Life on the Road

It’s here!

Remember when I told you I was editing my friend Eldon Thompson’s new novel for him (here)?  Well, guess what time it is…

And the trilogy is complete!

I encourage you to check them out if you enjoy fantasy fiction.  Eldon’s a terrific writer, and I’m looking forward to finding out what he’s going to do next.

One thing I’ve been persuing in my quest to be thrifty is changing our laundry soap.

The first thing I tried was a make-your-own-detergent kit from Soaps Gone Buy, to make this recipe:

Powdered Laundry Detergent

1 cup grated Fels Naptha Soap

1/2 cup washing soda

1/2 cup 20 mule team borax

Mix and store in airtight container or bag. For light loads, use 2 tablespoon. For heavy loads, use 3 tablespoons.

Obviously the pre-grated soap and all is more expensive than buying everything totally from scratch, but it seemed like the best compromise for trying it out - and it’s still cheaper than the brand name stuff.

I liked it, especially at first…  But I had the feeling it was just not doing all it could be. 

Did I mention that the water here is disgusting?  It’s very hard, and it’s also nasty well-water with all kinds of yuck in it…

Miss J was still in diapers during the early parts of this quest, and we were having trouble with an amonia smell whenever she wet, as well as varying degrees of diaper rash that looked almost burn-like. 

The consensus of opinion was that this could all be attributed to detergent residue.  Too much detergent, or a “bad” one (for the siutation, at least), so it wasn’t getting rinsed out completely - in spite of a complete extra wash/rinse cycle to re-re-RE-rinse the diapers.

Home-made detergent, as I’d made, is one of the common “good” choices.  Rats.

So I tried ordering some Charlie’s Soap online.  Again, I liked it; again, especially at first.  Over time it seemed to still build up.  And by “over time” here I’m talking about two to four washings, not months or years…

Then I tried Purex, another popular cloth diapering choice.  Same result.

By now I was very frustrated.  I guess that’s not bad, since probably nothing but that level of frustration would have gotten me to shell out for Allen’s Naturally (although it is still supposedly a good value, since you use so little).  And…

It works!

Jewel is out of diapers, so R.T. may just have different chemistry.  But we’ve been using this for over a month now, and I’m still happy.

I also just found another option, though.  Someone from a cloth diapering online community discussed diaper laundry wuth a friend who is a chemist.  She (the chemist) looked at what was out there, then created this recipe:

1 55 oz. box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1/2 cup Mule Team Borax
2 Cups Oxygen Cleaner-She recommends Sun ($5 @ Dollar General)
1/2 cup Simple Green
1/2 cup Calgon Water Softening Powder

Empty all into a bucket and mix together with your hands. Use 1 heaping scoop (1/8 cup) for diapers, 2 scoops for regular laundry. After we’ve used this for a while some have had to increase to 2 scoops for diapers, 3-4 for regular laundry….you will probably have to experiment a bit to see what works best with your water.

I chuckled when in her comments she said “this should work comparably to Allen’s.”  Made me wonder if I shouldn’t just stick with Allen’s…  But someone sent be a baggie full to try, so what the heck. 

I just finished reading a book about tandem nursing (Adventures in Tandem Nursing: Breastfeeding During Pregnancy and Beyond), and although I would highly recommend it, after four months it didn’t really have a lot to say on the subject that was news to me.

I was fascinated to learn, however, that a mama kangaroo makes different milk in each teat!  She makes baby milk on one side for the tiny joey finishing his development in her pouch, and “toddler” milk on the other side for baby’s older sibling who will still stick his head in and nurse.  What a great trick!  Doesn’t God think up cool stuff?

And kangaroos have it down pat for carrying the kids around, of course.  We even name a parenting philosophy/practice after them: Kangaroo Care.

If you’d like to see some lovely photos of mamas in other cultures “wearing” their babies, check out this babywearing slideshow.

Sorry, but that’s all for today.  We’re all sick, so I’m even more behind than usual… 

Hard to believe, isn’t it?  And I’m still just trying to catch up!

I went to the ER Thursday, April 24th when I woke up with chlls and fever (over 102) and an inflamed and swolen breast.  Yowch!  (This on top of the ongoing kidney/UTI situation).

I ended up being admitted to the hosptial, and stayed until Monday evening (who knew they would discharge someone after 7pm!). 

The whole thing was a nightmare of conflicting opinions, fighting for the right to nurse my baby, and uncommunicative doctors.  I think “An Open Letter to Homestead Hospital” will be appearing here soon…  It was really so frustrating that I’ve sort of tried not to think about about it.  But on the other hand, it’s just not going away.

I called my PCP for a follow-up appointment, and was told that I couldn’t get an appointment for months, but that I could come in as a walk-in.  She suggested coming on a Wed or Thurs, and coming early in the morning.  Great.

So I went in that Thursday, and was standing outside at 8:45 am (they open at 9).  That made me #4 in the walk-in line.  Which meant I got to see the doctor…  at 1 pm!  (Not, of course, that they told us that right away so we could go do something in the meantime.)

I got a referral to a Urologist, but just got the run-around from them regarding a referral for a lactation consultant, as well as getting the insurance to cover my medications. 

When I got hold of the Urologist they gave me, it turned out that they were pediatric only.  So I called the PCP back and got another name (after a big hassle).  When I got hold of that office, they said that they no longer take my insurance.  I called th PCP back (grrr!), and they said they would call the insurance for a current provider list and call me back.  Excuse me if I don’t hold my breath.

Frustrated (happens a lot lately, doesn’t it?), I called my insurance company.  They said that I could self-refer to a Urologist, and didn’t need a referral at all! 

So I started calling down the list of Urologists from the insurance company’s website, which they said was the most current list.  Pediatric only.  Doesn’t take that insurance any more.  We can see you at the end of June (that’s 2 months away at the time!).  Doesn’t take that insurance.  We can see you next year(!).  Phone disconnected.  And on and on…

After calling a dozen doctors (I kid you not), I found someone who could see me in two weeks, who was an hour’s drive from my house.  Not ideal, but sounded pretty good after I’d been worn down by all the others!

The insurance has a transportation benefit, so I figured I’d let them pay the gas to drive all the way up there.  Well, it turns out that they will drive the patient and one “escort” person.  If I bring the baby (which I obviously have to, for a trip that will easily be three hours), I then have to bring Nick or Wolf to hold R.T. while I’m with the doctor.  But they won’t allow 2 people to come… 

So we ended up driving after all.

At least we all really liked Dr. J.  He’s built like a football player, shaved bald head, and wore motorcycle boots under his scrubs!  And he was very nice and seemed very competent.

It seems that although the kidney stones aren’t causing any of ther own kinds of problems, they probably are responsible for the recurring UTIs.  As foreign bodies, they make a place where things can hide and grow in there…  Eeew!

So we scheduled an outpatient surgery for Lithotripsy - the ultrasound breaking up of kidney stones.  They can only do so much at a time (since it’s also hard on your surrounding healthy tissue), so he said we might need as many as three sessions to get the three stones taken care of.

We also scheduled another in-office procedure for further diagnosis, as well as treatment, of the recurring UTIs and the constant, but perhaps at this point self-perpetuating, symptoms.

Whew!

Obviously, there’s pelnty more to tell…  

During the Knaus Berry Farm season, I’m making dough for cinnamon rolls, cookies, brownies and bread all day long. Then I smell the fresh baked goodness fill the air as they are baking … Yes, I break down and eat some almost every day. Especially when we try a new item.

We spent several weeks working on a new recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies.

We would make some and I would bring them home for the whole family to critique.  We reworked the recipe twice, so we had three different varieties of the cookie, and, of course, I had to bring some home every time.

As we were tasting the product everyone would comment on the cookies having this taste or that taste. It came to our attention that we don’t usually sit and make comments and comparisons about everything else we eat. That’s when we decided we should compare and critique other foods.

I decided to start with chocolate chip cookies.

We went to the grocery store and picked three name brand cookies (Famous Amos, Keebler, and Nabisco) and the store generic. I reminded everyone what flavor we were trying to pick out: a little vanilla, chocolate chips, and lots of sugar.

The family was pretty well in agreement, so I’m just going to share my ratings on a scale of 1 to 5:

Store generic - (0)  Cookie was floury and not very sweet, not many chips and not really good chocolate flavor. Oh, yea, and the cookie was a little over done.  Jewel wouldn’t eat these after a taste.

Famous Amos - (.5)  Not a very sweet cookie, the chips were better, but not enough.  Jewel wouldn’t eat these either.

Keebler - (1)  A little better cookie and good chips.  Jewel ate these, although she clearly preferred…

Nabisco (”Chips Ahoy”) - (4.5)  You could smell the difference when you opened the bag. Very good cookie and chocolatey chocolate chips.  Jewel really enjoyed these.

I really didn’t expect that big of a difference in the name brand products.

…And I have to add that the Knaus Berry Farm cookies have them all beat hands down - even if I do say so myself! 

God bless you all …

Wolf

Last night we FINALLY had Jewel’s birthday party - I caved and did Chuck E.Cheese, since the weather is either too hot to bear and/or thunderstorms all the time. 

I hate that place - so noisy, so overpriced, bleah!  And the kids all go running off to play, so Jewel didn’t really spend time with them - although SHE was perfectly happy with it, as she also went running off to play (with Papa in tow).

We did a “Super Hero” theme (to include the boys), since Jewel is such a Wonder Woman fan.

The stars of the show were Jewel (in her “everyday” version of her WW costume), and the Wonder Woman cake we made for her:

I saw this cake pan on Kristin’s Etsy site, Ropa Vieja, and knew we had to have it.  Later, in looking for decorating details from Wilton, I discovered that it originally came with a plastic face!  Off I went to eBay, and hunted one down with the face and original instruction booklet. 

Anyone want to buy an extra Wonder Woman cake pan?

So I got the pan, accumulated all the decorating equipment we needed, and laid all the plans.  But in the end, between R.T. and not feeling well, it was Wolf who stepped up and made her lovely.  What a guy!

This morning Jewel’s enjoying playing with her Play Doh birthday gifts … who knew a 3 year-old could spend 5 hours doing something?!

I just watched the neatest video on YouTube, and I had to share it.

 No, it’s not the latest music video….  Or stupid pet tricks…  Or …  

 Actually, it was made by a governmental agency in India, with help from UNICEF and the WHO.  I’m a lot of fun at a party, eh? 

It’s really, really amazing how God made us!

My philosophizing about why so few people would imagine that’s possible will have to wait for another day…

Hi, all!

I haven’t posted for a while because I either didn’t have anything to post about, or something happened and someone else posted it. Now, I have decided to write reviews on video games because no one else in the family is a serious gamer so they won’t steal my posts. 

Rock Band was made by Harmonix, who also made Guitar Hero I, II, and III. I also own GH3 and might write a review on it later, but this review is on Rock Band. In Rock Band, 1-4 people can play: one person can go on a solo tour or get together with friends or even people on Xbox Live to do a band tour.

There a 4 positions on the band: guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. The game box, however, only comes with one guitar controller. Because I own GH3 I can just use the guitar that came with it as my bass, so that works out well.

The drums are my personal favorite. They consist of four drum pads and  a foot pedal, all supported on a metal and plastic frame that you have to assemble, but don’t worry. It comes with directions and is easy to assemble without them. They also come with to real drumsticks that would be just as good on a real drum as in this game.

The guitar that came with Rock Band is very cool. It has fret buttons on the neck, and a strum bar on the body, which you strum as you press the frets. The GH3 controller strum bar made a slight clicking noise every time you strummed, but the Rock Band strum bar is silent. There is also the whammy bar, which bends the sound of your notes making them really cool.

The mic is, well, a mic. You have to have a normal Xbox 360 controller to use the mic, which, in some songs, is also used as a cowbell or tambourine.

The game is, if possible, cooler than the equipment. If you make a band, each person chooses the gender, height, weight, face style, hair style, hair color, eye color, skin color, attitude, name, and hometown. Then you choose the band’s name and starting city. The first time I played I was the drummer, and I maxed out the height and weight (which makes him buff, not chubby), gave him white skin and hair, red eyes, and dressed him only in black, preferably leather, accented with chain armbands and spikes and the like, and gave him a heavy metal attitude. He is awesome.

When you play a  gig, notes (or words, with vocal) start coming down the track to the target bar. Guitars have to press the correct color fret button, then hit the strum bar when the note reaches the target bar. Drums just whack the right color pad, and vocals have to sing at the right pitch, but don’t have to get the words right.

After each song, you earn stars, between one and five. As you get more stars, you unlock new songs, places and things. You also get money, which can be used to get tatoos, clothes, and instruments.  You will often be challenged for things like a van, a tour bus, roadies, and people to lug all your gear around, and that’s not all!

All in all it is a great game that I would recommend to anyone. Rock on!

RME (Revolution Money Exchange) is the new kid on the block, trying to compete with PayPal.

People say their fees are less, too.  (Given what’s been going on in our house, I haven’t had time to research that part of it thoroughly).

But until May 15th, you get $25 FREE just for registering.  (I did it, it worked).

And if you click through here, I get a little something for the referral, too, which will help with the medical bills.  <sigh>

Enjoy! 

Let me start off by saying that my local La Leche League leader is just really cool!  (Check out her website: Kristin Jayd - belly masks, organic produce, photography…).

She recycles old wool sweaters into the most gorgeous diaper covers…  She sells her “booty sweaters” on her Etsy site, Booty Boutique, but check out the one she made for RT (and his Papa, Wolf!):

And furthermore, I also always thought of wool as hot…  maybe that’s just because I’ve typically seen it in sweaters.  :)  Actually, as a breathable natural fiber, it keeps R.T.’s skin much cooler in our tropical weather than the modern “waterproof” fabric diaper stuff we have.

In case you missed it, I am now a huge fan of wool.  I tried raiding our local Goodwill for wool sweaters, to learn the “booty sweater” craft for myself, but I guess in this climate people just don’t have ‘em.

If you happen to be cleaning out your closet, remember us!