Mother's Milk

I got this via email and thought it was cute.

MOTHER'S MILK

Students in an advanced Biology class were taking their mid-term exam.The last question was, 'Name seven advantages of Mother's Milkworth 70 points or none at all.One student, in particular, was hard put to think of seven advantages.
He wrote:
1.) It is perfect formula for the child.
2.) It provides immunity against several diseases.
3.) It is always the right temperature
4.) It is inexpensive.
5.) It bonds the child to mother, and vice versa.
6.) It is always available as needed.
And then, the student was stuck! Finally, in desperation, just before thebell indicating the end of the test rang, he wrote:
7.) It comes in cute containers.
He got an A.

Wordless Wed. Sleepy time

Movin, Movin, Movin

Lucas can sure get where he wants now! Time to start baby proofing again. And he's only 5 months old(he'll be 6 months on the 3rd).

Combination

So I am combining my obsession confession with a green tip.

Books

I have a huge problem. Every time I go to a thrift store I get books for my kids. Every time I go to a yard sale I find books for me. We have books in every room of the house including the bathroom! But you have to admit as obsessions go this isn't really bad (except that we live in a small house). I would say I am usually into two or three books at a time. I just finished, The secret life of CeeCee Wilkes (for book club), am reading, I was a great mom before I had kids and a few issues of The Professional Photographer . I am usually reading a self help book, a novel, and a parenting or photography book. I have also passed this down to my kids. Zoe has a huge collection of her own books and so do the boys and they can't even read. But in today's society I would much rather have too many books than too many video games. Zoe is also reading a few books at a time. She is almost finished with Alice in Wonderland (original not Disney), High School Musical 3 (which is different than the movie), and a chapter book from school. Zach just sticks to the board books still and Lucas is just starting on the cloth ones.

The best green tip for books is to buy used. They are always for sale at thrift stores and yard sales and usually for less than a buck for kids books and only a few dollars for adults.

So in honor of Earth Day this week turn off your electronics and light some candles and read a good book, or two, or three :)

Cloth Diapers

I know what you are thinking... gross. But think about how gross it will be when your great great granddaughter finds your child's diaper. Plus they are soooo much cuter. You can buy commercially made ones, handmade ones or make them yourself. Either way you baby will have the cutest, greenest butt on the block. Plus they even make a kind of mixed breed diaper called a g diaper it is part disposable (biodegradable/compost able/flush able) part cloth. We have some and we use them as covers and plan to use the liners for things like trips or camping. What ever your style you will probably find a cloth diaper that fits your needs and likes.

Facts:from

Environment:
There has been much debate over the impact of disposable diapers and cloth diapers on the environment. The pro-disposable diaper advocates say that the extra water used to wash cloth diapers is just as much of an abuse to the environment as the production and disposal of disposable diapers. But taking into consideration the following estimates you will probably agree that disposable diapers are much more harmful to the environment than cloth diapers.
It is estimated that roughly 5 million tons of untreated waste and a total of 2 billion tons of urine, feces, plastic and paper are added to landfills annually. It takes around 80,000 pounds of plastic and over 200,000 trees a year to manufacture the disposable diapers for American babies alone. Although some disposables are said to be biodegradable; in order for these diapers to decompose, they must be exposed to air (oxygen) and sun. Since this is highly unlikely, it can take several hundred years for the decomposition of disposables to take place, with some of the plastic material never decomposing.
The untreated waste placed in landfills by dirty disposable diapers is also a possible danger to contaminating ground water. Pro-disposable advocates say that cleaning cloth diapers uses more energy and contributes to the load on sanitary sewer systems and potential water pollution. This view really makes no sense if you think about it. The amount of water used per week to wash cloth diapers at home is about the same amount consumed by an adult flushing the toilet four or five times daily for a week. Also, the greater amount of water and energy being used by diaper service companies to wash large amounts of cloth diapers multiple times; the per diaper impact on energy and water supplies is actually less than home washing.
Finally, when flushing solids from a cloth diaper down the toilet and washing the diapers in a washing machine, the contaminated, dirty water from both toilet and washing machine go into the sewer systems where they are properly treated at waste water plants. This treated waste water is much more environmentally friendly than dumping untreated soiled disposable diapers into a landfill.

Happy Earth Day!

Cloth products

Today's tip: Cloth ProductsCloth napkins , kitchen towels, cloth reusable rags and unpaper towels.

These don't have to be fancy or expensive. I took the left over fabric from our kitchen curtains and hemed the edges and made cloth napkins and we use white kitchen towels for wiping up spills and wiping off the counters or table. You can get them on etsy.com and they come in a huge variety of styles. Have fun going green!

Facts: from

Greener: Cloth—CottonIf you are hugely careless in your treatment of cloth napkins and dishtowels (like running a load of hot-water wash for a few barely-soiled napkins), paper can be the more eco-friendly option. But if you approach your cloth towels and napkins conscientiously, cloth is the greener option. Some say that washing cloth must be more energy-intensive than using paper, but electric dryers are actually twice as energy efficient as the manufacture of paper towels. When you factor in all of the components of making a paper towel or napkins (harvesting the material, processing and bleaching it, packaging it, shipping it, stocking it at a supermarket, transportation to and from the store to purchase it, etc). all for a single use, you find that the paper towels and napkins are about twice as energy-intensive and create more greenhouse gases overall. A cloth napkin or dishtowel may go through similar processes to get to your kitchen drawer, but it will stay there for many, many years, rather than being sent directly to the landfill.

Reusable Bags

Todays tip: Reusable grocery store bags. These are great for a few reasons. One they save on how many bags we use, two they are bigger and stronger than regular bags so you don't have to worry about them ripping, and three you can get them to fit your style if you want. They come in a huge variety of prices and styles you can get the cheap ones at the store for a buck or you can spend $60 and get one that says feed and feed a kid school lunch for a year. The options are endless. You probably have sutiable bags just laying around already. Another tip so you don't forget your bags in the car (which I do alot) put them in the front seat buy your purse or set your wallet on them.

Some facts from reusablebags.com

Top Facts - Consumption

Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.
According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion)
According to the industry publication Modern Plastics, Taiwan consumes 20 billion bags a year - 900 per person.
According to Australia's Department of Environment, Australians consume 6.9 billion plastic bags each year - 326 per person. An estimated 0.7% or 49,600,000 end up as litter each year.

Top Facts - Environmental Impact

Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.
Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade - breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.
As part of Clean Up Australia Day, in one day nearly 500,000 plastic bags were collected.
Windblown plastic bags are so prevalent in Africa that a cottage industry has sprung up harvesting bags and using them to weave hats, and even bags. According to the BBC, one group harvests 30,000 per month.
According to David Barnes, a marine scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, plastic bags have gone "from being rare in the late 80s and early 90s to being almost everywhere from Spitsbergen 78 degrees North [latitude] to Falklands 51 degrees South [latitude]."
Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation.

Top Facts - Solutions

In 2001, Ireland consumed 1.2 billion plastic bags, or 316 per person. An extremely successful plastic bag consumption tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%. Approximately 18,000,000 liters of oil have been saved due to this reduced production. Governments around the world are considering implementing similar measures.
July 2003, ReusableBags.com goes live, advancing the mainstream adoption of reusable shopping bags.
Each high quality reusable shopping bag you use has the potential to eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic bags over its lifetime.

Going Green

In honer of Earth Day on the 22nd I am doing a tip for each day of the week that is really easy for everyone to go a little greener.

Today's tip: Reusable water bottles and powder drink mix or juice concentrate. These are really simple tips. If you love bottled water just get a refillable bottle and a filter pitcher. It will also save you money. Another thing to think about is the amount of trash from drink bottles and containers. We use refillable bottles for us and the kids. I am trying to get better at this and not buy juice boxes at all so we just refill their bottles to take to the park or on trips. Zoe actually likes her bottle better than a juice box cause it's Tinkerbell! If you love soda consider buying a 2 liter and filling a bottle to take with you instead it will save on how many bottles go to the dump.

Facts: from

The advent of bottled water sent our already wasteful consumer culture into pollution overdrive and it’s a tremendous task to put the brakes on the momentum of this waste. Here is a list of plastic bottle fun facts that put the magnitude of this pollution into scope.
Plastic bottles take 700 years to begin composting
90% of the cost of bottled water is due to the bottle itself
80% of plastic bottles are not recycled
38 million plastic bottles go to the dump per year in America from bottled water (not including soda)
24 million gallons of oil are needed to produce a billion plastic bottles
The average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year
Bottling and shipping water is the least energy efficient method ever used to supply water
Bottled water is the second most popular beverage in the United States
Although it can be easy and convenient to pick up bottle beverage products the end cost to the environment is staggering. So be mindful when you drink…and remember, friends don’t let friends drink from disposables!

Here comes the sun.....

So we have had good weather for the last few days and took full advantage of it and went to the park, the kite festival and even

Friday we made it to the park with friends and enjoyed some sun for an hour. Zach loved climbing all over the playground and was excited to see his friends. He played in the sand and ran on the grass. I was glad he could get some energy out for awhile. Lucas got roll around on the blanket and have some smiles and laughs with Jaxson.

On Saturday we went to the Kite festival or as Zach started screaming as we approached "the kipe fesable". He got really excited and was running after all the kites. Most were on the ground cause there wasn't much wind :( But Zoe and Zach loved playing the kids games and getting prizes after. Zach took the longest picking his "boingy bouncy" ( half a ball that you flip and it bounces really high). We stayed long enough for Jerry to get tired out after chasing Zach around everywhere (the plan was to tire out Zach). Zach loved the music on the stage and "danced" (ran in circles and shook) for about twenty mins off and on. Zoe was excited to see the kites and disappointed there was no wind. I broke her heart to learn that her parents can not control the weather :( She got over it when we told her we would go home and pop pop corn and watch a movie, she choose Enchanted or Little Vampire or Harry Potter I can't remember she has watched them all for two weeks.

Sunday we went to Enterprise and took some fun pics out in the back. I am going to try to set up some sittings there and was looking to see where we could shoot.

The clothes line pic is also from Enterprise.

Friday's Obsession Confession!

Twilight!

I love this series! I got into it way late and only read them in the last few months but I love them. I have read all four books and the last two in just a week and a half. We have kept the movie from netflix since it came out! I was not totally impressed by it at first but it has definitely grown on me. I still think they should have cast Edward with a different guy but the rest seem to be just right, also they used way too much makeup on the vampires at first introductions. My favorite characters are Alice and Jacob. What can I say I am a gluten for punishment and harsh love stories. But am a true believer that you can't chose who you fall in love with and these stories show how it can all work out even under the gravest of circumstances. Plus I LOVE vampire stories and shows!

I love Harry Potter

I found this link on hulu.com one of my soon to be favorite sites.

Easter Fun

On Easter Sunday we were woke up at 5:30am by Zoe excited to show us what the Easter Bunny had brought her. We tried to get her to keep quiet so she wouldn't wake her brothers. At 6:15 Zach woke up (with Zoe's help) and then got came in sticky from getting into his peeps and so we woke up. At that point we made a rule. From now on she isn't allowed out of her room until 7am, unles one of us wakes her earlier.

Since this year we didn't get an egg dye kit Zoe got to color her eggs with markers. She did a really good job and as usual the artist in her showed through.

Later that afternoon (after a nap) we took the kids to our playground for some fun in the sun. It was great weather and they all loved it. I also wanted to get a new logo shot for my sewing company and was inspired by the leggings on the grass. Zoe got out of her skirt as soon as I was done and had fun climbing with her brother. Lucas loved the swing and was full of smiles as usual. I love the pastel colors of spring they look so cute on them.

My new logo for my sewing what do you think?

Look what I can do!

Lucas has found his feet. He loves to grab his feet and chew on his toes. It is so cute! Zach saw him and of course had to show us that he could do it too. What a goof ball they both are. I of course had to get a few pics of him at this stage and I couldn't resist taking them with his baby legs on!

AHHHH!

So while trying to update my Photography website I discovered that the company I was using to make my slide shows doesn't do it anymore. So I tried to find another company that could do similar for free here is what I found. I did a test one with Lucas' pics but Zoe saw and now I'll have to make one of each of the kids.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

What do you think? I am hoping to finish my site by the end of the week so I will post an update then.

Super Zach

For Easter my mom got Zach some way cute pjs they even came with a cape! All Zach kept doing was asking if daddy would make him fly like "suder man". What is so funny is that we already had proof that he is like Super Man. Do you see the blue blur!

When Zach was a baby we called him Hurcules cause he would pull apart all the baby toys but maybe we should have called him "Kal-El"!

Happy Easter!

On Friday and Saturday we went to a few egg hunts.

Friday Zach went to the church egg hunt for toddlers at the park. He was so cute every time he found an egg he tried to open it to find out what was inside. I had to encourage him to find more before they were all gone. They each got twelve! Then we had to take out all the candy that would make him sick. He was lucky at this hunt there was only a few pieces. He was on a sugar high after eating two eggs of jelly beans in no time at all.

On Saturday my sis and mom came down and we took the kids to the Albertsons egg hunt. It was so funny! They put the eggs down a few aisles and separated them by age. Zach got confused and tried putting groceries in his basket and by the time we told him eggs he only got one. But he didn't mind getting all the broken empty eggs everyone was dropping! I love this age when it is all about fun and not so much about the candy and prizes. Luckily Zoe and Daniel found quite a few eggs they were even nice enough to share some with Zach. He gave them all the chocolate he couldn't eat (which was almost all of the candy) so they didn't mind.

Science

So this year we decieded to let Zoe do a science experiment. We talked about her options she was decieding between testing diapers cloth verses disposible, ice melting, food decaying and I sugested oil spil clean up. She decieded she wanted to test soaps for cleaning up oil. We gathered up the stuff and layed out a plan. She dunked the toy in oil then cleaned it up. We used Ajax and Dawn. And the winner is.........DAWN of course it was inspired by a commercial saying that they use it to clean up peguins after oil spills and I guess that sometimes what you learn on tv is true. She was really pleased with her first experiment and I was proud that she chose something that she was interested in and wasn't really the easiest choice.
She won 2nd place! She was so excited and proud of her self and so were we!