Ahhhh summer! July 10, 2009

It’s summer now.  Supposedly.  I live in Calgary and this year, summer has been cool punctuated by brief moments of warm days.  It’s really quite sad.  I planted tomato plants just last week!  I mean, that’s not supposed to happen.  Thankfully I found some at the grocery store that were big and gorgeous and already were flowering.  The ones I saw before were small and atrophied.

Summer is supposed to be filled with warm days and cool evenings in this area of the globe.  We have the cool evenings, but warm days are questionable.  Oh well.  It’s warm enough that we don’t need a heavy jacket to go outside so I’m good with that!  Just looking forward to warmer days ahead.

Library Elf July 3, 2009

I’m still on the book craze for my blog.  I HAVE to share something wonderful that was shared with me!

It’s called Library Elf.  It’s a little elf that logs into your library account daily, and tells you (based on your settings) that your books are due awfully soon and that whatever you have on hold is available!  This really is great, because that info comes to you, instead of you forgetting and then racking up a fine for late books.  And fines really negate the whole point of the library, don’t they?

If you pony up a small fee, you can link many cards up together into your account so that everybody in the household will also avoid those pesky fines.

There’s even recommendations on other books based on what you have on hold and have taken out.  It’s a very smart little elf.

http://www.libraryelf.com

My own personal library June 29, 2009

As mentioned in my previous post, I love books!  I have many bookcases of books at home.

As such, I sometimes (not very often, but it does happen) come home with a book I already own!  It’s humbling, frankly.

I’m also always on the hunt for more books to read/consume.  I came across a number of programs to help you inventory the books and media you have at home.  The most fun one I found was Delicious Library.  http://www.delicious-monster.com/ The downside to that is that I DON’T own a Mac, nor will I probably ever own a Mac.  This program seemed extra cool because you can inventory all of your “books, movies, music, software, toys, tools, electronics, & video games”!  This makes that pesty home inventory for insurance much easier.  The bonus is that you can use the camera in the computer to just hold up your item and program supposedly will inventory it for you!  But, alas, with no Mac in sight for me, that was totally out to lunch.

I checked out a number of other programs for PC.  They are much less robust than Delicious Library, but I found one that really suits my needs, if only for the books I own and books I want to read.  This solution is LibraryThing http://www.librarything.com.  It was the most suitable, least flashy of the programs for PC I could find and the best part is that I didn’t have to install anything!

It says a lot when I have 507 books in my inventory, and a good portion of them are in my “I want to read this and don’t own it yet” part of my collection.  I’ve only inventoried about 1/4 of my books thus far, as it’s a little time-consuming.  But I’m slowly getting there.

I always inventory the library books I take out.  I rate the best ones (especially the ones for my little peanut) so I can remember which ones warrant a suggestion for my book club or take them out of the library again.

Geez, I’m really a geek, but whatever.  I love to read!  Oh, and I’m getting my books inventoried for our insurance too 🙂

Gotta Love the Library! June 28, 2009

First things first… I admit that I’m a total bookhound.  I mean, I have no less than 4 full bookcases of books at home.  There’s more in boxes, but I’m not counting those!  I used to frequent the bookstores a lot and come out with a lot.  Then I moved to Calgary, where the library had a lot more book selections and the one you wanted wasn’t ALWAYS checked out! I do, on occasion, visit a bookstore.  But these days, it’s to scope out the new hot books so that I can get them at the library.  It’s really sometimes easier to figure out what you want to read from the displays at the local bookstore than the library.  I mean, the bookstore is trying to sell you the books.  The library is too, but their bottom line isn’t as affected if you don’t pick up the latest book.

I also have discovered that there’s book sales for charity groups through the local media outlets.  These are the best!  Next to new books (in some cases), far less expensive than a used bookstore (I’ve seen those places load up on books to sell at the booksales), and just plain fun.  Yes, I’m still carting books home to further cram into my bookcase, but it’s far less expensive.  And with the little peanut, a great deal for kid’s books.

Have I mentioned the library also carries DVD’s?  Sure, the great movies are generally always taken out, but there’s always that ‘hold’ feature and frankly, it’s free.  It sometimes is a gamble to just breeze into the library and see what they have on the shelf, but sometimes that’s half the fun!  And the library often has those really interesting documentaries that your rental place never gets.

Seriously, folks, the library rocks.  You can get access to your newspaper for free online, get a great mp3 book, take a movie out and also get a book.  That doesn’t even count the classes and other things I don’t even know about.  I mean, I just learned a few years ago you can borrow a kill-a-watt reader from the library and it’s not really considered anything library like.  [a kill-a-watt reads the electricity you use through an outlet so you can figure out how to reduce your electrical bill]

Everybody’s worried about the economy and their own personal bottom line.  If you love to watch dvds, read, listen to books or learn, the library pretty much has that wrapped up for a low yearly fee (I think I paid $12 for my membership last year).

check it out!  you might be impressed.

Groceries…. delivered June 25, 2009

We’ve been using SPUD delivery (www.spud.ca) for a few months now.  We decided to get our produce delivered after several trips to the store in the evening by one of us (usually me), as shopping with our peanut is rather challenging.  She gets so excited and then crabby in the store, I have to continually feed her.  We decided that some time as a couple was important to us in the evenings, so looked around for grocery delivery.  The local Co-op was delivering food but stopped when the price of fuel went sky-high.  That left only one option – SPUD.

The choices for SPUD are only organic items.  This really limits you for some things (there’s no organic cottage cheese!), but the fruit and vegetables are delish!  My husband really noticed the different taste of the carrots and apples the first week.  We did a side by side comparison and although the fruit or vegetables were slightly smaller from SPUD, they were so much more flavourful it really make it laughable.  There’s so many different choices for fruit and vegetables and with weekly delivery, you almost have to just stop yourself from ordering too much otherwise it will go bad.

The weekly delivery thing rocks!  We get ours delivered on a Friday, so I’m just thrilled to open my door and have pretty much all the fruit and vegetables we want to eat right there.

The other bonus is that there’s far less packaging around the products.  Grocery stores take their fruit especially and put them into bags so that consumers can put them into their cart or bag without touching each other.  The SPUD people recognize that this doesn’t always need to happen, so a lot of the produce isn’t even packaged.  Some of it is, as you can’t really reasonably get a delivery of snow peas just loose in your bin.  We have found though that we have a lot less plastic in our recycling bin.

So, less waste, less time at the grocery store and much yummier produce.  It’s a win for us!   Oh.  One more thing.  Because I’m not at the grocery store as much, there’s far less impulse buys.  This tends to suck the  money out of your wallet.  The pre-ordered delivery to your door kind of helps prevent that.  that’s great for us too….

Now just to prevent the overbuying when we go to Costco…

Zoo passes June 22, 2009

I got a zoo pass a few months back when it was apparent that I wasn’t going back to work after my maternity leave ended (as I was laid off).  I am going to do some consulting work, but haven’t found any yet.  Some leads, but still no work.  That leaves me home with my little one.

She’s growing and learning every day and some days she just needs more than I could hope to give her!  The zoo fills that gap quite nicely.  In addition to seeing the animals, we meet my friends there occasionally, see the planes flying overhead, look at all the people, and get a nice walk.

It took me only a few visits to discover that it was best to leave the stroller at home or in the car, as if it’s busy at all, they want you to park your strollers outside the buildings.  Who wants to take a little one in and out of the stroller a lot?  Not I.  I now wear my child in a mai tai (pronounced May Tie) and just carry a bag with our things.  It’s much easier to get around and the wee one can actually see the animals better!

We are only there for a short time (2 hours max), so it’s easier and more fun for the two of us.

The zoo pass is great!  No guilt if we are only there for 20 minutes.  We can go every week (or every day if I really wanted to).  The animals are always doing something different.  And there’s always something to see.  Well worth it!

My sister is famous! June 19, 2009

My sister, Janis, lives in NYC and is transitioning out of her fashion life into a new career as a STOTT Pilates Instructor & Health Counselor.  One of her friends recently blogged about her and I just had to share!

http://jessivore.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/get-shredded/

If you, or anybody you know, wants to transform their life and how they feel, I can put you in touch with Janis!  I’ve been doing her program for about 6 weeks now and have changed a number of things already!  In fact, this blog is proof.  I never blogged or was on Twitter until I was shown that I feel inadequate in my creativity.  Blogging (and Twittering) will help fill that gap in a low-risk way.   I’ve also made changes in my career path, eating and ingredients for food, among other things.  Which is great given I have a one year old and am currently staying at home with my child.

Anyways, Janis’ program is transformative and I’m not even 1/2 way through it!   I’m looking forward to more.  And yes, I might be just slightly biased because Janis is my sister, but it’s not like she can come to my house and bust my chops for not doing things.  After all, I live in Calgary and she lives in NYC!

Now, off to do my homework….

Diapers I love!

Motherease one size diapers are the ones we’ve used since our little peanut was a week old.  We love them!  No leaks, no mess.  They have a separate cover over the cloth part of the diaper, which keeps leaks in.  The diapers we have are designed with snaps so that you can fit a tiny baby all the way up to a roaming toddler.  Yes, they are bulky for the tiny baby, but it looks so darn cute!  They clean great, with a washer.  You can hang them to dry or throw them in the washing machine.  You don’t even have to touch the diapers after taking them off your kid!  Just throw them into a wetbag or diaper pail and then put them into the wash.  The next time you touch them, they will be fresh and clean.  You can also purchase toilet paper like liners for the diaper to prevent the dreaded swish or spray of the diaper for solids.  We do that and this creates far less stains on the diapers and easily puts those solids down the toilet where they belong .  I can’ say enough good things about these diapers.  No leaks, easy to put on and environmentally friendly!  Oh, and no running to the store in the middle of the night for refills….

www.mother-ease.com

We recently tried G-diapers for travel (and potentially night too) because I was feeling oh-so-guilty about disposables for both travelling and night.  We’ve only used them so far in the daytime, but they seem to work well!  The diaper liner is flushable, disposable or; for the really hardcore; compostable.  The liners fit into a plastic ‘sling’ inside the cloth outer layer.  We did get some leakage onto this plastic sling portion when a dirty diaper made it’s appearance, but the G-Diaper folks must know this happens, as they put extra plastic slings into the starter kit.  The diaper cover and plastic slings are easily washable.  The covers come in some very cute colours and styles, but you have to buy extras to get anything past beige (which the company calls vanilla) and orange.  You can collect your UPC codes to get products from the company, which seems like a good deal!  These diapers seem like a great middle-ground for those not wanting to have disposable products and those who don’t think they can deal with more laundry.

http://www.gdiapers.com/

These are just two of the many, many choices of diapers you can use for your child, beyond the disposables you can buy.  I actually experience diaper envy sometimes when I look at all the cute cloth diapers out there and see that there’s alot of designs on them beyond what I’m using.  Most of them are oh-so-cute and would really make you want to not put pants or bottoms on your child just to show them off!

The hard part is wading through the hundreds of different companies who make diapers to figure out what will work for you.

Baby Formula Secrets

Small wonder…. companies that make formula have some secrets that they aren’t willingly divulging.  It’s such big business that a small drop in sales means millions of lost sales.

Despite the WHO (World Health Organization) putting restrictions on what formula companies can and can’t do, it seems these directives are somewhat arbitrary for the big businesses.

This link provides a long explanation of formula, what’s in it (including some nasties that NOBODY wants!), history of birth in the past 100 years and how that all ties together.

http://www.bellybelly.com.au/articles/pregnancy/baby-formula

It’s good to know this stuff to be truly informed.  I mean, we are just the small guy and gal who are the people being marketed to.  I feel fortunate to live in a City where breastfeeding is pushed extensively by the health professionals.  Mind you, this pressure puts a lot of stress on new moms who don’t think they can get it done right or don’t have success the first days.  That being said, I know of very few kids who have never been fed formula in their life.  Somewhere, a giant corporation is smiling.

Moms and Dads do the best they can, but I think more medical support could help rates of breastfeeding.  And less guilt about if you can do it 100% perfectly within the first number of days.

Sites to help figure out which products have less nasties for you! June 15, 2009

The two sites listed below can help you cut through the clutter of trying to figure out what products won’t cause cancer, which are healthier, etc.  It’s hard when you are standing in the aisle trying to figure this out on your own!

Green Guide includes an app for your iphone.  I haven’t tested this out yet, but plan to really soon!  The site seems comprehensive.  I just found it, but thought I’d share.

http://www.goodguide.com/

Skin Deep is only for cosmetics and personal care products, but it really is an eye-opener.  I frequently go to this to find out the bad things about different products.  Warning though – it really will make you scared to use most products at all!

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/