I'd give it a shot but...

They're not COST effective!

Been looking at gDiapers, which are flushable & compostable & generally environmentally friendlier than the disposable we currently use. But until I'm independently wealthy, I can't afford an increase like that in my diaper bill!

Right now I get a case of Huggies at Sam's Club. There's about 170 size 4 diapers in there. It runs about $30. (I didn't have to buy any this last shopping trip, so I don't remember the exact numbers.) I buy the Huggies. No extra parts needed.

The super-cool gDiapers cost $52 for 128 liners. You also have to buy the cute (and they are very cute, especially the Hawaiian one) covers, called "little g pants." And those are $15 a pop. And you periodically have to buy new ones, cuz like all little clothing, babies are going to grow out of them on a regular (or in our case, accelerated) rate (he's 8 months old but currently growing out of his 12 months clothes).

I'm all for doing things naturally & organically, but there are limits of practicality. In this case, it's a financial limit. These, like so many other "green" products, are prohibitively expensive. Which is not to say it's a bad idea. Maybe they'll catch on. Maybe by the time I'm working on diapering child 3 this will have a couple of knock-off brands, or maybe Huggies will imitate them & those will be affordable. But in the mean time, I'm stuck with a landfill, as unpleasant as that is. Unless we decide to give up eating.

5 Second Rule Vindicated

Article: To eat or not to eat: seniors prove "five-second rule" more like 30

Goettsche added that they designed their procedure to test the rule in an everyday environment. Previous research on the rule, she said, was conducted by a University of Illinois researcher in 2003 and involved dropping food items onto e-coli contaminated tiles.

"That is not representative of what actually happens," she said.

Instead, Goettsche and Moin took their food samples - apple slices (wet) and Skittles candies (dry) - to the main Connecticut College dining hall, Harris Refectory, and to the snack bar in the student center. They dropped the foods onto the floors in both locations for five, 10, 30 and 60 second intervals, and also tested them after allowing five minutes to elapse. They then swabbed the foods and placed them onto agar plates designed to cultivate any bacteria that might have attached to the foods.

Sketcy Business

Here's a fun idea for a variant on Notebooking: Skatchboking!

Article: Sketchy Training
When we came to the Depression, we drew Hoovervilles (shack towns), Hoover flags (the change pocket flapping inside out of a trouser), and Hoover blankets (newspapers). Hoover was blamed for the Depression because people felt he was protecting businesses.

BBB: Lesson 5

We never did get up to the library, so the Very Hungry Caterpillar just kept on being our story. We'll have to go today or tomorrow though, since we've got books that need to go back from the last time we were there. Also, the finger painting wasn't as fun as I thought it was going to be - and it was a lot of work. He's still a little young for that, I think: he didn't seem to get that he was supposed to be painting, and was more interested in grabbing the paper than exploring the weird paint-stuff on it. I think it was mor frusterating than fun, for both of us. We'll have to try that again later on. I think for the next while we'll stick to crayons. At least the clean up is minimal for those. I also think I'm going to drop the nursery ryhme. I'm still strugging to figure out what to do with the nursery rhyme, and often as not I don't know them, so we're just going to skip that part.

Literature:
Week 1: selections from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Week 2: Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner

Poetry:
The Land of Counterpain by Robert Louis Stevenson

Bible:
Week 1: Triumphal Entry
Week 2: Adam & Eve

Book of Mormon:
2 Nephi 17-19

Classical Music:
Handel's Water Music Suite

Game:
Ice cubes at bathtime

Sign:
bird

Spanish:
3 Nephi 11

Japanese:
Park words, from 1st 1000 Words book

Art:
Crayons

Photo Hunt: Colorful

Theme: COLORFUL



Red-wing Blackbirds are some of my favorites. In addition to their beatufully colored wings, I love their rough call (if you don't know it you can listen here).



Although not as colorful as a male, the female mallard also gets a patch of amazing color on her wing!

Memorial Day Tribute

At the Park with Friends

Super Alan


Silly Swingers


Monkey in a Swing!




Swingin' Buddy



Ellie the Dandilion Princess




Josh the Great

Complecations

Tried my new telescope tonight. Apparently there’s a little more to it than “the big end points at the sky.” Gotta look around and see if I can come up with some sort of instructions on how to use one of these thingys. Otherwise, this is going to be singularly disappointing.

BBB: Lesson 4

Well, It's a little late, but we're getting there. Gotta step up the Spanish and Japanese a little bit: we were pretty lax on those this last little while. But the sign language is going well - he's started signing back to us again! I also thought that we'd try adding an art activity. He's getting big enough to enjoy those. Here's the plan for lesson 4.

Literature:
Week 1: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Week 2: The Little House by Virginia Burton

Nursery Rhyme:
This is the way the Ladies Ride

Poetry:
Rain by Robert Louis Stevenson

Bible:
Week 1: He was Lost and is Found, Lesson 18
Week 2: Thy Faith Hath Saved Thee, Lesson 19

Book of Mormon:
2 Nephi 15-16

Classical Music:
Handel's Water Music Suite

Game:
Boo Baby! (Our own variant of Peek-a-boo, which he really likes)

Baby Sign:
eat, all done

Spanish:
Bilingual Songs, vol. 2

Japanese:
Park words, from 1st 1000 Words book

Art:
Finger painting

New Toy

My neighbors are having a very nice yardsale across the street. They have tons of stuff, and started bright and early this Wednesday morning to earn money for a mission project they're involved with. I, of course, can't resist such a large yardsale, so when I rolled out of bed this morning I ambled on over.

They had a telescope!

They were also kind enough to put a sold sign on it while I went to the bank, cuz I didn't have the $15 in cash today. So, now I have a telescope! A while back I had wanted to make some observations, but the weather conspired against me. Now I can try again, and see all kinds of cool stuff in the night sky!

However, I'm gonna need to find something else to look at, because it looks like Taurus is only up in the daytime now. I'll need to find something to look at in the starts that you can actually see at night right now.

Nature Study

Photo Hunt: Five

Theme: FIVE

Photo Hunt

This looks like fun! I think I'll try playing along for a while. This week's Photo Hunt is: childhood.

There for a while, Monkey had the Most Fabulous Pout! It was Blue Ribbon material!


This is the afternoon that we tried finger painting with pudding. Mom was just not quite brave enough to try real paint just yet... he might eat it!


Sweet dreams, form a shade
O'er my lovely infant's head!
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams
By happy, silent, moony beams!
-William Blake

Article: Punny Math

1) How do you prove in three steps that a sheet of paper is a lazy dog?
1. A sheet of paper is an ink-lined plane.
2. An inclined plane is a slope up.
3. A slow pup is a lazy dog.

They go downhill from there...

Artilce: Legacy of the Tower Sniper (Virginia Tech)

It is vitally important for all to remember that there is only one person responsible for what happened in Blacksburg, and that is the man who pulled the trigger. But in Virginia the diversions have already begun. As I write this, less than a half-day since the senseless killing of nearly three dozen innocent people, Web headlines on CNN, Fox, and MSNBC read: "Did Virginia Tech's Response Cost Lives?" "Parents Demand Firing of Virginia Tech President, Police Chief Over Handling," "Students Wonder About Police Response." Ironically, those headlines are juxtaposed with pictures of law-enforcement officers administering medical treatment and hauling wounded students to safety. Next to those pictures are videos of Virginia Tech's president and chief of police, in pain and in the midst of a nightmare, bombarded with sensational questions from irresponsible reporters.

Watching Falcons

Well, it's a little disapointing this afternoon: the nest is empty, but this is a link to watch some peregrine falcons' nest, located on the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake.

Torturing My Brother

I went to visit Mom's kindergarten class on Friday. Had a blast. Since Andy & I went to Japan in 2004, Mom's had me over to her class every year to tell the kids a little about Japan. I show them my pictures & the kimono Andy got me (one of these days I'm gonna figure out how to wear that thing) and I read them my only Japanese storybook (if anyone knows where to get more, I'm interested), and they get to eat with chopsticks, that sort of thing for "Fantastic Friday" that they do. Got some great pictures of the kids trying to eat with chopsticks... but I don't have permission to post any of them.

Anyway, on to the torture part. After school we went to Fazoli's for dinner & I had several of my sibs in the car with me. Most notably Monkey's uncle, King Chumley, who had graciously waited until AFTER dinner, thus averting a fight. Only by this point in time, Monkey was crabby. However! We have been listening to Liszt's Concerto a LOT this past week, because it's the "listening music" that I'm exposing my piano students to this month. And Monkey likes it. So we turned that on. And turned it up. And it helped. Much to King Chumley's dismay. But I think he thought it was at least slightly better than the jingles I had been singing earlier in the car ride...

BBB: Lesson 3

Whew! It's already time for another lesson! Time flies when you're having fun. We ended up substituting "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" by Laura Numeroff for Audrey Wood's "Piggies" because I couldn't find it at the library. But I also ended up finding "Si le das un panqueque a una cerdita" and laboring my way through that a couple times. Yesterday, when Andy heard me, he told me I was going to hurt myself & finished the story for me. It was seriously tying my mouth in knots. Anyway, here's the plan for the next lesson:

Literature:
Week 1: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Week 2: Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

Nursery Rhyme:
Baa Baa Black Sheep

Poem:
Pirate Story, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Bible:
Week 1: I was blind, now I see (Sunday School Lesson 16)
Week 2: What shall I do that I may Inherit Eternal Life (Sunday School Lesson 17)

Book of Mormon:
2 Nephi 13-16

Classical Music:
Franz Liszt's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in E flat Major, 1st Movement, Allegro Maestoso

Game:
Pop Goes the Weasel

Baby Sign:
Eat

Spanish:
Si le das un panqueque a una cerdita, por Laura Numeroff

Japanese:
Where are You Going by Eric Carle and Kazuo Iwamura