Life, Food and Laundry

So life has been a bit out of hand recently. My husband's father passed away a couple weeks ago and then normal everyday business. Its so easy to get busy and just try to rushrushrush to get everything done! Its easy to lose track of trying to be more aware of everything you are doing to impact the world and get caught up in the "need to get this done"ness of life!

We have recently changed our eating habits ... we are not dieting but I am making a major effort to be aware of what we (as a family) are putting into our bodies! My goal to eat good homemade no preservatives natural blahityblahityblah food had fallen to the bottom of the list of make sure that everyone is clothed and alive and the dishes aren't too bad, etc. And to be honest we were eating like SHIT! boxed foods and frying crap... and there has been some health side effects so we are now eating locally grown fruits and veggies (from the Dallas Farmer's Market which is killer awesome if you've never been) and LOTS of fish!!! LIKE LOTS OF FISH!!! its a lot of effort to try to get everyone fed before work on my lunch and then after work but in the long run our health is a priority!

On a less serious note... LAUNDRY! Holy crap if it seems like I am always talking about laundry its because it is a HUGE part of my life... it NEVER ENDS!!!
So we've switched from ALL Free and Clear to homemade laundry detergent (the Duggar's recipe found here: http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/duggar_recipes/30456/Powdered%20Laundry%20Detergent%20-%20Top%20load%20machine) and its been great it works awesome and we've not noticed a different except in the wallet ;) .

Also I've been meaning to blog about "sunning" ... if you are at all "green" and read crap on the internet you probably have heard this term. I LOVE SUNNING!!! I do NOT use spot/stain removers! They are expensive and unnecessary chemicals. This is pretty easy for me as I already line dry but basically you stick the stain out in the sun and let the sun bleach it out:


^ a lovely carrot stain... GONE!


^ husband's nasty socks... FIXED!

you have to leave it out for longer then you would if you were just drying it but its worth it! especially here in Texas were the sun never ends!
I did recently run into a stain that did NOT sun out (besides grease but dawn will get that ;) ) and it was baby curry poop on my diaper inserts! G.R.O.S.S! I asked on a green parenting board and lemon juice was suggested! I juiced a couple lemons and poured it on after the wash and set out in the sun (I have no idea if this is the "proper" way) but after a few hours it was GONE! (I figured you didn't want to see shit stain pictures ;) ).

Anyway all in all life continues as normal ... I will try to update more often as everything settles down!

So what the fuck is wrong with you anyway?

Well besides my inability to come up with witty blog entry titles and my complete lack of this weird thing my father always refers to as "tact" (wtf is that anyway?) I'll have a confession to make! I have a very "serious" genetic disorder!!! 



I have a BLACK thumb!!! (I also cut my thumb grating cheese earlier... Did I list clumsy in my earlier list?) yes this is a GENETIC issue!!! My mother could look at a fucking plant and the next day it would be dead! My grandmother never had too much either (although not as severe)... Strangely my father has the ability to keep plants alive that most normal people would kill (African Violets and poinsettias are the ones I remember the most)... I did NOT receive these skillz! 

I so desperately want to be one of those people with a vegetable garden in their backyard! I dream of home grown tomatoes and sweet peppers! I ENJOY gardening! I've tried and the shit ALWAYS dies... Every. Fucking.time. So at this point I've given up, I've excepted my problem, I've grieved, and I've "let it go" (although I'll probably try again someday :-/). I buy my fruits and vegetables for the most part at the Farmer's Market. Where I used to live there was a place that every Sunday people would sell their vegetables/fruits from their non-dead backyard garden... I liked going there and buying from them (those who can, do. Those who fucking kill shit pay the ones who can). 

So what the fuck I'm I rambling on about this for? Well... If there is one part of gardening that I excell/ed at it's composing!!!! Yes I <3 composting! I have a little pile in my backyard, we had a compost bucket at the condo we lived in before. And to this day I save all my kitchen scrapes, newspapers, yard clippings, weeds, etc and I water it and flip it and all that jazz... Well what do I do with all the loveliness? Mother fucking nothing!!! I'm holding on to just a little bit of a dream of being a gardener... I'm a composter! Also I'm breaking down items that don't need to take up space in a land fill ;) so in the long run the world thanks me for my pile of crap!!! 

Been sick... So "green" tip of the day!!

So I'm sick (A-FUCKING-GAIN!!!!) I actually got another post in the works but in the mean time I'll leave you with my "Green Tip of the Day!!!":

Dear Husband,
TURN OFF YOUR MOTHER FUCKING POWER HUNGRY COMPUTER WHEN YOU'RE NOT USING IT OR IT'S GOING TO GET THROWN OUT THE GOD-DAMNED WINDOW!!!! kthxloveyou!


I hope you've all had a wonderful weekend ;)

Obsession?

So our second son was born at 33 weeks we were unprepared! Had NOTHING! and my baby shower wasn't for another month and a half :-/
He was 3 lbs 5 oz and spent the following 6 weeks in the hospital... This gave me more free time then I really wanted and I read online A LOT!! I read about milk supply (pumping for a premie is a lovely experience I hope I never have to deal with again!) ... I met some wonderful friends online that I've grown to LOVE and I learned about MODERN cloth diapering! 

My son is now 7 months old! And the cutest baby ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET! 

^ almost unbearable right?!?!?
Anywho... What the fuck was I talking about? Oh right diapers! I am OBSESSED!!! 

In fact I'm pretty sure my Dad used that word today ;) I never knew it would be so easy and I def never knew I would love them so much!!! But seriously how can you not?!?!? Look:

Now being the obsessive person that I am I like to keep a "database" of sorts of my diaper stash! I've done that up until today with Google Docs:

Including brand, size, color/pattern. This isn't weird right?!?!? Maybe a little... So today ... Or yesterday (they all blur together some days :-/ ) I read on someone's blog (Im not trying to be an ass here I don't remember where... But I'll update when I do!) about A FUCKING IPHONE APP FOR IT!!! Yeah I just got a little cap happy there!!! This is fucking exciting for two reasons! #1) because it's FUCKING AWESOME: 

(you can also share on Facebook/Twitter) 

And #2) This means that there are enough people out there that think inventorying their stash is "worth while" that they MADE AN APP!!!

Want it? (you know you do!!!):
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fluff-stash/id434378643?mt=8

A World without My Dryer!

Recently my washer broke down... It would make a LOUD crashing sound fling itself about 3-4 feet across my kitchen floor and spill all the fucking water out! Now as someone that has 3 small children (yes I'm counting the husband here!) I had a fucking panic attack!! I keep saying "why my washer?!? I could live without the dryer! Why does my washer have to go!!!!!" (yes yes I'm a bit dramatic!) so my some miracle of the universe my husband fixed the washer! And I was able to breath once again!

Then I got to thinking... COULD I live without my dryer? How much effort would it really be to line dry ALL our laundry? (it's not as huge a jump as some people as we already have the line up for the diapers) So I figured why the fuck not? This was a week ago!

So I've decided there are things I like and don't like about this plan...

First it requires me to wash pretty much on a daily basis... This is good and bad. 1) I have to make time daily to do laundry (a lot more difficult then it sounds working full time and with two small children) 2) it makes it so I don't do my default laundry mode... Pile it all up until no one has ANYTHING to wear and rush through it all in one day.

I LOVE the way the line dried clothes smell! I'm all for that grassy sunshine summer smell! I think I get some vitamin D just from smelling my happy line dried clothes!! ^_^ (wow that was annoyingly rainbows and unicorns-ish!) 

I enjoy that I can fold the laundry as I go along taking it off the line... It seems a lot less daunting then taking this huge pile of clothes out of the dryer and thinking... I have to fold ALL that shit?!?!? And I'm totally the person that has the pile of laundry on my couch waiting to be folded! (if you've never been this person you're either lying to yourself or are "perfect" and imma have to ask you to gtfo kthx ;) ) This has helped that so much! 

I completely HATE the stiffness this gives to our towels! It's horrible! I could probably try fabric softener (I've never used it, bought it, looked at it :-/) but I'm pretty set on not adding a dependency on yet another chemical ;).

So all and all this has been a fairly rewarding experience! It may not seems "world changing" but I like to think about the amount of energy I would have used the rest of my life if I'd continued using my dryer and almost completely erase that and I feel like I've accomplished something and feel a little warm and fuzzy inside! Although the fuzzies weird me out so I drown them with a beer ;) 
Good night Internet! 

Introductions:

So as being "green" becomes more and more mainstream these days it becomes a target for capitalism! Don't get me wrong I'm all for capitalism!! (CAPITALISM! FUCK YEAH!) but I refuse to buy into the fact that thinking about how MY choices effect the environment should COST ME MONEY! So here I am starting (really continuing) my journey to change the world how I can and with what I have (or with what will cost me VERY little!)! 

This blog is not for you if: 

1) You are looking for someone to rant about how the "man" is out to get us or other such conspiracy theories! Let's get this out of the way now: the "man" is out to get "us" ... Or rather our money... It's a mother fucking capitalist country it's pretty much our core foundation! If someone lies and cheats and gets your money... Sorry! You shoulda researched it a little more!

2) You are offended by cursing! You should just close your fucking Internet browser NOW! oh and clear your cache for good measure! Yes I curse (a LOT) ... judge me if you want ;) which brings me to:

3) If you are looking for somewhere to validate your judging! Sorry! I genuinely believe people try their best with what they are given... I don't believe people wake up in the morning and think "I want to see how much I can destroy and waste today!"

You'll probably enjoy my blog if:

1) You really wish you could do more to make a difference and you just don't believe you have the time/money (or BOTH!) to do so.

2) If you enjoy the ranting cursing posts of a woman that truly believes what she does matters in the world! 
 
3) If you want a place that reaffirms "it's not about being perfect but instead about MAKING THE EFFORT!"

So me? My name is Danielle I was born, raised, and lived in Texas my entire life. Sometimes this effects my views on life; most the time it does not. I'm married and have 2 sons (4 years old and 7 months). I work full time in the technical support industry (read: I get screamed at for a living!). All in all I am an ordinary person.