Hoppy Holiday

For Easter, Hal and I enjoyed a quiet night in, just the two of us. I made lasagna for two (yes, that’s possible and my new go-to recipe) accompanied by the cutest and most delicious little popovers.

24 baby popovers to be precise. Perfectly baked, with just the right eggy-ness to airy-ness ratio.

And we ate them all...




No butter needed.

A Handy Hubby

We’ve been looking at houses for sale and one that piqued our interest definitely needs some TLC, more than a facelift but less than full on demolition (we hope). For the most part, these “projects” do not intimidate my husband. He has an adequate collection of tools (a collection I’m sure he considers insufficient) and I know he relishes every opportunity to use them.

So as he went down the laundry list of items that potentially and would need to be addressed at this house, I considered how his fix-it skills have come in handy and saved us money over the past few years.

1. He installed an outlet in our bathroom. I know you must be thinking, what bathroom doesn’t come with an outlet? Now every time I plug in the hair dryer, I am that much more grateful for my husband.

2. He fixed our kitchen ceiling when it fell. No more needs to be said about this.

3. He fixed our washing machine when it stopped draining. That’s when we discovered that my tiny little socks could get stuck in some very important part of the machine. We also noted that I should avoid leaving bobby pins in my pockets.

4. Most recently, I arrived home to find someone had knocked our mailbox off the post. I automatically assumed we were going to have to replace the whole thing but thanks to a piece of wood, some kind of saw and a drill, Hal secured the box back to its rightful place in the world.

There have been other instances in which his handiness has been advantageous, and I know he likes getting his hands dirty once in a while. So when I heard him watching “how to” videos on home repair last night, I half expected to find him armed with a tool belt and ready to buy the house. We’re not there yet, but I have a good feeling he’ll be prepared for the undertaking when the time comes.

He has his own headlight. How much more prepared can he be?!

Bands of Spring

On such a dreary, wet day it's hard to picture spring as the season of blossoms, even though I know the rain does help facilitate this blossoming. April showers, May flowers...yada yada...I want sunshine!! Looking at these photos of Holland's tulips makes me yearn for spring even more but this also excites me that hopefully our own tulips will be blooming very soon!

These aerial shots are amazing!

photos via lemmemakeit

Baby (Poop) Talk. Not for the squeamish.

Thanks to another blog I read, Hal and I got on the topic of cloth diapers and whether they’re really a viable option. While the blogger was most concerned with how eco-friendly and cost-saving they are, Hal and I focused on one question and one question only: how do you clean them?

Hal: How do you clean cloth diapers?

Jenn: You put them in the wash, I think.

Hal: With the poop?! What do you do with the poop??

Jenn: I don't know. Put it in the wash with the diapers?

Hal: Ew, that’s disgusting. If you took a dump in your underwear would you just put them in the wash?

Figuring that was a rhetorical question, I Googled “how do you clean a cloth diaper”.

Most responses said put them in the wash, without any further detail other than advice to prevent pilling. One website did suggest using a pail of some sort where you would store the dirty diapers and then sprinkle them with baking soda until you’re ready to wash them. There is no diaper genie for cloth diapers apparently, other than the magic of baking soda, I guess.

As neither of us was pleased with this lack of explanation for what do with the poop, I then Googled, “How do you clean a cloth diaper with poop in it”, which led me to a webpage entitled How to clean poopy cloth diapers. BINGO!

There is something called a diaper spray whereby you hook up a spray nozzle next to your toilet and you can hose down the poop into the bowl before the diaper goes into the wash. While conceptually this makes sense, it sounds like it could get messy if your aim isn’t perfect or if, as Hal put it, the poop is like pudding.

Alternatively, you can use flushable liners, which act as a barrier between the poop and the cloth diaper. But depending on the consistency, this may not yield a clean diaper either.

Feeling grossed out, Hal and I weren’t convinced that cloth diapers were a clean enough option that wouldn’t leave us up to our elbows in baby doo, especially when we learned that within the first couple weeks, babies poop 12 times a day. 12 TIMES! Doesn’t that seem excessive for such a tiny, little person?! And while it did state that this frequency eventually decreases to 1-2 times a day, I was hoping that this miracle occurred by the third week; it’s more like the sixth month.

I'm all about saving money and being environmentally conscientious when possible. But with all this baby doo doo, cloth diapers seem like a baby don’t don’t.

By the way, we're not in the market for diapers be it cloth or disposable, but it did pique my interest when I saw you could potentially save thousands of dollars with the cloth ones. Never hurts to start thinking about these options. I do love options!