Simplifying with a Baby

Welcome to the July edition of the Simply Living Blog Carnival - With Kids cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. This month, we write about keeping things simple with our kids. Please check out the links to posts by our other participants at the end of this post.

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As most of my readers know, we are expecting our fourth child in September.  I'm sort of having a case of deja vu this go round, as my pregnancy has been quite a bit similar to Sofiya's pregnancy.  My due dates for the two babies are less than two weeks  (and 7 years) apart.  I am pregnant in a new area, again.  For the first time since that first pregnancy, I am not surrounded by a community of friends.  I started feeling movement at the same time in the pregnancies - 12 weeks.  The two babies are/were both super wiggly.  Heck, we even drove to Missouri on Memorial Day weekend with both babies - once to move there and once to visit the friends and family we have there.

But one thing is vastly different with this baby.  With Sofi's pregnancy, I was scrambling to make sure I had everything I would "need" for a baby.  And I felt like I was very conservative with my list of needs at that point.  But the amount of "stuff" that I acquired then was exponentially more than the things that we have for this baby.

Sofi "needed" dozens of outfits for both warm and cold weather.  She "needed" a changing pad, a cradle, swaddling blankets, tons of receiving blankets.  She "needed" a crib with an adorable bedding set.  She "needed" two diaper stackers.  She "needed" a Diaper Genie, with several refills.  She "needed" a swing, a high chair, a bumbo, a bouncer chair, and a stroller.  She "needed" a Pack N Play.  She "needed" a dozen and a half bibs, several baby spoons, 4 or 5 sippy cups for daily use, a Magic Bullet blender, several ice cube trays, and dozens of plastic storage containers to hold her frozen baby food.  She "needed" dozens and dozens of plastic toys that I had bought at yard sales for a quarter each - or less.  She "needed" the correct developmental toys at the correct ages.  She "needed" two baby gyms.  She "needed" the baby bathtub.  She "needed" special oils, lotions, creams, balms, shampoos, and body washes.  She "needed" more disposable diapers and wipes - all the time.  She "needed" lots and lots of books.  It was really amazing how much that little baby "needed".

This baby, on the other hand, needs so little.  He has hand me down clothes from his two older brothers - enough clothes to last until laundry day every week.  We still have the crib, which we put in the side car position, next to our bed.  Mostly, the babies sleep in bed with us, but if I can slip him over into the crib, or lay partially in the crib myself, it gives us a bit more room in the bed.  But, the fancy bedding set is gone.  Instead there are homemade quilts and soft sheets.  The cradle, which my husband slept in as a baby, is often set up in the living room to give me a safe space to place the baby where the kids or dog won't trip over him if I need to run to the bathroom.  But I no longer see the need to have several sleeping areas staged for one baby.  The diaper stackers and Diaper Genie, with its infinite, expensive refills is gone; replaced by much more efficient cloth diaper pails that hold, between two of them, an entire load of diapers at one time.  The infinite disposable diapers and wipes are gone - replaced by cloth diapers and wipes that are a one time investment.  The changing pad, swaddling blankets, and most of the receiving blankets have moved on.  We still have a high chair, but the bouncy seat, Bumbo, and giant swing were replaced by one portable swing that is about 18" wide, 18" tall, and folds to about 4" deep.  I can use it when I want it and stash it when I don't.  We still own a stroller that is compact, light weight, and efficient.  Elliott has 2 sippies for daily use, and I should imagine the new baby will have something similar.  We have about 3 baby spoons.  I no longer make baby food ahead and freeze it. I simply make sure that when we get to that point, I make something each meal that the baby can have too.  If all else fails, there is almost always a jar of applesauce in the fridge.  We now have one small basket of baby toys.  If the baby is bored with those, he can check out some of the older kids' toys.  He doesn't need special developmental toys.  Instead of two baby gyms that take up several square feet of space each, we now have a small, handmade wooden baby gym that stands on any blanket I lay on the floor.  It takes up significantly less space, and is a beautiful addition to our home.  The baby bathtub disappeared before Sofi's first summer.  Instead, our babies bathe in sinks, regular tubs, or with a wash cloth.  We use only one shampoo and body wash combo, and if there is a dry spot or diaper rash issue, we use my own homemade ointment.  We have moved on the dozens and dozens of poorly written books that I amassed for Sofi and, instead, have a nice collection of well written books that we all love, but is far less extensive.  I will say that I own more carriers now than I did when Sofi was a baby, but I also have a wider variety of children to carry in them, as well.  Overall, I have simply come to discover that what we need is actually very little.  What someone else needs us to buy can be an overwhelming lot.

So, a recap, just for fun:

Sofi: 2-3 dozen outfits changing pad cradle swaddling blankets several receiving blankets crib adorable bedding set 2 diaper stackers Diaper Genie and refills swing high chair bumbo bouncer chair stroller Pack N Play 18 bibs 7+ baby spoons 4 or 5 sippy cups Magic Bullet blender 5 ice cube trays 24 plastic storage containers dozens and dozens of plastic toys “correct developmental” toys 2 baby gyms baby bathtub oils lotions creams balms shampoos body washes 1800+ disposable diapers several packages of disposable wipes 100 books 3 ring slings 1 mei tai baby carrier 1 pouch carrier

New Baby: 10 outfits cradle 5 receiving blankets crib quilt crib sheets 2 large capacity diaper pails, no liners swing high chair stroller 6 bibs 3 baby spoons 2 sippy cups 8 baby toys 1 handmade baby gym shampoo\body wash combo 2 dozen cloth diapers 2 dozen cloth wipes 30 books 2 wraps 2 ring slings 1 Ergo baby carrier 1 mei tai baby carrier

I'm sure that in this general list, I've missed a few things, like baby nail clippers.  But in general, you can see that we have come to realize that there is actually very little that we need for a baby.  And it is a much more comfortable feeling to know that I can survive, and help a baby to grow and thrive - without worrying about how to pay for all of that extra stuff.

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Thank you for visiting the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. Read about how others are incorporating simple living and parenthood. We hope you will join us next month when we discuss celebrations!  

• Two Tactics for Simplifying with Twins - Organization doesn't come easily to Mercedes at Project Procrastinot, but here she shares what works for her.
• Balancing - Keeping a work life balance with children is really hard, in her post Balancing, sustainablemum explains how she found her balance after her children were born and how this is about to change again.
• Simplifying With a Baby - Kellie at Our Mindful Life is amused at the differences in what her first baby needed and what her fourth baby needs.
• How we simplify our family life - Lauren at Hobo Mama describes the unconventional ways her family keeps things loose and low-key.
• Flexible Structure - Joella at Fine and Fair shares how her family works to allow for flexibility in their routine to help keep things simple.
• Helping Kids Simplify- At Living Peacefully with Children, Mandy discusses how she helps her kids keep things simple.

 

Mom Hacks Monday: Non-Breakable, Non-Plastic Toddler Dishes

When our family made the decision to stop using plastics as much as possible, especially in contact with our food, one of the hardest things to replace was our toddler dishes.  What can you feed a toddler on that won't shatter into a million pieces if it is accidentally dropped on the floor, but isn't plastic?  And where do you find things made out of it for a reasonable price?  What do you do?  You get creative!

We found that wood or metal would be our best options, but not all metal is safe either.  Many are coated with plastics, lined with bpa or contain things like lead that you don't want your child eating.  But wooden dishes are not always easy to come by, either.  And when we made this choice, we were flat broke and couldn't afford to shop at fancy internet retailers where a single wooden baby bowl cost $12 or more.

So, we began scouring our usual venues - thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales.  We found olive forks in the little used section of silverware that we had inherited long ago, and they were just the size for little mouths.  They were simply miniatures of our nice flatware set, so completely plastic free, but with real tines.  We found demitasse spoons, which are tiny little metal spoons.  We found wooden salad bowls.  In fact, at this point, we've managed to buy several different sets of wooden salad bowls for about $1 for a set of 6 or more.

But what about when you just don't want a bowl?  When the toddler needs plenty of space to see his meat, veggies, and sauce?  We found a great idea in the cooking section of our local department store...

A bamboo cutting board that came complete with silicon, grippy edges and a carved in reservoir that catches the juice instead of letting it run off to the table!  And it only cost us a few dollars.  It washes up easily, doesn't scratch or break, and also doesn't have a rim like most plates, so it doesn't go through the occasional tipping problem that plates sometimes have.  Elliott just loves his "pate"...

even when he is too tired to make it through dinner!

And yes, that is a plastic sippy cup he has.  We have pottery plates, bowls and mugs that he will transition to, but he isn't ready for them yet.  In the meantime, we settle for bpa free plastic for regular use, with a stainless steel sippy cup and a Lifefactory Glass Water Bottle that we use for special drinks or away from the house sometimes.

Mom Hacks Monday: How I Make Laundry Detergent

We've all seen the different homemade laundry detergents floating around the internet.  Some people make liquid.  Some people make powder.  Some make a little.  Some make a lot.  We've been making our own laundry detergent for quite a while now - so long, that I don't remember but I know it's been well over a year.  I've looked at various recipes, and liked and disliked things about many of them.  I've tweaked and adjusted here and there and these days I am quite happy with the recipe we use.  So, I thought I'd share my own edition of homemade laundry detergent with all of my readers!

I started off with the basic soap, washing soda and borax recipe.  I found that it worked well, but that it didn't leave the clothes quite as bright and shiny as I would have liked.  Also, it was a pain in the butt for us to make small batches of laundry detergent all of the time.  We are a family of 5, going on 6, with one still in cloth diapers.  Also, we don't use very much in the line of paper products, so we have about a load a week of extra laundry from hankies, cloth napkins, not paper towels, and cleaning cloths.  So when I saw this large batch recipe, I was excited.  It also contained oxygen cleaner, which I was excited about, because I thought it might help to brighten up the laundry.  However, there were some things that I wasn't over the moon about.

For starters, I don't use toiletries or cleaning products that won't tell me what they contain.  No ingredients list?  Not coming in my house.  So, Zote Soap is out for me.  At a minimum, I don't think I've ever seen an ingredient list.  Also, I don't use Ivory, which is the general replacement, because it contains "fragrance" which is basically a nice way to say, "really nasty chemical ingredient that you actually don't want to know what we make it from, but it makes you smell yummy!"  Our choices are also limited by our allergies, as we can't use soap with dairy, soy, corn or gluten in it.  Yes, all of these things are regularly used in toiletries.  Our pick for soap is Kiss My Face brand Olive Oil and Aloe soap.

Another ingredient that bothered me was the fabric softener crystals.  Fabric softener is just nasty stuff all around.  There are many ways to achieve the same results with less toxic materials.  We'll talk about that a different day.  For today, suffice it to say that I didn't want this in my laundry detergent.

So, I used recipe from How Does She? and omitted the fabric softener and used Kiss My Face soap instead of Zote.  So my recipe looks like this:

1 (4 lb 12 oz) box of Borax Laundry Booster
1 (3 lb 7 oz) box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 (3.6 lb) container of Oxygen Cleaner
3 Kiss My Face Pure Olive Oil Bar Soap, 8-Ounce Bars
4 lbs Baking Soda

The first thing I do is to grate my soap.  I use my good old fashioned crank operated food processor.  You can also use a hand grater like one would use to grate cheese, or a food processor.  Our hand crank processor has an attachment that really powders the soap, which makes it dissolve well in the washer.  I grate one bar, add it and one third of each of the other ingredients to a large tin (the type people gift popcorn in at the holidays), and let the kids stir it well.  Then I do this again for the other two bars.  Then I take a turn mixing and make sure it is all mixed well.  Sometimes I add some essential oils to scent the detergent, but usually not in such a big batch.

My fancy popcorn tin to hold it all.

This laundry soap is what we use for everything - including the cloth diapers.  My mom gave me the handy dandy 1 tablespoon scoop from something she purchases, and it is just perfect to store in the tin.  We use 2 scoops for a large load of regular laundry and 4 scoops for the diapers.  We wash the diapers on warm, but pretty much everything else on cold.  The detergent does really well on all of our laundry.  I'm actually surprised sometimes at the things that easily come out of the kids clothes (and the diapers).  The one difference is that she claims that hers lasts a year to 18 months, while ours lasts closer to 2 - 3 months!  But, our family is nearly three times as big as hers and we wash a load of diapers every other day or so.  Either way, we are saving pretty significantly over the commercial brand we used to buy and not using sls or any other ingredients that we don't like.

Do you make your own detergent?  What recipe do you like?

Baby Steps

Welcome to the April edition of the Simply Living Blog Carnival - Going Green cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. This month, we write about going green and environmentally friendly living. Please check out the links to posts by our other participants at the end of this post.

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When people come to our home, or talk to us about our lifestyle choices, they are often surprised by the amount of sustainability built into our lives.  What isn't sustainable in our home, we have goals of changing.  To be honest, we live at a level of sustainability that most people find intimidating, at least.  But what many people miss about our lifestyle is this:

We didn't always live this way.

Once upon a time, we were standard issue Americans, with a house full of plastic stuff we didn't use or need, trading up for "better", eating processed foods, using coupons to get cheap paper products, getting horrible gas mileage, and on, and on.  So, how did we get from standard issue to where we are now?

We made one baby step at a time.

Because that is the only way to make lasting changes.  We started out, once upon a time, eating salad with dinner every night.  We increased our vegetable consumption.  We didn't buy organic, we didn't worry about GMOs.  We didn't do microgreens.  We bought raw veggies at the regular grocery store, and we made a salad every night.  And it was a big step for us, at the time!  Slowly, from there, we made one change at a time, until we reached the place in our lives where we are now.

At various times, we have made many changes.  Some of them were:

trading in our gas guzzlers for cars with better mileage
trading in houses with lots of extra room for snug little houses
trading in disposable diapers and wipes for cloth diapers and wipes
trading in paper towels and tissues for cloth wipes and hankies
trading in plastic wrap, plastic baggies, aluminum foil and other disposable kitchen products for reusable containers
trading in plastic toys for cloth, wood and metal toys
trading in plastic in our clothing (polyester, nylon, rayon, acrylic, acetate) for natural (biodegradable) fibers
trading in plastic in our home for glass, metal and wood
trading in conventional foods for organic
trading in processed foods for mostly made from scratch foods
trading in commercial cleaners for plant based soaps and water, baking soda and vinegar
trading in commercial laundry soap for soap we make ourselves, using environmentally friendly products
trading in fabric softener for drier balls
trading in 100% heated drier use for using the clothesline as often as possible
trading in traditional light bulbs for CFLs
trading in a lot of our toilet paper use for cloth wipes
trading in disposable feminine care items for reusable cloth products
trading in battery operated items for non-battery operated items whenever possible
trading in standard batteries for reusable batteries in the battery operated items we kept
trading in the big trash can for a small trash can and a recycle bin (our family of 5 uses about 1 standard kitchen bag of trash per week)
trading in throwing food scraps in the garbage for a compost heap
trading in buying new for buying used whenever possible
trading in one time use products for reusable products whenever possible
trading in traditional toiletries for plant based and less toxic toiletries
trading in gardening and household chemicals for non-chemical options
trading in the formula option for breastfeeding

And I'm sure there are many more trades we made along the way.  These changes were made over the course of about a decade, by the way.  Some changes were made in tandem, but the majority were made one at a time.  We made a change until we were comfortable that it was a habit, and we could do it without concentrating on it anymore.  Then we worked on a new change.  And this is how we continue to become more green, every day.  Because the only way to make lasting, meaningful changes, is to make them one baby step at a time.

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  Thank you for visiting the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. Read about how others are incorporating eco-friendly living solutions into their everyday lives. We hope you will join us next month, as the Simply Living Blog Carnival focuses on Daily Lives!

 

 

• Green Renovating: A Lot, A Little, Not So Much - Laura at Authentic Parenting ponders about the many things that have an impact on eco-friendly renovating
• Growing Native in My Flower Beds - Destany at They Are All of Me takes the guilt out of her flower habit by switching from high maintenance flowers to native plants which not only lessens her gardening load, but also benefits the local wild life.
• Baby Steps - Kellie at Our Mindful Life shares how her family became more sustainable, one step at a time.
• A Greener Holiday - Sara from Family Organic discusses the overwhelming amount of "stuff" that comes with every holiday and talks about how to simplify instead.
• Forcibly Green--Obligatory Organic - Survivor at Surviving Mexico talks about her family's evolution from passive to active green and sustainable living.
• Giving It Away - Juliet Kemp of Twisting Vines writes about the role of Freecycle, the giant karmic lending library, in her simple and green living.
• Simply Sustainable - Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children discusses her family's attempts to live in harmony with the earth by living simply and more sustainably.
• How Does Your Yarden Grow - Alisha at Cinnamon&Sassafras writes about an ongoing permaculture project, converting her grass lawn into a mower-free paradise.
• Green? - Is it about ticking the boxes? sustainablemum shares her thoughts on what being green means in her life.
• Using Cloth Products To Reduce Household Waste - Angela from Earth Mama's World shares how her family replaced many disposable household products with cloth to reduce their household waste.
• Going Green in Baby Steps - Joella of Fine and Fair shares some small, easy steps to gradually reduce your environmental impact.
• Are You Ready To Play Outside?! - Alex from AN Portraits writes about gardening, and playing in the dirt, and how it's O.K. to get dirty, play in the dirt, play with worms, for both adults and kids.
• Lavender and Tea Tree Oil Laundry Booster - At Natural Parents Network, Megan from The Boho Mama shares an all-natural way to freshen laundry.

Mom Hacks Monday - My Happy Book

I'd love to introduce you to my house organization binder!  This isn't a new concept.  Search Pinterest and you will find several such binders.  I am sharing my incarnation because it is what I have tweaked to work for me and my family, and I've incorporated some easy things into it that make our days much easier.

This is my happy book!

My happy book usually lives on the kitchen counter, opened to one of the following pages.

This is our daily chores page.  We've got the same list of daily chores that we need to go through day after day, and keeping track of what everyone has or hasn't done at any given point in a day can get a little overwhelming sometimes.  So, I wrote down each of our daily chores, side by side, and popped the sheet into a page protector.  Instant daily to-do list!  I can use a dry erase marker or crayon and mark off what has been done, and erase the entire thing in the morning and start over again.  Bonus, the kids love marking off their own chores and I've slipped in a little sight reading for Sofi.

Our weekly page comes next.  Each day has it's own section marked on the page, with a spot for what we are having for dinner, and a blog post idea.  I also wrote down the weekly chores on this page.  I do laundry daily, but I've sorted the type of laundry I do to specific days of the week so that I can stay on top of it and no one runs out of underwear.  The type of laundry to wash each day is written on the page as well.  I slipped that page into a page protector as well, and I can write in my weekly plans in dry erase marker as well.  Some people would have printed this out in all manner of fancy fonts and made a free download of it so that you could have your own.  But I haven't unpacked my printer yet, so I wrote it by hand on this cute paper (that I've been saving for like 8 years now for the perfect project).

Next, a sheet of lined paper slipped into a page protector, to write my random to-dos on.  I can write and erase easily again.  Just think how much paper we are saving here, folks!

Then I added these awesome hand made tabs!  I have sections in my book for a homeschool calendar and time record, notes, homeschool planning, meal planning, hospitality, finances, garden planning, gift and birthday planning, Christmas planning, contacts, a price book, and animal records.

My homeschool record currently looks like this, although I think I may tweak it a bit when I run out of the weeks I have already printed.  In Ohio, we have to cover 900 hours and several core subjects each year.  So, I use this space to simply jot down what we have worked on throughout the day, and how much time we spent on it.  I don't have to detail it, but I can simply jot down different conversations we've had, etc.  At the end of each day, after the kids are in bed, I add up our minutes for the day and write it at the bottom of the column.  We have a goal of 148 minutes per day, and we typically blow that away.  At the end of the week, I add up our daily totals for a weekly total, and jot it in the corner.  I keep track under that of our year to date minutes, so I add this week's to the week before and jot it down.  Easy peasy record keeping, and easily lets me look back over past lessons and activities to see progress etc, as well.

These are the pages I use most.  My notes section simply houses loose leaf notebook paper for lists, quick notes, etc.  Under homeschool planning, I have my copy of the laws for the state of Ohio, along with all of my correspondence with the school district and our letter excusing us from compulsory attendance.  Meal planning houses calendars where I write what I've planned or made for dinner.  I keep the past months for future ideas!  Under hospitality, I keep track of whom we have invited over for dinner, when they came, what foods they may be allergic to, like or dislike, and what we served them.  Finances houses the budget, gardening is my planning space for what the garden will grow in a year, and theoretically a map of what grew where last year.  Gift and birthday planning has records of who I need to buy gifts for, and what I have bought or made for them.  Christmas planning has a list of who I send holiday cards to, plans for crafting or buying gifts, stocking stuffers, what has and hasn't been bought yet.  My contacts are pretty self explanatory.  My price book compares prices on the same product at different stores or co-ops so that I can tell when a sale is a good sale and if it is worth driving across town to get a different price on a product.  Animal records has a separate sheet for each animal in the house (and eventually on the farm) detailing their personal and medical history, where they came from, etc.

And in the front lives my three ring pencil bag with my dry erase markers, pens, sharpies and a highlighter so they are always easy to find.

So, this is how I keep track of what needs to be done in my life, and where I'm at!  I love my happy little book.

Do you have a happy book?  What do you use it for?

New Farmer's Market Find

Welcome to the August 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Farmer's Markets

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about something new they've learned about their local farmers.

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Our family has been going to the farmer's market for five years now.  We know which sellers never spray at several different markets.   We know which market to hit for which deals, depending on our needs that week.  We know what produce to expect at any given time of year and what to expect to pay for it.

Of course, we know all of this about farmer's markets in Missouri...    Where we don't live anymore.

So, we've had a good time learning about the farmer's markets in our new areas in Ohio.  We are learning about prices, sprays, times, and gardening specialties.  It's been a pleasant surprise to learn that most of the farmers at our local markets grow without pesticides or chemical fertilizers - because that is what the buyers want.

It has been a great experience, to say the least.  One of our favorite sellers is a farm belonging to a local Amish family.  Baby Elliott loves to see the horse used to pull the wagon into town.  During the market he is tied to a nearby tree, in the shade.  Elliott points at him and excitedly yells, "doggy!" every time.  And the best part is that this farm is selling a product we had never seen at a farmer's market before!  In fact, it is a product we had never thought to source locally at all, before.  So we have been quite excited to find it not only local, not only direct from the farmer who makes it, but also cheaper than what we've previously been able to purchase it for!



MAPLE SYRUP!  Local, Ohio maple syrup, made on the farm!  And it tastes great too!

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Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be live and updated by afternoon August 14 with all the carnival links.)

10 Simple Ways to Make the Farmer's Market More Fun for Kids — Lorie at Reading Confetti shares ideas and books to help kids get the most from the farmers market experience.

10 Things I Want To Teach My Daughter About The Importance of Shopping at the Farmer’s Market — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares the ten lessons she hopes to impart to her daughter about the importance of shopping at local farmers markets.

Charmed by Two Small Town Markets — Shannon at GrowingSlower was charmed by two small-town farmers markets while on vacation.

The Olympia Farmer's Market (and a giveaway!) — Shannon at Pineapples & Artichokes and family took a trip to their state capitol to experience a new market. See what they saw, and enter to win a book written about that very market.

On the Hunt . . . At the Farmer’s Market! — Exploring the farmers market by Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy writing at Natural Parents Network — with a scavenger hunt!

Exploring the Market ... Alphabet Style — That Mama Gretchen is in the midst of creating a learning tool for her toddler and it's all about the market!

Unschooling at the Farmers Market — Megz at Aspen Mama loves building memories as a vendor at the Market.

Montessori-Inspired Vegetable Unit — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares links to Montessori-inspired vegetable printables and activities to help your family get the most out of a trip to the farmer’s market.

Markets — How sustainable mum has fitted a monthly farmers market into a weekly food shop.

The Farmers Market In Under An Hour ("Carl Style") — Andrea and family at Tales of Goodness adapt their farmers marketing approach to make everyone happy.

Tales Of a Troubled Gardener — Sam at Love Parenting writes about her dream of self-sufficiency and her lack of gardening skills!

A Few {Of The Many} Reasons Why I Love Our Farmer’s Market — Even though the experience can sometimes be less than peaceful, MomeeeZen shares why she enjoys taking her family to the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings.

Experiencing the Farmer's Market from a Different Perspective — Emily at S.A.H.M. i AM had a great time letting her toddler lead the way at the farmer's market...

Ask A Farmer's Daughter — Abbie at Farmer's Daughter answers questions about her life growing up on a small family farm in New England.

Giving Up the Grocery Store — Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling shares her family's summertime challenge to eliminate trips to the grocery store and rely almost exclusively on local, farm-fresh foods.

Urban farming and fresh food in the city — Lauren at Hobo Mama takes trips to farms, gardens, and markets within reach of a big city.

Market Tip: Get to Know Your Farmers — Justine at The Lone Home Ranger finally gets up the guts to talk to her farmers and learns she is among ardent food lovers.

New Farmer's Market Find — Kellie at Our Mindful Life is excited to make a new find at her new farmers market.

"The Real World" Grassroots Edition — jessica at instead of institution takes some time out to write a love note.

9 Insider Tips for Farmer's Market Newbies — Dionna at Code Name: Mama chatted with a few farmers to bring you some insider information on how to get the most out of your local farmer's market.

The Place Where I Can Say "Yes!" — Erica at ChildOrganics gives you a tour of her favorite vendors at her local farmers market and discusses the benefits of creating community through the market.

Raw Local Milk — Jorje shares her family's field trip to a local dairy. Learn what you can appreciate from a small town farm at Momma Jorje.com.

Italian Secret Vegetable Soup Recipe — Alinka at Baby Web convinces an Italian Farmer & Cook to reveal a precious minestrone recipe and shares it with her readers.

Where do our eggs come from? A visit to Sucellus Farms. — Carli at One Fit Mom takes her family to meet the chickens that have been providing their daily eggs.

Beyond the Farm — Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy and her family enjoy looking beyond the food at the local farmer's market to see the wares of the over vendors.

Magic at the Market — Do you ever take time to really look at the food you eat? Amy at Anktangle enjoys marveling at the beauty (and the utility) of the foods and goods available at the farmers' market.

Farmer's Market Discoveries — Laura from Pug in the Kitchen reminisces about the discoveries she's made at the Farmer's Market throughout the years.

Are You Getting the Most out of Your Farmers' Market? (My List of Not-So-Common "Musts") — Sheila at A Living Family shares some uncommon ways to squeeze even more joy and connection (and yumminess!) from your local farmers' market experience.

Pick Your Own And Eat It — Luschka from Diary of a First Child shares their trip to a PYO farm and the journey from picking to eating her favourite food

Mom Hacks Monday - Easy Glass Jugs

I wrote a few weeks ago about our goal to have a 90% plastic free house, and how we accomplished that goal with very little money.  One of our early challenges was our dishes.  We didn't want to use plastic for the things that we ate.  I drink a glass of orange juice every day, and drink decaf tea all day long.  We had a few plastic pitchers that needed quick replacement.  But the price of glass pitchers can be a bit high.  Even at the thrift store, they can be expensive.

And at the same time, we were trying to feed our child and ourselves good foods.  We did our best to buy hormone and antibiotic free milk.  We discovered a few great companies at the grocery store who produced a great natural milk product, and packaged it in glass jars!  Win, win.  We loved the milk, and the fact that they came packaged in glass was a total bonus for us, since it helped us keep the plastic in the house down and kept it away from our food.  When we finished a jug, we took it back to the store and we got about $1 refund for it!  Perfect!

And then we realized that $1 was a pretty inexpensive glass pitcher for our tea and juice!  So, we saved the jugs and reused them.  They came with plastic caps, but that still made the container at least 90% plastic free.  At least, that is, until the lids broke.  Then Papa, in his infinite wisdom and hardware store knowledge came home one day with giant corks from the hardware store!  Ding, ding!  Winner, winner!!  Now, all of our jug that touched the beverage was plastic free!

We've been dairy free for almost 4 years now, and those jugs are STILL the perfect solution for glass beverage containers.  Best of all, they fit right in the pocket of the refrigerator door, even in the camper!

A (Mostly) Plastic Free Life

Welcome to the June 2012 Simplicity Parenting Carnival: Green Living
This post was written as part of the monthly Simplicity Parenting Carnival hosted by The Lone Home Ranger and S.A.H.M. i AM. This month we are discussing how we find ways to be more natural parents and stewards of the environment. Be sure to read to the end to see a list of the rest of the excellent carnival contributors.
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Many years ago, before my husband and I had kids, we agreed that we didn't want the standard house full of plastic that seems to be delivered with the baby.  It was simply an aesthetic that did not appeal to us.  Both of us, even before succumbing to our environmentalist roots, were more naturally minded, and didn't feel that the house full of plastic was necessary for healthy, happy babies.

And then, we actually had a baby!  And you know how it goes when you have a baby and things start changing...  We never did buy any large plastic equipment for Sofi.  I found a wooden high chair that needed a little work (which I promptly volunteered Papa for), at a sale for $10.  The price was right and the chair was truly beautiful.  So, Papa sanded, varnished and glued and that wooden high chair has served 3 kids so far.  We were gifted a giant plastic swing when Sofi was a tiny baby and we still lived with Papa's parents, but when we moved out, we left it with them and invested in a small travel swing that folds flat.  The legs are metal and the seat is cloth.  It fit better with our vision, and it fit better in our teensy apartment.  But, the toys were, of course, almost all plastic.  The shape sorters, pop beads, balls, blocks, stackers, gyms and teethers - all plastic.  And, we kind of hated it.  We drew the line at logos and characters, batteries, lights and noises, and we generally preferred classic toys.  But, every new stage and toy brought a growing sense of discontent.

And as we grew as parents, we grew more in touch with our natural, environmentalist roots.  We stopped using Johnson & Johnson's Baby shampoos after the news of their containing carcinogens broke, and we began using natural body care products instead.  We stopped using disposable diapers after 6 months and switched to cloth.  We didn't use chemical cleaners at our little apartment, and used soap, water, baking soda, and maybe some vinegar or tea tree oil if it was a tough job.  We got rid of any disposable products, with the exception of writing paper and toilet paper, and the rare piece of foil or zip top bag.  We replaced those products with things that could be washed and reused.  We recycled obsessively.  And we watched our baby chew on those plastic toys.

We learned about BPA and phthalates and how bad they are for people.  We learned about the plastic island in the ocean.  We learned about plastic sitting in dumps, not breaking down completely for hundreds of years.  We learned about off-gassing.  We learned more about the world's obsession with petroleum products and how much this raises our carbon footprint.  We learned about all of these things, and there sat our precious little baby, with a plastic ring in her mouth, happily gnawing away.  We looked at the amount of plastic in our home.  And we looked at each other and our level of discomfort with the situation.

And we decided to make a change.

We decided that we would get as far away from plastic in our home as possible.  We decided that we would stop buying plastic toys.  We decided that we would slowly replace the plastic in our home.  At first, the goal was simply to get rid of as much plastic as possible.  Soon, we narrowed our definition and aimed for a 90% plastic free home.  And at that time, in that place, it seemed next to impossible.

No longer in our tiny apartment and still able to reach our goal of 90% plastic free home!

We had a lot of roadblocks in our newly idealized journey; things that may have caused the faint of heart to turn tail and bury their heads in the sand.  But Papa and I are nothing if not adventurous.  So we plunged bravely ahead!

Wooden swing, wooden play house, wooden wheel barrow, and metal truck.

One major road block was that we didn't want to cause a further strain on the environment by dumping our plastic things in a landfill and buying new plastic things.  So, we made the decision that we would only replace items as needed with non-plastics, except for a few key items.  So, when something broke, or had reached the end of its useful life, we would replace it with an item that was non-plastic.  We got reusable grocery bags, and stopped bringing plastic home.  We examined everything we bought and truly thought about it, for the first time.

Wooden ladder and wooden "climbing structure" next to our clothesline full of cotton.

The key exceptions being that we began replacing dishes and toys as soon as we could.  We did not want things that touched our food, or went into our baby's mouth to be made of plastic.  She was still young enough at that point that replacing the toys happened easily, albeit slowly.  Babies naturally go through stages with toys very quickly.  The six month old can't use the shape sorter yet, but the one year old can.  So, when new toys were bought, we bought non-plastic.

Wooden play kitchen and wooden bookshelves made by Papa - filled with wooden, cloth, metal and cardboard toys and baskets.

Another road block was that we were completely, flat broke.  We lived every month down to the penny.  There was nothing extra to go around buying expensive wooden toys with.  So, we made the choice to buy less toys that were better quality.  This meant that I couldn't go to a garage sale, spend $3 and come home with a room full of toys anymore.  But it meant that if I was careful, I could find the Melissa and Doug stacking train at a garage sale for 75 cents.  It meant that we began making more of our own toys to be able to afford them.  And it meant getting creative about what qualified as toys.

Wooden table and chairs made by Grandpa, and other assorted wooden, cloth and cardboard toys.

Our project took a lot of time...  A lot of time.  It took a lifestyle change - much like a diet, if you will.  It took a lot of initial conscious thought.  And then, one day, we looked around and realized...  We had reached our goal!  Without thinking about it anymore, without agonizing over every decision, without spending a fortune, we had created a home that is 90% plastic free (or maybe more - exact measurements are hard)!

Our dining room, complete with two wooden high chairs.  The plastic in the front corner is our birth kit and pool, as this picture was taken when we were getting VERY close to having our second baby at home.

We think our home is an aesthetic joy.  It is warm and inviting.  It doesn't have a lingering plastic smell.  We don't worry, even subconsciously, about what our kids are putting in their mouths when they play.  We have learned to be even more careful with our money and the amount of things we accumulate.  We are better stewards to our environment.  And we are happier because of it.

Our living room, full of wood framed furniture covered in cotton fabrics.

***As a side note, the pictures here are of our house in Missouri.  We moved in to our camper (even tinier than our tiny apartment) in April and we are working to bring our non-plastic aesthetic to our home there.***

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Thanks for reading the Simplicity Parenting Blog Carnival! We hope you’ll take time to read these other great contributors’ posts:

• Almost Crunchy - Molly at Molly Makes Do writes about her life as "Almost Crunchy" and the baby steps she's taken to get from "Not at All" to "Almost."
• A (Mostly) Plastic Free Life - Kellie at Our Mindful Life reflects on the recent intrusion of plastic into her usual plastic free home.
• Slowly Greening Our Home - Dana at Urban Hippie Momma has slowly reduced the amount of paper waste in her home with a few simple practices.
• Being Green - Anne at Raising Sweet Grace shares her tips on being a green parent.
• Back to Basics - Justine at The Lone Home Ranger channels her greatgrandmother’s cleaning tips to make her household healthier, more frugal, and more earth-friendly.
• It's Not (Always) Easy Being Green - Emily at S.A.H.M. i AM discusses the little things her family does to be more eco-friendly but admits it's not always as easy as it sounds.

Thanks to all the fabulous writers and readers for being a part of our simplicity parenting community! Stop by The Lone Home Ranger and S.A.H.M. i AM to see how to join us for a future carnival.