. They've been a bit of a lifesaver over the last 2 months.

The last two months have gotten progressively more and more uncomfortable. Which makes complete sense. As my belly has gotten bigger and bigger, sleeping and rolling over in bed has gotten harder and harder. I have definitely gotten used to not sleeping through the night. From the leg cramps that are super sudden and painful, to the heartburn, to getting up to pee, I've definitely been training for this whole lack of sleep thing that's about to descend on my life. Then there's my carpal tunnel. But you already know about that.

About a month ago, as I was wallowing in my beached-whale state with my swollen, aching feet propped up on the side of the couch, I came up with an ingenious way for all pregnant ladies to score their crappy side effects in an across the board equal way. Let me introduce you to the "20-point Pregnancy Shit Scoring System." Maybe this is my way of coping with all the crappy things that have happened to my body and put them into perspective to help appreciate the crap I have been able to avoid.

It goes like this: All ladies start their pregnancies with 20 points worth of shitty things that are going to happen to them and their bodies.  Some of these things include (but are totally not limited to):
* Morning/All day nausea
* Fatigue
* Anger and major mood swings
* Vomitting
* Lack of appetite/being unable to keep anything down
* Heartburn
* Varicose veins
* Stretch marks
* Acne 
* Hemmorhoids
* Placenta previa
* Various baby-related health issues (low weight, etc.)
* Carpal tunnel syndrome
* Preeclampsia
* Painful swollen feet and ankles/leg cramps
* etc, etc, etc,

So... A LOT to choose from. But, luckily, most women only have a handful of these. Now, depending on the severity of these side effects that get to you, you get to choose how many points are designated for each. For example, let me break down the points for my situation:
* Nausea - 5 points
* Fatigue - 2 points
* Heartburn - 8 points
* Carpal tunnel - 4 points
* Achy ankles/leg cramps - 1 point
Total: 20 points of pregnancy shit.

I want to mention that this does not take into account labor and delivery.  That's a whole different can of worms.  Who knows, maybe I'll come up with a point system for that too once I go through the experience.

This is where I acknowledge that this whole post has been relatively negative. Sorry, it's easy for me to go there.  Let's turn things around, shall we?

It's silver linings time.

Though the beginning of my pregnancy was the worst thing to ever happen to me, now that I am in the home stretch, I have to thank all the pregnancy gods that this is the way things have panned out.  Every single thing that has been crappy has happened to ME. Nothing has happened to Baby E. She has checked out at every single appointment as "perfect" (midwives' words, not mine, though I wouldn't expect anything less :)), and I have never once had to worry about her well-being. Her heart rate has been perfect and steady, she's positioned in the locked and loaded position, and I have thoroughly enjoyed her practice to become a star soccer player/boxer/gymnast in my belly.  (She will be all three. You'll see.) So I am thankful.  So, so thankful. I know I'm not in the clear just yet, seeing as how she still needs to enter this world, but for now, on this day, I feel extremely grateful for this textbook pregnancy.

Now we can't wait to meet her.

Sooner rather than later, please.

10 days 'til launch day.

Are We Ready?

Is anyone ever fully ready for their first child?  There is so much unknown about labor, about postpartum, about infants, about the tiny little person that's about to change your life forever...

There's only so much we can do to get ready.  We've taken our baby class, which was super helpful and informative, we've toured the birthing center where Baby E will be born, and now our nursery is basically complete.  She actually won't be living in the nursery for the first several months since she'll be in our room sleeping in the Pack n' Play next to my side of the bed, but it's a project that was nice to get out of the way.

Let me take you on a little tour.

A simple Ikea crib, a hand-painted dresser, and some local art on the walls.

Bird curtains, some changing table entertainment, and, of course, Totoro.

We didn't start with any intentions of having a theme or even creating anything super special. The "theme," if you can even call it one, has ended up being animals/birds just based on the various items we collected, and we chose not to paint the room out of pure laziness.  Since our house is so small and this is the only other room in addition to our own bedroom, we had to keep one corner of the room as my crafting/sewing corner.  Eventually, when she moves in to this room permanently, the sewing desk with likely move into our room but for now, this is how it's going to work. She won't be old enough to care for a while anyway.

Let me highlight some of my favorite elements.

* The chicken quilt: It's handmade from my aunt and we LOVE it.
* The curtains: It took us about an hour and half to pick the fabric (which ended up being really expensive,) but it's so fun and cute we're happy with it.  It has two layers, the one closest to the door is an almost-sheer white so that we can let light in without letting any peekers being able to see what's inside. The second layer adds a darkness to the room so that when the baby/toddler has to sleep during the day the room stays relatively dark.
* The kitty shelf: We fully acknowledge that the kitties will likely feel replaced and neglected a bit so we wanted to give them a space in Eddy's room that they can have as their own.  They like high places, and love looking out windows as they snooze, so we thought it would be a nice place for them to be that is safe and out of the way of grabby toddler hands.  So far, Nikolai has taken to it quite well, (he actually fell out of it because he was rolling around a bit much,) but Gus is still a little hesitant.  I think they'll like it eventually when we start spending more and more time in there.
* All the handmade stuff: From the Kingfisher pillow to the rainbow/cloud mobile, to the various blankets hanging around, and the dresser, we have MANY generously talented friends who have put effort and love into making something that will help make Eddy's life more cozy.  I couldn't feel prouder or more loved.

So there you go.  Our bags are packed for the birth and we've done as much laundry as we can.  I've begun making and freezing food here and there so that we can keep ourselves fed when we're in that post-partum fog.  I have this week off for mid-winter break so my mind and body can rest as well.

I guess you can say I'm ready.

It's Baby Season

Well, these days, when is it NOT baby season?  It seems like everyone's tummy is growing and the babies just keep a-comin'.  I guess I can't say much either though, since I have the bug myself.

All these babies means I've been knitting blankets like crazy.  I've made so many, I've lost track of all the blankets I've made in the last 5 years.  I used to tell you about them, but the turnaround has been so quick on some, I haven't been able to share them with y'all.

Recently I found this pattern.  It's a crochet pattern, which I've dabbled with here and there, but all of my past blankets (save one) have been knitted.  Dudes.  Crocheting certainly has its benefits.  It's easy, it can be really quick, and it's so much more handy to rewind if you make a mistake.

It's so easy, I've been able to make two of these in the time it would have taken for me to make one knitted blanket.  They look really good too.

The pattern is called a diagonal box stitch.  You start with a corner and crochet diagonally, increasing a new box every row until you like the size (at the halfway point,) and then start decreasing until you finish at the opposite corner.  A link to a good video for how to do it can be found here.

That's it.  Diagonal box stitch the whole thing.  Of course, the yarn used in both these blankets is upcycled from old Goodwill sweaters.  The first is almost an entire sweater, and the super colorful one is one I made from all of the tiny leftover balls from all of the sweaters I've unraveled over the years.  Looking at all the different colors made me realize how many sweaters I've deknitted.  It's kind of cool to think that it's a culmination of all the hours I've spent recycling yarn and giving hideous sweaters a new life.  I was worried that it would look funny to combine all the different colors, but I think the crazyness of it all gives it a fun vibe.  I honestly thought about keeping it for our own little one because I liked it so much, but it went to a recipient that loved it enough to make it worth gifting.

The original sweater was actually not that ugly.

The yarn is a cotton/wool mix so it's extra warm AND soft.

Don't you LOVE all the color?

It makes me so happy...

Both these blankets took about half the time it would take me to knit a blanket the same size.  They were smaller than past ones, at about 3-3.5ft across, but what's so great about crocheting is the fact that you can see exactly how big it's getting and you can control the size much easier.  Also, they are almost exactly square with much more even edges. Started adding a crocheted border to the colorful one, but it detracted from the smooth edges it already had, so I nixed it.

I think I may be looking to crocheting for much of my future baby blankets.

Unfortunately, right now, I have been forced to take a knitting/crocheting/overall crafting hiatus.  Why?  Pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel syndrome.  Yeah, it's a real thing and it totally blows.  It started about 5 weeks ago and it has been progressively getting worse since.  Sometimes it keeps me up at night because it hurts so bad and I can barely dress myself in the morning due to the weakness that I wake up with.  Several of my fingers have been in a permanently tingly-numb state for the past month.  Yay.  I wear a brace on my right wrist for about 20 hours a day.

I'll write a post sometime this week about how I've been doing otherwise with some pics of our attempt at creating a nice nursery in half of our spare room.  Until then, have a lovely (rainy, if you're in Western Washington) President's Day weekend, everyone.