Recently, I have started to make my own peanut butter.  I wanted to be able to control what is in our peanut butter since I give it to my daughter every day and it’s important for me that it be as healthy as possible.

Ingredients:
1½ cups (organic) unsalted roasted peanuts
1-2 tablespoons oil (for example, peanut oil)

Directions:
1. Pour the peanuts into the food processor and add oil.
2. Process the mixture until quite smooth.
3. Store the peanut butter in a sealed container in the fridge. It should be good for up to 2 weeks.

From Linda Byerline, CEO of Happy Heinys:

We have been very saddened to hear that due to the recent earthquakes in Haiti in the Port Au Prince area, a couple of the orphanages we have worked closely with over the last fews years have been completely devastated. Through the years we have not only sent them diapers and clothing for these babies but also toys and help with food. When we work with any orphanage in any third world nation we work closely with missionaries who actually travel to the orphanages and personally bring our donations to the babies in need. We opt to work this way because sadly we have found that when attempting to donate directly the goods do not always arrive to the proper place due to the civil unrest of many of these countries. [Read more →]

I have finally decided to write a post on potty training after trying to potty train my 27-month-old daughter for more than a month without much success.  Partly, I did not want to write about it because who wants to write about your child failing to potty train when you know a few people whose two-year-olds have been potty trained for a while.  In the end, I decided to write it because I’d love to hear any suggestions you might have.  Also, I’m hoping this post will help some of you out there, who have been through something similar or who are planning on potty training your little one(s) in the near future. [Read more →]

One of the gifts my daughter received this Christmas was a pair of Padraig slippers. Up until this Christmas she has been wearing her Robeez slippers, but because we keep the house a bit cooler this winter, we needed something warmer for her. When I found out about Padraig slippers, I just had to get a pair for her.

[Read more →]

Courtesy of SuperFantastic on Flickr

It seems that everyone around me has been baking a million things for this Christmas.  I’m the only one that has made NOTHING so far.  A lack of time is partly to blame for this.  Another reason is that I just do not have great recipes, except for one, a Dutch Shortbread recipe.

If you have any good cookie recipes, I would really appreciate it if you left me a comment or send me a message via the contact form.

Thank you so much and Happy Holidays!

Just as most cloth diapering people, I occasionally use disposable diapers. Since plastics and the chemicals found in disposable diapers are a concern for me, I do try to look for diapers that contain as few of those chemicals as possible. [Read more →]

Please see the results of the survey below.  Thank you everyone for taking the time to fill it out!  If you would like further information regarding the survey, please do not hesitate to contact me. [Read more →]

Please take a moment to fill out my cloth diaper survey (Link has been removed).  I’m hoping that your answers will help people who are considering cloth diapering, or those who already cloth diaper but would like to learn more about other peoples’ experiences.

Thank you so much!

UPDATE (2009-12-06): Thank you everyone for taking the time to fill out the cloth diaper survey! I will be posting the results later today.

So, you’ve decided you want to try making cloth diapers for your baby yourself, but you have no idea where to start.  Hopefully, I can help you get started by providing you with some useful information in this post. [Read more →]

A few weeks ago, we decided to see if our then 23-month-old daughter was ready to sleep in her own room again after many months of sleeping in our room.  The first night my daughter slept in her room, she woke up crying around 2 am.  We decided to take her to our bed for the rest of the night, but surprisingly, she did not want to be there and would not calm down until we went back to her room and I lay down beside her.  The following night [Read more →]