Your Pea Soup is the Yummiest Food in the Whole Wide World!

My oldest daughter doesn't eat.  Well, I take that back.  She eats fruit, some veggies, yogurt, peanut butter and jelly/honey sandwiches, crackers, and chicken nuggets.  Oh, she also likes rice with cheerios in it for some reason.  However, she recently decided that she liked some Pea Soup that I had made in the Crock Pot and it was an amazing moment for us.
She was sitting at the kitchen table and we were eating the pea soup.
Olivia:  Mommy, I really like this pea soup and corn bread!
Me: (very surprised) Wow!  Thanks!  I'm glad you like it!  I think that might be the nicest thing you've ever said to me...wait, no it isn't.  Do you know what is?
Olivia:  What?
Me:  The nicest thing you have ever said to me is "I love you!"
Olivia:  I love you, too, Mommy!

How could I ask for more?  She told me she liked my nutritious meal and she told me she loved me-what a great day.

Here's the recipe:
1 bag of split peas
4-8 carrots (chopped)
1 onion (diced)
1 ham hock
enough water to cover everything-possibly up to 4 cups

Instructions:
Put everything in the crock pot and cook on low for 8-10 hrs. or on high for 4-6 hours.
We always serve it with corn bread.


Enjoy!

Fear vs. Reflection...How Best to Raise Our Children

There is a debate raging inside my head about how best to raise my children.  The little angel sitting on my right shoulder keeps telling me to raise them to be self-reflective, caring citizens who think about their actions and make choices based on a deep seated set of ethics.  The fat, lazy couch potato devil on my left shoulder says that I should teach them to follow the rules blindly and out of fear of whatever consequences my evil brain may cook up.
On one hand, I really like the idea that my children will make choices according to a set of ethics and a feeling of empowerment.  On the other hand, I want them to just automatically do what I say without questioning.
Don't get me wrong-this does not apply to all issues.  Safety issues are not negotiable.  There is not any ethical middle ground to running into the street.  This applies to questions like should I be honest?  Do I hit back?  Do I share with my friends?  For the most part, Olivia seems to understand that you share with friends because it makes you feel good and makes them feel good and that's one way that you show people that you care about them.  However, she is only four and there is only a certain amount of self-reflection that is possible.
When the situation presents itself, however, I generally try to talk with her about what she thinks she should do in a situation and why, and what may be some alternatives.  The problem with this route, though, is that she now is negotiating with me and is really good at it!  It is a little scary, how logical she can be and how quickly she can put together an argument.
So, now I think that I am going to have to go the route that my mom ended up going which is a combination of reflection first then fear.  She had two tools in her arsenal and they were good ones.
1.  She told us that she had spies all over the neighborhood and they would be watching us.  Therefore, she would always know what was going on.  The scariest thing was, it was true!  One day my sister crossed the road (jay walked) with no one in the road and no one around.  When she walked into the house my mother called from work and told her that she knew that Steph had crossed the street...and not at the light!  We were amazed and terrified by her power!  For years to come, and still to this day, when faced with a choice that could be a bad one I think a. does this seem like the right thing to do? and b. if not, is it worth getting caught and getting in trouble?
2.  She had a remote that would beep when a button was pushed.  It had a small speaker and nothing else on it.  She told us it was a lie detector and would point it at us when she asked us questions.  We believed.

So, when my girls grow up, I hope they feel the same way about me that I feel about my mom.  I hope, when they remember me, they think "She taught me right from wrong, and when all else failed, I sometimes made better choices because I was afraid of the wrath that would come down on me."

Cloth Diapers

Cloth Diapers have changed my life.   We used disposables with our oldest daughter and have used cloth virtually all the time with our youngest.  We have actually found that cloth diapers are easier to use, our house doesn't smell as bad, and she has had fewer diaper rashes.  Actually, had I known how easy cloth diapers are, I would have used them with our older daughter.
When we were deciding about whether or not to use cloth we had a lot to consider.  The first question was how would it change our routines.  We were so used to changing diapers and throwing them away that it seemed the easiest thing to do.  We were concerned about our initial start up cost and my husband just didn't like the idea at all.  At the time I worked in an Early Intervention program and was lucky enough to meet some moms who used cloth diapers.  I asked them about their experiences and heard about the brand that we ended up using, the Bum Genius.  This seemed the easiest to convince my husband about and he was amenable to the idea.  We decided to ask for the diapers as our only "baby shower" present since we had so many toys, clothes etc. from our oldest daughter. Actually, we were able to register for them through maineclothdiaper.com  Amazingly, we received 15 diapers as presents and have used them since she was about three weeks old.  The reason we waited was because the diaper seemed to rub on her umbilical stump and although the doctor said there was no feeling there, it looked really uncomfortable to me so we used the vast supply of newborn diapers we had from the hospital.  Once the stump fell off, it was go time!
There have been some negatives, though.  We have a hard time finding pants to fit our littlest darling since the cloth diapers are so gigantic.  Her butt looks huge with a cloth diaper on!  The other negative has to do with recent developments.  Now Maya is crawling and with crawling (mostly commando style) her diaper appears to fold down and she leaks pee out of the top of the diaper.  Sometimes it happens when she is sleeping, too (she is a stomach sleeper).  It doesn't happen all of the time-just often enough to keep us on our toes.  I am hoping that as she starts replacing bottles with solid foods she will be passing less urine and the diapers will not have as much of this problem.
The other issue is laundry.  I have a system in place where I go no more than two full days between diaper loads.  I wash the diapers twice (once on cold and again with hot) with my homemade laundry detergent and they seem to do well.  Every couple of months, I have to strip them and then they appear to be as good as new.
When Maya was about 7 months old we went camping for 5 days.  We bought a package of disposables to take with us since we didn't want to trek into town to do laundry during that time.  We were so used to the super-absorbancy of the cloth diapers that we could not change her diaper enough.  Instead of using 5 diapers per day (cloth) we were going through 8-10 disposables.  Not to mention, clothing changes.  Luckily, I had over-packed so she didn't end up smelling like pee for the whole trip.  She also developed a diaper rash during that camping trip.  However, her shorts did fit for the first time that summer.
I highly recommend cloth diapers for many reasons, mostly because they have made our life much simpler.  It has taken a bit more organization (making sure that we have clean diapers on hand) but over all, cloth is definitely the way to go for us.

Homemade Laundry Detergent!!!

I have been experimenting with home made cleaning products recently to stretch our budget a little bit.  So far, what I have found has been promising.  I made a 5 gallon batch of liquid laundry detergent in October and used it.  It seemed to work just as well as the store bought stuff and cost probably about $1.00 to make.


Here's the recipe. Try it and see what you think!

1 bar of soap (I used Ivory but you can use anything but a "beauty bar")
1/2 cup of Borax
1/2 cup of Washing Soda (I bought the Borax and this at Hannaford)
Tap Water

Grate the bar of soap and add 3 quarts of water to it in a sauce pan.  Heat and make a solution.  When the soap is melted add the Borax and Washing Soda and stir until completely mixed.  Let sit and cool for a while.
Fill a clean, 5 gallon bucket with hot tap water.  Take two cups of the hot water and pour into the solution.  Mix and add solution to the bucket of hot water. Let sit for 24 hours.  You can store it in the bucket (I do, and I keep a lid from an old detergent bottle to add detergent to the wash) or pour into empty, smaller containers.  You will need to shake or stir the mixture before you add it to the wash.

If you want scented detergent you can add 60 drops of lavender extract to the mixture before letting it sit.  I still use store bought fabric softener so I didn't add any scent but I have heard that you can use vinegar as fabric softener and toss a balled up piece of tin foil into your dryer to get rid of the static.  Has anyone tried that?

Good Luck!