I am so losing crunchy points for this

This is long, sordid tale.

Over two years ago we moved into this apartment. It was cleaned thoroughly before we moved in, but when I saw the bathtub, I was appalled. It was disgusting, so I set to work cleaning it with good old elbow grease and bleach cleaner. Well, elbow grease and bleach cleaner did nothing. Over the past two years, I've employed elbow grease with a host of other cleaners, CLR, The Works, Scrubbing Bubbles, Magic Erasers, powdered dish washing detergent, etc. I must have tried everything in the cleaning aisle, including some "crunchy" cleaners like vinegar and baking soda. Nothing worked 100%. Nothing. Until today when I tried a different cleaner. One recommended by a message board buddy.

I wet the tub and sprinkled it on, and I let it sit for about one minute as the directions indicated. I then got out my handy (and much worn) tub scrubber and set to work. I scrubbed. Oh, did I scrub. And through the white cleaner, I could set dirt (or whatever the heck it is) melt away. And now I am hooked. Here and forever, I will sing the praises of Barkeeper's friend to all and sundry who need a good household cleaner. I don't know what is in that stuff, nor do I want to know. I will happily bury my head in the sand, because now, finally, after two years, three months, and some odd days, my bath tub is pristine white. And the angels sang the Alleluia chorus and sun shined beamed upon my countenance for it is good.

Praise Baby

This is new to me. I heard about it a couple months ago and was intrigued by the idea. It is, essentially, Baby Einstein meets Jesus. I don't typically appreciate Christianizing harmless secular entertainment (simply because I don't believe that just because something doesn't mention Jesus, God, angels, etc that it is automatically a bad or evil thing).

Caden was gifted the lullaby CD and DVD a few weeks ago. He isn't interested in the DVD but loves the CD, and frankly, so do I! I love singing along with it (aren't your grateful that you are spared that performance?),and I'm thinking of adding some of the songs to my labor CD. I find it very soothing and relaxing.

I'm going to try to find the other Cd's to buy, since I, I mean Caden, loves this one so much. Its very kid friendly without being annoying. Something I wish I could say about the majority of kid music.

Tales from the apple orchard

We made our annual trek to a local apple orchard today with some of the students. I'm not going to post any of their pictures since I didn't ask permission to such. However, here some pictures of my cutie pie.

And yes, we're some of those terrible parents who make our "bolter" wear a harness. We're so....not....ashamed.

Oh and to the nasty people who sat on the bale of hay and basically shoved me off.... you really stink.

Allergy Friendly Donuts (not wheat free)

Today, I tried my hand at allergy friendly (and comparatively healthy) donuts. I swiped the recipe from http://ecovegan.blogspot.com/2008/03/vegan-whole-wheat-donut-recipe.html

And over all I'm pleased with the results. Its a bit less sweet than I'm used to in a donut, so I think next time I attempt this, I'm going to add some more sugar.

Some variations I made to the recipe: Splenda (yuck) instead of real sugar or sorghum, about a half cup less flour than the recipe called for, and I forgot the salt. I also cooked them a little longer than 10 seconds a side since that didn't seem quite enough.

The cooking process:

Draining and cooling:



The finished product, rolled in cinnamon sugar:

They're not exactly purty, but not bad for my first attempt at donuts, I hope.

These will be perfect for Caden to eat at the apple orchard tomorrow, though I confess that he's getting one as soon as he wakes up from his nap. His first donut ever! I hope he likes it.