I washed my diapers today and am a little nervous about it. Yeah, technically they’re Little Guy’s diapers but since I’m the one who loves them I get to call them MINE. Since I wash diapers about every other day it’s usually not a big deal, but today I used a different detergent - that’s why I’m nervous. Detergent choice is a big deal when washing cloth diapers. You can have the perfect washing routine but if you use the wrong detergent, like one with built-in fabric softener, your diapers could be ruined. Or at least really messed up for a while. Just a little pressure there, right?

For the past three years I’ve been using Arm & Hammer Free on the diapers and it’s worked really well for us - the only time I’ve had stinky diapers is when I was lazy and didn’t wash them for 3-4 days. I hadn’t been looking to switch detergents, but when I was doing research for my diaper detergent page I discovered that Arm & Hammer makes a more environmentally friendly detergent with plant based surfactants: Arm & Hammer Essentials. I mentioned to Teacher that I wanted to try it and the last time he got groceries he remembered to buy some. Yep, not only does he do all the grocery shopping, he remembers things like this. He’s SUCH a keeper!

I tried the detergent on our clothes first and really like it although it’ll take a while to get used to the scent. We’ve been using unscented products for years because when I’m pregnant I get queasy from strongly scented products. The Essentials isn’t strong so I think it’ll be OK, but I do plan to contact Church and Dwight Co, Inc (makers of Arm & Hammer) and suggest they make Essentials unscented.

When the diapers came out of the dryer they looked as clean as usual, and didn’t have much of a scent to them. But only time will tell if the Essentials will work as well for us as the Free did. Cross your fingers with me that it does!

According to Wikipedia, Serendipity is “is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely.” Like when I was searching in my coat pocket for a tissue and found a twenty. Yippee!

The artisans of Lily Pad Landing have adopted the idea of serendipity for our fifth Thursday stockings. Unlike our regular stockings which have previews beforehand and go live at 9pm, a Serendipity stocking is a surprise stocking. Items don’t preview, they just go live at random times throughout the day. So you could be browsing, refresh the page, and suddenly something appears that wasn’t there before. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

I know that we’re all busy and even though we may want to spend a day on the computer, our kiddos need to be fed, changed, played with and cuddled too, so I’m giving hints as to when my items will stock. Besides, I gotta reward all my loyal newsletter and blog readers, right?

All the answers to these hints can be found somewhere in my blog…
1- How many greenish stones are in my non-Valentine’s Day gift, plus 1?
2- How many of my family members have blue eyes?
3- How many white and pink boxes do I need to be Gaw-geus?

Serendipity to you,

A couple of weeks ago I warned you that I was going to be on TV, and this morning the segment finally aired. Since the day after the interview Teacher has been recording the show and fast-forwarding through it every morning to see if I was on. I had started thinking that maybe they decided not to air it at after all, but this morning there it was!

When I checked my email later I found a message from Millaine at Channel 5 telling me that the segment was going to air today. Since the email was sent at 3am and the show started at 5am there’s no chance I would have gotten the email before the show, but it was nice of her to let me know anyway.

Of course hindsight is 20/20 and over the past couple of weeks I’ve thought of a thousand things I should have said and a thousand better ways to say what I did say, but overall I can’t complain.

Anyway, here it is… Enjoy!
The Interview

I’m terrible, I know. I promised to write more about the Midwest Clinic. And I haven’t done it yet, but what can I say? First there was Christmas, and New Years, and new children in the daycare, and puke, and… and… OK, no more excuses, time to write.
Teacher and I had two FANTASTIC days in Chicago at the Midwest Clinic! We planned to leave early Thursday morning, but first we had to stop at the gas station, then we had to go back home to drop off the car seats we’d forgotten to take out of the car, then we went through McDonald’s drive through for breakfast Cinnamon Melts, hash browns and Diet Coke - Yummy! we ended up leaving Appleton almost an hour later than we’d planned.

Since we’ve always lived at least an eight-hour drive away from family we’re used to long car trips so the four-hour drive to Chicago flew by. At least for me it did; I was reading the Glamour magazines that had piled up unread over the past few months while Teacher did all the driving. Even if he would let me drive on a trip there’s NO WAY I would drive in Chicago - those people are nuts! They have no fear; cutting in right and left, slamming on their brakes right in front of you, zipping across three lanes to take an exit… I find myself holding my breath and clutching the edges of the seats whenever we’re driving in Chicago.

Teacher got us safely to the Palmer House where we paid the extra $8.00 for valet parking. I thought it was totally worth it to unload our bags right at the curb and let someone else worry about where to park. After checking in and dumping our bags and stuff in the room I was starved. The first time we went to Midwest Clinic we made the mistake of buying lunch at the Clinic: $15.00 for a sandwich, chips and a soda - Ouch! This time we were smarter and decided to walk “up the block” to find lunch. I’d left my coat in the room because I didn’t want to be bothered with it at the Clinic, but it was a “balmy” 32 degrees so I figured I’d be OK for a couple of blocks. Six long blocks later I was wishing I had my coat, but we’d finally found an affordable place to eat - good old McDonalds again!

The wind was in our faces on the way back to the Palmer House but I was brave and didn’t whine - too much. We got back to the hotel and hopped on the shuttle to the Hilton, where the conference was being held. Once we arrived there we and hit our first snag: we hadn’t pre-registered and the computer systems went down right in the middle of registering Teacher. Because we didn’t have our Official Name Badges we couldn’t go to any workshops or browse the exhibits, so we stood around for almost half an hour waiting for the system to get back online. I started to think that they should just hand-write the name badges and take all the information to input later when the system came back up again. Finally we could do some Clinic stuff!

First up - a workshop entitled “The Wind Band Sound: ‘A Definitive Guide to Ensemble Intonation’ Practical Performance Applications”. Now, isn’t THAT a mouthful?!

To be continued…
(I promise!)

It’s been “snot-freezin’ cold” for the past few days and I’ve had enough already. You know snot-freezin’ cold, don’t you? When you walk out outside and feel the snot in your nose freeze as you breathe. Yeah, that’s snot-freezin’ cold.

Spring, where are you?!

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

Welcome to the Gross-Out Story Hour. This hour our topic is Puke. Vomit. Throw-Up. Tossed Cookies. Barf. Upchuck. Spew. You get the idea.

I find it interesting that when you tell someone a puke story they almost always have one to tell you back. I’d guess everyone has had some experience with puke; either their own or someone else’s.

I had an up-close and personal experience with puke just yesterday and was telling a friend about it. She kindly shared her story with me and I’ll share it with you. The more the merrier, right? Anyway, my friend was trying to get her young daughter to giggle and the girl ended up puking into my friend’s open mouth. I’m so grossed out just writing that! Next thing you know, my friend was puking too. I sure can’t blame her.

Teacher has been puked on by each of our children in church. One Sunday College Boy said “I don’t feel good.” I was in the midst of saying “If you think you’re going to throw up, go to the bathroom” when he tossed his cookies all over the floor, and Teacher’s legs. Two-year-old Princess lost her breakfast on Easter morning, all down the front of Teacher in his new shirt and tie. Ah yes, the good old days.

Up to know I’ve managed to avoid being puked on until yesterday’s incident ruined my lucky streak. We’d just finished lunch and the kids were bringing their dishes to the counter on their way through the kitchen to the bathroom. One of my little girls hadn’t eaten much but I didn’t think anything of it since she can be a picky eater. Plus she’d had seconds at breakfast. During lunch I’d asked her if she was going to eat and she told me “My tummy says I’m not hungry”. No big deal; if she’s not hungry she’s just not hungry. Or so I thought…

I was rinsing dishes while the children went in and out of the bathroom behind me, washing their hands and going potty. I turned to grab more dishes and saw her standing perfectly still next to the counter. For a moment I stared at her, wondering why she was just standing there. I opened my mouth to ask, but then I saw the puke in her hands and down the front of her sweater. “Oh, honey…” I said, then as I started walking toward her she opened her mouth and projectile vomited right at me. Luckily most of it landed on the floor between us, but my shoes and jeans caught the rest. After that deluge I assumed she was done so I grabbed the paper towels to start cleaning up. But she wasn’t done yet; she spewed again and again as I dashed for a bowl. The poor girl didn’t stop until I was sure she’d brought up everything she’d ever eaten in her entire life. Finally she stopped and stood looking at me, brown eyes huge in her pale face. “I don’t feel good” she said, the poor honey.

I managed to get her cleaned up, call her parents, change diapers and tuck the other children into bed. I’ll spare you the details of cleaning up; suffice it to say that it took half a roll of paper towels, several plastic grocery bags, soapy water and a rag, disinfecting spray, and over half an hour before the floor and carpet showed no signs of puke.

Once all was calm again I returned to my lunch. I’d only had time to eat half of it before the puke started flowing, and I was still hungry. Unfortunately for my ten pounds of leftover baby weight, cleaning up a puke pond didn’t curb my appetite one bit. I kinda wish it had.

I told you mine, now you tell my yours and we can all be grossed out together - the more the merrier, right?

Teacher and I have been trying to make healthier choices when it comes to meals and snacks. We’ve replaced fruit snacks, which we rarely bought anyway, with dried fruit bits and Wonder-type bread/baked goods with whole grain bread/baked goods. Since we’d been indulging in a bit too much junk food after Thanksgiving, we were both excited when one of his students gave him a Christmas gift of Great Harvest Trail Mix!

We munched it happily by the handful and it quickly became my favorite afternoon snack. A half-cup of trail mix was the perfect amount to nibble while I did paperwork during Nap Time, but as the level in the bag diminished I started to worry - what would I do when it was gone? Oh sure, we could buy more, but with six kids we try to keep our grocery budget as trim as possible and gourmet trail mix isn’t really one of the necessities. Then the other day I was reading the packaging Don’t laugh, it was very interesting packaging. I peeked at the ingredients and decided that I could make some myself. I know I’m not the best cook, but there’s no way even I could mess up trail mix!

First you need these ingredients:
Almonds
Honey Roasted Peanuts
Sunflower Seeds
Golden Raisins
Dried Cranberries
White Chocolate Chips
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Measure about 1 cup almonds, 1 cup peanuts, 1 cup sunflower seeds, 3/4 cup raisins and cranberries, 1/2 cup each white and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Mix together gently so you don’t break up the peanuts and almonds. I learned that one the hard way! These amounts gave me a mix that looked very much like the Natural Ovens mix that was left in our bag.

The fun thing about trail mix is that you can do it your own way. Since there weren’t enough chocolate chips in the mix for me I added another 1/2 cup of each. Then there weren’t enough cranberries and raisins so I dumped more of those in. Actually, I dumped the rest of the bags in because there wasn’t much left in either bag. Then I had to add more peanuts but I couldn’t put in more almonds because there weren’t any more. Then I had to add the rest of the chocolate chips to keep things even. I didn’t add any more sunflower seeds because I don’t like them much, I just put them in because the Great Harvest mix had them and Teacher likes them. I thought the results was perfect… except for a lack of M&Ms. Next time they’ll go in too;M&Ms are magic you know.

I hope you’ll take a couple of minutes to mix up your own trail mix. Leave me a comment and tell me what ingredients you add to your version - I’d love to try your recipe! As long as there aren’t too many sunflower seeds…

I shouldn’t be allowed to own a scissors. Honestly. Especially one that’s meant to cut hair. There’s nothing but heartbreak down that road.

When I was in the 6th grade I wanted my mom to trim my bangs for the Girls’ Basketball Team pictures the next day. As a preteen I was starting to be interested in my looks. Like most moms, my mom had a lot to do and couldn’t trim my hair right away. So with my usual lack of patience I decided to do it myself - after all, how hard could it be? You know where this is going, don’t you? I soaked my bangs with water and plastered them down to my forehead with my fingers. Then I cut across as straight as I could, right above my eyebrows. As they dried they shrunk up more and more until they were barely noticable. I later learned that when cutting wet hair you need to leave it a little longer than the finished length you want. Wish I had known that then - the Girls’ Basketball team picture is still around as a reminder of my little mistake.

You’d think that after that lesson I’d leave haircutting to the professionals, but I’m just not that smart. The other night when I was getting ready for bed and thinking about my upcoming TV interview, I decided my bangs needed a trim. I hate hair in my eyes and didn’t want to go on camera looking like a sheepdog. So I got out the scissors… You do know what’s coming again, don’t you? I remembered the 6th grade debacle but figured that I’m much older and wiser now so I wouldn’t make the same mistake again. Besides, how hard can trimming bangs be? I’d read in Glamour that the best way to trim your bangs is to twist up small sections and cut off no more than 1/4″. That’s so easy - I can do that! I started sectioning, twisting, and trimming, beginning at my left temple. It was going rather well and I was feeling confident until the section right above my left eye. The scissors slipped and cut 1/2″ off that section, leaving a huge gap in the fringe. *@&#&%^@!!! I’m such an idiot! My stomach flipped and my mind raced frantically trying to figure out how to fix it.

The smart thing would have been to put down the scissors and call my hairstylist friend to repair the damage the next day. But since I’m neither smart nor patient I kept cutting. First I finished the section-twist-cut technique with the rest of my bangs. Then I went back and trimmed the places that were still too long. Then I combed it up and trimmed the longest hairs to create some layers. It almost sounds like I know what I’m doing, doesn’t it? Finally I cut some sections shorter to make it look like I meant to have an uneven look. When I was done my bangs were shorter than I’d planned, but trimmed in a choppy fashion that I hoped would camouflage the hole. It seemed to work, and when I comb my bangs to the left and spray them with ultra-hold hairspray, you can’t even tell that there was a gap. Really, you can’t. Just don’t look at me from that side.

Next time I’ll call my friend Cassie instead of cutting it myself - pinkie swear!

Sunday morning a TV crew from Channel 5 in Green Bay is coming to interview me for Wisconsin Works, a segment of their morning show. I’m hyperventilating just writing that so it’s sure to be an interesting segment: “Stay tuned as Amy Sue stares blankly at the camera…”

Monday morning I got a phone call asking for the owner of Zany Zebra. At first I thought it was a telemarketer but was shocked to hear it was Channel 5 TV in Green Bay. They want to feature Zany Zebra in one the upcoming Wisconsin Works segments and when would be a good time for the crew to come by for an interview?

I looked around the house and calculated how long it would take to get it ready for TV - a month should do it. Unfortunately they needed sometime this week, including Sunday. It also had to be before 3:00 pm, but they could come as early in the morning as I needed to avoid daycare hours. I considered what time I’d have to wake up to be dressed, have hair and make up done, the house cleaned, and everything ready for a 6am interview. Then I chose Sunday. The kiddos were warned that Saturday was Clean the House Day because “Mom’s going to be on TV”. They thought it was cool but didn’t get really hyper, they just asked “Why” and went on with their lives - probably afraid I’m going to embarrass them.

I’ve been trying to play it cool and be calm but on the inside I’m a quivering mass of jelly. What if I look dumb? What if I sound dumb? What if the cameras add 10 pounds to my leftover baby weight and I look huge or have something in my teeth or the lights wash me out so I look dead? What if they ask me a really easy diapering question and I don’t know the answer? What if I babble incoherently or worse - blank out and say nothing? What if I get a humongous zit overnight? What am I going to wear?!

Teacher says I’ll look gorgeous and be wonderful and sound intelligent. That’s why I love him - he always believes in me. And he keeps me from totally flipping out.

I have to apologize to these customers… Lisa, Miranda, Colleen, Julie, Sarah, Kimberly, Erika. I’m sorry but I can’t ship your orders today like I’d planned. It occurred to me as I was obsessing about this interview Me obsess? I resemble that remark if I shipped your orders today I’d have no examples for the interview Sunday and how lame would that be? But I PROMISE to pack them up Sunday afternoon and get them on their way Monday. I’ll post a link when I have one so you can see your fluff on TV.

Time to start cleaning…