montessori style in motion.

I did a little bit of reorganizing today. I've been really liking the idea of giving Iris full access to exploring the house (minus the kitty's litter box and electronics). I have completely baby-proofed her room so that she is free to play unsupervised.

I got a little creative and made four of her shelves into a happy, friendly place for her. I put two pictures against the wall to bring a little but of color and art into her shin-high world. I pushed the paperback books to the back and put more appropriate board books in the front, along with Sophie the giraffe! The ears of the bunny in the top left shelf are her comb and brush - her absolute favorite things to tote around. The bottom left pink square is a box of small stuffed animals and other toys for when she learns how to pull it out.

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She has toys in the living room where we spend most of our time, and I plan to clean out my kitchen cabinets and dedicate one drawer to her. I'll place a few pots, wooden spoons, measuring cups and other safe kitchen items inside for her to freely pull out and play with. It will keep her out from under my feet (literally) while cooking, and she will feel involved in what I'm doing as she gets older. 

She also has her own section of the coffee table where we keep books.

She loves to sit there and pull them all down, flip through them and push them around on the floor.

Eventually, Iris will move to her own bedroom to sleep. But for now, it is still just the playroom and Kitty's room. Considering how small she is, it's amazing how keeping toys placed strategically around the living room are redirecting her from the things we don't want her to touch. She is beginning to learn which things are hers to do with as she pleases, and which things are not to be played with. 

In the last week, not only has she physically developed in huge strides but she has bloomed mentally as well. She understands words that I say, even phrases.
She knows:
milk
mama
daddy
go get that kitty!
over there
come over here
dance baby!
put your head back (to wash out the shampoo)
I love you

It's really quite amazing. I love watching her explore and learn! I'll be doing some more work on her room this week and Iris' nine month check-up at the doctor is on Friday! Luckily, she won't be having to get any shots (thank goodness, I take it worse than she does!) Then hopefully we will have time for a play date with her little friend who is the exact same age!

Looking forward to when Daddy comes home! 

small changes saturday v.6

I posted a while back about my experience with making my own shower cleaner, which is still working out great. I clean the shower when I'm taking a shower and I don't have to worry about chemicals! I also use a vinegar/water solution for cleaning in the kitchen - a healthy substitute for sanitizing sprays which I think smell pretty awful. I procrastinated on making my own window cleaner, however. Some of the recipes I looked at seemed complicated or like they would turn out to be a huge mess. Well, I got over my irrational fear, dumped a bottle of Windex (which I hated introducing into the water supply, but I didn't know what else to do with it) and started mixing.

I found a really simple recipe that calls for 2 cups of water, 3 tbsp of white vinegar and 1/2 tsp of plant based dish washing liquid. I swirled it around in the clean bottle and began my first experiment on the glass coffee table. It gets gross pretty quickly as our apartment is always really dusty for some reason and multiple rings show up from glasses of water and such. The homemade solution works so well. It is completely streak-free and smells like heaven compared to the gross blue stuff. I think vinegar also smells cleaner than any chemicals I ever used! I was so excited, I proceeded to clean just about every glass surface in the house. Domesticity at its finest!

small changes saturday v.5

I nearly forgot all about my Saturday feature! Today was lots of fun but busy!

I figure I should update about how my little changes are doing long term. I tried to make it to the farmer's market today with a friend, but her 9 month old son fell asleep, so we let him sleep instead of disturbing him to do our thing. Hooray for baby-sleep! I was only going to get a wooden toy for Iris anyway, which can wait until next weekend. She broke her wooden peace sign teether a few days ago, by throwing it from her chair at the table. So sad, we loved that thing! Going to try to fix it without letting glue seep out where she would be mouthing it, hmm... 

The kitty is loving his food and litter adjustments! He eats a bit less now because the Organix food has a higher calorie count and more protein than his old food. I haven't completely transfered over to the pine litter yet, because of how particular cats are about where they go to the bathroom. You never want to switch something on them too abruptly. I've just been adding a bit more pine each time I clean the box, and I think tomorrow will dump the entire thing and move to just pine, considering it's mostly that by now anyway.

I still have yet to remember my reusable shopping bags, which is rather amusing! Though with all my talk of how I keep forgetting, maybe that will trigger me to remember for once! I'm also still making my own household cleaners, which is going great. I have yet to venture to make my own window cleaner, though. 

Aaaand the maple syrup is delicious! That is all there is to say about that! 

Have you made any small changes lately? If you have, tell me about them! 

small changes saturday v.4

This weekend, we stopped by the local farmer's market for the first time. Unfortunately, we didn't get there until it was near to closing time, so most of the fresh veggies and all the strawberries were gone! Still, we walked around to each of the vendors, maybe a dozen of them, and saw their locally produced honey, homemade soaps and crafts and my favorite... wooden toys. There was a plane, a few cars and even a tank! I look forward to getting one for Iris - I love wooden and fabric toys, you know, things with character! 

I hope we can start visiting the farmer's market more often. I would like one of our little changes to be considering more often where our money is actually going. I used to do a lot of online shopping on Amazon.com but have recently started buying from Etsy.com and other family owned businesses with websites. For example, I recently bought a new warm-weather ring sling from BabyEtte on Etsy and all of my cloth diaper purchases have been from a family owned business in Ithaca called Jillian's Drawers. They have absolutely amazing customer service, by the way!

With the economy and unemployment rates being as they are, I think it's important for us to do what little part we can to benefit people locally and those who own small businesses as opposed to big companies and corporations. I'd like us to spend money on things that are healthy for us as well, like maybe those homemade soaps, healthy wooden toys and organically grown whole foods. We still do and eat our fair share of unhealthy things too, like using toxic bath products and eating Poptarts. 

I've done my best so far with our budget to buy organic cereal and snack bars, locally grown foods (when the market closest to us wasn't destroyed by the recent tornadoes), and purchasing products that are not tested on animals. My goal for the future is to eliminate the harmful things that I can, while not altering our lifestyle to the point that makes my husband think I've morphed into some 'damn hippie'!

I may not be able to make a specific 'small change' every Saturday, but I will certainly be writing about things like supporting your local economy, healthful living and other things that may be inspiring me! I invite you to make little changes along with me too, it's not as hard as it may seem! If you invest in reusable grocery bags, just think how many plastic bags you won't be throwing into a landfill over the next few years - it's a big impact if you think about it!

(I still haven't brought my reusable grocery bags to the grocery store! Marius has suggested that I tie them around my neck so we stop forgetting them.)

small changes saturday v.3

During Earth Day, our commissary had all sorts of special deals on environmentally friendly products. Though I could have gone on a buying-spree, we do have a weekly budget for groceries so I had to limit myself to Clorox Green Works dish washing detergent and some fresh cantaloupe melons (which were delicious, by the way). We also purchased 5 reusable grocery bags, which I love but have yet to remember to bring with us to the store! 

The next day, I decided the tub finally needed cleaning after weeks of neglect. That's a nice thing about needing glasses - without your frames, you are magically blind to the atrocity that is an untended shower! So, I used the Green Works to concoct some homemade bathtub cleaner and let me tell you... it works so much better than chemical-based products! Scrubbing Bubbles has got nothing on this stuff. All you need is baking soda and detergent. Pour about 1/4 cup baking soda into a small bowl and then add detergent slowly, mixing with a spoon until it reaches the consistency of frosting. Done! 

I wet a double-sided sponge, scooped out some homemade cleaner and went to work. Ten minutes later, the tub/shower was brighter and cleaner than ever. I wasn't breathing in fumes, my hands weren't tingling with chemicals and Iris was able to come in and watch! I certainly wouldn't feel okay with her as an audience if I were using bleach or CLR. I used it to clean the sinks too and it had the same effect. It took stains off the metal kitchen sink that have been there since we moved in! As you can tell, the domestic side of me is very pleased and proud of this! I never thought I could make my own household cleaners until recently. Here's a website where you can learn more - or google search homemade household cleaners and you'll find plenty of recipes. 

Overall, it's healthier for my family, the water supply and environment. I plan to eventually get rid of all our chemical based cleaning products other than maybe drain and toilet cleaner when we need it. We will have less worry that Iris could get into something poisonous once she starts crawling and walking and I won't be concerned when the kitty goes into those bathroom cabinets (yes, he does that). I suggest trying this, it can't get much easier and it will save money too! 

small changes saturday v.2

I vaguely remember hearing something a few years ago about how clay based cat litter is unhealthy. At the time, I kind of brushed it off. Doesn't everyone use scented clay cat litter? Well, it must be fine then! After recently deciding to switch to cloth diapers, I thought why don't I do the same for our kitty? 

I bought a few cheap cloth diapers and cut a tail-sized hole... no, not really! I just did a little research on cat litter and after a very short period of consideration, chose to switch to... pine! 

 There aren't really any credible studies done on the health effects of clay litter, but there are plenty of anecdotal warnings. I read about how many people believe that cats and kittens may ingest too much litter from licking their paws and fur and have become ill or died. Breathing in the dust and fumes from the added scents may not be detrimental to their health as some claim, but it certainly doesn't seem a natural place for a kitty to do his business. I know I wouldn't like it, not to mention he smells awful after getting out of the box. 

I chose this over recycled newspaper or Feline Pine's original pellet litter because it is clumping and makes my life a bit easier. I always found changing the entire box to be unpleasant and would put off doing it until it became a horrendously smelling chore. The pine smells lovely and kitty seems to have no issues with the switch. His fur seems much cleaner and shinier now too. My next change was to switch his food.

We switched from Iams to Castor and Pollux Organix. Take a look at your pet's food nutritional label. Chances are, one of the first ingredients is corn, soy, by-products and other things that are definitely not naturally a part of a healthy, balanced diet. You can read all about it as well as product reviews here. Needless to say, since switching to a food with organic and natural ingredients, the kitty is even more thrilled about meal time. His "breffast" and "sup-sup" are highly anticipated and wolfed down much more enthusiastically than his old food. He seems much perkier recently, as well! 

We love our cat-baby - why should we consider his health and needs any less than our own? Granted, these products are more expensive but we feel it's worth it and we are able to make cuts elsewhere to afford him what we can. I feel really good about changing these things for him. Even if he doesn't live any longer for it, at least it makes him happy!!

I love his expression in this photo - he was helping me wrap Christmas presents! 

small changes saturday v.0

Welcome to the introduction of my first weekly feature! This is something I'm really excited about. I'll be writing about the small changes I make to our lifestyle and how they improve my family's health, i.e. bringing on my ever increasing crunchiness!

Since I started considering cloth diapers, I've thought a lot about some of the other changes I can make to improve the health of my family and the earth. All of us have seen commercials and documentaries about how humans are quickly destroying the natural resources of the earth, poisoning our oceans and sending hundreds of animal species into extinction. If you've read or watched anything about the food that we eat, you'd know how our meats are full of hormones which has been linked to early onset of menstruation in girls, how the animals we eat live in viciously abusive conditions during their short lives, processed foods are not real food, and more. Most of us watch in horror and think "I want to do something! I want to change!" We feel affected for a short time, but on the way to the gym we buy a bottle of water. At home, we eat vegetables sprayed with chemicals. We feed our children products inundated with dyes and processed sugar. The way we eat has changed, and not for the better.

I am absolutely guilty of the apathy most of America feels. So long as it's cheap, it tastes good and we get instant gratification - why should we care? I've thought, "well, this one bottle doesn't really matter or make a difference" or "chips-a-hoy is just so much easier, I don't feel like  homemade." We don't have to see the way our food gets there, so it's easy to ignore. We feel we aren't directly affected, so we forget about it. We exchange homemade goodness, purer ingredients and nutrition for convenience. It's the way we have always known things.

It's taken quite a few years, but these "it doesn't really matter" moments have collected in my mind, forming a mountain of unacknowledged truths I can no longer ignore. How much have I really impacted the environment in my short life? What damage have I done to my one precious body? Do I really have an excuse for this, considering how much I've been educated about it? I am tired of playing into this facet of our culture. The way we live is so ingrained in our psyches, it will be difficult and I'm sure I will make mistakes but I am committed to making small changes to make myself, my family and our earth healthier. I am willing to make sacrifices. I can play my small part and make a difference for myself, my loves and the future of this planet in the next 60 (hopefully a lot longer) or so years I have to live! I hope I can inspire you to do the same!