Bug Repellant

We used to use Muskol for bug repellant. It is 23.5% Deet and has lots of warnings on the label about only applying it every 8 hours and to use it sparingly and not to spray it in enclosed spaces. The one that really made us not be able to use it anymore were the instructions: "Do not use on children under 12 years of age."

So my husband put together this spray for me to use with the kids with tea tree oil. He got a spray bottle from the dollar store and put 15 drops of tea tree oil with 32 oz of water. We used it some, but were still getting bit.

We added more tea tree oil, but even if it might have helped some, it wasn't enough to keep away the misquitos while blueberry picking. They were too much so I went back to the Muskol.

And here I was picking all natural, organically grown wild blueberries and spraying myself with pesticides! How ironic!

I welcome any suggestions for a less toxic bug repellant. What do you use, how do you make it and how well do you find it works?

Freezing Uncooked Donuts for Fresh Later

Growing up, our family made donuts from time to time. When I was in high school, I made donuts on the weekends to sell. I'll have to post our family recipe and instructions another time so check back later. For now, I'm going to show you how I discovered that I could have fresh donuts every day without having to make the dough every time.

Wild Blueberry Country

We live in an area that is known for its wild blueberries and I had been planning to get out to pick some on my friend's property. So when I discovered that the bush just beyond my backyard is full of wild blueberries I was very excited! 

 Now that I know what a blueberry bush looks like, I'm seeing them everywhere here.

Washing Cloth Diapers

I've changed the way I prepare poopy diapers for the wash quite a bit. When I first started, I was really scrubbing out the dipaers with a scrub brush even when it was just the runny, mustardy breastmilk poo. And I think those first cloth diapers did take a toll for all my scrubbing and are wearing out faster.

When my older child started eating solids and the poo became clumpy, that was a really easy clean as the clumps came out into the toilet and left little on the diaper. No scrubbing necessary.

However, that changed and now it is not so clumpy and more like peanut butter, and my second child now has the breastmilk poo. This would mean a lot of scrubbing and I don't particularly like cleaning this with my hands. So you might say I've become lazy in this area, but I found that it works!

 I do absolutely nothing with the breastmilk poo. I put it directly into my diaper pail and wash it when it comes time. There is sometimes a bit of staining on the diaper, but that will happen whether you scrub or not. If I hang them out in the sun, that breastmilk poo staining comes right out. Mind you, with doing elimination communication with him, he doesn't often have poopy diapers.

With the solid foods poo, I take a wipe and scrape what I can into the toilet. I don't worry about getting it super well though. At times there is still quite a bit left on the diaper depending on how badly soiled it is. And I put the diaper directly into the diaper pail to sit until I wash them. The first time I tried this I was a bit concerned that I would find poo all along the inside of my washing machine, but actually I didn't. Sometimes if my child ate corn or grapes, I might find some skins on the side of a diaper, but they shake right off and were also adequately cleaned. And otherwise, they've come out really well through the wash. 

I got my diaper pails at the Superstore.

Whole Wheat Honey Sweetened Chocolate Chip Cookies

 I was really wanting to make some cookies, but all my recipes take sugar. (I'm completely out of sugar and am not eager to stock up again.) Sometimes I straight out substitute the sugar for honey, but it doesn't always turn out so perfectly. So I searched on the internet for some honey sweetened cookies and found these. They turned out amazing! You can find the original recipe here.

Drinking Water

Recommendations say you should drink 8 glasses of water each day, but I have never been a person to drink much water. I would rather have milk or juice than try to drink a glass of water. I have a cup or two of coffee everyday and usually a glass of milk and a smoothie and maybe some juice or tea, but I probably only drink a half glass of water in a day. And that totals my liquid intake. That's pretty sad especially considering I'm breastfeeding. 

Freezing Bagels

I really like bagels, but I don't have them too often. I've tried making them before, but they are really a lot of work- maybe even more than making doughnuts. Not only do you have to make/knead the dough, let it rise, shape them and let them rise again, but then you have to boil them and bake them- cooking them twice. So every once in a while, I will buy a bag of bagels which cost 3-4 dollars for only 6. That's even more than bread, and I can get a lot more slices in a bag of bread. But when I saw them selling for only 75 cents a bag, I stocked up. How do I keep so many bagels fresh to use later? I freeze them.