If you can't go Organic, at least try this

I don't think most family and friends realize that our house went "Organic' shortly after Pirate's birth. We only buy organic milk. It is very expensive but we decided that certain things that the kids eat and drink all the time, we would commit to buying organic. This also includes juice, crackers and snacks, and fruits and veggies. It doesn't mean that we don't feed them junk food or processed food because we do that too! Since the kids don't really eat any meat, we haven't committed to organic meat just yet. It is great that Costco and other retailers are really beginning to offer the organic variety now. Since we can't always buy organic fruits and veggies, I have found a fabulous recipe for fruit and veggie cleaner to counteract all the chemicals that is sprayed on our produce before it makes it into our homes.

Here's the list of the "Dirty Dozen". The 12 produce items that you should buy organic. We aren't always that good in our house. Depending on finances, hot sale items, and the store we are at determines if it's organic or not.

http://www.greenthinkers.org/blog/2006/06/organic_dirty_dozen.html

I do clean all our fruit and veggies with the following. I got the recipe from the book, Gorgeously Green by Sophie Uliano. My luck, I will get hit with some copyright crime for reprinting it but it was posted on Oprah's website too!

Ingredients:

1 cup of water

1 cup distilled white vinegar

1 Tbsp. baking soda

20 drops of grapefruit seed extract (available at local health food store)

Combine all ingredients in a large container. Then transfer to a spray bottle with a pump. (Don't mix ingredients right in spray bottle. You will have a science experiment, just like you did in the 5th grade - trust me)

Spray on produce and rinse thoroughly after 5 to 10 minutes.

Just much to do, too little time

I have to admit that the blog has been the least of my priorities as of lately and my biggest guilt. I love to write this blog, I just haven't found the time. I go to bed each night with such guilt that I didn't have the time to add a new entry. I have been too busy catching cats, dealing with plumbers, wrangling a two year old and negotiating outfits with Princess. Then there is Christmas and Dear Husband's back surgery next week. I think my plate is full and spilling over. Oh, and because Dear Husband and my therapist told me I need to start going to the gym to burn off some stress, I am on my 5th week of my 9-week running program. It's kicking my butt yet the butt isn't disappearing.

Though we have been scrambling around trying to get all our Christmas shopping done before the surgery (Dec. 18th), I haven't grasped the holiday spirit just yet. As we get closer to the surgery, I am beginning to get stressed about the severity of the surgery along with the responsibilities that fall on me as of Dec. 18th. I am going to temporarily become a single mom with two small kids and a husband that is useless for the unforeseen future, while he recovers.

I need to find and bring the holiday cheer into our house along with playing Santa Claus on the 24th. You can call me bah-humbug but I did veto a big tree this year. Could you imagine me dealing with the two kids, husband is upstairs in bed after surgery and the two darn indoor cats have knocked over the tree ? (its a guarantee they would to) I had to make the tough decision to go without this year. We have an itty-bitty tree that I will put out instead. When the cats knock it over, at least I will be able to pick it up myself and I won't have water leaking into our laminate flooring.

To Catch a Cat....

We have been battling a feral cat issue in our yard and neighborhood for years. I have mentioned it before in past blog entries. I am ecstatic to announce that we think we have finally capped the issue. We have caught the last known female that was not fixed. She had two litters this past summer that we had to catch and find home for. A total of 5 kittens that we found. This cat, who we call Beauty, has been dodging us for well over one year and has caused a lot of stress in our house. We began trying to trap her last summer and were successful one time until Dear Husband took pity on her and 'dumped' her from the the cat trap to a dog crate so she would be more comfortable for the evening, while she waited to be taken to a spay clinic. Needless to say, Beauty got away and Dear Husband ended up in Urgent Care with a cat bite. Since that day, we have never been able to get her in the cat trap. We have caught everything else in our neighborhood, including a 20lb. possum just last week. In desperation a few days ago, I called Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County to get their advice. They suggested I use a 'Drop Cage' which they were willing to loan me. They said that if we screwed this up, the hopes of every catching her were slim.

Last night I left Dear Husband in charge of the trapping while I took Princess and Pirate out for a few hours. Dear Husband not only was able to trap Beauty but trapped two of the other ferals at the same time. We had been told this might happen and were given instructions on how to just get Beauty in the portable cat trap. I was sweating bullets and stressed out to the max! If this failed, we were screwed. I am happy to say that we successfully transferred Beauty and settled her down in our garage for the night while we figuered out what to do next. I hardly slept a wink last night, knowing that if we didn't find a vet today to spay her... we would most likely have to take her to the animal shelter. She is very wild so she has no chance of being adopted. I called our vet first thing this morning and they were happy to help. Beauty is currently being spayed as I type this email. She will be put back in her cat trap right after surgery so she awakes in the trap. I will pick her up tomorrow morning and release her back into our neighborhood. Whoo Hoo! I am a very happy camper today. Have we finally conquered the ever-expanding feral cat issue in our neighborhood? No thanks to our neighbors either. Nobody helped us financially or physically to resolve this issue.

Please Spay and Neuter your cats, no matter if they are indoors or outdoor cats.

One Tall Tale

I have to share a tidbit of my life yesterday. It is just a sampling of what I have to work with everyday.

I had been eyeballing a new cheap haircutting place that was opening yesterday. Princess needed a trim and I just couldn't bring my self to spend $18.00 + tip to a 10 minute haircut. I figured the new haircut place might have a grand opening deal so I called them in the morning. They didn't have a opening deal but the kids haircuts were only $13.00. I couldn't beat that! So off Princess and I went to get her hair cut. We left Dear Husband and Pirate at home napping. The haircut didn't take long (will be going there again too!) so we decided to run over to Kohl's to make a quick exchange on a present for Pirate for Christmas. [That's a whole other blog entry: trying to Christmas shop when you always have at least one kid tagging along]

We didn't even get out of the parking lot into the store and my phone rings. It's Dear Husband in the background of a screaming Pirate. He is trying to get me to calm Pirate down over the phone. Yeah right! Since this has been happening a lot lately, I know the drill.... get home as quickly as possible. More for Dear Husband, not Pirate. Dear Husband is not able to deal with the kids when they cry and tantrum for Mommy so I get these wonderful phone calls while I am trying to get something down by myself or be by myself.

Princess and I rush home and as soon as I walk in Pirate calms down. Dear Husband doesn't even look at me, as if I did something wrong! He tells me Pirate has been like that since Dear Husband went and got him out of the crib after nap. Okay, I was going along with the story for a few minutes and then I discovered the truth. Dear Husband made the slight comment that he was so out of it during his nap (Must be nice!!!), that he slept through the phone ringing. Hummm.. made me start thinking. Pirate had been probably playing in his crib when he woke up and nicely calling out over the baby monitor that he wanted out of his crib. Dear Husband was so crashed he didn't hear Pirate until Pirate became outraged and scared that no one was coming. How long did it really take, I wonder? By the time Dear Husband staggered into the room with only one eye open, Pirate was pissed and Daddy was the last person he wanted to see. Can't I say I blame him. Oh, the joys of motherhood and wifehood!

Help! I am being held hostage......by a 2 year old!

My dear friend Angela called me a week ago to make sure I was okay since I hadn't blogged in awhile.(We are currently playing phone tag, I'm it!) I know this statement is overused but I have been 'so busy', mostly by a my sweet little Pirate who is 2. I like to say that he is holding me as a hostage. While I love spending time with him, once in awhile I would like a break and I am just not getting any these days. I am going to the gym at least 5 times a week now, for 1 1/2 hours in the morning just to get some peace and quiet. Pirate LOVES the kids area at our gym. I am sure your thought is... 'wow, she must be in great shape now'. I can do pull ups and run for quite a distance and a bit toner but you probably won't notice anything different with me. Since I am now putting myself 'first' as I am always told I need to do, the time I am taking at the gym is just setting me back on all the other things I need to do during the day. Another challenge I am facing with my little guy (and Princess, the two days she isn't at school) is that I am not able to hold any type of phone conversation. It is further isolating me. It really sucks.

As I have mentioned in previous blog entries, being a stay-at-home is great but can be tough if you don't get some kind of daily break.

Halloween

Princess was Cinderella at her Preschool Halloween parade and party. I love this picture because the little boy in the picture is Princess' crush, Jakey. She is IN LOVE with him. I love the look on her face. I know she is thinking, "come on Mom, you are embarrassing me in front of Jakey" He is clueless on how Princess feels.

For Trick or Treat, Princess decided to model her Sleeping Beauty costume and Pirate was a Pirate, of course. The vest came off within seconds of this picture being taken and the hat was put on his head at each front door as the doorbell was being rung. We didn't trick or treat for long. Princess had trick or treated during her Preschool parade the day before and was a bit burnt on the concept by this point. Pirate loved it and would have kept going if we let him. He had major tears when we had to take the bucket of loot out of his hands at the end of the night.

Happy Birthday Pirate!

My sweet little Pirate turned 2 the day before Halloween! He received a pirate hat & vest as a gift. How perfect! Pirate didn't really get what was going on at first. He is one that loves a party so he was happy when all his family started arriving at our house for dinner. I don't think he realized everyone was gathered for dinner for him until present and cake time. He began opening presents and became so fixated on the first toy that we had to egg him on to open the next present. Then he became fixated on the next toy and so on. Princess began opening the gifts for him to speed things along. She also had an ulterior motive. She was VERY jealous and envious of one of Pirates' gifts from us. She knew in advance about the gift and had already put it in her head that it was hers. It is a little animal carrier with dodads in it such as a little doggie, doggie dish, play food,etc. That one gift has caused so much grief between Princess and I. She has hogged it all weekend. Dear Pirate saw how attached Princess was and just let her pretty much take over the gift. I was the one that kept on reminding her that it was Caden's and he needed to be able to play with it once in awhile. Many tears over the damn doggie carrier this weekend. I told her she can put it on her Christmas list if she loved it that bad. (oh, how I am looking forward to Christmas- not!)

When it was time for cake, we put Pirate in front of his Backyardigans themed cake and luckily my brother had quick reflexes because little Pirate was getting tired and saw the Backyardigans figurines on the cake and lunged to rip them all off. We say 'Happy Birthday' so fast while he kept on trying to demolish the cake. I blew out his candles and said a little wish for him. He ate cake and then off to bed for the little Pirate!!