Farmer Joe

I have to give credit where it's due. The credit is over due to my kid Joey. He's my oldest son. He's nine years old. He's a huge help. I'm not sure my life would be as happy if we didn't grab him five years ago and make him ours. I love this kid.

Two years ago in first grade he came home from school with a cup of dirt and a seedling Mammoth Sunflower. He asked me if we could plant a garden, so we did. This year my back is a horrible mess. Lifting is not allowed.  The prep work for the garden has been a longer than usual project. There have been times walking makes my entire body act like a Jell-o mould.

Well Joey is the man. He went with me to Home Depot a month back and we got a couple raised garden frames, a seed starter kit and I have done a lot of nothing. He helped load the frames into the car and helps me care for the seedling daily.

Well today is the award day for this kid. He needs a metal. Joe built the frames by his self. The frames are in the yard. One of them he and I pulled and prepared all the grass and weeds out of. OK I laid on my side on a blanket pulling roots after he yanked all the growth out. The whole time he's complaining of a headache but wont take my advice to go inside and take a break. He's a work horse! Two frames and 16 square feet of work done. All because this kids LOVES to garden.

JOEY YOUR MOM IS SO PROUD OF YOU. I LOVE YOU!

Fuzzibunz

Fuzzibunz are just that fuzzi. These pocket diapers have a fleece lining making them super soft on my baby's duff. These diapers come in lots of color choices and a few cute prints. As a pocket diaper they are pretty good. Inserts are easy to use but often to wide for the crotch. I have found a hemp insert that is contour that works well called Joey bunz by Baby Kicks Hemparoo. These diapers are awesome if your baby has a rash.  My boys are extremely fair and rashes are common. This diaper with out the use of any diapering creams absorbs and wicks moisture away from baby's duff efficiently. Usually the rash is gone not even as long over night.

The diapers are about $20 each and a Joey bunz is about $5-$6 each.

The only trouble I have with the Fuzzibunz is they are a snap diaper. I like to use my diaper snug and I have caused runs near the snaps. I always machine wash and line dry. I find my self needing to strip this diaper more often than other diapers I use. I'm not sure if it's because of the fleece lining or that I use them with hemp inserts. I use them during the day although they are decent if you need to use them over night.

BabyKicks Joey-Bunz 3-Pack, Medium

Fuzzi Bunz One Size Cloth Diapers 6 Pack Gender Neutral Colors

Something kind of fun happened in my kitchen

So I'm really geeky. I have a pot I grow basil in in my kitchen window. My two winter surviving plants had babies.

Today Declan is wearing Kushies Ultra Diapers,and I just wanted to share

 

I was turned on to Kushies by a mom I work with. She was like me in the desire to stay home with her baby as long as possible. Neither one of us have the luxury of being stay-at-home moms living in the Bay Area. She was desperate and another online mom took pity on her and sent her some used Kushies. Not knowing about all the choices or even were to shop I took to the Internet and discovered Kushies were pretty cheap. I ordered five for $55 at Walmart.com.

At first I hated them because they made my baby have a butt like Grimace. It wasn't until Sonny weighed about 20 pounds before I started to use them pretty regularly. They seem towork better on a larger baby. On the other hand, Kushies are by far the easiest of my stash to use. Kushies Ultra are an all-in one diaper that is unique in design since it has a long flap inside.The flap works as a built in doubler. There are no pockets, and you can machine wash and dry them. Often they are the diaper I put in the diaper bag for daycare because they work simular to a disposable diaper. On the other hand, the flap is part of the reason they are so bulky. This makes the Kushies Ultra good for a long car trip but bad for a playdate in the park because of its limited movement.

When you buy them they come in a package of five. The prints are neutral and plain. We got a ducky, a swirl polka dot, a light green, a light yellow and a white. Over the four years I have owned them I have lost a couple and chose not to replace them. On a scale of one to five they are a three. I would recommend only if you were strapped for money, because they are less expensive than disposible diapers and not as cute or baby firendly as my other cloth diapers.

I should mention Kushies has some awesome products, including flushable diaper liners that make getting rid of a poopy effortless. I will be reviewing their training pants in a later post.

Kushies - Reusable Ultra Diapers for Toddlers - 5 Pack

Kushies Flushable Biodegradable Diaper Liners

Checking in with my goals

1.This years garden will be fabulous.

Early stage is looking good. I can't wait to get some containers and for the final frost to be over.
Burpee 72-Cell Greenhouse Kit - Seed Starting



2. I will have chickens.
I still don't have Warren on board with this idea. I have done a lot of research.

3. Learn to compost.
I started about two weeks ago. So far I think I'm doing well.Time will tell.

Exaco Trading ECO-2000 2.4 Gallon Kitchen Compost Waste Collector

4. Read more watch TV less.
This is still a struggle. I am trying out the Kindle on my Android.
Motorola DROID X Android Phone (Verizon Wireless)


5. Run more.
I have to wait for a thumbs up for the doctor about my back.

6. Reduce house hold clutter by 50%.
Not as far as I'd like to be. Little by little bags of out grown clothing and shoes have been leaving. Next is the boxes in the garage. Pics to follow.

7. Take family to the snow.

So I got almost got them all to the snow. Warren and Tanner were home sick.

8. Visit 3 state/national parks with the kids.
Columbia is our first park. We drove past it today. I told them about it and now they are ready. Now to wait on the snow to melt and spring to get here. Oh yeah and pick two more parks.

9. Keep strong with eating and feeding my family healthy.
Started off strong. I slipped this last weekend with Sonny's birthday. Time to start up again. More healthy dinner blogs to follow.

10. Get Sonny to sleep in his own bed.
Ok he is not in his own bed every night but he is dry almost every night. We finally ditched the bottle. (Given to him the first time at  1 1/2 years to attempt to reduce breastfeeding a little while we expected his brother. It back fired. DON'T GIVE BABIES BOTTLES!!!!!!)

The Perfect Microwave Egg

A tip from a mom who hates a mess:

One egg. One over sized coffee mug, with rounded bottom is preferred.

Lightly spray bottom of cup with cooking spray. Crack egg into cup.

Add a splash of milk.

Lightly beat egg enough to break yolk.

This is what it should look like after you beat the egg.

Microwave for two minutes uncovered.

Dump egg on plate and enjoy. Warning: Egg will be HOT.

Wont be my best post

I'm dead tired, yet awake and not able to sleep. I can smell my steal cut Irish oatmeal cooking in the kitchen. The smell woke me up. It smells like the baby poop my little ones would make when they first started eating Cheerios. But since I was asleep, the smell confused me. I had to find it.




It’s 5am. This is so not cool.



The only other creature stirring is Pumpkin, our cat. I walk through my pitch black house. My room smells, the hallway does not. I go between the two and keep trying figure it out. Finally I figure out it’s the oatmeal. It took me getting out of my warm bed to figure it out. Yay, I'm awake.


Today I'm sure will be packed full of fun. Kids go to school. I go to traffic court.

I got two tickets this year. The first is taken care of with online comedy traffic school. Talk about boring. The second one, I feel like I was set up. Like the cops were out to get me? No, but on my way to work in September, I was the only driver on the road, and I suppose I paused at a stop sign instead of stopping. Cop follows me. In fact he follows me so closely I couldn't see his head lights in my rear view mirror, let alone whether he was an officer. I get nervous when followed so closely, so I drove a little faster. When I did, he flipped on his lights.

The "courtesy" notice was never sent to me. Being the responsible person I am, I go down to the court office to find out why. I find out it’s due in two days and I’m broke. The silver lining is my check is coming in. The clerk gives me the citation number, but when I go home to look it up, I can't access it on the website. They do maintenance on this site EVERY DAY. So I could not make the $280 payment.
Finally I get the bill, which includes a $300 fee just for fun. I had money for the $280 payment, but now I have to beg to waive the $300 fee. Wish me a miracle please! Do I get my kids shoes and lunches for school, or pay the city because… well, I guess because they are broke and my taxes aren't enough.
After court I get to go to work. The guy that closed my office last year is coming in. We are told we will be getting pizza. I'm sick thinking about that. Who is going to fly out from New Jersey for pizza? I'm sure he'll mention my office’s attendance record and slipping sales. Pep us up with some kind of phony motivational words, then the rumors will spread about how we have X amount of time to show them what we got or our heads will be on the chopping block.

Oh, corporate sales pressure, how I love you so. The comfort you give me with your security and humanity just fills me with joy… Did I mention I can't sleep? Thanks!