For the Love of Carbs

I love carbs...pasta, bread, sweets...you name it, I enjoy it!  I've always enjoyed eating a slice of good bread (though I'm not a big sandwich eater) and so when I stumbled upon a local place (you can read about my love for all things local back here)  baking naturally leavened bread (no yeast) in a brick oven, I needed to find out more.  I read the blog of a friend of a friend and her blog directed me to McGrath's Brick Oven Bakehouse.

Located in Mechanicsburg (so only about 30 minutes from my house), McGrath's is in the beginning stages of opening a wood-fired brick oven bakery in South Central Pennsylvania.  Currently, they're using a brick oven on their patio until all of the red tape gets worked out, but their naturally leavened bread (no yeast, also known as sourdough) is DELICIOUS!  I get their e-mails every week, decide if I like the bread(s) they're offering that week, place my order via e-mail (does it get any easier, people?) by Thursday, and pick up the bread on Friday evening.  This was the first week I was able to make it work to get there to pick up bread and let me tell you how wonderful it was!  I was handed my bread in paper bags and they were still warm to the touch!  I deeply inhaled the scent of the fresh 7-grain bread, made with as many local grains as they can get their hands on.  I thoroughly enjoyed serving this preservative-free, sugar-free bread to my family and they couldn't get enough of it either!  Can't wait to see what breads are offered this week, but I'm pretty sure a stop at McGrath's (currently their garage) will be added to our Lovin' Local Fridays after we make our stop at Eastern Market.  And if any of my friends in real life (who live nearby) want to try some, feel free to come on over.  I'll warm it up, slather some butter or jelly on it and we can sit and enjoy knowing exactly what we're eating and where it came from.

Barbies and Babies

Once I had decided I was definitely going to nurse Doodle, I knew it was pretty much inevitable that at some point Bug would try "nurse" her baby dolls.  This is just something little girls do (you can ask me sometime about how I nursed my "baby" discreetly after my little sister was born).  However, I was pretty confident it would just be her baby dolls (i.e. cute, cuddly dolls with stuffed bodies that come with every baby accessory that you can imagine stepping on...I mean, playing with).  But recently the daughter of a close friend was cleaning out her toys and decided to hand down her Disney princess Barbie dolls to Bug (Ariel, Snow White i.e. Snow Man in Bug's terms, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella).  Bug was THRILLED!  This was her first introduction to Barbie dolls and she loves their little shoes and taking off their pretty dresses.

Yes...taking off their dresses is what led to this mama being slightly disturbed.  It is fairly normal for Bug to pick up a baby doll when I'm feeding Doodle and "nurse" it.  It's also fairly normal for her to find a bottle and some tubing and tell me she needs to "pump."  But on this particular day, we were just driving to meet J for lunch.  She had her babies (Barbie dolls) in the backseat of the car and had decided they needed to be "nakie babies."  Then she said, "Mommy, I need to nurse my babies."  So I look back and see Bug stuffing the Disney princess Barbie doll under her shirt.  Now, it doesn't bother me at all when she does this with her cute, innocent dollies, but something about stuffing a very naked, very well-endowed, buxom Belle Barbie doll under her shirt just disturbed me!

Oh the Horror...on the Playground!

Bug is a very active little girl and LOVES to go to a park or playground.  Any one will do, she's never met one she hasn't liked:)  So Thursday evening after dinner we headed to one of the parks nearby.  I didn't like the older kids (age 12 or 13) sliding down the slides at the smaller playground so we headed up to the bigger playground at the elementary school.  It's a great playground and she was having a lot of fun...

...I'm not sure which part of what happened next disgusted me more.  In fact I'm still kind of processing it.  There was a mom with 2 little ones who each looked about a year older than my girls, so roughly 3 and 1/2 and 1 and 1/2.  The 3 and 1/2 year old was clearly giving her mother some attitude, but this mother was giving it back.  I guess the little girl had indicated that she needed to go to the bathroom so her mother told her they needed to go (Brace yourself...Horror #1), not knowing that it was already too late.  The little girl sat on the playground and muttered under her breath, "You stupid mom!"  I was shocked!  We are very careful not to use that word where little ears can hear, though I'm sure Bug has heard it occasionally.  Then, there's Horror #2.  As I said, this mother didn't realize it was already too late and that her daughter had already relieved herself.  Yep, you can probably guess what's coming...Little Girl had an accident on the sliding board, Bug didn't know the slide was wet (curvy tunnel slide so neither did we) and Bug slid right down the slide through Little Girl's accident.  There really wasn't anything more disturbing in that moment than looking up as Bug went running across the playground, seeing very wet shorts, sniffing them and picking up the scent of urine, and then knowing that it was the urine of another child!  I'm not a germ-a-phobe, but it still grossed me out. Bug was quickly changed into clean clothes, she happily continued playing, and she most certainly received a bath when we got home!  Lesson learned: Always look (or feel or sniff) before you slide!

School Choices

Bug is only 2 and 1/2, but school choice is something I have contemplated since before she was born.  J and I are both graduates of a small Christian school in our area, but we don't plan to send our girls there for a variety of reasons (which I'd be happy to discuss with anyone who asks, but this isn't the place for that).  I was a public school educator for 5 years before Bug was born and have no issue sending my daughters to public school, except that I'm not a huge fan of the school district we currently live in (children and where they'd go to school weren't on my mind when we bought our house 6 years ago).  With those things taken into consideration (and the fact that I have a background and 2 degrees in education), homeschooling has come up in discussions more than once, but I had NEVER considered it for preschool.

Then, I decided to join Community Bible Study this year and the times for that meant I wouldn't be able to get Aubri from preschool on time (the wonderful one I had enrolled her in!) so I had to tell them she wouldn't be coming.  Then a college aquaintance showed all of the wonderful things she did with her daughter and one of her daughter's friends at home and I thought, "Brilliant!  Preschool/Tot School/Mommy School (whatever you want to call it) at home!"  I asked a close friend to join us one day a week and decided to do "school" with Aubri a little more unofficially the other days...Except now I'm not feeling so brilliant about it.  I'm thoroughly looking forward to that one day a week when I get to see another adult and Bug will have a friend to do school with...it's the other days that concern me.  Another preschool opportunity with days/times that fit our schedule opened up, but I hmmmed and hawed and hmmmed and hawed and drove Jarrod crazy with my hmmming and hawing and hmmmed and hawed some more...and in the end decided not to send her, though I'm not sure why.

  Enter the week that Bug has pushed all of my buttons...yes, I want to send her to preschool!  But then she wakes up in the morning and says, "We do preschool, Mommy?  Preschool in the basement? (that's where our "school room" is set up because J worked so hard two years ago to finish our basement and provide a beautiful family room/play area/school area for our family) We sit on the floor and sing songs?  Josh come to preschool?"  And that melts (and breaks) my heart...melts, because I'm so glad she thinks it's going to be fun, she's interested in school (though I'm pretty sure she has no earthly idea what preschool is), and I know my years of being her teacher and her main influence won't last forever.  Breaks my heart because it convicts me of the fact that she wants to be near me and do fun things and I wanted to send her to school. 

So even though it's not really "homeschooling," we're going to give this Mommy School thing a try.  Fortunately for me (my background is 3rd/4th grade, not early childhood ed), there's Pinterest, LOTS of Tot School/Teaching Mommy blogs, etc to help me figure out how to "do school" with a 2 and 1/2 year old.  I have enjoyed purchasing some learning toys and we're going loosely Montessori/thematic with the assistance of Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven curriculum.  And you know what?  I'm pumped for my curriculum to arrive and for our "school room" (really a school corner) to be set up like I want it.   Will we become die hard homeschoolers?  As of now, I'm thinking probably not, but for now Mommy School it is!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things...Laundry Edition

When we bought our house, I had no idea that we were entering a hard water situation.  I'm pretty sure (okay 95% sure) it would have been a deal breaker for me.  Between the water and our washer (which I think contributes to the problem), my whites don't stay white, but have a gray tinge to them, the girls' colored clothing, (especially pale pinks, yellows, and greens) get a gross faded tinge to them and stains (any kind...even the ones that are supposed to come out) don't come out.  So over the last several years, especially since we had the girls, I have tried everything to make our white clothes whiter, get stains out, etc.  And in that time frame, I've come up with a few of my favorites...and a few of my "won't ever use again or recommend to ANYONE!"

Favorites:
1) Sunbleaching- I know...who knew that the sun in the sky could be such a wonderful laundry tool? This is something I didn't realize until we started using cloth diapers with Doodle.  The stains were unbearable and I wasn't sure what to do.  The sun came to my rescue and I have taken great joy this summer in seeing my cloth diapers in a variety of colors and patterns swaying in the breeze.  I've started using this method for other things as well.

2) Baking Soda- Though I do buy the Arm and Hammer detergent, I have started adding baking soda straight from the box into my washing machine. I'm not sure how much difference it is making compared with other things I'm trying (read I haven't done comparison study with a test group), but it makes me feel better.

3) Vinegar- After attending a Mommy Talk on using organic and natural products (which we do some of) and then reading an article on what chemicals are in fabric softener, I gave up my fabric sheets addiction.  I used to throw a handful of fabric softener sheets into the dryer every time, but after reading about all of the chemicals a softener sheet contains, I've stopped for the most part.  Vinegar can be used as a fabric softener substitute by pouring into the liquid fabric softener place in your washing machine and, no, your clothes won't smell like vinegar.

4) Dish Soap and Peroxide- I read about this when searching for ways to make your clothes whiter and found that mixing hot water, dish soap, and LOTS of peroxide together and letting things soak does help stains...and it did to an extent.  Following this with sunbleaching helped.

5) I'd be remiss if I left out my mother-in-law and my mom.  Yes, they are two of my laundry agents.  When things just won't stay white or I just can't get stains out using our awful water or our washing machine, they graciously wash certain items for me at their house;)

"Won't Ever Use Again or Recommend to Anyone!"
1) Baby Ganics Stain Remover- maybe it was the combo of the stain remover and our water, but this stain remover left streaks on Aubri's clothes.  I did love that it was organic and contained less chemicals, but isn't the purpose of a stain remover to remove stains, not contribute new ones?

2) RLR Laundry Treatment- I ordered this from one of the places I buy cloth diapers and it was AWFUL!  The description claimed to "make whites whiter and colors brighter for a few cents a month.  Removes dried in mineral deposits and detergent residue from clothing."  Wrong!  Though it said to put it in with dry or wet laundry (tried both), it just clumped up and didn't rinse off of my clothes, leaving white clumps of nasty residue that I had to wash multiple times.

If you have hard water and have any other helpful suggestions, I'm open to them.  I don't like my kids going out with stains on their clothes (reason I buy Aubri's summer play clothes at Target vs. Gymboree) and I like my little girls' white tanks, tees, onesies, and dresses to stay white!

"The Bush" vs. "The White Picket Fence"

I've been thinking a lot lately about balance, not just balance in my life as a mother of two little girls, but balance as I look at third world countries/developing nations through first world eyes at times. When I graduated from college, I never thought I'd be living in the United States, let alone raising children here.  I had always assumed God's plan for me including teaching overseas (either ESL or TCKs) or living in the bush somewhere.  Then I married J and his family's business is here.  He loves his work and I am so thankful to have a husband who has a job that provides well for our family and that he enjoys it at the same time.  But somewhere, we have to find a balance in between those desires.  And we have been striving to do that for our entire marriage (and are getting much better at it).

We just finished going through David Platt's (author  of Radical and Radical Together) study of the book of James in our small group and it has really opened my eyes to how we spend our money, how what I do day in, day out is furthering the kingdom of God and leading others to Christ, etc.  There are days when I would be willing to sell everything (well almost everything, but at least all of the "stuff") and move to "The Bush" somewhere among an African tribal people or deep in the rainforests of South America or Southeast Asia.  Days when I know raising my girls amidst another culture and teaching them to be grateful for all that they have is the deepest desire of my heart.  Days when I want to donate my girls' clothes because who really needs 10+ bins of little girl clothes in their attic?  And then there are the days where I desire to have a new minivan because we just "need" more space.  Days I "need" new living room furniture because the dog has pretty much destroyed our little loveseat and what do people think when they see our sad couch the moment they enter our home?  Days when the dream of owning land and building our dream house overtake the desire to donate large amounts of money to the missionaries who currently have two mortgages.  Days when the urge to repaint my home and have people praise me for what it looks like overtake the desire to send extra money to our sponsored children.  So how does one come to a good middle point of balance with these decisions?  How do you do it (if you struggle with these things)?

We have very close friends of ours who are in the midst of preparing to take their family of four to minister in Papua New Guinea and when I first heard this news, my first reaction (after I stopped sobbing at the thought of "losing" a dear friend and my daughter's best friend to the other side of the world) was to be jealous.  My second reaction was to ask why it wasn't me.  My third reaction was to be thankful I didn't have to make the 20 billion hour (okay...slight exaggeration) flight with 2 children under age 3.  Again, where's the balance?

Last week we decided that it was time to replace said sad loveseat with seating that is attractive, comfortable, not peed on by the dog, and sits more than 3 total people in our living room.  However, when J went to purchase it last night, I couldn't do it.  I couldn't let him spend x amount on a sofa and 2 chairs (that we were getting for a VERY good deal) because my mind was overtaken by the thoughts of starving children, missionaries without sufficient funds, dear friends about to embark on the journey of raising support, and even the thought that that money could go towards plane tickets for us to go (short-term mind you...3 weeks or so) with our little family to minister to missionary friends serving around the world.  Where's the balance?

My sister and J reminded me that I can further the kingdom of God by having a hospitable home environment in which to serve others, have families into my home, minister to other moms, etc.  They reminded me that it's okay to have nice things.  But for me, this summer in particular, it has been a constant battle..."The Bush" vs. "The White Picket Fence."  New sofa vs. extra money to our sponsored children.  New minivan vs. $ for plane tickets to visit/minister to friends serving in other countries.  Where's the balance?

Livin' and Lovin' Local

I'm feeling pretty good about the items I was able to get this week at some great discounts.  If you've never visited http://moneysavingmom.com/ then you should really try it out.  She gives lists of store deals and the Target deals (with links to online coupons and Target coupons or references to newspaper coupons) are usually pretty incredible and save lots of money!!$$! 

$21 of merchandise for $11.44.  Yep, that's Chobani Champions Yogurt for kids that I got for $1 instead of $3, a Chobani yogurt, disinfecting wipes, 2 boxes of Annie's Organic Mac N' Cheese, Suave Shampoo for Kids, Suave Body Wash for kids, contact solution, markers, colored pencils, 2 boxes of crayons (both free), 10 pack of pens (free), and a roll of Scotch tape (also free)!

And for a little follow-up to yesterday's post about why I love to shop at farm markets and buy local produce, take a look at today's stash (which probably would have been more if the basket underneath the stroller was bigger or if Aubri was bigger and could carry more...or if the locally grown cantaloupes hadn't been so massive!).

It might be hard to see, but that's 2 heads of romaine lettuce, 2 cantaloupes, 4 lemons, 1 lb of plums (4 or 5 of them), 8 kiwis, 1 dozen ears of corn, a bag of grapes, 2 avocados, a quarter of a yellow watermelon, and a quart of blueberries (not pictured) for $21.  Try getting all of that locally grown produce for that price in the grocery store...go ahead, I dare you!

And because I just can't help myself, a parting picture of Bug proudly holding her yellow watermelon, which just might be her favorite find of the summer! (Please ignore the clutter in the background!)