Birthday Freebies

Yesterday just may have been my birthday.  I am smack dab in the middle of my 30's.  I'm planning on staying there for at least a couple more years. ;)

One benefit to getting older are the birthday freebies!  I love collecting and redeeming free things. :)  This year I've had free coffee, goodies from World Market (madeleine cookies and some hair clips) and free dinner from a sub shop.  I have plans to use a couple more before they expire in the next few days.

Dunkin Donuts - free drink (card comes in the mail)
Starbucks - free drink (a card comes in the mail) when you register a Starbucks card.  You also get other freebies and upgrades during the year with your Starbucks card.
World Market - $10 voucher if you have a rewards card
Jersey Mike's Subs - sub and drink (email voucher) when you join their email club.
Jason's Deli - $5 off voucher came by email after I filled out a b'day card in the restaurant.
blissful yoga - free class within a week of your birthday
Einstein Bros Bagels - Free breakfast sandwich (with drink purchase) email voucher after joining their online club.
Johnny Rocket's - Get a free burger with entree purchase, voucher came by email after joining their online club.

I didn't use all of the vouchers this year but it is fun to get freebies!  Do you know any that I missed?

Wordless Wednesday - dog crate shenanigans

The baby discovered the dog crate yesterday.  

She quickly figured out how to unlatch and open the door.

It's just a matter of time until this happens.  

This is her older sister around the same age.  I guess dog crates are irresistible to my children. ;)  

Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and United

I recently read Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and United by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein.  This is one of those can't-put-it-down kind of books.  For me the most shocking part is that it was true, real-life, actually happened!  It read like a mystery novel.

Here is the description of the book from Amazon:

Elyse Schein had always known she was adopted, but it wasn't until her mid-thirties while living in Paris that she searched for her biological mother.  What she found instead was shocking: She had an identical twin sister.  What's more, after being separated as infants, she and her sister had been, for a time, part of a secret study on separated twins.
Paula Bernstein, a married writer and mother living in New York, also knew she was adopted, but had no inclination to find her birth mother.  When she answered a call from her adoption agency one spring afternoon, Paula's life suddenly divided into two starkly different periods: the time before and the time after she learned the truth.
As they reunite, taking their tentative first steps from strangers to sisters, Paula and Elyse are left with haunting questions surrounding their origins and their separation.  And when they investigate their birth mother's past, the sisters move closer toward solving the puzzle of their lives.

I am not adopted, but I have worked professionally for many years in Adoption related fields.  So I found it especially fascinating that such secrecy occurred, and not even that long ago!  I couldn't imagine being that caseworker or researcher knowing that the girls were twins and not telling the adoptive parents!  What a conflict they must have experienced.  I still have dreams and regular thoughts about the Child Protective Cases (child abuse) I worked on in the early part of my career.  There are so many things that I would do differently now after years of professional and personal experience.  I can't help but wonder if the workers involved in these (many) separated twin adoptions felt the same.

The other aspect of the book that I found especially interesting is the concept of nature verses nurture.  As a therapist this is right up my alley.  What I found remarkable were the many examples of separated twin similarities despite being raised apart.  I can't help but wonder in what ways my children (and myself) are destined biologically to act, look and think.  And of course in what ways I have been shaped by my environment.  Would I look physically differently if I hadn't lived in Hawaii for 4 years?  Or if I had started eating (more) healthy foods earlier?  What if I actually exercised regularly (ha).  Ah, the possibilities.

The sisters started life out looking completely alike.  However their environments (and therefore decisions on where to live, what to eat, etc) shaped their physical appearances and now they look similar but not identical.  Fascinating!

Now you can see why this book has caught my interest.  I have been telling all of my friends about it non-stop since I finished it last week.  I highly recommend reading it, I found my copy at the local library.

Enjoy!

Growing and storing green onions at home.

I discovered recently via Pinterest that you can grow your own green onions at home.  If you harvest the top of the onions and place the bulbs back into water they miraculously grow again, almost overnight!  All you need to do is keep them in a location that gets some sun and change the water every 2 days or so.

Now I'm going to be honest about something that is somewhat embarrassing.  I didn't know how to properly use green onions.  There I said it.  No, it's true.  I had been cutting and using the bulb part of the onion b/c, well it's the part that looked like an onion!  Believe it or not I had been throwing out most of the green portion of the onion.  Shocking I know.  I had it all backwards.  Ha!

I discovered my faux-pas while researching how to grow them at home.  Ah, the things you can learn from Pinterest and google. :)

Now, back to the onions.  Around the same time I was growing the onions I also saw a great idea on Pinterest about how to store them.  You cut them up and place them in a plastic water bottle, then keep it in your freezer.  When you need some onions you just shake them out.  Perfect and easy!

Here are our onions this weekend after we harvested them (for the 2nd time).  They're back on the counter growing again.  I didn't take a before photo, but you can see how tall they were from what is on the counter.  It took about 2 1/2 weeks for them to get this tall. 

I'd suggest using a sharp kitchen scissor instead of a knife to harvest and slice them, much easier.

The 4 year old wanted to help me so I put her to work putting the pieces into the plastic bottle.  I'm sure there is an easier way (funnel perhaps) but she was having fun and was able to work alongside me as I cut all the pieces.

We now have a full bottle of cut green onions.  I will have to start looking for more recipes with green onions because it will be time to harvest a whole new batch in about 1-2 weeks!  I may never have to purchase green onions again.

Make your own diaper pail deodorizer

It's been awhile since we talked about cloth diapering (CD).  In case you're new to my blog I have CD both of my kids.  My first daughter did cloth from newborn all the way through potty training (including overnight cloth pull-ups).  My second daughter is currently 9 months old and is going strong in size medium.

However, things have gotten a bit stinkier since she began eating solid foods.  As a result the dry diaper pail needs a little help.  In the past we used an air purifier in the changing table room, but right now that's been moved elsewhere.  So, I started looking into things to add to the pail.  I wanted something stronger than straight baking soda (which works too, just a sprinkle here and there).  Here's what I did with a little help from my 4 year old.

Diaper Pail Deodorizer

Ingredients
Baking Soda
Water
Essential Oil (lavender, tea-tree, eucalyptus, mint or lemon)
A container to put it in (a large spice container would work great)

Directions
1. Take a medium bowl and put baking soda in.  I used 1 cup b/c that's what my shaker held.
2. Add water slowly until it makes a thick paste.
3. Add a few drops of your chosen essential oil. I used about 5-7 drops.
4. Spoon the paste into a cupcake cup until it's about 1/2 inch full.

5. Wait 1-2 days for the mixture to dry out.  Mine took only one day but I live in a very dry climate.

6. Put the powder mix into your container and shake up to break up the clumps.  Then shake in your diaper pail at changes or when needed.

Another quicker option is to put a couple drops of an essential oil onto one of your cloth wipes and put it in the diaper pail.

Check out a Christmas Version of the deodorizer here.

Diaper Liners
And don't forget that using disposable and environmentally friendly rice-paper liners is helpful with the solids too.  That way if baby poops you can just throw the liner in the toilet instead of worrying about rinsing or even worse swishing in the toilet - yuck!  And if they haven't soiled the liner you can just throw it in the wash with the diapers and then use it again (2-3x before you need to toss it).

For more information on Cloth diapering check out my posts cloth diapering 101, cloth diapering 102, and cloth diapering 103.  I talk about my washing routine, what diapers I use, where to buy them and how I organize them.