Because who doesn't need a laugh these days...

FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Annoyingly Cheerful

Where to donate used stuffed animals...

They're very cute but, really, how many stuffed animals does one family need? And somehow, like rabbits, they seem to multiply like crazy. Kind of baffling for inanimate objects.

In the San Francisco Area there's a great organization that accepts stuffed animals (and some other items, including blankets and books) that are in like new condition. They package them as care package for kids in homeless shelters. It's called Project Night Night.

Thanks, Rachelle, for the tip!

Tips for Baking with Toddlers

[This is Part 2 of entertaining rained-in toddlers on the cheap. Part 1 is here.]

It took about 6 months to figure out the best way and the best kinds of things to make in the kitchen with the girls.

My first rule now is I always make stuff that goes in the oven because they want to see the cooking part and I can't handle the two of them in front of a working stove.

I get out all the ingredients and measuring implements first before "inviting" them to come bake.

I spread out a tablecloth on the kitchen floor and we either mix things up on the floor or else on a low table.

I substitute oil for butter in most things because creaming the butter inevitably involves a mixer or lots of elbow grease and I prefer to just keep the batter really malleable so they have a shot at mixing it.

Speaking of mixing, they both get a tablespoon to stir with. Meanwhile I stir things up with a big spatula. Whenever I tried having them take turns with the real mixing implement they would fight over it and send batter splatting everywhere.

One of the best things to make from a practical budget standpoint -- also a hit because it's like playdough -- is REAL DOUGH. If you have a food processor it's really easy - just follow the manual's basic bread recipe. Using the dough for rolls and pizza are the simplest ways I've found to deal with it. Making actual bread takes multiple risings, so it's harder to keep track of.

This apple cake recipe (below) is a pretty good one for them. Partly because it's made in one bowl with straightforward ingredients. Partly because it involves using this: an apple peeler corer, their favorite kitchen implement. If you have gadgets that do neat things (manual egg beaters, egg slicers) those might be other surefire hits.

NORWEGIAN APPLE CAKE
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

4 cups 1/2-inch cubes of apples (tart apples work well so I use Granny Smith. 4 apples usually equals a little over 4 cups)

2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour

Preheat the oven to 335 F.

Spray a bundt pan well with no stick spray. Combine the sugar and oil. Then add the eggs and vanilla. Once those are combined add the apples.

Now add the baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir just until combined. Finally add the flour.

Spoon into the bundt pan. Bake for about an hour, until toothpick inserted comes out mostly dry.

Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then use spatual to release the cake from the sides of the pan and flip onto plate to cool completely.

Getting 3 kids in car seats in a small car

I'm not trying to jump the gun, but I imagine sometime soon we'll want to take our girls' friends along for a playdate to the zoo, or even carpool with kids coming home from preschool. But with 2 kids already in car seats in a compact car, there isn't much room for a third.

I recently learned about this product that may make it possible to get three 3 or 4 year olds safely and comfortably in the back of our civic. It's called the Ride Safer vest. I'm hoping that in combination with the narrow Radian seats we'll be able to easily transport our daughters' friends. My blog about the Radians is here.

So now I've set up an RSS feed looking for one of the Ride Safer vests on Craigslist. Once I get my hands on one I will post more info.

Where to donate or recycle stained clothes

I've got three kinds of laundry detergent next to the washing machine and four different stain removers. Bleach stick, Ecover stain remover, Oxy Clean stain spray, even the old hair spray stand-by (for ink). But sometimes stains get set in and while I don't mind my kiddos wearing them, once they outgrow them, I often feel bad passing them on.

A woman on my twin parent listserve just posed the question of what to do with stained clothes. It seems to be an urban legend that Goodwill has ways of recycling them. Thought I'd post the useful link she received as a response:
http://parents.berkeley.edu/recommend/charity/clothes_poorcond.html

Rainy day activity: volunteer with kids

A recent Wall Street Journal piece compared different volunteer websites where you can potentially find one day opportunities doing things like stuffing envelopes. Probably not going to work with straight up toddlers, but could be nice with an older child.

And here's an article about volunteering specifically with kids.

I mentally bookmarked some of the ideas for volunteerism with children that I heard about on Obama's national day of service. Collecting food for food banks and also becoming a regular visitor to a nursing home (where a child's energy is welcome) were some of the most appealing to me.

Find out about discounts at Sadiedey's play cafe

For all Bay Area folks: I just discovered the owner of Sadiedey's (formerly Tumble and Tea) is on twitter. She posts everything from updates (like the fact she's scouting for property for a possible second location) to heads ups about discount offers on her twitter feed (@SadieDey). Just follow her and you'll find out if there's a deal of the day.

Another good resource on twitter for toddler/preschool parents is Savvy Source. While the website is predominantly preschool advice and reviews, their tweets (@savvysource) run the gamut.

If you know other great toddler resources on twitter, please post them below.

And while you're following people, I'm here (@rdornhelm).

How to Go Green in Hard Times

The Wall Street Journal has a special section today on the subject. Their suggestions are generally higher cost than the stuff I cover here, but then the pay-offs are probably bigger too. Their ideas also only seem relevant if you're a homeowner. My audio-curious side is wondering about the affiliated podcast but haven't had a chance to check it out.

Rain, rain please stay...

...Though only for the earth's sake. Being rained in with two toddlers is marginal at best. And admissions to indoor activities adds up.

So in case it's useful to anyone else here's what I've been falling back on:

1. Having a stash of thrift store books to pull out. I make periodic trips to Thrift Town to scout for clothes and always try to pick up one or two books. It's been invaluable to have a bag of them to reach into. The girls happily sit through numerous readings of their new books.

2. Smelling spices. One day I discovered the girls love going through and smelling the spices in the spice rack. We can spend 15-20 minutes that way. Not a ton of time, but it's something!

3. Very Random Arts and Crafts. This is not well thought out stuff. More like cutting out the pictures in today's advertisements and then using a glue stick to put them on scraps of saved wrapping paper. Today we actually made Valentine's. And I think we'll send them, so the project was not for naught. Another suggestion I got from a friend was making fingerpaints from shaving cream mixed with food color. It looks really cool when dried too.

4. Streaming video. A. & I are addicted (HBO posted the entire first episode of Flight of the Conchords before it aired and I've been catching United States of Tara at Showtime when I cook).
But it's also great for the girls. What you want is there when you're most desperate. We tend to head over to the official Sesame Street site. You can view their videos by character. (The girls LOVE Bert and Ernie. I wonder if it's because, like the girlios, Bert and Ernie are a pair. Then maybe it's because Bert has a twin (Bart).) This counting sheep sketch with Ernie is popular, also this one where Bert ice skates.
Still, for some reason, our Sesame Street classic faves we can only find on You Tube. Like this one:



5. And then there's baking. That's been a huge winner for us, though it's taken some trial and error not to end up with flour everywhere or fights over batter laden spatulas (meaning batter everywhere, even worse). Part 2, Baking, will come with tomorrow's showers...

Another cheer for gmail (I conceded the privacy issue long ago)

There's a very useful new tool that was just released for gmail users. If it had been available when my girls were still at the "what do you do with two napping kids in the back seat?" stage I would have been really psyched. Basically it lets you use your gmail account offline. So you can fire up your laptop anywhere, regardless of wifi and go for it. Also would be great for airplane use (though I can't foresee a flight where I'll be kicking back doing email anytime soon).

It's called Google Gears and you can find it here. It works with other web apps too.

I didn't think that site was helpful in figuring out how to actually make it work. So I just followed these instructions.

Check if you're eligible for a Verizon Wireless discount...

There's certainly no harm! I happened to go in to a Verizon store today to find out about upgrading my phone. Turned out that because my husband works for the state, we've been eligible for a 15% discount on our personal bill and reduced prices on new phones. Just no one told us that before. You can check if your employer is one of the discount partners by entering your work email here.

It definitely adds up! Especially if the governor is really going to furlough all those employees.

All the other carriers have something similar. For instance AT&T has a deal with labor unions that give labor members an automatic 10% discount.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is the first day of the Year of the Ox. Two thoughts related to the holiday:

1. We took the girls to the Lunar New Year festival in Oakland's Chinatown yesterday and they had a great time taking in the sights. The Lion Dance was the biggest hit, since they could see the kids underneath who were manipulating the costume.

For me, it was a reminder of how great it is to take kids to lots of cultural festivals. They're colorful events, and usually feature lots of music and dancing. On the budget side of things they're often free.

But there's more to it. Raising kids with a green conscience isn't just about what you buy or behaviors like reusing and recycling. It's also making them aware of how wide our world is and how many people we share it with. The slice they see everyday is a wonderful part, but it's just a part!

Often there is a calendar of festivals posted for major cities. For instance, this is the one for Oakland in 2009, though it looks like some festivals I'd expect to see there aren't up yet.

2. We just got the girls a new book that they love (see left). It's called "The Pet Dragon: A story about adventure, friendship and Chinese characters." The book mixes a nice story of friendship with a subtle lesson about Chinese characters that is appropriate starting at any age. And probably until any age (unless you're already fluent in Chinese and this is just silly and elementary).

The story and illustrations are by Christoph Niemann whose work I really like. In fact, one of my favorite blog posts of all time is the art-blog he did about coffee for the New York Times. If you haven't seen it, it's worth a look. And if you're passionate about your coffee, it's a must see.

Home ECOnomics: No more little yogurt containers

These containers are not a perfect eco material but they are the most economical solution I've found for carrying baby and toddler snacks around with absolutely no leaking.

And they do confer some green cred. I haven't bought yogurt in disposable cups since I invested in these Rubbermaid containers a year and a half ago. That saves plastic and money.





On the subject of food and carbon footprints, the New York Times ran this great story yesterday about the environmental impact of a glass of orange juice.

Maybe my favorite part was the title: How Green Is My Orange?

Elizabeth Alexander's Inaugural Poem

First, a pic from last night of the signs that usually mark Bush Street in San Francisco. (via http://www.flickr.com/photos/violetblue/)



I watched the inauguration with my 2 year olds this morning. The girls came and went from the room but interestingly they were transfixed when Elizabeth Alexander read the poem she'd written for the occasion. I don't know if it was because Alexander was speaking slowly and clearly so they could understand the words more clearly. Or if there was something hypnotic about her delivery. Whatever it was, I admire their taste in poetry. Here it is again...

Inaugural Poem

The following is a transcript of the inaugural poem recited by Elizabeth Alexander, as provided by CQ transcriptions.

Praise song for the day.

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."

Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

Big family, small cars!

A low cost, low pressure way to keep track of those milestones

With twins the standard baby book records are pretty overwhelming to think about. I would be lucky if I took care of all their needs in the moment, let alone take note of their accomplishments for posterity. As a shower gift we did receive two small wall calendars that came with stickers that you could use to mark firsts. That was a great solution for the first 12 months. I'll actually be able to tell the girls when they first walked if they ever need it for a school project or something.

But, at least from my perspective, it's in the following years when they're talking and first interacting with the social world that those truly "cute" moments occur. Those funny moments that you think you'll never forget but can't even recall a week later.

I happened to stumble on a good solution last year and plan to do it again. At this time of year when all the calendars in the stores are 75-80% off, buy a really compact, cheap daily planner. Keep it by your bedside. That way at the end of the day if there was some funny sentence or situation you can just jot it down in the appropriate day (see above). I've found it a really satisfying way to keep track of those things, without the pressure of a big baby journal or such. And in families with multiples and siblings it's a general "family" record of the year.

Home ECOnomics: Wrapping Paper

I got this tip from a friend and it served me well for the holidays. Time to pass it on. Save the paper your kids doodle on and use it to wrap presents. People find the paper more touching and personal than commercial wrap, and you get to reuse all those artisitc musings. I could never bring myself to simply recycle them anyway.

Seventh Generation dishwashing detergent: good green cred, bad smell

In my opinion, going green, shouldn't send you into the red, or make you blue. But that's kinda how I felt after trying Seventh Generation dish washing detergent. At some point after we started using it, there would sporadically be a really bad smell when we opened the dishwasher in the morning. Sometimes washing the load again would make it go away, sometimes it wouldn't.

After about three-quarters of the box we figured out that the culprit was eggs. If we had scrambled eggs or even baked a cake with eggs one day and then put the bowl that had contained raw eggs in the dishwasher with Seventh Generation detergent, the whole load came out smelling bad the next morning. Our best guess is somehow the soap didn't work to break down the egg and instead the egg got heated up and spread around everywhere and dried smelling really bad.

Hopefully this is some weird idiosyncrasy with our dishwasher, but I thought I'd post it in case someone else is trying to get to the bottom of intermittently bad smelling wash loads.

We went back to Cascade for the meantime since it never had that problem. But next up for us is trying Trader Joe's detergent as we try to get greener in our cleaning supplies. High hopes here, it was rated really highly by Consumer Reports.

The whole thing reminded me of one of A's favorite "man on the street" interviews in The Onion. The question was something like "What efforts are you making to be better to the environment?" And one of the "respondents" said, "My wife keeps buying these green cleaning products, but I think green means you have to use twice as much to do the same thing." I think that was unfortunately true with some of the early products and some people - like A - are jaded.

But slowly I've been convincing him otherwise. My latest favorite find is Biokleen dishwash liquid.

Sure enough, making them at home...

...saves money when it comes to wholegrain waffles. The way it shook out, I am paying about $5.89 for the ingredients to make 16 toaster sized waffles. Altogether the final product weighs 24 oz.

At Safeway this week, I could have bought the Eggo Nutrigrain toaster waffles, but they're $3.99 for 10 oz. So that would be over $9.00 for 24 ounces of that product.

$5.89 homemade versus $9.00 storebought.

I was actually surprised by this outcome. I was assuming that from a money standpoint it might be a wash. Money aside I feel strongly about continuing to MAKE the girls their waffles because they're just so much healthier when done from scratch. For one, my version includes stuff like organic blueberries. And exclude additives such as gums and the like.

I'm still skeptical that making my own food will always ring up cheaper, just because the raw materials seem so high these days.

Next up... analysis of Mac'N'Cheese: Homemade v. Store Special. And after that I think I'm going to do a financial breakdown of a bread recipe.

Happy New Year!

I'm back from a holiday break that included
5 relatives from out of town
4 generations to coordinate
3 rained out day trips
2 cars between us all
and only 1 big disagreement with hubby as a result.
Of course there were countless cute conversation with the now 2 year old twins ("How old are you now?" "Two much old!" "Two years old?" "Two much old!")

Best was when B bowled everyone over by looking at the biography her grandpa got as a holiday gift and correctly identifying the cover photo as "Andrew Jackson." I explained the girls knew his picture because I'll often entertain them with the contents of my wallet when all else fails. "Who else's picture is on money?" I asked. B thought a bit and then said "George Washing-machine"

Speaking of money, since this is a blog about raising multiples on a budget and with a mind to the environment, a recurring theme this month will be whether it actually saves any money to make your own healthy foodstuffs. I go to a lot of trouble to make things like the girls' mac'n'cheese from scratch. At a time when money is tight for almost everyone, I'm curious how much I actually save by doing this.

At least my assumption is that I save money, I've set out to find out if I really do and by how much. Because the last time I walked past those Annie's organic bunnies and cheese they looked awfully cheep compared to the cheese, butter, pasta and milk I was putting in my cart.

First up tomorrow, will be a price comparison of homemade oatmeal blueberry waffles, to the Nutrigrain toaster variety.