The scene: Our house, 4:30 a.m. today. Big Sister (somewhat frantically): Mommeeeeee! Me (stumbling/flying down a flight of stairs to get to her): What is it, honey? Big Sister (standing in the bathroom with her pajama bottoms at her ankles): I want you to watch me go to the bathroom.
Really? REALLY???
Here’s my little confession: I hate shopping at Kroger.
To start, the prices are outrageous. Yes, I’ll sometimes score a deal or two with my Kroger Plus customer rewards card, and Hubby is outrageously excited whenever they have their “10 for $10” deal on tortilla chips. (Have I ever told you the story about how he used to keep a bag of tortilla chips and salsa in his car trunk at all times? No? Another time, then.)
However, the cost of the items I purchase on a regular basis is almost always higher than what I pay at Meijer (or even Target, in some cases). For example, Big Sister likes Cinnamon Cheerios, so I’ll get that every couple of weeks in rotation with other breakfast cereals for her. Cost at Target (which almost always has better prices on cereal than any supermarket): no more than $3.
But when I went to pull it from the shelf during a recent random Kroger shopping trip? ALMOST FIVE DOLLARS. Seriously?! For the SAME DARN BOX of Cheerios? No thanks.
Secondly, the aisle organization is extremely confusing. There will be crackers at one end and canned vegetables at the other, baking items in the same aisle as bottled juice…what the what? Plus, the aisles are split in half in only half of my local store, so you think you’ll be able to take a shortcut to get to one area, only to be met by one of their giant, un-split aisles. I always end up circling the store about 50 times, trying to find what exactly it was that I was looking for. (Which is probably their goal to try to get me to buy more, but trust me, Kroger, it just makes me angrier.)
But the biggest reason why I hate shopping at Kroger? THE MUSIC.
I don’t know if it’s just my local store, but they play the most awful, depressing music that has ever been created. And I know I’m not the only one affected by it; I have yet to come across a smiling face of another shopper in my store - just mopey shoppers refusing to make eye contact, shoving me out of the way with their cart or people arguing in the aisles (seriously, this is a regular occurrence). Don’t stores spend millions of dollars carefully arranging and selecting everything about it to encourage you to want to stay longer and buy more? Well, I’ll tell you what, Kroger, you’re failing miserably in the mood-setting department - as soon as I walk in there, I want to grab what I need from the shelves, high-tail it to the self-checkout lane and run out of there as fast as I can, because every shopping trip leaves me feeling SAD.
That is, if I can find my way out. Where the H is the bread aisle again?!?
I read an amazing article today about an English town that is aiming to be completely self-sufficient in food by 2018. To do this, vegetable, fruit and herb gardens are growing all over town, and the food is available to all residents at any time they want - for free.
Imagine, for a moment, that this was happening in Detroit.
Now, that’s not to say the city should be aiming for food self-sufficiency, because that’s a pretty ambitious goal…but think about it: Why couldn’t fresh, healthy food be provided for free for Detroit’s hard-hit residents? For community volunteers - whether they’re recipients of the food or just people committed to this cause - to donate seeds, soil and a little of their time to help the plants grow, and let others come take what they need, when they want or need it, without gates or fences around the gardens to protect what’s growing inside?
It’s way better than the processed junk that many of them are already receiving for free from community or federal assistance programs; it makes me so sad to think about how many thousands of children have never even had a taste of any fresh fruits or vegetables.
There are already some community gardens (or gardening plans) around the city of Detroit - Hantz Farms, Central Detroit Christian (which runs another great business, the Peaches & Greens truck, selling inexpensive fresh produce around Detroit neighborhoods), to name just a few - but I’m not sure that any of these allow residents to just come in and take what they want at any time. And yes, I know there are lots (and lots and lots) of city and federal restrictions to keep people from making urban farming a reality.
But if you’re already bashing this idea in your mind, just…don’t. Suppress the snickering, and try to think about the possibilities; there are a lot of reasons why something could fail, but in my personal opinion, Detroit could benefit a lot more in many ways if we would just shrug our shoulders, say “why not?” and give it a shot. I’m not the first to say it, but fresh thinking and a little “breaking into jail” could do wonders for a city filled with stale ideas from people who love to point out all the things that could go wrong with something new.
And a little clearer thinking fueled by some fresh food couldn’t hurt, either.
My daughter can read. No, seriously.
And it’s not that she memorized the text of a book that we read together every night, or that she recognizes one or two words out of many. She will find some random road sign or magazine cover or book that she’s never seen before and then read the words out loud.
This morning, she read this:
Word for word, in one fluid sentence: “Help Target help your school.”
I can assure you that we don’t practice reading the back of the cereal box.
And then she grinned at me. Because she is a flippin’ genius.
Okay - mommy bragging moment over. :)
A couple of weeks ago, I saw this in my Facebook updates:
So, knowing that EcoStore USA is a Michigan-based company, I emailed Maggie and requested my samples. We struck up a conversation on email - she is also a mom and fellow Michigan blogger - and before I knew it, I was signing up for my first product blogging experience. (So, I think this is where I disclose that EcoStore USA sent me the products I’m about to describe and asked me to blog about them, but did not provide me with any other compensation.)
With Little Sister’s arrival just around the corner, I decided to try the Baby Body Wash and Baby Moisturizer - if I had the opportunity to start my newest little one with no chemicals against her skin, I was all for it!
(Not sure why I can’t get this picture to turn around…sorry.)
So about a week after she was born, it felt like it was time to give Little Sister her first sponge bath, so I gathered up her bath items and got ready to (gently) scrub her down.
Since this is a natural product, I didn’t notice much sudsing action with the Baby Body Wash when I was sponge-bathing her - but I’ve used it many times since during a regular tub bath, and it lathers up quite nicely and doesn’t take forever to rinse off of her skin.
Afterwards, I used the Baby Moisturizer to do a little baby massage on her; it goes on a little more thickly than more mainstream moisturizers, but it absorbs quite easily. And I have to say, this stuff works fantastically for dry baby skin - Little Sister has developed some scaly dry patches across her eyebrows (which the pediatrician said should go away in the next few weeks, please please please), and the Baby Moisturizer always makes it disappear almost completely.
Both the body wash and the moisturizer have a nice light scent of eucalyptus, which smelled very nice on Little Sister afterwards; that made me pretty happy, since I’m a big fan of smell-good things (even though I know that usually means they’re loaded with not-so-good-for-you perfumes and dyes) and will avoid buying unscented products whenever possible. (I’m sorry, but I just need that “yes, it’s clean” scent!)
In the end, I love both of these products! They get Little Sister nice and clean without the giant list of chemicals found on most baby products (I love their “No Nasty Chemicals” slogan - right on!), and she smells fantastic afterwards to boot. I’ve also used them on Big Sister a few times, and I’ve noticed that the Baby Body Wash makes her (now very long) hair really thick, and the Baby Moisturizer helped quite a bit to smooth out the dry skin on her upper arms.
And of course, I’m most in love with the fact that EcoStore USA is based in - AND produces their product line - in Michigan! This fact alone makes me want to buy EcoStore’s products; remember - according to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, if every Michigan household spent just $10 more of their weekly food budget on Michigan products, it would add $37 million EVERY WEEK to our state’s economy. So if we really want to turn around our economy, buying locally-produced products like EcoStore’s would make a huge difference.
And if you need another reason, EcoStore’s Baby Body Wash and Baby Moisturizer get Little Sister’s seal of approval. ;-)
You can find EcoStore products at Meijer, Plum Markets and several other locations - but make sure to also check them out on Facebook, Twitter and online; they offer some really good deals for their fans and customers quite often. In fact, right now they’re getting ready to offer a 50% off sale for Labor Day - their products are already pretty reasonably priced, but it would make for a great time to try them!
Sorry I’ve been MIA for so long, but I hope you’ll understand why…
Little Sister arrived July 18, one full week after her due date; after weeks of contractions and one night where I was convinced I was starting to go into real labor (nope), I ended up having to be induced - with one heck of a birth story to go with it (which I’ll save for another post).
One of the best parts is that Big Sister is actually quite happy with the new addition - she asks to hold the baby almost every day, and is constantly giving her kisses. She is so gentle and sweet with her; when the baby cries, she tries to console her by softly stroking her head or arm and saying, “I know, I know!” (She is at the age where she imitates everything she sees or hears, so it’s doubly cute for me knowing that she’s saying this because she hears us saying it so often.)
We’re all settling in well and I’m feeling great, so I’m hoping to be blogging a bit more often now - in between some quality time with my hubby and two little girls!
The Green Street Fair is returning to downtown Plymouth May 6-8 - and my friends from Lunasa will be offering memberships for HALF PRICE!
So if you’ve been on the fence about joining Lunasa, now you can try it out for just $20 (which is an annual fee, not monthly) - plus you’re supporting a Michigan business, you can order fresh Michigan meats, produce and other products from their online site and then pick it up in either Ann Arbor or their new location in Garden City (which is a really fun and funky antique shop!). Seriously, it’s the easiest grocery shopping I’ve ever had to do - and I have to say, it feels pretty good to not having to stop at the meat counter at Meijer anymore. *shudder*
Plus, it looks like there will be a TON of really good exhibitors at the Green Street Fair - and the weather is supposed to be gorgeous this weekend, so why not? Make sure you say hi to the ladies from Lunasa! :-)
One of my favorite local magazines, edibleWOW, is hosting a cooking demonstration and dinner in a few weeks - Thursday, May 19 with Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital; sounds like a fun night of music and local food! Featured recipes include gnocchi from Hampshire Farms Organic grain; apple-smoked free range chicken; Maple Creek Farm braised greens; Grassfields “Fait Gras” organic cheese; and a gluten-free dessert made from Westwind Milling grain.
There will also be a mini farmers’ market from 5-6:30 pm; bluegrass music by Jim Lapard and the Memphis Grass from 6:30-8:30 pm; and a cooking demonstration and dinner with the hospital’s director of culinary wellness, Chef Frank Turner.Lately, there’s been a lot of discussion about whether low-income families who can’t afford diapers should be helped via cloth or disposables; obviously, the pro-cloth side is arguing (and they’re correct) that before disposable diapers came onto the scene, cloth was the norm for EVERY family (even - maybe especially - cash-strapped families), and disposables were the fancy, expensive, modern option for diapering your child.
However, the Detroit Area Diaper Bank (DADB) - which is a FANTASTIC organization; I’ve met the owner, Marybeth, personally and she is so dedicated to this cause - also recently posted a great article from a green blog on this same topic, and it raised some excellent points.
Since becoming pro-cloth diapering, there have been several times that I’ve wanted to post on DADB’s Facebook wall to suggest that they include cloth diapers as an option for their drives, or perhaps offer workshops that teach people how to make their own cloth diapers (which some people swear is so easy to do); but the same question stopped me each time: Uh, how would they wash them? If you’re struggling to put food on the table and keeping your baby in the same diaper all day to stretch out a hard-to-purchase box (or, worse, re-using disposables), I can’t imagine you’ve got a washer and dryer at the ready to wash them every 1-2 days, or the money to buy special detergent needed to keep them at their best (and last the longest).
So when Marybeth shared the Beyond Green blog post on the DADB Facebook page, I knew my suspicions were confirmed - I’m not so sure about the laundromats refusing to accept cloth diapers (are there Laundromat Police watching for these things?), but the rest made sense.
Cue the blog post from the Cloth Diaper Blog on why cloth diapers should still be considered for low-income families - and my response to the post (when they shared it on their Facebook page):
This is a good post, and timely, too - I’ve been discussing the same thing with The Detroit Area Diaper Bank, Inc., which helps provide disposable diapers for people who can’t afford them in the hard-hit Metro Detroit area. I’ve been wrestling with this as well, as I’m a recent CD advocate and believe they are the best choice for everyone - and I know you can do it economically - but I also truly support Marybeth and her efforts, particularly as the issue with CD’ing for many of these families is that they do not have regular access to a washing machine, and I have a hard time encouraging a wiped-out single mother (or family) to hand-wash diapers every night. If disposables are going to be produced and consumed (which they will), I’d rather that they go to babies that would otherwise be sitting in a single soiled diaper all day long - and count my blessings that I’m in a position to choose cloth over disposable.
Because really - at the end of the day, the most important thing is that babies have a clean change of diapers, right? Although I’m obviously pro-breastfeeding and a huge advocate of breastfeeding over formula-feeding, I know that when it comes down to it, the kid just needs to be fed.
In my opinion, that goes for cloth diapering as well. Although I’m not saying the Cloth Diaper Blog was wrong for sharing this - it’s good information to think about - it’s hard enough to get someone to turn away from what modern society has deemed the “norm”; sometimes it’s better to keep trumpeting the benefits of one way over the other, and leave it to the other person to decide.
