I used to store everything in plastic and eat out of plastic. Now when I come home from the grocery store, I open the cereal and pour it out of the plastic and into clean glass containers. I take snacks with us in small glass containers. I have been rinsing used glass spaghetti sauce jars for a long time and putting rubber bands and twistie ties in them, and now I also put string cheese and vegetables in them for the fridge. Instead of wrapping ground beef in aluminum foil or plastic, today I put about four pounds of beef in a rinsed metal serving dish and froze it that way. (Note: it was very hard to separate the beef when I wanted to use it, so now I freeze individual pounds on small plates in the freezer.) I can’t seem to get plastic out of the kitchen completely but I am sure trying. Glass has no chemicals that come off onto food when heated or stored for long periods of time so that is why I put snacks in glass for car rides that are likely to get warm – remember that the car’s temperature can get quite high when you park it and leave it. I bought three glass containers in a set from the thrift store and it is nice and thick and sturdy and I have not broken any glass in my home. The openings are big enough that I can stick my hand in to feel for crumbs when I rinse them out between uses. I do keep it up and out of reach of my toddler and I watch her closely when she carries the little container with her snacks so that she will be safe.
Archive for the ‘Family’ Category
Banishing Plastic
Saturday, June 30th, 2007Modesty – Biblical and other quotes
Friday, June 29th, 2007This is what I have collected so far for the book about modesty that I will write (these are quoted by Rita Davidson’s book, “Immodesty Satan’s Virtue”).
Our Lady of Good Success said “. . . that impurity would inundate the streets like filthy ocean waters so that ‘there would be almost no virgin souls’” and “Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women. In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent.” “The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time . . .” During one of the apparitions she saw swords above the head of Christ that read, “I shall punish heresy, blasphemy and impurity.”
Ecclesiasticus 19:27: “The attire of the body, laughter of the teeth, and the gait of the man, shew what he is.”
Deuteronomy 22:5: “A woman shall not be clothed with man’s apparel; neither shall a man use woman’s apparel; for he that doeth these things is abominable before God.”
1 Timothy 2:9-10 “In like manner I wish women to be decently dressed, adorning themselves with modesty and dignity, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but with good works, such as become women professing Godliness.”
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Thank God for dresses!
Friday, June 29th, 2007I don’t know how any woman can wear pants during pregnancy. You have to either fit them below the baby, or pull them up and possibly squeeze the baby, which leads to diarrhea and cramping.
Dresses contain crumbs very well until you can reach a low trash can.
When a woman wears a dress, there is no danger of showing lower back skin or underwear when the woman bends over, and if the dress is modest, she will not show her chest to anybody in any position.
Dresses are wonderful if you have trouble finding a skirt that fits right. Loose dresses are incredibly comfortable in almost any weather.
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Healthy toddler teethers
Monday, June 25th, 2007My toddler is teething; her eighth or ninth tooth is cutting through her gums. I threw away her plastic teethers so she wouldn’t eat any bad chemicals. Here are better alternatives:
Slice washed grapes in half and line the bottom of a bowl or plate with the grapes, spaced so they are not touching or barely touching. Put them in the freezer and take them out for the toddler when she wakes up in the morning or after a nap, or comes in from the heat. You can also do this with kiwi or small apple slices.
Keep a sippy cup at least half full of water, and add ice cubes when it is humid and hot. Most of the time, room temperature water is best. Water should not pose problems for teeth during sleep, especially if you and your toddler brush teeth before going to bed.
Refrigerated string cheese works well, too. I buy Sargento light mozzarella string cheese because it has 8 grams of protein in each stick. This can be good when the toddler’s teeth are hurting from eating crunchy food.
Do not feed your toddler cow’s milk or soy milk. Cow’s milk is highly allergenic and it aggravates mucus and is meant for cows, and soy milk has too much estrogen, among other things. We drink almond drink and water and I recommend Pacific Natural Foods in cereal and macaroni and cheese and when baking – not as an infant formula, but with other things and maybe, occasionally, as a treat in a sippy cup – always refrigerated, of course. You don’t have to put it in the fridge when you come home from the store but you should put it in the fridge when you finish a quart so when you go to use more, the new quart will be refrigerated.
Please add healthy, nourishing teething suggestions as comments.
Cutting your fingernails with a toddler
Saturday, June 23rd, 20071. Find your fingernail clippers, sit down and make yourself comfortable.
2. Start trimming the fingernails on one hand.
3. When your toddler comes in and says “hand” and starts begging you to trim her fingernails, let her onto your lap and trim a few of her fingernails. You may need to take turns cutting her fingernails and your fingernails so that she remains excited about it.
4. If your toddler wants to leave your lap before you are finished cutting her fingernails, just be sure to not leave any sharp edges before you let her go. I trim on one side of the fingernail, then on the other, and round it out in the middle.
5. Finish trimming your own fingernails. You’ll get her last two fingernails later – it could be the last victory before she finally starts her nap.
Solving an ant infestation
Saturday, June 9th, 2007When you open that package on your counter that you thought you had so cleverly protected by putting the opening upside down and find your cookies swarming with ants…do not fear! No, don’t eat them either, but do not panic or get angry. There are methods you can enlist to help you defeat the little crawling intruders.
*Seal everything. Put cereal into plastic or other (glass?) containers and make sure the lids seal well. Put flour bags into other bags and tie the outer bags, and put your other baking ingredients, like other flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, etc. into properly sized containers made and sold for that purpose. Mine are hand-me-downs from my mother and they work wonderfully.
*Check your dishes before you put them back into the cupboard.
*Start using a designated ant rag. I am using this idea from a friend and I am so happy with it. My ant rag is pink and I hope the ants have come to fear it! Once you have a few dozen ants squished or otherwise captured on it, you can take it over to the sink and wash them all down the drain. Mwahahahaha!!!
*Rotate and check your cup before you drink out of it, even if you have been holding it the whole time. Ants can be sneaky and one almost crawled onto my face the other day via my water cup.
*If you must leave food out on the counter, be sure it is properly covered. I baked banana bread yesterday for Luke’s birthday today and there is a big bowl over the baking pan. Normally I put it in a big plastic bag; I just haven’t done that yet.
*Throw away your soiled napkins and kleenexes. Take out the trash as soon as it is full enough. Pick up bits of food you see on the floor, table and counter and throw or wash them away. Clean your pots and pans until they are squeaky clean before they go back on the stove or their storage to wait to be used again, so they do not attract bugs. Make the extra effort to avoid spraying with chemicals.
*Teach your children and pets that the bugs you are trying to kill off are not friends. Let them see you dispose of them.
Alleluia – Victory for Unborn Babies and their Mothers!
Thursday, May 10th, 2007After 21 Years, Pro-Lifers Vindicated of Racketeering
CHICAGO, May 9
Christian Newswire
The National Organization of Women (NOW) was handed a final defeat yesterday as U.S. District Judge David Coar once and for all ruled that federal anti-racketeering laws cannot be applied to pro-life protesters, putting an end to 21 years of litigation that resulted in an unprecedented three trips to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Uncomfortable with term ‘planned’ pregnancy
Tuesday, May 1st, 2007It is hard for me to explain this because the term is so common now and I don’t know if any readers will understand, because it might be the only way they think about pregnancy these days: ‘planned’ or ‘unplanned’. I felt very uncomfortable today at the clinic when I was filling out forms and I was asked if this pregnancy is ‘planned’…I asked Luke and we said “yes”, but I wanted to say, “this pregnancy was hoped for, it was a gift from God!” We had been hoping for another baby since last summer. We can’t plan to have a baby a certain month and give birth nine months later though. It just doesn’t happen that way. Even when a woman is not breastfeeding and is in perfect health, the chances of conceiving are not 50-50.
Upon further reflection, it seems to me that this is yet another symptom of society’s rejecting God in everything. The words we use make important impressions on the way we think about things.
Was your baby planned? -is it bad if he wasn’t?
Does your baby sleep through the night? -is it bad if she doesn’t, if she wakes up every once in a while and nurses back to sleep?
Are you pro choice? -do you mean do I support the right to choose raising my baby with my husband, or giving him up for adoption…or do you mean something more sinister?
Do you work? -what does it mean if I don’t work for pay, but my work is infinitely more rewarding, my work is orienting our children toward God and Heaven?
Just a few things to think about…
Good reflection on Gonzales v. Carhart
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007Today’s News & Views
April 23, 2007
“If you have to dress something up to obfuscate the truth of
what’s in play, you can probably assume it’s wrong” — Part One of Two
Coverage of last week’s Supreme Court decision upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act continues unabated, rolling in like waves to the shore. Naturally, the quality varies, but each account, in its own way, contributes something important to our understanding of the historic Gonzales v. Carhart decision.
I have written six separate pieces on the 5-4 decision and reprinted two others. But the truth is, this only begins to scratch the surface of Justice Kennedy’s intriguing majority decision. Suffice it to say, the 39-page explanation operates on many levels, including some, no doubt, that are subconscious.
Several people were kind enough to forward me an op-ed that appeared over the weekend and today, written by Kathleen Parker. Talk about cutting through the fog!
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Parenting advice
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007Here is some parenting advice for those who happen upon it. It is not coming from one of those annoying people who has no children and wants to tell you how to raise yours. It is coming from a mama who wants to record her observations in the hopes that they will help others.
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