A+ for Recycling

ASSIGNMENT:  create something from the Recycle Box and the Junk Drawer.

The results:  a trash-talking-cat

The girls enjoyed minutes of entertainment on this drizzly, rainy day.

PS: the youngest drinks "hot chalky" every morning... regardless of the outdoor and indoor temperature.  Completely unaware that the thermostat registers 91 degrees at 8:45 am.

PPS: Trash Cat has become part of the family.  Trash Cat even took a trip to Target.  A stroll in the stroller.  And Trash Cat has its own seat at the dinner table. 

PPPS:  I am hoping to give Trash Cat back to the recycle bin before trash pick up on Wednesday.

A day to wear any shade of green

hApPy St. PaTrIcK's DaY!

Disposable vs. Cloth

Every parenting, mommy, family magazine in circulation has an ongoing debate regarding diapers: disposable vs. cloth. A similar ongoing debate occurs among the mommy mafia for feeding: bottle vs. breastfed.

For diapering, why don't the articles cover the real, everyday, life part of it? How do you clean a cloth diaper? How do you properly dispose of disposables? Will the messy cloth contaminate other clothes items if laundered together? Will the disposables call maggots to your trash bin? UGH! Real Life PLEASE! I can conclude which diaper is GREENER. I can conclude which diaper is EASIER. But I am asking for REALITY!

I am trying to decide which one is better for my lifestyle. And today it is CLOTH.

I poke baby three times. Baby is wrestling to stand up and run. Baby cannot remove cloth diaper (unlike disposable) on her own.

One hour later, Oops! Baby mess. UGH!!

Change baby. Two more pin pokes in her hips. Once again, baby is wriggling herself free and on the verge of running.

Dirty cloth diaper goes to the girls' bathroom toilet to be rinsed. Diaper takes a break and sits in the toilet bowl while diaper-cleaner is wrangling baby into the playroom. Big sister is playing in her room. Diaper-cleaner quickly loads the dryer. Diaper-cleaner returns to bathroom to rinse diaper and load into the washing machine.

Where is the diaper? I know dirty diaper cannot go too far. And I definitely know that nobody (other than me) will TOUCH dirty diaper.

I look in the bowl, behind the bowl, next to the bowl, behind diaper genie, behind wastebasket, under bath mat, in bathtub, behind shower curtain, and in the bowl (again).

The toilet starts gurgling. The pipe connected to the wall is shaking. The toilet water is now rising very quickly. The toilet water is overflowing. There is sewer water backing up into the bathtub.

"Hey," I shout. "Who just used the bathroom?"
"Hey," the echo shouts back. "Who just left a diaper in the toilet?"

Of course, nobody did it! So, how did that cloth diaper just get flushed down into the kingdom of sewerness?

UGH! And some other four-letter words shouting inside my head. This is just the beginning of my day. It surely cannot turn any worse. Or maybe...

Cats spy a constant supply of water gurgling up from the bathtub drain. Cats jump in and start to drink before I can get them outside.

UGH! Cats vomit!

It is only 8:13 in the morning! Is my debate solved?

I need a drink (or three) ... but only after Mr. Roto-Rooter saves the day! Maybe, Mr. Roto-Rooter will drink with me! After all, he is a man in uniform. And... yes, a man in uniform, indeed!

Compost or Bust!

We compost. Not the fancy-schmancy kind of composting. We did not purchase an expensive compost bin or dirt or worms.

We compost naturally. Organically. Greenly.

We dug a hole in our garden and began throwing in peels from fruits and vegetables. Only!

If you build it, worms will come. The worms are extremely FAT. And no expenses were incurred.

If you build it, bugs will come. And other creatures.

Every morning, Victoria and I go outside looking for clues. Usually the cantaloupe rinds are twenty feet away from the compost pile. The apple cores are missing. The celery stalks have also disappeared. The potato ends remain (creature does not like raw potatoes).

We do know that it is not our cats. The cats prefer the good stuff. Not garbage food. And, Victoria deduced that it cannot be a rat family -- unless it is an extremely large rat. I am hoping it is not a rat family!

Last night, as we were cleaning up the backyard, the cats became very quiet and slowly started to creep toward the garden. We also stood frozen in our tracks for no real reason - just following the cats.

The mystery is solved!

We discovered the animal that is living under our deck and feeding off the compost pile... a cute, lonely, 'possum named Spunky!