And The Winner Is...

The winner of The Great Cloth Diaper Stink Experiment Laundry Soap Giveaway (brought to you by CrunchyMoms and All Things Diapers) is...........

TRESHENNA!  (Ms Polka Dottie) :)

Congradulations!

Treshenna will be receiving a package of Charlie's Soap Laundry Powder, courtesy of All Things Diapers.

The Great Cloth Diaper Stink Experiment :: Experiment Wrap-Up

After a long hiatus due to the Holiday Season, a broken computer keyboard, followed by a broken computer, followed by a major flood of our bathroom, kitchen, and basement (installation of our new BumGenius diaper sprayer didn't go so smoothly), Crunchy Moms is finally back in the blogosphere!  To celebrate our return, we're wrapping up the Great Cloth Diaper Stink Experiment!

It was a hard decision, and one I poured (gallons and gallons of water) over (stinky diapers) for over a month!  I couldn't decided how to finalize the experiment so I just decided to give you my results and opinions straight and bluntly. 

• After using the Thirsties for only a week, I realized that my diapers were still stinky.  When they were wet out of the wash, they smelled horrible.  Out of the dryer they weren't so bad but once they got wet, stink city!

• The Rockin' Green cleaned my diapers fairly well, but I realized I needed to do a couple extra rinse cycles to get the extra suds and the oily residue from the fragrance oils out of my diapers.

• Charlie's smells like windex, but it cleaned my diapers fantastically.  I looked up the material safety data sheet for the laundry powder, as I had heard concerns about toxic substances in the all purpose cleaner.  The MSDS didn't list any toxic chemicals in the laundry powder, so I feel comfortable recommending it.   And of course, the real point of this experiment, with Charlie's: The stink was gone! 

So Charlie's Soap Laundry Powder is the W I N N E R !!!

I will note, however, in our household, we have decided to use a mixture of Charlie's and Rockin' Green on our diapers.  I love the scents of the Rockin' Green detergent and I love the cleaning power of Charlie's.  I've always been a bit of a tester and a mixer of cleaning agents, and I've found that this combo cleans our diapers wonderfully and makes doing diaper laundry fun!

Tonight I will chose the winner of the contest at random.  The winner will receive a package of Charlie's Soap Laundry Powder, courtesy of All Things Diapers!

If you haven't already entered the contest, you still have time!  The contest will close at Midnight (CST) tonight, Friday, January 6th, 2012!  Go to our first post in this series to find out how to enter!

Seven Ways Wednesdays - Seven Ways to "Crunchify" Your Life

In honor of my son, I am presenting Seven Ways Wednesdays. Today is Wednesday the Seventh and my son, Parker was born on Wednesday the Seventh in September of this year. So, to celebrate Parker, and to help myself, and you, my readers, get down and crunchy, I will be posting Seven Ways to Crunchify Your Life every Wednesday until Parker turns the big Oh One!

1. Try cloth wipes - They save you money, save space in landfills, and are a good way to test the waters before jumping into cloth diapering.
2. Make your own baby food - You don't need expensive equipment, just a blender, food mill, or food processor; ice cube trays or similar freezer safe containers; and fresh fruits and vegetables.
3. Wear your baby - Try out a carrier, wrap, or sling and enjoy the benefits of having baby close to you: more hands free time to get stuff done, cuddle time, and a (usually) happier baby!
4. Diva Cup / Mamma Cloth - Look into alternate, more eco-friendly menstrual management solutions.  Not only are they better for the environment, they're also better for your health and cheaper in the long run.
5. Try (safe) co sleeping - Check out the co sleeping safety resources on my adventures in co-sleeping page above and spend a night in the family bed.
6. Trade in your Clorox, Lysol, and Mr Clean for safer, more natural household cleaners - You can make your own, for very little money, with peroxide, baking soda, and vinegar, or you can purchase reasonably priced store versions from brands like Seventh Generation, Method, and 
7. Check all baby products for BPA - Most bottles and pacifiers are made BPA Free these days but check out your baby's belongings to make sure none snuck there way into your home.

I will be posting seven more easy and inexpensive ways to "Crunchify" your life each week.  Don't forget to subscribe to my blog (via Google Friend Connect, RSS, or Email) so you don't miss any of my tips and ideas.  We will go from the very basic to the very dedicated as the series continues.  

Do Realistic Attachment Parents Exist? (or are they all birth, car seat, and breastfeeding nazis?)

After a lot of thought and a lot of debating, I've decided that I need to change the focus of this blog.  I've spent so much of my life not being myself, not being true to myself, at all, and it needs to stop.  I need at least one aspect of my life (other than with my kids, they always love me for me) where I can be ME and this is it. 

For the past week or so, my heart hasn't been into writing.  I feel as if I am merely going through the motions, recycling the same old thing that's on every attachment parenting, natural parenting, or green mom blog.  I sat down and thought about what makes me unique.  And, as I was writing a blog post (coming soon, I promise) about car seat safety, I realized...

I may be an attachment focused parent.  I may breastfeed, cloth diaper, use cloth wipes (and occasionally "the family cloth"), eat vegetarian, babywear, cosleep, and never ever ever spank my kids.  I may even have a son who is lucky because I left him intact.

But I am not fanatical.   

• I'm not ridiculously overprotective (even when I want to be).
• I take long baths, even though I know it's not great, I reduce my carbon footprint in other ways, like not eating meat (which is something that even some of the most hardcore green, natural living people can't seem to give up).
• I did not have a medication free homebirth.  I not only had a C Section, but it was PLANNED and I demanded it.  That was my way of owning my own birth. I will do it again (and probably again after that).  The only thing that I dislike about this method of birthing is that I can only have four children.  Otherwise, it's my ideal method of delivering babies.
• I don't always eat organic. Mostly because I can't afford to.
• I didn't keep my daughter in a rear facing car seat until the age of 13 (in fact I was counting down the days until I could turn her around).
• Even though I believe that "breast is best", I have no urge to gang up on women who chose to formula feed.  It's their choice.  I may not think it's the right choice, but it's not my choice to make.  I fed my daughter formula because she had major reflux which was affected by breastmilk, as well as some other formulas.  We give Parker one or two bottles of formula a day, not only so that his dad can enjoy feeding him, but so I can have a break once in a while.  We love our breastfeeding relationship, and I refuse to give it up (especially the night feedings), but once in a while it's nice to be able to hand him to Nate and go read a book in the teatub (bath in our family).
• I don't wear my baby in the house constantly.  I wear him a lot.  I was babywearing when babywearing was only cool on the east coast.  Back when your only choice was Baby Bjorn and they were ridiculously expensive.  But I don't wear him all over the house.  I really do want to wear him more at home, but sometimes it's just not practical.  Like this one time... when I was doing laundry...  let's just say he wasn't a fan of being squished between his short mommy and the washer.
• While I generally follow safe cosleeping practices, I don't have just a mattress, with no boxspring, on the floor.  I did that when I was poor and pregnant with my daughter and couldn't afford a mattress, I'm not about to go back to it.  I've gone through the trouble of making sure there are no spaces between the mattress and the wall that baby can fall into so I think that's adequate. 
• I don't think television is evil.  I think it can be bad when children watch TV and play video games and never go outside or move around and exercise.  But it scares me that some moms talk about secondhand TV watching.  Really?  TV is not like cigarette smoke.  It can't "come and get" your child.  Having a TV on in the background in the room where your child is wont turn your child into a big, dumb, fat, blob of stupid.  I promise.  My daughter has had plenty of exposure to TV and she's ridiculously gifted, always outside playing and running around, and she's actually underweight (her dad has can't-gain-weight genes.  Yes, I do hate him because of it.)  It's how you utilize the television and how often that matters.
• Similarly, I let my four year old watch the X Files.  She likes it, it doesn't desensitize her, and even though she gets scared, it's scary in a fun way for her.  Just because you like scary stuff doesn't mean you're desensitized and are going to become a serial killer.  There are some things I wont allow her to watch, but I'm not crazy protective about it.  Eventually she'll get to the age where she'll find a way to watch it anyway and that age really isn't that far off.
• I don't believe mothers need to be slaves to their children in order to practice attachment parenting.  Some moms let themselves be guilted into servitude in an effort to attach.  My children and I are ridiculously attached.  I've lost a lot of friends because of my desire to spend most of my time with my children.  However, I also carve out some time for myself every day.  I was a person before I had children and I will be a person after they move out.  Some of you may be confused and I hate to break the bad news- your children will someday move out of your home- and if they don't you probably did something wrong. (Of course there are always special circumstances...)  
• On a similar note,  I absolutely HATE mothers who ONLY talk about their children.  I call them Zombie Moms.  Don't get me wrong, I talk about my children probably 90% of the time, but that other 10% I'm talking about my hobbies and interests and dreams and goals.  Some of which do NOT involve my children.  I believe that if the only aspect of your personality is the fact that you're a mom, you need to get a hobby.  I'm not saying you shouldn't talk about your kids, because I do that way more than I should myself, I'm simply saying that it's a problem if you can't find anything else to talk about.  If all you are is a mom, then your husband might start looking elsewhere for stimulating conversation.  You need to be that sexy, unforgettable, incredible, brilliant woman he fell in love with once in a while. (I've chosen Wednesdays for these occasions.  After Criminal Minds is over of course.)
• Lastly, I hate it when parents are ridiculously out of touch.  Do they really not remember being that age?  I remember being every age (except, obviously, younger than 2) and I think it helps to look back to how you felt about certain things when you were that age.  Granted, some times you were wrong, but sometimes your parents were too.  This tends to repeat itself.

I'm sure there are many more examples I could give you, but I'll stop rambling and summarize the whole point of this post.

I'm sick of trying to fit into a circle when I am entirely square.  I definitely am a crazy, crunchy, attachment parenting, trying-to-be-more-green mom.  But I refuse to give up, not only who I am, but also, good old fashioned common sense, in order to fit in to a niche.

So I will share thoughts on attachment parenting and crunchiness from my own perspective, even though it might be a little less breastfeeding-cloth diapering-car seat-birth nazi than some other blogs.

If we want other women to listen to us, and to adopt some of these ideas, and to spread the word about our causes, we need to be less in-your-face and more realistic.  Not every woman can afford an extended height and/or weight five point harness car seat.   Some women are simply not able to breastfeed.  Not everyone cherishes the idea of sleeping on the floor.  There are women who really DO NOT want to forgo medication during childbirth and who feel safer giving birth with a doctor present. 

There are varying degrees of crunchiness, and I absolutely abhor the idea of shoving my ideas and beliefs down other peoples throats.  With things I'm really passionate about, like not circumcising or vegetarianism, I try to bring the good points out first, and then hit the negatives.  No one likes to be yelled at and told they're a bad mother.  When we attack women for doing things differently (using a car seat slightly wrong, formula feeding, circumcising, or getting an epidural) we only make ourselves look fanatical and crazy (like Tom Cruise talking about psychiatry).  It's not going to make others listen to us, it's going to make others shut us out.  If we really want to get our message out, we need to stop demanding that our way is best, like a bitchy little clique, and instead show them that our way is open to all and adaptable.

"This above all, To Thine Own Self Be True."

- Polonius (Hamlet - Act 1 - Scene 3 - Line 78)

I am very much open to comments and criticisms in my comments.  I am all about the debate, so if you so desire, feel free to bring it on.  Those who agree with me, I would love to hear from you as well.

Healthy & Homemade Pet Food

Dylan (left) and Squishy (right)

wait impatiently for their lunch.

Today we ran out of pet food.  We're short on money until Monday, so I went to my wise uncle who always has all the answers to every question I could possibly need to ask.  Uncle Google told me that I could make my own pet food out of meat, eggs, grains, and vegetables. 

So I grabbed the steak Nate bought months ago out of the freezer, cooked it up to a nice medium rare and added brown rice, hard boiled eggs, and carrots.

Voila!

Tasty, healthy, high protein pet food! The best part is that you actually know what's in it, unlike with some of the discount pet foods at the grocery store. Considering my cats jumped up on the counter and started eating the food as I was stirring it all together, I would say it was a hit! My dog finished his bowl in record time and we had to put him outside so he wouldn't eat the cats food too.

Here is the recipe I used:

• 2 pounds beef steak cut into small pieces and cooked medium rare.
• 8 eggs, hardboiled.
• 1 can sliced carrots.
• A medium sauce pan full of brown rice (cooked).

I put everything (except the rice) through a blender until it was the consistency of a grainy mix.   I blended half of the rice into a rough puree and then mixed the non blended rice with the blended rice. I then mixed half the rice with the rest of the ingredients. You need to make sure you mix it well as some animals will pick the pieces they want and leave the rest. 

I gave some of that mixture as is to the cats and added some of the extra rice to the dogs bowl as dogs need more grains than cats. I refrigerated the unused portion. Make sure you cover it well as partly rare steak and eggs do not smell good together.

NoCans.com has some great cat and dog food recipes, as well as recipes for treats.  I checked out their recipes to get the basic idea (as well as their list of foods that pets can't have) and then created my own recipe using what I had on hand.

I think we will be making more home cooked meals for our pets as its healthier for them and I will actually know what's going into my furbabies mouths!

Plankton sleeping off his

large bowl of yum-yums.

PS:  He's totally a Momma's Boy

Lush Aromarant Deodorant Review

My first video for the Crunchy Moms YouTube channel is a review of Aromarant Deodorant by Lush.