A Year of Gratitude: Day 197

Today I am grateful that I finally figured out what to do with extra chicken broth.  (Amazing what thrills us as we get older ...)  Instead of letting half a carton of low sodium chicken broth sit in the fridge until it has ultimately expired, I read that you could pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it for future use.  Awesome!  So I gave it a try, and now I have a gallon-sized baggie full of what appear to be urine ice cubes in the freezer.  They smell terrible (I don't know about you, but chicken broth is not an appealing smell to me) and they look awful, but now I can feel good that I didn't waste a bunch of perfectly good chicken broth and that I will have some ready to go for later!

Win-win!

Have a wonderful night!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 172 (two days late)

Today I am grateful for both Mollie and I having slept all the way through the night.  We both came down with a wicked cold yesterday, and after nap time I discovered that hers was being served with a side of croup.  I called her doctor's office right away and got some hints on how to deal with croup in warmer weather (I am golden when it's cold out, but I knew I couldn't count on cold night air to help us).

So last night, armed with knowledge and lots of hope, I slathered her chest with Vicks Vapo Rub, elevated the head of her bed, gave her some ibuprofen, set up her cold-air humidifier, cranked her ceiling fan up to high, and cracked her windows a bit (just in case the night air was cold enough).  And it worked!  Nearly twelve blissful hours after I put her to bed, she woke up calling for me and told me as I walked in, "I'm not coughing, Mommy!"

Awesome!  Just so totally awesome.

As for me, I went the Vicks and ibuprofen route and slept like a rock for over seven hours.

Here's hoping for a repeat again tonight!  (Knock on wood!)

Have a wonderful day!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 158

Today I am grateful that I have been able to look around the house tonight at the absolute mess and appreciate that I did get a lot done today.  (Six loads of laundry, dinner, running for a half an hour, taking the kids to open swim by myself ... that's decent, right?)  Yes, the mess is outrageous and will have to be dealt with as soon as possible tomorrow, but I did get stuff done.

I also learned that if I want to avoid having to run our bedding through the dryer two or three times, it is best to do one or two extra spin cycles in the washing machine before transferring.  Who knew?!

Alright, time for bed.  The mess can wait.  The mess can wait.

Have a wonderful night!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 118

Today I am grateful that I have the skills to put a toilet paper holder back on the wall, fix a popped seam in my shirt, and cook dinner.  I take pride in knowing how to do things, in being self-sufficient, and I am grateful for all the skills, both big and small, I have learned over the years.  I'm glad I know where to find our tools and know how to use most, if not all, of them.  I'm so happy that I don't have to retire my only turtleneck because I snapped the thread at the shoulder seam this morning trying to get it over my turbaned head; a few stitches with a needle and thread and it's back in business.

For all these things and so much more - using the snow blower and the lawn mower, changing the furnace filter, replacing burnt-out fluorescent light bulbs, and so on - I am grateful.  And I'm grateful to those people in my life who have taken the time to show me how to do things.  To my dad, grandpa, and Bryson, for their knowledge of tools, repairs, and creations.  To my mom and grandma for their sewing prowess, and for theirs and my sister's incredible baking skills.  I'm not great at everything, to be sure, but I have enough skills and know-how to solve many problems in a pinch and I'm thankful for that.

Have a wonderful day!

(With all that said, don't ask me to grill anything; I have never bothered to learn how, nor do I have an interest in learning.  This alone is enough to make me be thrilled that I can use a George Foreman.)

Hookin' It!

On Baylor's first day of school I was prepared for him to be unready for the social aspect of it, I was prepared for him to be way more than ready for the academic aspect of it, but I was not prepared for him to be unready for the practical aspect of it.  As he went to hang up his backpack, jacket, and hat, he basically tossed them at the hook and turned away to go.  I had to help him all along the way, correcting him when he tried to hang up his backpack by the shoulder straps, his coat by the armpit, and his baseball cap by the bill.  (None of which worked, by the way.)

I quickly realized, as the same problems cropped up every time he had to take care of his things, that I had to work on this with him at home before he was going to get it at school.  Unfortunately, we had no hooks on which to practice.  Impulsive as I am, I thought up a plan, fixated on it for a few days, frustrated I couldn't get to work on it as quickly as I wanted to, and finally pulled it all together into one gloriously simple spot for the kiddos.  (Thank you for your help and your awesome drill, Dad!)

Introducing the hooks!

Awesome, right?  It's just a piece of trim (pre-primed composite wood) painted with black, satin spray paint, drilled into the studs, with two hooks attached.  And I LOVE IT!!  The kids are now responsible for taking care of their things!  Seriously, I really don't have to hang anything up for them anymore.  I really can't fathom why I didn't do this sooner ...

Anyhow, if you have small children, I totally recommend putting them to work taking care of their own things.  Not only does it free up time for you (in the long run, anyway), but it'll get them ready for school.  Win-win!!!

Which Photo Would You Choose?

Alright, I know this might be the cheater's way out of a pickle, but I could really use some help.  I bought a Groupon for a canvas print a while back and it's about to expire (22nd).  And, for the life of me, I cannot figure out which picture to get printed.  The print will be 16"x20" and can go anywhere in our house, but we have a potential spot over our mantel.  Here are the options, all taken by either me or one of my family members.

Option 1: The Duomo in Florence, Italy.

Option 2:  Covered path in Tuscany.

Option 3:  Tree-lined path in Paris, France.

Option 4:  Phlox in Charlevoix, Michigan.  (vertical)

Option 5:  Phlox in Charlevoix, Michigan.  (horizontal)

Option 6:  Window boxes in Venice, Italy.  (horizontal)

Option 7:  Window boxes in Venice, Italy.  (vertical)

These photos have already been cropped to the correct proportions, so they would be printed as-is.  If I was to get one for over our mantle, it would probably have to be horizontal; just something to keep in mind.

So, dear readers, what do you think?  Which one do you think I should choose?  Help me ... please!!

The Guilt

A lot of my friends are having babies these days, and while my baby days are - thankfully - over, seeing their new ones and hearing of how things are going brings me right back to where we were just a year ago.  Even just looking at pictures from the first few months with Mollie, being a new mom of two, I get heartsick and slightly nauseous remembering all the guilt and pain I felt.  How I thought I was short-changing Baylor.  How I never knew how I could divide my time equally or properly.

I know other moms feel the guilt, whether it be over adding a new baby to the family or even going back to work after your first one, and I thought I might share a little practice that helped me when I was mired in it.  The idea was given to me by my therapist, and though I thought it was a bit silly - even time-consuming and worthless - at the outset, I quickly saw how much it helped.

Every day at the end of the day, write down two things: something good that happened to you and something good that happened to your child.  The something good can be something funny, something happy, something calming ... anything you would describe as "good".  And the good for your child doesn't have to have come directly from you; it can be that he/she had a fun time with a grandparent or that he/she did well at day care.  But write them all down somewhere specific at the end of the day and do it for as long as you need.  As monotonous and simple as it may seem, the writing down part is important, nay, vital to the exercise; when you have a particularly rough day, you'll find it helpful to have all those good things written down to remind you that all is not lost, there are good things afoot.

Though I stopped doing this after I started feeling some relief from my postpartum depression and abatement from the guilt that plagued me, I have thought about starting the exercise back up again.  The twos with Baylor have been trying, and the threes are shaping up to be even more so.  Lately I have been feeling like a bad mommy, an angry mommy, and I need the happy days to return.  So maybe it's time to pick up the pen again and refocus life back to the good.  Remember that I am so incredibly lucky to have the children I have, to have the health we have, and - ultimately - to have the happiness we have so much of the time.

Focusing on all the bad, all the imperfect is so easy.  This little exercise helps.  At least it did for me.  I hope it does for you.

Epic Parenting Fail?

Yesterday was, pretty much, downright awful.*  Mollie, who has been sick with croup since Monday, fell asleep for two minutes on the car ride home from my parents and decided that that would be enough napping for one day.  Given how cranky she was for the rest of the evening, I'm gonna say she was wrong.  Yes, the one-minute car nap was in full effect yesterday.

She also decided to put her climbing skills to the test and sit atop our hearth.  *sigh* 



I have never been a huge fan of kids having a cabinet of our kitchen stuff they can get into and play with, probably because our floors have never been all that clean and it just means more dish cleaning for me.  So you can imagine my dismay when one of our beloved childproofing locks broke about a month and a half ago.  Since then, the kids have found the lazy susan area of the kitchen infinitely fascinating, with no exception last night.

Yeah, I am still not sure where all the stuff that once resided in that corner cupboard now is.  So not cool, kiddos!

To top it all off, the little man decided that listening to Mommy was highly overrated, so he basically tuned me out for the rest of the night.  Seriously.  Even if I held his head with both hands and spoke directly at his face like he was some sort of drive thru speaker, he refused to listen or do anything I asked.  Which lead to the epic parenting fail of the night.

Did I mention I was alone with both kids for all of this?  Well, I was, and since Mollie didn't nap and I had actually contemplated taking one myself, I was pretty exhausted on top of the aloneness.  Mollie broke down during dinner and basically wouldn't eat without major effort, but I knew she'd be hungry the minute I let her down and - worse yet - in the middle of the night if I didn't get enough food into her.  So, as my own dinner sat in the toaster oven, I fed her and Baylor their dinners.  Why Baylor?  Because he decided it would be more fun to rock back IN A BARSTOOL than to eat his dinner like he should, resulting in me pulling him over a yard away from the bar and having to feed him every last bite.  I eventually got to eat, I got Mollie to eat most of her dinner, and Baylor ate all but one of his carrots. 

Feeling a small triumph, I let the kids down and sent them off to the living room to play while I did the dishes.  Of course, I didn't just do the dishes; I also had to keep running into the living room to mediate fights, bring Mollie down from high heights, and generally keep the peace.  About five minutes away from being done with the dishes and about twenty minutes before we needed to head up for baths, I asked the kids to start cleaning up the living room.  Mollie, bless her heart, had no clue what I was talking about so she just went about her business.  But Baylor decided to ignore me like he had the rest of the night.  I implored them about twenty times to pick up, even giving specific ideas of what they could do to help, and still no action was taken, no messes unmade.  At the end of my rope I made a snap decision; if he couldn't take care of his toys, then he shouldn't get to play with them ... at all.  I announced this very fact and started piling all the toys into a laundry basket.

I'll admit, I actually told Baylor that we might just have to give his toys to a little boy or girl who would actually appreciate them.  (To an older child who had an understanding of what I was talking about this might have stung, but Baylor didn't seem phased by it at all.) 

And now I am left with the burden of following through.  The basket of toys has been moved to the basement until I can figure out what in the world I am going to do next.  In the meantime, I am left to think of how I am going to parent more effectively.  I know that Baylor is only two-and-a-half, but I believe he has the ability to pick up after himself.  I know that it also means he occasionally won't listen to me, but it just feels like this is becoming more the norm than the exception.  How do I turn this around before my son stops listening to me altogether and starts breaking all the rules?

* I fully admit, yesterday was light years better than most people have it.  We have a roof over our heads, food in our stomachs, our health, happiness, and two of the best children you could really ask for.  I know this, which makes me feel even more guilty for griping like I have here.  I do apologize.

Book Review: Momma Zen

Today I finished what has become one of my favorite books.  Momma Zen, written by Karen Maezen Miller, is - in my opinion - a must-read for any mom or mom-to-be.  I can barely describe the book; it is a wonderful mix of Zen teachings and honest life lessons about motherhood, but it is also a striking memoir about a woman entering the world of mommyland in mid-life all the while struggling as her own mother develops ovarian cancer.

Let's put it this way ... I have never, in my life, carried flags with me so I could mark great points and passages in a book I'm reading for fun.  And I did with this book.  It's that good.

It's short at only 169 pages, the last of which give a quick lesson on meditating.  The chapters are short as well, and there is a great section in the back called "For the Hard Days: Where to Look for Help" that directs you to chapters that can help you when you need anything from balance to trust.

I plan on returning to this book often; it warmed my heart and made me feel less alone on this crazy trip called motherhood.  So many times I found myself saying, "That's it!  She's hit the nail right on the head!" or "That's exactly what I needed to hear."

Truly amazing, Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood is something you must experience, particularly if you are a mother.

Weaning: Read at Your Own Risk

I was prepared to write this whole long post with questions about how to wean the little lady.  Her first birthday is coming up (she's 11 months old today!!) and I am planning on being DONE nursing on her birthday.  I want a giant glass of milk, with a Shamrock shake chaser, on her birthday, so weaning will have to commence soon so I don't mess this up.  And, though this is the second child I have breastfed and pumped for, I never had to actively wean Baylor; by his first birthday he was pretty much done with sitting down to be nursed and my milk was drying up quickly because I was already pregnant with Mollie.  Since I am NOT getting pregnant again, I have been actively trying to figure out how to do this whole weaning thing.

Then this morning happened.

Usually I get up early every morning, start my breakfast, start up the computer, and sit down and pump for an hour and a half so she'll have milk for her cereal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner).  I HATE pumping.  It is infuriating and boring, but I have been doing it for months since I knew it was best for her and I could physically do it.  I also got a fancy electric pump when she was born so I didn't have to use the evil hand pump I used when Baylor was a baby, and I felt pretty good about that.

This morning started out like any other morning.  The routine was enacted smoothly.  Until my pump died.  I think I actually killed the motor.  I tried restarting it.  It sounded so sad and then fizzled out.  This happened several times.  Then it wouldn't start.

Awesome.

So, I begrudgingly pulled out the hand pump and started using that.  After a few hand-cramping minutes I stopped and found I only had a half an ounce to show for it.

Even more awesome.

Yup, so long story short, I am officially stopping pumping today.  Because I have to.

If any of you out there have any advice on weaning a baby off nursing (since we're apparently going cold turkey on the pumping front), I would welcome it!

Now I'm off to do something ... no idea what, though.  I didn't expect to have two hands to myself at any point today.  Hm ...

Quick Cleaning Tip: Lamp Shades

If you have smooth, unpleated lamp shades in your house and are averse to cleaning them (like me), you might find this tip helpful.

Take a rolling lint removal wand (the kind with the sticky paper), and roll it up and down your lamp shade.  It will trap all the dust and remove it with absolute ease!  Yes, it is slightly wasteful as you'll have to throw away the paper, but it works really well in a pinch.  And if you have kids, you can do it while they are still sleeping as it's quiet as can be.

This tip was given to me by my mother, the source of all my wisdom.  Love you, Mom!

A Tip for Summer Pregnancies ...

To all my friends out there who are pregnant and will be during the summer, I have a little tip for you.  When your doctor tells you to wear compression socks and cut back on sodium a bit ...

... it's a really good idea if you heed her advice.  These were my feet in July before Baylor was born, and yes he was born a full two months later in September.

If you think, "Gee, that looks painful ..." you are correct; it was.  And no, I couldn't wear regular shoes.  I wore flip flops all the time.

So, watch your salt intake, pregnant friends, and if your doc says to wear compression hose, wear them as often as you can stand it.

(I believe I posted a long time ago that I'd put up this picture and since I actually found it on my parents' computer over Christmas I thought I should make good on my word.  I can't believe my feet and ankles were ever that big ... whoa.)

An Open Letter to Baylor and Amalia

In each of my kids' baby books there is a place for the mom to include a letter to her child (there's one for the dad, too - no worries).  Ever since Baylor was born, I have been trying to figure out what to write to him, then to Amalia ... and I finally figured it out.  I thought I'd share it with you.  Hope you like it!

Dear kiddos,

There are many things I want for you in this life, some of which I can't even articulate.  Obviously I want for you health, happiness, and love, but I feel like those are the broad strokes of life.  There are other things I want for you, more specific things that I want you to reach for, be, and embrace. 

These are those things.

Kindness above all; to be kind is everything.

Be stewards of the earth; we only have one and we should all do our part to keep it healthy.

Speaking of health, be good to your body.  It can take you a long way if you take care of yourself.

Live life with joy in your heart.  Find happiness in the everyday.

Patience is indeed a virtue ... apply it liberally.

Don't let people walk all over you, and don't walk all over other people.

Live simply.  Try to surround yourself with only the people and things you love.

Cultivate a love of reading and writing ... there are no greater outlets or escapes.

Do good, be good - not because you'll get something out of it (e.g., money, fame, a spot in heaven) but because it is just plain the right thing to do.

These are the things I want for you, my little miracles.

Love always,

Mama

Asking for Help: Nap for Two

Hello! I need help, and after exhausting my own mind, the Internet, and a few other people, I'm turning to you.

Here's the dilemma ...

I don't know how to get my 4 month-old daughter upstairs to her crib to nap with my 22 month-0ld son around. When it was just the two of us, I could get him down no problem (and check on him as needed) because I had no one else in tow. But now he's in tow and she ends up sleeping on the main floor, behind a chair (for a little shade), in her bouncy seat; I leave all the lights off for most of the day, rain or shine, so she will have as close to darkness around her as I can get it.
Baylor won't walk up the stairs with me very easily, and I don't like focusing on her all the while worrying that he's going to fall down the stairs. When I leave him downstairs, he cries a bit and then tries to go upstairs on his own. He's tall for his age and can climb over and out of almost anything, and while he hasn't figured out how to climb out of his crib yet, he only tries when he's really pissed off and I don't want to give him cause to climb.

So how do you do it? How do you get the youngest kid down with the older one around (and awake)? Ultimately I'd like her to nap in her room in her crib; it's dark and quiet, and it's where she should be sleeping. But it's on the second floor, and the stairs are unguarded at the bottom.

Any help or ideas you could give me would be wonderful! Thank you so much!

Go Green: Love For Earth buys

Remember the package from an Etsy seller I mentioned? Well, it finally arrived a couple days after that post, and I am happy to finally report that I have tried (and love) everything I got!

I bought three items from Love for Earth on Etsy. I found the shop when their reusable cloth napkins came up on the ticker at the bottom of the Etsy home page. I was looking for ways to go green, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity!

I purchased a set of 40 cloth napkins, and so far I just love them! We haven't used enough of them to wash a load of them yet, but I'm sure we'll get there soon. They are incredibly soft and do a wonderful job of wiping up faces, hands, and counters!

Whenever we go out to eat with Baylor, I always put a wet washcloth in a plastic baggy so I can quickly and easily wash his face wherever we are. I didn't like throwing away said baggy every time, though, so when I saw the zipper-top reusable sandwich bags I had to have one. It does a great job of keeping the moisture in, and so far it has only needed a good wipe-down afterwards to stay clean.

Finally, I ordered some reusable produce bags! They came in this adorable recycled cotton bag.

Yes, seven may have been over-kill, but I know I'll use them ... just maybe not all at once!

They come in three different sizes, great for varying amounts and sizes of fruits and veggies! I used the largest one to hold about six apples, though it probably could have held up to eight or so. The middle size was perfect for a green pepper or two. And the smallest size was a little big for a head of garlic, but MUCH better than a giant, disposable plastic bag like they offer at the store. Also, the bags are incredibly light, so they don't really add any weight to your produce, and therefore don't increase the cost.

I could totally see bringing these to the farmer's market to score some delicious summer harvest!

Check out Love for Earth and all that they have to offer!

And go green!

Not a Laughing Matter

The hitting continued.

At one point, he even motioned for me to bend down towards him, like he was going to hug me, then he slapped me on the cheek.

(He also unraveled a roll of toilet paper, put an air freshener in the toilet, and tried to climb out of his crib.)

I wouldn't have minded the other stuff as much, but I cannot abide the hitting. As proud as I am of how smart Baylor is, I would rather have him be dumber than a stick than be a mean person. There are too many mean people in this world as it is, and I would consider it a failure on my part if he grew up to be a mean man. Or even a mean child. Kindness is highly underrated, and hitting should never be funny - which he thinks it is.

So I'm asking for any help or advice you can give me. How do I teach him that hitting is not okay? And before anyone suggests it, we do not spank at our house; that's just another way to hit someone in my book.

Give me what you've got. I've tried telling him how nice people don't hit and how sad it makes Mommy (which he should have gleaned from me starting to cry after he hit me - it didn't hurt but I was at my wit's end). How people who hit don't get the things they want. But I'm not sure it sank in.

Help! Please!!!!

Two Months Old: The Stats and The Aftermath

Amalia had her two month well-baby check up yesterday and here are her stats:

Weight: 12 lbs. 6 oz. (85th percentile)
Height: 24 1/4" ("high" - off the charts)
Head Circumference: 15 1/2" (65th percentile)

She did well at her appointment, charming everyone with her cuteness and good-natured spirit. They gave her three shots and an oral vaccine and she even did well with those, only crying for a minute or two and then falling asleep.

Little did I know that was the calm before the storm.

We got home and she seemed to be doing okay. She fed a couple times and played on her playmat, though she was a bit fussy toward the end of the evening. I popped a binkie in her mouth and she calmed right down so I figured she was just hungry yet again.

After going upstairs and getting both kids a bath, she and I settled in for our usual bedtime routine. Nursing was going well when I suddenly felt a sneeze coming on. Not wanting to have a sneeze stuck in my nose all night or rear its ugly head while I was trying to get her in her crib, I decided to let it out but stifle it as much as I could. Unfortunately, I am not very good at stifling sneezes and it came out pretty forcefully and scared my little girl half to death.

And that's when it started.

The crying. The I-am-SO-unhappy/I-may-be-dying cry that every mother dreads. Her mouth wide open with fitful screams emanating from her little body, I scooped her up to my shoulder and tried to bounce her back to calm. Usually this works, but last night she wasn't having any of it.

Not wanting to wake up Baylor, I scurried downstairs with her, popped a binkie in her mouth, and started scanning the information they'd given us about the vaccines she'd been given. Bryson grabbed the pediatrician's handbook and started looking in that for anything we could do to help her feel better. We finally decided to give her some acetaminophen when she awoke next, since the binkie had helped lull her to sleep.

Of course, we keep the meds in Baylor's room (since, for the longest time, he was the only child needing them), so I had to go all stealth and sneak into his room to get them without waking him up. And yes, I had the Mission: Impossible theme song playing in my head while I carried out my dangerous mission.

An hour later the binkie fell out and she started screaming again, so I rushed in there to console her. Of course, at this point - it being half past midnight and all - I forgot to give her the medicine and spent a little while fumbling for answers. When I finally did give her the medicine, she had no idea what to do with the sticky pink goo, so she cried even harder for a bit. I tried to nurse her, but she was having nothing of it and I ended up with a sticky boob and a crying child. Eventually she had cried hard enough to basically pass out from the exertion and fell asleep as I rocked her.

After placing her in her crib and holding her arms down so the startle reflex wouldn't wake her, she slept for about five or five-and-a-half hours and woke up in a pretty good mood. I've already had a few smiles from her today, so hopefully she's feeling much, much better. (Knock on wood!)

Just an FYI ... if your child gets a DTaP vaccine, it might not be a bad idea to give them some acetaminophen as a preemptive strike against the pain and fussiness that may lie ahead of you. We think that one was the culprit from all the information we were given.

Have a wonderful day!

Something's Not Right

Something's not right with the little man. He either has a cold or allergies because the poor guy can't stop rubbing his nose (almost like it's itchy) and he sneezes and coughs here and there throughout the day. The most telling part, though, is that he won't really eat. I mean he'll eat, but it has to be baby food or easy to eat; if it's not, he will reject it and cry ... hard.

Case in point, on Tuesday night we had dinner at my parents' house while Bryson was at class, and my mom, knowing Baylor was having teething troubles anyway, made his favorite dinner: meatloaf with ketchup. He took one bite of it, then refused the rest. This is unheard of with Baylor; he typically scarfs down meatloaf like it's candy, no bribing or coercing involved. So, something is definitely wrong.

His nose runs occasionally, but it's clear stuff and not much of it. And his nose is only stuffy once in a while.

Short of waiting until someone else gets sick, how do you tell if a toddler has allergies or a cold? Any suggestions, dear readers, to help out my little man?

Eating Apples with My Boy

My little man and I got a lot done this morning even though I was feeling a bit under the weather. We did a few loads of laundry (he helped take stuff out of the dryer and directed me on how to start up a new wash load), took stuff to the dry cleaners, then headed to our local apple orchard for a half peck of new apples.

I had been sticking with Cameos, but there weren't many bags left and that made me wonder if they were any good anymore. So I bought Jonagolds (I think) instead ... we'll see how they taste once we get to them.

In the meantime, Baylor and I shared an apple when we got home. It was lovely.


I cut his up into little bits (see them there in front of his bib) and he goes to town. Now that he's got four molars, he chews them much better and things move a bit more quickly, thank goodness!

Patiently waiting for Mama to peel and slice another bit of apple. What a good little boy!

The Cameo was fantastic, and I can safely say we both enjoyed it thoroughly.

I hope you all are having a delicious day!

(I don't remember if I've posted this piece of advice before - and my computer is being too slow for me to check it out - but the lady who owns the orchard near us told me that the best way to keep apples fresh is to take them out of the bag, put them in the crisper, then cover them with a damp towel. Apparently they stay fresher longer if they are kept in a humid environment. Who knew?)

Tick Tock: Ants Galore Update

Who knew the caulk would be the problem?

In my search for caulk today, I read the backs of several bottles of caulk only to find out that the fumes from the caulk (I think it was the fumes anyways) have been shown to cause birth defects in lab rats.

Great.

Being pregnant and all, I didn't want to even delve into that mess, so I am currently stalled on the ant eviction process. I think my next move might involve some sort of wooden shim or something else to physically stop up the hole. (Think polymer clay would work? I have that in spades and can make a lovely wood grain out of it!) I also might try ProCaulk (yes, you've see it on TV) and see if that is as dangerous as regular caulk.

Ironically enough, the ant spray I got doesn't seem to be overly harmful to humans at all ... as long as you use it properly.

If you guys have any ideas on how I can safely take care of this problem, let me know. I know pretty much where the little buggers are coming in ... the trim has pulled away from the flooring in one spot and seems to be the entry point for the ants.

Have a wonderful day!