Kicking It Old School: Cleaning With Oldies But Goodies

After getting fed up cleaning my hard water stains off my shower door and fixtures I hit up pinterest for some tried and true tips. I stumbled upon several "pins" that suggest the same cleaners I had been using with only some of the cleaners really doing the job.

Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner: Works just fine, no problems there
Magic Erasers: Great on some aspects of bathroom and home cleaning (like removing crayon), but was not making a dent on the hard water deposits.
Kaboom: Great for cleaning hard water off the fixtures, but it take 3-4 applications, so okay but not stellar.
Windex: It works just fine, but I am all ears for something better.

Cleaning Old School

Bathroom:

http://broccolicupcake.com/blog/2012/03/spring-cleaning-natural-cleaning-tips-for-the-bathroom/

Basically you can clean hard water with a mixture of baking soda and vinegar and lemons :)

Oven:

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/03/easy-homemade-oven-cleaner.html

Vinegar and Baking Soda strike again :)

What are your favorite cleaning tips?

Cloth Diapering: Overnight Diapers and Prefold Inserts

A few months ago I wrote a post on the types of diapers I was using, well being my love to shop, deal loving self I have taken advantage of some sale and have now find diapers that work for us. For my descriptions of each type of diaper and how they work you can visit this previous post. Anything else we had we have sold to other cloth diapering mommas.

Cloth Diapers I own as pictured above

   Top Left to Right:

• Infant Sized Indian Prefolds, newborn hemp doublers, Best Bottoms Hemp Inserts, Best Bottoms Overnight Doublers with Stay Dry Inserts, 1 lone Bum Genius All In One size Large (no longer sold)

 Bottom Left to Right:

• Best Bottoms Covers (mint,key lime, and moolicious patterned), Bumkins Covers (Turtle, Dr. Seuss), Flip Covers (Ribbit Green, Butternut Yellow, Mirrow Blue, Albert Print)

Homemade "Flip" Diaper Inserts from Prefolds:

One thing I have done that is kind of unique is jimmy rigged my own "Flip" inserts from prefolds. The traditional prefold as pictured below can be wrapped around a baby and pinned or "snappied" or you can trifold them and lay them inside a cover, my uber lazy self decided that I would sew the two long edged together, turn them right side out and voila, a tube like insert that is super easy to lay in a cover :) (in the bottom right picture I have "stuffed" it with a newborn hemp doubler for my super pee-er.

Then all you have to do is lay the "Flip" insert into the flaps of the Flip or Bumkins cover and you are ready to go. I snap up the diaper just because its nice to have one all ready to go.

What We Use Overnight

Before we started cloth diapering we went through many nights off peed out diapers and and expensive boxes of special "overnight" disposables. Now we may not have the trimmest diaper option for night time but  we have enjoyed the fact that our adorable son has only peed out of his overnight diaper 3 times since February. We use our Best Bottom Covers stuffed with a Fleece topped Microfiber insert called a Stay Dry Insert (this means his skin stays dry to the touch overnight, which helps prevent diaper rash), then we snap a Overnight Doubler underneath it. The Overnight Doubler is the the thickness and absorbent level of one typical Microfiber diaper insert so when you add that all up our son really does have 3 DIAPER INSERTS THICK :) He looks like he has a 2 by 4 between his legs, but it does not bother him and he rocks the "fluffy butt look."

 

Adventures in Parent Raising

I admit I should have known better. I should have realized that anything a toddler can reach a toddler can destroy. They can do so in seconds. The following mess occurred while I was blow drying my hair, STANDING NEXT TO THE KID:) well I should have looked down to notice that my favorite eye shadow (well favorite since I remembered I still had it from college, as it is the expensive mineral kind that does not go bad) was now all over my adorable son.

He was pretty upset about it, a) it was an expensive eye shadow (and the second one he had done this too, you would think I would have learned), b) I had just cleaned the bathroom not even 20 minutes prior, sigh, such is being a parent. So I did the responsible thing and took pictures so at very least I could savor the disaster :)

On the bright side other messes of his are much cuter, and far less destructive.

Kites and Bellies

On thursday G. sent a text saying he was leaving to come home from work, then about 25 minutes later sent another text saying he would be another 15 minutes. Then he arrived at home, smiled when he saw us and asked "where are your shoes?" I put shoes on myself and Mr. B while G. changed out of his motorcycle gear, and then inquired as to "where we were going?" The answer included, "do you want to walk or drive?" In that stores and restaurants are a little far to walk to, that solidified that we were bound for the neighborhood park, to fly a kite :) A perfect activity to offset the absolutely insane hours G. had worked thus far. (50 + hours by Thursday, having started late memorial day afternoon and all Monday night)

My mom's father and her are all about kites, if the weather was suitable for it we would be outside trying to some awesome kites airborne. It had sadly been years and years since this had occurred, so G. bringing home a kite to fly was an extra special treat. Initially Mr. B was uninterested in the kite flying and made a b-line for the playground and left G. and I to fly the kite, while making sure he (Mr. B) did not get any farther away from us than he already was.

Pretty soon he saw what fun he was missing out on and came over to take a look. He soon joined his Daddy in the finer art of kite flying on a lazy summer evening.

In other news I am still enjoying being pregnant with another little boy, even though he is a ninja just like his brother and enjoys attacking my insides to the point that my poor belly contracts in protest. 24 weeks down and a few more months to go.

Carne Asada :)

This is all going to be worth it in less than 2 hours :)

Good thing I had a cute helper

Carne Asada Tacos:

Meat Marinade:

"Mojo Sauce" (food network)

• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 jalapeno, minced
• 1 large handful fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1 orange, juiced
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil

My directions:

Add all ingredients to a blender, way faster than using a mortar and pestle :)

Tacos:

1.5 lb- 2lb thinly slice sirloin steak (I buy whatever is cheapest other than chuck steak), marinated the steak 1-6 hours in the "mojo sauce"

- I dice the meat because it marinates better and cooks faster

Cooking:

Cook the meat until desired done-ness on the the stove and then serve in pan warmed corn tortillas (I like to spray them with Pam to make them crispy)

Garnishes: 

Guacamole, cilantro, white onions minced, lime wedges, salsa of your choice

Adapted From
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/tacos-carne-asada-recipe/index.html

What A Dream Come True

I cannot even begin to articulate how blessed I feel these days. As a family we truly feel like we are seeing all of our dreams come true, it is rather overwhelming, but is definitely something we do not take for granted.

In a world where millions of people struggle to find food shelter. We always have food to eat, and we have a beautiful home of our own to live in (and even more awesome it now has a yard).

My heart aches to know so many people who would love nothing more to be able to have children to call their own and by the end of summer we will have two little sweet boys filling our home with joy.

I am married to my best friend, who as of this weekend drove 1000 miles so that he could be with me this weekend (I was in Denver visiting family and he was previously unable to come, but he rearranged his schedule and drove out there alone as a surprise). I could not ask for anything more in a husband and father of my children.

I have a family that loves and supports me (from both sides too, how awesome is that :)

Dirt, Rocks and Dreams Coming True

Before:

After days and weeks spent discussing how and what we do in regards to landscaping our yard we decided that we were in over our heads and decided to consult a professional landscaper. We were in luck in that our three neighbors all in a row decided the same thing, and so all four of us got a great deal through a fellow neighbor and ward member (church member).

For the past week, our yard has been full of backhoes, bobcat's and dump trucks of dirt. It has been a little boy's dream come true out there for sure. Although its not 100% finished yet, we have a flat yard now thanks to a fancy retaining wall and the tireless effort of the workers who spend days grading and filling.

Basically we are giddy with excitement and cannot wait for them to finish putting in the plants, rocks, bark and the glorious sod (or grass). One week from now if you are having trouble reaching me, I will be lounging in my backyard on my grass without a care in the world :) and you are welcome to come join us.

Almost Done: