This and That

• I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This book tells the story of the author and her family's one year commitment to eating locally. Ms. Kingsolver and her family farm, trade with neighbors who farm, as well as, rely on the Farmer's Market to sustain them. While I'm not ready to become a farmer, the following statistic really made me at research my local options: "If every US citizen ate just one meal a week composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week." That's remarkable to me considering the crisis we are facing at the pump.


• Budgets, budgets, budgets. Always great in theory but so hard to live out. I have no shame in saying if I have to cut back, I want to do it where I don't feel it. I don't want to sacrifice quality and I don't want to cook every meal I eat. SO I am saving BIG on diapers. Ok - my diaper must-haves: no leaks, no explosions, no contact rash/burn. I'd say I am a fairly picky mom and have found that White Cloud diapers (found at Wal-Mart - a place I very much dislike but am learning to deal with) work well. I only tried these on recommendation from a few friends - always irritated if I waste money trying to save money. For Lila's size they are about 19 cents a diaper compared to the 25 - 28 cents a diaper I was paying for Pampers Cruisers. I am trying them on Andrew this week. With two in diapers, this could amount to a lot of pennies saved! **Update 6/6 - White Cloud has increased the number of diapers in each box which now computes to 17 cents a diaper!


• Antibiotics. I have a hard time remembering whether or not I have given my kids their 2x daily dose that usually stretches 10-14 days. Lila just finished up a round and this time I took a sticky note and wrote down each dose that needed to be administered (Mon AM, Mon PM). As I gave the meds, I just checked it off. Worked like a charm!