Diaper stink

For a few weeks now my DH has been commenting on the stinkiness of our diaper pail and our diapers when they are soaked. Sometimes this has been a bit unavoidable, for instance- smelly poops. Most of the time the issue is urea. It has been growing stronger and stronger. Our prefolds would smell but our pockets would reak! I've been reading and reading about what the issue may be.

Part of the problem is that I'm never near the washing machine to check to see if all the detergent has rinsed out by the final rinse. IF it isn't we have detergent buildup and that is a horrid problem.
I thought that bleaching them might help, but bleach can be very damaging to diapers- especially to the synthetic fabrics. Since I highly value my PUL I don't want to damage it. Also, since I have one new diaper, two new covers, and several borrowed items, I don't want to take the risk. 

Enter oxygen bleach. I'm sure that you've heard the wonders of Oxy Clean. That was not going to work for us because of the additives. So, Sun Oxygen Cleaner was the one to try. I found it at Walmart.

Combined with an extra rinse, I was anxious to discover if Sun would do the trick. (The sun does prerform miricles on cotton diapers but I had bigger problems this time.) I took the diapers out of the dryer, and ... they still smelled like nothing, which is a good sign.

The test took place last night through this morning. (I forgot to wash the pail liners so we continued to have a smelly diaper pail.) I brought the baby to bed with me at 6:30 am. (I feel entitled to sleep in on mornings when he as wakened both  himself and me more than 2 times between the time that I go to bed and my DH starts his day. Last night we were up 4 times during that time span.) No urea smell yet. Hope begins to rise. Usually after all night in a pocket I can already smell the urea. After playing in bed from 7:30 till 8 we jumped out of bed and sauntered over to the dresser, almost no smell! Hardly a whiff! Hurray! What a way to start the day!

Sun Oxygen Cleaner

Exercise during pregnancy

There are several reasons to exercise while pregnant. This may be one of my favorites. This is 4 weeks before Little J was born.

In addition to riding my bike, I walked, swam, participated in my 3/4 PE class (playing capture the flag at 8+ months pregnant is not very comfortable), stretched, and did yoga.

Finally starting again!

There are a lot of things that I said I'd start doing again after we got back from vacation (after Little J was 8 weeks old). I stopped doing a lot of things once I realized how much work a newborn is.  I have also had a lot of company in the past few weeks which makes somethings (baking)  easier and somethings (cleaning) harder.

So, I have once again started yogurt. I had some frozen fruit up to add to it, put it went back in the freezer  when making fajitas last night because we needed the space in the fridge.

I once again have sun tea.

I am making kefir juice today (if the water kefir is still good).

I have bread but need to make buns and begin to soak things again.

Cloth diapering has been going really well. I do need a few  more wipes though because I run out of the nice ones first and fleece is to thick. I use those as liners.

I have been keeping up with the kitchen for the most part- harder with company sometimes but they an also help.

We dehydrated carrots to make carrot chips and because it has been so hot that I wasn't willing to heat up my house to can them. (We have daily been having heat indexes of 105*. 

I have a next on the dehydrate list- halved cherry tomatoes from my tiny garden.

I have a stack of cooking magazines that I need to do something with. I'm not sure yet what.

I need to pull out my housekeeping binder, look at my cleaning shedule, and see if it is practical.

I also need to start putting Little J down for naps so that he doesn't get over tiered on some days and sleep and fuss the entire next day (he never sleeps for very long those days. However, he is starting to nap in his crib, rather than on me or in his bouncy seat. So we are making progress.

I need to start running and swimming again. Though I am almost down to my goal weight.

I need to start pumping so Little J has something to eat when I am at school.

My "need to"s still out weigh my accomplishments, but Little J is happy (overall), healthy, and growing well; and I am not only sane but enjoying most of life. If only it weren't so warm to we could get out more! Now I see why people with babies get little done and believe that maternity leave should be longer than 6 weeks even if it is unpaid! 6 weeks is ridiculously short considering what baby and mom need!

Vitamins

I am rather skeptical about vitamins, especially multivitamins. This is particulalty true about convention a multivitamins. I've always wondered if there was really any merit to them or if I was just buying expensive urine. After doing a little research i decided that with my synthetic vitamins that was likely what I was getting. Plus, the idea of adding vitamins to my body without the proper ballance of vitamins needed to metabolize them was not appealing.

In November I started taking New Life prenatals. They are small green round bale looking pills. I loved that they were easy to swallow. Not a strong point for me. However, I was supposed to take nine of them a day. I only took four. I don't really think that they were worth the price.

I have also been interested in trying New Chapter as they have had good reviews. However, since I have had good experience with Shaklee and have had recommendations from a few of my friends and relatives, I decided to try their vitamins. I also found out that they are also all non-synthetic before ordering.

I ordered them on Saturday. They arrived on Wednesday. Sweet. I was pleasantly surprised to see of that the multi (vita-lea with iron) is green. I was not so happy with the size of the pill. It is enormous. Well, maybe it is the same as the Walmart One a Day knockoffs. BUT, one enormous pill is only half of the serving. I'm supposed to take two.

We'll have to see. So far, I'm happier with Shaklee.

A Clean Home

I've been fed up with my weekend cleaning sprees for the whole winter now, if not since school started in August.  At first I thought, "I work full-time and do real food. I don't have the time each day to clean too."
Consequently we (or I) spend the whole day Saturday cleaning. Really, that is not a problem at all when the weather outside is dreadful and there is nothing to do. However, when it is nice out, or i have plans, or we want to get a project done, it is a problem. You can catch up on seven loads of laundry when you are running errands or out of town for the day!

Eventually I''d had enough. It started with doing a load of laundry each night (in theory). We were also talking among the teachers about chores that some of the other teachers' kids have to do (even the 2 year olds). Growing up we had always had a chore chart. I had also been reading about a cleaning schedule of a blogger that I follow. I thought, "We won;t have that much to clean since it is just the two of us right now. We won;t have to do all of those things daily. I bet if I got in the habit of doing it every morning/afternoon/ evening it wouldn't be so bad eventually.  Plus that way I can have a list of things that I need help with when Baby comes. I can just cross of the ones I've done with dry erase so I  know what I need help with." So it started.

That was two weeks ago. We had a snow day and I sat down with my computer, searched, thought, and typed up a few lists and charts. Now I have daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal cleaning lists. I also have a weekly graph where I write down meals, appointments, and cleaning tasks.  I also put my daily and weekly list in the front of the binder that I keep everything in so that I don't even need to open the binder for a reminder.

That was two weeks ago. Our house has been clean at some point every day since then. Sunday evening no cleaning gets done. It makes for a rough Monday morning since I leave for work earlier and have more clean up to do, but asi es la vida. Really, it is WAY better than before. I enjoy coming home more, so does my husband. I like my house when it is clean. Now I can do things on weekends like shop for carpet for the baby's room, exercise, craft, and visit. Yeah!

We'll see if it continues, but it is much easier now than it was at first, and my husband works harder at it too.

What is next? Keeping track of what is in my fridge so that food doesn't go bad. Plus as the DH said, "You need to make hoggies for your next project."

Curtains- Finally a dark bedroom!

         My husband and I live in town. We are blessed to live in a location that is wonderful for walking or biking errands. (I never drive during good weather unless I’m coming home from out of town).  However, this blessed location also comes with lots of street lights. We have three streetlights around

the house spaced just so all of our windows faces one. When there is snow on the ground, or when our neighbors has Christmas lights up (we weren’t able to get ours up before the snow fell this year), it is as bright if not brighter than mid day when we are trying to go to sleep. It was becoming a problem. So, during the first two snow days this year, I finally made by curtains. I’ve had the fabric for a while (it was close pinned to the curtain rod till recently). But I finally made them.

They are a gorgeous darkish red, shiny material with a non-shiny woven design.  The back is black duck canvas (it is heavy duty stuff).

          They are just bigger than the window because I’ll tie them back during the day and that is all the fabric I was willing to get at that price; plus, they don’t scrunch anyway due to the thickness of the curtain.  
       I'm planning on putting a gold-ish colored sheer curtain behind them.

Why " The Homemaker's Circle"?

As soon as I showed the name of this blog to my husband, he asked, "Why the homemaker's circle"?

Well, I decided that I wanted it to be a place where women could come together to get ideas, learn, discuss, and share- like a quilting circle or a circle of friends. Women always form circles to discuss the issues and situations that they deal with. Additionally, I would like to have a couple co-authors too. (I'm in the process of asking them.) This would enable the blog to have a larger variety of topics within our main focus and more expertise.

It took some consideration to use the word "homemaker." However, every woman wants her own home and to be the mistress/ lady/ queen of her own domain. A house, apartment, town home, cottage, duplex is not necessarily a home. A home has to be created and nurtured. It takes work and commitment. You do not have to be a stay-at-home mother or wife to be a homemaker.  I personally have a full-time out-of-the-house job at this time. I teach at a Christian school. I think that it makes homemaking more challenging. There are many things that I am unable to do between 7am and 5 or 6pm.  (I also do not have any children at this time so I do not have to take into account  blessed complication.  There are a lot of homemaking and home-keeping ideas that we can share regardless where we live or what percentage of our day is spent there.

May God bless you in your endeavors that they may bring more glory to Him.

In the beginning...

So I decided to start my own blog. I'd like to discuss food, local resources (Pella, IA and surrounding), non-toxic living, healthy choices, having a Christ- centered life. I also want to share what is going on in my life with those that I love.

Now, the question is- Where to start?

I want to live a life the glorifies God in every aspect. Pleasing to Him and a witness to others. I believe that God wants me and my family to be healthy. I believe that this means taking the toxins out of my house, eliminating foods that decrease or inhibit wellness, providing amble opportunities for physical wellness, academic learning, emotional stability, and spiritual growth. 

I believe that all four of these areas dramatically impact the others.  If you are not feeling well, you are more prone to sin. If you are emotionally off-kilter your learning is difficult. If you are not learning, you have a hard time taking good care of your self. If you are not right with God, your emotions are groundless. There are countless examples. Of these, I think that the two  most influential ones are the physical and spiritual aspects. 

It is a tragedy that our world tries to help people fix the problems in their life and work though their challenges without addressing our relationship with God. He is the Lover of our souls, the Creator/ Sustainer of our bodies, the Great Teacher, and the Anchor of our emotions. 

Let all things that have breath praise the Lord!