What if we were a little bit more like Google?

More specifically what if we were all a bit more like Larry Paige and Sergay Brin?  I recently read listened to the book called  'In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives.'  Let me tell you it is definitely worth the read.  One of the many things that struck me about the book was how amazing these two founders are.  They take crazy ideas and don't think about them being crazy and then just do them.  They make the world a much better place (even if you are not a Google fan, they have done so many things to better our world it is amazing).  If you are against them, that is not really what I want to discuss here.  Anyway, I mean I am blogging for free, thanks to who?  Thats right, Google. 

It all started off when Larry Paige decided to develop a better way to find things on the Internet.  He developed the ranking system for finding things that was based on how many things linked back to your site.  Because thats how people determine good academic papers is by who refers back, if a lot of people cite something there must be something to it, you know.  Anyway, from that Google.started to emerge.  They hired people that were brilliant (even before they were profitable).  They looked for Doctoral students and those who already had their doctorates.  They would not only look at if someone was brilliant but if they were Googley.  If you look what their company has done, it is pure brilliance, pure craziness to some.  Copy all the books in the world into digital form?  Sure great project.  Not only map, but map with pictures the entire world? Sure.  It would be cool if we had aa car that drove itself.  Done.Find a way to use advertising to make people happier?  Absolutely, when I search the Internet, often I am looking to buy something and am happy when the answer is right there. Email with free huge amounts of space?  Great.  The list goes on and on. Think about Android and how if you are looking up something on your computer and later decide to find if on your phone, type one or two characters and it is synced and remembers.  How they get where they are going is also so creative. If something sounds like a good idea they go for it no matter how large it seems; like mania gone right.  If you work for Google you spend 20% of your time doing a project from your own interest, that is how they get the amazing ideas.  Also, if they want to do something, they ask the employees what they should do, for instance during the recession even though they were not hurting for money they did decide to try and save, but they did it by asking people what they didn't need and getting rid of it.  I just think a simple concept, what if the government did that?  Putting aside politics and asked all the employees what was really needed  - they could save a ton. One huge interesting thing they both have in common.  They were both Montessori kids.  They were not taught at where you sit in a classroom a listen to a lecture, but taught more to explore and learn about things a bit differently.  I think that is a really interesting approach to education.  I even looked into sending Anna to a Montessori school, but alas, the closest one is 45 minutes away, and I just don't want to spend 3 hours in the car every day.

What if we were all more a bit more like them?  If we had a sense that our ideas could change the world in major or minor ways.  I can't think of how often I have been frustrated because I couldn't find something, or something was not invented yet, or came up with an idea that would make something easier but have been too lazy to find out how to make it happen.  My most recent thing would be an E-ink picture frame, it would not need to be sucking power all the time and it looks so cool.  Unfortunately, I can't buy because it isn't out there - not yet at least.  My question to you is, what would you have invented that would change the world if you really carried it out?  Oh, and don't use the excuse of them having unlimited money (which they do now, pretty much) because in the beginning, they didn't have any money.  They just had a good idea.  So what is yours?

Adventures in Chocolate or simply THE most decadent healthy chocolate cake EVER

Oh my yum!  Okay I am going to post about the deliciousness that we just found last week.  Anna earned enough tokens (which she gets for making good choices) to have a friends party.  Which is basically a big lunch play date with cake.  She has never been interested in saving up for one before as it cost the most tokens out of any reward (125) AND you don't get presents like at a birthday party.  But after having one she is a fan, which means this might be a big a lot of work if she keeps choosing them but at least it is a good motivator.  Anyway being that Drew and I are on the good mood diet which drastically limits sugar (6 tsp a week or about one yogurt with sugar), we knew we would have to watch everyone else partake of cake.  Also, being as health conscious as possible, which I think we do a pretty good job of (we have dessert every night and girls get super excited for it and it is always just fruit!), I set off in search of a recipe which contained no sugar or sweetener but was sweetened by fruit alone.  I searched and searched and searched.  Then I decided to settle on one that had some stevia in it, but that was only begrudgingly.  However, I of course closed the tab on my search engine and did not print or book mark the page, so when I went back to find it, of course I could not.  Which was a fabulous thing because I came across a recipe which was only posted a few days previous and had not made it to the top of Google's search yet.  The recipe I found was sweetened only with date past and made claims of being simply THE most decadent healthy chocolate cake EVER!  I looked at the ingredients and knew I had found what I believed to be a winner.  It calls for no flour so it is also gluten free, which some people in my extended family need (not that they were coming, but they might find this intriguing.  Anyway, the recipe uses date paste, avocado, coconut milk, and 1.5 cups of cocoa powder!  I have never seen a recipe with that much before, but since we love dark chocolate I gave it a go, and I am so glad I did.  I was not sure how the kids would respond, because it is really dark, so as we were making the batter I did make the modification of adding, well, all of the date paste and the water the dates soaked in to make the paste and it was still super duper rich but I think a bit more to the liking of the kids (not all the kids) but Anna liked it although she couldn't finish her piece.  We learned that the serving size for this cake is very small as it is sooooo rich.  So small you could get close to 24 pieces from the cake or maybe a few less, depending on how your palate works.  Drew and I made the modification of counting the cake as 3 fats, 1 lean protein, and a fruit and we worked it into our diet.  Also, did I mention, there is no butter or oil!  Anyway, without further ado, here is the link to the recipe, complete with pictures!

http://thehealthyfoodie.com/2012/04/21/most-decadent-healthy-chocolate-cake/

The Good Mood Diet

The good mood diet is another book I read a few years ago and it really has changed the way I do things it was written by Dr. Susan Kleiner. I first read this book when Anna was about a year old. It totally changed the way I ate and dieted for that matter. In her book she talks about feel good foods and feel bad foods. Your feel bad foods are your typical fried sugary just plain old junk foods. Her feel great foods are most of the healthy things you already know about. However, the way she organizes your food into an easy to understand plan is something new. It keeps you interested, it also keeps you from getting hungry and I have so much energy and feel so great while I am doing it. Her basic rules are limiting sugar to 6 teaspoons a week (that is not very much, I pretty much don't do any right now). Take a vitamin every day. Exercise of course. Drew and I have been inspired by our friend Evin who has an exercise blog wowbodynow and have recently decided to have a 16 week plan where we make some goals and plan out what we want to eat etc. Anyway, back to the diet, it is pretty simple you eat breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, then you have a hot chocolate every night (she does hers with cocoa powder, milk and a little splenda) I use soy milk because I found that I don't need splenda (I think the kind I get is sweetened with stevia.

Anyway, it is how she breaks down the foods that makes sense and makes sure you think about what you are eating. So in the morning you need to have something from the bread group, a fruit, a milk, a fat, and an egg cooked without fat (a typical example would be like kashi or fiber one cereal with milk raisins and flax meal) and an egg

Mid morning some lean protein and milk (a protein shake)

Lunch 2 veggies a bread, protein and one serving a fat

afternoon snack fruit, veggie, fat (ex. v8, peanuts, and an orange)

Dinner - 2 breads, 2 veggies, 4 ounces lean protein, 2 fats, and a fruit.

Evening - hot cocoa

So basically it is a template to organize your food, it keeps your energy up and helps you lose weight. It also helps you keep it off. Since I read this book I have consistently followed as least some of the principles in how I eat because you just feel good doing it. Drew and I just started following it completely as part of our 16 week plan. I did about 3ish months ago, somewhat (I have sugar here and a treat there, but mostly stayed with it for a few weeks) I lost 10 lbs in a few weeks and then it has stayed off since. It is interesting because with this way of doing things I will wake up and feel that I have not lost anything all week, then I will get on a scale and find that I have! Honestly, after a few days of doing it, I don't even want any of the really sugary foods because it helps you feel so good. You know how you feel when eat something bad for you and it just isn't appealing.

Your Child's Strengths

So, I have been wanting to share some different things that I have been doing lately. I don't normally post about books and things but I think I might start.

Recently I read a book called "Your Child's Strengths" by Jennifer Fox.

I really liked this book, but it is not for everyone. I am not so much into fiction, but really like books about things that apply in my life. The author of this book is the principle of a girls boarding school. Her purpose in writing the book is to combat the all too often weakness focus that we have as a culture. She talks about her feelings of the negative problems of the way the school system educates children. While, in the book she does state her opinions of the school system for the first several chapters, she also discusses how you can work with schools to change the focus. Her main point in that section of the book is that our school systems are based on older educational ways of teaching and philosophies, when there have been more recent ones that are better. She discusses how we often focus on the weakness in a child and improving that area of skills than we do on the strengths of the child. Because of this many children and adults leave school not really knowing or understanding their unique strengths and often very smart people thing they aren't because they have struggled in some aspect of education. She defines strengths not only as something someone is good at, but as something that a person loves doing. She talks about ways we can foster our children's growth so they end up with too negatives placed upon them as they grow. She also teaches how we can help our children recognize their strengths and how we can recognize our own.

As for me, I have learned what some of my strengths are through the processes she gives to help discover them. The first recommendation she has is to write down all of the household chores that you have to do. Then figure out which ones you like more than others and then break them down into smaller pieces. From this I was able to learn some things about myself. One of my habits is I have a tendency to clean in spurts and I get really into cleaning when I do. I learned that one of my strengths is I like challenges where things go quickly require sequencing and have results that I can see quickly. That is why one of my daily jobs that I like doing is cooking. I like the challenge of thing about several parts of the meal and when to do what so that they are all ready at the same time. When I discovered this, Drew (who is the dish washer in the evenings) said, oh, that is why you don't try to minimize how many dishes are used - since that I time I have tried to take that into better account.

Another strength I have discovered I have a strength for fact finding. That is why I always wonder why i don't have any strong interests like other people, no hobbies at least none that stick for long. The reason being I love to learn about something, anything from accounting to business stat, to sewing to cloth diapers until I get enough information on the subject and then, my interest wanes. Which leads me to the next part of that strength is I love sharing what I have learned with other people. The favorite part of my previous job was when I had the opportunity to give presentations or teach people individually about something I was on a fact finding mission about. These two strengths make a pretty good combination, learning about something then teaching about it. I still have a lot more things to discover about my strengths but thus far this is what I have found.

As for Anna, she is still very young, but as I was reading this book (which was at least a month ago at this point) she came to me after her quiet time which she was busy doing for a long time that day and said "Mommy, I am so happy!" I asked her why and she said that she wanted me to come a see what she had done. I went with her to her room and she showed me her wall. She had taken start stickers (luckily they are easy to take off, but I am not going to anytime probably until we leave) and put them on her wall some of them overlapping in a very deliberate way. There were hundreds of them so it must have taken her the whole of quiet time until she was finished. I am not sure exactly what the strength is there, it could be she likes things that require detail and creativity, it will emerge one day. Anyway, I took a picture of it:

Another strength that I have found that she has comes when chores are involved. I am also not sure what this means exactly, but she has had no interest in doing laundry lately during which she can earn money. She also hates putting clothes away. I was praying one day about what job I could give her that she would enjoy and the answer was dishes. At first I thought 3 is too young for dishes but then I gave it a shot. For a week or so she liked it, then not so much, until Drew said she likes loading the dishwasher. So for the past 6 weeks or so her job has been to load the dishwasher for the breakfast dishes everyday. The result, she now has a job, she never complains about and does every day with a simple reminder "finish your breakfast and don't forget your job" which I say when I leave the room to go and get Lizzie ready for the day. When she comes out of the kitchen, her job is done, every day, no further discussion. Also, I am not sure what that means but it may have something to do with the fact it is an adult job, that needs to be done in a specific way, cups in one place, plates in another, cutlery in another.

Anyway, the whole point of discovering your strengths is so that as you grow you can do things you love more often and things you don't less often. Wouldn't you love to find a career where your natural abilities and things that bring you energy are used often? I am certainly glad I have one!

Cloth Diapers are Easy and Inexpensive

Diapers. There is something most people don't spend much time thinking about. However, there are many people who think about them a lot. I am not just talking about manufacturers. There is a growing movement of people bringing back cloth diapers. I am now one of those people. I started using cloth diapers about 6 months ago and they are amazing! I learned many things that completely surprised me.

1. They take the same amount of time to change as a disposable, you don't need pins, you can get ones with velcro, just like disposables.

2. They work really well. I mean REALLY well. I did not expect this, but when Lizzie was just a new baby, we had several blowouts, just like with Anna. However, they were ALL in disposable diapers. Almost every time she pooped in a disposable it leaked on her clothes. So, I moved her into a larger disposable size, she still leaked. I am not saying she NEVER leaks in cloth, but, she VERY rarely does. However, not all cloth diapers are equal. I have tried some different brands. There were 3 kinds that did not work well, which I won't mention. The kind that worked really well, was Bumgenius. That is why I am brand loyal because use what works and sell the rest. That said, I have had some leaks in the cloth, but honestly, I have never had a poop leak!

3. They can save major money. I can get diapers cheap. I can buy disposable diapers on the military base and save a LOT. I chose to cloth diaper the most expensive way possible (without getting into crazy high end designer diapers). Also, my daughter is a super fast grower so she has grown out of them more quickly than expensive. I have purchased the cloth diapers called all in one diapers that are pretty much the same thing as disposables, only you wash them. I am talking sticky (velcro) tabs and buying different sizes. The fact that you have to buy different sizes is what adds to the cost. I bought my diapers from a company called cotton babies Financially, I have about broken even. They are a great choice as they have good diapers, and I mean really good, and also have free shipping which is a big reason why I went with them. But, I am planning on having one or two more children and can therefore pretty much diaper them for free (less the cost of laundry). Most people doing it this way would save probably $800-1000 birth to potty training. But like I said I can get disposable diapers cheap.

4. They can be even cheaper. I have dabbled in some other kinds of cloth diapers. I mean things I would never have imagined myself getting into. I bought some diaper covers that you have to put something inside; they need an insert (gasp, a second step). Now, I bought the diaper covers manufactuered by the same company, cotton babies (this time listed as flip covers) only these work from birth to potty training. I bought two covers and 12 of what you can put inside (what I chose is called prefold) I bought all of this on sale for around $40. That means I got 12 cloth diapers good from birth through potty training for $40. After that purchase and how easy it is to use this system (it takes maybe 3 seconds more per change to switch out the inside). So for a good well made diaper cover that still does not leak like the disposables normally do, you diaper your kid birth to potty training for about $200 less the cost of laundry. WOW~

5. They can be EVEN CHEAPER... sounds a lot like # 4. BUT, here is how it is different. Because the diapers are cloth AND they don't disappear, when you are finished with them, IF you take relatively good care of them, you can sell them. Check out ebay and look up completed listings. I looked up completed listings for used bumgenius all in one diapers. I found people selling them. One was for 5 diapers, with some staining. I did not dig around, I just went to the first one I could find, it will be different everyday. It went for $36! What does that mean? I bought on clearance as they no longer make my "model" of diaper. The diapers cost me $10 each. The listing I am talking about was for the same diapers I have and again, mine have NO staining. Do the math, If I were to sell 5 of them for $36 I would have spent $14. That is how much I pay for 60 disposables and since I have used each diaper at least 33 times thus far that gets me 165 changes and counting.

6. What about the poop? Well, if you have a kid, guess what you are going to deal with poop. Its a given. BUT, honestly it is not as gross as you are thinking. They even make these things called diaper sprayers that rinse all the poop into the toilet. I rinse all my poopy diapers at the end of the day. I expected to actually HATE doing it. I don't (ussually). Many times in fact I find it therapeutic (not always). Why? Because I am constantly amazed that modern diapers clean so well. Clothes I often can't get stains out of. Not one of my diapers has a stain, not one. If you rinse your diapers into the toilet, you don't touch the poop at all. It does not take that long either. We don't have a diaper sprayer, but we have a really strong power shower that I rinse them in, no one uses that tub for baths anyway and we rinse it out before we shower. We have a strainer in the drain to keep clogs out. Again, not really an added cost.

6. Diaper Rash. I use to think cloth diapers caused diaper rash, nope it is not the culprit. In fact, some people claim they get less rash in cloth as there kids are sensitive to the chemicals in disposables. In our experience it is about the same. I will admit that when my daughter had a rash, I froze, I was scared it was the diapers. But, then I trouble shot and found out there are different types of rash. She had a rash in her skin folds from sweat. When I put her in disposables it did not make it better. Diaper cream did. Lanolin did even better. I did put her in disposables when applying the cream as I am protective of my cloth diapers, and diaper cream can be used with them if you put either a disposable liner or a piece of fleece in between baby and diaper, but I didn't want to risk it. She has had rashes since that time. The worst one she got was while in a disposable. I also learned the magic combination of treating diaper rash, it works great. Alas, this post is not about rash but if you want to learn more check out askdrsears.com for great tips.

7. One of my friends said it can be addicting. I was not sure what she meant, now I know! At the end of the day when people want to relax, some people sit down and I watch a show or read a book. For months I sat down and looked at diapers. I probably read and learned more about cloth diapers than I would need to know for a masters thesis (literally). For some reason there is something about them that calms me and brings me peace. I am a little embarrassed to admit that when my sister (who had struggled to get pregnant for a long time) told me she was having twins, I was excited, REALLY excited. The next morning Bumgenius (a brand manufactured by cotton babies) came out with a new diaper (Freetime) and I cried a little. I was overwhelmed with joy. And no, I have not been paid to write this post. But like I said there is something about all this that just makes my heart happy.

8. It does not really take much more time than disposables. Once you have chosen the ones you want and purchased them. You read the washing instructions as you would with any new product and you are good to go. That being said you might think that sounds strange after reading #7. But if you are really just using the diapers and not addicted to seeing all the different products out there or watching videos of different features, or reading stories of people using diapers, or entering competitions on diapers... Like I said same amount of time to change. Rinsing adds a couple minutes a day. You throw them in a trash can with a lid, (I use one with the flap kind of lid that you can get at target and have never had any problem with smells) lined it with a type of bag called a wet bag as it holds wet things. Then two or 3 times a week walk the whole bag to the washing machine, put the whole bag in and turn it inside out. Turn it on a cold wash. when thats done put it on a hot wash with an extra rinse and dry them. So, It takes me about 3 minutes to put clothes in the was (if I have to empty the dryer). About 1 minute to push the button for the second cycle. So, all in all I spend maybe 10 minutes more a day on cloth diapers.

9. It is not an all or nothing thing. If you are not sure if it is for you, buy some. Be a part-time cloth diaper user. You will still save!

10. This is probably the big reason why I started in the first place. Environmentally I am sending nothing to the landfill (I do use 1 disposable at night, so other than that). If you want go be a bit "greener"it is a great choice. However, and a lot of people spend a lot of time debating his one, you will use more water and if you don't line dry them you use electricity for the dryer as well. Seriously people spend so much time comparing these factors it is crazy, even comparing the water used to manufacture disposables and gas to get them stores, vs. the cotton grown for the cloth, blah blah blah. For me, I don't want to throw things away, so I feel good about it.

11. I think they are cute. Well at least cuter than disposables, I like color.

12. Emergency Preparedness. Lose your job, blizzard, earthquake.... If you have reusable diapers, you won't run out. You can even learn to hand wash flat diapers and you would not have a problem if you don't have a washer/dryer.

One last thing, the daddy factor. At first my husband was a bit skeptical about the whole thing. However, one of his good friends use cloth diapers as well, same brand even, and so it seemed like something he was willing to try. I have heard often it is hard to get husbands on board. He said that he only uses the all in one (disposable style) because they are easy. Most of the time, I wash the diapers as well, being protective of them as I am, so honestly it is literally, no extra work for him. With the cover system, you could take a minute and put them together so they are ready and then they would be no extra step at a change.

I have wanted to write this post for a long time. I was finally prompted to sit down and do it as Jen Labit from cottonbabies mentioned that all she wanted for Christmas was to tell people about cloth diapers. I have expanded my use of cloth to all kinds of different cloth products. Anyway, let me know if you are interested in learning more. I have so much more I can share with you. And if my lovely sister wants to give it a try, I would be so excited and more than happy to help you get started! I will enter this post in a competition and if I win some diapers I will spread the wealth, I don't need anymore, so I am more than happy to share anything with someone who wants to get started, either with one baby, or twins (hint, hint!).

Here are some photos of my diapers, check them out and see how easy they really are!

Our Anniversary!

Our 6th Anniversary was on July second. It was quite a busy day. That was the day we had Anna's birthday party as well, more on that in a later post.

Our Anniversary fell 16 days after Elizabeth was born. I was feeling good, but still a bit sore by the end of the day with the birthday party and what not. We decided that we would go out to a local restaurant, the Royal Oak Inn, which is the only restaurant in our village and happens to be delicious, which you can guess by the fact that it has been open for hundreds of years! Joan was kind enough to come over and watch the kidlets for us. We went for about an hour/hour and a half or so and Elizabeth did well to sleep the entire time we were gone!

The Royal Oak Inn has a few different rooms, one main dinning room and a few small side rooms. You might think the main room would be pretty busy but you would be wrong. Every time we go the side rooms are full and it seems like the main dinning room is empty. So we opted for a private main dinning room as no one else ate there, I guess people like to be close and cozy in the small rooms. Anyway, Drew got a Chili Burger and I ate a giant Yorkshire pudding with sausage and onion gravy. Drew got out a piece of paper and we talked about all of our previous anniversaries. Only we could not for the life of us remember what we did last year. Which was pretty disappointing. Then I figured I would look it up on the blog but when I did, I had not even written a post about it. Anyway, our anniversaries were as follows:
1st Anniversary: Went to St. Michaels, MD for the weekend
2nd Anniversary: Went to a cabin in Berkeley Spring, WV for a few days
3rd Anniversary: 6 days after Anna was born, went to Betty's in Harrogate, UK for Hot Chocolate
4th Anniversary: Did all kinds of things, Brimham Rocks, Betty's see post
5th Anniversary: The big Mystery???, UK
6th Anniversary: Royal Oaks Inn in Dacre Banks, UK

After our discussion Drew talked about how it would be neat to make one of those photo books you can do online of all the places and things we have done as a couple. We made a list of the trips and memorable things we would include. Then we just talked. It was very romantic and a lot of fun to have just the two of us for a little while!

After Diner we decided to treat ourselves to some delicious dessert, We shared a creme brulee and some hot chocolate fudge cake with ice cream. Even though it was much shorter than most of our previous Anniversaries, it was still really romantic and I am so grateful for having such an amazing husband who I love so much! Oh, and as for our fifth Anniversary, Drew remembered it a few days ago, we went on a date to a nice Indian Restaurant in town. I mentioned that I had a headache, or that my lips were chapped, so Drew ran across town to the pharmacy and got me whatever it was I mentioned.
5th Anniversary: Jinnah, Harrogate

I have such an amazing husband!

Our new house

This post is very late, but, here it is. Our move in April to our new place. Here are some pictures!