Planting "Tuna" Seeds

This morning Blueberry and I planted "Tuna" (Petunia) seeds into soil pellets. She had fun hydrating the pellets, watching them expand and carefully placed three seeds in each one. Later in the day, when Nonna came to visit, and after Blueberry's nap, she showed her the cups we planted them in and told her they are going to "grow flowers". I was impressed at her retention of what I explained to her.

Silicone Baking Cups

I wasn't the only one excited about my new silicone baking cups. The lovely colors were perfect for sorting colors and Blueberry loved playing with them.

I did not tell her what to do with them. She just started putting the same colored ones together.

I have been looking for these and was about to order them on Amazon, but I found them on clearance locally. The festive colors make these reusable cups very versatile.

Continuing on in my goal to limit kitchen paper waste as my daughter goes "please cup-capes!"

First Day at the Park This Year

Blueberry and I met Nonna at the park with the cousins, Shortcake and Butterfly (nicknames).  I didn't get a good picture of Butterfly because she was climbing and running around so much (hence her nickname.)

Blueberry and Shortcake

WYSIWYG of Life

[ photo removed to avoid copyright infringement ]

In HTML code a WYSIWYG editor, or "What You See Is What You Get" is one where instead of typing out the code, you have a program that lets you click and drag elements to create a web page as it would be seen in a browser. Years ago I learned HTML code and I used to enjoy coding out pages, but lately I have used WYSIWYG editors more. It saves time but the code gets really messy because the WYSIWYG programs are not designed to clean up unnecessary coding from editing you might clean up if you were coding it directly. You don't see the messy code, but I know it's there. When talking to other web designers I mention reluctantly that I use WYSIWYG because it saves time, but I get embarrassed by how messy the coding is. I want to yell "Don't look at my source!!"

I was thinking about how as mothers we feel guilty whenever we take shortcuts or stash all our laundry in the bedroom when someone is dropping by on short notice. You know what I'm talking about! Today I encountered two articles on this topic. The first, called "Your Children Want YOU" is regarding how we get all these ideas of the kind of mom we want to be from seeing parenting magazines or the latest Pinterest fad. We feel like we are not enough when we see all of these overachieving housewives. Then another article called "I'm Never Inviting You to My House" is an older article but it talks about how we fix up our house for company and give them the impression that we keep the perfect house and it alienates them because they don't feel like they can measure up. I have fallen into both of these traps. Honestly, I have also not invited people over because I didn't think I could tidy up in time or just didn't have the energy to.

I don't want to do this any more. Yes, I use a WYSIWIG editor. Yes, I store my unfolded clean laundry in the bedroom when people come over. I settle for "good enough"on the housework on most days because that is what I can do. Sometimes it doesn't feel like enough but I know my priority is spending time with my daughter.

I hope we can all admit we take shortcuts and that is OK, but acknowledging that we do and not being ashamed that our house is "clean but not perfect". We live in our houses and don't hire a maid, but our children are happy and healthy.

Easter 2012

Working on Easter Eggs

Blueberry with her Easter Basket

Earth Day Resolution

We have been reducing paper waste at my house by using washcloths exclusively for cleaning up my daughter in the kitchen. I use a new one every time. She is two years old and makes lots of lovely messes, but she is also learning to be a good cleaner. For small messes I use the ones that are made for babies. I was given hundreds of them at my baby shower and they are finally finding a use. I also have some washcloths that I made out of leftover material from making receiving blankets and burp cloths. They were originally intended to be reusable wipes. I was very discouraged with my cloth diaper experience, but I don't want to digress. They were never used as diaper wipes, but we use them as washcloths.

For Earth Day this year I am going to work towards a paper-waste free kitchen. The flannel burp cloths from my daughter's infancy are very absorbent. They are made from cotton flannel and after a few washes they are the best thing to use for wet clean-up in place of paper towels. They are slightly larger than traditional cloth napkins and in a way it makes them better. I will make more of these for regular use in our kitchen.

I use this mediocre picture to show that they don't have to be pretty to be useful.

This post was inspired by Glad Rags.