Laundry Woos!

As you can imagine I have TONS of laundry to do every other day of so. I'm sure I'm like most people and dread doing laundry. The sorting, the washing, the drying, the hanging, THE FOLDING, and the putting away. Arg! I have some tricks to help it seem less of a daunting task.

First, I have schedule laundry days. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for washing baby clothes. That's most often one load of laundry on those days because I do it so routinely. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are mommy-daddy laundry days. Before I made a schedule there were days that I was getting stuck with HOURS of laundry. I find it much easier to do 2 hours of laundry then 10 hours.

Second,  I have made a very handy dandy T-Shirt folder for mine and my hubby's clothes. It was pretty easy to make and really easy to use. What I like most about it is that all the shirts come out the same size and that leaves more room in the drawers. Here's where I found how to make the T-Shirt Folder.

I made mine out of a bulk diaper box.

Folded T-Shirt.

Third, I like to keep the clothes well organized and have specific drawers, baskets, and shelves (even hangers) for different types of clothes. The boys' dresser has four drawers, in order from top to bottom, pajamas, suits and daytime onesies, shirts (with short sleeve in the front and long sleeve in the back due to weather), and finally shorts and pants. Any hanging clothes, which aren't much, go in the closet.

My dresser is the same order (sans suits and onesies!) while hubby's goes socks and underwear, T-Shirts, more T-Shirts, sweaters, and jeans. He was not as picky as I am about how clothes are folded and put away so I've been slowly converting him over to my side. I do his laundry now that he's gone back to work so its I do it my way or he has to do it himself. You can guess what he picks.

For my closet and dress clothes, I use a velvet hanger because I have lots of items that fall off the hanger easily I hang them in type groups; pants, dresses, skirts, sleeveless tops,blouses, and cardigans. Sometimes I color code, sometimes I'm too lazy (or tired).

These things have helped me get through my laundry woos. Happy laundering!!!~!

Angry Mothers...

I have been a frequenter of certain baby related internet sites ever sense the birth of my boys. However, I think I am going to deactivate my account or at least stop checking in so often. The nasty judgmental attitudes of these women gets on my nerves. For example:

“Why aren't you wearing your baby?! I know that it would fix all your problems.”

“I would never let MY baby cry it out! You're a horrible mother if you do!”

“You said such and such so that must make it true and I'm not going to believe that you could have made a typo or in the heat of the moment not explained yourself very clearly. I will go about my misunderstanding ways and judge you on the inaccurate data that you admitted was not correct. I will ignore the data that you have now given as clarification to what your actual meaning was. So, basically, you are an awful person. P.S. I hope you die in a fire.”

Really ladies? Get a life! I'm sure these rude women would be irritated and hurt if (or when) people talk to them in the same manor. The mothers that are asking for help with their problems are looking for understanding, suggestions and support. But all you can offer them is judgmental criticism. Your words are hurtful and wrong and I always feel so badly for the mothers that are reaching out for help and get blasted with these kinds of comments. 

My favorite is when they end with “but, that's just my opinion”. You just called this women Satan’s bride but by saying “in my opinion” ii is suppose to make it all better?! I don't think so. Get over yourselves ladies. To each their own. We are talking about personal preference of parenting styles. That's “personal” as in: Of or relating to a particular person; private. And “preference” meaning: A greater liking for one alternative over another or others. You could be a little nicer, maybe instead of, “Your own words were that she was about to throw up. That is just wrong.” maybe you could say, “I was confused, your post made it would like she was going to be sick and worried. I was concerned. Thank you for clarifying your meaning. This is what I do in that situation...”. No mother is perfect and if you're a mom that thinks she is, get...a...LIFE!!! I have NO problem with anyone wanting to wear their baby(ies) all the time. Or if they don't like to let them cry it out. Fine, whatever. I'm also not saying that I don't or haven't warn my babies and that I let them cry it out all the time. All I'm saying is that there is always going to be someone that thinks they are doing it better then you and that you, in turn, are an awful parent. Arg, its just so frustrating. To the judgment Mothers I say, again, get a life, get over it and worry about yourself. To the other mother, just looking for support, check out a site before you post something. If the other post have negative comments, look somewhere else. Or, give as good as you get! 

Living Gluten Free and Loving it!

Because I live with someone that has celiac decease I have decided that I would make gluten free meals everytime I cook dinner. At first, I thought it was going to be hard and it is if you're not in the right mindset. When I looked into cooking GF I found that most of what I make is already  gluten free dish anyways, or can be easily reworked to be.

Maybe it's my supportive nature but I just would feel awful if I made cookies/cake/bread in our house that Hubster cant eat. I like to bake, cook AND share. You just cant do that when the people to whom you will be sharing cant digest what you have lovingly made for them.

So, I guess my point is; living gluten free is easier then you think. Think about all the stuff that you would miss if you didn't eat gluten. Cake (very sugary and fattening), cookies (same as cake), muffins (most of them are comparable to the formers) and any other rising bakery item. All of those things are delicious, I know, and you can and should have them. IN MODERATION. The great thing about gluten free bakery items (I think anyways) is that they aren't that easy to find and they are expensive. So they aren't laying around the house, waiting to be gobbled up. At least we don't buy them that often. There are also great recipes for GF desserts. I love no bake cookies. They are easy to make and so tasty!

Now, main dishes. One of the things that I find most frustrating about the GF diet is that the food is so much more expensive. What I do for my family is I make meals that don't normally contain gluten. Things like; BBQ Chicken, Brisket, Beef Tacos, Jambalaya and Chicken, Grilled Fish and many more. I also take lots of things that have gluten one the side like a bun, noodles ect, and I replace the gluten with something else. One of our favorite things to eat is sloopy joes. But instead of having buns with it (GF buns can run around $5 for 4 buns. You can get 8 GF buns for sometimes under a dollar!) we bake a potato and scoop the sloopy joes on to that.

Living gluten free is all about imagination! Think of your favorite foods that you love and figure out a way to make them GF. Also, the best tool of all(!) is the internet! I have found so many delicious recipes online. Here are some of those sites that I love and follow.

http://whatsfordinner-momwhatsfordinner.blogspot.com/

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/

http://glutenfreegirl.com/

http://glutenfreemommy.com/