The Real Poop on Cloth Diapering
Now that we’ve been cloth diapering in earnest for several weeks now, I thought I’d give a little updated feedback. Overall, I’m really happy to have made the decision to cloth diaper. It saves us money in the long run and keeps us from contributing to the tons sposies that go into the landfills every year. Plus, it is really cute and having a varied stash appeals to my innane need to put things in order.
But while I am happy overall, I do feel the need to share some real poop about cloth diapering… Read more
Heart so full…
Today isn’t any particularly special day.
Nothing of any considerable note happened.
Yet today, while doing nothing in particular, I felt my heart almost break when I realized how much I love my daughter and husband. They are my world, my everything. I was whole before they came into my life but with them, I am complete.
I mused to The Hubster ™ as we drifted off to sleep last night that you don’t know true fear until you find someone to love. Whether that person is your Other ™ and/or your child(ren), it is in the same moment when you realize how deeply you love them that you also realize exactly how much you can fear anything bad happening to them.
The Little Empress snuggled next to me as I did the laundry earlier, pressing her little face against my arm as she does when she’s tired, craving the warmth and security of Mommy so that she could sleep. And in that moment, I truly realized what it was to be her mother. Though I’ve always been her mother, the gravity of it all just hit me like a ton of bricks. I just held her and rocked her like I did when she was just a wee thing, kissing her brow and whispering the quiet one-sided conversation of a mother to her sleeping babe, quiet songs of love that may or may not have any words that could be understood by anyone else. And I wished so much for time to stop or at least slow down to let me capture this moment, this ordinary Monday night when I held my drowsy baby in my arms and felt like my heart would overflow with love.
Frugal Friday: Your All Time Favorite Frugal Tip
I’m participating in Frugal Friday and this week’s theme is — Your All-Time Favorite Frugal Tip
And mine is…
Don’t buy what you can make.
This is probably the best known frugal tip and most applicable if you’re decent at crafting. For me, my best craft is cooking so living by this simple rule of frugality saves me a bunch of money at the grocery store.
I refuse to buy most types of pre-processed foods that I can easily make at home for less. If I really want chocolate chip cookies, I’ll get the ingredients and make several batches for the price of a bag. If I want pork chop coating, I’ll buy breadcrumbs, herbs and spices in the bulk bins and get a much better value.
Today’s Agenda
I need to go out and run the following errands…
- Visit party store to get supplies and decorations for Saturday’s baptism party
- Go to Target for cleaning supplies, printer ink, socks, storage bins, print photos, decorative towels, etc.
- Go to fabric store to get new needle for sewing machine, fabric backdrops for TLE’s baptism gown photos plus fabric and notions for starter projects
Then I need to go home and do this…
- Print directions for parents and guests who are going to the church
- Make leche flan
- Clean family room and office
- Frame and hang pictures
- Set up guest room to take baptism photos in
And somehow find the time to do these things too…
- Exercise
- Eat
- Make dinner
And, in the midst of it all, keep The Little Empress happy and entertained. THAT is the most difficult task of all. phew I’m really glad that opportunities for these big parties don’t come around very often. I think I’d like to fall over D-E-D after all this baptism party stuff is done. And on the 7th Day, She Rested. Amen.
Accepting my limitations..
Once upon a time, when I only dreamed about being a SAHM, I believed that, were I to become a SAHM, I’d have time to, I don’t know, DO THINGS. Like play a video game or two. Write my novel. Wash the dishes. Sweep the floor. Make and eat lunch.
The reality is that since I’ve been home, I think about the only thing I HAVE been able to do is take care of The Little Empress. Oh and catch up on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit via Netflix during TLE’s seemingly endless nursing sessions and/or naps when she falls asleep on me. Which, as it has been for the past month or so, has been pretty much EVERY nap.
Still, I must have gone either completely insane or had momentary amensia because I rather zealously told my parents that instead of buying the lumpia for The Little Empress’ baptism party on Saturday that my sister and I would make them.
(To be painfully honest, TLE’s baptism is not so much a religious rite as it is an excuse to bring together family and friends and feast upon a slaughtered and roasted to perfection suckling pig and other delicacies. Chinese folks have their Red Egg parties, Koreans have their 100 Days and Filipino Catholics have baptisms. I had an aunt that converted to being Baptist which doesn’t do infant baptisms. My poor, oh-so-Catholic family (including myself) were at a loss for a bit as to how a child dedication differed from a Catholic infant baptism. But then they still had a reception so everything was A-OK after that.)
Lumpia is something that is a must have at any Filipino party worth going to. Lumpia is the great equalizer of dishes. People could argue that pancit is also the great equalizer (after all, it resembles chow mein and who hasn’t had chow mein?) but I say it’s all about lumpia. After all, kids love it, adults love it, your non-Filipino friends that might faint at the thought of eating anything else love it. It’s familiar. Its cute. It’s finger food. You dip it in sweet and sour sauce. And it’s DEEP FRIED! That, more than anything else, secures lumpia as the must have food the party.
Not having lumpia is a failure of epic proportions, surpassed only by the cardinal sin of running out of rice at a party. Which, by the way, once happened at my friends’ 18th birthday debut. While not quite a scandal, the shock was felt around the rented gymnasium. And of course, we still mention it to this day. “OMG remember Joy’s party when they ran out of rice?!”
Making lumpia is something best done in a group — after all, many hands make for little work. Lumpia rolling isn’t difficult so much as tedious. Back in the days, I could have easily tackled a mountain of yummy pork and shrimp filling in front of a DVD, making perfectly stacked rows of neatly wrapped lumpia to stow away in the freezer until they were needed. Since I knew TLE would make it more difficult for me to accomplish this, I enlisted the help of my sister. I thought that between the two of us, we could make short work of the task with no problem.
Oh how wrong I was.
Long story short, I will never, EVER again underestimate just how much time TLE can demand. Whether I was trying to prep ingredients or roll lumpia, TLE refused to cooperate. She didn’t want to sit in her high chair, play in her playard or even sleep on my back in a carrier to let me work. As a result, my sister ended up doing mostly everything. While I got to wrap a few myself, it was apparent that while delicious tasting, the resulting lumpia wasn’t something we’d feel comfortable serving at TLE’s baptism party.
So now, I get to swallow my pride and eat the $13.99/package for frozen lumpia from the local Asian megamart which, quite honestly, wounds my inner culinarian and is causing my inner cheapskate miser frugal conscience to have to go into therapy. (For the same in ingredients, I can easily make 200+ lumpia rather than the 40 or so you get per package.) Worse, I have to tell my dad that he was right (okay, this wounds me more than either of the previous two combined) because he totally pushed for buying frozen lumpia in the first place.
In the long run, I know it’s more important to tend to The Little Empress than to be able to boast that I made the lumpia for her baptism reception or that I kept an immaculate house. It drives me insane but as long as The Little Empress is happy, that’s all that matters.
California Voters – VOTE NO ON PROP 8
Keep marriage legal for EVERYONE.
Here are some Facts vs. Fiction about Proposition 8
Fiction: Teaching children about same-sex marriage will happen here unless we pass Prop 8. Fact: Not one word in Prop 8 mentions education, and no child can be forced, against the will of their parents, to be taught anything about health and family issues at school. California law prohibits it, and the Yes on 8 campaign knows they are lying. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley has already ruled that this claim by Prop 8 proponents is “false and misleading.” Fiction: Churches could lose their tax-exemption status. Fact: Nothing in Prop 8 would force churches to do anything. In fact, the court decision regarding marriage specifically says “no religion will be required to change its religious policies or practices with regard to same-sex couples, and no religious officiant will be required to solemnize a marriage in contravention of his or her religious beliefs.”
You can read more Facts vs. Fiction at No on Prop 8
Please vote NO on Proposition 8. Vote NO on hate.
Sewing Maddness
For the past month or so, I’ve been vacillating on whether or not to get a sewing machine. I used to sew and crochet way long ago, when I was a teenager and stopped doing it because it wasn’t the “cool” thing to do. Curse adolescence and the stupid need to fit in. Of course now knitting, sewing and all those other crafty things have experienced a resurgence in popularity and I’m a late adopter. Oh well, it doesn’t matter when you get into it, so long as you enjoy it.
After thinking about it and nearly buying a sewing machine several times over, I asked around to see if anyone had a sewing machine that I can borrow. I got several offers from friends who have sewing machines who either hadn’t used them in awhile or at all. This weekend, I’ll be picking up a newer machine from my friend Gypsy who used her machine once and never again as well as an older machine (possibly a Singer Featherweight!) from my friend Kyburg who sent it all the way up from SoCal with a mutual friend of ours. 
Whups. Be careful what you wish for — you may just get it!
I’m pretty excited about getting a sewing machine. In the struggle to be frugal in tight times, I’m resolving not to buy anything I can make myself for cheaper. This has come in handy for most food since I can cook and bake just about anything I want but less so when it comes to everything else. With a sewing machine, I can make more of my simpler baby and cloth diapering accessories.
My project list so far looks like this:
- Devil-Neko costume for The Little Empress Slipcover for baby carrier, black/red neko-mimi headband, black/red neko paws, black/red Baby Legs Still need to find a black or red onesie
- Wetbag
- Changing pad
- BabyLegs-knock offs
Other than the Devil-Neko costume, I’m not in a hurry on anything. Leave it to me to create a project list when I don’t even have my machine or materials yet! The good thing is, since I know what I want to make, I’ve already got lists of what I need. I figure if I can delude myself into believing that I am organized, I’m halfway there! I’ve found some online purveyors of the PUL (polyurethane laminate) fabric that I need for the wetbags. I even found Hello Kitty PUL fabric which is, sadly, out of stock 
School Worries
People may think that 6 months old is too young to worry about what type of schooling your child will be receiving from preschool onward but I disagree. With how important schooling is, I don’t believe it is every too early to research what your local schools are like and to begin research to make informed choices.
One of the big problems with moving to where we did was the school system. The town has its own school district and honestly, the schools are horrible. The schools in neighboring towns are quite good but the prices in neighborhing towns are much higher than are own so, unfortunately, you live where you can afford to. I’m not happy with the demographics of the students as The Little Empress would have few Asian classmates, if any. The test scores of the elementary, middle and high schools she would be going to are in the toilet. The high school in particular has an alarming drop out rate . Parents in the two separate parent groups have attested to how bad the schools are.
I got an email today from one of the parents in my area parent group. There are schools in the district that have closed their libraries every other week due to lack of funding. How in the world can a school contientiously close a LIBRARY?
The Hubster ™ now agrees with me — either The Little Empress goes to the local charter school or she will be homeschooled. I’ve been telling The Hubster ™ this for a few months now but the reality of what the schools here are like really hits home.
I checked out a local co-op preschool this week which happens to be next door to the local charter school. I like it. It’s a very Montessori-esque program with lots of free play and all the kids looked happy. There are always parents at the school as helpers with a wonderful ratio of kids to adults. I will definitely be sending The Little Empress to this preschool when the time comes.
I was disappointed to hear that the local charter school has a lottery system as a waiting list so there’s no telling whether TLE will get in for kindergarten. At this point, I’m hoping she gets into the charter for kindergarten but preparing for homeschooling. I’d rather hope for the best scenario and prepare for alternatives and learn as much as I can now rather than possibly scrambling to prepare a kindergarten curriculum at the last minute.
BabySmash
If you have a curious little one, download BabySmash for your PC. It is free, open source and a great way to keep a smashy-smashy baby entertained for awhile, providing that your keyboard can take the abuse 
Thanks to JuriJuri for the heads up
About
My name is Michelle. I write, I shoot and I mom, not necessarily in that order. I'm aware that 'mom' isn't widely accepted as a verb but I think it should be.I'm a self-professed geek and caffeine addict. (Some may argue that the latter is a requirement of the former.) I live with my husband and our daughter in the California Delta.
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