Why Is it So Hard to Make Friends When You Have Small Children?

I never believed it would be hard for me to make friends after my first child was born. As he got older he was one of those cute, adorable, little boys any mom would want her kid to play with...but it was far from easy. In fact I still do not have a mom friend who I talk to ever for more than 5 minutes and that is while waiting for our kids at preschool. The preschool is filled with groups of moms who kind of resemble cliques from high school. The younger hip crowd hangs out all the time together and their kids all know each other. I ran into another group of moms (from preschool) at the swim park who actually went on my dream-mom-weekend in Hawaii and left the kids with the dads. Over the last several years I have hiked occasionally with an outdoor hiking group for moms, but, no...no friends made there either. If it wasn't for my friend in Chatsworth or my dear former neighbor (who I miss very much) I wouldn't have survived those first years. During our first preschool year W. Logan and I were invited for a play date. He was young and wasn't used to playing with other kids and they didn't want to meet with us again. (I probably should mention that I was pregnant last year and obviously had a new baby this year, and this didn't help the situation.) Last year we had a birthday party for him and invited the whole class but only four families out of 18 came. I think the final straw that broke the camels back was when my sons best friends mom said she 'doesn't do play dates'  ...something about her husband not approving. I was so crushed since she seemed nice and so were her kids. I have officially given up trying  half-heartedly to find mom-friends. So that brings me back to our plan to move to a small town in a house off-the-grid...I think I will become a mom-hermit. I used to be so good at making and maintaining friendships.

Healthy, Earth Friendly Homemade Cleaning Supplies

My latest preoccupation is homemade cleaning supplies. I'm not sure the exact reason behind it...sometimes I like to think it is more healthy or more green or maybe cheaper but really I think the reason lies in my love of creating my own things. I love making my own bread, cheese, soap or just about anything that is crafty that I can use. So, today I made homemade laundry soap from a recipe from the Come Clean Booklet from www.fullcirclehome.com The recipe is 1 cup baking soda, 1 cup washing soda, 1 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup castille soap. First I mixed the soap with the sodas really well, then I SLOWLY added the vinegar while mixing well. I continued mixing well until the mixture went from soup to dry powder. It was almost like being in a chemistry lab. The mixture warmed up and it eventually turned into somewhat clumpy dryish laundry soap. It is recommended that 1/2 cup be used per load, but since I have an HE machine, I'm going to start with 1/4 cup. I also have a great generally cleaning spray for plastic surfaces (like high chair trays, plastic table cloths etc).

For the bathroom I'm using a lemon-vinegar-tea tree oil mixture. So far I like the cleaners so much better than the commercial  options. They do the job much better than store bought and I can modify them anytime I want. Now I just need to get cleaning, and well that is whole different issue.



Time-Where Does it Go?

Lately special diets have become the norm in our house. W. Logan is on a gluten-free diet, S is on a gluten-free, dairy free diet and I am on a low carb diet. O. Finn is happily enjoying whatever we put in front of him. I love babies at this stage. They are sooo trusting and sweet. As they get older, they complain when you make dairy-free, gluten-free Mac N, Cheese with cashews and nutritional yeast. It was bad enough when we had to replace the noodles with rice noodles. We are trying to make our food very healthy and inspiring at the same time but this was a failure. Since I'm on a low carb, high fat, high protein diet, I've become a little bit of a carnivore. I'm still breastfeeding, so I've decided to limit my low-carbs to a reasonable level so that I don't go into Ketosis.  It is kind of fun but it seems to really help my insulin resistance problem. Today we made Jicama Slaw, Blackstrap Beans and MacN Cheese. It was interesting, but we won't be making the MacN Cheese again. Breakfast is Artichoke Crab Fritatta and Buckwheat Pancakes with Crowberry Syrup.

Another project I'm working on is homemade house cleaners. I filled a bunch of different cleaners with various combinations of vinegar, lemon juice, essential oils, olive oil and water. Suprisingly, the cleaners are better than the fancy store cleaners. I made an all purpose cleaner with half vinegar half water with lavendar essential oil, and it works great for cleaning the table. I have bathroom cleaner that includes half water and the other half a combination of lemon juice and vinegar. I added 15 drops of Tea Tree Oil as well. Supposedly this is good for germs. Plan to keep experimenting with this.

I so wish I had time in the day to work on various things like my wool rug, several books that I have sitting around, or just time to clean and organize my house the way I want it, let alone do the business taxes and accounting. Oh, well maybe that day will come someday...