Life on the Road

Miss J has apparently decided that she has no interest in being potty trained by the time the new baby comes, which had been my goal.

In the interest of everyone’s sanity, I have decided to let the issue go, and go back to the potty training philosophy that actually matches the rest of my parenting model:  She will be ready at some point, and then it will happen naturally.

One thing I decided, though, was that the $40/month or so for disposable diapers had to stop - especially in light of the fact that it would shortly be doubling.  At that rate, it seemed like I could pretty quickly amortize the hefty-seeming startup cost of making the move to cloth diapers.

I did cloth with Nick for a while, but used a diaper service.  I just tossed all the diapers and (cloth) wipes into the pail, and once a week (or was it twice?) they came by and swapped out the dirty ones for a bag of clean ones.  POOF.

No “poof” in Homestead, Florida, I’ve come to understand, so I’m on my own.  I’ll actually have to deal with rinsing stuff off in the potty, and laundering it all … and of course with our electric dryer, I’ll definately want to be line-drying something as thick as diapers - which means I’ll need to have a larger stock and/or do laundry more frequently, since the laundering process will take longer.

It didn’t take me long to get a little overwhelmed…  There are SO many options out there these days, things that weren’t even dreamed of when I did this over a decade ago!

Prefolds, Fitted, Pocket Diapers, AIO, Bio-Friendly, DSQ, bleached or unbleached, knitted soakers, pins or clips or Snappis…  Whew!

I’ll keep you posted - and in the meantime, all advice is welcome!

Check out this great post on ParentHacks for making Tye-Dyed Tissue Wrapping Paper!

Not only does this make beautiful wrapping paper, and make it inexpensively, but looks like a fun project to do with the kids…  (Who do you suppose will have more fun, me or them??)

Not that I hve a lot of snowy/rainy days to occupy this winter, but this should prove a more appropriate way to get our snowfake-cutting symmetry lessons in!

I’m a big fan of La Leche League, and I’ve often wished there was more I culd do to support them than just my annual membership dues and the occasional volunteer project.  Well I just got an email from them listing a whole bunch of creative ways to help!

Some are the now-popular internet choices like shopping through their affiliate links.  Some are really simple and free - like using a certain search engine!  And if your employer participates in the CFC, or matches funds, you’re in really good shape! 

Check out this list:

• Buy LLLI intimate apparel and baby clothes at www.llliclothes.com. This is our own brand, developed  using LLLI Leaders and volunteers .

• Combined Federal Campaign - New Campaign Number
  If your employer participates in the CFC, please select La Leche League International (CFC # 10495) to support LLLI. Ask your human resources staff to see if you can do this.
• Shop at Amazon.com and Support LLLI
  Visit the Freepledge.com site and shop as you normally would at Amazon, and support LLLI at the same time. It’s easy! Holiday idea: Festive purchases you’d be making anyway can help LLLI. Learn more.. .
• iGive.com
  This program generates funds for LLLI when you purchase items from a long list of companies, many of which you may already be patronizing! Holiday idea: Festive purchases you’d be making at many websites you already patronize can help LLLI. Learn more…
• Good Search
  There is new and easy way to raise money just by searching the Internet with GoodSearch.com. It’s simple. You use GoodSearch.com like any other search engine — the site is powered by Yahoo! — but each time you do, money is generated for LLLI. We hope that not only will you use GoodSearch as your main search engine from here on out, but will also pass this message on to your friends and family. The more people who use this, the more money will go to LLLI.
• i.think inc.
  Through this program, you fill out confidential surveys and earn money for La Leche League. Learn more…
• LucyShares
  This program is part of LatchOn.org, and connects needy LLL Groups with sources of materials. Learn more…
• Matching Funds
  Does your employer match funds when you contribute to a nonprofit organization? Check our list of companies that match funds to see if you are able to increase your giving in this way!

And if you are (or know!) a breastfeeding mom, or expectant mom, the place to start is La Leche League.  Lots of online resources, plus a way to search for a local meeting near you.

I wanted to share how proud I am of the power bill I just got…  but I guess I need to begin at the beginning.

The house we live in is provided by Knaus Berry Farm for the person doing the job Wolf is doing.  Instead of that much more salary, they give us a place to live. 

They keep the power bill in their name, and we just write them a check for it every month.  This means that the bill includes the cool historical data like “this month last year” - with the previous occupant’s usage.

 When we first moved here, we were warned that - especially not being accustomed to the weather - the power bills would be astronomical.  They said that the guys who were in here before us spent about $300 a month!  Whoa!

There is just no way I can put $300 a month into the power bill, so we worked like mad the first month we were here (before the Berry Farm opened for the season) doing the structural things we could do to help. 

• We shelled out $250 for a new air conditioner unit in the main living area.  They had a big old thing in here that was drawing WAY more power than was needed to cool the space, plus it was old and inefficient, PLUS it had the old school kind of thermostat so that the fan ran all the time while the compressor cycled on and off as needed.  The new one is half the wattage, plus it’s an Energy Star model with a great thermostat system.  We figured that would pay for itself really quickly.
• Wolf (who is afraid of heights), and Nick (who is just learning to be a handy guy) climbed up on the roof and installed three turbines to let the hot air out.
• We installed a door in an open doorway between the part of the house that’s climate controlled and a room that’s not.
• Wolf switched out a badly rotted out window in the master bedroom with one we removed from the living room wall (here’s that story, if you missed it).
• Caulk, expanding foam, weatherstripping, thresholds…

I boldly… BOLDLY! put $150 in the budget monthly for the power bill.  It was a bit of a nail-biter…

Of course we did all the usual power-conserving things:

• Turning off lights when you’re not in the room
• Setting the a/c thermostat a degree or two higher than you might really like
• Using the ceiling fans rather than (and in addition to) the a/c when possible, to minimize a/c usage
• And so on.

The first two months came in just under $150.  I made it!

Needless to say, I quickly decided that wasn’t good enough.  I want to be a better steward of the money that Wolf is working so hard to earn.  But what else to do?

God provided the answer, of course, and the blogs and newsletters I read regularly all started pointing out quirky little ways to save power, all of which we pounced on!

• A single ceiling fan running all the time, rather than switched on and off at need, costs an extra $7 every month.  And they don’t actually DO anything unless you’re in the room feeling the breeze, so it’s just wasted.  We because more vigilant fan-turner-offers.
• Energy vampires are loose in your home!  Everything with a little green “ready” light, everything that remembers your stations, or the time, or anything else… is using power to do that - often a surprisingly high percentage of the full “on” power.  To simplify the vampire-slaying, I plugged things in groups into power strips (themselves vampires - ack!).  Now with the flip of one switch I can slay the stereo, DVD player, and video game consoles, and with another I can nullify my computers, printers, and accessories.  And I do, overnight as well as when we’re leaving the house.

But the biggest thing I have been doing battle with is ELECTRIC APPLICANCES!  [insert horror movie music]

There is no natural gas service in this area at all, and this house doesn’t have an outside propane tank, or any other option.  Not owning the house, getting one installed doesn’t seem like the way to go, either.

• I really prefer cooking with gas, so the electric stove/oven is a struggle for me anyway, not to mention costing more.  But nothing I know of to do about it, either.
• I don’t know how much power the washing machine uses, but I don’t suspect it’s too huge, relatively.
• “Luckily,” as odd as that sounds, the refrigerator gave out, and the owners replaced it.  It’s still not wonderfully efficient, perhaps, but I have no doubt it’s far better than the old clunker was.
• The water heater is, I susect, a major, major power theif, that I also have no idea how to improve.  It’s old and corroded on the outside, so can’t help but be that way on the inside, too, drastically reducing the efficiency of the already-expensive process of heating water with electricity.  (The water here is horrible, so the lime and mineral deposits are plentiful).  Maybe I’ll have some more “luck” and it will need to be replaced, too! 

Then, there’s . . . The Dryer

Yes, it’s the grand-daddy of expensive electric heat generation, and you can just watch the wheels on the power meter fly when you push that “On” button.

When we finally got our things from storage, I was eager to put my folding drying-rack to use.  In this humid weather I can’t rack-dry everything, since it takes so long.  I’d like to find a place to string up some clothesline to make it easier to dry linens and things - but again, the weather is somewhat limiting, and I’m not sure were to go with that (we’re having a weird, brief rain storm again as we speak, even though it’s 82 degrees outside and I’m running the a/c!).

So I’d say I’ve cut our dryer usage to somewhere around 1/3 of what it was.

It’s hard to compare apples to apples, of course, since other factors get involved each month.  There were actually a couple of days last month - for the first time since we arrived in Florida - when we didn’t have to run the a/c, which of course makes a difference…  But I’m still awfully excited about this:

$86.95

Woohoo! 

That’s just 23 kWh per day, and this month’s usage last year (for two bachelors who were working 80 hours a week the whole time) was 50/day!

So it’s possible to do far more than I ever realized, with the cumulative effect of all those “little things.”  Now, where do I go from here??