Someone's In The Kitchen

Between our family's food needs and all of my friends who have had babies in the past month I have been in the kitchen cooking a good part of most days. In our search for healthy alternatives to toxic Teflon we purchased enameled cast iron cookware at IKEA the other day. They are so beautiful, and I was very excited to cook with them, but after my first pancake-cooking endeavor I became disappointed...they stick worse than regular old cast iron!!! So, I come to you, dear readers, asking for your advice.

1. What am I doing wrong?? Any tips for cooking on enameled cast iron would be greatly appreciated, even if it is just to "suck it up," or "get rid of it!"

2. How can I clean the things?? Some of these burnt/sticking spots will not come off, and are not scrape-able. I know not to use dish soap on cast iron, but since these are enameled, is it ok?? The directions, which are obviously translated from another language, say to use "washing-up detergent."


Another activity I have been engaged in is baking. I got an Amish Friendship Bread starter from my mom a few weeks ago, and have made bread from it twice so far. I must stop, because I am eating both loaves almost completely by myself in a matter of minutes (ok, I'm exaggerating, but you get the picture). I have 2 1 more starters left (thanks, Danielle), so if anyone wants one I'd be happy to drop it off (assuming you live, like, in the same city as me). The bread that it make is SO EFFING GOOD, although not really good for you at all....please save me from myself.

Ok...I have asked enough from you for one day. Thanks for reading.

Treasure Mapping

I really want to post all of my weekly winners from the month, but I just have to go to bed. I've been working on my Treasure Map, and then had about a 2 hour nursing session trying to get the boys to sleep.

Picture-less

One of the ironies while moving is that the most important things...the things you use everyday...are the ones you move last/pack in a "safe" place/can't find!!! This is the fate of my camera cord. It always lived on my computer desk, so that I had easy access to it, and so it was one of the last things to be packed or moved--and now it has gone missing!

Today I took a stroll through our backyard, taking time to study each plant, bush and tree. I want to learn about what grows on our property. I want to know how to care for each thing. I want to watch each flower and tree grow and bloom, and become familiar with their cycles. I took lots of pictures, and I wish I could share them with you all tonight... but, alas, the missing camera cord.

We are really enjoying settling in. I unpacked (what I think is) the last of the kitchen boxes. It really makes it feel like home to have the kitchen cabinets and drawers filled with our things.

Rich had to work both Saturday and Sunday night, and so Leah came over and kept me company. It wasn't really planned, but it was so serendipitous when she called at 9 pm on Saturday--my first night in our house--and asked if my kids were sleeping. Miraculously they had fallen asleep early and easily, after a long day of moving, and so she asked if she could come visit. We had tea and chatted...giddy with the prospect of all the times this would happen in the years to come.

The next night we officially "broke in" our home with a small impromptu gathering. Blake and Rich were both gone, and Danielle happened to be in town and staying with Joi... so we enticed them over with beer, and we had a girls' night.

Tonight was Rich's first evening at home, and we couldn't stop catching each others' glances and grinning from ear to ear...reminding each other that this is our HOME. I took a family shot of our first sit-down dinner (although I can't post it yet...blag), and we had a nice evening of baths, chocolate chip cookies, and books.

Hope your Monday treated you well.

Washing Our Poopy Cloths

For anyone who does not want to read about our system for dealing with waste here in the UrbanHippie house (of the bodily variety), do not read on.

For those of you who have asked to know more specifics, however, this post is for you.

As most of you know, we exclusively use cloth diapers on our boys, and what is known as "family cloth" for the rest of the members of our family. Some of you might recoil at the thought of cloth diapering... I can't imagine what you did when you clicked on that link for family cloth, and realized that we wipe our bums with a piece of fabric (our favorites are terry, sherpa, and flannel). To dispel one commonly held false belief: No, we do not all share the same cloth. We don't even reuse a cloth. We get a fresh cloth EVERY time we wipe! There...I'm glad I got that out of the way.

Back to the recoilers: I know that different people have different tolerances for different substances that seem gross or dirty or just plain smelly. I get that. But, to tell you the honest truth, the only thing that I think anyone would really cringe about is the actually dunk, swish, and wring-out of the poopy diaper in the toilet...that is really the only time I come in contact with the poop. And, if I really didn't want to, I wouldn't have to--there are plenty of nifty gadgets out there that will do the poop-removal for you. I just have never minded enough to go spend money on one of those things. But, even if you did, the investment you make in cloth diapers and gadgets for them would still FAAAAAAAAAR outweigh what one would spend on disposables. And that doesn't even take into consideration what those plastic diapers are doing to our earth. Ick.

Anyway, I didn't come here to convince you to actually try any of our methods (although that would be a nice bonus)... I promised a description of our system. So, here is what it looks like:

Cloth Diapering

In the laundry room I have a hamper dedicated for the dirty diapers. One of those ones that has holes on the back so it can breathe, and a lid that flips up. I used to use a trash can with a pop-up lid, and I think that held in the stink better. But, whenever I notice the diaper smell in the laundry room, it means it's diaper washing day anyway...they don't usually smell until the 2nd or 3rd day, and that's about how often I put a load in. So, we change a diaper, we throw it in the hamper... pretty simple.


When the diapers are stinky and we have enough for a full load (like I said, about every 2 or 3 days, with 2 babes in diapers) I throw them all in the washing machine.

Let me jump over to explain the cloth wipes at the same time, because when it comes to washing it will be the same for both.

Cloth Wipes

Next to each toilet there is a small trash basket with a flip-top lid that is filled halfway with water and a few good squirts of Bac-Out. After you use a cloth wipe, you open the lid, toss it in the water to soak, and close the lid. About once or twice a week I take off the lid, pour off as much water as I can into the toilet, and I dump the wipes straight into the washing machine with the dirty diapers.


**A side note about the functionality of the wipes for #2: they rock. Rich even admitted to me last week that he hates to use TP now, just because the cloth wipes are so much more comfortable and you get so much cleaner. It is probably a step towards how I heard a woman who grew up in a European country with a bidet explain her first experience after moving to the US and her astonishment and disgustedness when she had to use toilet paper, feeling as if she was just "smearing it all around." Ewwww.


Back to the wash: so, all of the diapers and wipes are in the washing machine. I put in a little less than the recommended amount of Charlie's soap (we also have used Country Save and SUN Free & Clear...although the latter wasn't made for HE washers so we stopped using it), set the machine on it's sanitary cycle (which is pretty cool as far as ease of mental stress about whether the diapers are really getting "clean" or not, but is actually totally unnecessary and really probably wears our diapers out much faster) with the extra skin care rinse (to get out alllllll of the detergent--the most important thing about washing cloth diapers), and let her rip. Sometimes I will add a pre-wash with non-chlorine bleach, or an extra rinse with white vinegar, but this is our standard routine.

After they are done doing their thing, I (currently) toss them all up into the dryer with NO dryer sheet or fabric softener or anything (this leaves a residue that makes fabric not absorbant--the opposite of what we want our diapers and wipes to be!) and set them on the hottest setting. After we move I will hang them on the clothes lines out back, instead, and then maybe give them a little fluff in the dryer afterwards.

It was very easy for us to incorporate family cloth, since we were already washing diapers anyway--but I have contemplated whether or not it will continue after the boys are out of diapers, and I do believe it will. The wipe laundry would constitute about a load a week, and since our washing machine knows what size the load is, it should use the appropriate amount of water (which is not a whole lot). It is definitely worth it to us for the comfort, savings, and reduction in paper product usage.

Life Without School

Kiran usually wakes up first. I can keep him in bed a little longer by throwing him a nipple, but when he's awake, he sits up, laughs, and immediately wants to play and explore. I get up, make breakfast, check my email, tidy up downstairs, and usually Kaden wakes up within the hour. He begs for me to lay back down with him.. "down"... and to nurse... "muk", so Kiran and I join him back in bed to wake up slowly. Usually during this snuggle/nurse/play session, Kylin rolls out of her bed--a mattress on the floor at the foot of ours. She hops up onto our bed, snuggles and plays with us, and we all make our way back downstairs.

After teeth are brushed, outfits picked out, tried on (sometimes numerous times) and chosen, and breakfast is eaten, we begin our day. Sometimes Kylin has community center classes: she's taking art, sports, bouldering, and gymnastics right now, sometimes we have playdates with friends or visit the local science museum, other days I have errands to run or projects to complete at home, or we have get-togethers and planned activities with other homeschooling families.

In the afternoon the boys take a nap and Kylin usually opts for computer or movie time--she gets 1 hour everyday. I often nap with the boys if I can, or I use this time to get things done that require 2 hands or undivided attention.

Twice a week Kylin has swimming lessons, once a week she and Rich have Tae Kwon Do, so some evenings they are gone for a little while doing their activities. When they return, we always eat dinner as a family. Kylin often helps me cook (measuring and pouring) and set the table. When dinner is done we clean up as a family, and spend time together until the bedtime routine starts. Kylin brushes her teeth, gets her pjs on, and we all clean up the playroom and living room. Some nights we watch part of a movie together, other nights we read bedtime stories, and then Rich and I take turns laying down with Kylin and having some special time together, helping her to relax and prepare for sleep.

To many, and admittedly to me in a former life, this may look like a very un-educational way to raise children. We don't have mandated reading, math, or history times. We don't believe in forced rote memorization, homework, or lesson plans. But the amazing thing is, our children learn. Kylin reads chapter books, is learning about fractions and multiplication, knows a fair amount of Spanish and ASL, and can tell time. Today she asked me to explain global warming. All of this she has initiated and learned on her own--we have helped direct her to resources and have shared with her the knowledge we have when she asks.

Our single goal on our path of raising these little humans, when it comes to "education," is that we protect and foster and fan their innate flames for learning. In everything we do, we try to not impose our ideas about what "should" be learned at any given moment, but instead embrace all that can be learned at any moment, and then follow where they lead. The more we pursue this goal, the more Rich and I learn, the more we realize we don't already know, and the more our daughter seems to discover and examine her own passions.

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There are several excellent articles about unschooling linked in my sidebar. For more information, some wonderful books on the topic are:

The Unschooling Handbook
The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School
The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education
Guerilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School

Productive

After fighting the flu for the last week, I am finally feeling a little better today. Not well enough to get out of my jammies, but well enough to do a little picking up around the house, folding laundry, purging old toys in the playroom and I even cut out a few sewing projects. Rich was very productive, though, emptying out the fridge and cleaning it, taking down the solstice tree, vacuuming, and “tidying up” the bathrooms (Kylin commented as she walked into her bathroom “WOW! You guys have sure been tidying up around here!” We got a chuckle out of that).

Clean Fridge

Pattern for shopping bags from Craftster.org