Strange Machines

Kitten is now busy with cooking and marketing. She carries her basket and picks up items and pops them inside. She also loves to play with the pots and pans I bought Bear before and I’ve seen her standing with a pan pretending to cook.

So what’s a Momma gonna do? Make her a playset of course.

I cut the pieces out but did not sew them together. Just put the pan on the black felt and cook!

Made an egg sunny side up for them to cook. More on the way!

Is it possible to upgrade my brown thumb to light brown? My yellow bamboo wilted and one corn plant decided to go yellow but this one bloomed!

Kitten is on cloth by day but at night both kids are still on disposables. Previous night leaking was due to very full cloth diapers leaking from the waist and legs so I decided to get them longies which they can wear at night.

PovertyJane makes beautiful wool shorties and longies from upcycled wool sweaters. Upcycled clothes are the best for kids because any possible chemical residues have been washed off already.

Here are the lovely ones that arrived today.

I have brown thumbs but these flowers bloomed!

Hubby fixed this $59 unfinished solid pine cupboard from Ikea and Bear and I painted it. I liked the used look but am pondering painting another layer over it to look more finished. We will put a layer of beeswax over it after. That’s as natural as we can get for furniture around here.

It seems like since I became a mom I had to overcome many of my fears in order to be a hero to my children. One of them was getting over my fear of roaches.

I used to flee at the sight of a roach but now I have to arm myself with a newspaper and swat it till it is dead. The spray is only allowed if:

1. The roach is unreachable by newspaper.
2. Can find way quickly to the bedroom.
3. Washable area.

After all that stuff is poisonous to everyone and the environment but I have made peace with myself for using it only one out of 20 roaches if at all after trying virtually every safe and environmental method out there but failed miserably.

I have had to resort to roach poison traps which they bring back to their nests and that has been the only way they can be stopped. That and swatting the live ones.

Last night I had to take out 3, rolled up newspaper in hand. Bear was very proud of me in the morning.

Bear and I painted this Ikea step ladder with non-toxic Crayola water colours and sealed it with beeswax.

I live by the road. In fact, come to think of it, I’ve always lived by a road with a substantial amount of traffic and with it, a substantial amount of pollution. As a child, I lived by a main road, watching motorcycle riders race through the night and by day, count the number of cars that passed and mentally run myself like a Frogger across the road and back.

Traffic pollution, along with cigarette smoke, contains several hundred volatile organic compounds (VOCs), increasing your risk of various kinds of cancer and numerous health problems. This is a scientific fact.

These days I’m not sure if opening the windows to let in random car exhaust or an unfortunate waft of cigarette smoke is worse or closing all my windows and sitting in the toxic wasteland of modern living with our cheap plywood adhesived furniture and VOCs from our every day things like paper or packaging.

Regardless, there’s no escape. I’ve sought to improve my home’s air quality by introducing plants into the home with the help of NASA scientist Wolverton’s book How to Grow Fresh Air, which helped even this brown thumbed woman here keep some plants alive, namely the Snake Plant, Lady Palm, and Corn Plant. Hardiest plants around.

I really think that companies and communities should take a step further and install a thermal oxidizer equipment in our living spaces. A thermal oxidizer service basically cleans your air. In a closed environment, such as a large office building where the windows are never open (yes, I’ve worked in many of those and seen bugs play musical humans for weeks on end), thermal oxidizer equipment would definitely help.

In truth, it is more likely that factories manufacturing products with toxic chemicals would use them most (and would see a value in installing one). Worker productivity and health matters to their bottom line and an investment in thermal heating services, for instance, would make most sense.

For us civilians living in our shoeboxes, we can only rely on the magical ability of plants to do the same as these equipment. I really do recommend the book and can state for the record that having those small 5 Corn Plants, 2 Snake Plants, 2 Peace Lilies, and 2 Spider Plants in my room has helped my sinuses clear. My Lady Palms do a great job of cleaning the air in the outer rooms and they stay alive too. I have given up on Areca Palms which all die on me. But the tall and graceful Bamboo Palm I just acquired has been thriving, except for a single mealy bug incident that was quickly cleared up with some rubbing alcohol.

According to Bear, the wool is much cooler and the BumGenius, covered with PUL, is about the same as a disposable. A touch test with the kids here with our hot and humid tropical weather reaffirms this. Kitten’s bottom is dry when wearing wool but sweaty when wearing her BumGenius.

I stand corrected. Wool covers are critical. They hold tight the whole package which is diaper + insert, something a wool shortie cannot.

The problem arises when a wool cover cannot completely cover the diaper, leading to night time leaks. That’s when you either pop on a wool shortie or use a smaller diaper.

But if you had to get only one, I’d go for the cover. Measure your baby and any existing diapers you’ll be using with it very carefully.

If all fails you can still buy a shortie and hope your child doesn’t complain to you that it is itchy!